Psalm 139: Search and Know Me

When we consider judgment, as God’s people, we are not exempt from judgment. Just because we have fled to the judge and begged his pardon for our weakness and waywardness does not mean that we get off free if we continue to participate in erroneous behavior.  Psalm 139 is a reminder to be humble when it comes to judgment, and be prepared for it when it comes. 

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 

David belonged to God and had the Holy Spirit upon him.  David was guided, empowered, and enlightened by the Holy Spirit.  Yet that did not make him perfect.  His stumbling and fall is well documented in scripture in the matter of Bathsheba.  We also see that at other times he was not perfect in all his ways.  His handling of his family issues later in life, the matter of the insult of “the fool” Nabal, and the fact that he had tephilim in his household shows that he did not always “have it all together.” 

That said, one thing David did have was the desire to keep things straight with God. And because he knew how wayward his own heart could be (see for example, Psalms 32 and 51) he knew that he was ever in need of a check up “from the heart up” for his own life. Psalm 139 reminds us to ever submit to God’s search light, in order that we may have our own wicked ways, thoughts, and tendencies revealed.  

If you don’t think you have wicked ideas, ways, thought, etc., just ask for an honest assessment from those who know you best.  Your spouse will know if you have a problem.  So will your kids.  Your co-workers probably do too.  I know of a church near my house where, if you wish to be in leadership, the church puts together a team to go an interview people in your work environment.  May God permit that we should all be able to pass such a test.

But the one who knows and loves us best is God. His desire is to make us more and more into reflections of His own character.  Since our desire ought to be the same, then asking Him to evaluate us is a wise, yes, necessary move.

God will have His way with His people.  Its true.  But things are so much better for us if we participate in the process of growing in Christlikenss with willing hearts.  So David prays, “Search, Test, Lead.”

Search, because often we are so good at hiding wickedness, even from our own selves, deep down in our souls.  Test, because the soundness of our ways and thoughts must be demonstrated, proved, and demonstrated a fail if they weakness and waywardness be found there.  Lead me, because we have a naturally tendency to wander. We, left to ourselves, like to go astray (like sheep!).  

This must be done, for God is a just judge.  This brings us to the difference between Punishment, which is done to the wicked, and discipline which is for His children.  Punishment is final.  Its meant to demonstrate and vindicate the righteousness and holiness of God.  Disicpline is different.  It is meant to correct, reprove, and restore.  Goddoes not leave his people to return to wickedness.  He must discipline if we do.  He works to correct that we may be like Jesus.

Justice and Punishment: it is coming!

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!  20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.  21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you?  22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.

The next thing that we will reflect on with this passage, is that there will be a day of judgment. There is coming a day when God will settle accounts.  God promises it in his word.

Indeed, our hearts cry out for judgment.  Righteousness and holiness demand it. There must be judgment, or God will have failed in His management of the universe.  And deep down inside, all human beings know that this world is broken and fallen. If it were not so, would we miss justice?  Would we cry out for it when it is absent?  Of course not. We would only seek for power to overcome our enemies in response to their machinations.

That's not to say that people don't respond with evil for evil.  We do. But we would not care about justice and its exercise if there was not some fundamental sense within us that says: "There is a right way for things to work, and what I see happening is not it."

The fact that we continue to live and breathe, despite our many violations of what is right (and we all do it, admit it) is really an act of mercy of God.  Even when we have been violated in our sense of fairness and equity, we turn around and do the same things; like when we "cuss out" a driver for cutting us off in traffic, and then we turn around and do the same thing for someone else. That's just not right.

We decry someone for a theft, and then we steal from an employer by taking what belongs to him, or by "stealing time," by goofing around on the job rather than working.  We decry someone for lying to us, despite our many false representations of self to others.  We cry "justice" against someone who uses his power against us, but then we talk badly about someone behind their backs in order to get others to shun that one. We are all, everyone of us, regular and constant violators of justice, even as we cry out for justice.

So how will we fare on the day of judgment?  Thankfully, God has already provided a court where our sin can be dealt with.  Jesus Christ died on the cross, and in His courtroom, full pardon has been declared for all who will come and receive the free payment he has made.

If we don't accept the payment God has provided, there is only an expectation of judgment. We will have to pay for our own sins.  And if we are honest with ourselves, we fail to keep our own rules well, much less God's. So how will it be that day?

If we refuse God's payment, then we will have to be punished.  And punishment from God is forever. It is separation from him in a place called Hell forever and ever.  And don't believe the lie that in Hell someday you will look up and see that God just wants to love you...and that you'll just be able to walk right out.  When you get there, it is final.  That's what punishment is.  Punishment is the vindication of God's law, His righteousness, His holiness.  And since those are forever things, its a forever violation when we sin against it.

