Remain in the Vine

I read Isaiah 5 and 6 yesterday. I hadn't realized that God referred to Israel as a vineyard in the Old Testament. He talks in these chapters about how He planted the vineyard and carefully tended it, but it did not produce a good crop. The passage states that God had done all He could for the the vineyard but when He looked for good grapes it yielded only bad. God had been so patient with His people. He promised them good if they would only follow His decrees and trust Him (Deuteronomy 30:16) Time after time they disobeyed, but then they would cry to Him and He would forgive their sins and rescue them from whatever calamity they had gotten themselves into. It seems like it wouldn't be long, though, before they were back to wallowing in the pit of sinfulness, following in the ways of their idolatrous neighbors. Finally it came to the point that God had to remove the hedge of protection around His vineyard and uproot its vines. He allowed His people to be carried into exile by their enemies and their land to be destroyed. Why was it so hard for God to get the attention of His people? If they had listened to Him and obeyed and trusted, they would have lived in peace in the land He promised on oath to Abraham. However, they never stopped leaning on their own understanding. In Romans 1:18-32, the Bible talks about those who knew God, but who neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. Verses 22-25 say, "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen." God had rescued and blessed His people over and over and they still kept falling away into idol worship. The thought recently came to me that idol worship is really worship of self. We want to do our own thing instead of following God, so we create a "manageable deity" to make ourselves feel better about our sinful choices. I'm sure that most of us don't have a carved idol that we bow to, but don't we so often bow at the altar of self-gratification in one way or another? When I think of God's people being carried away(literally) by their enemies, I'm reminded of the verses in James 1:13-15 "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." How can we keep from being dragged away and enticed by our lusts? We must remain in the vine. John chapter 15 gives us the picture of Jesus as the vine and His people as the branches. Just as in the passage in Isaiah, God is the gardener or vinedresser. Verse 4 says, "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine." Verses 9-11 state, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." So, allowing ourselves to be carried away by our sinful desires leads to death, but remaining in the vine by obeying God's commands brings complete joy. God loves us so much and His commands are not to steal our joy as the devil would have us believe. They are to give us a joyful, abundant life, even during times of struggle and pain. Father, help us to remain in the vine so that we won't be carried away by our enemy. Show us where we bow at the altar of self and help us to be like Jesus, who humbled Himself even to death on a cross. Let the only exaltation that we seek be that You would one day tell us, "well done, good and faithful servant."

Trusting God

When I was diagnosed with cancer nearly five years ago, I felt led by God to fight it naturally. The leading came as we prayed and researched and as medical professionals at a big city hospital, who billed themselves as "the best," kept dropping the ball so to speak. So I started on the protocol that Sean and I felt led to pursue. I instantly felt better than I had in years. I wasn't without doubt and fear, however. Many times I would pray and ask God for confirmation that this was the right path. Every time I prayed that prayer I felt reassured by Him through a Bible passage or a song. Many times there were multiple reassurances. Ten months after my initial diagnosis I had a follow-up MRI. There was some slight growth of the cancer which made us and others wonder if I should continue on the natural path. I spent the night after receiving these results searching the Bible and praying. One of the verses that really spoke to me that night was Psalm 118:8, "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans." I knew I needed to stay the course, trusting God for the outcome. He also reminded me through the two devotions that I read the next morning that He is the calmer of the wind and the waves. He is all-powerful. There have been ups and downs, but God has been faithful through it all. Sometimes I take my eyes off Him and start relying on my own strength and understanding. I am reminded of the many times that God's people should have trusted Him but instead trusted in man. One example is King Asa. Asa was king of Judah after Israel and Judah had divided into two separate kingdoms. His story is found in 2 Chronicles chapters 14-16. Asa started well. He "did what was good and right in the eyes of God," taking away the foreign idols and commanding his people to seek and obey God. Asa had an army of 580,000 men with shields, spears and bows. Verse nine states that Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with a million men and 300 chariots. Asa cried to God, "O Lord, there is none like You to help, between the mighty and the weak." It doesn't say how, but the story goes on to state that the Lord defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and they fled. There are many accounts in the Old Testament of God defeating the enemies of His people without the people even needing to fight. They simply had to trust and obey. For many years after the aforementioned victory, there was rest for Asa's kingdom. In chapter 16, it says that Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah. Instead of seeking God, Asa made a covenant with the king of Syria, something that was expressly forbidden by God. This alliance did result in turning back the Israelites, however Asa was rebuked and there was no more peace in his reign. Don't we often do that too? Not that we are fighting earthly armies, but we are fighting the enemy of our souls. When we are tempted and tried, sometimes we trust wholeheartedly in God and see great victories. Then another trial comes and we look to ourselves or to some earthly wisdom for the answer. Not that we aren't to use our brains or to involve others, but the first place we need to go is to God. We need to seek His direction and then we need to follow it. Is the direction you receive going to be the same as mine? Not necessarily. That's why each of us needs to have a thriving relationship with God. The book of Hebrews talks about running the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Each of us has our on race to run, our own battles to fight. There are two stories in 2 Samuel 5:17-25 in which the Philistines came out against King David. Both times David inquired of God. God gave him different instructions for each battle. What if David had just decided to use the same plan instead of seeking God the second time? If God led David two different ways against the same army, I think we can expect that He may lead us in different ways than each other. Obviously he won't lead us to do something that is contrary to His word. Proverbs 3:5,6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight." Isaiah 55:6-9 states, "Seek the Lord while he may be found;call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts.Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.'For my thoughts are not your thoughts,neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" Wherever you are today, in a time of trial or a time of peace, seek the Lord. Trust Him to show you the way and then continue to seek and to trust. I quoted from Psalm 118 at the beginning of this post. The first and last verses of the Psalm are the same, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever."

