Isaiah 44:19 Worshipping a Block of Wood

 Ancient peoples had a hard time figuring out what to think about God.  You may say, why didn’t God reveal Himself to them like He revealed Himself to the Israelites?   It seems the Israelites had the same problem even after God did reveal Himself to them.

Ancient people were closer to nature than most of us are, so they were more aware in their everyday lives of human’s small place in the world.  They created idols to represent the various powers behind what they saw in nature, but the idols in their minds became what they represented.  So that in Isaiah 44:19, God mocks them as though they are saying to themselves: “I have burned half of [this tree] in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!”

We may look back them with a smirk, but we do a similar thing today.

We may talk of Mother Nature as though nature itself is a thinking entity that consciously behaves in certain ways.  We don’t see anything higher than nature itself, as though nature was able to bring itself into being.

We see this today in our attitude toward science.  We forget that science is on a journey and is not the destination.  Science is our investigation into all that there is, but it can never know all that there is. 

But with it, we no longer feel the need for anything more than that, as if science can answer every question.  Science can tell us where we are but not where we should go.  It can describe what something is in substance, in incredible detail, but not its essence or significance.  I have a lot of paper in my house with ink on it, but science can’t tell me its value.

Our country is going through an extraordinary crisis right now, but we never think to look any further for answers than other human beings.  We don’t create idols out of wood, stone, or metal anymore, but we worship anything but the One who created all of this.

 

 

Ephesians 5:18-22 Fixing a Broken Spirit

 A long time ago, I came down with lymphoma.  About six months before I found out about it, God began to work on my heart and to mend the places that were broken.

One of those places was my spirit.

Proverbs 15:13 says that when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.  And then Proverbs 17:22 says that a broken spirit dries the bones.

Of course, I knew all these verses, but God brought them to my mind in such a way that I knew He was talking about me.  My heart was sad, my spirit was broken, and thus my bones were dry or getting there.  Whatever that means

What is interesting here is that I was scheduled for a bone marrow biopsy in a few days when this happened.  But then the test was postponed for a week or so.  Like God was giving me some time to work on this.

So I asked God: how do I fix a broken spirit? 

The answer was Ephesians 5:18ff. 

I think this passage is greatly misunderstood.  And for several reasons.

The only spirit mentioned in this passage is the Holy Spirit.  Not the human spirit.

Or is it?

The New Testament was written originally in Greek.  There is nothing in the Greek texts that would indicate whether this is the Holy Spirit or the human spirit.

Being filled with the Spirit is a common expression in the Bible, but in the Greek, this is not the expression that is used.  This expression appears only here. This verb is not used in any other place in that sense.  In the New Testament, the expression being filled with the Spirit is found only in Luke-Acts, and like I said, it’s a very different expression.

But why would I think the verse is talking about the human spirit?  One reason is that you can’t command a person to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  That is simply not in your control. 

A second reason is that the verb ‘filled’ is followed by 5 participles, and if it was talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit, then these participles would all speak of the results of being filled.  And Greek participles do not have a future function.  But they don’t make much sense either.

A person filled with the Spirit would speak to themselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs?  He wouldn’t speak them out loud?

The participles are too explicit.  They are not the way anyone would describe the results of being filled with the Spirit.

These are things YOU do to fill your spirit.  YOU speak to yourself with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, YOU sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord, YOU give thanks always for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and YOU subject yourself to one another.  That is, you give yourself to serving others, living for others, doing things for others, and THAT will fill you with joy and meaning.

And I should mention this here as well.  I am very fussy when I use English translations.  When I see one, I use this passage as a litmus test.  If they get this right, they pass the test.

Verse 22 is a part of this sentence.  It’s one long sentence in Greek.

Verse 21 reads: being subject to one another in the fear of Christ, wives to your own husbands as to the Lord.

The words “submit” does not appear in verse 22.  The verb is implied.  It is the participle of verse 21.  It’s not a separate command.  It’s all a part of a person filling their spirit, by speaking, singing, and giving thanks.

Paul uses all this as a segue way to a new subject, the relationship between husbands and wives, but the part about subjecting applies to all believers, men and women. 