That's not to say that those who receive God's payment are perfected when they do that.  They still sin.  But the difference is they are disciplined.  I'll write about that in the next post.

Heart's Cry

Its been quite a while.  I plead the excuse that I have had a major presentation and major paper due at school!  It ate up a great deal of time and brain power the last two weeks.  But here, at last,  is a post continuing our discussion of Psalm 139.

A fundamental urge for human beings is a need for justice and fairness.  I know this is the case.  I have run a youth group for many years.  The single most common phrase you hear kids in youth group yell is “That’s not fair!” Yes, its true. When you are playing games, and anything seems to smack of the slightest favoritism, or if, as Pastor/Referee you miss some “Obvious” foul, those kids are very quick to point out your error.  “No Fair!”

Why do we worry about fairness or about justice?  What is it that sits inside of us and is moved to cry out “Injustice!” or “Unfair!” or some such?  Entire movements, even nations have been built over the issue of what is fair or not fair, what is just or unjust.  Great social upheavels and reveloutions began over the perception that there are inequities.  Why do we have that feeling?

Injustice also drives people to become judges, or enter law enforcement.  It drives people to become politicians.  We even see people who enter the corporate world with a desire to make things right.  

But who do we appeal to when we try to do the right thing and the “system” still seems to be against us?  Who is our court that we go to when the movement we began shifts focus and itself becomes unjust? 

This is what David does when he finds injustice, wickedness, tyrranny in his presence.  He appeals to God:

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!  20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.  21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you?  22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 

I know that we struggle with verses like these when he find them in scripture.  But what do we do with our anger and our outrage when babies are robbed of their right to life? What do we with our pain when we see court decisions that diminish human rights?  When dictators slaughter their people or spray them with toxic gasses?  What do we do when we feel that inner scream rise when a friend stands falsely accused and the system is working against them? 

Of course we pray!  That’s one response. We pray for those who are persecuting, and for their enlightenement in Christ.  But psalms like this also invite us to come and bring our anger, pain, outrage to God. And he does not turn us away.  Its a faith response when we appeal to the highest court of all and beg God for His intervention.

And the amazing thing is, there WILL be justice.  In the end, God will mete out perfect equity and justice.  There will not be anyone who ultimately gets away with murder.  And those falsely accused and judged will also have that made back up to them.  God WILL make it right.  Of course we would like to see Him make it right, now!  But sometimes that does not happen. God will answer our heart cry for that justice. So cry out to Him as David did. But remember also, to pray for a blessing on your enemies, and that they would find Christ.  That is what the New Testament adds to our understanding. Remember, as Paul said:

[O]ur struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms  (Eph 6:12).

Hard Sayings

There are some very hard passages of scripture which we, as Christians, must deal with if we are to fairly and honestly deal read scripture.  So often we chop out passages of scripture that make us uncomfortable, or perhaps, at best, don’t understand them.

C.S. Lewis had a great deal of difficulty with the doctrine of Hell.  He felt it was a hard doctrine, he did not like it, and it is not easy to defend.  But nonetheless it is something that the Bible teaches.  Hence, we must fairly and honestly teach it as truth.  

Psalm 139 has one of these passages of scripture. Here is what it says: 

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!  20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.  21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you?  22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.

Wow!  What do we do with this? There are some things, as we read it from the perspective of the New Testament, that we think “How is this even in the Bible?”  After all, doesn’t Jesus himself preach that we ought to “love our enemies,” and “pray for those who persecute us?”  We often forget that Jesus himself also said that we are to hate our own family in comparison to our love and loyalty to Him! But yet, here we are, dealing with a VERY hard statement of scripture.  Is it inspired?  Did God really intend for this to be here?

Recently I preached at a church, and I had asked for this psalm to be read.  The whole psalm.  The reader stood up and delivered the WHOLE psalm…minus these 4 verses.  She just skipped them! No explanation. Nothing.  Its like they did not even exist in her Bible.

It is problematic (understatement) to XXX out verses of the Bible which we are not comfortable with.  We can’t.  We are not allowed to do this.  Such activities are the province of arch heretics.  Movements to formalize the received canon of scripture began as a reaction to heretics who ignored the OT and much of the New Testament (looking at you, Marcion!). They thought they could simply ignore the things that they were not comfortable with.

Today, such ideas are still present with us.  Christians who consider themselves “strictly NT Christians,” and only read their New Testaments; gospel Christians who never leave the gospels; or worse yet the so called “Red Letter” Christians, who only accept the words of Jesus (often printed in Red) as authoritative.  This has not place for people who wish to consider themselves true Christ followers and biblicists.  After all, didn’t Jesus read what we call the OT today?  Of course He did!  And didn’t he affirm the words of the OT when he said “Not one Jot or Tittle” of the torah shall pass away? Yes, He did.  

