Where have I heard that voice before? --part 1

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 2

Over the next couple days, I’m going to talk about the concepts of voice and influence.

But first, in order to consider scriptural voices, I’m going to have to hush up and let you listen to them. Today, therefore, I'll quote two of the most remarkable passages in scripture, then steal silently away.

First you will be reading Hannah’s Prayer from 1 Samuel 2. Then you will be reading Mary’s Song from Luke 1. If you read them slowly and carefully, the second reading will sound like an echo of the first! More importantly, and wondrously, you will wonder --as you read both passages --“Where have I heard that voice before?”

Tomorrow, I’ll bring my voice back to chime in on that.

***

Hannah prayed and said:

“My heart rejoices in the LORD;
in the LORD my horn is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
for I delight in your deliverance.

There is no one holy like the LORD;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.

Do not keep talking so proudly
or let your mouth speak such arrogance,
for the LORD is a God who knows,
and by him deeds are weighed.

The bows of the warriors are broken,
but those who stumbled are armed with strength.

Those who were full hire themselves out for food,
but those who were hungry hunger no more.
She who was barren has borne seven children,
but she who has had many sons pines away.

The LORD brings death and makes alive;
he brings down to the grave and raises up.
The LORD sends poverty and wealth;
he humbles and he exalts.

He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes
and has them inherit a throne of honor.

For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's;
upon them he has set the world.
He will guard the feet of his saints,
but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.

It is not by strength that one prevails;
those who oppose the LORD will be shattered.
He will thunder against them from heaven;
the LORD will judge the ends of the earth.

He will give strength to his king
and exalt the horn of his anointed.” (1 Samuel 2:1-10)

***

And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers." (Luke 1:46-55)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the hinges and the Door

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 1


Samuel.
The only person in the Old Testament who was at one and the same time a prophet (1 Samuel 3:20) a priest (1 Samuel 7:9) and a judge (1 Samuel 7:6, 15).

God revealed himself to Samuel by the Word of God.  God is not revealing (adding to) but He is illuminating his Word today by his Spirit, that we might come to know him.
The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word. (3:21)

From the time he was a small child, Samuel was devoted to God's service, and later in life he became a great leader, moving his people from leadership by judges to rule by a king.  He anointed both Saul and David as kings.

Like John the Baptist, Samuel was a great transitional figure, a hinge between two ages.  Like John, he identified and proclaimed the man after God's own heart. (1 Sam. 13:14)

Hinges and the Door.

While Samuel and John the Baptist are hinges, connecting eras and dispensations and testaments, Jesus Christ is the ultimate transitional figure; the only mediator between God and men, life and death, heaven and hell, darkness and light, justice and mercy, truth and grace.  The Door, he is the difference between what your life was and what it is.  (1)

I went through the Door from hopelessness to hope, from pointlessness to purpose.

You went through the Door from __________________ to ____________________.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) See John 10:9 and 1 Timothy 2:5.

don’t leave your best dress in the closet

The Word for today:
Ruth 4

Every now and then we come across a Bible verse that stands for something much larger than what it seems to be saying. One of those verses is Ruth 3:3:

Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes…

The verse can stand as the picture of every sinner who comes to Jesus:

1. Wash yourself.

First we are forgiven at the cross: The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). But the process of salvation has just begun…

2. Anoint yourself.

Then we are anointed by the Holy Spirit. Anointed is a biblical word which denotes the person and work of the Holy Spirit, who comes upon all believers to empower and teach them:

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. (1 John 2:20/ESV)

Another version says it this way:

But you have had the Holy Spirit poured out on you by Christ, and so all of you know the truth. (1 John 2:20/GNT)

The reason you and I can understand the Bible is not because of our superior intellects. It is a direct result of the empowering Holy Spirit:

For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (1Corinthians 2:10-16)

As the mind of Christ develops within us, the "outside" changes too. This is expressed in the third part of Ruth 3:3:

3. Put on your best clothes.

Galatians 3:27 tells us that we have put on Christ:

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

At the moment we were forgiven by the blood and empowered by the
Spirit, we also received the "robe" of Christ-righteousness:

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

***

Many believers stop at #1.  They consider themselves "washed," but that's about it. So they live as if they were nothing more than forgiven criminals.

But God has changed us all the way from the inside out.  He has empowered us with His Spirit and transformed us into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).  So...

Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a preview of the Redeemer

The Word for today:
Ruth 3


Our reading schedule gave us only two days in the book of Ruth. But we could not begin to do justice to this great romance in such a short time. Therefore we borrowed some time from our next book (1 Samuel) and extended Ruth to four days.

And with so much truth and beauty to convey, we developed a study guide that covers more ground than our customary single-themed articles ever could.

Part 1 and part 2 are pre-requisite to today’s study.

***

Boaz is a prophetic picture of Jesus Christ as our Kinsman-Redeemer. The kinsman redeemer did not act—he did not have to act—by statute of the law. He was, you see, in love…

"The LORD bless him!" Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. "He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead." She added, "That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers." (Ruth 2:20; cf. Exodus 6:6; Isaiah 59:20; Rom 3:24; Eph 1:7)

If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold. (Lev. 25:25)`

If an alien or a temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells himself to the alien living among you or to a member of the alien's clan, he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his relatives may redeem him: An uncle or a cousin or any blood relative in his clan may redeem him. (Lev. 25:47-49)

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Pet. 1:18-19)

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:13-14)

***

Christ the Kinsman-Redeemer was willing and able to pay the price for our sin.

The redeemer must be a “near kinsman”…so Christ had to be “born of woman, born under the law” to redeem us.
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Gal. 4:4-5)

The redeemer must be “able to redeem”…he must be “good for” the price of payment:

Which of you convicts Me of sin? (John 8:46)

***

Ruth enters into a new life.
But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you."  (Ruth 1:16-17)

It is our responsibility to claim the Kinsman-Redeemer, and His covering robe of righteousness.
Just as Ruth claims Boaz as her kinsman-redeemer, we must claim Christ. Christ can’t claim us—just as Boaz could not claim her. If you love Christ, tell him you do!

And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman. (3:9)

We can rest, for Christ will finish the work of redemption:


Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day. (3:18; cf. John 19:30)

The kinsman who will not redeem represents the law, which cannot redeem us:

Then the next of kin said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.” (4:6)

***

The Redeemer takes a bride…
Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife. (4:9-10)

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. (Rev. 19:7; cf. Eph. 5:25)

The Redeemer takes a Gentile bride…
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal. 3:28-29; cf. Matthew 8:11; Eph. 2:11-18)

I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:3)

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. (John 10:16)

(The sheepfold is the Jewish people. Here Jesus told the fold that He would bring in non-Jews as well to form a new all-encompassing family, the church.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

handfuls of purpose

The Word for today:
Ruth 2

And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: And let fall also some of the handfuls on purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not." (Ruth 2:15-16)

In some of the darkest days in the Bible, in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab (Ruth 1:1).

