When Worship Won't Cut It...

I began reading the book of Isaiah today, so I'll be writing about Isaiah for a while.  I love that book.  It is not usually a book out of the Bible that people point to as one of their favorites.  It's a book written by a prophet trying desperately to warn the people of God to turn, or be destroyed.  That is NOT why I love it.  It's often dark, and painful.  That's NOT why I love it.  It has some very graphic warnings of what God is going to do to the people who hate Him.  That's NOT why I love it.


I love it because the whole theme of the book is "a remnant will return."  At it's heart, it's a book about grace and forgiveness for anyone who wants it.  THAT'S why I love the book.


It all begins in chapter one with the warnings.  God, through Isaiah, is telling the people that He is tired of their junk.  He's tired of them coming to church and singing and saying one thing, while living a whole other life the other days of the week.  He tells them to quit singing songs to Him, to quit offering sacrifices to Him, to quit coming into the church and messing it up.  He doesn't want anymore praise and worship services from them.  Instead, He tells them:


Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.  (Isaiah 1:17)


That always catches me.  God is tired of the hypocrisy and fake faith of his people.  But He doesn't give them lectures on how to run a better worship service, or how to confess their sins corporately on sticky notes and make a clean break.  How are they to show their faith is alive?  Take care of "the other".  The poor, the oppressed, the fatherless, those without family, the lonely, the needy.  Help them, then I'll know you are legit.


Hmmmm.....


So honestly, where are we with this.  God says an actual faith will live itself out in our daily lives, and it will involve how we treat "the other".  Who is your other?  A neighbor who is alone and needy?  Someone at work who is broken?  A family member who is alone and alienated?  That kid in the hall at school who is poor?  Who is the other in your life?  How are you treating them?


According to God, that seems to be more important than what goes down on Sunday morning.  


How are we doing?  

How You Finish Matters

There was a king in 2 Chronicles 26 named Uzziah.  His story is kind of crazy.  He became king at 16, but he tried his best to follow God.  He worshipped God, and took advice from the priests on what to do.  He became a great soldier, ruler, and king.  His fame spread throughout that part of the world, and the kingdom grew.  He was a military inventor, designing new weapons, and a great strategist.  As long as he followed God, he was used in amazing ways.


But then, in it says in verse 16 "But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God"


There it is.  Uzziah eventually believes its all about him and God together.  He gets cocky.  As a result, he gets leprosy, and is not allowed to live in the castle anymore, and his son has to rule.  So, he's king, with no power.  


I so don't want to be that guy.  He had all the outward signs of still being what God made him to be, but he was useless because of his sin.  I really don't want that to happen to me.  I want to be the one who stays close to God, who sees God in charge of their life, who finishes as well as he starts.  Uzziah got to be king for 52 years.  That was unheard of in a day and age when kings lasted five to ten years.  But he lost his way.


May you and I always stay humble before God, and on track so that we can finish well.

A Miracle Plant, a Hateful Prophet, and Them

I read through the book of Jonah today in my reading.  The part that sticks out to me in the story is why Jonah ran in the first place.  If you've never read the book for yourself, it's very short.  Take a few minutes today, and sit down and read it.

Jonah is told to go preach to another city, in another nation, to a different people.  They are his political enemies. He says no, and runs.  You know most of this part of the story.  Big storm, sailors have to throw Jonah overboard, swallowed by big fish, fish throws up, Jonah preaches in Ninevah, people of Ninevah turn to God.  If you've been around church for awhile, you've probably heard the story.  Then at the end, God has to get on Jonah for being unhappy that the people repented.

But it just hit me today why.  They were political enemies.  Jonah says that he knew if he went, that God would forgive them because He is so good.  Jonah doesn't want the people forgiven.  He hates them.

Hmmm.....

Who in my life would I be upset if God forgave?  Who do I hate so much that I'd rather them suffer than seek God's forgiveness?  No, really, who would it be?

Because God is having none of it.  He tells Jonah that they are his children, and he needs to get over it.

Is there someone that we would secretly like to see suffer?  What will it take to see them through God's eyes?  To love them the way God does?

For Jonah, he had to go through a storm, be buried at sea, and then be digested by a fish for three days.  Then, he only got 1/2 of it.  God had to grow a miracle plant, then kill it, and the scold him.

And at the end of the story, it never tells us if Jonah got it or not.  It's open ended.

Just like your story and mine.  It's not done.

Will we get it?  Will we offer forgiveness and mercy to those "others" in our life today?

Hide and Seek with a Dead Man

There is a crazy contrast of life and death between two men in 2 Kings 13 and 2 Chronicles 24.  Elisha is the prophet of God who pursues God at all costs, and it costs him alot.  He lives a life of deep, personal faith in God.  He withstands tough trials, he takes on people who hate him for his trust in God, and he sees great works of God done through his hands.  And he dies.

Joash was a prince who became king of Judah.  He was only seven when he became king, and he reigned for decades.  He was guided by a priest named Jehoida, who loved God.  Under Jehoida's guidance, he turned the kingdom back to God, and had amazing success as a king.  He lived out a public faith, pointed people to God, faced tough battles with enemy armies, takes on other nations who hated God, and saw great works of God done through his hands.  And then, he died.

But when Joash died, it was ugly.  Jehoida, the priest, had died years earlier, and Joash quit following God.  In fact, he ran the other way, and abandoned God.  Because of this, he was wounded in battle, and then later killed in his own bed by conspirators.  His faith was wide, but not deep.  It was a faith to be seen, but not to be lived personally.  When he needed God's guidance the most, his weak faith did not carry him, and he died a broken ruler who lost his way, at the hands of assassins.

