the years of silence

Hi. I’m impatient. I was told once that the amount of patience contained in my body wouldn’t be able to fill a thimble, but I don’t have time for such comments (see what I did there?). This past weekend I heard about am album by Eric Church, so when I went to the bathroom during the wedding reception I was attending I started the download and it was done before the brand new couple jumped in the back of the limo. I like that if I have questions I can look them up on my iPhone or someone else’s iPad or in general a computer if you’re not trendy enough. I need groceries? I’ll either steal my roommates or go immediately in my car and get them, no problem.

But I have this little problem. It is between me and God. And I may not be the only one. You see he doesn’t run off my time. Actually, according to me, he’s always late and has changed the plans. (If I was more emotional I’d rip my hair out.) But, like I said, I am not the only one who had to wait on God.


Lets look at some folks in the Bible:

We shall first look at Abram.

God: Leave your country.
Abram: Where are we going?
God: I’ll let you know when we are there.

And God was silent for a few years.... nothing....no words...no further confirmation to Abram that he STILL was doing the right thing.


Second we have Joseph.

Joseph spent his teens and early adult life pretty much a slave who’d continually get screwed over by people. He spent considerable time in prison looking as if his God couldn’t give a rats about him. When things looked promising his dreamed were crushed.


Third we have Moses.

Moses was a rich kid who killed someone and then ran away from it all. For something like 40 YEARS he did not hear from God once but lived a normal Middle Eastern life walking sheep around all day... kinda like he’d do later I guess.


Finally we have Naomi.

God strangely showed Naomi how much he loved her by causing a famine and killing her husband and two sons. For YEARS she remained bitter at God–she asked her friends to call her Bitter because she felt God demolished her. Years!! Years, people!! That is everyday I wake up and it is the first thing I think about: ‘God, what are you doing?!’ Or just coming to ignore God.


With all of these examples, though, God showed up. Where he promised he made good on the promises. Where he seemed to be unkind he unfolded time to reveal how he had been affectionately loving the whole way through.


Often we get the wrong idea of examples like these four. We look at them and wrongly conclude, ‘Well, dang it, if they can do it so can I!’ I hope your bootstraps break today. Seriously. We need to look at examples of people like this and be blown away at God. How he remains true to his word. He doesn’t need to constantly remind: he speaks and it is forever true. But he DOES constantly remind us that he is there, if we will see with faith and not feelings or visible manifestations.

Are you abandoned, confused, hurt, in the dark, feeling alone, feel like you just aren’t gonna make it another day, sensing that you can’t add up?

Cheer up, you’re worse than you figured.
But cheer up, God is greater and more good than you can imagine.

He is still with us.

Jesus went through the annuls of eternity and ate up all the records for those who would believe in him. But while he was doing that he was under God’s real silence and real abandonment. On our behalf Jesus willingly went through the worst absence of God’s goodness we could ever imagine. Now we get all the benefits of being God’s child. Jesus was struck brutally like a pinata in every way–spiritually physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically–and what came bursting out of him was eternal life and present joy for all who’d fall on his grace in need.

you have only to be silent

‘The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent’


upon hearing this statement I expect to hear a stream of caveats, some hoops to jump through, a ton of prerequisites I’ll never do... Instead, the people are and the LORD does.


This verse comes from the book of Exodus, 14th chapter, verse 14. The scene is God just delivered the former enslaved people, the Hebrews, out of the hand of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh has an ‘Oh crap!’ moment as he realizes he just lost all of his manual labor for his country. So Pharaoh gets all his warriors and they chariot-up and pursue those Hebrews like they just made a ‘yo momma’ joke about Ra or something.

The Hebrews see the cloud of furry with angry faces and swords poking out and deduce that it is coming for them. So naturally they whine and throw some sarcasm at God, ‘Were there not graves in Egypt for us to die in?’ But instead of obliterating his chosen people, God says, ‘Sit down, find your pacifier and watch me work!’

The conclusion is familiar to most. God parts the red sea; the people of Israel make to the other side free of harm; the people of Egypt get eaten by the water.

Wait. So God actually did what he said? Yes. God did what he said.

Sometimes (not all the time or every time) we want to do so much for God because we want to control our lives and destiny so badly. We ask how we can make the best use of the time...... so we do and do and do and do until we run out of energy and die and people praise our legacy for how great we were at being efficient and hard working and dedicated and standing up for Jesus! When sometimes God was saying, ‘Shut up. Sit down. Watch me work.’

‘But GOD!’ we reply ‘Me. I. My. I. Me... you need me in your kingdom!!’

That noise is God laughing.

‘What can we do for salvation?’ The people of Israel cried. Nothing.

‘What can we do for salvation?’ We all cry. Nothing.

It is a great thing that God says to Moses as he did to Adam as he did to Abram as he does for us, ‘I will save you; sit back and enjoy me.’

How Do You Categorize Yourself?

I am presently employed by a law firm here in Downtown Macon, Georgia. My first couple of weeks working I was terrified of breaking the imagined barrier that stood at the threshold of most of the Senior and Junior partners’ office doors. In their presence I felt less. I felt less than them by a lot. It wasn’t that I knew their salary, but I knew mine. Especially since I’ve watched far too many episodes of Boston Legal, in my mind there is a certain glamor and immediate status uppage when you’re a lawyer. And I am not.

We all do this in some ways. I still get slightly stressed out if someone comes through the doors wearing chic clothes. My thoughts: ‘Man, that’s so cool. I wish I could afford to dress like theat. I bet they are makin some serious cheese! Why can’t I do that?’ and the thoughts drain out in like manor.

For awhile in college I wanted to be Dr. Greg House from the TV show House. He dressed in a relaxed way, typically with a band T-shirt and a sweet blazer. Or the new James Bond... aside from a dumb sweater he wore in one of the films, he has class. Pierce as Bond was a shmuck in comparison.