When I see a translation separate verse 22 off from the previous verses, with no mention of adding any words, and using the imperative ‘submit’, like this is a separate new subject, then it fails the test in my mind. 

Don’t wait for some spiritual prompting to start singing and making melody in your heart to God.  Or wait until things start looking really good before you start giving thanks. 

The command is to be filled in spirit.  This is in contrast with the world that finds getting drunk something to look forward to, a very desirable state to be in.

No, YOU fill your life with praise, thanksgiving, the words of God, and giving yourself for others.  And you will find your life taking on a joy and peace that you didn’t know you could have.

 

 

 

 

Proverbs 4:5-23 Priorities

One of the hard lessons of life is that you can’t do everything.  You have to make choices.

Some things are more important than other things, and we would do well to give more attention to them.

Like wisdom.

If you made out your to-do list today, would you have wisdom on it?  If you made out your errand list, would you have ‘get wisdom’ on it?

The Bible says to get wisdom.  Get understanding.  And with all your getting, get understanding.  Proverbs 4:7

Why is this so important?

Because if you prize her, and she will exalt you.   Proverbs 4:8

If you embrace her, she will honor you.  Proverbs 4:8

If you walk in her way, your steps will not be impeded,

and if you run, you will not stumble.  Proverbs 4:12

You must guard her, for she is your life.  Proverbs 4:13   

Your path will be like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.  Proverbs 4:18

It is life to those who find it and health to all their body, for from it flow the springs of life.  Proverbs 4:22,23

The answer is simple, but it is not easy.  Proverbs 2:3 For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; 4 If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; 5  then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

You won’t just wake up one day and have it.  It’s a direction you take in your life.  You will need to spend a lot of time in the Bible, but it’s not just about gaining Bible knowledge.  Learning the Bible just makes hearing from God a lot easier. 

Learning the Bible is like learning a foreign language in a foreign land.  You will now have the tools you will need to get along in this new place.  You will have taken that big first step.

 

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Psalm 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

A person who says there is no God is foolish, says the Bible, and for two reasons.

One is for the consequences of that choice, and the other is for the reasons for that choice.

Of course, a person who rejects the existence of God rejects also the idea of an afterlife in which he will face the God whom he denies and that he will fare bad for his choices.  But not believing in God doesn’t mean that a person won’t face God.

But then it’s hard to fault an atheist for being foolish, when this whole afterlife thing is out of our experience.

But the Bible does fault the atheist for his choice of not believing in God.

The Bible says that the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19) and that His invisible attributes are clearly seen and understood by the things that are made, so that those who don’t believe in God are without excuse (Romans 1:18-20).

I have had occasion to have had all manner of medical tests in the last few years, and it has made me more aware of the marvel of the human body.  A simple blood test might look for 30 different microscopic components that must be in perfect balance for a person to function normally. 

All the various organs of the body are dependent on a circulatory system that transports oxygen to every cell of the body, such that you need a fully developed heart and fully developed lungs and a fully developed circulatory system for the whole thing to work.  You can’t have a functioning living thing until everything is in place. 

So it can’t live until you have everything working together, but how can it develop if it is not living?  You can’t have the survival of the fittest until the fittest is living.

It takes far more faith to not believe in a God than to believe in Him.

 

 

Matthew 16:5-12 Forget about Forgetting

Matthew 16:5  And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they forgot to bring bread.

 

Christians know all about that they aren’t supposed to worry about things, but they do. 

Why?

We’re human.  Not that it’s human to worry, but it’s human to have things to worry about.

Like forgetting things.

We think that there is just too much stuff going on in life that it’s easy for us to miss something important, forget something that needs to be done, and we pay the price.

So we worry.

In this passage, which is really about something else, Jesus addresses this problem of worrying. 

The disciples were worried that Jesus was upset that they forgot to bring bread.

And what was Jesus’ response? 

“Why are you discussing among yourselves that you don’t have any bread?”  That word ‘discussing’ can also be translated as ‘considering, pondering, reasoning, arguing.’  OK, this was on their mind and what was concerning them.

But Jesus’ response goes on.  He calls them ‘little faith ones.’  Or as some translations put it, “Ye of little faith.”

They forgot to take bread.  So they didn’t have any bread.

