Let's say that God wanted your attention. What do you think this would look like? Isaiah found that this didn't happen in the form of fire or thunder, but a whisper on the breeze.
What if the fire and thunder thing was true? What if God sent a messenger who withered your hand and then fixed it and then made stone structures shatter before your very eyes? Would you listen any closer?
King Jeroboam didn't.
He rebuilt the altar that was destroyed and doubled his efforts to worship other gods and raise other priests. He ignored God's message and God's warning.
God's response is interesting. He tells Jeroboam that Josiah is coming and he will sit on the throne and put things right. What God doesn't say is when. Jeroboam never meets him, neither does his son or grandson or great-grandson.
It is over 400 years before Josiah shows up. It is so long that the people aren't just ignoring the laws that Jeroboam broke, they don,t even know what they are anymore. They've literally lost the book whee they a written.
Yet, God is there the whole time. He speaks through his prophets to those that will listen. He never gives up, never goes away, never forsakes them.
That's one of the wonderful things about God, he is patient beyond measure. 400 years of a nation ignoring Him and he was still there when they finally came back.
Of course he'll be there when we turn back too.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
David v. Solomon
Two kings, father and son, two men who grew and advanced what was at the time the greatest nation on earth. Two leaders who took care of their people. Two completely different stories.
In David's story we see the highs (Goliath, treating Saul right) and the lows (Bathsheba, his family falling apart around him). In Solomon's case we really only see the good stuff. He asked for wisdom instead of power and was given both. He ruled in a time of peace and expanded the kingdom. He built the Temple for God.
If you were to compare the accomplishments and failures of the two men as found in Kings, Solomon would come out on top. He didn't live in the chaos that David did. He never hid in a cave from his enemies. He was never forced to resort to acting like a madman so he could find shelter. He didn't have to deal with one of his sons raping one of his daughters or another son nearly taking over his kingdom. We don't hear about him murdering a man and stealing his wife or getting others to cover up his dirty deeds.
Yet, "his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father."
Solomon was a winner. Everything in his life seemed perfect.
David was a fighter. Everything in his life was a struggle.
Too often we praise winners and think that fighters have done something wrong. Why is their life so hard, why can't they figure things out, why can't they just get past their issue?
Despite all the fighting he did, it was David who had God's heart.
Despite all the blessings he had, it was Solomon who turned away.
Or was it because of David's heart for God that he had to fight so much?
In a fallen world, will a heart like God's lead to what seems like constant struggle.
Will we someday find a heaven full of fighters and nearly devoid of winners?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Ouch
I've been reading Ezekiel for almost a month (does this book ever end) and something finally stuck out to me. As a shepherd myself, I found God's warning to the shepherds of Israel a little frightening.
Ezekiel 34:2-4
Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.
Do we do this? Are we shepherds for ourselves or shepherds for our sheep? God is all about taking care of His sheep and those He has called have been called to help in that task, not to use the sheep to take care of himself.
Ezekiel goes on to relate that these sheep will be scattered until God himself takes care of them. If we don't do it right, He'll do it himself.
I don't want to be the guy who puts God to work doing my job.
Ezekiel 34:2-4
Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.
Do we do this? Are we shepherds for ourselves or shepherds for our sheep? God is all about taking care of His sheep and those He has called have been called to help in that task, not to use the sheep to take care of himself.
Ezekiel goes on to relate that these sheep will be scattered until God himself takes care of them. If we don't do it right, He'll do it himself.
I don't want to be the guy who puts God to work doing my job.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Context
"I seek not what is yours but you."
Paul says it as a consolation to the Corinthians in that he wasn't going to collect a 'love offering' the next time he came to visit.
Jesus says it as a challenge, because the things we have aren't enough. He wants all of us.
How do we hear this statement?
How do we mean it when we say it?
How do people hear it when we say it?
How do I say it so people hear it how I mean it?
Paul says it as a consolation to the Corinthians in that he wasn't going to collect a 'love offering' the next time he came to visit.
Jesus says it as a challenge, because the things we have aren't enough. He wants all of us.
How do we hear this statement?
How do we mean it when we say it?
How do people hear it when we say it?
How do I say it so people hear it how I mean it?
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
For the Children
I didn't steal cable last night. I could've. I was right there, with the filter in my hands, ready to hook the incoming line directly to the distribution line, but I remembered something someone said to me,
"Is that all your integrity is worth?"
Is it only worth the price of a monthly cable bill?
Or a ream of paper at work?
Or a bit of embarrassment that could be covered up with a white lie?
Or extra change at the check-out counter?
Or one small moment of gratification?
Integrity is integrity. We spend too much time wondering where we should set the price. The value of something stolen doesn't determine how bad the offense is. The likelihood of getting caught doesn't determine if something should be done.
Maybe your integrity isn't worth that much to you. You might not think twice about trading it for a better parking spot or a pen that finds it's way into your pocket. But, as I read this morning, it isn,t just about you.
Proverbs 21:7 The righteous who walks in his integrity-- blessed are his children after him!
"Is that all your integrity is worth?"
Is it only worth the price of a monthly cable bill?
Or a ream of paper at work?
Or a bit of embarrassment that could be covered up with a white lie?
Or extra change at the check-out counter?
Or one small moment of gratification?
Integrity is integrity. We spend too much time wondering where we should set the price. The value of something stolen doesn't determine how bad the offense is. The likelihood of getting caught doesn't determine if something should be done.
Maybe your integrity isn't worth that much to you. You might not think twice about trading it for a better parking spot or a pen that finds it's way into your pocket. But, as I read this morning, it isn,t just about you.
Proverbs 21:7 The righteous who walks in his integrity-- blessed are his children after him!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Paradox
"We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything."
- 2 Corinthians 6:8b-10
Society, culture, the world: whatever you want to call the collective of non-Christianity, it has a certain understanding of how things work. It sees things a certain way, establishes values a certain way, promotes success a certain way and judges you a certain way.
Jesus' call to follow him was a call away from all of these things.
It was a call to embrace the creator of the world.
It was a call to reject the values, successes and views of the world.
It was a call to life.
It was a call to death.
It was a call to exist in paradox.
- 2 Corinthians 6:8b-10
Society, culture, the world: whatever you want to call the collective of non-Christianity, it has a certain understanding of how things work. It sees things a certain way, establishes values a certain way, promotes success a certain way and judges you a certain way.
Jesus' call to follow him was a call away from all of these things.
It was a call to embrace the creator of the world.
It was a call to reject the values, successes and views of the world.
It was a call to life.
It was a call to death.
It was a call to exist in paradox.
Friday, September 24, 2010
on Culture
"If everyone lives roughly the same lies about the same things, then there is no one to call them lies; they jointly establish their own sanity and call themselves normal."
- Ernest Becker
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