Maybe it is just physical, God-given looks. I don’t want to see some pretty gal come out of the same office that I’m about to go into to have MY interview. I know how this works, especially if the interviewer is a guy. I want some loser to come out of those doors so I can feel better about my chances to nab the job I’m hoping to fill.

A lot of us care about cars. We have the ‘If I had a billion dollars to spend I’d have a ____’ idea already in mind. We care about our houses and what they convey about us. I walked into a house a few months ago that can be categorized as nothing less than a mini-castle. Everything was awesome. Nothing was broken or warn (unless it was designed to look that way). Again the thought inched into my mind, ‘What am I doing with my life. This is incredible.’

The issue is we perceive status by our eyes and ideals.

John, in one of his wordy letters, says that all that is in the world is the desire of the eyes and pride in life. Don’t get hung up and hear what he is not saying. He is not saying this earth we live in is a burning piece of fire with nothing good or redeemable. RATHER, he is saying that the world, the way that is not God’s way, is dictated by our eyes and tainted desires. John gets it. He is old at this time. He knows how things work. After infancy we do not suddenly STOP seeing then reacting with an internal ‘Oooooooo, I want that!’ We just hide it better now. And it is not always bad either!

mutable minds

Every time I hear the positive thinking idea–think of good things and you’ll feel better about life and yourself–I want to lash out, shake the person and say, ‘Life is really hard! Wake up!’ I don’t and probably won’t ever actually do that. But I am a realist (back off on calling me a pessimist, you always-hopefulls), and I work in possibilities, not probabilities: so if it is not outside the realm of happening–though perhaps unlikely–it is a legitimate concern, idea, potential, etc.

Now as a result of having this mind of mine which entertains every option, I see the world as a flaming mess with little hope for saving. This is sad. There is a great deal of truth in my conclusion but there is equal folly, for God is able to literally do anything within his power–which is limitless–and that includes remaking and redeeming all things... which he actually is planning on doing.

This is where something the Apostle Paul said is interesting, namely, we can change the way our minds think. In his long letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul said that our minds could be ‘renewed.’ Obviously this does not mean that we get our old brain taken out and a new one put inside. But it DOES mean that we can change the paths our thoughts usually tread, the ways and perspectives we think through life.

Oh my, you’ll be ‘fixed’ in a jiffy. Not even close! This does not mean you must hit your spirituality in to hyper-mode, be a monk and sing in solitude while you eat Haggis around honey bees and brew beer. It does mean that as we further realize who God is, what he has always been doing and understanding what we and this whole world were made for, the more that stuff ‘clicks’ and sinks in, the more we think in a way that says, ‘God is my reality and his words are the supreme truth.’

The mind is renewable for everyone. You do not have to remain in the old and poor patterns you always used; you don’t have to use the same bad logical of your past; you don’t need to be who you were–which is not how God made you to eternally be.

Jesus not only died for our sins, but he died for our minds as well.

Nothing means nothing

I was visiting a church one morning with a friend. We decided to go to Sunday School (we were in college so I think it was only because we both miraculously woke up earlier enough to go). I have no recollection of what the lesson was about. But one ending comment has remained ingrained in my thoughts: ‘Now the end of Romans 8 says a lot of things, but it does not say WE can’t squirm out of God’s hand.’

As I picked my jaw off the ground I was wondering if what I heard was actually said. So I asked my friend and his reaction was similar to mine. This ‘teacher’ was trying to ruin people’s lives!!

Paul, at the end of Romans 8, spouts off a list of things which do not have the power or authority to undo what Jesus said was done. The list is not meant to be exhaustive but to encompass everything and anything, things which we do not even perceive or understand to believe. Particularly to this situation I’d highlight Paul’s words ‘anything else in all of creation.’ This Sunday School teacher got it dead wrong. Nothing, no power, no entity, no other will is able to mark out Jesus’ words and statement of fact and reality ‘It is finished!’ No, lowly and down-on-yourself individual, not even you can slide out of God’s promise.

When God does it we can, in this instance, with relief say, ‘What’s done is done and nothing can change it.’ When we think we can unravel God’s plans and promises we must not know the God in the Bible and we must not know the power of Jesus, both then and now.

We sin a lot. Sin is despicable and deplorable and wicked and counter-good. God has completely forgiven his children though our eldest brother’s payment for us: Jesus really pay it all, it is not just a song.

God owes us . . . nothing

I'm recently discovering (or rediscovering) the fact that God owes us, needs to give us, is obligated to provide . . . well nothing.

What do I mean when I say nothing?

God does not owe us:

1. Life: Here is the reality: we are not promised one more breath, one more heartbeat, one more blink of the eye. We are not promised that our cancer will miraculously (or by science) go away, that we will be saved from car wrecks, that we won't be the one who has that 'freak' accident in the safety of our own home. Just because you believe in God and follow Jesus--or not--does not make you invincible nor exempt from the reality of life, which is that people die a lot.

2. Laughter: No one is promised a 'good life.' It is hard for me, as an American, to get my head around this because I've assumed I am somehow due a good life, but find that in the Bible for me then I'll change my mind. What does this mean for day-to-day life? It means no one is promised good feelings . . . ever. No one is promised that we will laugh when something funny happens, that we will cry for joy, that we will get that job (let alone any job), that we can sing songs, that we will have a spouse and kids, that we will enjoy fine meals, that we can be wowed and refreshed by being outdoors, that anything will go 'right' or the way we wanted and planned, that praying will accomplish anything, that following the rules will get you anywhere, that breaking rules will summon excitement, that following your heart will work out, that following whatever 10-steps will accomplish their aim, that doing what people say will have its hoped for affect, that doing anything will illicit any kind of reaction in your soul. No one is promised anything of the sort.