So we have to embrace these words.  I will freely confess, I don’t understand all of these things in these verses.  I struggle with how they fit in the NT ethic.  But these words ARE true, and are meant to communicate important truth even to us.  We shall explore them in the next few days.  Not exhaustively.  But we shall use them as points of meditation which I think we will find instructive and helpful for our daily walk.

Good Intentions

I like to send little emotes to my wife.  I am frequently away from home when I go off to school, and if I am working in Grand Rapids.  We can be away from each other for several days at a time. It is not an ideal situation for either of us.  But, sometimes when life is in transition these things do happen.

There is one thing that is important to my wife, though.  She wants to know if I am on her mind.  So I send her  a note each morning to let her know that I am thinking about her. Usually it is something fairly simple, like a couple of emojis, such as a bunny with a little jug of honey.  Put them together and it’s “honey bunny,” which has been my pet name for her almost since we started dating.

We have a saying in the US. “Its the thought that counts.”  Maybe if you were really hoping to get a bike or some money for a gift, hearing that phrase is small consolation if all you got was a card. But knowing that people have kindly thoughts toward us is always affirming at some level. 

On the job, sometimes maybe you are feeling the effects of the grind. Maybe its been tough lately, and you wonder if anyone notices your hard work or sacrifices.  Then you find out that the boss has had his eye on you, and gave you a little extra work as preparation for a big promotion.  He has kindly intents toward you. He knows you are good, and even if he did not communicate it to you, you are on his mind and has big ideas for your role in the company.

David realized this sort of thing about God, too.  He went through some hard things in life. He faced some real and overwhelming challenges. But he knew that God had a plan for him.  I am sure that there were times when he wished for God to either hurry up, or if God was going to follow through on what He had said.  But whenever he caught a glimpse of God’s plan, either through a friend, or a circumstance, or through a prophet, he realized that God always does have him on His mind, and for good. 

We don’t know at what point in his life, David wrote these words in Ps 139:

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!  18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. 

Thoughts in the passage can be translated “intentions.”  David saw God’s intentions for him, and he was overwhelmed by the breadth and kindness of God’s intentions toward him.  David had failed and fallen short many times in his life.  Yet still, through it all, he knew that God had good intentions, good plans toward him.

We bump into a large number of people in our world today.  Most of them will pass swiftly from out of our life.  A small number will make repeat visits.  For some of them, we may be a useful piece in their own plans. For others, they may think of us only with malice. Its a great thing when we find people who think and plan only good for and around us.  

God is one of those.  We sometimes wonder if God is waiting, on the edge of his seat, to just beat us down.  Ps 139 says something different.  For those who are His, and know Him as savior, he sits on the edge of His seat ever waiting to talk to us, and ever ready to bless us. He has great plans for us!  Yes, God does in fact have good intentions for us, no matter the circumstance.

Who Broke the Cosmic Dice in Ann Arbor?

Probably, if you are like me (i.e. human) you have wondered how random life can seem at times.  Life does, frequently, seem like it is out of control. Things happen for seemingly no apparent reason. We turn around and ascribe these things to luck or chance. We are trained by secularism to think that life is the product of many purposeless chances.  

Consider what happened this last weekend in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  On the last play of the college football game taking place there, something happened with a player and a football which  to one side seemed to be an occurrence of capricious chance and bad luck.  To the other side it was “lucky” and the product of lots of hard work!  Some of these things with luck really depends on your perspective, doesn’t it!

For example: you are trying to sell your house and the day the inspector comes to examine the house for your buyer there is a thunderstorm.  The storm exposes a leak in your roof that the inspector notices.  How do we explain this event?  Bad luck? Surely your buyer would say that was good luck!

But then, we who are Christians read this:

“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (Ps 139:16b).”

Chance?  Randomness?  Chaos?  Luck? These words vanish in the light these words bring to our life. Our days, before one of them came to be, where “scripted” before they ever happened.  God is writing a vast cosmic story in which we are the participants and God is the hero.  

As psalm 139 has shown so far, God is omniscient.  He is aware and knows all things past, present, future and all things that could have been.  Hence he knows the best way to the best of all possible destinations.  God is omnipresent, so He is with us and participating in the unfolding of His creation.  And God is omnipotent.  Whatever He intends to do He is able to accomplish. That makes God Sovereign.

God, in His Sovereignty has the right and the power to rule all things after the council of His own will. He has determined to take for Himself a people for His very own. He writes into His script those whom He has chosen to grant His mercy.  He is able to take these whom He has chosen to the place He intends to go: a bright future in eternity.

