I'm Safe

Jeremiah 7:4-15

In Jeremiah’s day, the people of Judah tried to use the Temple to protect themselves from their willful actions. They practiced evil thoughts and deeds. They treated each other with injustice. They exploited foreigners, orphans, and widows. They stole, murdered, committed adultery and lied. They even harmed themselves by worshiping idols. But they didn’t think there would be any consequences because they were God’s chosen people. After all, His Temple was in their capital city. He lived with them. Just in case, they reminded each other of that. In fact, they used it as a charm to keep disaster away. They went around chanting, “The Temple of the Lord is here. We are safe.”

Of course, it didn’t work. Silly Israelites, thinking they could fool God and use His temple as a charm. The evil things they were doing made God angry, so He reminded them how He had punished their brothers in the Northern Kingdom. He had sent them into exile and that was the fate coming to these spoiled children who thought they could get away with anything because they were the favorites.

I wonder if I ever use my salvation as a charm to keep me safe while I live the way I want.

My thinking might go like this:

I do the best I can, but no one’s perfect. But I want to stay on God’s good side so I’ll go to church faithfully or wear a cross or fast during Lent or listen to Christian music or go to prayer meeting or have my devotions . . . I know I don’t always please Him, but I’m a Christian; I’m saved by the blood of Jesus. I’m safe.

It dishonors God’s name when I use Him as a charm.

That’s backwards.

I should never make excuses for my sins because I’m saved. I should never think I’m safe no matter what I do. Instead I should ask what God wants. Then I should live as He wants. So if I go to church, pray, sing, or study the Bible it should be to please Him. My actions should always be in response to Him. That’s what honors His name.

Give Me Jesus

Proverbs 30:7-9

I think I’ve been asking for too much. I pray for safety for Wayne when He’s on the road. I pray for security and happiness for my children. I pray for healing for my eyes. I pray for a lot of different things for my friends. And that’s good because God commanded us to ask.

But the writer of Proverbs has narrowed down what’s important to two things: to never lie and to be neither rich nor poor. These seem like strange requests if you’re only going to get two. But Proverbs was written by the wisest man ever (Solomon), so I’d better figure it out.

If I have too much, if I get rich, I might disown God because I won’t feel like I need Him. That self-sufficiency is a form of pride. In fact it’s putting myself in charge of my life, instead of relying on and submitting to Him.

If I have too little I may get desperate and do something dishonest like stealing to meet my needs. In a way, that too is pride. Instead of trusting God to provide, I trust myself and take what I need.

This attitude of pride is a lie. It is believing that I need to take care of myself when the truth is that everything comes from God.

Humility and gratitude are the truth.

So the writer asks God to give Him just enough to satisfy his needs. What is enough? My daily bread.

Brace yourselves, I’m going to make a huge leap here, from physical to spiritual needs. 

Jesus is the Bread of Life. He’s what I need every day. When I have enough of Him, I don’t need the world’s riches. I stop lying to myself and to God about my ability to take care of myself. I give up control to Him. On the other hand, if I don’t get enough of Him, I take what I need from the world – in essence I steal from a source that is not mine. And I tell myself that I’m satisfied, but I’m not.

Maybe it’s not that I’ve been asking for too much, but that I’ve been asking for the wrong things. Give me Jesus.

What to Tell Unbelievers

Acts 17:16-31 

I was saved when I was five, raised in a Christian home and attended Christians schools. I have truly lived a blessed life, but when it comes to witnessing to non-believers, I have a definite disadvantage. I don’t really know how to approach them because I don’t understand how they think (or not think) about God.

Paul should have had that problem too, but he knew exactly what to say. This passage can be a text for me to learn how to explain God to unbelievers.

He’s the creator of everything in the world. That means He’s not part of it. We won’t find Him in each of us, or living in nature. He’s something other than anything in the world. 

He owns it all. Because He made everything, it all belongs to Him. He’s the ruler of it all and He decides how to use it for His ends.

He is everywhere. We can’t point to a particular place and say that is where God is. 

He is self-sufficient. He doesn’t need anything and there is nothing we can do for Him that He can’t do for Himself.

