Celebrating a Fall

Proverbs 24:17-18: Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,

and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the LORD see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.

There is a sorrow we need to feel at the sinfulness of humanity.  That a life needed to be removed is not something in which to rejoice, but a weighty testimony to the depth and ramifications of the fall of mankind into sin.  Yes, we can rejoice in defeat over evil, in justice, in protection.  But rejoice when a human being is consumed by his sin which leads to death?  David mourned the death of Saul (2 Samuel 1), Jesus wept over Jerusalem . . . over the very people who would put Him on the cross (Luke 19:41ff).  This makes reflection on my own sin sobering.

Distracted

John 1:6-13 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7  He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8  He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 

9  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13  who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 

I wrote a note to myself on Wednesday to call someone as soon as I got done with a conversation.  The note was next to the computer on a neon pink Post-It.  It wasn’t for several more hours that I remembered to make the call.  Distractions.  How easily and quickly our minds wander to mundane things when the immediate are screaming our attention.  

We remember that the purpose of John writing his gospel was “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”  Yet we also learned that the world is in darkness and the light shines in the darkness.  But the distractions of other things keep us from seeing the light of Christ and finding life in Him.  Our own sin is a distraction as we seek out other things other than Christ to be our ultimate happiness.  We also seek out our own righteousness which is a distraction from Jesus.  In an attempt to be right before God we follow people who woo us, experiences which seem dynamic to us, and movements that offer promises of spiritual life.  But in all of these distractions we often fail to follow the Jesus that is so obvious.  

Has your lifestyle become your focus rather than Christ’s life-blood?  Have your wants and desires overcome your affection for Him?  Are you seeking extraordinary things when Jesus is what you need?  Are you hoping for something extra when Jesus has given all?

The Entrance of Revelation

The gospel of John is about revealing Jesus to us so that we might believe in Him for salvation and for all of life (John 20:30-31).  When I was a newly converted Christian, I would have questioned that statement.  I remember hearing things like Jesus being called the “word,” or “light,” or “life,” and mentally scratching my head about what in the world that could mean.  Those are words that run throughout the gospel of John along with words like “witness,” “truth,” “grace,” “glory,” etc. . . churchy words that, for an unchurchy like me, meant nothing.  John begins this gospel, in which his goal is for people to believe, with these words!  How is that prudent?  

Well . . . the first eighteen verses serve as a prologue to the gospel introducing us to the themes that will unfold through the rest of the book.  He catches our attention early through intrigue in order to cause us to pursue more.  Some call these first eighteen verses the foyer to a house, or the gate to a mansion.  It is merely the entrance to a greater view.  Jesus is word and is God?  Jesus is life itself?  Jesus is light when all is darkness?  Who is this man who lived 2000 years ago?  Is He more than meets the eye?  Ah!  We need to read more to find out don’t we?

Watch Your Back (based on Proverbs 5)

Old Man Winter's dead and gone

Tossed his coat to the river bum

Dropped his watch in the setting sun

Better watch your back

New things glisten in the sun

New sap rises when the heat is on

There are just some things you don't leave undone

Better watch your back, boy

Better watch your back

Ah they'll tell you you're something

As they touch your sleeve

Pull you into the rushes

Blow away on the breeze

Flowers toil and flowers spin

Drawing kisses from the wind

They'll come around then leave again

Better watch your back, boy

Better watch your back

Swept Away

Psalm 90:5-6

5  You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,

like grass that is renewed in the morning:

6  in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;

in the evening it fades and withers.

Men . . . humanity, in comparison to God’s eternality, are swept away from generation to generation like a flash flood that washes through in a night or a fire that sweeps through a forest.  After one generation is gone, another sprouts.

The Yellowstone National Park wildfires of 1988 were devastating.  793,000 acres (about 36% of the park) were burned.  The park looked like a Sherman battleground.  But God designed our ecosystem resilient.  In the spring of 1989, new life was born from the ashes.  Grass “renewed in the morning” blossomed fresh.  What had withered quickly and so widespread was soon replenished by God’s handiwork.

When we see such new growth as a forest is rejuvenated after a couple of years, we quickly forget what decimation had once occurred.  But when it comes to our lives - human lives - we are reminded with each death of a loved one, and even the hints at our own mortality, that we personally don’t spring back.  Yes, a new generation may grow and flourish, but we don’t.  

The Psalmist is calling us to take stock of our lives while we exist.  “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom . . . Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days” (vv. 12, 14).

