Following Jesus Son of God …

My wife and I had a mini-getaway over the weekend; quick trip up north to visit friends Saturday afternoon, back Sunday evening. As we were driving and talking, my wife shared some thoughts, and I am like “Now that’s what I’m saying. That’s what happens when you bow before the words of God and listen and let God speak.”

Do you remember the story in 1 Kings where God said to Solomon: “Ask! What shall I give you?” Solomon could have asked for anything — riches, power, long life, victory over his enemies. But he asked for an understanding heart – wisdom- so he could serve well as king.

(1 Kings 3:9 NKJV) “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”

Okay. Are you ready for this?

Where did he get it? I mean where did he get this desire, this insight, to bring wisdom to the top of his wish list.

You are going to love this. Here’s the story. My wife was reading the following text.

Proverbs 4:3-8 MSG When I was a boy at my father’s knee, the pride and joy of my mother, (4) He would sit me down and drill me: “Take this to heart. Do what I tell you–live! (5) Sell everything and buy Wisdom! Forage for Understanding! Don’t forget one word! Don’t deviate an inch! (6) Never walk away from Wisdom–she guards your life; love her–she keeps her eye on you. (7) Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom! Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding! (8) Throw your arms around her–believe me, you won’t regret it; never let her go–she’ll make your life glorious.

How did Solomon know to ask for wisdom? Where did he get such powerful advice?

Sitting on his Daddy David’s knee. Woa, baby! Are you with me on this?

My Sweetie is telling me this and I am incredulous. Wow! Yes, we all commend Solomon for his savvy and his excellent choice, but if you are like me you never made this connection before.

King David, Solomon’s dad, gathering him up on his knee one evening after supper, giving him the drill: “Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom! Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding!”

Insight…method.
Not only was I captured with the insight, but I was grateful for the method. My wife is continuously reading through the Bible. We both do, but she usually comes closer to making it in a year and it usually takes me a year and a half.

But she wasn’t forcing the issue.
She wasn’t studying. She wasn’t even looking for insights per say. She was merely sitting before her God, word in hand, heart bowed, listening, expecting, enjoying the proximity of the Presence of God. And the Spirit dropped this in her lap.

And this is what I believe we often miss with our studying, and proving our points, and defending and searching for answers. . .

There is a time for everything, and God has providentially carried his words from generation to generation so we could sit, “Book” in lap, and hear God. God’s intent and purpose for his words – his children bowed before him reading and listening.

K_____ was doing this, and God went “whoosh” scene 1 – Solomon commenting on the value of wisdom, then God went “whoosh” scene 2 – rewind, flashback – Solomon on his dad’s lap learning the value of wisdom.

Wow! Am I overusing that word? Wow!!!

About a week and a half ago we were talking about the weather at work, and the possibility of rain that evening.

One of the guys said, “They say that this will be our best chance for rain for the rest of the month.”

Wow! It was already really dry and to go for another 11 days or more without rain would not be good. Duh, me! It rained that evening and has several times since. We received more than four inches of rain in some places last weekend.

“They” or I or you may say, but we don’t really know. But God does, every little bit and the big stuff too. Big words would be sovereignty, providence, omnipotence and the like. I just like to know that God is in control, and I am part of his good plan. Sigh!

(Daniel 2:20-22 NKJV) Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, For wisdom and might are His. (21) And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding. (22) He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, And light dwells with Him.

I’m feeling pretty good about things when I am hearing what HE says. 🙂

Spent Thursday evening upgrading WordPress and adding some plugins.

You will notice easier access to previous posts in a drop-down archive list at the top and a monthly archive in the right sidebar.

Yawn.

I heard this, or a statement very similar, from a well-known Christian radio speaker. A very good person as far as I can tell. An excellent teacher and communicator. I like the guy.

But he gave this canned response when confronted with a question about tithing.

Here’s how the events unfold. The person is teaching about tithing. Someone calls in or emails asking if tithing is taught in the New Testament. So far, so good.

Now, instead of directly answering the question, the teacher turns it around and asks if this person tithes, and then makes a comment such as “Almost every time (or every time) that question is asked it comes from a person who doesn’t tithe.”

