Category Archives: Bible Insights

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Living An Overcoming Christianity

Overcoming Christianity truly isn’t rocket science. It is actually quite simple: Trust in God + Passionate Supplication = Answered Prayer … Answered Prayers = The Victorious Christian Life. It is that simple. Not easy, but simple. If we walk daily, hand-in-hand in a relationship of simple trust with the Lord, and boldly, expectantly pour out our needs and desires to him, he will answer our prayers, and at the end of the day, we will have lived an overcoming Christianity.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 5:20

They cried out to God during the battle, and he answered their prayer because they trusted in him.

As I read this short, simple, to-the-point verse, here is the first thing that hit my brain: Overcoming Christianity truly isn’t rocket science, is it? It is actually quite simple:

Trust in God + Passionate Supplication = Answered Prayer

Answered Prayers = The Victorious Christian Life

It is that simple. Not easy, but simple. It is not easy because we often allow other things to wreak havoc on that divinely order relational formula. We allow fleshly desires to corrupt our trust and tempt us to desire selfish things; we allow fear to stunt our prayer; we allow busyness and self-sufficiency to shelve our prayer life; we allow the world to push in and push the things of God to the margins; we give the devil a foothold in our lives by flirting with immorality. And the list goes on.

That being said, the biblical formula is still simple: if we walk daily, hand-in-hand in a relationship of simple trust with the Lord, and boldly, expectantly pour out our needs and desires to him, he will answer our prayers.

When we so order our lives to do the will of God, we have every human right—in fact, we have an invitation from God himself—to come before him in bold, expectant prayer, and his promise is to answer us when we call on him. When you string a bunch of those experiences together, you have the makings of an inspiring witness of a life surrendered to and used by God. And that is the victorious Christian life.

That is the kind of life God blesses. In fact, those are the kinds of people God looks for. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”

That is what explains the testimony of the Israelite warriors we read about in 1 Chronicles 5:18-20. We don’t know much about their lives individually; we don’t have details of the battle they were in; we don’t know anything about their enemy; we just know about their trust in God. In the midst of their life and death efforts, they cried out to God. And he heard them:

There were 44,760 capable warriors in the armies of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. They were all skilled in combat and armed with shields, swords, and bows. They waged war against the Hagrites, the Jeturites, the Naphishites, and the Nodabites. They cried out to God during the battle, and he answered their prayer because they trusted in him. So the Hagrites and all their allies were defeated.

They were in a fight—a life and death struggle. They did their part, but they needed God to do his part. So they cried out to the Lord in battle, and as he had promised his people, he heard them. He heard their prayer and they achieved a victory significant enough to make it into the pages of eternal history.

That is the he kind of life I want to live—a life of ruthless trust, passionate supplication, answered prayer and victorious Christian living. My guess is you do too. Follow the relational formula and you will have that life indeed.

Going Deeper With God: You are likely to face a battle today—probably a minor skirmish, but perhaps a major battle. Why do I say that? Because as believers, we have been thrust into the middle of spiritual warfare. Just keep that in mind throughout the day. And when you run into opposition, offer this prayer: “Lord, I need your help in this battle. I am going forth in your name to do your work in order to extend your kingdom. Enable me to do mighty exploits this day as I fight for you. Work in me and on my behalf to bring about a great victory that will result in high praise to your name. I ask for none of the glory for myself. I ask only for a day that can be chalked up in the win column for your kingdom. So I boldly ask that you would answer this prayer. I offer it in faith in the name of the ultimate victor, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

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Neutralize Your Negatives

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

The obscurity of the most obscure life can be shattered by the power of a bold prayer; the most insignificant person becomes significant when they reach out to the God of heaven with the boldest of requests.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request.

Much has been written about this little, obscure verse in recent years. Jabez has been forever popularized by those who have written about him, and in the process, his biographers have become wealthy. I have no problem with that—someone needed to discover Jabez and tell his story.

In just two verses hidden among long lists of forgettable names, Jabez suddenly appears and then, just as suddenly, disappears. But his brief story is anything but forgettable—mainly because he had the temerity to rise above his circumstances and ask God to bless him with a distinguished life.