So now that you're all glum and sporting a frowny-face, what does this mean? It means that when God--yes it is HIM--provides us the capacity and gift of pleasant things and the ability to feel rightly about these gifts.... enjoy the heck out of them. Cry when your baby is born. Laugh when your friend does something stupid. Eat that delicious dessert with happiness. Go celebrate when you get your job. It is SO good to have gifts and we should take them and embrace them . . . as gifts.

And whether we get this or that is not based on our good or bad behavior.

We are promised God. For those who follow him, we are told that we will always have God. We should not say, 'in his presence is fullness of joy so that means we should be happy all the time.' No, joy is not happiness. Joy is not feelings. Joy is a faith-based sense and belief and understanding that though we may never smile one more time, and we may spend the rest of our days in tears of sorrow God is still real, we are still his children, and Heaven will be full of the most explosive happiness and joy and good times we literally cannot fathom it.

Life is hard. Life is unbearable sometimes. Life can be too much. But often it is when we have everything but don't have the feeling we hoped for, it is then that we finally see we need God. Thankfully, for most, God is very kind in his provision and gift giving and occurrences in our life and we should thank him so much! But our belief in God and HIS GOODNESS should not be dependent upon what he provides day in and day out but on what he said and the now-unseen-reality he says is true.

The book of Job points this out and Job got it right when he said that God is truly good when he provides all kinds of great things or provides all of life to cease and die and be ripped away. Naomi was right she told her friends to stop calling her 'pleasant' but to call her 'bitter' because God killed her husband and two sons; she was a broken mess who still had a glimmer of hope in God.

It is crazy to understand that goodness is known in the darkest hour of your soul. That pain can walk beside God's favor. Joy accompanies stomach wrenching agony and confusion and frustration. The reality is that though he seems to not care one bit about you, God is not far off ever and he is always loving his children when it seems like he is ruining them. Love is peculiar and when we figure out what Paul proclaims in Romans 9-11--God does whatever he wants and he is always good in whatever he does because he IS wise and IS loving more than we can understand--we believe a scary and hard truth. Love is different than we think.

Monday is for Morons: 12-05-2011

The weekend has conceded. The week greets you. Hopefully this realization isn't surprising--cause you're probably late to wherever you need to be--and hopefully this remembrance isn't too depressing.

Sure, it may have been a lousy weekend. Maybe a lousy week. Maybe a lousy month or so . . . . /year. That's okay. You're allowed to feel glum, I promise. But let's remember today what the opening of Psalm 118 says, 'Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.'

Why give thanks to God? Because if you are a follower of Jesus, his son, you are loved by him. The love that God has for his people, his children is one that doesn't go out, one that never shrinks, his love is always as intense as when you first realized it, as hot as when it first came out of the oven. You have sinned a lot, me too. But we can still follow God, we can still turn back to him . . . only because his love is more durable than that.

As the song goes, his love 'will not let me go.' Do you believe that? You may fail, but God's love is there for the taking. Always. You cannot sin so big that God will forsake you, no! We hate sin so much BECAUSE he loves us so much. Our sin does not have the final say, God's mercy does.

The Legend of Legacy

Have you ever dreamed about how you would be remembered? How history would speak of you? I have. I’ve had tons of crazy and exciting ideas regarding the way generations down the road would perceive me in all my glory. When I first became a Christian, in my silly zeal I wanted to be a missionary somewhere dangerous with the hope of being martyred!

But we hear it all the time don’t we? ‘What’s going to be the legacy you leave behind?’ ‘How will you make an impact on the world?’ ‘Will your decedents be proud of who you were?’ But more awkward, if you are a Christian: ‘What will history say of your work for the cause of Christ?’ ‘How many people will greet you in Heaven who, if it were not for you, would not be there’ ‘How many people will you have discipled?’ ‘Will you have an -ism attached to your last name because of your scholastic or dynamic ministry?’

Oh the burden of building such a great legacy! You need to get workin on that yesterday! You need to do so many great things and impact so many important people who will then go on to influence a certain nation who has never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ before!

Unfortunately we have traded an act of love in for a a ragged, selfish and melting dream of meaning something in the world, of being someone, being known; we have tainted good charity for me-zeal.

As one pastor pointed out, ‘What was your great, great, great grandmothers name?’ You know what, if it wasn’t for ancestry.com you’d be unknown to your own great, great, great grandchildren, but even then they will, more than likely, not know you–who you are, what you were like, how you smiled, what made you tick.

It is hard to find people in the Bible who care about their legacy like we are so often told to do. And the guys and gals we do find in the Bible who are concerned about such things end up on the opposite side of God’s favor because they were worried about how they would be remembered, not how they loved their Maker and their fellow human beings.

Remember in the book of Esther, the idiot Haman was trying to promote himself and wanted all his friends and family and nation to worship him . . . but he ended up being hung on his own gallows. Remember Peter how he stuck his neck out when he said, ‘Lord, I’ll not forsake you’–he was saying, ‘look at me! I’ll be better than everyone else!’–but he too ran away when the possibility of persecution came. Or the king in Daniel who lost his marbles and lived like an animal so God would make him see that he was nothing. Or most pointedly the author of Ecclesiastes who taught that all things in this world, no matter how great you made them or influenced them, will be passed on to someone else who didn’t do a thing to deserve it.

You see, Christians are those who already know who they are. We are a people who do not have to prove ourselves. We are humbled beyond understanding simply because we are God’s children. We have no need of impressing others. We have no need of making sure we have left indelible impressions on hundreds by our speeches and acts. No, we Christians are more concerned about Jesus than ourselves; we are happy being described by the word mere. If someone wrote a book about most of the incredible followers of Jesus, we might be bored to tears because God looks at the heart not at all the sparkling achievements we're so use to applauding.