One of this man's sons married a local girl named Ruth. When both the man and his sons died, Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, returned to Bethlehem upon hearing that the famine in the land of Judah had ended.

There a wealthy man named Boaz falls in love (at first sight!) when he "happens" to see Ruth, who went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters and, as it turned out, found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz (Ruth 2:3).

In the book of Ruth, the Bible reader knows that Boaz told his workers to let fall also some of the handfuls (of grain) of purpose for her (2:16 KJV), so that Ruth will be able to gather enough to sustain herself and Naomi. But Ruth does not know that Boaz is deliberately providing for her in this way, behind the scenes. She must have thought that the workers weren't harvesting very carefully!

This story illustrates a concept known as God's providence (1). The invisible, providing, protecting hand of the LORD is behind every word and circumstance in the book of Ruth.

Very often we, like Ruth in the fields, do not realize the provision God makes for us. We might attribute our circumstances to chance or happenstance, and fail to see the guiding and sustaining hand of God in our lives.

The conditions of Ruth's life--the hunger, untimely death, and poverty--made it particularly difficult for her to see that all things work together for good to those who love God (Rom. 8:28).

Later, when Boaz and Ruth are married, Ruth's fallen estate is restored, and a family--life--is restored to that which was dead. Once she had been in Adam (represented in the story by her first husband.) Now she is joined to her Redeemer, Christ (represented by Boaz):

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22).

How could Ruth know, when she "happened" upon Boaz' field, that the handful of purpose would fall to us as well--for from their marriage would proceed a great-grandson, King David. Out of David's line would come the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.

Out of that wheat field, out of that 'chance' meeting, came the Bread of Life (John 6:48), God's provision for our lives, now and forever:

And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:23-24).

Because He loves us, God decreed that the wheat should fall for us, on purpose.

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(1) see Genesis 22:13-14

What does he see in me?

The Word for today:
Ruth 1

The book of Ruth is a literary and spiritual gem.

It is, first of all, a love story. We would do well to transfer that phrase to the Bible itself, so let’s do it:

The Bible is, first of all, a love story. The day the Bible student comes to that understanding is the day he begins to understand his Bible.

Our reading schedule has given us only two days in the book of Ruth. We can’t begin do justice to this great romance in such a short time. Therefore we are going to borrow some time from our next book (1 Samuel) and extend Ruth to four days.

With so much truth and beauty to convey, we have developed a study guide that will touch upon many more of Ruth’s important topics than four of our customary single-themed articles ever could. We trust that you will bring your heart to these matters. If you do, your mind will gladly tag along.

***

Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab… (Ruth 1:1)

Out of the dark period of the judges comes the love story of redemption. It is an unwavering Biblical principle that darkness gives way to light:

And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep…and God said, Let there be light… and the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1:2,3,5)

Ruth’s striking faithfulness stands in contrast to the dark backdrop of faithlessness in the days when the judges ruled.

Time frame. (cf. Matt. 1:5-6; Joshua 6:25; Heb. 11:31)
Boaz is the son of Rahab, the prostitute in Joshua (and a charter member of the Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11.) Boaz and Ruth are the great-grandparents of King David.

Bethlehem (“house of bread”) is a small, nondescript village 5 miles south of Jerusalem. But it is one of the most significant locations in the Bible:
Jacob’s wife Rachel died there, giving birth to Benjamin. (Gen. 35:18-19)
Ruth and Boaz met there and became parents in the line of the Messiah.
David, their great-grandson, was born there. (1 Sam. 16:1)
Micah the prophet predicted that the Messiah would be born there. (Micah 5:2)
Matthew 2 and Luke 2 record the Christmas story, when the prophecy was fulfilled.

Salvation is a love affair…
We love him because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. And the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were by the law, then Christ died in vain (Gal. 2:20-21).

In Ruth we see a man who is a kinsman-redeemer, but he doesn’t have to act in that capacity. Another, closer kinsman had the opportunity to take action, but he turned it down. He did not care for Ruth, but Boaz loved her. That made all the difference. God did not have to redeem us. If He did not, He would still be a just and holy God. But He loved us.

Boaz is a prophetic picture of Jesus Christ as our Kinsman-Redeemer. The kinsman redeemer did not act—he did not have to act—by statute of the law. He was, you see, in love…

The unsearchable heart of love… (What does He see in me?)
Then she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? (2:10)

“What does he see in me?” is the wrong question -- for the answer is not in us, but in Him:

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:6-8)

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displaying the pearls -- part 3

The Word for today:
1 Peter 5

“Why do you believe in Jesus?”

Someday (if it hasn't been asked already) somebody is going to ask you that question. When they ask it, you will know whether they are sincerely wondering about your faith, or whether they are picking a fight.

If they are just looking for an argument, don’t waste your breath. Jesus said not to throw your pearls before swine (1). So, keep your pearls in your pocket.

But if the question is sincere, we should be ready to display our pearls, so to speak:

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15)

A couple days ago, in part 1, we used some whimsical examples to arrive at this serious conclusion:

“Believers are often less prepared to answer questions and objections about our faith in Jesus than real estate salespeople are prepared for the objections they face. So we hope to see you tomorrow, when we’ll offer some specific ways that we can be prepared.”

Yesterday, in part 2, we prepared to respond with our heads:

1. Be able to tell the Good News.
2. Do not leave Jesus on the cross!
3. Point to prophecy (pre-cross)
4. Point to history (post-resurrection)
5. Point to the differences Jesus has made in you.

Today we bring our testimonies to a grand finale, as we reach into our hearts to…

6. Display your pearls.

This part of your testimony is unique, known only to you, so I cannot specifically direct you. But I can leave you with a few examples of what “pearls” might look like.

First, an example from my own heart…

I’m a writer who spent his life looking and listening for the Story that, I was certain, just had to be out there…somewhere, if only I could find it. So for the longest time I looked and listened, but nothing that I read or heard could fill my heart. Years and years of fruitless searching left me so discouraged that I began to think that maybe the Story had never been told. But I kept going until, one day, I found it hiding in plain sight, in a book that had always been there on my shelf.

It seems I had to read every story in the world to find the one so good it has to be true; the one so good and true that my heart's too small to contain it all.

***

That’s the "pearl" my life has formed. Yours, of course, will look a bit different. My pearl formed around what happened in my life, but I've heard of pearls that formed around what didn’t happen! I know a man whose relationship with God coalesced around a sentiment he'd first heard in a rock 'n roll song!--

”God only knows what I'd be without you.” (2)

***

Finally, from the heart of Connie Jo (a Stand in the Rain star from a state far, far away) comes a distillation of every “pearl” ever formed. In response to part 1 of this article, she wrote via Facebook:

“It’s because I'm in LOVE with Him. That’s why I believe :)”

Connie’s pearl of great price is the essence of all our testimonies. So if you’ve got many pearls but you can’t decide which to display, show ‘em that one!