Elisha died of a disease that slowly took his life.  But, through it all, he maintained a trust in God that guided his heart and decisions.  He died at peace, and was buried.  Later, some friends were transporting a friend's body to a funeral.  As they went past Elisha's tomb, some robbers came by.  They stuck their friend's body in the tomb to hide it from the bad guys.  It touched Elisha's bones, and the guy came back to life.  Even in death, God's power and blessing stayed with Elisha's body.

That's a contrast.

Which are you shooting for?  A faith that is a Sunday faith, once a week, make everyone like you, and live life your own way the other six days?  Are you living off of someone else's faith?  OR, are you working out a faith through tough times and trials that is deep, and just by being around you, people gain new life?

Two similar but very different paths.  Which are you on?

Eyes Wide Open

Throughout the years, I have asked God over and over to let me see the world through His eyes, to hear the world the way He does, and to love people with His heart.  In 2 Kings 6:17, the story of Elisha takes this idea to a whole new level.  Elisha is in a city surrounded by his enemies who want to kill him.  A huge army takes up defenses, and is going to destroy the whole city to get to Elisha, the prophet.  His servant panics, like any of us would.  But Elisha doesn't.  Instead, he prays for his servant.


17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.


What is going on is God's army is there to protect Elisha,  He never worried.  He saw the world around him through God's eyes.


We don't need the army of angels around us.  Jesus tells us that He will live in us.  He tells us not to worry, because He has us, and everything around us, covered.  But we forget.


A couple of weeks ago I was riding my mountain bike in Brown County State Park.  The trails there are sweet and fast.  But on a slow part, I took my eyes off the trail for a minute.  My glasses had fogged up, and I quit looking at the trail to look at the fog on my glasses.  In that 2 second window, I went over the bars, and I'm still healing up the wounds from that stupid fall.


When we take our eyes off of God, we fall just as fast, and just as hard.  What we focus on makes all of the difference.


So today, pray that prayer with me.  "Lord, open our eyes so that we can see."

Stolen Veggie Gardens and the Other

1 Kings 21 continues telling the story of King Ahab.  He was king over Israel, and was married to Jezebel.  They are a horrible couple.  They push God out of the country's mind, they set up idols to worship, they murder people, steal, and more.  Ahab is one of the most evil kings in the Bible.


And he's a wimp.  


In chapter 21, there is a dilemma for the king.  He wants to plant some veggies in a garden near one of his castles.  But he doesn't have enough land to do.  Naboth is the guy who owns the land, and doesn't want to sell his family farm for the king's veggie patch. Yeah, that's a tough, king-like problem....


So anyway, he resolves it by doing what any good leader does.  He pouts.  No, really, the Bible is clear that this is what he does.  Check it out.  "4 So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my ancestors.” He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat."


So, the king is pouting.  His wife meanwhile, takes a different route.  She sets up a plan to have Naboth set up, falsely accused, and killed.  The plan comes off perfectly.  Naboth dies, falsely accused, and the king takes his land.  


As I read this, I thought about how many times I act like Ahab, and how many times I act like Jezebel.  I mean, so many times life doesn't go exactly like I want it to.  Sometimes I get mad at God and pout.  I go in my room and lay on my bed sulking.  At least, in my heart that's what I do.  I try and milk the situation for sympathy from others, and I get upset with God for not giving me what I want.


Other times, when things don't go my way, I get mad, and create a plan to make things happen.  I simply take whatever it is I think I am owed or what I deserve.  I don't wait on God or anyone else, I just make it happen.  "I'm a leader, a do-er", I think as I justify my actions.  And I get what I want.


But I never stop to think why God is telling me "no".  I never think about the Naboth in my story.  I get so focused on what I want, that I honestly don't stop to think that God is telling me "no" because to tell me "yes" would hurt someone else.  I get so caught up in me, and my desires, I forget how intertwined my life is with everyone else.  


But God never forgets the other.  He always looks at my life with others in view.  Both Jezebel and Ahab got what they wanted with their actions.  They got another veggie garden.  But a wife lost her husband, children lost their father, people lost a friend.  Naboth lost his life.


When God tells us "no", maybe we need to remember the other, and trust Him.  Maybe we need to try and think of the other before we ask.  Maybe....

The Power of the *

I was reading in 1 Kings 15 today, and it is talking about the different kings of Judah and Israel.  One of the kings, Asa, follows God, and the writer compares him to his great great grandfather David.  So, a couple of hundred years after David has died, he is still seen as the standard.  Here is what the verse says about David:

"⁵ For David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had not failed to keep any of the LORD's commands all the days of his life--except in the case of Uriah the Hittite." 1 Kings 15:5 (NIV)

David has an * on his record.  He kept all of the commands of God, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.  That was Bathsheba's husband, the woman he had an affair with.  Uriah was the general in his army whom he had murdered.

So many times today, we have athletes with great records, but there is an * on their sheet, either for cheating, steroid use, or whatever else.

It's the power of the *.

I really don't want to have a record that is 99% great, but then have an * after it.  "Jason did very well, and served God faithfully for decades, except for *".  God is working on my to understand that the little habits, the  small sins that I coddle, the things that no one sees today, those are the things that lead up to the *.

What is yours?  Is there one?  Are you forming habits, and babying sins because they are "small", that are going to lead to an * on your life one day?  Be ruthless.  Go after it all.  Because of God's generous grace and forgiveness, we always have a second chance.  I want my life to leave behind a !, not an *.

What about you?