Disobedience Equals Unbelief

I've been reading through Hebrews with Don, John, and Bonnie over the last few months.  This morning I found myself back in chapter three where the writer talks about the Israelites who had left Egypt by way of the parted Red Sea.  They are now wandering around for 40 years just outside the Promise Land.  God is waiting for them to die off before the next generation enters the land.  

How could this happen?  After God showed Himself to be God by the 10 plagues and subsequent departure from Egypt via a parted sea, the destroying of the Egyptians who pursued them, the sustaining by daily manna and quail, their clothing and shoes not wearing out while they wandered - YET, the writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 95:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
    on the day of testing in the wilderness,
 where your fathers put me to the test
    and saw my works for forty years.
 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
    they have not known my ways.’
 As I swore in my wrath,
    ‘They shall not enter my rest."

 "They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways."

The proof of our knowing God is our obedience.  The Gospels clearly say that if we love the Lord we will obey his commands.  Sometimes we sin like we really don't get it.  Jesus says there is going to come a time when some will be telling God all they did for Him and He is going to say "Depart from me, I never knew you."  To ensure we do not run that risk we need to take seriously our call which is to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus. 

Sometimes life is going to defy logic. We need to keep returning to The Book during those times of confusion.  If we decide to listen to our hearts and heads instead of to The Book we run the risk of  going astray in our hearts like those who wandered in the desert.  We run the risk of God saying, depart from me I never knew you."

The writer of Hebrews closes chapter three with this warning:

"Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.  As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?  And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?  And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?  So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief."

Consider this friends:  disobedience is unbelief.  It matters not to God if sometimes our lives defy logic, current trends, and philosophies.  Every age has had to grapple with Truth.  Let us commit to the hard work of wrestling with God over feelings, events, and circumstances.  Then when the wrestling is over, commit to obedience.

His Yoke Is Easy and His Burden Is Light

Sometimes the circumstances of life generate feelings that are hard to bear.  Feelings of frustration, anger, fear, discontentment, envy and a host of others that can feel heavy.  "How can I face another day?"  "Things are never going to get better."  "Will I have enough money to live in the future?"  "I am done with this."

This morning I was reflecting on Hebrews chapters one and two.  The end of chapter two in The New English Bible caught my attention:

¹⁷ And therefore he had to be made like these brothers of his in every way, so that he might be merciful and faithful as their high priest before God, to expiate the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For since he himself has passed through the test of suffering, he is able to help those who are meeting their test now.

Since I have been in a time of testing the last phrase "he is able to help those who are meeting their test now" jumped out at me.  So I sat with that.  Jesus is able to help me now.

Which lead me to think of the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11:

³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Easy?  Light?  What I was experiencing was anything but easy and light.  Then the light bulb moment.  "I am carrying burdens I am not meant to carry."  The verses right before these in Matthew 11 give the solution.

²⁸ “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Contemplating this made me recall days decades ago when I felt so weak, weary, and just plain burdened.  During a Bible study a friend read from I Peter 5:7 in the Moffatt translation and hearing it was like balm on my soul.

"Let all your anxieties fall upon him, for his great interest is in you."

In this version it did not tell me to cast my burden.  No.  That would not have spoken to me at all at that point because I was too weary to cast.  But to let them all fall off, fall upon someone else; well, it was in my power to just let go.  

What is this easy yoke, this light burden Jesus speaks of?  This is a question I have never considered.  I just took the words as a fact.  The yoke of Jesus is easy and light.  Now I wondered, what is this yoke?  Here is my answer.  Jesus came to do the Father's will.  Jesus is our example.  Our yoke and burden is to do the will of the Father like Jesus.

I turned this thought a little and combined it with all the ideas above.  We are told in beautiful words in the Sermon on the Mount that we are not to worry in this life.  We are to be confident that the Father knows our needs.  Jesus ends Matthew 6 with the command:

³¹ Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³² For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

 So, my friends, do the will of the Father today and if you begin to worry and fret about tomorrow or feel that today is just too heavy to carry, "let all your anxieties fall upon him, for his great interest is in you.

Trying to Find Truth in Our Politically "Correct" Culture

The longer I live in this new century the more I am left scratching my head in confusion.  How did white become black and black become white?  Why are so many common sense issues now gray?  Were they always gray but I hung with a group that painted the issue black and white?  I am so confused.

Most of the voices I hear today are poles apart in their take on the truth on any given issue.  I recently began reading Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions, a book which one reviewer thought would be better titled A Conflict of Mindsets.  This book is helping me understand the underpinnings of what Sowell calls the unrestrained and the restrained visions.  It's not exactly like the right and the left or the liberal vs. conservative view of issues BUT I think it is close enough for this blog post. Sowell explores why people end up on one side of the fence of an issue or the other and how usually if you are on one side on one issue, you will probably be on the same side of the next issue. 

