Category: devotional

Jeremiah 38:17-19

 

17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you will surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then your life shall be spared, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. 18 But if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.” 19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans, lest I be handed over to them and they deal cruelly with me.”

 

            Here is a classic leadership dilemma. The king clearly has instructions given to him by God. At the same time, the king has every reason to expect that the people he rules will oppose his orders. What will he do?

 

            If you know the history of this nation, you know that this king will not prevent the city from being burned with fire. Thus, you already know what the king did. He feared the people more than the word of God. He sought security in public opinion more so than in the revelation of the Lord.

 

            I do not point this out to be cruel to King Zedekiah. Truly the position he was in was hard. And, were any of us in the same spot, I think we would be tempted too. It is so easy just to try to please everyone around you. It is easy to ignore the right for the sake of sparing conflict. “After all,” we rationalize, ”we are really trying to do what is good for the people as a whole.” WE do that while knowing that our goal is to save our own skin and to not lose the people in the process.

 

            But there is a greater lesson for all of us. Whether your spine is made of iron or is undetectable, there is still this truth: God has spoken. If God has spoken, then obedience to his word and his ways is the only option. Anything less, any compromise, is something that is terribly sad. It will not lead to good.

 

            Let me be honest. I know what it is like to fail to do what God says because of fear of man. I think we all do. I’m not claiming to be better than King Zedekiah. But I think we should learn from him. We should pray, asking God to fortify our character. We should plead with him to give us the inner strength to stand on his principles, regardless of the direction that our friends or our society would take us.

 

            Also, this passage and the failure of King Zedekiah reminds me of our great need for the gospel. None of us stands perfectly with the Lord. We all fail. We fail to do what is commanded. We fail to not do what is forbidden. We need grace. WE cannot stand before God without being covered by the mercy of Christ.

Isaiah 5:20 (ESV)

Woe to those who call evil good

and good evil,

who put darkness for light

and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter!

 

            Sometimes you read a verse that rings with relevance as you come across it. Above is just such a word from God.

 

            We live in an age in which all sorts of moral questions are up for grabs in our society. Who has the power over life and death? What life is to be protected and what life is to be controlled by our volition? Who is to say what is right and wrong regarding our sexuality or our marriages?

 

            God pronounces woe on those who would dare call evil good or good evil. Woe is an important biblical term. It is an opposite or contrast to the word blessed. To be blessed is to receive spiritual life, goodness, or even happiness from God. To have woe is to receive spiritual death, badness, or sadness from God. Woe is akin to being cursed.

 

            God says that those who would flip-flop the distinctions between evil and good are under his curse. The same thing is clear in Romans 1 when Paul describes how the judgment of God arrives in his giving men over to their own evil desires. To determine our own morality apart from God is to find ourselves under his judgment.

 

            What then shall we do? The obvious things are important for starters. We need to define marriage, sexuality, and life issues as God does. We need to not call evil behaviors and godless thinking good. Instead, we need to learn to value the things that God values.

 

            But that is easy for many who are in the church. Most often we find ourselves feeling a little smug about how well our value systems line up with the things that God has said are good. And for that we need to go a little deeper. What has God called good? Do we really approve all that God approves? Do we really love all that God loves? Do we believe that God’s standards and God’s grace are the best? Or are we more the kind of people who get set in our traditions and add rules to God’s law in order to make things the way we are most comfortable?

 

            Let us learn from God. Let us love his word. Let us believe his standards are best. Let us reject the influence of any culture, no matter how vocal, as we seek to determine what is good and what is evil. Let us hear from God, trust God, and obey God in all aspects of life. Let us never approve what God calls evil. Let us never disapprove what God has not disapproved. Instead, let us love God and become more like him as we grow in Christ.

Psalm 105 24-25

 

24 And the Lord made his people very fruitful

and made them stronger than their foes.

25 He turned their hearts to hate his people,

to deal craftily with his servants.

