When People Fall Down...

Do you ever feel as if aspects of your life have just been one disaster after another (e.g., relationships, jobs, etc.)? I have. I find that the natural first response is simply to blame others, and perhaps they are to blame sometimes; But when the same problems recur again and again with different people, perhaps the fundamental problem is with the common denominator: me.

Jeremiah, say to the people, ‘This is what the LORD says:
“‘When people fall down, don’t they get up again?
When they discover they’re on the wrong road, don’t they turn back?
Then why do these people stay on their self-destructive path?
Why do the people of Jerusalem refuse to turn back?
They cling tightly to their lies
and will not turn around.
I listen to their conversations
and don’t hear a word of truth.
Is anyone sorry for doing wrong?
Does anyone say, “What a terrible thing I have done”?
No! All are running down the path of sin
as swiftly as a horse galloping into battle!
Even the stork that flies across the sky
knows the time of her migration,
as do the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane.
They all return at the proper time each year.
But not my people!
They do not know the LORD’s laws.
“‘How can you say, “We are wise because we have the word of the LORD,”
when your teachers have twisted it by writing lies?
These wise teachers will fall
into the trap of their own foolishness,
for they have rejected the word of the LORD.
Are they so wise after all?

Jer. 8:4-9

If ever there was a community with a dysfunctional cycle, it was ancient Israel. One wonders how often the prophets must have felt like hopelessly broken records, repeating the same message to the same people over and over again, and repeatedly watching them ignore it. In this passage, God Himself addresses the people and diagnoses their fundamental problem.

God: Why do you continue down a self-destructive path? Because you don't know any better.
People's Response: But we have the word of the LORD!
God: You have it; But you don't know it. Much less follow it! You don't even know enough to realize when you're being lied to by your "teachers"--when they're telling you what you want to hear, rather than what you need to hear.

Are we in American Christianity really much different? I hope so...but I doubt it. At least in my own case, I know I'm not much different. Though I've slowly improved in my serious Bible reading habits over the years, for a long time most of what I "knew" about God and Christianity, I "knew" because I had always heard it, or because some delightfully engaging speaker with lots of funny stories and an inhumanly broad grin had told me so--which should have been a bright red flag! In short, I "knew" things about God, but I didn't know how I knew them.

In the interests of full disclosure, I'm not promising that a serious commitment to growing with God will make your life easier. It may be just the opposite. Often, those who are actively pushing the limits and trying to grow in their knowledge will (intentionally or otherwise) disomfit others by asking hard questions and eshewing simplistic answers. Expect to find--as Jeremiah did--that many people prefer words of soothing, peace, and comfort--regardless of whether they are true or not. (Jer. 5:3, 11-13, 20-21, 23, 30-31; 6:10, 16-17; 7:22-27, et al.)

PRACTICAL STEPS
If, after realizing the risk, you decide you still want to grow in your relationship w/God, I offer four practical steps to help. I'm sure there are many more (and better) steps that could be taken, but I must plead ignorance of how to be a great Christian. If any of you have things that have worked well for you, please share. Here's mine:

1. Give yourself a memory verse. If you can do nothing else, do this. It's simple, and everyone's got the time to recite one verse a day. The sooner you start, the better. We've already started with our children (ages 4,3, and 1) and they can all recite (for example) Isaiah 7:14 from memory.

2. Daily Bible reading. This is if you're ready to "step it up a notch" from simply memorizing one verse. This plan commits you to read at least a chapter a day (preferably more) from the Bible. There are tons of good reading schedules out there that you can get online.

3. Improve your Bible study. First and foremost, this means asking a lot of hard questions--of yourself, of the text, and of others. Don't settle for the first answer. Wrestle with questions like: "Why has God given this command?" "How do we know that Revelation is to be taken figuratively, but Matthew is not?" etc. Get some supplementary books, DVDs, etc. that delve more deeply into a given book, or ancient Near Eastern culture.

4. Find some equally-committed, Christ-hearted people to share your journey. This may be the most difficult, but is probably the most helpful of all four. Having these people join you, will help prevent you from becoming judgmental of others who aren't where you're at, and will also help you to sift and discern some of the stuff you encounter in step #3.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you will never suffer because the Temple is here. It’s a lie! Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and burn incense to Baal and all those other new gods of yours, and then come here and stand before Me in My Temple and chant, “We are safe!” – only to go right back to all those evils again? Don’t you yourselves admit that this Temple, which bears My Name, has become a den of thieves? (Jeremiah 7:8-11a)

This is part of a message God directed Jeremiah to speak to the people at the entrance of the Temple. Even as the worthies of Jerusalem gathered to “honor God with their lips” and to see—and be seen by—others, the prophet arrives to announce that for all their finery and showmanship, they are only deluding themselves. No amount of sacrifice…no solemnity of occasion…no gravity of countenance can make evil good, or good evil.

Speaking Truth to Power

The political and scientific worlds have been a flutter over the last few weeks after damning revelations that a premiere institute trumpeting the dangers of global warming (or global climate change, as the new vogue term) has suppressed contrary evidence, altered figures, and engaged in a coordinated conspiracy to deceive and defraud the public. Even more disturbing than the lies, has been the response by many in the face of their disclosure. We continue to push forward with the “necessity” to enact legislation that was rooted and justified on the basis of this now-discredited theory. Apparently, the truth is out…but many people do not care to hear it. This situation reminds me very much of what faced Jeremiah.

In Jeremiah 6:11 the prophet says: …I am filled with the LORD’s fury. Yes, I am tired of holding it in. It seems the prophet’s weariness can be explained by an all too common phenomenon: frustration with those who refuse to listen to his warnings. Consider this phrase in its immediate context:

Listen to this warning, Jerusalem, or I will turn you into a heap of ruins, a land where no one lives. This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Even the few who remain in Israel will be picked over again, as when a harvester checks each vine a second time to pick the grapes that were missed.

To whom can I give warning? Who will listen when I speak? Their ears are closed, and they cannot hear. They scorn the word of the LORD. They don’t want to listen at all. So now I am filled with the LORD’s fury. Yes, I am tired of holding it in! -- Jeremiah 6:8-11

Finally, as a consequence of their unwillingness to listen to real problems, the people of Jerusalem were unwilling to explore real solutions.

From the least to the greatest, their lives are ruled by greed. From prophets to priests, they are all frauds. They offer superficial treatments for My people’s mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when there is no peace. – Jeremiah 6:13-14

The unwillingness to listen to truth is a ubiquitous human problem. As we each face unpalatable truths today: the state and relative severity of our ecological, military, national and individual economic, and spiritual crises, we would do well to learn from the ministry of Jeremiah. I do not believe that God has left us without reliable witnesses to “speak truth to power.” The real question is the same as it has always been: Is the power willing to listen to the truth?

