Monthly Archives: August 2023

When God Becomes The Enemy

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Lamenations 1-2

A popular view of God makes Him out to be milk toast, a wet noodle, a doting Grandpa, a weak parent who can’t say “No” to His self-centered children. That is NOT the God of the Bible.

Yes, God is love. But not without His holiness. I’m not sure we really get that.

The truth about God is that He loves people. In fact He loves people so much He went to the cross to provide the only way sinful people can be in the presence of Holy God. We can try to figure out our own way to Him, look for a back door or loophole. But if we want to be accepted by God and enjoy the love He has for us, we gotta play by His rules.

He’s not asking us to approve of His plan. He’s demanding we accept it. And honestly, it’s not that hard. Quite the contrary. It’s an amazing plan!

Warning: if you don’t accept His plan, if you reject the Gospel of Jesus, hear Him say He is NOT your friend. He is your enemy. And I’m not sure you are ready for that reality, no matter what you’re telling yourself at the moment.

When God becomes the enemy, we are in serious trouble.

Why Choice?

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Jeremiah 47-49

God pronounced judgment on one nation after another. He wasn’t being unfair. They deserved His punishment because they had broken His rules.

Some people ask, “Why?” Why would God create humans with the ability to choose if He knew we would choose our own way, and He would end up having to punish us? Why didn’t He create us to automatically love and worship Him?

When I was a little girl I played with dolls. Baby dolls, Barbie dolls, paper dolls. Hours and hours of my childhood were spent dressing, undressing, combing hair, positioning arms and legs, and going on adventures with my little plastic people who only said what I wanted them to say, and only did what I forced them to do. I loved playing with dolls. But they couldn’t love me back.

What if I could make them love me? What if, instead of looking into cold, plastic, fixed eyes I would see adoration programmed into them?

Have you seen the advances in AI? It’s both fascinating and frightening. If you could program love into an AI robot – would it BE love? Or would it be just another command controlled by someone pushing the buttons?

What is love? And is it important?

If you have read your Bible, you have read that God IS love. It’s not only that He feels love. His very existence is love. So when He created humans in His image, He created us with the capacity to love and be loved.

Are you loved by your spouse, your children, your friends? Is that relationship voluntary or forced? Is it a relationship that is any different from the ones you have with your co-workers, or the guy down the street you wave “Hi” to every morning? Isn’t the love you share with those with whom you are intimate more precious and more important to you than the relationships you have with others? I sure hope it is!

I hope it brings you joy, a sense of belongingness, security, hope, peace, and a closeness that you find fulfilling. I hope it is a love that you carry with you every moment of every day. I hope the fact that someone has chosen to love you, makes all the difference.

So why would I condemn God for enjoying the same? Why would I question Him about wanting that two way loving relationship with us… and for us? Especially when I look at what it cost Jesus so that we can share that love relationship with Holy God?

I choose love. I choose God. And He has chosen me. He has chosen anyone who believes. You have that choice. Don’t mess it up.

Kindling For The Fire

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Jeremiah 36-39

Does it shock you that King Zedekiah could cut off a portion of God’s Word and throw it into the fire? He cut off one section at a time until the whole scroll was destroyed. Can you believe this man’s audacity? His blatant disrespect for God’s word is astounding.

When I was in pre-school our Sunday School teachers, Aunt Minnie and Aunt Rose taught us to never set anything on top of our Bibles. They had us practice stacking books so we would learn to place the Bible above all others. Aunt Minnie and Aunt Rose would not be happy with Zedekiah!

But, as always, God asks me to dig a little deeper. I am right to be appalled at Zedekiah’s unbelievable rejection of God’s Word. But am I as appalled at my own?

You don’t reject God’s Word, Connie. You read it every day. You write what you’ve learned about what you’ve read every day. You even throw it out into cyber-space, praying someone will be drawn closer to God through your blog. You teach Sunday School, for crying out loud. You haven’t rejected God’s Word. You proclaim it every day.

Ain’t I special?

