Independence

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True independence comes from God through Christ, both on a national and on a personal, spiritual level.  The Founders understood this.  Apparently, today's United State (no, I didn't accidentally leave off an "s") doesn't.  From the Declaration of Independence:

"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States... A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people... We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States..."

They understood that real freedom only came from God, both nationally and spiritually. Today, however, we seem to identify more with the Israel of Amos 6 than with the America of 1776...

"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!... That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall...That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." - Amos 6:1,4,6

America, turn back to Christ!
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Eat Up!

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We've been reading through John both in church and in our family worship time, and there's a real distinct trend I've noticed that I wanted to bring up, an attribute of God that has a lot of implications.  This attribute is provision.

Consider, if you will, the woman at the well in John 4. What is it that Christ offers her?  Living water, capable of giving life. And later in that chapter, when His disciples urge him to eat, He says that He had "food to eat that you do not know about." Later, in John 6, we see Christ feeding the five thousand men (plus women and children), and in John 7:37, we see Him once again offer the Living Water that gives life.  In Mark 8, we see Christ feeding four thousand in a separate large-scale food miracle. During each of these cases, the parallel is either a direct spiritual one, or in the case of the literal physical provision, He uses it to point people to the spiritual eternal life-giving provision from God. So why the repeated theme of providing food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, both spiritually and physically?

The answer has several layers, I think. First off, earthly food is what preserves physical life in us, and the parallel between life-giving sustenance, and spiritual eternal life, is an easy one to make and easy for people to understand.  You MUST have the food/drink that Christ offers in order to have true spiritual eternal life!  Second, Christ compares himself to food in an allusion to the incredible picture that was to take shape later in the form of the Lord’s Supper.  He does this in John 6:48-51, where he compares Himself to the manna that came from heaven to feed the Israelites when they were lost in the wilderness (interesting to note that we were in the same spiritual state prior to receiving the spiritual life-giving food as the Israelites were physically prior to receiving the physical provision of food).  He was Himself bread from Heaven, come down to give life to men. This comparison is a very deep one, because it also acts as a proof of Jesus’ oneness with God.

I was working in our garden the other day, and it occurred to me that this attribute of God providing food goes all the way back to the very beginning, when God put plants on the earth.  In His incredible design, He created them not just to reproduce, but to reproduce many times over, thus giving a sustaining, repeatable food source for us!  In the case of the manna, and later the quail, God took the dire situation of the Israelites and provided abundant food to renew them.  2 Kings 4 has two more instances of provision in the form of the multiplication of the widow’s oil, and the barley loaves for the hundred men.  There are so many instances in Scripture of this miraculous provision from the Lord to sustain life – it is a repeated pattern with Him.  And this is why these miracles of Christ providing food are that much more important – because they attest to His Godhood! 

While on earth, Christ performed these miracles that provided physical food to those in need of temporary sustenance, and this was in and of itself an attribute characteristic of God throughout Scripture.  The ultimate miracle of provision, though, was that by His death and resurrection, the breaking of His body as bread, and the bleeding of His body as wine, He provided the spiritual food and drink that our souls must partake of to have eternal life.  Praise God!
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Hook, Line, and Serpent

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I’ve noticed an unfortunate trend creeping into even the more conservative Christian circles these days.  Once reviled as a widely-accepted enemy of Christianity, immodesty seems to be rearing her ugly head again. We as men have to think about these things as we lead our families – how we guide our wives and daughters in Christ-like purity.

As with many things, the history of this in the church realm is often a pendulum swing. For a few years, great emphasis will be placed on being a distinct and separate light, separate from the ensnarements of the world. Then someone starts questioning whether or not we’re being legalistic, and before you know it, the pendulum has swung to the opposite side again, with the young girls of the church being externally (and all too often, as a consequence, internally) no different from the world that rejects Him. Don't get me wrong, fashion and immodesty are two different things.  The unfortunate part is that, generally speaking, what the world defines as fashionable usually involves immodesty. To quote an old Carmen song, "I've seen more cotton in an aspirin bottle!"

A very good friend and mentor once recently said of immodest women: “They are either thinking evil, or they aren’t thinking, and both are evil.” Basically, to break that down, they are either (a) seeking to ensnare men by using their sexuality to entice and draw away the attentions of men to what should be reserved only for her husband (present or future), or (b) they are giving no thought to the way they dress and act, which is entirely contrary to the way Paul instructs in 1 Timothy 2:9-10.