To understand that to be enveloped in Christ is what is most important is to understand everything with regard to this legacy making mess. You will be forgotten by the world and your family, it is the law of life. But you will never be forgotten by your Father. The mystery is that His legacy is yours.

Monday is for Morons: 10-31-2011

Jesus was just beaten to a bloody and disgusting mess. He was being called names and maligned. After the long nails went through his hands and he was stapled down to the cross. They, without concern of smoothness or being ginger, flopped the cross upright in the hole in the ground. The joking and final flop of the cross into the hole further ripped skin and stretched tendons. There Jesus hung. A picture of poverty portrayed, paradoxically to save.

Then the guy next to him and an 'ahah!' moment. Maybe he saw Jesus earlier in his life; as he was walking around the city heard of Jesus' claims, saw a miracle or two. Or maybe he had never met him before but,picking up on the jeers, discerned who Jesus was. Regardless, here he is suffocating along side the Son of God. 'Jesus,' he whispers out between breaths 'remember me in paradise.' Can you believe it?! I mean this guy was feeling sorry for himself, for at his 'death bed' he realized what an idiot he had been his whole life. I mean people steal because they don't work, right? Sure, live your whole life like you want then at the end whine like a baby and seek repentance, what a moron!

But wait. The disfigured face of Jesus clearly claws out a sentence, 'Today, you will be with me in paradise.' WHAT!?!

The truth of it all is that Jesus' mercy and grace and love and compassion and patience are far greater, far more shocking and scandalous than we could ever have imagined. It does not take a life-time of good deeds and bible reading to enter to bliss of Christ's presence forever. It takes the realization that all your friends already know, you're a rotten to the core sinner. But Heaven is stock full of rotten apples like you! What's one more? There is no sin too large that God, like Gallagher, won't obliterate to bits! Smashing it to that it covers the earth as they life at the sin's triviality.

You have a sack full for God to smash? That's okay, he has both the time and the power for it. 'But these are some really big ones!' you reply. He has it covered, he'll just bring out a bigger hammer. Hurry, find your forgiveness in Jesus' work, go now, before you feel so guilty again that you think he could never forgive you.

Was Jesus Serious?

I was able to attend a thrilling college football game a few years ago. The home team was down all game long. It was now the fourth quarter and the home team was still down by four points with only 3 minutes left. The home team had the ball. They were driving down the field. The suspense was building. The whole stadium was willing a win. The quarterback dropped back and in an instant released the ball. Into the receivers hands the ball fell and into the end zone went the receiver. Touchdown. For a brief moment there was so much unhindered emotion that sound itself disappeared. Everyone had their mouth open; veins were bulging; I had not an atom of oxygen remaining in my body, but no noise. The sound was so loud that for that moment our ears could not handle it. Everyone in the stadium immediately went hoarse. The whole game we were waiting for this!

Could you imagine in this moment that I turned and looked at my friend next to me, one who I know breathes this same team, who lives and dies by the success of this home team, could you imagine if I saw my friend with both arms extended with thumbs pointing down booing the success of his team? Confusing? Shocking? Angering?

In Jesus’ parable of two brothers found in the Gospel of Luke, the 15th chapter, verses 11-32, the young, foolish, sinful, bad, rebellious brother was considered dead; literally gone and done with were the thoughts regarding this young man. As it ends up he is alive and comes home and as any loving father would do, once he found out his boy was alive and well the father kissed him, accepted him back in to the family, made it clear that he loved his son by throwing an over lavish and expensive party. Jesus says that this is the kind of rejoicing that goes on in heaven when a sinner comes home—when one realizes he is never going to make it, that he needs God and the grace and comfort his love brings. The stadium is erupting with joy. The cheering so loud you cannot hear. Everyone is cheering. Everyone one, except . . .

The religious elite in Jesus’ day were not happy with how gracious Jesus was portraying God to be. ‘Of course we are only saved by God’s mercy alone’ they would say—and believe!—‘but you must also be good.’ They are the fan booing when the whole Kingdom of God is beside themselves in happiness. They are booing because they are not satisfied. They think that if God’s grace is for the prostitute, the drunk, the homeless guy who doesn’t take showers, the one who killed another, the single mom, the . . . ugh . . . ordinary; if God’s grace is for THEM than it is not special, they think.

God’s grace is shocking. God chooses to love those who are the social outcasts, the failures in life. He is not just for the rich, not just the blue collared but the bottom of the barrels. Not only does God love those but he loves those who already had their moment of realization, who already spent their first chance . . . and the 17 that came after. He keeps loving them. God’s love is for all. You cannot win it. You cannot outgrow it. You cannot earn it. You cannot lose it. You cannot expand it. You cannot detract it.

The Pharisees did not like what Jesus was saying about the Father’s mercy because they suddenly realized that they had absolutely nothing to do with it. They saw their hierarchy was a farce. They saw that in God’s eyes a king was just the same as a poor, homeless Jew who was called a bastard his whole life. They were booing God.

Was Satan Telling the Truth?

In the Old Testament book of Genesis the third chapter gives the events of the Devil (Satan, Lucifer, the Father of Lies so on and so forth) tempting our first mom, Eve. He is trying to get Eve to consume the one thing in a land of lush plenty which God told Eve and her husband, Adam, not to consume. Contrary to the bit in the movie Walk the Line by the character Jerry Lee Lewis, Adam and Eve could look and touch and think about touching this death-bringing fruit, but they were clearly and definitely not to eat it.

Satan tempted Eve with likeness: 'God knows that when you eat of [the fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' The interesting part is when we turn all the way to the New Testament book of 1st John, the third chapter in verse 2 it reads, 'but we know that when [Jesus] appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.'