Be a realist.  Investigate your mortality.  Ponder your finiteness.  When you do, run to Christ to make the most of the days you have here on earth.  It is vanity to accomplish, get, build, acquire, spend, invest when all we have to live for is self which “in the evening withers and fades.”  But in relationship with Christ, what we do here has eternal purpose.  Just as Christ was born, lived, and died, so will we.  But Christ was resurrected.  He conquered death and sin.  United to Him by faith (trust that He did accomplish these things) we too receive new life.  We will die an earthly death just as Christ, but united to Him we will be “renewed in the morning” like fresh spring grass.  

With the confidence of eternity before us we can live satisfied today.  Fear doesn’t grip us when we think about being swept away.  Our earthly time-frame doesn’t shake us because we will be risen with Christ forever.  

Oh how I need to trust in the confidence that comes only in Christ . . . . today!  I am anxious.  I have deadlines to meet, difficult conversations that need attention, children to fret over.  I have stuff I want.  I have goals to accomplish.  Lord, cause me, this day, to have my confidence in Christ.  Help me to walk in Your mercies which are new every morning.  This day, teach me to be satisfied in Your steadfast love.

Moralist or Relativist?

Jonah 2:9 - “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

Are you a moralist or a relativist?

Moralist: one who trusts in a moral life as his/her hope.

Relativist: one who lives according to their own standards and desires.

A good example of both is given to us in the familiar parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32 .  The elder brother is the moralist:  “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command.”  The younger brother is the relativist: “ . . . he squandered his property in reckless living.”

Both brothers were using something against the father to stay away from him in order to control him.  The younger brother was using his immorality, and the elder brother his morality.  The unbeliever lives by one of these two paradigms.  They have not sought to humbly submit to the Father’s care and turn from their rebellion by trusting that Christ has paid for both their ‘bad’ behavior as well as their supposed ‘good’ behavior.  

At one time or another, or even in one hour or another, we who profess Christ also swing between the two paradigms forgetting that Christ has paid for both sets of sins.  Sometimes we live like a relativist running from God declaring our independence.  At other times we run from God in our moralism thinking that we are getting this Christian life right and deserve God’s favor.

Whether you are an unbeliever or a believer, you still need Christ.  

Jonah was a believing moralist who needed to see that neither his ‘good’ behavior, his family line (Jewish), nor his religious practice merited any more salvation from God than the evil practice of the worst of relativists (Ninevites) de-merited God’s salvation.  Salvation, through and through, belongs to the Lord.  He draws us to trust in His Son and He continues to grow those who trust in Him.  With patience and long suffering He reveals our heart of continued distrust so that we might trust Him more.

nearsighted

Jonah 4:5-11

5  Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 

6  Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7  But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8  When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. 

And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9  But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10  And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11  And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” 

Are you one who can get bogged down in details and miss the bigger, more important task at hand?  Maybe you are one who will dust off the leaves of your houseplants but ignore the laundry strewn across the furniture.  Maybe you are easily distracted from your immediate task to do something completely mundane.  I find myself at many times being absent-minded.  Last night I was focused on locking up the church building and drove home without my glasses (they were sitting on my desk) and without my cell phone (It was seated comfortably next to my glasses).  Now, as I write this, my cell phone is dead.  Why did I forget these items?  My mind was distracted, I’m sure, by something vitally important.  Right?  Probably not.  It was nearsightedness.  The mundane took precedent over the more important.

God uses Jonah’s nearsightedness to teach a lesson about grace and mercy.  Jonah goes outside the city Nineveh in order to watch the proceedings of, what He hopes will be God’s judgment against Nineveh.  Maybe he thought his anger at God for showing mercy would win God over to his thinking so that God would destroy these infidels.  Whatever the reason, Jonah is watching and God gives him shade via a gourd vine.  Jonah loves the vine because it gives him comfort.  God removes the vine via a worm.  Jonah gets angry.  Jonah is nearsighted.  Jonah cares more for his comfort from a vine in which he has made no investment, then he does for 120,000 people who don’t know God’s grace.  Ouch.

What creature comforts do you allow into your life that produce a nearsighted effect?  What produces in you more of a concern for your will over God’s will?  What keeps you introverted, secluded, and imprisoned from seeking out how He might use you for His glory and the benefit of another or others?  May God richly bless our time spent in His Word wrestling with sin and conflicted by grace.