This means that sometimes the best possible road goes through some rough places, “even through the valley of death’s shadow (Ps 23).”  For me it looks like unemployment is providing the roughness in the road.  For you it might look like cancer or the loss of a close family member.  For someone else it might look like the failure or an accident.  But these things were never a surprise to your heavenly father.  Even your moral failures were included in the script; not to order you to do them, but that he would so work and so do that even in that situation, He would prove to be the hero of your life, and your rescuer and redeemer.  All these things work together to make you more like Jesus, less like a sinner for His glory and our benefit (Romans 8:28).  He “who began that good work will be faithful to complete it!”

I have a friend who has a high view of God’s sovereignty.  But he is also a Michigan Wolverines fan.  Amazingly, he described the end of that game this last weekend as a piece of “luck.”  There is really no such thing as luck. There is only God’s purpose. The real question is “How is God going to use this for my benefit?”  Not “who fixed the dice?”

He is able!

Omnipotence.  Its a bit of an awkward word. It seems to draw a picture of far off deities sitting in clouds with the sun behind them, dazzling us and yet remote from us.  You might think of angels and gods drawn on ancient monuments, or perhaps of vast murals with a musclebound God the father, flexing his muscles as he calls creation into existence.  It does not really seem to enable us to connect with the divine, does it? The “Almighty” which is another way of saying omnipotent, is not a real cuddly term!

It also draws some rather silly comments from people who are skeptics.  In their minds, and perhaps even yours, omnipotence means God can do anything. This has spawned the old canard that perhaps you have heard: “if God were really omnipotent, he could make a rock that even he could not move.”  In their mind then, if he can’t move the rock, or make the rock he could not move, then that is a logical paradox, and God vanishes in a puff of smoke.  POOF!

Think about this though:  there really are things that God cannot do.  

Several years ago someone made a bit of a splash when he published a book saying that there were things God can’t do.  Open the book, and you see things like, “God can’t tell a lie,” and “God can’t break a promise.”  So being omnipotent does not mean can do anything.

The Biblical understanding of Omnipotence means that God is able to do everything that is in accord with his will. Anything that he says is his will, his plan, his desire, his intent, he is able to accomplish or bring about.  Anything. If he says at one point in history that he can make a virgin give birth, 700 years later he brings it about because he is omnipotent.  Whatever he intends, is able, yes, more than able to do, as the hymn says:

He is able, more than able
To accomplish what concerns me today.
He is able, more than able
To handle anything that come my way.
He is able, more than able
To do much more than I could ever dream,
He is able, more than able
To make me what He wants me to be.

-Henry Smith

In Psalm 139 there are two statements in verses 15-16 that point to God’s omnipotence:

15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,  16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Omnipotence at this point crosses over with Sovereignty in verse 16, but we will deal more with that topic in the next entry. Here we will focus on Omnipotence.

When you think of Omnipotence, you probably don’t think of a baby.  Yet this too, is an expression of of the omnipotence of God.  God is the creator, and when we think of God creating all things, we ought to think of God creating a baby from a microscopic egg, with all of its genetic coding, all the way up to him setting all the stars in place and calling them all by name.  Creation is a work that God is still involved in doing, a process begun in Genesis 1:1 and continuing today in the life of a child.

Louie Giglio has a pair of great presentations on God’s omnipotence demonstrated in creation.  He points to a chemical glue in one video, called laminin, that is shaped like a cross.  Then he points to a structure in the heart of a distant galaxy that is also shaped like a cross. Click this link to see Louie here, discussing the stars.  From the smallest to the greatest things, all creation is an expression of the omnipotence of God.

But then we see he has written your life script.  That means he has plotted out your life before you even came to be.  We cross into the territory of sovereignty here, which I’ll present next time, but for now, understand that God is the author of your life, in which Jesus is your hero.  He is making you like Jesus in this story, and the good guy (Jesus) always wins. You, his “sidekick” if you will, are being conformed to his image, by the work of God.  And because he is omnipotent, he will bring you to the end of the story.  

He will accomplish his will for you. And he has good plans for you: 

 11  ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD,  ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

God is Still Great! Video Sermon

Here is my very first sermon video.   The sermon was delivered on October 4 at Westhaven Baptist Church in Port Huron Michigan.  The context is a church that has just hired a new Pastor.

I hope that this sermon is a blessing to you, as you are challenged to think of the greatness of God in EVERY circumstance.

Mike

PS: Yes, this sermon is preaching the same material I have been presenting in my blog! I will continue the series in written form in the next couple of days.  God bless you, and thanks for reading!

God is everywhere you have to be!

We used to have a commercial that plays here on American television (yes, I do have non western readers! TYVM!), for the Visa credit card.  In the commercial, they would say “It’s everywhere you want to be.”  They were saying that you could always be assured of access to spending power anywhere you wanted to go.  If having spending power is the sort of thing that you feel you have to have, then being assured that no matter where you went you could use it would be a great comfort.  Might that suggest you have an idolatry of money and control going in your life, too?