In his book, The Pursuit of Excellence, Dr. Ted Engstom writes these challenging words:

Cripple him, and you have a Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell and you have John Bunyan. Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge and you have a George Washington. Raise him in abject poverty and you have an Abraham Lincoln. Strike him with infantile paralysis and he becomes a Franklin Roosevelt. Burn him so severely that the doctors say he’ll never walk again, and you have a Glenn Cunnngham–who set the world’s one mile record in 1934. Deafen him and you have a Ludwig van Beethoven. Have him born black in a society filled with racial discrimination and you have a Booker T. Washington, a Marian Anderson, a George Washington Carver. Call him a slow learner, “retarded,” and write him off as uneducable, and you have Albert Einstein.

All of these people, like Jabez, and like most of us, have this in common: we all have things, challenges, obstacles, what we often refer to as baggage in our lives that we have to carry around that can either keep us from becoming what God intends for us to be, or can motivate us to become all that God has designed us to become. Basically, our baggage comes in two or three different categories.

  • Physical—some of the baggage we bear we were born with. Birth defects; from injury or illness; that which came from our parents’ gene pool…chromosomes and DNA which causes us to have our height, weight, shape of face, color of skin, even determines to some degree the kind of personality we have.
  • Familial—some of the baggage we pick up comes as the result of being wounded by the most important people in our lives—our parents and other family members. Some of the heaviest baggage we carry comes from the mistreatment or even abuse of the people we trust…physical, sexual, emotional abuse.
  • Failures—many people carry the baggage of the guilt of past mistakes—a failed relationship, a failed marriage, a failed business, academic failure; the baggage of a moral failure, a sin, whose consequences you live with everyday.

Whichever baggage we carry, the reality is it can weigh us down and keep us from enjoying a happy, productive and significant life, or it can be the very thing that motivates us to turn it over to God and receive his help to overcome and become all he wants us to be.

Jabez is the patron saint for those who are courageous enough to confront the baggage in their lives and tap into God’s willingness to empower them to overcome it. A couple of things stand out in these two verse about Jabez:

One is his unique personal history of Jabez. And what stands out about his history is that it was marked by obscurity. I mean, who is this man…where did he come from…and who were his brothers? As a matter of fact, doesn’t it seem that this little vignette is totally out of place with the rest of the chapter. It’s as though the writer spaced out in writing this genealogy and slipped in this tid-bit about Jabez, which has no connection to the rest of the chapter. Jabez appears out of nowhere. There’s no history…no family line to trace…no story.

Or is there? Is there a story here in his obscurity? I think there is. I like what the great Bible commentator Matthew Henry says about these verses: “The Spirit of God singles out Jabez for notice and lingers over him with delight. He is a bright gem on an apparently hard and uninteresting surface shining with brilliancy…His name would have not notice…but for what there is of God in it…it is this that gave Jabez a name in eternity.

Jabez is not known for any heroic act; Scripture remembers him only for his bold prayer. I like that about this man. Most of the time our heroes of the faith are people we elevate to such a height that they become untouchable. By nature a hero is someone far superior in character or in deed than we are. We can’t really identify with them in everyday life; we can only look up to them. But Jabez is just like us. He is a nobody, a non hero, an obscure man who found his way into the pages of history, not because of a great act, but because of an act of faith. What gave Jabez significance in an otherwise insignificant life was that he boldly called upon God.

Here is a special truth that we can derive from this: The obscurity of the most obscure life can be shattered by the power of a bold prayer; the most insignificant person becomes significant when they reach out to the God of heaven with the boldest of requests.

The second thing I notice in these two verses is the unique character of Jabez. And what stands about his character is that he was disadvantaged from the get-go. He had a less than ideal background and a tainted nature thrust upon him by his mother at birth. The very first thing we read in verse 9 is that he was more noble than his brothers. Apparently he lived in a family of scalawags.

It is noted that he was more honorable than they because he rose above the character flaws that seemed to haunt his family. His brothers gave into their flawed nature; he rose above it through prayer. You also see that one of the greatest influences in this flawed character was the outlook of his mother. She named him Jabez, which in the Hebrew language meant, he will cause pain.