And Jesus said: why is this bothering you?  Don’t you understand or remember when we fed the 5,000?  He didn’t just say: Don’t you remember, but also: don’t you understand? 

And again, when they fed the 4,000?  How is it that you don’t understand?

What didn’t they understand?

That faith in God covers a multitude of human foibles.

When you walk in faith, meaning that you believe that God is in your life and leading your life, you don’t have to keep looking at yourself, hoping that you get everything right, that you make all the right decisions, that you don’t forget anything, or don’t screw anything up.

God doesn’t want you always second-guessing yourself and wondering about getting everything right.

He wants you to approach life boldly, rejoicing that God is leading you and can pick up the loose ends, just like He fed 5,000 people with a few loaves and fewer fish.

 

 get about Forgetting

Ephesians 1:15-19 The Half Bible Lesson

A Bible teacher who is on my short list of favorite Bible teachers of all time has said that Christians should study the prayers of the apostle Paul.  If Paul was inspired to write books of the Bible that we call Scripture, then the prayers that Paul prays that are included in them are prayers that we would do well to pray ourselves.

One such prayer is found in Ephesians 1:15-19:  15 . . . I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of the strength of His might . . . .

As I considered this prayer and teaching on it, I realized that no matter what I say about it, you are going to need God to open your spiritual eyes for you to fully understand this.

Like in Luke 24:45, where it says that Jesus “opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.”

I can tell you what things God has to open your mind to understand, but until He does, you will only have a bare handle on the truths that God wants you to understand.

Paul prays for three things, and they are not entirely separate.

He prays first that they (we) might know the hope of God’s calling.

Romans 8:29,30 says that we were predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Notice the past tenses.  Those whom God called, He also justified and glorified.  Glorified.

Where?  How? 

We need to have our eyes opened here.  We too often think of the Christian life as a bunch of sinners that God saved so they can now go to heaven when they die.  That narrative fails to grasp the whole picture of what God has done for us and still has in store for us.  But in Romans, much of that has already been done, and we just don’t see it in our everyday ho-hum lives. 

It’s like you were adopted as a child, and you then discovered that you are actually the child of the richest and most powerful person in the world.  And they want you to come home.  That changes everything.

Then Paul prays that we would know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. 

I think we tend to think of this as OUR inheritance, heaven, but it’s God’s inheritance.

Look at these passages from the Old Testament first:

Deuteronomy 9:29  ‘Yet they are Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.’

1 Kings 8:51–53 51 (for they are Your people and Your inheritance which You have brought forth from Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace), 52 that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant and to the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to You. 53 “For You have separated them from all the peoples of the earth as Your inheritance, . . . .

Psalm 28:9  Save Your people and bless Your inheritance; Be their shepherd also, and carry them forever.

Psalm 33:12  Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.

Psalm 78:71 From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.

And someone will say that these verses are talking about Israel.

Yes, and one of the main themes of the book of Ephesians is that God has joined the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, into one new body, partaking of the same covenants.

Ephesians 2:11–15  remember  . . . that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.

We are now God’s inheritance.  And Paul wants us to know the riches of the glory of that, but we’re going to need God to open our eyes to fully see and understand that.

And then, lastly, somehow, in some way, God has exceeding great power which He wants to or is exercising on our behalf.

But, again, we need to ask God to open our eyes to it. 

I wish this lesson could have made you to see the greatness of God’s plans and power on behalf of His people, but at least I think we were able to show what we need to look for and ask for from God.  And that’s a big first step.

Isaiah 31:1-3 Realer than Real

 

Isaiah 31:1–3 (NASB95) 1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help And rely on horses, And trust in chariots because they are many And in horsemen because they are very strong, But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD! . . .  3 Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit; So the LORD will stretch out His hand, And he who helps will stumble And he who is helped will fall, And all of them will come to an end together.

 

At the time our text was written, the nation of Judah was facing a military enemy that had worked its way through every nation in between them with no one really giving them a serious challenge.

Judah was in trouble, and everybody knew it.

The common answer of the time, and even today, was to form a military alliance with another nation that someday might face the same fate, which in this case was Egypt.

If you were king of Judah, what would you do?