What Would God Do?

I had occasion some time ago to hear a gentleman speak about the small, struggling congregation of which he is a member. Apparently the church has struggled for a number of years. At one point a previous minister stood on the steps of the church building and announced: “God has abandoned this church.” The gentleman relating the story seemed to reject the very possibility of such a thing. His appeal was based on Jesus’ promise that “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” (I assume he was referencing the King James Version of Hebrews 13:5) I don’t know the particulars of this situation. Perhaps this was simply a case of a frustrated preacher seeking to place the blame for his own failures on someone else. Frankly, the particulars are irrelevant to the basic point I want to discuss.

I am concerned by the near-certainty many Christians seem to have that God would "never" do such a thing. Of course, this is a discussion that can degenerate into semantics (e.g., What, precisely, do we mean by “abandon”? Does God abandon us, or do we abandon Him? Etc.) It is not that I think these points are invalid. (In Jer. 5:23, in fact, God speaks explicitly of the people having “turned away and abandoned Me.”) Yet I suspect that such digressions are often pursued simply because they afford a convenient way to dodge the uncomfortable question: Is it possible that God may actively bring great misfortune--and even suffering--upon people (even His own people) specifically in punishment for their sins? If we answer that it is at least possible, what are the implications of this possibility for our interpretation of and teaching about suffering?

It has been my experience that in cases of suffering and/or misfortune—the near-ubiquitous response of American Christians is to say, “God didn’t do that. God didn’t bring that about. God doesn’t do that kind of thing”

Yet the fifth chapter of Jeremiah testifies to at least the possibility that those who were once the apple of God’s eye can so degrade themselves and reject the LORD that they are—for want of a better word—abandoned by Him. Consider:

Go down the rows of the vineyards and destroy the grapevines, leaving a scattered few alive. Strip the branches from the vines for these people do not belong on the LORD. The people of Israel and Judah are full of treachery against Me,” says the LORD. They have lied about the LORD and said, ‘He won’t bother us! No disasters will come upon us. There will be no war or famine. God’s prophets are all windbags who don’t really speak for Him. Let their predictions of disaster fall on themselves!” Therefore, this is what the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies says: “Because the people are talking like this, My messages will flame out of your mouth and burn the people like kindling wood. O Israel, I will bring a distant nation against you, says the LORD…They will devour the food of your harvest; They will devour your sons and daughters. They will devour your flocks and herds; they will devour your grapes and figs. And they will destroy your fortified towns, which you think are so safe…And when your people ask, “Why did the LORD our God do all this to us?” you must reply, “You rejected Him and gave yourselves to foreign gods in your own land. Now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.” – Jeremiah 5:10-15,17,19.

Reflections Questions
1. Compare Jeremiah 5:1 to Genesis 18:23-33. What seems significant to you about these passages? How do you think the first hearers of Jeremiah’s oracle would have understood his message in light of their knowledge of the Abraham story?

2. It is sometimes conceded that God came in temporal judgment on people in the Old Testament, but He has ceased to operate in that fashion since the coming of Jesus. Now all punishment inflicted by God is—according to this argument—reserved for the Final Judgment. Yet if this is the case, how do we explain:

-The case of Ananias and Sapphira? (Acts 5:1-5)
-Paul’s warning to the Corinthian Christians that “if you eat the bread or drink the cup [of the Lord’s Supper] without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.” (1 Cor. 11:29-30)
-The warnings of the Resurrected Jesus:
*To the church at Ephesus: “I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.” (Rev. 2:5)
*To the church at Thyatira: “I will throw [that Jezebel] on a bed of suffering, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer greatly unless they repent and turn away from her evil deeds. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am the One Who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person. And I will give to each of you whatever you deserve.” (Rev. 2:22-23)
*To the church at Laodicea: “Since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth!” (Rev. 3:16)

Heart Problems

The book of Proverbs intones: Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. – Prov. 4:23 Tragically, the Judah of Jeremiah’s day failed to attend this most basic instruction.

Despite being murderers, idolaters, thieves, deceivers, (etc.), it would seem that God considered Judah’s fundamental problem to be one of the heart. Five times in this chapter, He addresses the people’s “heart problem.”

Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! – Jer. 4:3
…surrender your pride and power. Change your hearts before the LORD. – Jer. 4:4
…put on clothes of mourning and weep with broken hearts… - Jer. 4:8
…cleanse your heart that you may be saved. – Jer. 4:14
Your own actions have brought this upon you. This punishment is bitter, piercing you to the heart! – Jer. 4:18

Jeremiah was desperately pleading with his people to let God break the shells they had constructed around their hearts to hide their sins and protect them from godly criticism and amendment. As I reflect on the message of this text, I recognize that there is such a shell around my own heart. Like the ancient Judeans, I say that I want God to use me and be present in my life; But is that even possible? What can God really do with an unmalleable heart? What can anyone do with people who refuse to change. How do you teach someone who has already made the decision that they do not want to learn what you’re trying to teach them?

It is far too tempting for us to dismiss our heart problems as regrettable—but not life-threatening. I have frequently heard chronic sin in Christian lives (my own included) excused with the refrain: “Well, what’s it gonna’ hurt? That’s just [insert name here] being [insert name here].” According to Jeremiah—quite literally, everything.

If we repeatedly refuse to address our heart problems, at some point, God will step in and address those problems for us. In Jeremiah 4:23-26, He announced to the people of Judah:

I looked at the earth,
And it was empty and formless.
I looked at the heavens,
And there was no light.
I looked at the mountains and hills,
And they trembled and shook.
I looked, and all the people were gone.
All the birds of the sky had flown away.
I looked, and the fertile fields had become a wilderness.
The towns lay in ruins, crushed by the LORD’s fierce anger.
-- Jer. 4:23-26

Discussion Question:

1. Is there anything significant about the destruction imagery Jeremiah uses in 4:23-26? (Hint: Compare this language to Genesis 1)
2. In what (if any) ways are you hard-hearted?
3. What reason(s) might God have for telling the people to “put on clothes of mourning and weep with broken hearts?” (4:8) Is there anything good that can come of mourning and being broken?
4. Who was responsible for bringing this destruction upon Judah?

Caught with Our Hands in the Cookie Jar

We all know what it means to be "caught with our hand in the cookie jar." It means that we were doing something we knew was forbidden...we just thought we could get away with it. That's the situation God addresses in Jeremiah 3. The sister kingdoms of Israel and Judah have both been guilty of putting their hands into the "cookie jar" of idolatry.