Satan's temptation of Eve with being like God was evil but in 1st John we are PROMISED to be like God. What is the deal? Was the Father of Lies saying a good thing for once? Is God changing his mind here--eh, maybe they will be like me? Is the Apostle John unfamiliar with the Old Testament? Does he not care about the Old Testament? What's going on?

Perhaps the point that slithers away from us in all this is that God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. What is it that Adam and Eve lacked in their likeness of God? Were they unsatisfied or did they just want more? The couple, it seems, did not want to be merely human, but actually God. In 1st John the promise is for God to make us like Jesus. In Genesis humanity is abandoned for divinity; in 1st John humanity is completely fulfilled and echoes divinity; in Genesis disobedience brought shame and corruption; in 1st John perfect obedience in Jesus Christ brings redemption and perfection; in Genesis death is born; in 1st John death is forever dead because of Jesus' conquering of it.

In a way Satan was telling the truth in his temptation of Eve, but being the deceiver he is, it was a truth that was a lie: God gave Adam and Eve all he desired them to have and withheld all that they were unable to know. In god's image man was made and in his manor humanity is meant to live, but no where is the human race told to BE God. Man is to reflect God's image by mirroring God in ways, we are not to play or portray God by trying to be him.

Monday is for Morons: 08-28-2011

It’s Monday. Today is the day that reminds us how long a week is and how quickly the weekend goes. Monday is a status—How are you today? It’s Monday—as if we all know what is going on this day, we are all familiar with the feelings that the Monday sun shines on. Monday is the day of whining and pouting. Monday is the day of sighs and complaints. Monday, somehow, is the day I forget what Jesus has done… therefore Monday is for morons like me.

I hope to use this sometimes dreadful day as a quick reminder of God; a simple word to give hope and a fresh, crisp breath in our forgetful souls; something just enough to get us by until the sometimes-good-sometimes-bad Tuesday.

So before you kick your dog, be rude to your spouse, or pour coffee on your co-worker here is God:

Romans 8.31: ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ The quick answer is everyone; everyone can be against us, the whole world! But God IS for us. You are in God’s corner. God is fighting on your behalf. God has established victory for YOU! Yes, he already knows your wicked and stupid and miserable and gross sins, but he has forgiven them, all of them. He fights for you; he has won for you; he has succeeded for you! Let’s not let the Monday drag us down but let us instead be glad in Jesus’ work for us. It is finished and nothing will change that. Don’t think that you can outsin the grace God has freely given; kick such thoughts to the curb and keep on keeping on. Take your emptiness to God and be reminded anew of the smile under which you, Christian, always and forever will sit under. The only smile that matters: God’s.

You JUST Made That Cow: Exodus 32.4

You’re fresh out of Egypt; you saw all of the plagues, you heard the screams from miles away as Egyptian families saw their first-born males collapse into death; you look into your tent and see some of the gold you basically stole from your Egyptian neighbors and you recall how you crossed the Red sea, yet the Egyptian army was eaten by it. Moses who, by God’s direction, has led you to a wilderness and has been gone on the mountain quite awhile. There is a ton of lightening and commotion going on at the top of Sinai, but you reasonably figure it is a storm of sorts and Moses ain’t coming back.

Logically therefore, you get your neighbors and y’all all gather your gold together and make an image out of the gold. You make a super detailed cow out of old earrings , nose rings, bracelets, and headdresses. It looks awesome. Then Aaron declares this thing is not only a god but the very one which led Israel out of Egypt, that land of slavery.

. . . but you JUST made that cow, Aaron. How can you reason that it was the one who freed you? Maybe he had too much strong-drink or wine and got some lamp-shade-helmet idea and ran with it.

It is easy to look at Aaron and Israel as a bunch of fruit-loops at this point--it is not even chronologically possible guys!! But we are wrong to hammer them so. It is not as though he was making all this up as he went along; Aaron was simply giving God a face. He was not saying that this is some new god we invented, rather, LOOK, this thing, this god is now visible, tangible, it is like all the other gods the pagans worship.

Moses just had his socks blown off, literally having a mountain top experience, when he turns the corner to see God’s people groveling before some life-less shining peace of farm animal. It would not be unreasonable for Moses to have in mind some of the things God just told him . . . such as, ‘you shall not make any image of Me.’ So like any normal human being when he encounters foolishness he chunks these sacred stone-etched pieces of literature so that they are broken and new ones need to be made.

God, YHWH, Jehovah, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and Earth, etc. is not like other gods. He, therefore, does not want to be worshipped like other gods. He will not suffice to be downgraded, in a sense, as al the other gods who were made into images resembling fish, frogs, moons, half-fish half-man figurines, and other silly things. But it also awakens the understanding that God is both not confined to any location nor is He is to be shut away or left behind; the God of the Bible is not a figurine which can be totted around like a purse, rather He owns all creation—that’s you and I, my friend.

We can find sympathy for Aaron and Israel: they were just doing what the rest of the world was doing with gods. The problem is God is unequivocally unique and completely unlike any other being to ever exist.

A Great Assumption

You know what God is ‘doing’ in your life, don’t you? What lessons He is teaching; what models He is proposing you follow? My hardship must mean He is teaching me patience; my struggle must mean I am learning to be content; my success, that I am His child and He loves me. After all, you are an astute learner, you have observed that God is one whose lessons are ‘between the lines.’ Maybe other people come to you to help them see what the Almighty is up to in their lives; you’re one who gets it.

Life is hard. Live long enough and you’ll get burned by someone or something. Some hope will be ruthlessly dashed in an unforeseen nightmarish fashion; some damsel will douse your desires while laughing; some strapping cologne-wearing man will find it foolish that you ever thought you had a chance with him; you’ll get cancer; your child may be not what you had hoped; your lone does not go through; the job you excelled in and worked honestly for is taken from you and given to some brown-nosed punk; friends say goodbye; other friends refuse to forgive or are the reason you have knives in your back; your car is smoking from the engine; your baby is crying and you have zero energy already . . . and this is God’s method for teaching?