Notice especially God’s words in verse 3: Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit;

This reminds me of when the Syrian army surrounded the city where Elisha was, and his servant saw them first and totally panicked.  1 Kings 6   And Elisha prayed that God would open the servant’s eyes, and he saw the mountains around them full of horses and chariots of fire.  Not horses of flesh but of spirit.

And Elisha was not afraid of an entire army that was out to get him.

When you see the events of the world, or even more so, the events of your life, are you aware of the presence of angels and of God working in your life.

I can’t give you a formula for making that happen, but I would say that you would need to turn down the noise around you.  God speaks in a still, soft voice.  If you’re not listening for it, you’re going to miss it a lot.

Psalm 1:1-3 Meditation

God created human beings, and He knows better than anyone how we are built.  How human life functions for it to prosper and do well.  He knows what activities will produce the most lasting joy and what things will make life work out best.  This doesn’t mean that life won’t have difficulties or unpleasant surprises, but God knows how a person can be suited so that these things don’t or won’t overwhelm or destroy us.

He explains all this in Psalm one, first in things that a person should avoid and then positively, what things one must do to make it through life in the best way.

I want to look first at what things God says we need to do to build a solid life that can withstand whatever it is that life may throw at us as well as how to make the best of it.

You can boil it down to one thing, yet it is founded on another.

The single most important thing is to meditate in God’s Word day and night.  And we can do this if we learn to delight in His Word.

That may sound excessive or extreme, but compare this with Joshua 1:8.  Joshua had been given command to lead the people of Israel into the long-awaited Promised Land.  This promised land represents your life, as God would want you to have it, a life of prosperity and success.  If the words prosperity and success repel you, I’m just using the words the Bible uses. 

God tells him over and over to be strong and very courageous, and that “this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.”

So here meditation is explained by our speaking the Word of God throughout our day.  Let the Word of God be the topic of most of your conversations.  Paul says in Ephesians 5:18,19 to be filled in spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.  Psalms, of course, are parts of the Bible.

It’s this meditation that is needed so that we can see what God would want in various situations, and we will know how to live our lives. 

Then he says that we will be like trees firmly planted by abundance of water that continually bears fruit and whose leaves never die and fall off.

AND all that he does prospers.  Some translates say that a person prospers in all that he does, but literally it’s: whatever he does will prosper.

This is all contrasted with the things not to do in verse 1.

Don’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly.  That doesn’t mean that your doctor has to be a Christian, or does it? 

The first thing has to do with people who don’t see life as God sees it, as through the Bible, but the second and third thing are with people who actively reject God’s Word and His ways.

The most important thing to get out of this is that God wants His people to prosper and do well.  And He gives them here the how to see it happen.

 

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

 One of the best-known passages in the Bible.

But what does it mean?

Saying that the meek shall inherit the earth raises the immediate question: just when will they do that?

Most people would understand that to mean at some indeterminate time in the future, maybe after the end of the world when God creates a new heaven and earth.  Some would say: in the millennium, a thousand-year period of peace on earth that many Bible teachers say is to come.

Or it can mean something else.

As most of you know, maybe, the New Testament was originally written in Greek and the Old Testament in Hebrew.  The Bible the early church used primarily was the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.

And that phrase ‘inherit the earth’ is a very common one in the Old Testament.  It occurs over 40 times, and it never refers to some future event after life on here is all over.

The word ‘earth’ and the word ‘land’ are the same words in both Hebrew and Greek.  And the word for ‘inherit’ also means ‘to possess.’  The nation Israel was often spoken of as inheriting the Land of Promise, or possessing the land.  They inherit it in the sense that it was given to them.  The land belonged to God, and He gave it to Israel.

The verse is actually a quote from Psalm 37:11, which says that “the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.”  The word humble here is the same word as the word meek in Matthew.

Here the meek possess, or inherit land (the word ‘the’ is not in the Hebrew text.) AND delight themselves in abundant Shalom, which can be translated as peace, wholeness, completeness, or as someone put it, the way things are supposed to be.

