New Years Resolutions; Humility before Happiness

I just watched Mel Gibson in the movie "The Patriot" again.  There was one scene that struck me.  Colonel William Tavington, a ruthless commander in the British Army, is discussing tactics with Lord Cornwallis.

Cornwallis has just finished drafting a Land Grant to another officer when Tavington enters.

Cornwallis: This is how His majesty rewards those who fight for him as gentlemen.

Tavington:  I dare to presume my own meager contributions will be rewarded one day.

Cornwallis:  You may presume too much.  His Majesty, like history, judges us not only by the outcome of the war, but on the manner in which it was fought.  We serve the Crown, and we must conduct ourselves accordingly.  Surrendering troops will be given quarter.  These brutal tactics must stop.

Tavington:  Is it not enough, my lord, that I have never lost a battle?

Cornwallis:  You serve me, and the manner in which you serve me reflects upon me.  I would've thought that a gentleman from a family as esteemed as your would understand that.

Tavington:  My late father squandered any esteem in which we were held, along with my inheritance.  I advance myself only through victory.

Cornwallis:  You advance yourself only through my good graces.  The colonials are our brethren, and when this conflict is over, we will re-establish commerce with them.  Do you understand, Colonel?

Tavington:  Perfectly, my lord. 

This conversation did not keep Tavington from committing more atrocities--one scene shows him summoning a village into a church, and promising mercy if information is given about the location of the militia. But when this information is given, the evil Tavington orders the church doors locked and the building burned, with all of the townspeople in it.  When some of the villagers protest that he had promised them mercy, he replied that God may show them mercy in the next life, but it was not Tavington's intent to show any mercy in this one.

Tavington later convinced Cornwallis that he could capture the leader of the American Militia, but it would require him to use the brutal tactics that Cornwallis found unacceptable.  Tavington promised to become a rogue officer, out from under the chain of command, so that Cornwallis could remain blameless.  Tavington's hope, if the British had won the war, was to be named regent over Ohio.  Of course this didn't happen, either in the movie or in history--the British did not win the war, and there was no American aristocracy of landowners, as Cornwallis had envisioned.

I thought about our battles with the world, and the fact that our actions reflect upon our Lord.  If we represent Him well, He may reward us.  But if we do wicked things in His name, it brings shame upon us. We only live by the grace of God.  If we lose favor with Him, there is nothing to keep Him from withdrawing His blessing from us--in fact, He could decide to snuff us out.

When I was in college, I ran for student counsel president.  My platform was that we represent Christ in this world, and that as servants (even slaves) to Him, we have no "rights"; we only have responsibilities.  My argument was that as college students, we relied upon the good graces of our parents and the University.  The University had accepted us into the student body, but that was subject to our compliance with University rules and policies--those who did not follow University rules could be expelled.  We received instruction from our professors, but we were not guaranteed a passing grade; we accumulated credit hours based on successful completion of each class, but there was no guarantee that a degree would be conferred upon us.  We had to do our part, to get the work done, to follow the prescribed degree plan, and to reasonably reflect the University and our families in the work that we did.

Needless to say, I lost the election.  People love to believe that everyone--students, citizens, even humans--all have "rights".  They seldom stop to reflect that those "rights" are granted to them by a government, or a Constitution; they forget that a Constitution could be rescinded or that a government could be overthrown.  Certainly the US Constitution is interpreted very differently today than it was 200 years ago.

Romans 13:1 says "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God."  Remember that the Christians to whom Paul was writing may have been experiencing persecution at the hands of these rulers.  Certainly they had no "right" to worship as they wished.  Even today, there are countries which do not allow believers to congregate in public worship, or to evangelize openly.

So in this season of New Years resolutions, keep in mind the grace of God.  Instead of resolving to stand up for your "rights", think of ways you can be responsible for yourself, for your family, for your community, and for your God.  Remember that your good works may lead sinners to repent; conversely, your sins may become a stumbling block to unbelievers.  As you think of how you want to improve yourself this year, start with humility.  James 4:6 says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."  Somehow I don't think that having a mind-set of "my rights above all else" exhibits the humility that James was talking about.