Why did she name him that? Because the birth of this child was more difficult than usual. Now this is important because in the Hebrew way of thinking, a negative name, which in this case commemorated the pain of his mother during childbirth, made him a born loser.

He was destined to fulfill these negative expectations; his named became a self-fulfilling prophecy. And this name created an emotional hang-up which kept him from leading a full life. His character stuck with him. His mother’s prediction became his predilection; it became his nature. He was a real pain.

It has been well documented the influence a parent’s words and attitude has on the outcome of their child’s future. The story is told of two men, Bill Glass and Jim Sundberg. Jim Sundberg’s father told him he would end up in prison someday, just like others in his family. And that’s exactly where Jim ended up. Bill Glass’s father told him as a young boy that one day he would grow up to be a famous ball player. Years later Bill Glass became a famous athlete in the professional ranks.

Even if you have been saddled with a bad reputation, a flaw in your character, expectations of others that are extremely negative and low, a future that doesn’t look too positive, you don’t have to settle for it. In a moment God can take your flaws, your weakness, your propensities and turn them around. He is the master of taking weakness and turning them into strengths; of turning scars to stars, tragedies to triumphs, disadvantages to advantages, when you boldly submit them to him and expect him to change them. You are just a bold prayer away from rising above.

I think maybe God is just waiting for you to send up a big, bold, bodacious prayer. Who knows, maybe you will be the next Jabez!

Going Deeper With God: Here is a Jabez-like prayer you might want to offer today: Lord, I need to rise above…above my circumstances, my family background, my physical, emotional and intellectual short-comings. So I boldly pray that you would bless me a lot; that you would extend your hand of grace toward me and enlarge my capacity to know you, love you, serve you and be used mightily by you. Lord, keep me from experiencing pain, and keep me from being the source of pain. Make my life a modern Jabez story. Amen.

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The Consequences of Selective Obedience

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

While God offers mercy for the sin and pardon for the transgressor—thankfully—the fruit of sinful living is often reaped along the way as we live out the rest of our lives, and worse yet, in the lives of the generations that follow us. If King David could speak to us today, I am quite sure that he would say, “do what you must to kill sin in your lives. Believe me, if you don’t, it will inflict untold pain upon you and your children.” Sounds ominous, but sin is a fact with which all of us must contend. The point being, deal with your weaknesses and temptations now—ruthlessly—and commit to 100% obedience to God. You will never regret your harsh treatment of personal sin. And if you have sinned, pray for a crop failure!

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 3:1-3

These are the sons of David who were born in Hebron: The oldest was Amnon, whose mother was Ahinoam from Jezreel. The second was Daniel, whose mother was Abigail from Carmel. The third was Absalom, whose mother was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. The fourth was Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith. The fifth was Shephatiah, whose mother was Abital. The sixth was Ithream, whose mother was Eglah, David’s wife.

First of all, let’s recognize that David was arguably the greatest king Israel ever knew. He was not perfect, yet he had an incredibly tender heart toward the Lord. He sinned—early and often, bigly and with flair—but he always humbled himself before God in repentance after both his private and public missteps. Incredibly flawed, David was, yet God himself declared David to be a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22). God found David’s trust so enchanting that he declared through his lineage would come the greatest king of all, much greater than even David: the Son of David, Jesus the Christ.

Having said that, we also have to acknowledge David’s very public shortcomings. When you are king of a nation, everything about you is public: the good that you do, the power and authority that you wield, and yes, the gaffs, missteps and moral failures that you commit. One of David’s greatest failures was that he married many wives. Perhaps it was simply the custom of ancient Middle Eastern kings to have many wives that David embraced, or maybe there was a part of David that allowed kingly power to go to his head—the power to have whatever he wanted, including multiple wives, or maybe David had a woman-problem, that is, he liked the ladies a little too much.

Whatever the case, he took to himself seven wives while he was king in Hebron. That’s right: seven. Not included in this list was Michal, the daughter of Saul who was given to David, then taken away, only to be taken back again once David became king over all Israel. (It’s a long story, but you can read about it in 2 Samuel 3). In addition to these seven, he then took additional wives when he reigned over the unified kingdom from Jerusalem. But anything more than one wife was a direct violation of Moses’ command to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 17:14-17.