This fight is extremely personal to me, for a number of reasons.  Mainly, I once struggled with pornography, but was freed from it by the grace of God.  And thus it causes me no end of grief to see some of the things young Christian girls wear of late, and even flagrantly post pictures of themselves in… in every form imaginable. They are the very types of things and pictures I would once seek out in the depth of my sick and depraved sin to lust after. It grieves me, and upon more recent encounters with such things, has made me angry in a way I didn’t really understand – until I realized that it was because these very images that these Christian girls are projecting of themselves are the very things I was rescued from. I’ve left those sins far behind me, by the grace of God alone, and now those who claim to be my sisters in Christ are flaunting their bodies in the same way the unbelievers do.

I’ve heard the argument of “it’s not the woman’s fault if the man struggles with lust” more times than I care to remember.  Is a woman guilty of a man’s lust? No, he gets his own blame. But has an immodest woman “pushed/crossed the boundaries” or is she causing her brothers to stumble into sin by her own actions?  Quite certainly.  In the same way that a man must be careful with his words in order to keep a woman from lusting emotionally. We have responsibilities to guard our brothers' and sisters' hearts (Gal 6:1-2).  Each gender struggles with its own particular temptations. Immodesty can be a male thing too, though usually in an emotional sense rather than a physical sense. 

For a man, his struggles are generally with the eyes.  God made a man to react to the beauty of a woman. In His design, He made a man to be able to be satisfied in gazing on his wife (Prov 5:18-19), and there's no denying that physical attraction plays a role in causing a man to pursue a woman, even in a chaste relationship. But even though most Christian girls will still say they are saving their bodies for the marriage bed, by dressing immodestly they have sent a signal to the world that contradicts such an aspiration. It says, "I'm choosing not to sin, but boy do I sure want to!" They have thrown their bodies out for the world to see.  And bear in mind that immodesty isn't just the amount of skin showing, it's how a lady presents her body.  She can be fully covered and still be showing things that no one but her husband should see.

There's many reasons a woman might want the licentious attention that any type of immodesty brings: desire for emotional intimacy, to feel "loved," and ultimately, to gain control. So what message does immodesty send? More directly for a professing Christian woman, how is she representing the body of Christ if the non-verbal message being sent with the attire is that there is more care for the attention of the world, the attention of the lustful eyes of a man, or the acceptance of other women, than there is care for the desires of Christ? Further, is that her idea of “beauty?” If so, then there is a serious spiritual deficit, if she defines beauty not by what Christ says it is (1 Peter 3:3-5, Titus 2:4-5), but by what the world says it is.  

For decades now, the secular world has taught that a woman can and should use her sexuality as a manipulative tool to coerce men's actions. I plead with my sisters in Christ not to fall for this lie, even as I watch many of them fall prey to it.  We have to lead the way as men. We must hold ourselves to seeking Christ in all areas of purity, and our beloved women in the ways of Christ-honoring purity as well. Without that, so many Christian girls and women will once again bite the apple... hook, line, and serpent... and brazenly, unabashedly expose their bodies for the world to see.
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The High Places

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In 2 Kings, it struck me the way in which Scripture describes the reign of the kings of Judah and Israel.  One after the other, it describes in a short sentence, sometimes with and sometimes without a subsequent commentary, how God rated their performance. 

Jehoahaz the son of Jehu: “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom.” - 2 Kings 13:2

Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz: “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin: but he walked therein.” – 2 Kings 13:11

Jeroboam the son of Joash: “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” 2 Kings 14:24

Zachariah the son of Jeroboam: “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” – 2 Kings 15:9

Pekahiah the son of Menahem: “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” – 2 Kings 15:24

Pekah the son of Remaliah: “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” – 2 Kings 15:28

All of these are kings who “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.” But it gets more interesting when we look at those who it says, “did right in the sight of the Lord.”

Amaziah the son of Joash: “And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like David his father: he did according to all things as Joash his father did. Howbeit the high places were not taken away: as yet the people did sacrifice and burnt incense on the high places.” – 2 Kings 14:3-4

Azariah son of Amaziah: “And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done; Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places.” – 2 Kings 15:3-4

Jotham the son of Uzziah: “And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord: he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places. He built the higher gate of the house of the Lord.” - 2 Kings 15:34-35

There’s a pattern with those last three: the “high places were not removed.” It’s been said that when the Lord says something multiple times, that should grab our attention even more, because He’s emphasizing something! They didn’t tear down the high places, where people were being led astray from the Lord, even though they did right in the Lord’s eyes, generally speaking. No doubt those high places would have been very difficult, and very disruptive, to tear down.