And if you haven’t formed a pearl yet, you can borrow Connie’s for a while, until you’ve got one to call your own. Believe me, she won't mind, even if you never give it back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) Matthew 7:6
(2) “God Only Knows,” by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher from “Pet Sounds” by the Beach Boys, 1966.

displaying the pearls -- part 2

The Word for today:
1 Peter 4:7-19

“Why do you believe in Jesus?”

Someday (if it hasn't been asked already) somebody is going to ask you that question. When they ask it, you will know whether they are sincerely wondering about your faith, or whether they are picking a fight.

If they are just looking for an argument, don’t waste your breath. Jesus said not to throw your pearls before swine (1). So, keep your pearls in your pocket.

But if the question is sincere, we should be ready to display our pearls, so to speak:

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15)

Yesterday, we used some whimsical examples to arrive at this serious conclusion:

“Believers are often less prepared to answer questions and objections about our faith in Jesus than real estate salespeople are prepared for the objections they face. So we hope to see you tomorrow, when we’ll offer specific ways that we can be prepared.”

Well, tomorrow has arrived, so let’s get prepared:

1. Be able to tell the Good News.
The Good News (the gospel) of Jesus Christ is that God Himself died in our place in order to save us from the eternal consequences of sin.
We, ourselves, must understand what happened at the cross in order to express it to others. Then we should condense our understanding to a phrase which communicates the cross to a sincere seeker. In order to condense the cross, I use the title of the old song, “Jesus Paid it All.” Using that phrase, I can explain the salvation purchased at the cross by the blood of Christ. Others might prefer the phrase “Jesus took my place,” or “He got what I deserve.”

2. Do not leave Jesus on the cross!
After Jesus died for our sins, God powerfully and visually proclaimed that the plan worked! The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that the cross was not just a “nice try” by a nice guy. The resurrection means that the cross was God’s great victory over evil and sin and death.

3. Point to prophecy (pre-cross)
The Bible clearly told the Story before it happened. So equip yourself with prophetic scriptures that you can point to. Nearly 1000 years before it happened, Psalm 22 described the cross through the Savior’s eyes. Nearly 700 years before it happened, Isaiah 53 described the cross through the eyes of those who were being saved.

The cross happened exactly as the Bible foretold. Prophecy shows us that the cross is not only historically verified, but pre-historically verified!

4. Point to history (post-resurrection)
While prophecy (history written before history happened) proves the cross, the resurrection is proved by its undeniable historical after-effects.

The radical changes wrought in the lives of a little band of previously fearful men (who had each deserted Jesus on the night he was captured and tried) can only be explained by the fact that they were men who had witnessed an astounding miracle! The resurrection that the disciples proclaimed was verified by their radically altered lives--lives that turned the entire world on its ear.

Each of the disciples died for his fearless testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Their faith swept the world and is -- to this day, far and away -- the world’s predominant influence.

5. Point to the differences Jesus has made in you.

It is right here that many believers tend to get moralistic. That would be a mistake. Don’t tell the sinner that you cuss less, drink less, and hardly ever chase skirts anymore. Those were your problems, not their’s.

Or we tend to get religious, telling about our church or our prayer or our scripture study. But those kinds of changes do not persuade the seeker. He does not notice — or need, or want -- your personal halo.

Instead, tell them (as 1 Peter 3:15 advises) of the new-found hope in your heart: that the future seems a little brighter; that there really is a Somewhere just over the rainbow; that you’re not alone anymore; and that you look forward to the future instead of fearing it.

***

Tomorrow, in part 3, we’ll bring our testimonies to a grand finale, when we display our pearls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) Matthew 7:6

displaying the pearls -- part 1

The Word for today:
1 Peter 3:13-4:6

 

“Why do you believe in Jesus?”

Someday (if it hasn't been asked already) somebody is going to ask you that question. When they ask it, you will know whether they are sincerely wondering about your faith, or whether they are picking a fight.

If they are just looking for an argument, don’t waste your breath. Jesus said not to throw your pearls before swine (1). So, keep your pearls in your pocket.

But if the question is sincere, we should be ready to display our pearls, so to speak:

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15)

For a brief period in my life, I sold real estate. The broker who owned the real estate company was, in his own field, a good teacher.

He gave us a list of the most common questions and objections we would hear from clients and customers. Then we practiced effective answers and counter-objections.

The broker would always play the role of the customer. He might play the customer at an open house who was more than ready to buy, then suddenly gets cold feet in the parking lot of the real estate office. In that case, we’d practice a specific routine called the “Parking Lot Bail Out Counter.” We were expected to memorize the script and be able to put it to use at a moment’s notice.

We had to memorize other routines as well, each of them tailored to counter another specific objection. The routines had colorful titles that made them memorable. Among them were the “Tip of the Iceberg” technique; the “Safe Island;” “No Way Jose;” “Reduce to the Ridiculous;” “The Seller Might Die;” “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lease (Just Drop Off the Key, Lee);” “Miss Apprehension;” and “The Terminal Turnaround.”

Funny thing was, they worked. Almost every sale I made was because the broker taught me when and how to deploy those counter-objections.

***

What isn’t very funny is that believers are often less prepared to answer questions and objections about our faith in Jesus than real estate salespeople are prepared for the objections they face.

So we hope to see you tomorrow, when we’ll offer some specific ways that we can be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) Matthew 7:6

the best translation of the Bible

The Word for today:
1 Peter 3:1-12

The story is told of a little boy who is watching a ventriloquist perform. Willingly suspending his disbelief (as kids do) he imagines the dummy is alive. Moreover, he wants to bring the dummy home so they can play together.

The boy perceives the ventriloquist to be the dummy’s father, so he waits until the performance is over, then goes backstage and asks the ventriloquist if his new friend can come over to play. The ventriloquist tries to change the subject, but the little boy keeps on asking. Hemming and hawing, the ventriloquist doesn’t know what to do.

Then the boy walks over to the box where the dummy is laying. “I tried to ask your Dad if you can come over and play, but he wouldn’t say. So I’ll have to ask you—“

To which the exasperated ventriloquist finally replied to the boy, “Kid, I don’t know how else to tell you this, but he just talks. He doesn’t do anything.”

***

So many of us are like that dummy. We talk the Bible but don’t live biblically. We usually mean well, but because our words are not consistently translated into action, our testimonies are not taken seriously. We become nothing more than verbal pests to be avoided.