You are about to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take it over and settle there, you may think, “We should select a king to rule over us like the other nations around us.” If this happens, be sure to select as king the man the Lord your God chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite; he may not be a foreigner. The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the Lord has told you, “You must never return to Egypt.” The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.

“Taking many wives for himself”—it was this very thing that led to untold tragedy in David’s life as it played out over the next fifty years until his death. Yes, he was a man after God’s heart. Yes, his lineage produced some incredible kings, and ultimately the King of kings. But his selective obedience in this area of moral weakness opened the door to adultery, conspiracy to murder, murder, cover-up, rebellion in his family, open warfare with his son, and the death of several of his children as they attempted to usurp his throne.

The thing is, sin has consequences. Of course, God offers mercy for the sin and pardon for the transgressor, but the fruit of sinful living is often reaped along the way as we live out the rest of our lives, and worse yet, in the lives of the generations that follow us. If David could speak to us today, I am quite sure that he would say, “do what you must to kill sin in your lives. Believe me, if you don’t, it will inflict untold pain upon you and your children.”

Sounds ominous, I know, and not too worthy of being devotional material. But it is a fact with which all of us must contend. The point being, deal with your weaknesses and temptations now—ruthlessly—and commit to 100% obedience to God. You will never regret your harsh treatment of personal sin.

And if you have sinned, pray for a crop failure!

Going Deeper With God:Memorize 1 John 1:9 today—and lean into it hard: “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

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Man’s Last Choice Is Often God’s First Choice

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

If it seems like God has no big plans for you, don’t let your station in life fool you. God is no respecter of persons and he is not swayed by your less than desirable circumstances. He will accomplish his purposes—and that includes some very good things for you. Others may see you as the last choice for the team, but God may very well select you as the first choice for his starting lineup. Just be patient—and ready—and watch what God will do over the course of your life.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 2:13-15

Jesse’s first son was Eliab, his second was Abinadab, his third was Shimea, his fourth was Nethanel, his fifth was Raddai, his sixth was Ozem, and his seventh was David.

Welcome back to the genealogies! And just a heads up: we are going to be here for another six chapters. So promise me that you will hang in there and not skip over or read them with your mind in neutral, because I promise you, in between the lines of what seems likes endless lists of names are nuggets of eternal encouragements for you.

So what wonderful spiritual application is in this particular genealogical account of the tribe of Judah here in 1 Chronicles 2? Well, for starters, remember who comes from this tribe: King David, the most famous and loved king in Israel’s history. But even better, from this flawed line (yes, there is quite a bit of drama, and even sin, that produces some of the children born into Judah’s lineage) comes the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Jesus the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world.

Now in those two facts alone is enough encouraging material to keep us full of gratitude to God for days to come. Take David for instance. He was God’s choice to replace King Saul as the new monarch of Israel. Saul started with such promise, but quickly went off the rails by abandoning his singular trust in God to provide for his success. So God rejected Saul and selected David, of whom he later says, “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” (Acts 13:32)

But David was not the people’s first choice to be king. We read in the selected text that he was the seventh son of Jesse, and basically his father’s afterthought for kingly consideration. You remember the story: the prophet Samuel came to Bethlehem under the Lord’s direction to anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be the next king. And from the oldest to the youngest, six brothers were paraded in front of the grizzled old prophet, who one by one, exclaimed, “Nope, not that one! Next.”

In fact, David wasn’t even present for the line up. After all six brothers had been examined, and rejected, Samuel had to ask if there were any other sons. He knew that God had told him to anoint one of Jesse’s sons, but none of the six fit the prophet’s qualifications. That is when—reluctantly, it seems—the family admitted there was one other, but Samuel shouldn’t bother with that one. He was just a no account brother out shepherding the family flocks. Yet when he was finally brought in, the prophet jumped to his feet and shouted, “that is the one!”