When Jesus said that the meek shall possess the land, his listeners would have immediately thought of this verse in the Psalms.  And they would have remembered the second part of the verse, about delighting themselves in abundant prosperity.  The phrase ‘delighting themselves’ is used in Isaiah 66:11 in a sexual context, speaking of the intensity of the experience.  You can read that one yourself. 

But simply put, the meek are the ones who come to know the fullness of life and experience. 

In the Beatitudes, from which our original verse comes, there is an expression which doesn’t come out in most English translations.  The ‘they’ is emphasized, so it’s like: Blessed are the meek, for THEY are the ones who will possess the land.

THEY are the ones who will experience all that God has planned for His people. 

We have to ask then: what does it mean to be meek?

Whatever it does mean, in this context it is not to be understood apart from the other 8 beatitudes.  That means the meek person in verse 5 will also be poor in spirit, hunger and thirst for righteousness, be merciful, pure in heart, and a peacemaker.  Jesus isn’t talking about 8 different kinds of people, but the same people looked at in slightly different ways. 

A meek person is contrasted with a person who is pursuing the abundant prosperity as his goal in life, and the meek is focused on other things, and HE is the one who comes to possess it.  The primary Greek lexicon in use today defines it as a person who is “not overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance.”  Somebody has said, maybe it was me, that humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but not thinking of yourself at all.

Another person, far more scholarly and famous then me, has said that it is that temper of spirit in which we accept God’s dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting.

You could just as well put the other qualities in the beatitudes all together and end up with meekness.

Oh, and one more thing.  Most translations probably call this person blessed, or bles-sed, while most more modern translations call that person happy.  This person is happy, because their life is fitting in with the grand scheme of things.  They are in the center of God’s will, and they know that there is no other place they would rather be.

 

 

 

Matthew 2:22 Warned by God in a Dream

Matthew 2:22  Then after being warned by God in a dream, [Joseph, Jesus’ father] left for the regions of Galilee,

Twenty-four times in the Bible dreams are mentioned where God speaks to human beings. 

Sometimes the meanings are clear, like in our text.  Sometimes the meanings are understandable, though the details are not.  Sometimes the meanings are totally obscure and require God explaining it to somebody.  But God always seems willing to do that.

In almost every case here, the meanings are important.  I.e., God is giving people some really important information.  And those dreams are often the ones that require special interpretation. 

I stopped using alarm clocks decades ago, because I wanted to remember my dreams when I woke up.

Just the other night, I had an unusual experience in a ZOOM meeting that left me with a lot of questions.  That night I had a long vivid dream that answered those questions.  Should I write that off as coincidental or self-induced?  If I were new to the whole dream thing, I might be persuaded that way, but after decades of paying attention to my dreams, I can’t accept that.  I believe God spoke to me.

No, I can’t prove it.  If I were a new Christian, maybe I might wonder about that.  After decades of being a Christian and decades of serious Bible study, no, I would say it was from God. 

If you believe in the Bible, you need to take dreams seriously.  Many will seem meaningless to you.  Like hearing people speak in a foreign language, which is what a dream is.  They will be easier to understand as you spend more time praying and thinking about them.  And some will be clear to you that God is speaking to you.

Note too in the passage quoted at the top, the content of the dream did not need to be earth-shattering in its significance. 

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;

   Proverbs 1:7      The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;

         Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

We live in a time when science is regarded as the answer to everything, and we must listen to it carefully in order to live our lives right.

But we forget the limitations of science. 

Science cannot even tell us what a human being is.  Or of how much worth it is.

Science cannot tell you the value of love.  It can measure brain activity when people experience it, and it can tell you perhaps a correspondence between people who love and personal happiness.  But that still doesn’t tell you how important it is.

Science can’t tell you if there is a God.  As if it doesn’t matter.  Science will try to tell you that the world and life are simply accidents of nature or the result of necessary chemical reactions.  Which means that life isn’t more important than salt dissolving in water.

Oh, it may be important to a person living it, but science can’t tell you how to live that life.  What is right, what is wrong.  Only statistical comparisons of those who do certain things under certain conditions.   

Life is like a checkbook.  If you make a mistake on your first entry, even if you do everything right after that, your answer will always come out wrong. 

God is the foundation around which life is built.  Just like everything you buy comes with an instruction manual that tells you how it works, God has given human beings an instruction manual about how life works. 