As I read this chapter, it strikes me that God's wrath was NOT primarily stirred up because of the idolatry...but because of the DENIAL of the idolatry. Consider the following pronouncements from God:

You say..."I haven't worshiped the images of Baal!" But how can you say that? Go and look in any valley in the land! Face the awful sins you have done. (2:23)

Israel is like a thief who feels shame only when he gets caught. They, their kings, officials, priests, and prophets--all are alike in this. (2:26)

Your clothing is stained with the blood of the innocent and the poor, though you didn't catch them breaking into your houses! And yet you say, "I have done nothing wrong. Surely God isn't angry with me!" But now I will punish you severely because you claim you have not sinned. (2:34-35)

Then the LORD said to me, "Even faithless Israel is less guilty than treacherous Judah! Therefore, go and give this message to Israel. This is what the LORD says: 'O Israel My faithless people, come home to Me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever. Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you have rebelled against the LORD your God...Confess that you have refused to listen to My voice. I, the LORD, have spoken.'" (3:11-13)

Reading from the vantage point of hundreds of thousands of years after Jeremiah, I must ask myself: Has anything really changed? Don't we, as the modern day people of God, all too often deny our own Sin? Aren't our pulpits all too often filled with bold and prophetic denouncements of the sins of non-believers (and other believers) while a deafening silence regarding our own communal sins continues to hinder our prayers and our witness to a dying world?

Currently, American society is still the most religious of the industrialized nations. However, recent surveys have shown that non-belief in modern America is on the rise. The saddest part of this, in my opinion, is that I don't believe this is an inevitable trend. While materialism surely plays a part in this trend, no less does fickle and shallow Christianity. I would suggest to you that the numbers of unbelievers are growing not because our claims are so fantastic...but because our lives are, all too often, so un-credible.

It is my prayer that God is refining His people during this time...that the chaff is being burned away, and that He is forcing both individual Christians and churches to face who we truly are. I know that there are those who are (and always have been) true to the LORD. (Even in Jeremiah's day, at least there was Jeremiah.) But I also know that far too many of us have sold out our ethics and our faith for...what? popularity? money? corporate and/or political advancement? Even as this has happened, we have continued (just as people of Jeremiah's day) to surround ourselves with the external trappings of faith, in the vain attempt to keep up the delusion of our own sanctity. We build buildings. We start programs. We pack venues with thousands of people. We turn up the music. We turn down the lights. We market our faith. We insist upon only hearing "positive messages" and we will brook no prophet in our midst who might challenge our self-absorption. Despite our most strenuous efforts, however, deep in our spirits we know things are not as well as we would like to claim. When will we return to our LORD? When will we "acknowledge our guilt and return to our LORD"? He remains merciful to this day. His greatest desire is that we will come home to Him again.

I ask all of you who read this to pray for me, that I will return home to my Father; And if you too find yourself in the midst of pigs, what say you return with me?

-- justin

Undo by Rush of Fools

Glass Ceilings and Cracked Cisterns

The oracle in Jeremiah chapter two is quite long. As such, there’s a lot to be gained from meditating upon it. I hope that you will have opportunity to do so this week. What I’d like to address in the devotional is what I see as the core of chapter two: abandoning God.

Sadly, we’re all too familiar with the suffering of abandoned children. We know the empty look in their eyes…and the even emptier feeling in their hearts. There is little that is more torturous than feeling oneself unloved and unappreciated. Jeremiah reveals to us that it is just this sort of pain that God Himself suffers when His people abandon Him to place their trust in other “gods” (i.e., other things)

According to Jeremiah, the people had committed two fundamental evils: They have abandoned Me—the Fountain of Living Water; And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all! (2:13) In the midst of the current economic crisis, I fear that many Christians are discovering that they too have placed their trust in cracked cisterns.

Too often, we allow our faith to degenerate into a product to be marketed, rather than a radical counter-cultural call to be lived out. We expect to be popular…not holy. Eventually, however, the cracked cisterns that we have relied upon to keep us afloat drain out, and we find ourselves at the bottom of a deep pit.

It is my prayer that all of us who find ourselves at the bottom of a cracked cistern now, will respond to this time of privation and testing by restoring our worship of the one true Fountain. So that future generations will not look back on us some day an apply Jeremiah’s pithy and pitiable assessment: They worshiped worthless idols, only to become worthless themselves. (2:4)

-- justin

Memory Verse

Picture of an empty cistern

Additional Thought/Discussion Questions

1. What does 2:8 suggest about the role of leadership (both political and religious) in the abandonment of God? Is it even possible for a large group to abandon God without the willing compliance of the group leadership?

2. How does God’s self-identification as the “Fountain of Living Water” (2:13) relate to Jesus’ promise to the woman at the well to give her “living water” (John 4:10; see also John 7:36-38)

3. God’s anguished cry to the people of Jeremiah’s day included these words: …I was the One Who planted you, choosing a vine of the purest stock—the very best. How did you grow into this corrupt wild vine? (2:21) Have you ever made a good start of something in your life, only to see it fall apart…a marriage…a job…a child? What steps do you plan to take in the future to prevent the cycle from repeating?

It's Someone Named "God" on Line One...

The first chapter of Jeremiah includes what’s known, in biblical studies, as a “call narrative.” Basically, this is the story of how a prophet becomes a prophet. Classic literary criticism teaches that the call narrative was intended to legitimize the prophet in the eyes of his audience.

While I think call stories probably functioned in this capacity on some level, I don’t believe it was their primary purpose. There were tons of false prophets running around in Jeremiah’s day (we’ll see him have to contend with them repeatedly) and they, no doubt, produced their own “call stories” to impress the people. Ultimately, there was no way for the average Israelite to verify whose call stories were true and whose were made up.

Consequently, rather than being for the audience, I believe that the call experience was primarily for the prophet himself. It was an event he could look back on and draw strength from, during times of rejection and persecution. This would have been important as Jesus Himself said that rejection and persecution were almost universal experiences among God’s prophets. (Matt. 5:12; 23:29-37; Lk. 6:22-23; 11:47-49; 13:33-34)

That being the case, God used Jeremiah’s call to anchor the prophet—from the very beginning—in the truth that, though he will minister to the people, he does not work for them. Ultimately, Jeremiah is God’s servant; And therefore can be no one else’s. This idea may not have been as obvious as we might think. Jeremiah’s world was full of prophets-for-hire who say whatever you wanted to hear…for the right price. Not surprisingly, most of their “prophecies” ran something like this:

Thus sayeth the LORD: Thou art awesome. Everything thou doest is great. Thou has nothing for which thou needest to repent nor make recompense. Thy only problem is that thou hast not enough money and power. Thou needest more…nay, thou deservest more. I, the LORD, hath spoken.