What a reminder to you and me that what man discounts as no account is often what God counts as perfect for his plan. It doesn’t matter if you are the seventh choice—seven in scripture has a sense of finality, which in this case implies the last choice—God can make you his first choice. So as it relates to your life, keep your heart pure before God and your hope to play a grand purpose in his plan intact, because God will elevate you if and when he chooses. That is up to him, but just remember, your station in life has nothing to do with God’s willingness to use you.

One other thing about this lineage of Judah: While Jesus was born into it way down the road, don’t forget that it was a flawed heritage full of prostitution, adultery, intrigue and murder. So not only can God use the least likely of man’s choice, he can use people who come from highly disadvantaged and dysfunction backgrounds. And not just squeeze them into his divine lineup, God can makes them superstars on his team. From the flawed seed of Judah came many amazing kings and one Messiah of the world.

All that to say, if it seems like God has no big plans for you, don’t let your station in life fool you. God is no respecter of persons and he is not swayed by negative circumstances. He will accomplish his purposes—and that includes some very good things for you.

Going Deeper With God: If you are frustrated with who you are and where you are in life, take it to Jesus. Put your negative circumstances, your flawed heritage, and your limited personality in his hands, and as you patiently trust and obey him, watch what he will do over the course of your life.

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Divine DNA: I Am A Child Of God

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

You’ve got God’s DNA, which makes you anything but unimportant. Your life is not meaningless and insignificant. You are not without a great purpose in this world. You are connected to an eternal story that is much bigger, far more important than you realize. You have a royal past and a prophetic future, which means you can, and should, live powerfully in the present. Your name is recorded in the most valuable genealogy of all—God’s! Yes, you are Abba’s child. So go out today and live like it!

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 1:1-4

Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. The sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Why should you take the time to read 1 Chronicles 1? Or for that matter, why should you bother with any of the genealogies and lists that appear in several places throughout scripture? After all, there is about as much devotional value in them as you would find in reading from the phone book.

Here is the simple answer—and it is a compelling one: Because it was God who included this chapter, and all the other genealogies, in his book, the Bible. And given that God is wiser than we are, he must have had a great reason for what we are tempted to see as endless, mind-numbing lists of ancient names, most of whom are not familiar to us. God wanted those names recorded in his eternal record book for a reason, and that ought to be good enough for us.

Given that, then how can we read them in a way that offers at least a little bit of inspiration? I will offer three things to keep in mind as you, in an act of faith and worship, slow down to read each name as it appears in your devotional reading—including today’s, which you now may want to go back and re-read the right way.

First, this connects you to the original readers. So put yourself in their sandals. These names represented their ancestors, and each name told a story that made up a chapter in the fabric of the biographical account of their lives. Each chapter revealed who they were, how they got to where they were, what their God-ordained rights and privileges were, and why they were so important to God. Just like you are most likely interested in your family history, in a sense, this chapter is your family history as well, since you, like me, are a literal descendant of Adam and a spiritual descendant of Abraham. This connects you to history.

Second, since that is true, this connects you to something bigger than yourself. Your current existence is a part of a grander historical scheme. You are a part of God’s story—and it is a big one. One of the curses of our age is a sense of meaninglessness and purposelessness. That is why, at least in part, depression, dysfunction, debauchery, and despair are so rampant in our world today. People are not connected to anything bigger than what they self-perceive as their own measly, meaningless life. They have no meaningful past and no purposeful future. But when you take the time to read the genealogies in scripture, you are reminded of a vital connection to an amazing, excited, meaningful drama that is still being played out.

Third, and most importantly, this connects you to God. When you trace the names back to the progenitor of the human race, you connect to Adam. And Adam’s father, we are told in another genealogy, one found in Luke 3, was none other than God himself:

Jesus was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph… the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. (Luke 3:23,38)

The Bible calls Adam the son of God, and you are the son or daughter of Adam. You can trace your line back to the original, which connects you to the Great Original, Almighty God. Yes, that is pretty exciting news. Not only spiritually, but in every dimension of reality, you are connected directly to God. You have the DNA of Almighty God. Do you realize how amazing—and important—that is?