I’m guilty of that kind of pestering—of words that are not authenticated by my life. So on behalf of others like me, I propose a new motto: "Be doers of the Word and not sayers only."

Let’s listen as Peter proposes the same thing, exhorting wives to let their actions speak so loudly that they won’t have to say a single word!---

In the same way you wives must submit yourselves to your husbands, so that if any of them do not believe God's word, your conduct will win them over to believe. It will not be necessary for you to say a word. (1 Peter 3:1)

I, and most of us, would be far more persuasive about the power of the gospel if we were more like those wives and less like that dummy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

something in the way He moves

“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”  John 6:37

The Word for today:
1 Peter 2:18-25

1 Peter is written to God's elect, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. (1 Peter 1:1-2)

Which pretty much leaves you and me out of the picture, right?

Wrong. Election is a concept that, like so many other biblical concepts, is bigger than our heads. I have never met a person or read a theologian who could wrap his head around election and free will, simultaneously.

But somehow I know that both God’s election and man’s free will are absolutely true. Morever, the one does not contradict the other.

I can’t explain them, or analyze them, or argue about them. But I can, from the Word of God, illustrate that they work, in the real world, in seamless tandem.

The illustration comes from the story of Gideon in the book of Judges:

But the LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go." So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink." Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place."
(Judges 7:4-7)

I'm going to point to the facts, then I'm going to leave you to find them in the passage directly above.

If you do, you will conclude that God’s election and man’s free will are simultaneously in effect in the passage. You will never be able to "prove" this conclusion (as one proves a geometric theorem) but do not worry, for your inability to intellectually prove or defend election and free will puts you in the company of the greatest theologians who have ever lived--for they couldn’t either.

But more important than finding yourself in the company of theologians is that you will find yourself in the company of those chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, to whom 1 Peter was written.

***

Here then, are the facts. If you bring these facts to the story about Gideon (above), the “contradictions" will melt away…

God chose 300 men. (Fact)

But how did he choose them? By letting each man use his free will. (Fact)

So election and free will cannot be understood through debate and analysis, but in real life it works out that way. (Fact)

You can come to Jesus if you want to: "All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and he that comes to me I will in no wise cast out (1)." (Fact)

If you don’t come to Jesus, you weren’t elected. (Fact)

If you do come to Him (here’s the Good News) you were elected. (Fact)

Just because we can't explain something does not mean it's not true. Just because we can't explain election and free will does not mean they are not simultaneously and absolutely true.

Together, they are the inexplicable something in the way God moves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the last arrow

Stand in the Rain is down to the final 3 weeks of our 3-year schedule.

In the days we have left, we are going to scour the archives for articles we meant to publish but never did because they were too long, or too strong, or too far gone. If we find any that touch upon our remaining books (1 Peter, Ruth, and the first half of 1 Samuel) we intend to deploy them.

We want to leave nothing in reserve. We want to be found with Sword unsheathed and no arrow left in the quiver.

The Word for today:
1 Peter 2:4-17

"Look, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and priceless cornerstone, and whoever believes in him will never be put to shame."
So you who believe see his value, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone..."
(1 Peter 2:6-7)

***

"Like a Rolling Stone"

These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (Colossians 2:17)

The Bible is one big song, or psalm. The song is held together by repeated images, technically called "types," which are pictures of things to come.

Teaching with types is the primary teaching method of the Holy Spirit. In the Bible, the movie comes out before the book! Junior- and senior-high students "watch the movie" instead of reading the book, then write a "book report," because the movie is easier to understand (and takes a lot less time). The Holy Spirit "shows the movie" first, filling the Old Testament with people, places, objects, and actions which serve to make it easier for us to understand the concepts of the New Testament, especially the concepts concerning the heart and character of God--the heart and character which brought Him to the cross.

'Types' can be people. Isaac, the miracle baby promised to Abraham and his wife Sarah (who was long past child-bearing age) typifies Jesus Christ, who was also supernaturally born.

Isaac was the son of promise. God promised Abraham that through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed (Genesis 26:4; cf. Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18). This was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, a descendant of Abraham and Isaac.

'Types' can be objects or things. The wood that Isaac carried to his own sacrifice foreshadows the cross that Jesus would carry to Golgotha.

'Types' can be actions. God told Abraham to bring Isaac to be sacrificed. Abraham obeyed. Then God stopped him, telling Abraham that God would Himself provide the sacrifice. Later, God not only provided a sacrifice but was, Himself, the sacrifice.

Some 'types' are 'types in contrast': Ishmael was Abraham's son born to the slave-girl Hagar. In contrast to Isaac, Ishmael is "the son of the flesh." Together, these two sons depict the New Testament concept that naturally, on our own, we are slaves to sin. But supernaturally, by faith in God's Son of Promise, we are set free from sin and death (see Romans 9). Jesus Christ emphasized this concept, telling the religious Pharisee Nicodemus that "You must be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

Types, then, foreshadow the character and work of Jesus Christ. A trick question that serves to help the Bible student understand the concept of types is--
In approximately what year did Passover occur?

The Bible student reflexively thinks in terms of "B.C.," thousands of years before Christ, in the time of Moses and the Exodus. But an understanding of the typology of Scripture gives us the correct answer: the passover in Exodus is only the copy and shadow of things to come (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5). Our real Passover was at the cross of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 5:7) in approximately 33 A.D. The blood on the posts and lintels of the doors in Egypt were the faint whisper, for a relatively few Hebrews, of the blood on the post and crosspiece where hung the Lamb without blemish--the Door to eternal life for all nations, for all time (John 10:9).

These types echo and re-echo throughout the Bible, pointing to Jesus. Every story whispers His name. The types, which are actually the Bible's most sophisticated and meaningful prophecies--deep calling to deep--become more emphatic, more pronounced, until the echo is overtaken by the original--the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world--in a dizzying timelessness.

These repeated motifs become the refrain, the chorus, of one big song. The Bible is arranged--composed--with the types as the repetitive elements tying the whole together. The Bible is not arranged chronologically. It is not arranged thematically. The Bible is arranged symphonically.

For the last ten years of my life, very nearly every available moment has been consumed with teaching (or preparing to teach) the Bible. I can't give any meaningful accounting of the rate of success and/or failure, for the Bible teaches the folly and danger of measuring a work of the Spirit, which I believe every Christian ministry to be.

But one night in late June, I had my most gratifying moment. A small crew of hardcore Bible students, some of them on their second or third trip with me through the 66 books of the Bible, had gathered on a Thursday night--a night so mild, so lush and gorgeous that any "sane" person would have opted out of Bible study in order to enjoy the weather. But this crew, insane in the Spirit, were there when I started to trot through another of the types. This one happened to be the motif of the rock: starting with the rock that was smitten, from which life-giving water flowed (Exodus); to the stone the builders rejected which became the capstone of the arch (Psalms/1 Peter); to the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands, which crushed the prideful institutions of man (Daniel); to the stone of stumbling and a rock of offense for unbelievers (Isaiah/Romans/1 Peter); which same stone is the foundation of the church, upon which the wise man builds his house (1 Corinthians/Matthew).