Be Strong In the Lord

Mad at myself because I've been farting around on the internet. I just realized it's kind of funny too (in a sad way) because the devotion I read was about tearing down strongholds and everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. I guess maybe I've thought of that verse as referring to ideologies but it really could be anything that gets in the way of our relationship with Him. The stupid thing is that the stuff I'm looking at isn't even interesting for the most part. I've just been procrastinating on writing or doing anything productive. I've done quite a lot of sitting since finding out my cancer had spread to my spine in late January. Early on it was because we were worried about the fractures in my vertebrae. More recently it has been because of intermittent pain. I am not used to sitting around and I fell into the bad habit of spending (wasting) time on somewhat worthless surfing or TV watching. The frustrating thing is that I have always wanted to write and now that I had the opportunity, I wasn't using it. I have spent some time in these months writing down insights from the Bible, but I hadn't done anything substantial. This frustrated me too because my diagnosis reminded me that we are to redeem the time. None of us knows how long we have but when you're healthy it's easy to think you have lots of time. The Bible says that our lives are a vapor and that we need to make the most of our time. Anyway a while back I shared my frustration at the time wasting with some friends with whom I've been doing a Soul Care study. They encouraged me to start writing a blog. Right around the same time, a childhood friend who had recently lost her 25 year old daughter posted an article titled Powerful Advice from a Dying 24 Year Old. The last three words of the article were, "make it count." This had been a motto that my friend's daughter lived by during her illness. That article helped to spur me on in beginning this blog. I wrote last time about being alert to the devil's schemes. I think sometimes we feel that the devil's schemes are overt and we should be able to recognize them right away. However, the Bible says that the devil parades around as an angel of light. He will do his best to deceive us into selfishness, anger, calling our sin something else, and, in this case, idleness. His ways are subtle. If he can get us to justify our sin he will be able to drag us down. We don't have to allow this though. Ephesians 6:10-18 talks about putting on the full armor of God, being strong in HIS POWER, so we can stand against the devil's schemes. We are also reminded here that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Satan would like nothing more than to get us fighting with people instead of standing against him. Verses 13-18 state, "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people." What are all these pieces of Spiritual armor? The belt of truth-Jesus said in John 17:17, "sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." In John 8:31 and 32 Jesus said, "if you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." Again, it is not just knowing the teachings of God but putting them into practice. The breastplate of righteousness: a breastplate is meant to protect our most vital organs, especially the heart. We are told in Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart,for everything you do flows from it." How do we do that? By keeping our focus on God and following Him, desiring to be changed and refined through our relationship with Him. Philippians 4:4-9 says, "4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace-the gospel is literally the good news that Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we could have peace with God. Our sin separates us from God, but we are reconciled to Him through the blood of Jesus. As the verses from Philippians 4 above state, He also gives us peace in our lives as we trust in Him and bring Him our concerns and focus on things that are pure and right and lovely. The shield of faith-Hebrews 11:1 says,"11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." It is trusting God and following Him step by step even when we can't see where we are going. It is knowing that, "He who promised is faithful."(Hebrews 10:23). It is stated in the description of the armor that we will be able to extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one with this shield of faith. The devil will do anything he can to shake our faith, but just as Jesus did in the wilderness, we can defeat him by reminding ourselves and him of the truth. We belong to God and He has already defeated Satan. The helmet of salvation-again, the sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection have bought us salvation from sin and have transferred us into His kingdom and assured us of everlasting life. The sword of the Spirit-it always comes back to the word of God. Jesus quoted God's word to the devil each time he tried to tempt Him in the wilderness. We need to immerse ourselves in the word. Satan will do his best to counterfeit God's word to us, just as he did to Eve in the garden. We need to really know the truth of the word so that when the father of lies tries to distort it, we will recognize it and refute it. The passage on the armor ends with an exhortation to pray in the Spirit on all occasions. We are not to live by our own strength but to acknowledge our own helplessness and our dependence on God. When I started writing this entry, I had only read a portion of the verses in 2 Corinthians 10 that referred to tearing down strongholds. It was after I started writing about the armor of God that I realized the other passage speaks of weapons. The passage reads, "4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."If we know Christ as Savior, the Bible says we have the same power available to us that raised Jesus from the dead. We don't need to walk around defeated and constantly struggling. We do need to employ the armor and the weapons, though. When thoughts come that are contrary to the word, we need to take them captive and make them obedient to Christ. Let's ask God to make us conscious of the devil's schemes and to help us to be strong in the Lord as we take our stand against them.