So what are our “high places” today? It seems that any difficult thing that stands in the way of bringing either ourselves, our families, or our country, into greater fellowship with the Lord, would be a “high place.” What would it look like to take down one of those “high places?” It would be radical, brave, bold, and fearless. It might not be popular, but shouldn’t we always want to do what God desires us to do? Let’s “tear down the high places.” 

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The First Step

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It's been a long time since I've posted!  Lots has happened, not the least of which is the addition of a little boy to our family, he was born on March 9th of this year.  Life changes drastically!  We are very blessed and humbled that the Lord has entrusted us with this little one, and that He saw fit to begin to expand our family so soon!  Lately, I've picked back up in 2 Samuel, where we left off as a family some time ago, switching instead to the minor prophets later in the Old Testament for our family worship time.  


It seems that so often, one sin leads to another.  And they don't have to even be related.  The enemy of our souls will use one failure to his advantage, tempting you towards another, either out of that feeling of defeat from the first sin, or during a period when you've let your guard down in a severe way.  That is what struck me as I read the story of David and Bathsheba again, right there in the first verse, it seems it may have been that David had already started to let his guard down before he even saw Bathsheba.


"And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem." - 2 Sam 11:1


The thing that struck me is that is says, "at the time when kings go forth to battle." I can't help but wonder if the first step on this slippery slope for David was cowardice or laziness.  That verse also says, "But David tarried still at Jerusalem," sending a subordinate to fight in his stead.  Now, there's nothing wrong with delegation, but it's interesting that it seems to imply that it was the time for kings to lead their nations into battle.  As a result of his abdication of this duty, he was sitting at home, presumably idle, which led to his first lustful and then adulterous encounter with Bathsheba. 


So must we be on our guard, not to give one foothold to temptation.  We must "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8)
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Press On!

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Failure is disheartening.  There’s no doubt about that.  In any struggle with sin, it seems that whenever we fail, the enemy uses it to whisper doubts and fears in our ear, to gain ground in convincing us that it simply isn’t worth trying to fight against any longer.  And oftentimes the enemy succeeds.  I know from personal experience that when you fail in one area of temptation, it makes it so much more difficult to “resist the devil,” as we’re told to do in James 4:7. 

But God knows that, and anticipated it when the Israelites realized they’d sinned against God in demanding an earthly king. 

"Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you. If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the LORD your God:… And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart;" - 1 Sam 12:13-14, 20 (underline added)

There are times we’re going to fail, and I don’t say that to be pessimistic or to discount the saving and sanctifying Grace of God.  Christ gives us freedom from our sin, but the habits don’t often (sometimes they do, by God’s Grace, but not often) disappear overnight.  We are instructed in numerous places to pursue Christ-likeness, to strive after becoming like Him, and this means putting away our sins. 

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:” – 1 Peter 2:21

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:” – 1 John 1:5-6

“If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” – John 13:14-15

“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” – Romans 13:14

It is purely by His own Grace and Mercy that we are able and compelled to even pursue Him, when we observe the situation through the Lord’s eyes.  But naturally when it comes to living our lives, we have a responsibility to act.  And as we act, there may be times when we, while remaining this side of eternity, will sin against God.  Does this jeopardize our salvation?  No, certainly not, for a true believer in Christ.  But we as believers are to get up, confess our sins, our shortfalls, commit them to the Lord to cleanse our way from them, and continue our pursuit of Christ-likeness.  We cannot allow a stumble to keep us pinned to the ground, in utter defeat.  We must, in spite of our failure, look to His forgiveness, remember well how you fell into the failure so that you will not make the same mistake, and continue the pursuit of Christ, unrelentingly!

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” – James 4:7
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Speaking Out of Turn

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It’s a dangerous thing to put words in God’s mouth.

“Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, ‘He saith’.” - Jeremiah 23:30-31

It seems to me that a modern day version of this might be the twisting of Scripture to fit what your own predisposition is (separate from any real Scriptural support). We have to be careful as we study God’s Word to be sure we’re not being eisogetical in our interpretation, coming at the Scriptures with a pre-disposition that does not have a basis in Scripture, and then taking individual passages out of context.

We have to know exactly why we believe what we believe, and there is nothing wrong - nay, there is everything right - with having a firm grip on the basic and foundational tenets of our faith and basing our worldview on them. But as we study God’s Word, we can’t have “itching ears” as Paul describes of those who want to hear only things that please them.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;” - 2 Timothy 4:3

The context of that passage is that Paul is talking about being persistent in evangelism, saying that people would not always be open to the gospel. The truth is often difficult to swallow, and equally so when we’re the ones searching it out in God’s Word. So as we study and search after the mind and heart of God, we must allow that it won’t always be easy, nor that God’s Truth will always be mainstream.