As I was spieling through this very abridged ‘rock chorus,’ I could see in their eyes that they "got it," that they knew the Chorus and so were well on their way to learning the whole Song! They were following after the Rock of their salvation (Psalm 95:1) as He rolled through scripture--their steppingstone out of the valley of the shadow and into the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springeth out of the earth, through clear shining after rain (Psalm 23/2 Samuel 23).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

typecast

The Word for today:
1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Typecast…

Hollywood portrays Peter as the ignorant fisherman. Wrong, as usual.

In the first few verses of 1 Peter he handles the great doctrines of election, foreknowledge, sanctification, obedience, the blood of Christ, the Trinity, the grace of God, salvation, revelation, glory, faith, and hope.

At least they were right about him being a fisherman…

But there’ll be some changes made…

I like to read Peter because he is an example of how Jesus Christ rubs off on those who spend their time with him.

When we first encountered Peter in the gospels, he was impetuous, but in his epistles he is patient. The transforming power of the gospel had wrought this change in his life.

No brag, just fact…

Over the weekend, as you already know, we buried my 97-year-old Mother. My family, many of whom I now see at funerals only, were back in their hometown for the first time since we buried my nephew over 5 years ago.

I did not set out to ingratiate or endear myself to anyone, but Shelley was asked--by more than a few--if I had undergone a lobotomy! That was their hard-edged way of telling her that they noticed a positive change in me. What’s better yet is that even those who do not believe in Jesus gave him credit for my “lobotomy.” They all knew that He’s the one I’ve been hanging out with since they saw me last.

I hope you don’t think I’m bragging about either Peter or myself. I just wanted you to know that some will continue to label you with a label that has long since worn off. You will always be typecast by some, especially by those who don’t want to see -- in anyone’s life -- the latent image of God come into sharper focus.

But don’t fret about them, because it is also true that if your changes proceed over years, you will be surprised by how many take notice, and even attribute the changes to a Jesus whom they do not believe in!

***

Maybe, just maybe, when they come back for my funeral, their hearts will change towards Him. So I hope that all of them will be born again, but not for a long, long time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the fellowship of his sufferings

The Word for today:
1 Peter 1:1-12

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
(1 Peter 1:6-7)

1 Peter is all about suffering. Why does God allow it? What is its purpose? How should we deal with it?

But for most of us (if we are honest with ourselves) the first question would be “What is suffering?”

That’s because we are not a suffering or persecuted church. We think it extraordinary if someone serves, or gives, or prays, or loves even sacrificially. So most of us are hard-pressed to name one Christian of our acquaintance who suffers for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, since we have a lot to learn about this subject, let’s dive in. Let’s first of all see how suffering connects us to Jesus Christ.

When we suffer for Christ, Jesus is also suffering through us, through his church. Recall that when Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, he said, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"
(Acts 9:4)

Saul thought he was persecuting Christians. He was shocked to learn that he was actually persecuting Jesus Christ.

This is what Peter wrote about our suffering:

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
(1 Peter 4:12-13)

If the gospel is to go forward, someone has to suffer. When a child is born, a woman must travail in pain. Just so, there will be more people born again when more believers are willing to travail. That concept brings sense to these otherwise puzzling verses:

I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am completing what remains of Christ's sufferings for his body, the church.
(Colossians 1:24/NLT)

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. (Philippians 3:8-10/NKJV)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

our ultimate Judge

The Word for today:
Judges 21


As we look back over the book of the Judges, we look forward to the ultimate Judge whom their stories anticipate…

The LORD as Judge--the Judges delivered the Israelites from their enemies and decided disputes, but behind them stood the ultimate Judge, Jesus Christ:

Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day. (Judges 11:27)

Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. (John 5:22)

There are different kinds of judgment in the Bible:

1. Judgment against unbelievers — “Great White Throne” Judgment. (Revelation 20:11-15)
At the great white throne, those who have not by faith accepted Jesus’ death as sacrifice for their sin will bear the penalty for their own sin. Not one is perfect, and the just penalty for sin is severe—eternal death (see Romans 3:23). Remember that eternal death in the Bible is not cessation of existence, but eternal separation from God.

2. Judgment for believers — “Judgment Seat of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)
Believers will not be judged for their sin, because Jesus was judged in our stead. Once we have accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for our sin, God no longer holds that against us—our slates have been wiped clean.

Believers will be awarded to the degree in which we have served him. Everything we have done will be ”revealed by fire.” Those deeds of faith with lasting value (“gold, silver, and other costly stones”) will come out of the fire glowing more brilliantly than before. But those things without lasting value (“wood, hay, and straw”) will leave behind only a pile of ashes. Thus God will determine each believer’s reward:

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:11-14)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the iniquity of the Americans

The Word for today:
Judges 20

the Judges delivered the Israelites from their enemies and decided disputes, but behind them stood the ultimate Judge:

Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day. (Judges 11:27)

Everything--the good, the bad, the ugly--must pass before Him in review. He waves it on, lets it continue on for another day, or He does not.

But sometimes it can seem like nobody’s minding the store anymore. That is because the Judge is patient and methodical; his judgment is never in haste or in the heat of the moment:

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
(2 Peter 3:9-10)

Thus it can seem, in the span of a single human lifetime, that the Judge has vacated the bench. Nothing could be further from the truth. Listen as the Judge explains his timetable concerning the Amorites (the people in possession of Canaan at the time) to Abraham:

“Know of a surety that your descendants shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great possessions.
And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
But in the fourth generation they shall come here again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." (Genesis 15:13-16)

What God is telling Abraham is that he will judge both the Amorites (possessors of the Promised Land) and Egypt, but not in Abraham’s time. Abraham will “go to his fathers and be buried” before God will move against these lands in judgment.

400 years later, the iniquity of the Amorites was full. Have you ever met an Amorite? Ever met anybody from Sodom? The Roman Empire? The Third Reich? He put His chosen, the children of Israel, out of the land 3 times--enslavement in Egypt, exile to Babylon, then world-wide dispersal after not one stone was left upon another in 70 AD. And He judged His own Son, when He became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Just so, when the iniquity of the Americans is full, no longer will His sword be stayed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the Obnoxious Few

The Word for today:
Judges 19

When her husband opened the door to leave, he found her there. She was lying face down, with her hands on the threshold. He said, "Get up! Let's go!" But there was no answer. So he put her body on his donkey and took her home. When he got home, he took a knife and cut his concubine's body into twelve pieces. Then he sent one piece to each tribe of Israel. Everyone who saw it said, "Such a horrible crime has not been committed since Israel left Egypt. Shouldn't we speak up and do something about this?"
(Judges 19:27-30)

One can’t help thinking, as one reads through the grisly account of the Levite’s concubine in Judges chapter 19, of how contemporary it all sounds. It is a chapter filled with homosexual lust, rape, dismembered body parts, and vengeance.