But I have never heard the actual question answered.

Whether that person tithes or not, whether that person gives one dollar to his church, does not matter in regard to the question: “Does the New Testament teach tithing?” Whether I tithe or not does not alter NT teaching.

One very well-known Christian financial counseling ministry does the same thing. I believe I am accurate in saying that I have personally heard the question asked three different times: “Does the NT teach tithing?” Every time, instead of directly answering the question, the caller was asked if he tithed. Not one single time was the question answered. Not once.

One well-known Southern Baptist preacher’s answer is that “it is assumed.” Can anybody say slippery-slope?

The only person I have heard biblically address the issue is John MacArthur on Grace to You. The only one.

Here is a response.

When you hear – “Every time I am asked that question it is from a person who does not tithe.”

Think – “Every time I hear that question avoided is from a person responsible for a large ministry dependent on donor dollars.”

If our goal is to prove our point, then that is exactly what we will do, no matter our field of study or discipline. As a scientist, your research will suffer. Google “academic fraud” and see how many articles you find; I found 1,260,000.  It doesn’t matter if it is a scientist committed to proving the research he has vested ten years of his life in, or a preacher committed to voicing a pet peeve that has been a source of irritation for years.

If our goal is to prove our point, then that is exactly what we will do, but we will likely miss the truth in the process.

We blather on about the unbelievers, but too often our handling of truth is absolutely no different.

If you are bent on proving your point, you will bend the truth if necessary.

“We have the floor, and by golly, these people are going to hear the truth.” But we don’t because you missed God’s point, dummy!

Places to go, people to see.  Bones to pick, axes to grind, soap boxes to stand on, personal agendas to promote, political agendas to forward – All in the name of truth. Please.

That is what we experienced this past Sunday at church. Our pastor was out of town, and we had a guest speaker. Too bad. He wasn’t up to the task of being God’s spokesman.

His biggest mistake of the day? You guessed it. He was determined to prove a point.

One of the worst mistakes we can make in seeking God’s truth in Scripture is to have an idea that we are bent on proving. This attitude makes us more vulnerable than we already are to our own opinions, to our way that seems so right. Our strong tendency is to believe what we want to believe and to believe what we already believe.

Our problem is there ain’t no trembling going on.

(Isaiah 66:2 NKJV) For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the LORD. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.

In my observations most preachers have neither the proper respect for God’s word nor the humility and courage to faithfully share it.

The tragedy is (and tragedy is not an overstatement) that what we experienced Sunday is what passes in the majority of our churches for preaching the word. Because we use the Bible, because we say this is what God says, because we say we preach in an expository manner, we somehow think it to be reality.

Do you remember Gomer Pyle on Andy Griffith?  “Shame, shame, shame!”

Shame on us when we use the God-words of Scripture to tell our own truth.

My wife shared this excerpt with me some time ago as she was reading the book. Thought you might enjoy the fresh air.

Amos 🙂

From Our Fathers’ Fields, A Southern Story, by James Everett Kibler

We in the South love our Characters. That fact says much about our tolerance and valuing of individuality. We take pride in them at the same time we may not be brave enough to resist conforming ourselves. The more we conform, the more we love our Characters.

“Oh, how sad!” We’re always saying. “All the Characters are dying out.” We regret the fact, but just as we’ve thought that the last one has passed from the scene, other folks in our acquaintances quite unexpectedly start exhibiting traits and behavior for which there just doesn’t seem to be any good reason at all. Soon, some of these folks are well on their way to becoming Characters, as unique as those who went before, and the genus curmudgeon is preserved.

Don’t cry.

Reflecting on the path. . .
052603 / 06291997 / 062407

Jesus’ compassion.

(Luke 7:13 NIV) When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”

How often we want to say these same words. “Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.” We remember when our children were small and we could fix practically anything. We remember when we could stop their crying and bring a smile. And then life continues past what we can fix.

And now it seems we can’t fix anything in their lives.

How wonderful it would be to take away the person’s pain and sadness. How wonderful if we could make everything okay for them. But we can’t, not usually, not often anyway.