As always happens when the Word of God ceases to be a Truth to be taught and becomes instead a commodity to be marketed, the people of Jeremiah’s day began to “prophet-hop” in the same way that some church-hop today. As his career unfolded, Jeremiah would be ridiculed, imprisoned, put in stocks, and left for dead. The temptation to take the easy way out and simply give the people what they wanted must have been tremendous. I suspect that during those dark days of his ministry, Jeremiah recalled the words God initially spoke to him:

“…You must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you… I have put My words in your mouth! Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant…Get up and prepare for action. Go out and tell them everything I tell you to say. Do not be afraid of them, or I will make you look foolish in front of them. For see, today I have made you strong like a fortified city that cannot be captured, like an iron pillar or a bronze wall. You will stand against the whole land—the kings, officials, priests, and people…They will fight you, but they will fail, for I am with you, and I will take care of you. I, the LORD, have spoken!” (Jer. 1:7-10, 17-19)

-- Justin

Memory Verse

The Calling of Jeremiah coloring page

Almond Branches & Boiling Pots coloring page

Before I Formed You in the Womb

Additional Thought/Discussion Questions from Chapter One

1. God told Jeremiah, “Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as My prophet to the nations.” (1:5) Parents, what if you knew God had a similarly important destiny in mind for your child/children? If this knowledge would motivate you to do anything differently, why aren’t you doing it differently right now?

2. Are you hesitant to speak up for God? Jeremiah said he was “too young,” (1:6)what excuses have you used not to speak God’s words? What do you think is a good excuse for not standing up for the truth?

3. God said Jeremiah was being called to “destroy and overthrow…build up and plant” kingdoms.(1:10) How incredible is this!? Do you normally think of individuals with no real money or power at their disposal as being capable of such world-transforming work? What does this tell you about your own ability to change the world?

4. Why do you think it was important for people in Jeremiah’s day to know that God was “watching” (1:12)? Do you believe that He’s still “watching” today?

A New Chapter...A New Book

Hello again, my friends. After a hiatus of over a month, I have once again returned to the world of blog ministry. However, as I am no longer employed in full-time ministry, there will be a few changes in format and subject matter.

First, I have decided to drop the study that I had going on Matthew. Instead, I will begin posting devotional thoughts from one of the neglected Old Testament books: Jeremiah.

Second, owing to my job situation, I will be posting weekly rather than daily.

Third, since I intend to post by the week, and Jeremiah is a book conveniently divided into 52 chapters, our new reading plan will be (surprise, surprise) to read a chapter a week.

Fourth, for my edification, as well as yours, I will encourage us all to commit a couple of passages from Jeremiah to memory. This is a practice I encouraged when I was a minister, and I found it to be very rewarding. It’s not easy for modern American, of course. It takes time and commitment…but then, most things do that are actually worthwhile. Our first memory verse will be Jeremiah 7:1-11. You can find the NLT translation of this passage here.

Now that we have the “housekeeping” stuff out of the way, let’s move on to a brief overview of this Jeremiah guy and the times he lived in.

Jeremiah ministered during the tumultuous years surrounding the decline of Assyria and the rise of the Babylonian empire. [The kingdom of] Judah passed…through cycles of independence and subjection first to Egypt and then to Babylon. [Jeremiah’s] ministry is set primarily against the background of…the last four rulers of Judah. The nation’s independence was at an end, and Jeremiah would witness the final destruction of [Jerusalem] and the Temple.

I’ve chosen to reflect upon Jeremiah for two basic reasons. First, though the macho side of me would like to deny it, I find myself struggling with feelings of rejection, failure, and shame. Jeremiah seems to have battled many of the same dark emotions, and it’s my prayer that his example will give me insight into how to fight my own battles.

Second, the chaotic society in which Jeremiah lived seems to bear an increasingly-disturbing resemblance to the dystopia in which we currently find ourselves. It is my prayer that reflecting on how Jeremiah lived as God’s servant in the midst of a world falling down around him, will help each of us better understand what it means to be citizen’s of God’s eternal Kingdom living in the midst of the temporary kingdoms of this world.

As always, I welcome your thoughts, questions, ideas, etc. I am always enriched and encouraged by the insights you bring. May God be with you and bless you.

-- Justin

Our Hope Endures

I heard this song on the radio today, and had to find a You Tube video. I hope it can bless your life as much as it has mine.

Natalie Grant's Our Hope Endures

What's the Deal with the Inconsistent Posts?

Hello, faithful readers. Well, I must once again come to you "hat in hand" as they used to say. You may have noticed that I've missed the last three days of posting devotionals. In addition, on the days that I have posted recently, you have likely noticed a drop off in the quality of both the posts themselves and the "extras" added onto them.

The reason is simply this: I found out a little over a week ago that my current job is to be eliminated at the end of February. Consequently, most of my day is spent in the search for another job. While I am confident that something will turn up, until it does I probably won't be very consistent in blogging. I hope that you will all understand that you will be prayerful for myself and my family as we search for where God plans to put us next.

Thanking you in advance,

justin

January 15, 2009 (Matthew 15:32-16:4)

Today’s reading features the second of Jesus’ miraculous feedings. As a kid, this section of Scripture always confused me. Just one chapter earlier, Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. (14:13-21) Yet here—with fewer people—the disciples still ask “Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?” (15:33)

I always thought of this as an example of how unbelievably dense Jesus’ apostles must have been. After watching one miraculous feeding of a multitude how they could they still not get it?

During my graduate studies, however, I learned something that helped make better sense of the apostles’ reaction. Apparently, the context for the feeding of the 5,000 was the land of Israel. Jesus was among His people—God’s people; But the setting for the feeding of the 4,000 is among Gentiles. These were folks who were “outside the camp” of Israel. If this distinction is correct, I think it’s a little easier to understand why the apostles reacted as they did. They may have been thinking: “Sure, God showed up to help us before, but that was because He was feeding the chosen nation…just like He did for Moses and our ancestors in the wilderness…but these guys are another story. Who knows if God even wants to bother with stirring up a miracle for them?”

After feeding the 5,000 Jews the apostles gathered up 12 baskets of leftovers. As I’m sure you’re aware, twelve was a number with significant meaning in Jewish tradition. It could be taken as symbolizing wholeness…completeness…the idea that Jesus represents all that Israel needs now and forevermore. Similarly, the seven baskets gathered after the feeding of the 4,000 communicates a similar message for Gentiles with a number that was of symbolic significance for them.