 

            Here is a fascinating look at the way God works in his sovereignty. Psalm 105 recounts the mighty works of God through a part of Old Testament history. In it, we have a poetic look at the way God sent Joseph to Egypt and how God then rescued the people from Egypt.

 

            In the midst of the discussion of Israel’s time in Egypt we read the passage above. Notice what God did. In verse 24, we see that God gave his people success. But verse 25 shows how God worked among the Egyptians. The Bible says, “He turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants.” God, in his mighty and unsearchable plan, stirred up the Egyptians to hate his people in order that he might eventually bring about the salvation of the nation.

 

            If you were an Israelite of that generation, you might not think that God was doing you a favor here. I wonder how many of the people cried out to God, asking him to change the hearts of the Egyptians, especially the officials over them, so that the Egyptians would see the people of Israel with favor. But God was always working out something bigger. God was working the Egyptians up to a place where the Israelites would cry out for rescue. God was making it so that the Israelites would eventually follow Moses out of the land of Egypt. God was shaping things for the ultimate move toward Sinai, the Promised Land, and the fulfillment of covenant promises.

 

            The truth here is that God works things in much bigger ways than we might imagine and in stranger ways than we are wise enough to expect. God is wiser than us. He knows his plans His plans are good. Even if we do not understand them at the time, God is always on track. He will not fail. He will work through our circumstances, perhaps not to accomplish what we want, but always to accomplish his ultimate will for his greater glory. This is what is most important anyway.

 

            So, as you face things you do not like, be it hardship, decisions you dislike, or ugly circumstances, remember the sovereignty of God. He is always moving us to accomplish his purposes. His purposes are far bigger and better than ours. We can trust him. We can follow him. He may let us walk through hardships, but not without something that will work toward the accomplishment of something greater, whether we see that greater thing in our lifetime or not.

Revelation 16:4-7 (ESV)

4 The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say,

“Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was,

for you brought these judgments.

6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,

and you have given them blood to drink.

It is what they deserve!”

7 And I heard the altar saying,

“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,

 

            God is glorified in his judgments. This is a truth that many of us fail to recognize as we talk about the mercy of God alongside is just wrath. Of course, we all want to see people saved from sin and judgment. We pray for, plan for, and work toward the salvation of the nations. We want to see people rescued.

 

            However, we do not want to be so confused about our Lord as to somehow think that he is not glorified as he judges those who have rebelled against him and who do not repent. God’s justice is good. God’s justice is perfect. God’s justice brings honor to his name.

 

            You might consider how God is glorified by judging those who oppose him. In fact, you might come up with many reasons this is true. God’s justice demonstrates that he will not let sin go unpunished. God’s justice shows that every crime that is ever committed against any person on earth will receive perfect justice—either in the judgment of the one who committed the crime or in the substitutionary atonement provided by Jesus on the cross. God’s judgment glorifies him as it displays his utter hatred for that which is evil.

 

            But the truth is, whether we naturally come up with the ways that the judgment of God honors him, and, truly, whether or not we naturally like these truths, we must first recognize that the Scripture teaches that God is praised in heaven for how he rightly judges those who oppose him. There needs to be a place in our theology to allow this truth to live. While we will do all that we can to try to protect people from the judgment of God by introducing them to the Savior, we cannot believe that rescue is the only thing that honors our Lord. God is God. God is perfect. He will be honored.

Psalm 96:5

 

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,

but the Lord made the heavens.

 

            Sometimes a statement is made that is absolutely vital to how we think and behave. If that statement is true, everything changes. If that statement is false, everything changes. And Psalm 96:5 is one of those central statements.

 

            Consider that Psalm 96:5 declares 2 truths. First, it declares that all the gods worshipped by the nations who do not know the LORD are false. They are merely idols, powerless and false deifications of man’s imagination. Is this true? If it is, our entire worldview must fall in line with that fact.

 

            Then, in the appropriate poetic contrast, the verse declares that our God made the heavens. While idols are false, the LORD is God. Is this true? If so, one’s entire worldview must shift to match it.