He is the source of life. That means He not only made the world, but He made living beings and gave us life. Every breath we take comes from Him, so He sustains our lives. Our entire lives and all we do are dependent on Him.

He created societies and nations and rules them. He decides their fates and His purpose for them is that they look for Him and find Him.  

He is not an idol and we can’t make an image and say that is Him. He is not an idea or a philosophy or a spirit made by people. 

He is going to judge the world soon, but He’s waiting for us to repent of the evil things we do.

Jesus is God Himself, come to earth to bring us to repentance before He returns to judge the world. His resurrection is the proof that He is God.

These are the things that I should share with non-believers.

How to be a Good Priest

I Peter 2:9 & Malachi 2:1-9 

I had a Catholic friend who was petrified of priests. I’m not sure what her childhood experience was, but she was convinced that a priest would somehow just know the sins she hadn’t confessed. When we were at a conference held in a Catholic facility, every time she saw the priest she would clutch my arm and look away from him. I didn’t understand, since I’m not Catholic and I have very positive relationships with the ministers and pastors in my life.

It’s interesting to contrast good priests with bad ones. Peter says we Christians are a royal priesthood who show others God’s goodness. The priests in Malachi’s time, on the other hand, had left God’s path and corrupted His covenant with them.

The priests were God’s messengers to the people and their job was to bring life and peace by instructing the people the truth He gave them, thus preserving the knowledge of God. They should have been the first to honor His name, revere Him and stand in awe of His name.

Instead, they left God’s paths and caused many people to stumble into sin. God had made a covenant with the Levites – the tribe that produced priests. He promised to bring them life and peace, but they must revere Him and stand in awe of His name. When they broke their part of the covenant He not only withdrew His peace, He said He would splatter their faces with the manure from their festival sacrifices and the people would despise and humiliate them. As priests, their job was to lead the people to God through the rituals of worship. When they didn’t, God used the desecrated rituals to turn the people away from them.

So what can we, as royal priests, learn from those wicked priests?

We must speak truth and preserve God’s word; it’s where we learn about God. Study it, know it and rely on the Holy Spirit to make sure we understand it correctly.

We must honor His name, revere and stand in awe of Him. He is holy.

We must walk in God’s paths so that we don’t lead others into sin. Don’t let our example cause someone else to stumble.

There’s a personal dimension to this priestly relationship too. God told those priests that even their blessings would be cursed. I think that means that they no longer enjoyed the blessings. If I depart from God’s path, I may not literally have my face spattered by manure, but I will stop enjoying what God has given me. If I’m not walking with Him closely, I’ll look at what the world has and desire it. I’ll stop appreciating what He’s done for me and instead I’ll want what I don’t have.

I want to enjoy His blessings. I want to walk in His paths. I want to be a good priest.

Chosen by God

1 Peter 2:8-12 

If you ever doubt God’s love for you, read this passage. It’s so soul-satisfying, it seems redundant to comment on it. But I’m going to anyway.

When Wayne asked me to marry him, I was ecstatic and so in love. He loved me and had chosen me. For weeks I sang a Carpenters’ song that expressed how I felt. 

     I’m on the top of the world, lookin’ down on creation

     And the only explanation I can find

     Is the love that I’ve found ever since you’ve been around

     Your love’s put me at the top of the world.
          (by John Bettis and Kerry Chater)

The joy of being chosen by someone who loves you is incomparable. 

So let’s burst out in song and dance on the rooftop, because God has chosen us. We are His very own possession. 

Now let’s ask what He wants to do with His very own possession. He called us out of darkness into light and now that we can see we can show others His goodness. When I was a child I was taught that a prophet speaks to the people for God. A priest represents the people to God, or speaks to God for the people. Well, we’re a whole nation of royal priests. We’re not like the people who don’t obey God because we have received mercy.

But we minister before God on behalf of the people. That’s Christianese for loving my neighbor more than myself. It means being aware of the people around me and putting them first. I do that by praying for them, serving them and loving them.