The notion that God might hear the prayers and bless the lives of those outside the “chosen circle” was one that Christ’s followers continued to struggle with for some time. For many it was incomprehensible that someone could be a follower of Jesus without first being a follower of Moses. In fact, this mindset was so entrenched, that God found it necessary to take the step of imparting the Holy Spirit to some Gentiles just to get the point across. (see Acts 10)

Christians today can fall prey to this same temptation to assume that God only works amongst us…that in order for the LORD’s merciful power to be unleashed upon a person’s life he/she must first become like us. Let us disabuse ourselves of the notion that God is constrained by our “boxes.” He is Sovereign of all. It is not our job to bring God to the rest of Creation so that He can start working there…it is to open our eyes to the work He is already doing, and join Him in it.

-- Justin

January 14, 2009 (Matthew 15:12-20)

Today’s reading deals with the fallout from Jesus’ “Korban controversy” (see post for Jan. 13, 2009). We begin with the apostles asking Jesus: “Do You realize You offended the Pharisees by what You just said?” (15:12)

In reading this, I cannot help but think of the church political squabbles I have observed (and, to my shame, participated in) over the years. The Pharisees thought they really were “the cat’s meow.” Not only that, the apostles put far more stock into the importance of the Pharisees than was warranted as well. The twelve fell prey to the same problem many of us do: they worried far too much about what other people thought.

In response to the apostles’ question, Jesus simply said, “Ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind.” (15:14) This has been a hard lesson for me to learn. I don’t want to ignore the Pharisees. I want to defeat them. Yet Jesus’ response is that they don’t need to be defeated because they are so totally irrelevant. Jesus had REAL enemies to deal with: Sin, Death, Satan, Evil, et. al. He couldn’t be bothered by mere human squabbles.

I don’t know about you, but when I look at the way I’ve responded to controversies throughout my life, there are more than a few people that I simply should have ignored…not because what they were doing wasn’t wrong, but because it didn’t matter. I claim to be a man of faith, yet when I look at how I’ve dealt with conflict, there’s not a lot of evidence that I have enough faith to trust that “every plant not planted by [the] heavenly Father will be uprooted.” (15:13) As we go through the rest of this week, let’s all try to have a little more faith in God…to remember who the truly dangerous enemies are…and expend our fighting energy accordingly.

-- Justin

January 13, 2009 (Matthew 15:1-11)

Today’s reading deals with a first-century practice known as Korban. Let me say at the outset, that I’m no expert on Korban. However, as I understand the practice, it was essentially a process whereby a Jew could donate something of value (e.g., land) to the Temple. So long as the person giving the land was alive, he was allowed to receive income from it. Upon the man’s death, however, it became the property of the Temple.

So, what’s the problem? Wouldn’t Jesus be supportive of folks giving things to God? Jesus’ problem was not with Korban per se, but with the way it was being used by some wealthy Jews to “weasel out” of the command to honor their parents.

What happened was that when one or both of a man’s elderly parents approached him seeking help because they could no longer support themselves, he would say: “Gosh…I’d really like to help you, but the land/money/etc. that I would have given to you, has already been given to God.” As if using God as a shield to justify their own selfishness wasn’t bad enough, these guys actually had the audacity to give Jesus a hard-time because His disciples didn’t follow their tradition about hand-washing!

It’s pretty easy to see the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in this instance; But I wonder how many times we play the Korban game ourselves. One simple example from my own fellowship (i.e., Churches of Christ) has been the debate over how to help orphans. Some of my brethren feel very strongly that the Bible forbids sending “collection plate money” to an orphanage. “The authorized way to help orphans is by taking them into our own homes,” they say. Fine and dandy…however, I have met more than one brother who holds such a view, yet has no orphans living in his home. Yet, He remains vehemently opposed to “church money” going to the orphanage.

It’s not too difficult to find abusers of Korban “out there.” However, I want us to take a closer look at our own lives and churches. Are we “by our traditions, [violating] the direct commandments of God?” (15:3) Our checkbooks and church financial statements probably offer the answer. How much money goes out to help others in need versus eating out? How much of our church budget is spent on local and/or international benevolence versus on the purchase, expansion, and upkeep of our own building?

Let us live in such a way that when Judgment comes, we will not have to hear the following words: You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote: These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.

-- Justin

For Everyone: The Blessing Video

January 12, 2009 (Matthew 14:22-36)

In the final verse of today’s reading Matthew includes a small detail of how the great Rabbi Jesus was received by the people of Gennesaret: They begged Him to let the sick touch at least the fringe of His robe, and all who touched Him were healed. (14:36)

That detail struck me today for the first time, even those who only touched “the fringe of His robe” were healed. If you’re like me, I suspect you’ve questioned the power of your Christian witness more than once. Perhaps you’re a young parent worried that you’re spending far too much time at work and far too little with your children…Perhaps you’re an overworked teacher wondering if any lesson you’ve ever given has survived longer than five minutes in the heart of a teenager…Perhaps you’re a member of a small, struggling church that is even smaller in 2009 than it was in 1999.

It’s easy to take such things as “evidence” that we have failed in our God-given missions. My regular readers know me well enough to know that I do not wish to make excuses for our failures. However, before we start beating ourselves (or others) up, let’s make sure that our “failures” are really failures. Contrary to popular opinion, God has NOT called us to fill buildings or start new programs. (Read that last sentence again).

What is the fundamental thing that God demands of you and I? What is the measure by which He will determine if we have succeeded or failed?

…the LORD has told you what is good,
and this is what He requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

I know many a Christian mother who had to wait a lifetime of heartache and tears to see a rebellious child come to Christ. Over the years there were numerous times that woman must have felt that she was an abject failure…and yet she was not. Even though the child may have only touched the “fringe” of his mother’s faith, in the end that was enough…for all who touch Jesus are healed.

-- Justin

For the Kids: Hem of His Garment Coloring Page
For Everyone: One Touch video

January 11, 2009 (Matthew 14:13-21)

…The disciples came to Him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.” (14:15-16)

At this point, the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand becomes quite familiar to most Christians: The fives loaves and two fish are brought to Jesus. He blesses them, breaks them, and feeds the multitude. Finally twelve baskets of leftovers are taken up.

Many of us read this story and get the message: Jesus can make much out of little. Certainly this is a valid message from the text. Yet, I would encourage you to realize that Matthew is doing more than simply calling us to have faith in Christ. He’s making the audacious claim that Christ has faith in us as well!!

Some may say that Jesus simply told the disciples to feed the multitude in order to “set Himself up” for glory by being the only One around who could solve the problem. I tend not to think so. Self-promotion is not only of the traits we typically observe in Jesus. I think He was giving a legitimate challenge to the disciples and hoping that they had learned enough about the power of God and the fact that God wanted to work through them, that they’d actually take a stab at doing the impossible. Sadly, that day the unbelief of the disciples was simply too great to be overcome; Though eventually, they did become “more than conquerors.”