I don't think reading Sowell is going to help me know which side of an issue to take because there is truth on both sides of issues.  How can I ferret out the real truth?  I don't want to adopt the agenda of the right or the left.  How can I know the truth?

I'm not sure one can know the truth on all things but I know that we can come much closer to the mark, as Christians, if we leave our political camp fortresses and seek God and His mind.  Think of any current event issue that is polarizing America.  I believe that if we want to know how to respond, the media and our preconceived action steps are not the places to look.  The Bible is clear about how we can come to know truth.

While reading Sowell's book I also began to read the book of Proverbs in the Bible.  Hear this passage from Proverbs 2:

My child, if you accept my words
    and treasure up my commandments within you,
² making your ear attentive to wisdom
    and inclining your heart to understanding;
³ if you indeed cry out for insight,
    and raise your voice for understanding;
⁴ if you seek it like silver,
    and search for it as for hidden treasures—
⁵ then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.
⁶ For the Lord gives wisdom;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
⁷ he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
    he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
⁸ guarding the paths of justice
    and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
⁹ Then you will understand righteousness and justice
    and equity, every good path

According to this passage the only way to know Truth is to seek God for it with all your heart.  How many of us, if we are being honest, have actually cried out to God to show us His mind about our current event issues?  Don't we just have an idea of what truth is and then pray to that end?  Politics of all stripes have influenced the Church and the net result is the staggering polarization of people who claim to know the Lord Jesus.  Brothers and sisters this ought not to be!   What a horrible testimony to the world!

At the very least we should be crying out to God together to know truth and how to respond to our current events.  There should be a place for every Truth-seeking believer at the prayer rail and the discussion table.  

God help us to call good good and bad bad.

Some Things Are Best Done In Secret

I made a commitment to read through the Sermon on the Mount with others and the last few weeks have dealt with doing things publicly verses privately.  Here is the beginning of Matthew 6 (minus the Lord's prayer in verses 7-15)

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.^"

"And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,  that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

Our giving, praying, and fasting should not be motivated by wanting to receive the praise of men.  It seems that God is more pleased if we do these things privately.  In the example of the giving to the needy it seems like God thinks we should even keep these acts secret from ourselves. 

As I pondered these passages, a verse from I Samuel 16 came to mind:

"For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Because we know this to be true, that men do look on the outward appearance, maybe that is way these example and their outcomes are repeated in three different ways.  Be careful to do your good deeds in private if your motivation is for the glory of God.  If you do, God will reward you.  If you do good for the praise of men, you will have the praise of men.  This praise will be your total reward.

That thought led me to recall these verses in the next chapter of Matthew:

"Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity." 

I wonder if we couldn't even say something like, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not give to the poor, pray and fast in your name.  And I will profess to them, yes, and you had the praise of men. Depart from me I never knew you."
 

The people in Matthew 7 were actually doing things in the name of Jesus. 

Sobering, isn't it.
 

Continuing Revelation (This post was written in 2010-don't know why I never posted and I don't know where the pics went, if indeed there ever were any!)

I do not believe in "sola scriptura". The reason I say this is because it has become more and more obvious to me that that is not how I live my life. It might sound good on paper and even be the right thing to say, but in reality it is scripture plus any number of other things.

I do believe in the Bible as final authority. Yet there are other tests or measures by which I conduct my life.

Visualize a sieve. This sieve is the Bible. All things that make it through the seive are "good", things that don't make it through or contradict the Bible are rejected.

I am continuously bombarded with choices as I live life. Some choices are immediately blocked by Biblical edicts. I don't have to pray or look for a sign to know that lying about how old my kids are in order to get into a movie cheaper. It is wrong and I don't need to look for some sign from God that it is ok.

What about those other kinds of choices? Who shall I marry? Should I try to get that job? How would I make that choice? There are alot of ways that might fit through the sieve of scripture. I might do research, I might consult friends and family, I would pray. All of this new information would point me toward a decision. If the information was conflicting I would wait.

As I'm living my life with this unanswered question or choice I try to keep my eyes and ears open for God. My heart resonantes with Oswald Chambers

The destiny of my spiritual life is such identification with Jesus Christ that I always hear God, and I know that God always hears me (John 11:41). If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God, by the devotion of hearing all the time. A lily, or a tree, or a servant of God, may convey God's message to me. What hinders me from hearing is that I am taken up with other things. It is not that I will not hear God, but I am not devoted in the right place. I am devoted to things, to service, to convictions, and God may say what He likes but I do not hear Him.

How can I know if what I hear is from God? Does it fit through the sieve of God's word? If it does and I want to do it, I do it. If it doesn't I don't.