What we can do is begin to understand from this passage the compassion that God has for us in the pain and sadness of our everyday lives.

God isn’t interested only in the big picture – one day we will be with him in heaven. He is also concerned with our everyday pain and fear and disillusionment.

If Christ were beside us , we would hear him say again and again, “Don’t cry!” God in his wisdom doesn’t “make everything better” in the here and now, but through Christ we see that he cares about the here and now.

Jesus did so much more.
Christ did more than well up with compassion. He provided an eternal solution through his obedience to his calling – death on a cross. His compassion paralleled a life of obedience guided by the will of the Father, set in place before the earth’s foundations were laid.

Jesus cried.
He came and saw the pain of this earth. He wept over their foolish refusal to let him care for them. He cried so that one day he could wipe away all tears.

Too much pain, God.
In our limited view of God’s plan, we want him to fix this life. I know I do. Sometimes life is just too darn painful. I have a severely handicapped son and seeing him in his condition is sometimes like a spear through my heart. Too much pain, God, too much pain. And my poor wife, the agony of heart and soul of a mother watching one of her children struggle so. Too much pain.

We can’t fix it.
It’s not our call. We can’t fix his loneliness and sadness. We can’t fix his mental instability. But we can be a part of his life.

Compassion equaled a cross.
Christ showed his compassion by raising the widow’s son from the dead. He showed his compassion even more strongly by having the courage to face the cross.

Because of the cross Jesus Christ can say – “Don’t cry. Everything’s gonna’ be alright!” One day God will wipe away all tears but not just yet.

(Revelation 21:4 NKJV) And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

These are some thoughts of a few years ago introducing my web site – itsaboutGod.com. I revised these thoughts today, but much of it is as it was.

“Amos” 🙂

The first “Bible study”

It all began in that beautiful garden. . .the first “argument” over God’s words:

(Genesis 3:1 NIV) Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The first recorded quibbling over expression, the first manipulation of the Majesty’s intent, the first questioning of his authority and goodness.

Define “quibble”
Petty arguing; nit-picking; evade the truth of a point or question by raising irrelevant objections.

And thus the first recorded Bible study
Simple, crafty, effective – “Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” The serpent said to Eve as he led her in the world’s first Bible study.

Eve (the woman) knew the answer to the question and the serpent knew she knew.

(Genesis 3:2 NIV) The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden.”

But her knowing wasn’t the point. The arrow of doubt had struck its mark. Eve was well on her way to forming her own opinion apart from God, learning to think for herself, so to speak.

And she did.

(Genesis 3:6 NIV) When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Now everything was different, different as in nothing would ever be the same again on our planet.

Eve’s focus changed as the center of her universe shifted away from God to herself; the rules of the game turned upside down; it was now about her.

God had been holding out on her.
She now saw first-hand that this was quite a good tree. The tree was good for food; it was pleasing to look at, and it made a girl smarter. Wow! Was God ever wrong.

Except. . .
God never said the tree wasn’t an excellent tree. He created it. Of course it was wonderful. He simply said “Don’t eat from it, or you will die.”

New thought as I am writing this.
Eve surely was not familiar with the concept of dying. Possibly God had explained this on a previous evening garden walk, possibly not. We know she had no personal experience or observations, so this concept of dying was past her categories. She needed to trust God beyond the limits of her knowledge, past her boundaries. But she formed her opinion based on her personal database, not the information received from God.

Just trust the words, girl!
But she couldn’t.  She couldn’t trust the words, or more accurately would not because they didn’t fit.

And we do the same thing.
We all fall for the same deception. We search for truth that will support our life direction. We choose a god or no god whose truth fits our life track, our agenda.

Bible study but God isn’t present.
We even go to the Bible to “see what God really says.” But not really. Yes, we have our Bible studies, but we don’t invite God, just like Eve didn’t invite God to her Bible study. You noticed that didn’t you in the text? Why didn’t Eve ask God what he said? Why didn’t Eve ask God to clarify? Because she didn’t want information that didn’t fit her plans.