Our purpose, as God’s chosen people, is to be witnesses to God’s goodness. We do that by being careful how we live. First we stay away from worldly desires. That means we live differently than our neighbors. We don’t embrace the things they love, because we belong to God, not to the world. In fact, the things of the world wage war against our souls – the very things that belongs to God. So we need to keep our focus on Him and what pleases Him.

Secondly, we need to live properly among our neighbors. I see two things here. How we live and where we live. Living properly is defined by the One who owns us, not by the ones around us. So we need to know what pleases Him and do that. But we need to do that living among our neighbors, even though we’re foreigners in this world. We can’t withdraw from the world’s citizens; we want them to see God’s goodness in the way we live. We may not see them praise God now, but in the end they will and our honorable behavior will contribute to that.

Imagine. God not only chose us, but He’s allowing us to bring honor to His name. Let’s sing and dance again.

It’s About Jesus

Philippians 1:27 

 Recently I have found myself in disagreement with some friends about interpretation of scripture. This is something I have to be very careful about because I love being right. After a lifetime of reading the Bible, and sometimes actually studying it, I’m pretty vocal with my opinions. So this disagreement has given God an opportunity to remind me that I’m not the expert - He is. 

I’ve had to dig into the Word to see what it really says about the issues we’re disagreeing about. I’ve had to look up verses to read them in context and I’ve had to research what others have written. I’ve also been reminded that even orthodox teachings must be supported by a correct interpretation of scripture.

This has been good for me and I look forward to how God will continue to work out the disagreements with my friends. But these two verses are a reminder that while disagreements about doctrine must be resolved, we have to do it as the citizens of heaven my friends and I are. 

Above all, we must conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. We must stand together with one purpose and one spirit. Our purpose is to fight together for the faith and to worship God forever.

Studying the Bible is important to our growth as Christians, and getting it right is necessary to protect the faith. In our discussions, I think my friends and I are fighting for the faith. But Paul says the faith is the Good News. We can’t get so bogged down in points of doctrine that we forget the core truth. 

The Good News is about Jesus. 

The faith is about Jesus.

Above all, we must remember that we were saved by Jesus; we are His children.

The only reason the scriptures and how we interpret them matter is because they are about Jesus.

My prayer is that the Spirit of God will help my friends and me to remember we share the Good News about Jesus.

Gently and Respectfully

1 Peter 3:13-17 

I used to work in an office that had a diverse staff. I was one of the few Christians on staff. One year, when I was on vacation, a new coworker was hired. She was Muslim and had what she called a progressive viewpoint. While I was out, she began to hear stories about the born again Christian who sat at the desk next to hers. When we got to know each other, she told me that she had been very concerned about working with a bigot. Thanks to God, my life was a witness to His goodness, not to the negative stereotypes many people have of Christians. I wish I could say I was an instrument in her salvation, but although she hasn’t come to know the Lord, she has learned to respect the Christian faith.

In that relationship, it was gratifying to know that she didn’t speak against me because of the good life I lived for Christ. But that isn’t always the case. And many Christians have suffered deeply – even died - for the faith.

I have been mocked or ignored because I was living for Christ. I suppose that is suffering of a sort, but I’m afraid I’ve usually brought it on myself by the way I reacted to the non-Christians I worked with. Peter says to defend the faith gently and respectfully; not one of my strengths.

This passage is like a sandwich. In between two sections about suffering for the faith, it gives instructions about how to share the gospel. The center of this sandwich is compassion. I recently learned the roots of the word compassion. The prefix “com” means “with” and “passion” comes from the Latin “passus” which means to suffer. So to be compassionate means to suffer with someone.

I should be ready to give a reason for my Christian hope. But I should do it because the people I’m talking to need hope, not because I disagree with their viewpoint. As a follower of Christ I have opinions and beliefs that are counter to the world. But I have to speak about the hope I’ve found in Christ – not about the sin of others. When I do speak, I must do it gently and respectfully with a clear conscience. I need to know that I haven’t slandered, gossiped, attacked or threatened. I need to know I’ve represented Jesus.

My hope is that even though I am a sinner, I have been reconciled to God and can stand in His presence. My hope is that I am forgiven and walk in fellowship with Him. My response to the world’s wrong ideas should be that they too can be reconciled.