My question for us today is: “Are we willing to take a stab at the impossible?” After all, the God of all the universe believes in you. Why, then, can you not find the faith to believe in yourself?

-- Justin

For Everyone: Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand on-line jigsaw puzzle
God Believes in You video (this a good one!)
For the Kids: Jesus Feeds the 5,000 coloring page

January 10, 2009 (1 Peter 2:1-9)

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light… 1 Peter 2:8 KJV

You may be wondering why we’ve got a reading from 1 Peter today. The reason is the January 10th is a little known holiday called “Peculiar People Day.” It’s intended as a day to honor uniquely different people. Before you ask, I have no idea where this holiday came from, nor who started it. (From the basis of what I could find on-line, no one else seems to know either.) True, we could simply dismiss Peculiar People Day as simply the latest attempt by the greeting card industry (henceforth to be referred to as “Big Greeting Card”) to sell something.

The good new is that I’m not asking you to buy anything. Rather, I’m asking whether anyone else could legitimately send you a card today. Just how “peculiar” are we modern American Christians? What sets us apart? The people to whom Peter wrote cut a stark and contrasting figure alongside their contemporaries. The Christians of the early centuries were known for their non-violence, the respect they accorded women, the value they placed upon human life, their integrity, et al. In essence, they took to heart what Jesus said: Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. (Jn. 13:35)

What do our neighbors see when they look at us?

What does the homosexual who lives next door see when she looks at you: a bigot who would just as soon vomit as speak to her; or someone who always demonstrates love and hospitality—despite they fact that you will not endorse her lifestyle?

What do the “at risk” kids who get coats at your church clothing drives see when they look at you: someone who genuinely cares about them (even though they may have spikes in their body and listen to music that sounds like some form of aural torture; or someone who is polite to them at the church building because other people are looking, but would not welcome their company at the Friday night football game?

What do your fellow Christians see when they look at you: someone who volunteers to transport them back and forth to the doctor while their car is broken; or someone who merely occupies the other end of their pew on Sundays and says little beyond: “Hello. How are you?”

If you and I are the “living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple” (2:5) What does that say about God’s temple? Is it a spacious marble mansion, or a mere shanty of cardboard and discarded pallet wood?

-- Justin

For Everyone: Does Anybody Hear Her?

January 9, 2009 (Matthew 13:53-14:12)

Have you ever been rejected? What a stupid question, right? I suspect that if we could poll the entire population of the world, every single person on earth would say that they had been rejected somewhere, at some time, for some reason.

In today’s reading, we have the story of Jesus being rejected in his childhood home of Nazareth. (13:53-58) It’s not an uncommon experience. The people you grew up with have trouble envisioning you as anything other than that awkward, precocious, perhaps belligerent 13-year-old who drove everyone mad! Does that hit a little close to home? (This, bye the way, is one reason I’m such a fan of kids going away to college. They not only need to grow up and become adults; They need to be given the chance to do so, as well.) It can be tough trying to get taken seriously among the hometown crowd. As the old adage goes: “Familiarity breeds contempt.”

What then, is the spiritual lesson for us from this story. Simply this, don’t pay too much attention to your critics. Even Jesus, despite His miracles and obvious learning, had folks who simply didn’t want to believe in Him. Frankly, their lack of faith had much more to do with themselves, than it did with Christ. Furthermore, if you find that you’re unable to “work wonders” among people who don’t believe in you, don’t sweat it. Not even Jesus could work with folks who wouldn’t believe in Him—and, trust me brother, YOU ARE NO JESUS. (Neither am I.)

Sure, rejection is hard. But it’s something that comes upon everyone. In the end, as Paul said, it’s not only irrelevant what others think of us—it’s even irrelevant what we think of us! Only God’s judgment matters. (1 Cor. 4:3-4) Entrust yourself to Him, and all will be well.

-- Justin

January 8, 2009 (Matthew 13:36-52)

Right in the middle of today’s reading, we find one of Jesus’ shortest parables about the Kingdom. It reads simply:

…the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. (13:44)

For most of my life, these one-line parables never meant much to me. Honestly, I used to think they were a waste of my time. The meaning is obvious, right? The Kingdom is valuable…okay, Jesus, get on with talking about something more important!

In retrospect, I suppose I didn’t get as much from the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, not because I was brilliant and had already figured out all that “simple stuff” but because I was horribly, horribly naïve. Perhaps it takes seasoning in life…getting burned a few times…to begin to understand what Jesus is talking about. Now when I read this parable, I see Jesus talking about a man who saw value where no one else did. What must they have wondered as this fellow sold everything he had to buy a useless, old field?! I suspect this man’s neighbors made the same sort of naïve assessments that I once made of friends who chose to forego lucrative careers in the States to become missionaries in foreign, poverty-stricken lands, for example. As I look at them now, I realize how rich they truly are. They were fortunate enough (or wise enough) to find something of great value early in life and they dedicated themselves to it whole-heartedly. That singleness-of-purpose gave their lives a direction and a meaning that most people can only envy from afar.

It is my belief that not only the is Kingdom of Heaven like that hidden treasure; It also contains a limitless number of other hidden treasures within it. Like Russian nesting dolls, the deeper we move into the Kingdom, the more “undiscovered country” there is. At thirty-one, I am finally coming to this realization and am trying to recommit myself to making “foolish” decisions for the sake of buying that Kingdom field. Will you do the same? Will you join me on this great adventure that is Kingdom life? No question, abandoning everything for the sake of the Kingdom is a scary business; But it’s much less scary if we have the joy of companionship on the journey. Be well, fellow traveler. I hope to see you on the way…and if not here, then at our destination.

-- Justin

For Everyone: When I Get Where I'm Going

January 7, 2009 (Matthew 13:24-25)

If the truth be told, I suspect that most of us join the church not primarily to be in fellowship with God; but to be in fellowship with people who we trust will love us, nurture us, and forgive us. It comes as a tremendous disappointment, then, when we first realize that the church is not all good, and that the Kingdom values do not always hold sway among those who name the name of Christ. When this happens, two reactions usually follow.

First, we become angry at the church…and not just at the people who may have hurt us. We get angry at everyone else for allowing them to hurt us—As if the entire congregation always knew 100% about what everyone else was doing and they had all placed their “stamp of approval” upon whatever we’re upset about.

Second, after our ire is good and riled up against God’s people, we turn it on Him as well. After all, if we can justify being mad at everyone in the church for the injustices they have allowed, then it only stands to reason that God (Who is the all-knowing head of the church) is to blame as well.