And we wonder why things are as they are in the world and in the Church – wrong as they are, sad as they are, tragic as they are, hopeless as they are.

WordPerfect’s “make it fit” function.
WordPerfect has the ability to take a longer document and make it fit on one page so it is more manageable. That’s what Eve did; that’s what we do. We make God’s truth fit our desires. We manipulate, often in the name of God, to come away with the knowledge we want.

The problem is that glory doesn’t fit into our categories.

(Romans 11:33-36 NKJV) Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! (34) For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor? (35) Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him? (36) For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

We make our Bible study into a time to share our opinions.

Let’s see if I can track with you on this one.
We want to study the Bible so we can know what God says regarding truth and life, and the way we do that is to ask each other our opinions.

(Proverbs 18:2 NIV) A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions.

TO BE CONTINUED. . .

This thought from yesterday has stayed with me: All the wrong things that we believe about ourselves and our world because there are voices that are stronger in our minds than the voice of God, even though intellectually we have the better, more accurate answers per the “holy Book” of God, the Bible.

We know the Sunday School lesson, we attended the seminar, we got the degree, we just didn’t get the truth imbedded deeply in our hearts.

Many of us stop at merely being introduced to the truth, acquainted with the truth, studying the truth. After all truth is not nearly so dangerous and risky if we are holding it as opposed to truth gripping our souls.

But that is not nearly enough.
We must hear and believe the voice of God as expressed in his words above all other sources of communication.

The words have to be real in the small and the vital areas of our lives before we can embrace the big picture God paints.

And how do we do that?
Precedent. Previous experience. Pertinent experience.

Previous experience in the ways of the words of God.
We believe God for how we relate to the people around us. We see what God does in us and in them. We don’t pay back insult for insult. Relating properly to those around us in our words and in our deeds helps us to believe our theology. We see God work in the small and vital areas of our lives because we obeyed, we lived his truth, then we will see God operate on the larger canvas.

If I don’t trust God on the issue of forgiveness, then I will undermine my ability to trust God when facing death. I will undermine “the heaven effect” in my life. What I mean by that is the reality of heaven will change my life now. Heaven will be more than just someplace I hope to go someday. Many older Christians are afraid to die because they have undermined their faith in the small yet vital areas of their lives.

Pertinent experience.
All of us have “that one thing.” We do the Christian life pretty well, especially if graded on the curve, check, check, check-check. Doing good. . .until. . .that one thing. We don’t control our tongue. Our thought life plows into a sexual fantasy. We smoke that Visa card with things we cannot afford. We exclude people from our lives who are different or who do not “add something” to our happy plan for living.

But God will call us to that one thing, you, me, everybody. Look at the “certain ruler” in Luke 18.

Check — Did not commit adultery
Check — Did not murder
Check — Did not steal
Check — Did not bear false witness
Check — Honored his father and his mother

Check, check, check, check, check. Oh, yeah, honey, I can see the pearly gates swinging wide.

“What’s that, Jesus?”
But Jesus brought up that one thing that was holding him back. Jesus wasn’t addressing being rich in general; he was speaking to the one thing that kept this man from following him.

(Luke 18:18-22 NKJV) Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (19) So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. (20) “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.'” (21) And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” (22) So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Back to now being able to hear God, being able to not say things that contradict his thoughts toward us. Sometimes a person may not be able to see her beauty because of the way she treats others. Downgrade the beauty of others, can’t see the beauty God sees in me. Can’t tolerate failure in others, can’t receive mercy and grace.

Maybe he doesn’t have the courage to develop a passion because he can’t trust God to be there if he fails because he doesn’t trust God in everyday things. The shadow of God, the refuge he offers, the safety net he throws out for his children, is not seen on a moment’s notice but becomes gradually visible in the mundane, the daily workings of our lives, how we love or don’t love our neigbor is a good place to start.  We don’t have to look for a safety net when a crisis hits; we already know it is there; daily experience in listening to God and trusting him with my life, embracing his truth, living it, having my eyes opened to his strong arm of protection.

Live the words in the little things; hear God’s voice in the big things.