But money is not the focus today.  We are in a series of articles about how great God is.  And He is really great!  Yesterday we saw He is great because He knows everything about me, totally and absolutely.  That’s really amazing when we proces that. We can’t run, and we can’t hide. We are bare before Him. And that can be a great comfort.  It provides the basis for truly honest living, because we know, and should operate, on the knowledge that we cannot get away with anything! And with that, it also means I can do good things even when its hidden, because we know God sees and rewards what we do.

But it gets even better today. We are still reading Ps 139, but today we are in vs. 7-12.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,  10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”  12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 

 There is no place that we can go where the Spirit of God is not.  In the last entry we talked about the Omniscience of God.  This is the Omnipresence of God.  It can be defined as “God is everywhere.”  But some have formulated it a different way: “Everywhere you go, God is.” Sort of like Visa claims to be, right?

If your “thing” is making sure you have to comfort of always having spending power to control your circumstances, you will be disappointed. As much as Visa says that it is everywhere you want to be, you will find times when the card does you no good.  I live near a town where most transactions are still done “Cash only.”  I went to lunch one time, and pulled out my visa card only to hear “Sorry sir, we don’t take credit cards,” and the waitress pointed to the sign that says “cash or check only.”  Thanks be to God, I was with someone who picked up my tab!  Visa had let me down!

Not so with God.  He is truly omnipresent!  He is in the hard places as well as the good ones.  He is not a fair weather friend who abandons you when the going gets hard.  He is with you “even in the valley of the shadow of death.”  

David wrote this psalm in a day when everyone believed that their gods were confined to a locality.  David discovered, when He was on the run, that God was with him everywhere he went.  He discovered that God guides even when he is far away from God’s temple (10).  Even in the darkness of the caves where David was forced to dwell God was there(11-12).

I am unemployed right now and money is tight. Is God still walking with me?  What about you? Maybe you or a loved one are walking a road that includes stops at the cancer center.  Is God still there?  Maybe a loved one has died. Is God still in that darkness?  Or the darkness of depression?

Yes, He is.  

When you are struggling with temptation, is God there for you in that spot?  Yes, He is. When you are talking bad about your pastor, is God there?  Yes.  When you are doing that secret good thing, is God there?  Yes.  

Just another reason why we have a truly great God.

God is Great!

Is God great?  Is He awesome and amazing?

One of the things I tend to do is pace when I am feeling anxious.  Stuff turns round and round in my head, and I get up and walk...back and forth, back and forth.  I don't get anywhere.  But I still pace.  There have been times, though, when instead of pacing, I went for a drive.  Occasionally a long drive.  I don't really go anywhere though.  And I always end up where I started.  Usually at home or the office.

Worry can do that.  It does not really take you anywhere.  And it comes close to questioning if God knows where you are!

I enjoy Psalm 139 for that very reason.  It contains some of my favorite, most comforting verses in the Bible:

Psa. 139:1   O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.  2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.  3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.  5 You hem me in — behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.  6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

or that ver

God is great, and here is one of the reasons why, right here in this section. This section is about the Omniscience of God.  Omniscient means to know all things.  God knows all things.  In His greatness God knows 4 things absolutely and completely.

1 He knows the past.  God knows all things that have ever happened exhaustively and completely.  There are no secrets.  Nothing is hidden from Him.  He knows all the good (probably not much) that I have ever done.  Nothing is missed or forgotten.  He also knows all the bad.  Yes the Bible does speak of forgetting our sins, but that is judicial forgetfulness.  They will not be held against us. He saved us, knowing all that we would do. He knows everything that has been done to us.  He knows all we have done to others.

2 He knows the present.  He knows it exhaustively and completely.  He never loses track of even a single atom in the cosmos.  It all serves Him.  He always knows what besets me.  He is aware of every reaction, for good or for evil.

3 He knows the future.  He knows how we will act and react to every circumstance.  He knows what He is doing and how he is going to fulfill the plan that He has declared from eternity past.  He knows where we all are going. He knows how long the money will last, and he knows how to refill the tank, or if he's not going to refill it.  He knows how your test will be dealt with.  He knows how to maneuver through and despite all the challenges to bring us to the best of all possible places.  He knows how to allow the good and the bad into our lives to mold us into the person He wants us to be. And now matter how rebellious we are, redeemed or unredeemed, there is not a single thing we can do to stop it.  As if you'd want to.  After all, if getting to a full dinner at grandma's house means going hungry for a little bit, and then driving through some mud puddles on the way, would you let that stop you?  Even so, God is taking us to the best of all possible places.  Some day, we will all look back and realize why the challenges we faced had to be there.