In just the past couple of days, we have been treated to accounts of cannibalism (Miami), dismemberment (Canada), homosexual lust (Penn State), and rape (any town on any given day.)

We’re told that things have always been this way.  But I do not believe it.  In my lifetime, I do not recall evil of such frequency and such depravity.

I most closely equate our generation with the last line of the chapter:

Everyone who saw it said, "Such a horrible crime has not been committed since Israel left Egypt. Shouldn't we speak up and do something about this?" (Judges 19:30/NLT)

***

“Shouldn't we speak up and do something about this?"

Yes, we should do something about this. We can pray and vote and keep on hoping for the best, but as an sold song said, “Wishin’ and hopin’ and plannin’ and prayin’” doesn’t always get things done.

So while we’re praying and voting, let’s not forget the first part of the verse:

"Shouldn’t we speak up?"

It’s time to leave the anonymity of the voting booth and the safety of the prayer closet. It’s time to get loud and to stick our faces into the fray.

It’s time to renounce our memberships in the Silent Majority and be counted with the Obnoxious Few who will stand up in public against these mounting tides.

It’s time to stop hiding behind our polite American “Christianity” and start giving voice to the Spirit of the biblical Christ within us.  He was never in the majority, and He was seldom silent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

believe what?

The Word for today:
Judges 17, 18



We’ve all heard John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

It says that any person who believes in Jesus will not perish. OK, but what does "believe" mean?

I know people who believe that Jesus led the perfect life, and so they see his life as proof of man’s ultimate perfectibility. But that is not what believe means in John 3:16. Jesus’ life never saved anybody. Instead, Jesus’ life stands as an indictment of the mankind's imperfections.

I know people who believe in the Sermon on the Mount: “The Sermon on the Mount is my religion,” a man once told me. But there is no salvation in the Sermon on the Mount. (There would be if we could live by it, but no one except Jesus ever has.)

I know people who believe in Jesus’ philosophy. But philosophy is certainly not what believe refers to in John 3:16.

Neither Jesus’ life, nor his law, nor his philosophy has ever saved anyone. What saved us was his death. To believe, as the word is used in John 3:16, means to believe in the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is the gospel’s most succinct expression in the New Testament:

I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

That’s the belief mentioned in John 3:16. You will not find a hint of Jesus’ life, his laws, or his philosophy in those words.

***

Here, in the death of Samson from the Old Testament book of Judges, is a prophetic picture (carefully visualize Samson’s arms) of the cross/gospel:

Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived. (Judges 16:29-30)

Just when his mocking enemies thought they’d conquered him, Samson sent their temple crashing down. In his death he defeated more of the enemy than he had during his life.

Just when His mocking enemies thought they’d conquered him, Jesus turned the tables and through His death overcame Satan, sin, and all the powers of darkness.

When we speak of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is not a do-gooder’s to-do list; it is not a grand philosophical statement; it is not, in fact, an idea at all. It is blood, shed for the sins of a single believer who is known in John 3:16 as “Whosoever.”

When Whosoever’s sin and God’s blood commingle at the cross, Whosoever is saved. That is what “believe” means.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

practice in your mirror

The Word for today:
Judges 16


Yesterday, we concluded by writing that “In the Bible and in our real-time lives, we must remember to see people through the supernatural eyes of God, or we will get the wrong picture -- and miss the entire point.”

The following characters are a peek into the mind of Christ (1). If you want to see the world through God's eyes, according to the mind of Christ, then begin to contemplate what it was that God saw in some of the misfits and outcasts whom he commissioned to lead his people.

Gideon was too timid to lead (as seen from the mind of man);
Samson's morals were questionable, at best; he was a vow-breaker and was dominated by lusts and domineering women (as seen from the mind of man);
Moses had insecurities (as seen from the mind of man, including Moses' own mind);
Aaron was swayed by the crowd;
David had a tempestuous temper, was a parental failure, and succumbed to (accidental) pornography;
Jacob was the supreme flim-flam artist; that is, until he met Uncle Laban, the con of cons;
Joseph was cocky;
Elijah was prone to melt-down under depression;
Jonah, the Bible's greatest evangelist (batting 1000 in Nineveh) did not want to save a single soul in Nineveh;
Amos was a country yokel, placed in sophisticated surroundings;
Esther and Mordecai should have removed themselves from their sophisticated surrounding and returned to the land, but they didn't;
John the Baptist didn't fit in anywhere or with anybody (except Jesus);
Peter was at the mercy of his own spontaneity; his muscles and mouth often moved before his mind was engaged;
Paul--Pharisee of Pharisees--attempted to stamp out Christianity before he became Christ's foremost ambassador.

The great principle is that what God sees is Christ in us:
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

Seeing Christ in those who trust him is to see through God's transformative eyes. If you want to learn how to see things that way, start by practicing in your mirror.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) 1 Corinthians 2:16

the wrong picture

The Word for today:
Judges 14, 15

The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. (Judges 14:6)

Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of their belongings and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he went up to his father's house. (Judges 14:19)

As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. (Judges 15:14)




We often have a cartoon concept of biblical characters. To see what I mean, close your eyes while I count to five. Then, as I count, I want you to conjure up a mental image of Samson.

Ready? One…two…three…four…five.

Almost everyone’s mental picture of Samson will share two traits: big muscles and long hair. The long hair, we know, he usually had. But whether or not he was muscular is impossible to say.

We assume he had muscles because he had great strength. That is the deduction of the of the natural mind, but Samson's strength was not in his muscles or his hair. He was only strong when the Spirit of the LORD moved him. He is often depicted as a big bruiser, but it is more likely that he was not.

Remember that God had already gone to great lengths to choose Gideon—the weakest man of Israel’s weakest clan—to lead Israel. Then, for emphasis, he had culled the army of Gideon from 32,000 to 300. He did this so that Israel would know that it was God, not Gideon, who saved them.

The natural mind always equates power with size. In 1 Samuel, the people choose Saul to be their King. Saul was a head taller than anyone else in Israel; he looked the part.

He fulfilled the popular perception of a king, but he was not God’s choice. Instead, God would choose a lad named David, the youngest and least likely in his family.

