Alchemy of Anger

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(Amos 2:11) Thus says the Lord, "For three transgressions of Edom and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he (1) pursued his brother with the sword, and (2) cast off all pity, and (3) his anger tore perpetually, and (4) he kept his wrath forever."

O

God, the perfect judge, knew He could not recall the punishment that perfect justice required. So He warned them because He is also perfect in mercy and patience. It wasn't the anger or wrath that necessitated, that invoked the punishment, it was the people who kept choosing to keep their anger and wrath burning and destroying life. These fiery emotions motivate action. Unfortunately, these Edomite chose to harness their anger as fuel for their evil desires.

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I need to let the Holy Spirit teach me to use anger and wrath for promoting justice, mercy, peace, and good love. I ache for the futures of people who labor to keep their wrath burning. I marvel that some choose this misery, not because of their victimhood, but because of their imagined sympathy for victims many degrees away.

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O Righteous Judge of All, thank You for employing Your righteous wrath so perfectly. It motivated You to go the cross so I would have a portal into Your forgiveness and grace. Thank You for not letting Your work go to waste: I live now in repentance and I actively pursue Your righteousness by faith.

I'm Elected by God!

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(2 Timothy 2:10) Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

O

The elect. These are people whom God selects. And according to His eternal plan (Ephesians 1:1-10; 2:10), He chose--predestined--that salvation would be given to "whosoever" believes in Jesus Christ as Lord (John 3:16-21; Romans 6:22,23). People who "elect" Jesus inevitably become different from everyone else because--with Jesus as their Lord--they make all subsequent choices according to His measuring stick, not ours, not the world's.

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I see now why Paul "endured everything for the sake of the elect." (Endure means to remain under the load of one's current task.) In millions of my choices, I'm either denying Jesus (rejecting His Lordship) or I'm re-electing Him as my Lord. And each time I choose Him, He releases into my corner of the cosmos an increase of the "salvation that is in Christ."

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My Lord and King, I choose You. I thrill at being known by You yet still chosen by You for salvation. I'm learning to be like You in enduring all things so that many people will also obtain salvation in You. I commemorate my first, pivotal decision to trust You, and I celebrate the millions of choices that are following that first great one.

Ashamed of Being Ashamed

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(2 Timothy 1:12) [Because of God's call on my life] I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.

O

A dictionary defines this shame as, "that feeling which leads to shunning what is unworthy, out of anticipation of dishonor." Through Paul, Jesus acknowledges that we live among Heaven-hating, Christ-mocking people. Shame is a temptation--a false virtue--that promises protection but fails to deliver. Instead, any difficulties we experience while behaving as citizens of Heaven predict honor, not dishonor.

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Jesus instructs us to not be ashamed of the Gospel of Salvation (Romans 1:16). Only a misplaced dread of disgrace leads us to shun Him or His words (Matthew 8:38; Luke 9:26; 2 Timothy 1:8,16). I know that Jesus understands shame. He embraced it as part of the price for publicly embracing me. He defied it when He chose to add me into His family and to share His Heavenly splendor with me (Hebrews 2:11; 11:13-16).

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O Lord, too often I suppress the noble thoughts, hopes, and clear certainties You have given me. I do that simply because I fear being rejected by people who reject You...so I guess I deserve their company. Help me, instead, to be more like You, to speak with bold, cunning love.

Folly

FOLLY. Silliness (see Prov 5:23; etc.); emptiness (see Gen 34:7, KJV; "disgraceful thing," NIV); and many others (Job 24:12; Ps 85:8; Eccl 2:3; 2 Tim 3:9). In Jer 23:13, an "offensive thing" (NASB; "folly," KJV; "repulsive thing," NIV). As a word in common use, folly is a weak or absurd act, and foolishness is a want of wisdom or judgment.
(from The New Unger's Bible Dictionary. Originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois. Copyright (c) 1988.)
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Proverbs 22:15
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.
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Foolishness is in the heart of every child. God has called us to be the ones to instruct in the way of wisdom and truth in order to drive out the way of foolishness from a child.
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Folly – a bad attitude – a childish prank – a wrong way of thinking – that is in the heart of a child. A child doesn’t have years of experience to fall back on to weigh a thought or a decision against. What sounds good, what seems to feel good, well then it must be good – or it will be fun! Let’s do it. It is bound there in that heart and it doesn’t leave on its own. We as parents, teachers and adults, the ones old in the faith, are called upon to implement discipline in order to remove, dislodge and replace folly from that heart. A rod is straight; we must not waiver from our task. The rod is strong, it will not bend or change it’s way; we must be consistent. A rod is hard; to discipline we must do the hard thing but it will pay off in rewards to those children who respond.
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Thank You, Father, that you did not leave me to myself but instead disciplined me and taught me your truths. Now Lord, give me the wisdom to take the lessons you have taught me and teach them to my children.

Ignoring the Dung God

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(2 King's 1:3,6,16) ... Is it because there is not God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the God of Ekron?...

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God is ever available, even to people who reject Him. Ahazaiah "did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, he clung to the sins of his fathers, and he made all Israel to sin" (from 2 King's 3:2,3); yet God interceded on his behalf three times. Ahazaiah fell and needed help, but amazingly, he stubbornly refused God's help and sought answers from Baal-Zebub, which means "The Lord of Flies" and was later called "Lord of Dung" or Satan (Luke 11:14-23).