Friends, there is little doubt that we can wonder why and come to some reasonable conclusion. But does He love you with such enthusiasm that he breaks your bones? For what? To tell you what you already know, that you need help; that you’re not perfect; that you have moral and character flaws?

Something more is afoot. God’s word, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, already show us our needs. God’s words also show us who He is. But life shows us that God exists.

We assume God is revealing to us and prodding us by life’s events. The book of Job corrects our thoughts: God is not a hyper-spiritualist having us look at the grass and wonder why it is folded the way it lies; God is real and the thunder and fireworks of life boisterously announce, ‘Look at me!’ God is saying, ‘Look at me!’ Our troubles and tears are echoes of His voice, ‘Look at me; look at me; I am life itself. More real than your broken wrist; more real than your chaos and hurt.’

We must not think God full of remedies for life’s problems. Nor that He is ambiguously teaching us lessons if we only look for them. We must know that He exists and that He is good and what He has taught us we find in His word. We can complicate—and frustrate—our relationship with God by thinking He, as our Father, must order the confusion of life: peace does not always mean tranquility. I know that God loves His children and I know that He, more than any other, cares for His children deeply. God is unconstrained, like His methods.

Leviticus Full of Grace: Why I Love the OT

‘I’m glad I don’t have to worry about doing those anymore.’ Let me guess, if you could even get THROUGH the book of Leviticus that last sentence sums up most of what you learned from reading it. I mean, exempting a few bits here and there of narrative where some died, the book is an eye-lid closing 27 chapters of seemingly worthless, old, Eastern regulations for worship. You may second guess if you still WANT to know the God who would ‘inspire’ such writing!
Well, as seems the normal case, after reading the book over and over, consulting smarter people who can give historical, cultural, and Biblical context, and praying—often in confused frustration—I have come to appreciate and even . . . yes . . . genuinely ENJOY this ridiculous book.

We must first understand that Leviticus is part of a story: it is squished between Exodus—which ends with the glory of God descending on the tent of meeting, showing God’s presence with the people—and is succeeded by Numbers—which has more regulations and laws, some narrative of astounding things and people wildly and frequently complaining… and a huge census. So Leviticus is not a Maverick book sitting alone at the bar of the Bible smoking a cigarette with a half-empty pint in front of it; it is no rogue, but a thread in the fabric of, not only the first 5 books of the Bible (called the Pentateuch), nor the whole Bible, but a glimpse into the character of God Himself.

So we should conclude, then, that God is full of rules and is killer at making us bored? No. Prior to Leviticus God approached people, and not many of them it seems. He CAME to Noah, Abram, Jacob, Joseph, Moses; no mega-churches by this time in the Bible. Culturally at this juncture in history such lack of interaction between the common man and the divine was not abnormal. If you can remember some Egyptian history or maybe the movie Stargate, the ruler of a people either considered himself entirely or in part divine but he was the mouth, the between-man of the normal people and the divine entity. So when God, who created everything, decides to not only dwell among His people, but give direction on how the poor bum who’s always asking for change can worship Him, as well as everyone else in Israel, this would have blown everyone away; this is like Steve jobs saying, ‘But wait, there’s one more thing’ near the end of his keynote speech of new Apple products, when that ridiculously crazy thing comes out; this was beyond tweet worthy info, beyond really our understanding: it was brand new on the Earth and it was historically and culturally and socially and personally new and different and counter. Now the people, the everyman, can GO to God and worship Him.

Along this same thread, Leviticus is rigorous about social equality in worship; as the New Testament (NT) book of James points out, it is easy to say, ‘oh, that guy with lots of money gives more, he must be a better person.’ Leviticus says no; we see that if people are not able to give a bull, they can give a goat, if not that then something less expensive all the way down to some grain. We see this played out as Jesus’ parents in the NT were only able to give 2 birds for an offering—they did not have much money. So not only was worship not exclusive to the rich, but standing with and before God was not for the wealthy, it was for all who joined God. Interestingly enough too God did not order the people to go into debt, asking always for the most lavish of gifts from everyone. He wanted worship not things.

Leviticus also teaches that sin is costly. We find it very hard, but we must understand that for many people—and those who grew up on farms have a leg up here—giving their lamb or bull or any of their animals for sacrifice was almost equivalent to giving up your pet dog or cat. When you went to offer gifts to God, it would be sad and hard; this would be a reminder to the people of Israel that sin not only meant something, it took away life, it caused pain and made you uncomfortable; there is a price to sin, namely death. Making it even more clear—and as my generation would say, ‘real’-- In Leviticus God lays it out that the person who gives will himself participate in the act of worship, which was again, not normal for the time—it was always the priest who would perform the sacrificing. The farmer literally had a hand in worship.

It is easy to read the section where God says, ‘Be holy for I am holy’ as a negative and impossible claim; but again, it was not an impossible hoop to jump through to get to God, rather it is a GRACE that GOD HAS MADE A WAY TO HIMSELF WHERE PREVIOUSLY THERE WAS NO WAY. When He says be holy, we should hear: join in doing what I do, come along WITH me.

Leviticus gives a context for understanding what is going on in the NT. Without Leviticus and other regulations and laws we miss how significant and outlandish many of Jesus’ acts were, from the lady who was hemorrhaging, to Jesus’ interaction with unclean lepers, to, as mentioned already, Jesus’ parents. Without understanding Leviticus, much of the NT is a dark room which we can only get a vague sense of what is present in it.