And that is the Bible.  Know it and feed on it every day.

 

The Least Understood Word in the Bible

 

I was reading through Romans today and marked down 10 passages I want to talk about.  I chose the first one, Romans 1:7

This is part of Paul’s greeting to the church at Rome, and we usually just pass over it quickly.  Nothing to see here.

The more astute Bible student will note that grace usually refers to “the unmerited favor of God,” and then we leave it at that.

I suspect a lot of Christians wrestle with the idea of how God feels about them on a day-to-day basis, between or during all the trials and tribulations, all the tests, and all our failures and misdeeds.

I know I have.  I feel I have failed God in some big ways over the years, and I think He’s watching my feeble efforts to bless people today to see if I can keep from blowing this one too.

I’m rereading a book I read a very long time ago.  He points out what I had long stored in my head, that the grace of God means the favor of God.

Much of Romans explains the why and how of this, but the fact is that Christians have favor with God.  Too many of us just see salvation as a ticket to heaven when we die, but we don’t see how this salvation extends into this life as much.

God not only accepts us into His family through Christ, but He extends His favor on us.  I could use a family analogy, as I like to do, but maybe a work one will be better.

Many of us have felt a bit of unease at work, wondering about our futures there, if we have a future, afraid of doing something that might incur the boss’s displeasure.  Imagine that you had the boss’s favor.  You can walk right into his office without knocking, he stops by where you are working and says Hi throughout the day, and he’s written it into the company’s bylaws that you are a privileged employee. 

That is the grace of God.

 

2 Chronicles 25:5-9 The Limits of Common Sense

2 Chronicles 25:5-9 describes a common, tricky, sticky situation that Christians often get into. 

Amaziah was king over Judah.  As king, of course, it was his responsibility to protect his nation from foreign enemies.

So he hired mercenary soldiers from Israel to provide support for his army.

A prophet came to the king and told him not to let the Israelite army go with his army, because God was not with Israel at that time.  Israel wasn’t with God, so God wasn’t with them. 

If Judah were to use these soldiers, they would lose.  God would make sure of that.

But then Amaziah told the prophet, But I spent so much money on them.  And the prophet told him: “The Lord has much more to give you than this.”

Many times in Israel’s and Judah’s history, they made alliances with foreign powers to help them against their enemies.  Common sense often tells us that we need to spend a lot of money or do things for our security that show we are relying more on help that we can see rather on the help which is from God, that we cannot see.

Psalm 127:1: Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it;

         Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman wakes but in in vain.

Revelation 3:15-21 You Can’t Love God Half-heartedly.

In Revelation 3, Jesus says something to a church that I think most of us wouldn’t expect. 

He says: 15 ‘I know your works (deeds, actions, accomplishments), that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of My mouth. 

The word hot here means boiling hot.  And spew is another word for vomit.  Some translations say spit, but the word is vomit.

So He says: 15 ‘I know your works, that you are neither cold nor boiling hot; I wish that you were cold or boiling hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither boiling hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 

A few verses later, Jesus advises them to buy salve for their eyes, that they might see. 

But see what?

In verse 17, Jesus says that they say: “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and they do not know that they are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

Yes, they need to see that they are seeing and evaluating their lives by the wrong measures.

But I think there is something else that they’re not seeing.

And the passage that comes to mind to explain this is John 21:15-18.

Jesus had risen from the dead, and Jesus had appeared to the disciples several times, but most of the time it seems that they were on their own.

So Peter says to them: I’m going fishing. 

This sounds harmless enough, but Peter was a fisherman before Jesus called him.  And when Jesus called Peter, Peter simply walked away from it to follow Him.  And he did that for 3 years.  So when Peter says he’s going fishing, it can mean more than he was just bored and wants to do something. 

They fished all night.   So this wasn’t just a break in their routine.  This is what fishermen would often do.  This was some serious fishing.

Jesus shows up the next morning.  They caught nothing all night, but Jesus leads them to an enormous catch of fish.

So later they’re on the shore, and Jesus asks Peter a question: Do you love me more than these?  These what?  It could mean more than the other disciples, but I think it’s more likely: these things.  Fishing and all that goes with that.