It is precisely at such times, that we need to be reminded of the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. Jesus tells the story of a farmer who sows his field. But during the night an enemy comes and sows weeds among the field, and no one realizes it until the plants have started to sprout. When they realize what has happened, the farm hands react in the same way I often do. They are angry…incensed…they want justice and they want it NOW! They ask the farmer, “Should we pull out the weeds?” (13:28) To their surprise, the farmer says “No. You’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.” (13:29-30)

We must learn that God’s patience and forbearance is not a sign that He doesn’t care about us, or about the evil that may well be present in His field. Rather, He is patient precisely because He cares so much. To unleash His judgment before the right time, could well destroy wheat along with the weeds; And God has made the decision that it is better to let a few weeds grow than to risk destroying a single stalk of wheat. So the next time you find yourself frustrated by the weeds among you, rather than focusing upon uprooting them, look for little wheat stalks nearby who are struggling just as much as you are. Nurture them. Love them. Water them. And most of all, make sure you do your part to get them as much “Son light” as possible.

-- Justin

For the Kids: Wheat and Weeds coloring sheet

January 6, 2009 (Matthew 13:10-23)

Today’s reading begins with the disciples asking Jesus “Why do You use parables when You talk to the people?” (13:10) After essentially saying, “I speak in parables so they WON’T understand…” (13:12-13) Jesus goes on, in verses 14 and 15, to say that this is yet another fulfillment of an ancient Isaian prophecy:

When you hear what I say,
You will not understand.
When you see what I do,
You will not comprehend.
For the hearts of these people are hardened,
And their ears cannot hear,
And they have closed their eyes—
So their eyes cannot see,
And their ears cannot hear,
And their hearts cannot understand,
And they cannot turn to Me and let Me heal them.

The thing that struck me as I read this was that Jesus is essentially saying it takes more than raw intellect to understand the will of God. Some of us come from Christian heritages that have placed a lot of emphasis upon rationality and thinking skills—perhaps too much, in fact. Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not advocating that we embrace irrationality as an alternative…but I am saying that we need to hear the words of Isaiah and Jesus. The people they spoke about hear the voice of God. They saw the actions of God. In the case of the first century people, they actually saw God enfleshed as a human being—and yet they still did not understand! They saw Him…but they didn’t see Him. They saw only what they wanted to see, and blinded themselves to reality. (Isaiah said “they have closed their eyes”)

This got me to wondering, “How often do I ‘close my eyes’ to what is right in front of me?” How much of God’s will for my life have I failed to understand, not because I haven’t read the Bible, or studied Greek & Hebrew, or read great theologians…but simply because my heart is hardened and I don’t WANT to understand? I suspect that has been the case quite often. I’m struggling to improve the situation every day, but it’s rather difficult to make a blind man see. It requires an act of God. I ask you to pray for me to embrace that action of God in my life…and I will do the same for you; And together, perhaps we will finally be able to turn and let Him heal us.

-- Justin

For Everyone: Give Me Your Eyes video

January 5, 2009 (Matthew 13:1-9)

From the perspective of a person who has spent the last twelve years of life deeply-engaged in ministry of one form or another, the Parable of the Sower has especial meaning and poignancy for me.

I have never yet been what would be popularly-considered “successful” as a minister. I’ve never landed the big name job. I’ve never had a group that quadrupled in size in a year. I’ve never had money start flowing into any ministry that I was responsible for heading. Not only have I never measured up to the typical standards of ministerial success, I have all too often been reminded of that fact (both by my critics and myself.) All of these facts have conspired to make me succumb to recurring bouts of mild depression. In my quiet moments, my mind is tortured by voices that whisper: “You’re a failure.” “You’ve wasted your life.” “I told you. You should have gone to med school.”

When these voices begin to croak now, I try to return my mind to Jesus’ parable. He told of a farmer whose desire to make things grow. He was so passionate in this desire that he left no ground untouched by his seed. He scattered seeds in the thorns, along the path, among the rocks, anywhere that his pitching arm could send them. After he had spread all the seed he had, the farmer sat down to watch what would happen. I wonder how the farmer must have felt when he first began to realize that at least 75% of his labor was completely in vain. His precious seeds were trampled, eaten, choked out, and starved to death. I suspect that he was disappointed…perhaps even grieving. Perhaps he regretted all the time he had “wasted” sowing seed upon such inhospitable ground. Perhaps he heard voices of his own: “If only I’d listened to my parents and become a carpenter…” Yet, in time, the farmer would have come to see that although most of the seeds he planted fell to the ground never to rise again…a minority was different. There were a few seeds that sprouted. I have to assume that these seeds didn’t look particularly “special” when they were still in the sack. They looked like all the other seeds. There was no way to predict that these would sprout while the others would fail. Yet here they were, a season later—young, and green, and reaching for the sunlight.

Jesus tells us that those few surviving plants went on to produce “thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” What the parable does not tell us, however, is whether the farmer lived long enough to see just how much his hardy survivors produced. Perhaps he did…perhaps not. Jesus leaves that part of the story unanswered. In a similar way, the spiritual fruit we bear may sometimes be evident to us…but other times it does not emerge until years after our death. The calling…the challenge for us…is to simply take joy in the act of sowing itself. In the act of trying to help things grow. As you go through this day, remember the words with which Jesus ended this parable: Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. (13:9)

-- Justin

For the Kids: On-Line "Parable of the Sower" Coloring Page
For Everyone: Picture 1 Picture 2 Mary Picked the Roses video

January 4, 2009 (Matthew 12:38-50)

…Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign… (Matt. 12:38) This passage used to bother me a lot. It seemed like Jesus was being inconsistent. Didn’t Gideon ask for a sign to make sure it was really God telling him to drive the foreigners from Israel? (Judges 6:11-17ff) And didn’t the apostle Thomas ask to see the nail-scarred hands of Jesus before he would believe in the resurrection? (John 20:24-25) Surely Jesus wouldn’t have declared them “evil and adulterous,” would He?

After thirty-one years of life, I think I’ve finally come to realize the difference between Gideon, Thomas, and the Pharisees of Matthew 12. Gideon had seen his nation repeatedly brutalized by foreigners. It was nearly impossible to believe that good days would ever return to Israel. Thomas had believed with every ounce of his heart that Jesus was, indeed, the Messiah of God; but then he had to watch as that Messiah was betrayed by a man Thomas thought of as a brother…was shamefully mocked and ridiculed before being put to a torturous death…and was finally buried in a borrowed grave. It must have seemed to Thomas that all the hope, light, and goodness had gone out of life forever.