In the Bible and in our real-time lives, we must remember to see people through the supernatural eyes of God, or we will get the wrong picture -- and miss the entire point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

how sublime an irony

The Word for today:
Judges 13

Yesterday, we re-played the prideful post-mortem self-satire that the song “I Did It My Way” has become for many Americans. As I said then…

My purpose is not to diss the defenseless dead. (God knows I’ve got more pride than any five people, combined.) What I mean to do is marvel at how ridiculous pride makes all of us look, whether we’re dead or alive.

Before I became a Bible blogger, whenever “My Way” started playing, I heard the great Robert Burns whispering “To A Louse” in my other ear:

O would some power the Gift-Giver give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And many a foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even in devotion!

Now, Bible-banging blogger that I’ve become, when I hear “My Way” I hear the last verse in Judges:

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

And, even more clearly, I can’t help but hear words spoken by the only person who ever truly and absolutely lived his life on terms that were of his own choosing.

And what were those terms? Let’s listen:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19)

"My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” (John 7:16)

"When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” (John 8:28)

“For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment--what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me." (John 12:49-50)

How sublime an irony—that the only one who refused to do it his way was the only one who ever did.

***

My mother died this morning. She was 97 years old and when she passed away, she went as peacefully as she had lived. Her departure was no more remarkable than if she had stepped over a threshold from one room into another.

For seventy years she was a Mom and for fifty years she was a nurse, so her life was never her own. To the degree that anyone this side of Jesus Christ can ever claim, she never lived life “her way.”

I shall love her forever, to infinity and beyond. I will not miss her forever, but only until we shall meet again.

And we shall, because He said so:

"The Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment--what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

karaoke for the dead

The Word for today:
Judges 11:29-12:15


We are--all of us, at one time or another--great self-satirists. And not only are we great satirists, but we are great ironists as well. So great are some of us that even death cannot curtail our ironic autobiographical satires.

If you’ve gone to a dozen funerals, you’ve no doubt been treated to a recording of “My Way,” the Paul Anka song that was popularized by Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. (The version sung by Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols popularized the song for this writer. But please, don’t ask and don’t tell…)

For decades, “I Did It My Way" has gone unchallenged as the most oft-played song at American funerals. But what the heck, let’s spin it one more time. All together now:

And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend I'll say it clear
I'll state my case of which I'm certain

I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

Regrets I've had a few
But then again too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption

I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

Yes there were times I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out, I faced it all
And I stood tall and did it my way

I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now as tears subside
I find it all so amusing

To think I did all that
And may I say not in a shy way
Oh no, oh no, not me
I did it my way

For what is a man what has he got
If not himself then he has not
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way

Yes it was my way

***

You cannot fathom how I struggle to keep from bursting into laughter whenever this song is played. For the most part (I knew them; that’s why I went to their funerals) the deceased subject of the song never said boo to anybody, lived in terror of his boss, wore the pantsuits in his family, and (as Sid Vicious might say) wouldn’t say #*^% if he had a mouthful. I’ve had to hastily exit two churches because I could not stifle the guffaws this song has generated.

Before I became a Bible blogger, whenever “My Way” started playing, I heard the great Robert Burns whispering “To A Louse” in my other ear:

O would some power the Gift-Giver give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And many a foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even in devotion!

Now, Bible-banging blogger that I’ve become, when I hear “My Way” I hear the last verse in Judges:

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

My purpose is not to diss the defenseless dead. (God knows I’ve got more pride than the next five people, combined.) What I mean to do is marvel at how ridiculous pride makes all of us look, whether we’re dead or alive.

So come on back tomorrow--when we will see that purpose through, without exemption.

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the falcon and the falconer – part 2

The Word for today:
Judges 10:6 - 11:28


Yesterday, we introduced the cyclical pattern of Judges, known as the "Hoop of History." Today, we'll attempt to climb off the carousel.

***

We should not make the mistake of reading Judges objectively, as if it were about somebody else long ago. When we do, we deprive ourselves of the visceral distress that the Hoop of History is supposed to induce in us.

Instead, Judges should be read subjectively. We should feel as if we are riding round and round, down and down, like the dishwater emptying from the sink into the septic tank, accompanied by that giant sucking sound.

Judges describes us on many levels. It describes our national pattern and it describes the pattern of our individual lives.

Man’s natural tendency is centrifugal, away from God:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned. (1)

But the tendencies of those born again through faith in Jesus Christ have been hijacked by the Spirit of God. The inclination of the Spirit is ever nearer to God, so in order to to break the cycle of descent, all you've got to do is pursue your brand-new heart's desire.

***

When I was a kid, they had a rotating saucer in the park across from the school. I called it the Puke-a-Tron because every time I got on it, I got sick. And embarrassed. Whenever I’d climb back on it, all the kids would gather round just to watch me get sick again.

But I was determined to show ‘em that I could overcome my limitations. I was determined to keep riding it until I could ride without distress. So I fought the Puke-a- Tron all summer long, but the Puke-a-Tron always won.

Finally, in my defeat and despair, I asked my Dad what I should do.

“Do you like riding the thing?”

“No, I hate it.”

“Then just do something different when you’re at the park. Get off the Puke-a-Tron and never get back on it,” he said.

That’s how simple it will seem on the day you stop riding the dead horse of the old carousel. You won’t feel particularly spiritual or pious or holy or sanctified or anything like that. You will just listen to your Father and stop doing the stuff that you actually can’t stomach anymore. You won’t feel the need to prove anything to anybody. Your gaze will turn inward, Godward, and He will become your soul’s satisfaction. The voice of God’s Spirit within you will be the only voice that you heed.

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(1) from “The Second Coming,” by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

the falcon and the falconer – part 1

The Word for today:
Judges 9:1-10:5

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time.
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game. (1)

The Book of Judges has a cyclical structure. Biblical commentators have called it “the Hoop of History,” which goes like this:

1. They turn from God.  2. God judges them.   3. They cry out to God, who rescues them.

4. They turn from God again.  5. God judges them.  6. They cry out to God, who rescues them.

7. Repeat.  8. Repeat.  9. Repeat…

We should not make the mistake of reading Judges objectively, as if it were about somebody else long ago. When we do, we deprive ourselves of the visceral distress that the Hoop of History is supposed to induce in us.

Instead, Judges should be read subjectively. We should feel as if we are riding round and round, down and down, like the dishwater emptying from the sink into the septic tank, accompanied by that giant sucking sound.

Judges chronicles the descent of man. To restate the Hoop in subjective language, it goes like this:

Depravity. Devolution. Defeat. Despair. Deliverance.
Depravity. Devolution. Defeat. Despair. Deliverance.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Judges is a chronicle of Israel’s Age of Darkness, but you can bet there were many who considered it an Age of Enlightenment. They had cast off the constraints of God. They had rejected divine revelation for human reason:

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6; 21:25)

Notice that it does not say, ‘Everyone did what was wrong.’ They were not trying to do wrong. They were not overtly rebellious people determined to thwart the will of God in their lives. At this stage of Israel's history these people were determined to do right, but they were trying to do what was right in their own eyes.