But God doesn’t let us pat ourselves on the back very long before He slaps us in the face:

What about those thoughts you have that dishonor me? Did you cut out Philippians 4:8 and throw it into the fire? How about Matthew 10:37-39? Aren’t you more concerned about offending your family than you are about being true to Me? That’s a hard verse. Maybe it’s just easier to cut it out of Scripture and throw it into the fire.

Ouch.

I can condemn old Zedekiah all I want. But I don’t think God included this account in His Word so we could point fingers at some guy who’s been dead for thousands of years.

I hear God asking me today: How chopped up is your own Bible, Connie?

If we are cutting out portions of God’s Word because we don’t want to deal with the Truth and we don’t like what it’s telling us about ourselves, we might be preparing the kindling to start the very fire that will torture us in eternity.

How Far Does It Go?

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Jeremiah 33-35

Are you as convicted as I when you read the testimony of the Rechabites in chapter 35? They had been invited to an exclusive party held in an inner chamber of the house of the Lord. I’m thinking that would be like a black-tie dinner with Billy Graham, John MacArthur, and Matthew Henry. A bit intimidating.

But when offered some wine, the Rechabite men respectfully declined.

Ok. So I picture myself sitting at a table with these three giants of the Church. Matthew Henry picks up a bottle of wine and fills four glasses. He, Rev. Graham, and Rev. MacArthur pick up their glasses, ready to offer a toast. (Now I have no idea whether or not any of these men drank wine. This is purely my imagination. I digress.)

They pause and wait for me to pick up my glass. I know there is nothing wrong with a little wine now and then. Paul recommended it to Timothy, if I recall. But I’ve promised God I will refrain from drinking wine as a visible sign of my submission to Him. What do I do?

The Rechabites’ decision to refuse the wine had nothing to do with the wine. This passage in Scripture is not about declaring that good Christians shouldn’t drink alcohol. What those men did had everything to do with obedience, submission, and commitment.

And that’s what convicts me. If you read further in chapter 35 you will see that these men were obeying their dad who probably wasn’t even there at the time. Yet God’s own children couldn’t obey Him even when His presence was so obvious among them. The Recabites honored their father in a way the Jews did not honer their Heavenly Father. They obeyed a human. The Jews wouldn’t obey their Creator.

God is asking me today how committed I am. How determined am I to obey His Word, even when it would be easier to compromise, to taste just a bit of sin so I don’t offend someone, or so that I fit in, or so I won’t be labeled a buzz kill.

I have committed my life to the Lord. I want to represent Him well. I tell Him I’m willing to suffer for the Name. But I sit here this morning and wonder how far I’m willing to take that commitment.

Pray for me. I’m praying for you.

It’s Not Just History

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Jeremiah 26-29

It’s so important to read and re-read the whole Bible. God speaks on every page! If we don’t learn from history, we will repeat the mistakes that were made in the past. So what can we learn from Jeremiah?

The Jews didn’t like what Jeremiah was saying so they decided to cancel him. Well actually, it was a bit worse than shutting down his Twitter account. They decided to kill him to silence him.

Now some of the elders stood up and spoke truth. Taking from their history, they reminded their fellow Jews that in the past when God pronounced judgment on disobedient Israel, He relented when they repented and obediently served and worshiped Him again. But when others prophesied about God’s judgment, and their forefathers rejected the warning, judgment came as it had been prophesied.

This time they let Jeremiah live, and he continued to warn them. He didn’t back down due to fear for his life.

So many lessons here in these chapters! Here are a couple God has pointed out to me this morning:

  1. God is talking to His children. That’s you and I who call ourselves Christians. It’s the Church in 2023. And I believe God is telling us it’s our responsibility for what happens in this world. Obedience=Blessing. Disobedience=Judgment. It was that way in the past, and God has not changed.
  2. But here’s the beauty: God has a plan. And it’s a good one!

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

Yes, I am aware God is specifically speaking about the seventy year Jewish exile. But in that bit of history is a theme that is repeated throughout Scripture, and a lesson that is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.