 

            I know that we are covering elementary ground, but sometimes it helps to do so. If God is God, then all is his. If God is real, then all must come under his rule. If the gods of other nations are false, then no other religion is valid. This is not to say that we treat any with intolerance or violence, but it is to say that we know that these people are called by God to turn from their idolatry and to bow before the God who made them.

 

            So, the challenge is simple. Today, do you see that God is real? Do you see that the gods of other religions are false? Yes, this sounds politically incorrect. But, if it is true, then it must sound so.

 

            Lord, I believe that you are indeed God, the Maker of the heavens and earth. You are Lord, there is no other. All other gods are false. Only you are God. I pray that you will shift my world even this morning to help me to align myself with your purposes for your glory.

Jude 5

 

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

 

        Have you ever heard a person say to you that they believe there is a difference in “the God of the Old Testament” and “the God of the New Testament?” Or, have you ever heard people try to distinguish between the judging God of Old Testament times and the loving ways of Jesus? This is a tempting way to think at times, but it is also a completely false dichotomy.

 

        Jude, writing to the church about the love and the judgment of God, has something very interesting to say in verse 5 of his little one-chapter-book. Jude is clear that it was Jesus who rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt. Remember, of course, that Jesus has always been. God the Son has been a part of the Holy Trinity for eternity. And it was apparently the work of the Son to bring God’s people up out of Egypt.

 

        “Yes,” you say, “but that proves to us that Jesus is loving and maybe the Father is the judge.” But no, look at the end of verse 5. Jesus is also the One who, after rescuing the nation, “ from Egypt, “destroyed those who did not believe.” Jesus showed us the same pattern of both mercy and judgment that we have come to understand is part of the character of God.

 

        What are we to conclude? Jesus is God. And there is no division among the persons of the Godhead. God the Father is loving and just. God the Holy Spirit is loving and just. Jesus, God the Son, is loving and just. When you see the judgment of God on people in the Old Testament, know that this is the action of a completely unified God. When you see the mercy of Jesus in the New Testament, see that this is the action of a completely unified God. When you see Revelation picture the return of Jesus in power and judgment, know that this is the same God as we see in the Old Testament declaring himself to be the gracious and compassionate One who will not let the guilty go unpunished. God is God, perfect in his mercy and never failing in his righteous judgment. 

 

        Lord, as I see your work described here in Jude, I worship you. Jesus, you were active in rescuing Israel from Egypt. This reminds me that you are God, worthy of my praise and my life. You showed your mercy, and I am grateful. At the same time, Jesus, you judged those who tried to receive your benefits, but who had not truly trusted you. I see your justice, and I praise you for it. Help me to have a genuine trust in you so that I might always be under your mercy.

3 John 4

 

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

 

        What gives a pastor joy? John, the last living apostle of Jesus, tells us in a tiny book in the New Testament. What gave John joy? He found joy when his people, God’s people under his care, were walking in the truth.

 

        I understand this. I love, absolutely love, to find the people of God obeying his commands and following his word. This can happen as numbers increase or decrease. This can happen as ministries begin and end. This can happen as programs come and go. None of these things are at the heart of what gives me joy as a pastor. But ,to see the people of God dive into his word, begin to understand it, and even better, to begin to obey it, that gives me joy.

 

        Lord, I am grateful for the calling you have placed on my life. I love to be a part of your plan. I cannot compel anyone to do what you say. I cannot convince anyone of your truth; that is the province of your Holy Spirit. However, I love to be a tool in your hand to help your people walk in truth. I pray, therefore, that you would help me to be used by you and give me the joy of seeing your people love and obey your word for your glory.

1 John 5:4-5

 

4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

 

            What is victory over the world? John tells us, and it is not at all as dramatic-seeming as we might think. John tells us that victory over the world is our faith, as the one who has put his or her trust in Christ has overcome the world.