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1)

That is what you are—a child of God—which makes you anything but unimportant. Your life is not meaningless and insignificant. You are not without a great purpose in this world. You are connected to a story that is much bigger, far more important, and thoroughly eternal. You have a royal past and a prophetic future, which means you can, and should, live powerfully in the present.

Your name is recorded in the most valuable genealogy of all—God’s! Yes, you are a child of God. So go out today and live like it!

Going Deeper With God:Re-read 1 Chronicles 1 again, and at the end of it, rejoice before God that you are connected to him. What a privileged existence you have!

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Plant Today—Harvest Tomorrow

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

The law of sowing and reaping is an unstoppable law of creation, as certain as the law of gravity. What that means for you is that what you put into the soil of your life will be produced in kind. Today, in the many and various things that you will do, you will be planting seeds—whether you are conscious of it or not. So learn to stop and think about what you later want to harvest, and make sure the seeds match.

Going Deep // Focus: 2 Kings 25:21

So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.

My dad was a great father. He was a hard worker, a good provider, was always there for us—he was dependable. Unlike some fathers today, he was involved in the lives of his children. Whether it was sports, or academics, or music, he encouraged us to be our best and to reach for the stars—and he was there to make sure we did. He was a great Christian man.

We knew he loved us, that was never in doubt. He was kind, compas­sionate and patient. But there was a limit to his patience, and we experienced that from time to time. And on a few occasions (okay, many occasions) I found myself on the business end of my father’s commitment to justice.

As we come to the end of 2 Kings, we find that the infinite patience of God has run out with Israel. After hundreds of years of rebellion, corrupted worship, comprised morality, and flat out rebellion against God’s ownership, Israel has pushed God over the limit. After scores of prophets had warned them and called them to national repentance—to no avail—the nation of Judah will now face the consequences of sin.

Years ago I came across two different sermon titles that aptly describe this sad part of Israel’s history. Charles Swindoll called it, When God Says, ‘That’s Enough.’ Likewise, the well known Baptist preacher, R. G. Lee was spot on in his sermon title “Payday Someday!” Either of those would be apt titles for 2 Kings 25.

The wrath of God is not a pleasant fact, but it is an undeniable reality. There is an end to God’s patience and a time when judgment is not only appropriate, but to withhold it would be for God to impugn his own character, emasculate his grace and empty his love of any real power. Judah had reached that point because of their continued wickedness—so God allowed their city to be destroyed, along with their cherished temple, and the children of God were sent into exile among the godless Babylonians.

There are some pretty sobering reminders in Judah’s story for us. For one, we need to be reminded that absolutely nothing escapes the watchful eye of God. Galatians 6:7 tells us, “Don’t be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” In other words, there will be a payday, someday. And we need to take that very seriously, because God does. He is a holy God who cannot tolerate sin. He won’t tolerate it in sinners, nor in saints. Murder, adultery, lying, cheating—God will deal with those “big” sins. Likewise God will not let us get away with the “little” sins either—anger, gossip, critical spirits, un-forgiveness. We need to be very sensitive in allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us of those things that are displeasing to God—and repent of them quickly.

Another reminder from Judah’s fall is that sin deafens us to God’s loving warnings. Judah didn’t see that the line-up of imprecatory prophets were really their friends, calling them back from the brink of disaster. You see that sometimes in rebellious teenagers rejecting the discipline of their parents or in people leaving their churches because their pastor has confronted them on some tough issues. Proverbs 27:6 reminds us, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are profuse.” The next time you hear a warning from a friend, or a tough message in church, open your ears—and your heart. It is really a message of love.

In reality, do we take God’s demand for holiness all that seriously? He never winks at sins—either big ones or little ones. “You will always harvest what you plant.” (Galatians 6:7) So the next time you have a difficult conversation about this with a friend, or hear a solemn message about sin in church, open your ears—and your heart. It’s really God sending you a message of love.

Finally, Judah’s fall reminds us that God is always rich in mercy, abounding in grace, and he relents from sending calamity. King David, after his fall, said “a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17) Ultimately the Jews humbled themselves and returned to God. God always responds to sincere humility, and we would do well to cultivate it.