James 4:7-10 is a good place to start when making Resolutions for the New Year:

1. Submit yourself to God.
2. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
3. Come near to God and He will come near to you.
4. Wash your hands, you sinners--you want to be able to lift "holy hands" to God.
5. Purify your hearts; do not be double minded.
6. Grieve over sin.
7. Mourn for those without Christ.
8. Cry out to God for mercy.
9. Change your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom--don't think so much about your own personal happiness that you fail to get serious about sin or its consequences (both in your own life, and in the lives of your friends and family.  Remember sin separates men from God.)
10. Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

As I said before, the key to success in the Christian life is humility; to count others as more important than ourselves.  We should call for God's mercy more often than asserting our "rights"; we should covet God's grace more than our own success or happiness. An old saying in our church is that "Happiness depends on happenings; Joy depends on Jesus."  We can have joy even when bad things happen.

Blessings on you and yours in 2013.

The gifts of God to us this Christmas

It's Christmas Eve, and I thank God for all of His gifts--he gave us so many of them.  First, He created us; He gave us life.  Genesis 1:27 says, "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."  So not only did He give us the gift of life, but He made it a marvelous and wonderful thing--He made us in the image of God.

Think about that.  Where God is beautiful, we know beauty.  Where God is just, we know justice.  Where God is righteous, we know righteousness.  Every attribute of God, we have, or have access to, on a smaller scale.  And if not for original sin, we would have direct fellowship with God and would share in his all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present Being.

And this brings us to the next gift that He gave us.  When He made us, he gave us Free Will.  But being all-knowing, He knew before-hand that we could not handle it.  We would, at some point, inevitably act in our own self-interest, rather than in the interest of others; we would, sooner or later, make bad choices.  And God knew this about us, yet He gave it to us anyway.

Mankind has philosophized about the "problem" of Free Will for ages.  If God knows everything in advance, how can we think that we are free to choose?  But if we have freedom to do whatever we want, then God could not possibly know how things will turn out--there are just too many variables.  But this is false thinking, as it limits God: it makes Him out to be nothing more than a super-computer, using predictive analysis to foretell the future.  But God is not all about algorithms, just like He did not make us robots.  He gave us Free Will, so that we could choose to follow Him on our own, not just because He commands it.

His commands are the third gift He gave us.  In the book of Romans, Paul speaks a lot about the Law. Without the Law, we would not be able to know what we are doing wrong, when our Free Will has allowed us to sin.  Romans 7:7 says, "I would not have known what sin was except through the Law.  For I would not have known what coveting really was if the Law had not said, 'Do not covet.' "  The Law was given so that men could be reconciled to God.  He called out an entire race of people to follow the Law (after sin had entered the world).  Where those men failed in keeping the Law, He allowed them to offer a sacrifice.  In the case of a sacrifice, all of that man's sin would be transferred to the animal that was being offered, whether it was a bull, a lamb, or a dove.

The problem with the Law is that it is exclusive. The Jews, the people who were given the Law, believed that God would only love them, and not the Gentiles (all other people, the ones who were not Jews.)  This is why it was so hard for them to accept the Sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who was sent to take away the sin of the entire world.  Their thinking was that God could not possibly love those who did not follow the Law.  But Paul writes in Romans 11 that without the Law, Jews would not know what sin was.

So the greatest gift of all is Mercy.  By God's grace, He gave men Free Will; and by His mercy, He gives them the Law to show where they failed, and Grace to everyone who has access to God, even those who do not know the Law.  This is what Paul meant when he said, "For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all." (Romans 11/32).

Does this mean that all will be saved, no matter what they believe, or what god they serve? Of course not.  But those to whom He gave the Law know that without sacrifice they would never measure up.  And those to whom He gave grace by offering His only Son as a sacrifice know that without mercy, we would be left out.