 

            I think that, a few years ago, these verses seemed a bit odd to me. How could something as simple as trusting Christ equal overcoming the world? In my world, faith in Christ was natural and well accepted by all. People celebrated your faith. Church going was a good thing, almost expected by the “good” people of the community.

 

            But then, as time has passed, I have come to understand that true faith in Christ is a great victory over worldliness. I can remember being challenged by those who claimed Christ and those who did not that faith is all well and good, but let’s not take it too far. We certainly would not want to be thought of as fanatical toward Jesus after all.

 

            And now, as time has gone by, I am seeing how faith is an even greater conquest over the world. You see, in the day we now live in the US, faith is not as acceptable. The moral landscape of the US has changed. What used to be good and moral is now considered by society as intolerant and backward. Faith in Christ stands in the way of social progress. To believe that Jesus is the Son of God is to also believe his words and his standards. Jesus spoke clearly about marriage, about sexual purity, and about his own exclusivity. All three of those areas are unacceptable to many in our modern culture. In truth, the day may come when believers in Christ find themselves castigated by the world around them, considered to be as backward, bigoted, and dangerous as the KKK.

 

            Of course, the caricaturing of Christians as harsh, closed-minded, backward, and dangerous is an unfair depiction—at least for genuine Christianity. However, the world will not care. There is a social, moral, and political agenda at work that demands that all people not only allow the freedom to do what God has forbidden, but also embrace and approve of the immoral decisions of others as right.

 

            Thus we see how faith in Christ is an overcoming of the world. To believe in Jesus as the Christ is to oppose the part of the world that rejects any concept of the supernatural. To trust Christ is to acknowledge his exclusivity, actually daring to believe that others who do not trust Christ are outside the grace of God. This is not to declare yourself better than such people—we are all sinners who deserve judgment—but it is to dare to believe that not all people on the planet are equally forgiven. To trust in Jesus is to accept his lordship, even over issues where society demands we progress. The follower of Jesus overcomes the world by refusing to walk in lockstep away from the standards of God inspired in his holy word.

 

            The true beauty here is not what we turn from, however, but that to which we turn. God is beautiful and glorious, holy in every way. God receives us into his family. The world would turn us from God. To overcome the world is to turn from the ways of culture and to embrace as the Lord the One who made us, who loves us, and who sacrificed himself to rescue us from our own sin before him. May we overcome and continue to overcome, experiencing his comfort and joy even in the midst of an age that would demand our concession.

 

            Lord, you know that my faith in you is truly your own gift to me. I know that you are sovereign and always good. Please help me, as your follower, to overcome the world. I have no desire to beat others or to win in a contest. My desire is to not be led astray. My desire is to be faithful to you. My desire is to honor you in the middle of an age that would demand I not do so. For this, I need your help. The beginning of this victory is faith, and so I thank you for your grace that has come to me through faith in Christ.

1 John 4:10

 

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 

            How do we know God loves us? How can it be proved? What hoops must we ask him to jump through in order to show us his love? Does God have to give us a new job, better health, or financial freedom in order to show us his love?

 

            John tells us how we know of God’s love, and what he says is humbling and profound. How do we know God loves us? We did not love God first. But God loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 

            Let’s look at that verse in two halves. First, we did not love God. That may be the biblical understatement of all history. The Bible describes us as having rebelled against God. The Bible describes us as hating God. The Bible describes us as being dead in our sins and transgressions, following the world, following the flesh, and following the devil. The Bible describes us as children of wrath.

 

            So, when we think that we did not love God first, that is significant. God’s love for his children is not something we earn. It is not something that God was drawn into. We did nothing to convince God to love us. On the contrary, we did a great deal to try to push him away. That is an amazing, selfless, powerful love.

 

            Then look to the latter part of the verse. How did God show us his love? He sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sin. God the Father sent Jesus the Son to be our propitiation.

 

            OK, most folks who have not studied the Bible deeply have never heard the word propitiation. Even many who have do not know what it means. To propitiate means to turn away someone’s anger by means of an offering or sacrifice. A propitiation is the sacrifice or offering that turns away another’s anger toward us and helps them to look at us with love and favor.