And Peter answers: You know that I love you.

Now this is where it gets tricky, and not all Bible scholars agree. 

Peter used a different word for love than Jesus did. 

A lot of Bible scholars say the words mean pretty much the same thing.  But when you read this, you realize that can’t be the case.

Those who do see the difference say that when Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him more than these things, the word love speaks of value.  Like when the Bible says love your neighbor, it doesn’t mean you have to like them, but loving them means to value them and you treat them like the image-bearers of God that they are.

Peter’s word deals more with feelings.  When you like somebody, you have chemistry.  You can like them so much you can use the word love, but it’s an intensity grounded in your feelings. 

So Jesus asks him if he values Him more than his old life. 

And Peter responds: you know that I love you, I like you really, really a lot.

Then Jesus asks him a second time: Do you love me?  It’s: DO you love me?

Like: DO you value Me?

And Peter responds again the same way:  Jesus, I’m crazy about you.  Of course, I love you.

Then Jesus asks him: do you love me? but he uses Peter’s words. 

Let me paraphrase it like this:

Peter, am I more important to you than your old life?

Lord, I really like you a lot.

Peter, AM I important to you?

Lord, I like you, believe me.

Peter, DO you like Me?

If you go through this from back to front, it’s like saying: If you say you like Jesus, you will love Him, you will have to love Him, and if you love Him, you will love Him more that all the stuff in your life.

Once you grasp who Jesus is, immediately He becomes the most important thing in your life.  And if He doesn’t, then you’re just not getting it.

This happened to me when I was a teenager.  I was attending Confirmation classes and had to memorize The Apostle’s Creed.  “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,” and so on.

And I asked myself whether I really believed that.  I said yes, I do.  Then automatically God became the most important thing in my life.  How can it be otherwise?  The Creator of heaven and earth?

The point is that you cannot do God half-heartedly, casually, when you have time, when you feel like it.  I’ve heard people say they need a break from religion. 

And I don’t understand that.  And I don’t think God does either.  People who say that are like these people who Jesus called “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”

Am I being too harsh here? 

I don’t know.

I read Revelation, and Jesus addressed 7 churches in Asia Minor.  Three of them He says that He has something against them.  Three He says I know your works.  Only two of them don’t receive a rebuke of some kind.  If He picked churches at random today, would we do better?

He says here in Revelation 3:19:   ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.

The word ‘I’ here before the word ‘reprove’ is highly emphasized.  “I those whom I love I reprove and discipline. 

He’s being totally blunt with them.  You don’t do this Christian life half-heartedly.  If you feel like you need a break from it, then you’re missing really something important here.

Then He goes on:    20      ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.  21      ‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

His words are hard, because the issues are important.  But He speaks out of His intense love for us and His desire to have fellowship with us.

Would you describe your Christian life as boiling hot?  How can it be anything else when you’re talking about God, the creator of the ends of the earth, and Jesus, who died and rose again that we might have a life with this God?

A prayer tip

You will want to study the prayers of the Bible. 

In 2 Chronicles 20, three nations joined together to come against the nation of Judah. 

Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, led the people in prayer to ask for God’s help.

Notice how he addresses God (v.6):

O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations?

Rather than print out the whole prayer, let me just give you a short paraphrase of it:

O Lord, you’re God, right?  You’re the one in charge around here, aren’t You?

Didn’t you give us this land a long time ago and then helped us to drive out the people who were living here before?  Wasn’t that your plan?

Now some people who you didn’t allow our ancestors to take out back then are now trying to take this land away from us.

We can’t defend ourselves against them.  We’re hoping that you would.  We don’t know what else to do.

The Bible doesn’t come out and say it like this, but in many of the prayers you will read in the Bible, it’s like the person is making the case before God why God should answer their prayer. 

If the answer requires God’s mercy, they will repeat back to God maybe the times He said He was merciful.

Sometimes they will go back to a promise that God had made.  Or appeal to God’s justice.

 

I call it praying like a lawyer, where you make your case before God why He should answer your prayer. 

I’m not saying that the Bible says you have to pray like this.  I’m just saying that many of the great prayers in the Bible do this.  And I think we should too.