I know it would be easier to say, "Jesus is the greatest gift of all," or "Jesus is the reason for the season." Those statements are true.  But they are so inadequate when describing God's gifts of mercy and grace.  Most people alive today do not think they even need mercy or grace.  Why would they follow Jesus?  They will do just fine on their own--they can live life with the Free Will that God has given them, and not worry about the law, or sin, or sacrifice.  Yet Jesus died for those people, too.  I don't mean to be talking in circles, but we seldom think through the entire history of God's interaction with Man, or why it was even necessary to send a sacrifice.  But as you think about Christmas, I would urge you to to think about the back-story, about why Jesus needed to come when He did, so that He could eventually sacrifice Himself for us.  Thinking about this makes me feel very, very small.

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out!  Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen.  --Romans 11: 33-36 

Where was God when tragedy struck?

It is with a heavy heart that we watch the memorial services taking place this week for the children and school faculty and staff that were killed in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  Some have dared to ask, "Where was God in this tragedy?"  The best answer may have been given by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.  You can see his response at http://video.foxnews.com/v/2038135300001/huckabee-where-was-god/

According to Governor Huckabee, "As I see it, we've escorted Him right out of our culture and we've marched Him off the public square, and then we express our surprise that a culture without Him actually reflects what it has become."  We've taken prayer and Bible reading out of the schools.  People sue a city so that they aren't confronted with a manger scene or a Christmas carol.  They file lawsuits to remove a cross that was erected as a memorial for fallen soldiers. Churches and Christian-owned businesses are told to surrender their values under the edict of government orders to provide tax-funded abortion pills. We carefully and intentionally stop saying things are sinful; we call them "disorders"--sometimes we even say they are "normal".  We get to where we've abandoned our bedrock moral truths.  And then we ask, "Where was God?"  It's as if our hearts were hardened.

"Their hearts were hardened."

How many times in the Bible have we seen this phrase, descriptive of sinners bent on killing Christ, or driving him out of their homes, towns and lives.  Yet in the Gospel of Mark, chapter six, this phrase is used to describe the Disciples.

And after He (Jesus) had taken leave of them, He went up on the mountain to pray.  And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and He was alone on the land.  And He saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw Him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him, and were terrified.  But immediately He spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I; have no fear."  And He got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased.  And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened."   (Mark 6:46-52)

By way of background, the first part of the chapter tells about the feeding of the five thousand.  What a time of celebration!  With five loaves and two fish, He prayed to God and the food was blessed. Even the leftovers were multiplied--it took twelve baskets to pick up the scraps.  This was the fore-runner of the Sunday-go-to-meeting-with-dinner-on-the-grounds.  Can you imagine the fellowship with God that went on that day, and the people who were converted, the lives that were changed.  It was truly a "mountain-top" spiritual experience.  Yet that very night, the disciples left Him, and got into a boat to travel to Bethsaida.

Jesus had told them to go to Bethsaida.  Yet a storm blew in.  Did God know that their boat would be in peril? Yes, for God knows everything.  Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." So it stands to reason that Jesus knew what would happen to them.  This may have been why He was watching. "He saw that they were making headway painfully."  Where was Jesus when the storm came? He was watching over them.

As time went on, the storm became worse.  The waves got higher, the wind blew stronger.  Some time during the fourth watch of the night--between 3 a.m. and dawn--Jesus came to them, walking on the water.  The disciples, tired, weary, and spent from fighting the wind and the waves, perceived Him there, but their perception was that He was a ghost.  Jesus would have passed them by, but they called out.  "God have mercy on us.  Save us!"  Where was Jesus during the worst part of the storm? He was right there with them.

When they called out to God, the disciples saw that Jesus changed His course.  Instead of walking by them, as He would have done, He climbed into the boat with them.  As soon as He did, the storm subsided.  The disciples were shocked--they could not believe what had just happened.  They did not take to heart the lesson of the loaves and fishes: it was not that Jesus will always provide our needs; it was that Jesus exercises  control over the natural world.  He has overcome the world, and he invited them to overcome with Him.  Yet they fell away.  Their hearts were hardened.  Where was Jesus when the storm passed?  He was still available to them.