Today I was tickled to read in Matt. 2:10 "When they saw the star they rejoiced exceedingly." Earlier in the chapter the magi had seen the star and had begun to follow it. I'm guessing they either lost it and went to Jerusalem to get more information about the details of the new Kings birth or they were passing through and wanted some collaborating evidence that they were on to something. After speaking with Herod they resumed their journey and saw that the same star was going before them and that made them rejoice exceedingly. That star was confirmation. That star was guidance. That star was guiding them to a place and a person prophesized many years before.

Was God leading them by that star? Is God leading me by the counsel of a wise friend? Does finding out that piece of information on the internet the last piece of the puzzle to make a good decision about having a surgery? What about that song with lyrics so convicting I decide not to divorce my mate? Could all these things be God's guiding hand? I must believe that because that is how I order my life. Sola scriptora or God uses many means to speak if we are listening?

He Makes The Rain Fall on the Just and the Unjust

Before I launch into my latest musings I will say I just finished a book from 1938 by Brenda Ueland called "If You Want to Write".  Anyone who knows me well knows that I want to write, do art, re purpose things, take pictures, travel, and many more great things.  When you have that many interests it is really hard to do anything well.  I want to try to write more often and not be thinking "I don't have time to do a good enough job now."  I wish I was motivated enough to want to polish my writing but I'm just not.  So here's to hoping to write more.

Here are my musings on Matthew 5:43-48

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers,^[a] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸ You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

It is irrelevant what the word "perfect" means in this passage.  We know from it that God is perfect and we are told to be like Him.

And what is it that sets Him apart from us and makes Him perfect?  He makes rain fall on ALL and sun shine on ALL people whether they deserve it or not.

I objected at first.  How can He help that?  It's not like rain could just fall on good people, right?

Maybe that is part of the point - if we could be so God-like, so perfect, we would just greet ALL in the streets, we would love ALL, we would do good to ALL.  It wouldn't cross our minds to ask/consider goodness or evilness.  We would just BE.  We would BE who we were meant to BE.

Understanding Spiritual Formation

I continue to marvel at how God forms me spiritually.  My beliefs are constantly being challenged by reading, relationships and circumstances.  Over the years I've hardened then softened then hardened again.  Many thoughts and ideas morph.  But when a light bulb moment comes, well, I cannot remember ever changing on one of those.  

Because God gives me TRUTH in pictures that is how I speak this truth.  I am so confident about it, at least for my own life, that I have no shred of interest in defending it.  It just is.

One of the first pictures I remember is "God's truth will rise to the top."  Decades later I believe this more than ever.  Why is this so important to me?  I need not defend what I believe because it is not my truth, it is God's.  I may or may not believe the true Truth about this or that issue.  I am a work in progress and I promise you I am doing the best I can.  I want to know what is true and I believe that God's truth will rise because the Holy Spirit will lead me into all truth.  Why argue and defend ideas as if the truth is MY truth.  I want to listen to others because maybe what they are saying is the cream, after all.

Have you ever been perplexed about something that the majority of people around you seem to understand?  This doesn't happen to me often but when it does I can get pretty vocal.  Take the A.C.T.S. model for prayer.  Specifically the "A".  About fifteen years ago I was involved in some pretty large prayer gatherings.  We would start out with the "A" Adoration.  We would drone on.  "You are lovely."  "You are holy."  "Your power sustains the universe."  I did not understand it at all.  We were praying to God and yet we were telling the God who knows everything snippets of information about Himself.  About a decade later I had an epiphany about the whole process.  We are saying these things to REMIND OURSELVES of God's great attributes.  In a way it still feels a bit hokey to me.....we are praying to God not each other, correct?  But at least now it makes more sense to me.  Is this what others understood all along?

My latest piecing of events and my thoughts together has to do with the Lord's Supper.  It is a pretty solemn event that I've never really understood apart from New Testament incidents of it taking place. I just have never been able to conjure up great enough feelings to go with the retelling of Jesus' last few hours before his death.  Lately a small group has been discussing the resurrection of Jesus.  It's pretty scary to listen to people ask hard questions, make unfamiliar statements and all the while remember that the cream of God's truth is still truth even if we miss it right now.

During my musings about our discussions I came to another really big idea that is going to help me understand why I participate in the Lord's Supper.  Our culture is unfriendly to Christian thought.  The lines are getting so fuzzy about right and wrong.  We are so hammered by unchristian thoughts that it seems to me the Church is becoming diluted by the age we live in.  The farther we get in history the further we get from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  For myself, my spirituality and my face is toward God and God alone.  Yes, of course I know that the reason I have a relationship with God is because of the work of Christ on my behalf.  BUT I live in the now of my relationship with God.  My ephipany of late has been that the reason Jesus told us to "do this in remembrance" of Him is because we were going to lose track of the fact that it is because of Him we have this new life.

Maybe my "aha" moments are "duh" to you.  That is OK because probably many of yours are not light bulb moments to me.  The point is the Holy Spirit is moving, leading and teaching us into the path of Life.