Obey and be blessed. Disobey and suffer the consequences.

Do you want things to change in your personal life, in your church, our nation, the world? Then here’s the answer:

Seek God with all your heart.

Yeah. It’s that simple. If we, the Church, God’s chosen people in this time in history would actually do that, really be like Christ in love and in truth, I believe God would hear us. I believe the trajectory of this world would change dramatically. And I believe people who are searching for truth would find it in the Savior we serve and worship.

If you don’t believe me, read God’s Word for yourself. Ask God to reveal the Truth. He will! This Book is not just history. It’s alive and active and powerful enough to change you and change our world, if we would just learn and live what it says.

How Much Clearer?

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Jeremiah 18-22

If you turn from wickedness. If you obey. If you humble yourselves. All of these “ifs” are followed by God’s promise to bless and not curse, to restore and not destroy.

If you continue to sin. If you turn your back on God and refuse to repent. If you insist on being your own god, then brace yourselves. God’s judgment will come without mercy.

How much clearer does God have to be?

Come on, Christian. What is it going to be? The choice you make today will bless or curse your life both now and in eternity. But it will also impact your family, your church, and collectively our communities, nation, and the world. Your decision, my decision, the decision of all of us who call ourselves Christians is that important.

How much clearer does God have to be?

You Can’t Make Him Drink

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2 Chronicles 34; 2 Kings 23

There was a rocking Passover; thousands of sacrifices over a seven day period. A Passover like this hadn’t been celebrated since the days of Samuel. Josiah was all in where God was concerned, and as king of Judah he wanted God’s people to be all in, too.

That’s how it often is when someone comes face to face with God, and accepts God’s saving grace. We feel the emotion and want everyone we love to experience what we have. We should want that.

But Scripture tells us Josiah, in his zeal for the Lord, seems to have thought he could make people want what he had found in God.

And Josiah took away all the abomination from the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their fathers. (2 Chronicles 34:33)

The writer of 2 Kings says in verse three, the people joined in the covenant Josiah made to the Lord. But I wonder; was it their covenant with God or were they just honoring Josiah’s covenant with Him? I think it’s the latter because the minute Josiah was dead, they were right back worshiping their old idols.

Here’s the thing, Christian parents: you can make your kids go to church with you, you can have them repeat a prayer of confession, arrange for them to be baptized, even send them to Christian schools. But unless they internalize it and meet Jesus at the cross themselves they are simply honoring your faith. The moment they are on their own, they will do what’s in their own hearts.

You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

I hope you do make your kids attend church with you. I hope you send them to good Christian schools. I hope you pray with them and take them to youth group activities.

But I also hope you are talking to them about what and why you believe Jesus is the Way, Truth, and Life. I hope you talk to them about sin and their need of a Savior. I hope you share your own walk with the Lord, including your struggles and victories as they are mature enough to understand. I hope one day you will have the privilege of being present as they choose Jesus for themselves.

But whether or not they choose Jesus is a decision you can’t make for them. You can’t make them be a Christian. You can’t make them drink the water. You can, however, keep bringing them to the water until they recognize their thirst and want to drink it for themselves!

I’m praying for you today.

The Perfect Gift

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Isaiah 66

There is this idea out there that if we are good people, kind, and generous, God will somehow balance the scale and accept us by what we do. It seems people want to believe a loving God would never send a good person to hell.

There are many things wrong with that kind of thinking. Isaiah addresses one of those in chapter 66.

God, through Isaiah, says to His children: you want to build a house for me as some great gesture? I created anything you’d use to build it. What kind of gift is that?

You don’t gift something to someone they themselves own. If you want to give something to God, it has to be more than doing good. He IS good.

You don’t hold someone’s hand, point to their thumb and say, “Let me give you this thumb.”

Do you want to know the perfect gift for God?

But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (vs 2b)

The perfect gift is YOU! That’s one thing He doesn’t have until you give yourself to Him.