Matthew Henry's Bible Commentary has this to say about that Scripture passage:

The church is often like a ship at sea, tossed with tempests, and not comforted: we may have Christ for us, yet wind and tide against us; but it is a comfort to Christ's disciples in a storm, that their Master is in the heavenly mount, interceding for them. And no difficulties can hinder Christ's appearance for his people, when the set time is come. He silenced their fears, by making himself known to them. Our fears are soon satisfied, if our mistakes are set right, especially our mistakes as to Christ. Let the disciples have their Master with them, and all is well. It is for want of rightly understanding Christ's former works, that we view his present works as if there never were the like before. If Christ's ministers now could cure people's bodily diseases, what multitudes would flock after them! It is sad to think how much more most care about their bodies than about their souls.

I believe there is a lesson to be drawn from this passage that we must remember during natural disasters, like Hurricane Sandy, or man-made disasters, like the massacre of 20 school children in Connecticut.  Our culture has written God off; but when something evil happens, the first words out of our mouths are "Oh, my God!"  The first  prayer that comes to our lips is "God, have mercy."  Yet when life gets back to normal, we ask, "Where was God in all this?"  I submit to you that He was watching over us, waiting to be summoned.  He will not go where He is not invited.  And even now, when we question His interest and involvement, He is still available to us.  All we have to do is ask Him.

We don't have to understand.  We may never understand why God allows tragedy.  But we would be wise to follow the advice of Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths."

How to be healthy, wealthy and wise

Ben Franklin wrote, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."  Who knew that a simple modification of your sleeping habits had such power?

I've always been a morning person, and although I am blessed with pretty good health, I'm by no means rich and Lord knows I'm not the smartest person in the room.  I guess the implication is that if you avoid bad habits (like staying out boozing all night) and avoid laziness (and hangovers, and STDs), then you'll be more likely to get up every morning and get that job and be able to keep it, and you'd be less likely to make a fool of yourself. (This from the man who said, "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.)

As I was reading my Bible this week, I came upon some more reliable Proverbs--those written by Solomon.  In the third chapter, Solomon also spoke of health, wealth and wisdom--but it had nothing to do with sleep schedules.  Proverbs 3:1-2 says, "My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity."

He seems to be saying that health and wealth come from wisdom.  But whence cometh wisdom?

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.--Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10

Job 28:28 says, "The fear of the Lord--that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding."  Psalm 110:10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good understanding."  The source of all Wisdom is the "Word who was with God, and was God; He was with God from the beginning." (John 1:1-2)

Proverbs 3:7-8 says, "Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.  This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones."  Again, we see the promise of good health to those who show a reverential trust in God and a commitment to his revealed will as found in his Word.  "Fear" in this sense does not mean something from which we should run away, e.g. God's wrath; but it does encourage us to avoid taking advantage of His boundless love and unlimited mercy and grace.

This is not to say the wicked cannot be prosperous.  Jeremiah 12:1 laments this fact, asking God, "Why do the wicked prosper?"  We also see in Job, chapters 1 and 2, how a godly person can be struck with disaster, disease and even death.  In these cases, it is helpful to remember that these anomalies are usually temporary, and are either corrected in this life or the next.

There is a story I heard on NPR about genetic testing--you can read it at http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/12/06/166648187/perfection-is-skin-deep-everyone-has-flawed-genes
Anyway, it says that scientists have always known that normal, healthy people have flawed genes.  The estimate was that those flaws would range from a handful to maybe 100.  But when they started testing people--perfectly healthy people, they found that the average number of genetic "mistakes" is right at 400.  This got me to thinking about spiritual matters.  We live in a fallen world, where everyone is under sin's curse.  But for the redeemed, we have the hope of heaven, and with it, the knowledge that our resurrected bodies will be free of genetic flaws.  We will all be the way God originally created us to be--perfect reflections of Him.