There is SO much in this book that is admittedly hard to understand and can be boring. But it is the Christian’s book to know: it further substantiates and reveals the character of the Almighty to us. We cannot sell the book short by saying it is outdated and all we can glean is that Christ fulfills this stuff. LEVITICUS IS ABOUT THE GOOD NEWS, THE GOSPEL WHICH HAS BEEN AROUND FOR CENTURIES: God chooses to love and allows Himself to be worshipped by those who will follow Him and love Him with their all. He makes a way where there is no way, He tumbles the wall of previous impossibilities, so that we may know Him.

Much more can be helpfully said but hopefully this will draw you into curiosity for this great book, and will lead you further into understanding the character and heart of the God of the Bible.

I was greatly helped by John Milgrom’s commentary and Gordon Wenham’s commentary and Mark Dever’s manuscript found in this book, as well as by audio from Jay Sklar; but AS ALWAYS, nothing can trump constantly reading the book of focus and praying for understanding.

With every post I hope that if you have questions, concerns, complaints, caveats, or anything else that starts with a ‘c’ you can feel welcome to pose them.

So What Is Sin?

Someone once explained sin to me as ‘doing the don’ts and not doing the dos (not to be confused for the Spanish word meaning ‘two’).’ This is a wildly simplistic and unhelpful definition for a few reasons.

First, sin is an offense against God. As a Christian I understand God to be the Creator of everything—from a piece of dirt to every galaxy—and One who is still actively involved IN all of life, watching over and orchestrating the events of all life. In sum, He is both alive and powerful therefore to give some cheapish definition of the things which offend Him is not only a poor practice but a deadly one, and, to a degree, an enslaving one.

Second, not everything we are instructed to do in the Bible, if ignored or rejected, is considered an offense against God--sin. Take for example the one which the book of Proverbs calls the sluggard. The sluggard, in the English Standard Translation, is mentioned 12 times in Proverbs: he is called a fool, a disappointment and pain to his master, he is warned that poverty will be his companion. I do not want to be a sluggard and I think it unwise for anyone else to be such. God, in his kindness, inspired these true words for us to give us guidance and to help us prosper on earth, but I do not think that enjoying sleep too much nor working too little is SIN--something which incurs the eternal wrath of God. To clarify AGAIN, it is extremely unwise for an individual to practice such things for many reasons and the absolute extreme of these things can become sinful, but the sluggard is not to be deemed unfit for the kingdom of heaven only based on the fact that he does not want to get out of bed.

I hear some of you saying, ‘Yea, but Jesus instructed his followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.’ That he did, as I would tell anyone the same for their own good; as I hope everyone would tell anyone! Just because it came out of the inspiration or mouth of the Almighty does not mean neglecting it equals sin. Some things, for example the sacrifices in the Old Testament Law are obsolete now. God said them at one point, we are not doing them today, are we sinning by not offering them today? No. And we see that other things God gives as general wisdom for all of mankind—it is always helpful and profitable and good to do this or that; certainly though there are certain instructions that if rebelled against ARE sin.

So what IS considered by GOD—that’s essentially what we only care about here—to be sin? Glad you asked. The blanket answer is anything that is contrary to his nature. Where in the world could we figure out God’s nature? The Bible. The Bible, in its entirety brings us sharp images of God’s character. One big and obvious one is that He is life. In general then, killing of other soul-filled human beings is sin, take the even of Cain killing his brother Abel.

Not only is rebelling against God’s character sin, also rebelling or disobeying His commandments. This part sometimes does not seem to immediately flow from God’s character but most of the time does: In the book of Hosea God tells the prophet to go marry a prostitute, which is something in Leviticus God clearly instructs the people not to do. But at the end we see that Hosea, being a prophet, followed God’s instruction and in so doing became a picture for the entire nation of Israel of God’s love for them in that though Israel, like the prostitute, was continually unfaithful to God; God, though, would not leave them or break His promise and covenant with them. God was showing His love and grace in His faithfulness even when Israel was overtly UNfaithful.

There is more and many objections abound and caveats overflow but I think generally WE CAN DEFINE SIN AS: REBELLION AGAINST THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF GOD, AND DISOBEYING HIS DIRECT COMMANDS TO US.

Making the definition of sin too broad is wrong and bad, for how can we call evil which God Himself does not? No need to add burdens to our conscience, for Jesus said his instructions are easy, his burden is light.

'The OT Law Makes Me Sing'

The Law in the Bible’s Old Testament (OT) usually sprouts negative sentiment. This is not only true because we sometimes misunderstand the New Testament writers—we too readily assume they bash the OT Law or pigeon-hole the Law by thinking its only use was to show us our sin—but, for Americans, we who were derived by a spirit of gun-slingin’ freedom and large plots of open land, there is an even greater frown, for laws mean burdens, burdens which get in the way of progress.

So what do we make of Psalm 119? This, the largest chapter in the book of Psalms, celebrates the Law of God, the Law of the Old Testament. The Psalmist asks to be taught the law, he asks to be fed the law, to walk according to the law; he says he will never forget the law because they are a good guide to him; he will willingly and gladly declare the law; he's happy about the testimonies of God AS IN GREAT RICHES; he clings to the law; with his whole heart he will obey the law; he wrote this very long song about the law.

Few, I think, can be found today who have such great joy with regard to the OT testament law as the writer of Psalm 119. The Psalms are songs, poems composed by individuals who were well known and some who were never known. These were not forced writings but truthful, genuine, and full of feeling.

So what the heck is THIS writer so happy about? Doesn’t Paul put the kaputs on the Law when he wrote to the churches in Rome? There either must be something wrong with this guy writing Psalm 119 or something wrong with us and our understanding of the Law. I think the problem is a current one.