4 He knows all things that could have happened.  Now that's the most mind boggling of all.  He knows what would have happened had you actually made the team, or not dropped the cake.  He knows what would have happened if you actually gotten that job, or if you had left when things got a little tough.  He knows what would have happened if you actually gotten that promotion, or if you had done the right thing in that moment long ago.  Either way, God is not frustrated.  We will bear the penalty and the blessing for our actions, but where we are, right now, today, is on the pathway to the best of all possible places.  

This does not excuse our bad choices.  Not one bit.  All it means is that God is more than capable of redeeming, showing mercy, and using those things for our good and His glory.  Its better to be obedient.  We are not responsible for the outcome.  Only for doing the right thing.  But we must remain satisfied that, good or bad in our past, God is so working and so acting that, even when things seem hard, he really does completely and totally know that this is the way to the best of all possible places.

God is omniscient, so he is always giving me a "Checkup from the neck up."  He's always examining my thoughts and my ideas.  The word God uses in Psalm 130:1 is Chaqar.  It means to thoroughly examine something.  Have you ever bought a house or a car?  Then you know how important it is to thoroughly examine the foundations and walls, the pipes and the furnace.  You want to know where the cracks are.  You want to know where the problems are in that car.  God thoroughly examines us.  Not with an evil eye.  He is always working to repair.  

God also knows us completely.  The word for "to know" in verse 1 is the word used for what happens between a man and his wife.  Yes in the so called "Biblical Sense."  But not in the way you are thinking.  The word is referring to the fact that both the man and the woman are unveiled before each other.  There is nothing, no clothes to hide your nakedness.  The idea behind the word speaks to the idea that you are absolutely bare before God.  You can't hide anything. 

You may have heard about the Mac and Cheese kid.  We live in a day where when we publicly act out, everyone may very well soon know about it.  That young man, Luke Gatti, now has his life laid before all.  Its a shame really.  He's really pretty much wrecked now.  May God get a hold of him before he really does himself in!

But that's the thing.  We all have done horrible, really embarrassing things that would destroy us if we were found out.  Things that surely God would hate us for, because all humans would, right?

But that's why God is great.  God knew all the bad you had done, but He still chose to save you.  God knew everything you would do after you got saved.  He still chose to redeem you.  He sees us, even we totally blow it.  Even when we know and are choosing to blow it, God still saved you, when you trusted Jesus Christ.

Wait a second.  Have you trusted Jesus?  Maybe that's why God has you reading this right now.  It's not accident friend.  Knowing all you have done, God wants to forgive you for your sins.  Knowing you will still blow it someday down the road, He still wants you to receive His forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  

You see, Jesus Christ died on the cross, not as some horrible act of cosmic waste.  He died because His own Father in heaven planned for it.  It was His plan to give up Jesus to evil, fallen people...people like you and me, and through that sacrifice to save us from our sins.  

That's you and me.

God is ready to forgive you for your sins through Jesus Christ's sacrifice right now.  Won't you ask Him to forgive you and take you into His forever love right now?

God Is Still Great

Is God still great?  

A few months ago I left my job as a Pastor at my church. I had a great income, respect and honor as a shepherd.  Yet I was following the plain leading of the Spirit of God to leave that church.  

On the horizon I had two churches that were considering me for their part time Pastor.  I needed a part time job so that I could return to school in pursuit of a Ph.D., which God had given me the freedom to pursue.  I was bringing 15 years of experiences and solid growth to these two churches.  I felt that I would have no problem securing at least one of them.

A week ago I stood on the back porch of my house.  I had been turned down for both positions.  I am burning through my savings at blazing speed.  What I had originally planned as 9 months worth of savings now, at the current rate, likely will not last me through the year.  Is God still great?

If God is not in control, I face a mountain sized problem with no hope.  I have few skills that would enable me to make the kind of money, even full time, to be able to make what is necessary just to break even.  Only ministry, and a church with resources can provide me with that opportunity.  And there are no “irons in the fire.”  Not one local ministry and only a few in my state are even looking right now.

Is God still great?

While attending a large church in Lansing Michigan (Trinity), the Pastor, Marvin Williams taught the congregation about prayer. The first section of his prayer began with the acknowledgement: “God is Great.”

That’s where I began to pray on my back porch. And its begun an exploration for me that has been keeping me steady these last few days.  God is great.  No matter what.  For the next few posts, I will explore Psalm 139, and the fact that no matter what happens, God is still great.

UCC Shootings

When a particular minority becomes a frequent target for ridicule and threats of violence, it is common wisdom amongst liberals that it is not long before someone will act on those things.  We can all agree that this is not they way it ought to be.  But that's a common belief.

Let's grant that for a moment, for the sake of argument.

We can talk about mental illness.  We can talk about the role guns or other weapons play in acting out violence. According to our president, taking away guns will stop these things from happening (never mind that the vast majority of all gun violence is produced by those who are already law breakers).  But until we restore an air of civility in our country, we will continue to have events like Colombine and Umpqua.