So if you are sick, suffering, wracked with pain; if you cannot fathom why God has not heard your prayers for healing; when life's pressures are too great, or the day is so dark that you cannot perceive the light--it is then that we must take to heart the admonition of Proverbs 3:5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Keep the faith.  Do not look outward, and wonder with Jeremiah "Why do the wicked prosper?"  Instead, look upward; keep your eyes on Jesus.  Better to rely on God's word rather than man's; better to read and apply the Proverbs of Solomon than the pithy aphorisms of Poor Richard's Almanac.

The mystery of a merciful God

There is so much I don't know.  Like how a seed can rot in a package on a shelf and not start to grow roots or shoots, but if you put it in a hole and cover it with dirt, it will grow.  What miracle happens in the ground, unseen by men, until it is evidenced by stems and leaves growing above ground?  How does the soil send nutrients and moisture to a seed in just the right amount? The seed is helpless--it has no way of gathering those things for itself.  It is a mystery to me.

In the fourth chapter of Mark, Jesus mentioned this very thing.

He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like.  A man scatters seed on the ground.  Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.  All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.  As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come. (Mark 4:26-29)

The kingdom of God is also a mystery, that Jesus tried to explain by using parables based on farming.  No doubt many who were listening to his teaching had some experience with agriculture.  Jesus had just finished telling about a farmer who sows his seeds, and some fell on the path (that the birds came and took away); and some fell in the rocky soil (so it was shallow and had no root); and some fell on the soil with weeds and thorns (so that although it grew, it was choked and did not produce any fruit); and some fell on good soil (so that it grew and produced a crop).  This parable he took the time to explain to his disciples: The see is the word of God; the seed that falls on the path and is taken by the birds represents Satan stealing the message before it has a chance to take root; the rocky soil is the person who receives the Word, but it is shallow and can't take root because of persecution or trouble; the thorny soil is the person who receives the Word, and it does take root, but worries and carnal desires choke it out, so that it bears no fruit; and the good soil is the person who receives the word, hearing and accepting and producing fruit in his life.

So we assume that in Mark 4:26, Jesus is still talking about the Word when he talks about the man scattering seed.  The preacher is tasked with spreading the Word of God.  He does not know the condition of the people's hearts who hear that word.  Some may accept it; others may not.  Whether the preacher stays up all night worrying about it will not change the recipient's heart--only God knows whether and when the heart is receptive.

Sometimes my heart is more receptive than others.  Sometimes I get caught up in worry, in the desires of the world, including wealth.  At those times in my life, God's word doesn't always get through to my heart like it should.  But when I have had enough of trouble, enough of worry; when I beat my breast and say, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner"--that is when God's grace breaks through.  Like the soil in which the seed is planted, my heart and mind start to feed the seed, and God mysteriously allows me to grow, to be fruitful.

This is the mystery of the gospel.  Romans 8:1-4 says,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of Life set me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.  And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the Law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.

The Law still plays a role in the life of a Believer--not as a means for salvation, but as a moral and ethical guide, obeyed out of love for God and by the power that the Spirit provides.  This law is no longer written in stone and displayed in a Temple.  It is now written in our hearts, where we can take it with us everywhere we go.  Jeremiah 31:31-34 says:

"The time is coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the Lord.  "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord.  "I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord.  "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

We are now living in that time.  All men have access to God in their hearts and minds; they can know God in spirit and in truth, without having to go to a Temple or a Priest.  Herein is the mystery: sin still separates us from God, but God, rich in mercy and grace, forgives completely.  Hebrews 10:14-17 says:

By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.  The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this.  First He says, "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord.  I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then He adds, "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."  And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

The new covenant guarantees that sins will be completely forgiven with the result that no additional sacrifice for sins is needed.  This is the nature of God.  A mystery, to be sure; but as real as the seed that, when covered with dirt, grows roots and shoots and ultimately bears fruit.