 

            Jesus is our propitiation. Jesus came to earth and offered himself as a sacrificial substitute in our place. God poured out his anger for our sin on Jesus. Jesus absorbed that anger, took our punishment, and fully satisfied God’s wrath. Because of this work of Jesus, God can now look at those who have received his mercy through Jesus with complete love and favor. God’s anger toward us is gone, done away with, completely finished because Jesus has propitiated the Father.

 

            So, how do we know God loved us? WE were sinners. We deserved wrath. We could have been judged by God, and that judgment would have been just. But instead, God sent Jesus to take our punishment, satisfy his wrath, and bring us to himself. God now looks at his children, former rebels against his glory, with nothing but love and favor. This is love, great, self-sacrificial, powerful love. This is proof of love far better than a simple and temporary earthly gift. This is amazing and soul-satisfying love. This is a love worthy of our gratitude and of our commitment. This is the love of our God.

1 Chronicles 17:2

And Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”

 

            Discerning the will of God is often one of the more difficult topics for Christians to discuss. How do we know when God wants us to do something or not do something? How do we know when a desire is ours or God’s? What should be our pattern? Should we wait for a voice from heaven or a nudging during our prayer time? Should we listen for the voice of a prophet or simply seek wisdom in Scripture?

 

            I think we can find something interesting about discerning God’s will in the above passage. When David found himself firmly established as King over a secure land, he had a stirring within his heart. He wanted to build a temple, a place for the ark of the covenant to rest. And so he proposed this idea to Nathan the prophet.

 

            Notice what Nathan’s first reaction to David was. He told David that God was with David. He told David to do what was in his heart to do.

 

            Now, later that night, as you can read in verses 3 and following, God came to the prophet and told him to rein David in. This desire in David’s heart, though a good desire, was not God’s plan for him.

 

            What grabs my attention this morning is the fact that Nathan’s gut reaction to David’s statement was to tell him to go do whatever was in his heart to do. Nathan did not feel a need to check David’s general desire here. He told David that, since God was with him, he assumed David’s desire to be right.

 

            And, you know what, as I study the issue of discerning God’s will, I do not think Nathan was wrong. Obviously I understand that God used Nathan to later redirect David. But I think that this exception proves the rule.

 

            What did Nathan know? Nathan knew that, as a general truth, a man who loves God with his whole heart is going to desire things that are the will of God. Nathan knew that a man who has a heart for God and who is submitting to the clearly given commands of God will be wanting things that God approves. And so, in a very general sense, it was safe for Nathan to say that David should proceed with his plans.

 

            The fact that God changes David’s plan is not, in my mind, evidence against what I have just written. You see, when a believer who loves God with all his heart desires to move in a certain way for the glory of God, if that believer’s desire does not accord with God’s plan, God will let the believer know. God has a way of checking our desires and correcting them by his word in order to make sure that those who love him will desire what he wants.

 

            Psalm 37:4 calls for us to delight in God and promises that God will give us the desires of our heart. The idea here is that, as we make god our delight, our heart will desire God. As we delight in God, our heart’s desire will be that which God desires. As we obey and love our Lord, he will make our hearts and minds to be conformed to his desires.

 

            So, believers, I think that there is actually something positive to learn from Nathan’s counsel even though, in this exceptional case, the desire was not carried out. When you love God with your whole heart, you will desire things that please God. When you want to do something (go to a particular college, take a particular job, marry a particular person, go on a particular mission trip), check that desire against the grid of the word of God and the wise counsel of other saints of God who love him too. If what you desire is within the bounds of the Bible, and if your life is a life that demonstrates love of Jesus through obedience to his commands, then you may, like Nathan did, assume a green light from God. And, like Nathan, if God has a different desire for you, if you are loving God with your whole heart and following his clearly written commands, God will move in such a way as to either allow you to move forward or not to do so.