In Gideon and Thomas we have men who desperately wanted to believe that God still cared…that He had not forgotten them. Yet they had been so demoralized it was almost impossible to believe. They NEEDED a sign. In the case of the Pharisees of Matthew 12:38, they merely WANTED a sign. They were not asking so that they could believe seemingly-impossible good news. Rather, they sought some excuse to avoid what they considered bad news from Jesus (i.e., that THEY needed to repent)

Re-read the response Jesus gave them, and see if you do not also detect a difference between a miracle given to strengthening hope, and a miracle demanded in a vain attempt to forestall repentance:

…the only sign I will give…is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on Judgment Day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now Someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.

My word to you who feel that you must have a sign from God simply to be able to make it through another day is this: Don’t lose heart. If you’re right, God will provide the sign that you need. If you’re wrong, God will use even this “dark night” of your soul to shape you in His image. In either event, the Lord loves you and He has not forgotten you. My word to you who would simply demand a sign to reinforce what you already know in to be true, but do not wish to be true is simply to repeat the warning that Jesus gave: The people of Nineveh will stand up against [you] on Judgment Day and condemn [you], for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah…

-- Justin

January 3, 2009 (Matthew 12:15-37)

I’d like to address Jesus’ famous words regarding “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.” (12:31). For decades—if not longer—this passage has provoked fear, questioning, and not a little despair. In order to understand what is meant by “blaspheming the Holy Spirit” we need to keep in mind the context.

According to Matthew, Christ has just healed a demoniac who was both blind and mute due to a demon. It’s important to realize that both the man’s possession and Jesus’ exorcism of his demon were PUBLIC knowledge. In fact, this particular miracle was so obviously and publicly performed that it caused the crowd to become amazed and ask “Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?” (12:23)

Enter the Pharisees. They do not challenge that the miracle happened. They do not seek in any way to investigate the claim of the miracle. They seek ways to discredit it. They are not struggling to come to faith; but rather are desperately trying to find some way to ignore the effects of God’s power through the life of this man, Jesus. They are trying to do anything they can to marginalize Him—even to the point of making a ludicrous argument against what was obviously a blessing from God. (i.e., the healing of the demoniac) Jesus responds to them in 12:26-27 by pointing out the irrationality of what they’re saying (i.e., “if Satan is casting out Satan, he is divided and fighting against himself. His own kingdom will not survive…”) as well as its hypocrisy (i.e., “if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said…”)

It seems to me that the “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” is a poetic way of talking about someone who willfully defies God in the face of blatant proof that He is calling them to respond to Him in some particular way. Once again, Jesus was not introducing anything new. He wasn’t “springing” some new law on the Pharisees. Consider the following words from the Old Testament book of Numbers:

…those who brazenly violate the LORD’s will, whether native-born Israelites or foreigners, have blasphemed the LORD, and they must be cut off from the community. Since they have treated the LORD’s word with contempt and deliberately disobeyed His command, they must be completely cut off and suffer the punishment for their guilt. -- Numbers 15:30-31 [emphasis mine]

So, when the topic of the “unforgivable sin” comes up, what’s a Christian to do? First, we should quit saying that people can’t commit the unforgivable sin today. Of course they can! We can be just as brazen, contemptuous, and deliberately disobedient as any Israelite in the wilderness or Pharisee of the first century. Once we have afflicted the comfortable, however, we need to make sure to also comfort the afflicted. In my experience, those who worry the most about whether they have committed the unforgivable sin are those who are the most righteous. A good rule of thumb is: if you’re genuinely afraid that you’ve blasphemed the Holy Spirit, that’s a pretty solid sign that you haven’t.

-- Justin

January 2, 2009 (Matthew 12:1-14)

In today’s reading, we find the Jesus’ disciples growing faint and hungry as they followed Him one Sabbath day. Their hunger became so great that at one point they began to pick and eat ears of grain. The Pharisees protested this by saying that they had violated the law prohibiting “work” on the Sabbath.

Jesus responds by citing examples of others who “worked” on the Sabbath. Under the legalistic interpretation they are using against His disciples, the Pharisees would also have to condemn David and even the priests in the Temple…that is, if they wanted to be consistent. But Jesus realized that the fundamental problem the Pharisees had was not inconsistency. Their inconsistency was a symptom of a deeper problem: their fundamental failure to understand Who God is, and what His law was supposed to be about. He went on to quote from Hosea (Hos. 6:6) and scold the Pharisees for failing to understand the prophet’s message: You would not have condemned My innocent disciples if you knew [or “understood”] the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For the [son of man] is lord, even over the Sabbath. (12:7-8)

What Jesus meant was that not all of God’s laws are of equal importance. There is a hierarchy of values. He preached this same message in 22:34-40 in which He famously responded to the question: “What is the most important commandment in the Law of Moses?” It’s worth noting that, even when given a great set-up to do so, Jesus NEVER taught that all of God’s Law was of equal weight. He consistently taught that some things were more important than others. The Pharisees had come to look upon the Old Testament as an end in itself. Jesus taught that it a means to an end. It was God’s tool to help people become more like Himself. But like all tools, it could be used for it’s intended purpose…or it could be used for other purposes. A hammer is meant to drive nails into wood and make things of beauty. It can, however, be used to kill a person. One use is good, the other is evil.

It seems that the application to Christians today is obvious. Many of us take great pride in being “people of the Book.” Whether that’s a good thing, or a bad thing, depends ultimately on what we’re doing with the “the Book”. The Pharisees took great pride in their learning…in the fact that they knew their Bibles backwards and forwards…that they could dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’. The Pharisees knew how to win arguments and get their way in the synagogue and maintain control over the people. Unfortunately, they never moved beyond the level of gathering spiritual information to the more demanding work of spiritual transformation. They knew the Law…but not what it meant. What about us, my brother? Are we any better than they? Do we know what this means: “I want You to show mercy, not offer sacrifices”?

-- Justin

My apologies, readers

I wanted to post a brief apology to those of you who follow this blog. The reading schedule I gave out at church and posted in one of my earliest blogs here, features readings for every day of this quarter. I had intended to post blog devotionals through the holiday vacation...but this turned out to be too ambitious. Initially, I thought about going back and posting for all the days I missed; However, I've come to believe that doing so will cause me to fall further behind on other ministerial/family obligations as well as draining my literary energies and probably resulting in lower quality posts from here one out. Consequently, I've decided to simply pick up and start posting again with the reading for January 2, 2009.

I thank you all for your continued interest and encouragement as I bumble my way around here trying to discern how God would have me do blog ministry. As always, I enjoy hearing from you and greatly appreciate your kind words, suggestions, and prayers.

-- Justin