Anyone can get online to virtually any forum or social media, and see Christians are regularly targeted for ridicule and violent talk.  If anyone did that to any other interest group in our culture, they would be publicly shamed.  But not when it comes to mocking and advocating violence against Christians! Especially white evangelicals.  It is open season on us at this time.

Any organization that labeled Black Lives Matter (which advocates violence against police) or other such groups as hate groups would be vilified.  But the Southern Poverty Law Center has gotten away with attempted murder since a man who read their materials went and tried to shoot up a conservative Christian special interest group in Washington DC a few years ago. Not a peep from the liberal press or from secularist cultural leaders.

We are to expect persecution. Even glory in it, as Christians. We have the example of the Apostles and the admonition of Christ.

Yet we live in a pluralistic culture that teaches that as long as you don't push violence, you have a place at the table.  Christ followers don't advocate violence.  The hardest thing we do is warn people that there is a real Hell, and that all people who do not repent and follow Christ are going there. That's not violence.  Its a warning we give out of love.

Here, there is a double standard that the cultural liberals and secularists apply.  The rules of welcome at the table apply to everyone but us.  And therefore, they are complicit in the activities of people like Dylan Klebold and Christopher Mercer.  I have a word for you.  Hypocrites.  You demand that we not judge you, but then we are treated with open contempt and violent words, hence, you judge us.  We do not  judge you.  We are only telling you what God has said.  Everything else is between you and Him.

We, as Christians, are warning you that there is a God, and a real Hell.  You MUST repent.  But having done so, our responsibility is over.  You go your way, and we will go ours.  Live and let live....right?

...but you won't.

Ed Stetzer is wrong about persecution

We have all heard the stories.  Perhaps you have gone to see the speaker or read about them online; people suffering for the faith of Jesus Christ.  It is actually the normal status for many, many Christians worldwide to risk the loss of property, jobs, freedom or even their very lives.  

Even a cursory glance at church history, perhaps through DC Talk’s Jesus Freaks or Foxe’s Book of Martyrs helps one to appreciate the freedoms American Christians have so long enjoyed here in this continent to be able to freely worship and live according to our own conscience.

We don’t live with a sword hanging over our heads.  We have not experienced rioting thugs coming to pull us out of our homes, or government seizure of our churches.  I think we can all agree that this is persecution.

But what about a cake baker who refuses to make a cake for a gay couple for Christian conscience’s sake? What about the clerk who refuses to make out a marriage license for a gay couple?  What about a politician who is hounded for calling Islam a violent religion of violence, while his own religion is a religion of peace?  What about the young man who is refused a hire because he is very open about his Christian faith during the interview?  What about a campaign to shutter or remove accreditation from a Christian college because they do not support gay rights, or a woman’s “right to choose?” Are these forms of persecution?

According some, including Ed Stetzer, not so.

Now don’t get me wrong here about what I am going to write.  I have never met the man.  He is widely respected, and it seems to me to be justifiably right to do so.  He will probably never read this article.  I am sure he is an amazing Christian leader, but that does not mean he is always right.  I have read some things by him, and as a person who has been in ministry for 15 years, I tend to agree with him on most things.  Here is one time I think he is wrong.

Here is what he wrote in this article:

“There have been several recent instances where religious liberty has been eroded in America. Christian clubs have been "derecognized" by colleges and universities. Politically and legally, we are in the midst of contentious debates over the extent of our religious freedom in terms of health care and marriage. I do not believe these should be considered persecution. When we refer to this as such, we lessen the real examples in places like the Middle East. But simply because our current issues do not rise to the level of persecution that does not mean we will never experience it in the United States.”

What does this mean?  What is meant by current issues?  What contentious debates is he talking about, and its relationship to religious freedom that the refers to? 

Clearly he recognizes that there is a problem here in America.  He clearly recognizes that this problem is broadly cultural and institutional.  His remarks are given in the context of a statement concerning the “Myth” that Christians won’t be persecuted in the United States: “Christians in the US don’t have to worry about being persecuted.”  It seems that Mr. Stetzer answers the issue by saying it is a myth that we are going to be persecuted.  Yet Mr. Stetzer answers the question about Christians as a people by talking about “Christian” institutions.

Isn’t he ignoring the evidence that actual government entities are not engaged in some “debate,” but are actively pursuing Christians who act in the market place according to their Christian conscience?

I think he certainly overlooks them, and in his mind, because no one is getting burned at the stake, or publicly flogged with whips, that is not persecution.