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I'm embarrassed by Ahazaiah. God clearly knows our behaviors, thoughts, and motive--past, present, and future. Therefore, I ask myself: Am I (unlike Ahazaiah) open to the corrections and interventions that God sends to me? Am I filled with respect for the God who lives, listens, and intercedes? Or am I seeking help from false "higher powers" instead of the one true God (Galatians 4:8)?

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Lord, thank You for causing Jude's prayer to echo in my soul. I turn my allegiance to You, for You are able to keep me from stumbling and to present me blameless before the presence of Your glory with great joy. To You, the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, belongs majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time, now and forever. Amen (Jude 1:24,25).

Understanding our Path

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A man's steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand his own way?
Proverbs 20:24
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God sets our life in motion. He made us and knows the very days we will live. He directs our steps, where and when we will go. there's no way we can understand it or figure it out because His ways are higher than ours.
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A young mother dies of cancer leaving behind a husband, a 13 year old daughter and a small son. She loved the Lord! God directed her steps. As a young girl looking forward to her life she would have never thought her steps would have led her to this moment. We don't understand either, but God does. He directed them. She did not survive to watch her daughter being baptized on what would have been her 34th birthday. God knows why. But we do know she trusted God totally, and she left behind a legacy of faith to her children, husband and friends. We don't understand it, but we trust the One who does.
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Thank you, Jesus, for directing my steps and for knowing where I am going. I trust you completely.

Living Pauses

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(Proverbs 18:13) If one gives and answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.

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Answering people is like returning words, like a gift exchange. Our words--sometimes despite our defenses--reveal the depths of our souls (verse 4), they invite others to wound our souls (verse 6), and they handcuff and imprison our souls (verse 7). Conversely, our words can also refresh others (verse 4) and even give life to others (verse 21).

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It is so easy for me to speak without thinking, or as this verse warns against, to answer before I've actually heard or understood the depth and reality of what the other person tried to communicate. To not listen, then, is to humiliate myself and to invite destruction, and to withhold good from others.

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Lord, first help me listen to You and actually hear and understand You. In that process, help me to truly hear and understand the people I talk to.

Royal Relationships

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(Psalm 45:16) In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth.

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We replace our parents. The genius of God's kingdom is that once we're in power we carefully transfer our accomplishments--moral, spiritual, social, and physical--to the next generation. Rulers whose ambitions are self-centered or past-driven are also programmed for failure. When we were children, our parents and their peers governed. Now that we're parents (or at least older), we labor to equip the next generation to be noble governors (in a good sense) in all domains.

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How do we do this? In verses 6 and 7, good use of power and authority is defined as (1) promoting uprightness (being constantly correctable so we keep heading in the right direction, (2) loving righteousness (being liberated from the guilt of failure to love so so our relationships have integrity, and (3) hating wickedness (actively resisting all that harms people).

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Lord, I love the truth that You provide "the oil of gladness" when we live this way. It equips us to equip the next generation of leaders. I thank You that this whole Psalm describes how all of our homes can be as we walk with You. May my humble home and domain be a joy-filled palace.

Sacrificial Toes

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(Romans 9:33) As it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.”

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God Himself places this offensive obstacle in each of our paths. This potentially bone crushing experience is our unexpected divine encounter with the cross of Jesus Christ as revealed through the foolishness of various modes of preaching. The cross insults our noblest religious schemes. It declares that we can never be good enough to appease God or save ourselves. The cross humiliates our best intellectual defenses against Jesus Christ. (See 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; 1 Peter 2:1-8); Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 8:11-15.)

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Like both Balaam and Saul, I stumbled at what I thought was a clear, unobstructed path to self-fulfillment and glory (Numbers 22; Acts 9). But as Paul explained to the Romans, trusting exclusively in Jesus’ substitution for me on the cross is the only way I can enter into a relationship with God (Romans 9:30-32). My inflated works, my clever words, my unhumbled will detour me away from the opening that God created into Heaven.

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Lord, You’re right. This path of righteousness by faith gets brighter and clearer—more obvious—as we continue walking with You (Proverbs 4:18,19). Thank You for placing Yourself as a precious stone in my path so I could change directions. Now I walk in the light with You.

8 “Ifs” of Knowing God

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(Proverbs 2:5) Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

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Preceding this verse are five conditions for knowing God, which is finally, at last, the beginning of knowledge (verse 7). When these conditions are active descriptors of how I live and what I love, then I can enjoy valid and health-filled intimacy with God.

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First, I am impregnated by the Word His Spirit offers me; second, I hoard and treasure His commandments (verse 1). Third, I open my ears to hyper-alert attention, then stretch my being to apply whatever He commands (verse 2). Fifth, I boldly vocalize my desire for His knowledge; and sixth, I articulate how I’m changing my life based on my knowledge of God—something changes internally when I declare such things externally (verse 3). Seventh, I make redemptive riches my central prayer, and finally, I tirelessly discover and reclaim God’s answers to what sin had caused to be lost and hidden (verse 4).

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Father God, Your call on my life—on all people’s lives—is better than any Hollywood script. It’s real. It’s bigger than we are, at least it’s bigger than who and what my broken self-image is. Help me to be increasingly like Your precious Son, Jesus Christ.