There was no objective authority in their lives; there was no king in Israel in those days. The Lord Jehovah was supposedly their King, but they did not take him seriously. And when they did not take him seriously, they ended up taking themselves too seriously. So they did what they thought was right, guided by their own intellects and reasoning--ultimately proving that their ways were not God’s ways.

***

Judges describes us on many levels. It describes our national pattern and it describes the pattern of our individual lives.

Man’s natural tendency is centrifugal, away from God:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.    (2)

But the tendencies of those born again through faith in Jesus Christ have been hijacked by the Spirit of God.

So what’s a captive heart to do?  Tomorrow, we’ll see the wheel turned back against the tide.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) from "The Circle Game," by Joni Mitchell
(2) from “The Second Coming,” by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

least likely to succeed

The Word for today:
Judges 7:24-8:35



While it cannot be denied that Gideon became a man of great faith who led his people to victory, his story teaches us that God uses the weak to confound the strong, and to display His glory.   Gideon was the least likely leader in all of Israel:

"Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." (Judges 6:15)

Gideon and his clan were the weakest, but they were still not weak enough for God to use.   So God pared them down even further:

The LORD said to Gideon, "The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.' Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, 'Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.'" Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. And the LORD said to Gideon, "The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, 'This one shall go with you,' shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, 'This one shall not go with you,' shall not go."   (Judges 7:2-4)

God culled the army of Gideon from 32,00 to 10,000 to 300 (armed with pitchers and lanterns, no less) so that Gideon would learn that victory is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty (Zechariah 4:6).

Many of us are too capable to be used of God, because we are liable to confuse our talents for His power:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)


But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.   (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)


What we learn from Gideon is that if you were voted least likely to succeed by your high school classmates; if the handsome quarterback stole your lunch and your girlfriend and kicked sand in your face; if ever you were told that you’ll never amount to anything, then you’re just the guy whom God can use.

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put the silly fleece away

The Word for today:
Judges 7:1-23

Should I marry Susie? Should I buy the house on Lake Avenue or Elm Street? Should I go back to college? Should I invest in stocks or in bonds?

I don’t know, but what I do know is that you should not put out a fleece.

When I first heard of “putting out a fleece,” it seemed like some magic Ouija Board sort of thing that enabled a person to determine the will of God. Here’s where the phrase comes from:

Then Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said." And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, "Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew." And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. (Judges 6:36-40)

God had told Gideon that he would lead Israel to victory over their Midianite oppressors. But the Word of God was not enough for Gideon; he wanted a “sign.”

So he spread out the fleece and, miraculously, it was wet with dew while the ground around it was dry. But was that enough to assure our hero of God’s guidance?

Nope. God’s word, and a miracle besides, were not enough confirmation for Gideon. So he dared to ask God for the same miracle in reverse! And sure enough, when he awoke the fleece was now dry, while the surrounding ground was soaked with dew.

***

The Bible tells us that we are to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).  But When Gideon put out a fleece, he was walking by sight and not by faith.

Here is the faith we are to emulate:

And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets." (Luke 5:5)

Biblical faith is acting on the word of God.  Simon Peter did not say, “At your fleece I will let down the nets.”

Jesus Christ commended those who believe without seeing:

The other disciples told Thomas, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe." Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."  (John 20:25-29)

***

So you’re still wondering if you should marry Susie?  The Bible shows us that the will of God contains vast leeway. We don’t have to pinpoint his will as much as we have to avoid his Don’t.   (Anything they did in the Garden, outside of one "Don't," was within the will of God.)  Using marriage as an example, let’s see how that principle works…

God’s Word will not reveal her name, the color of her hair, or how many freckles she has, but it does advise you to marry someone…

1. who loves Jesus;
2. who loves you; and
3. whom you love.

If that list describes Susie, you can rest assured that God will bless your marriage.

So put that silly fleece away, because if you’re looking for God’s guidance in a “fleece,” I’ve got a hunch that God will guide Susie right past the “Gideon” guy to a man who takes God at his Word.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ROFLMAO

The Word for today:
Judges 6

Sometimes I read about Gideon for the great spiritual truths his story teaches us. I’ll probably get around to some of these great truths in the next couple of days.

But before we get all serious and spiritual, I want to admit that at other times I read about Gideon for the comic relief his story provides.

It has been duly noted that tragedy and comedy are not identical, but they are twins. Sin, by definition, is a falling short of what should have been (1), while comedy exists in the zone between what we are and what we might have been. Comedy, then, is very directly connected to the fall of man. Thus each of us has had occasion to say, “I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

Perhaps it shouldn’t be, but it is funny to see a person trip. In fact, an entire genre of comedy -- slapstick –is predicated upon the ridiculous fall.

God’s Book is serious, and it is also seriously funny. Laughter was bundled within the image of Himself that God gave to us and never rescinded.

I know of no surer sign of sanity and intelligence than a sense of humor. I have a theory that your average stand-up comic is smarter than anybody in “the room.” For sheer IQ, a roomful of stand-ups will blow a roomful of Ph. D’s out of the water. And a roomful of world-class comics could intellectually intimidate a roomful of Nobel Prize winners. It wouldn’t be close.

So too in scripture, the genius of God shines through some of the lighter moments. When Jacob pulls the old switcheroo on his blind father, then falls for the old double-down at the hands of Uncle Laban before finally pulling the (speckled or striped?) wool over Laban’s eyes, it reveals to me that God has a twinkle in his eyes and laugh-lines around them. And when Jacob’s beloved Rachel conceals Uncle Laban’s idols by claiming that she is, umhh, periodically indisposed--then I’ve got to sit down for a spell, I’m laughing so hard.

Then, when Balaam kicks his ass until it talks back to him… Well, you had to be there.

And when Jesus (obviously a slapstick fan) tells of one blind man leading another by the hand until they both tumble into a ditch; or of the hypocrite who is unaware of the board protruding from his eye, then we are left to ponder the sound of God’s laughter.

***

Gideon 'lite'-- the ironic/comic vision of God.

So, as I said, before we get to the heavy spiritual truths in the story of Gideon, we must first see him as God’s Word introduces him--cowering in fear of the enemy with grist raining down on his head...

Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor." (Judges 6:11-12)

Threshing ("separating the wheat from the chaff") is done atop a hill where the winds prevail; winepresses were at the bottom of the hill. The picture of Gideon repetitively tossing wheat into the air in a windless winepress while hiding in terror of the Midianites is a picture of comic futility which never fails to elicit a chuckle.

But when the Angel of the LORD—the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ—addresses Gideon with the mock-heroic, "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor," it leaves this Bible student ROFLMAO.

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(1) Romans 3:23