The law of sowing and reaping is an unstoppable law of creation, as certain as the law of gravity. What that means for you is that what you put into the soil of your life will be produced in kind. Today, in the many and various things that you will do, you will be planting seeds—whether you are conscious of it or not. So learn to stop and think about what you later want to harvest, and make sure the seeds match.

Going Deeper With God: Take a moment to reflect on James 4:10—then do it: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

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God is Merciful AND Just

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

The biblical idea of God’s judgment is an inconvenient truth in our modern culture, but there is a cumulative corporate sin that God must judge if he is to be God. There is a time coming for judgment of systems, businesses, conglomerates and nations for the sheer wickedness that they have either surreptitiously or blatantly perpetuated: poverty that could have been alleviated, starvation that could have been prevented, the sex trafficking of children, abuse, wars and genocide that could have been stopped. How could the merciful God not call a halt to human evil with the final judgment of which his prophets have warned for millennia? I don’t know how God will bring justice to bear on non-human entities, but he will.

Going Deep // Focus: 2 Kings 24:1-4

During Jehoiakim’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land of Judah. Jehoiakim surrendered and paid him tribute for three years but then rebelled. Then the Lord sent bands of Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against Judah to destroy it, just as the Lord had promised through his prophets. These disasters happened to Judah because of the Lord’s command. He had decided to banish Judah from his presence because of the many sins of Manasseh, who had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. The Lord would not forgive this.

God is both merciful and just. He is not one or the other. He is not one without being the other. God is the perfect blend of loving kindness and divine justice. He wouldn’t be God if he weren’t, and when we step back and really think about it, we would not want it any other way. Now personally, when we are under his hand of judgment, we might wish that he were all mercy. And when we are under the cruelty of man, we might wish that God were all justice. But objectively speaking, God by definition must be both/and: perfect justice and perfect mercy.

In this chapter, after a few centuries of Judah’s back-and-forth flirtation with sin—mostly flirtation, if not full on dating—God’s patience has run out. Prophet after prophet has warned the nation by pointing out their sin, calling them to repentance, then giving them reprieve when they renounced their evil and returned to God. But the sin that occurred under Manasseh was beyond forgiveness.

Really? Beyond forgiveness, doesn’t God’s Word say otherwise? Haven’t you heard that no one is beyond God’s reach in previous chapters? Yes I have. In this case, God forgave wicked King Manasseh when he humbled himself in a Babylonian prison and begged the Lord to pardon his many transgressions. God did, and even returned Manasseh back to his throne in Jerusalem to finish out his life making up for some of the evil that had been inflicted during his reign. So yes, God can and will forgive the repentant heart of the most evil.

But there is a cumulative corporate sin that God must judge. The blood of innocent people cries out from the earth for God’s justice; blood that men and women in power have shed, or stood by and allowed to be shed when it was in their power to stop it. There is a time coming for judgment of systems, businesses, conglomerates and nations for the sheer wickedness that they have either surreptitiously or blatantly perpetuated. I don’t know how God will bring justice to bear on non-human entities, but he will.

Such was the case with Judah at this point in their history. There had been a brief reprieve under the repentant Manasseh, but the sons that followed him were thoroughly steeped in evil. And because the cumulative reservoir of sin from the last few generations was now spilling over the dam of God’s mercy, swift and sure judgment came at the hands of the Babylonians. End of story for Judah!

Do you suppose that will happen on a worldwide scale sometime soon? Do you get the feeling that the cumulative evil that has been inflicted on humanity for the past several hundred years, especially in the past century, will be called to account in the presence of Almighty God? When you think of the poverty that could have been alleviated, the starvation that could have been prevented, the sex trafficking of children, abuse, wars and genocide that could have been ended, how could the merciful God not call a halt with the final judgment of which his prophets have warned for millennia?

Yes, he will forgive the truly repentant—so stay in that camp—but the build up of evil he will tolerate only for so long. And we would not want it any other way.

Going Deeper With God: Judgment is coming, and rightly so. But that ought to lead us to pray more than ever, especially for those we know and love who are outside the camp of God’s mercy. For whom is God prompting you to pray? Do it without delay.