There are two greek words that address this issue: Dioko and thlipsis.  Dioko, according to the Greek lexicon Luow & Nida, can be translated, “To persecute; Harass.”  It can mean “To cause to suffer,… or to threaten.”  It can mean “to chase…with hostile intent.”  Thlipsis means “To cause trouble, often with direct suffering.”  What do these things look like in the Bible?  In Hebrews 10:32-34 it can look like confiscation of property and insult.  Isn’t that what these Bakers in Oregon are being threatened with?  Exorbitant fines and public humiliation?  That looks like what Hebrew 10 is talking about.

Why does Mr. Stetzer say there is an ongoing debate in our culture?  This debate has already been settled in the minds of those who are in power in our culture: the hostile secularist left.  They have determined to use their powers, through businesses (look at the Boy Scouts and the loss of corporate sponsorships) colleges (which Mr. Stetzer admits are driving out Christian organizations), as well as individuals like florists, bakers, photographers, clerks and many other every day people who have a Christian conscience.  As soon as these individuals are identified, powerful coalitions of groups gather together to systematically punish, close, fine, and publicly humiliate them.  It looks like a pretty systematic plan to harass, oppress and make miserable to religious minority group in our country.

Perhaps fair to say “This is persecution lite.”  I get that.  We DON’T want to diminish what overseas Christians and historical Christians have suffered.  We aren’t suffering yet “to the point of shedding blood,” as the writer of Hebrews says.  We absolutely do NOT have it as bad as world Christians in Africa, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. But these sorts of harassments always precede the more onerous, dark and heavy forms of persecution.  Don’t kid yourself.  It is a myth that we here in America will not suffer persecution.  Its already starting.

We must not diminish any form of suffering for Christ.  But it is not to diminish the sufferings of Chinese Christians who are tortured in jail or even dying for their faith, if we say that Christians being fined into bankruptcy is also a form of persecution.  To deny that IS to diminish what these men and women of faith are suffering in western culture.  To have your livelihood taken away from you really is to suffer for the name of Jesus.

Pray for those suffering bodily harm and torture for Christians overseas.  Pray for those suffering confiscation, jail and fines here in America for the sake of Christian conscience. Pray for all of us here in America, as these things are preparing us for what is to come.

I am Esau

Praying and reading scripture today caused me to reflect on the perfections of God.  As I was doing so, I heard a fight break out in a neighbor's house. Division and strife in a home compounded by sinful methods of fighting, all born of broken and wrong expectations and frustration.  There are lots of Esaus around.  I am one of them.

Yes, I am Esau.  I guess that was the point of the study.  While I certainly have some tendencies toward being a grabber, I find that the default pattern of my life is really Esau.  I have a few things I really like doing, like war gaming.  Its easy to give that a lot of my time, but is not a necessity for life.  Esau was in the same mode.  It was not necessary for life, because he was the son of an extremely wealthy man.  It was pure sport for him, with the added pleasure that his father also enjoyed wild game.  I guess eating the fatted calf, sheep and an occasional goat was a little boring after a while.

We have leisure to be procrastinators because we live in a culture that makes that vice a non-life threatening proposition.  Esau could be one, and focus on sport, rather than practical matters, because he had the leisure to do so.  I am now finding that this vice, which I have let go to seed, is costing me a good deal in my unemployment, and in my education.  

I have long subscribed to the truth that God is omnipotent and sovereign in all things. In this season of unemployment, I find that resting in that truth is a difficult proposition. “How do I find rest when I am supposed to be the hunter/gatherer for the family? How do I find rest when my wife is working, my kids pay rent, and I am not contributing financially at all?  How do I find rest when I am supposed to be finding a job?”  These questions, which perpetually come across my mind disturb rest in Christ.  And this season of unemployment God is using to help me to work through my identity in Christ.  

He is working in me to “remove the Esau” from me. I must be about what my Father in heaven has called me to do and to be.  The top of that list includes “Likeness to Christ.”  I am learning to set aside pleasure, procrastination and ease to make way for structure, self-starting and service.  

He is working in me to remove my identity as a money source.  I am not nor have I ever been the money source.  I am a father to my children.  I am a husband to my wife. But I am not their source. God is. I must learn to wait on my Father in heaven to be our source, with me as His willing and ready servant. But I am not a good or bad person because I no longer have an income. He loves me either way.

He is working in me to trust His plan. I may think “if it is to be, its up to me.”  But it really is up to God.  I can have the best resume, walk miles of sidewalks, knock on a hundred doors, and send out dozens of resumes.  But if God has determined that I am to be unemployed, unemployed I shall be. I must learn to rest in the fact God, as omniscient and good as He is, really is in control of my situation, and He will bring forth the best for me “my” family.  

Even in this time of doubt and darkness, while I wrestle with the choices of my past over against the goodness of God in the past, present and future, I was able to look up in wonder and worship at the beautiful blue September sky over my head, knowing that God is working to take “The Esau” out of my life. 

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.