Sure, you can conceive of the Psalmist as some over-zealous religious koo-koo who maybe like some superstitious monk felt if he did not write songs about the Law was going to get the heavenly bolts of lightning sent down on his being… or we could understand the OT Law for what it is and what it brought to the people at the time.

We must remember that prior to God giving the Law to the people of Israel the individual could never approach God in worship—this was left for Moses and maybe Aaron--that’s if he wasn’t melting gold into the image of a calf. But now, with the giving of the Law, the poor farmer with 20 kids can bring a turtle dove or some grain to the Lord who brought his family out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt and gave them the good land he freely lives in and on and personally partake in WORSHIP TO HIS GOD! This is amazing! Joe shmoe, this nobody schmuck who schleps around Israel--much like you and I--, can worship the God who Created all things and bring offerings willingly and joyfully to Him!

Secondly, God is expanding His holiness with the Law. A person becomes unclean before God when he sins or is defiled in various ways but with the sacrifices the unclean can be made clean again and the formerly unclean can partake in the holiness of God. This is gracious and kind of God; the Law was not making God impossible to approach but rather making a way for reconciliation even for those who sinned! Sin no longer made an individual forever unable to worship God but through the Law made the individual able to be made clean and enter not only communion with God but with his community again.

The Law of God then is a great thing to the Psalmist. The Law of God was a display of God’s patience, kindness, forgiveness, and also a reminder of His eternal covenant which He never broke with His people! We now see how the Law of God made the Psalmist sing.

Don't Forget the Salt!

Salt. In the ancient times when the Old Testament was being formed it is well documented that salt was seen and used for various reasons; primarily it was used as a preservative therefore in some cultures it was understood to be a holy product as it seemed to extend life as it were. Salt was frequently used in this time when a covenant was struck between two or more parties. This latter use should be placed in the context of Leviticus 2.13; Numbers 18.19; and 2 Chronicles 13.5 to better comprehend what in the world they are referring to. The Israelites—and anyone really--of the time, upon hearing the relationship of salt and the covenant, did not think it strange but understood the speaker’s words. Those involved in a covenant during this time were even known to consume salt to show and symbolize the eternality of the covenant being made.

In the context of Leviticus 2.13 it is important to understand what the LORD was doing. The offering in this context is a grain offering, one that was frequently brought to the place where the LORD dwelled; this offering could be brought in conjunction with other offerings or simply in its own; the grain or cereal offering was also an offering which could and was presented both by the richest of the people of Israel and the poorest. This offering is probably the easiest—financially and time wise—to bring to the LORD and all could do it! It is an interesting insertion then that the LORD says this offering should ALWAYS be accompanied with salt. As referenced before salt was used as a known symbol to remember and recognize covenants; not least of these was the covenant God made with the people of Israel: that God would be the god of the Israelites forever and that the Israelites would be forever God’s people.

It is on purpose that God says this and that the people of Israel followed His words. An offering that could be given daily by any class of people, perhaps the most COMMON and MUNDANE offering, was to carry with it a symbol and reminder of the eternal and most extraordinary covenant ever to exist on the Earth: the perfect divine Ruler, Creator and God relationally loving a highly insignificant and helpless creature, calling them His very own!

Russell Moore on Recent, Public Adultry

The following is a quote from Russell Moore discussing recent failures of marriage by public figures and how everyone is almost already in their shoes:

I don’t know who you are, reader, but I know you are probably not smarter than Anthony Weiner or Arnold Schwarzenegger or John Edwards. And neither am I. Both of us, you and I, are on the verge of wrecking our lives. We’re probably not on the verge of a situation quite like any of those men, but the gospel tells us we have vulnerabilities just the same, and they all can lead to destruction.

The answer isn’t found in talent or in strategy or in brilliance. It’s found in fear, the fear of the Lord and the vision of his future.

Lord have mercy.

To read the whole thing click here

Wow, a Shepherd, really? Thoughts on the first words of Psalm 23

It is one of the most known passages in the entire Christian Bible, the 23rd Psalm; because of its familiarity it is easy to read the Psalm without thinking about it and understanding what it is saying.

Take for example the line, ‘The LORD is my Shepherd . . . ’ I’m not a shepherd; my father was not a shepherd; the only time I’ve dealt with sheep is either at a fair, petting zoo, or observation on someone’s farm . . . and the television show Lamb Chops.

Many visuals and ideas are present in the Bible that we, centuries later, do not fully grasp, or even slightly so. This is one of them. In our mind we usually have some sort of weirdo who hangs around and smells like sheep way too much; he probably has some sort of long wooden hook, maybe a walking stick, sleeps outside and would be unpleasant to us at our dinner table.

David calls God his shepherd. Hmm . . . either we are missing something or David thinks God is a wimp. Let’s remember some things about David, who authored this Psalm. He too was a shepherd. Remember, he was pretty bummed because he was watching his dad’s flock of sheep while his brothers were shaking in their boots on the battle-field? David also fought off some pretty beastly foes: he fought off lions, bears, wolves, and any other kind of loser who tried to nab his sheep. The Bible gives us, therefore, a much better context for understanding what being a shepherd meant; namely, if you were a sheep and you wanted to stay alive you had better have someone who was a warrior—that is a good shepherd. A friend of mine described the term shepherd more accurately as one who was like a US Marine—he is going to valiantly protect those who are his family or ‘flock.’ We see a couple verses later that God has some weaponry in a club and staff—the first being used for fighting off others. David did not fear in the face of his own death because God was with him!

But a shepherd is not all brass and guts. A shepherd only fights off enemies because he cares for his sheep. The quiet streams; the lush and comfy pastures; the refreshing and restoration of our souls. God is tender and loving; good.

Fierce towards His enemies; loving towards His own. This is a shepherd who I can follow.

Don’t take my word for it, look for yourself in the Bible. Is this your Shepherd?