Is Tobiah in Your Temple?

The Old Testament book of Nehemiah recounts the story of the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem after the Israelites had been taken captive. Nehemiah was cupbearer to the Persian King, Artaxerxes. Nehemiah had been told that the people of Jerusalem were in great distress because the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and its gates burned with fire. He reacted to this news by mourning, fasting and praying. He confessed the sins of Israel and beseeched God to keep His promise to restore those who would return to Him and keep His commandments. God answered his prayer through King Artaxerxes by allowing Nehemiah to return to Judah. The king also sent letters to the governors of the provinces along with officers and horses to protect Nehemiah on his journey. The book goes on to recount how the wall of Jerusalem was rebuilt amid much opposition.I will probably explore some of that subject in later posts, but I wanted to focus on something I had never taken notice of in my earlier readings of the book.One of the main people who opposed the building of the wall was a man named Tobiah the Amonite. Nehemiah 2:10 says, "When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Amonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites." Not a very friendly greeting. Repeatedly throughout the book there are references to Tobiah and others attempting to thwart the work. In Nehemiah 4:3, Tobiah is quoted as saying, "What are they building-even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stone." Now for the part I had never noticed before. Nehemiah had returned to King Artaxerxes. While he was away from Jerusalem, Eliashib, the High Priest, had prepared a room in the Temple for Tobiah the Amonite! Nehemiah 13:5 states that Eliashib, "had prepared a large room for him, where formerly they put the grain offerings, the frankincense, the utensils and the tithes of grain, wine and oil prescribed for the Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests." So, here was their enemy who had repeatedly tried to thwart their plans, LIVING IN THE TEMPLE! Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem, threw Tobiah and his belongings out of the Temple, had it cleansed and the articles of worship restored. When I read this passage I was flabbergasted! Why on earth would the priest allow Tobiah to live in the Temple? Apparently they were related by marriage somehow, but still...how did Israel's enemy end up living in a chamber that was supposed to be reserved for the articles of worship? As I chewed on this for a while, I started thinking about I Corinthians 6:19-20, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies." This made me think of the "Tobiahs" that we allow to take up residence in our Temples. What is it that occupies the places in our minds and hearts that should be dedicated to our worship of God? God deserves our wholehearted devotion, not bits and pieces of us. For a long time the Tobiah in my temple was anger and bitterness. I had made an idol of happiness. Instead of keeping my eyes on Jesus and choosing to dwell in the shelter of the Most High, I focused on me. Now, I would try to pass it off as hurt and disappointment and deceive myself for awhile, but God would always bring me to the place of recognizing it as sin and repenting of it. It took me a long time, however, to completely throw that Tobiah out. There are so many things that we can allow to take up residence, we have to always be on our guard against the devil's schemes. I Peter 5:8 says, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." We need to take our focus off ourselves and keep it on Jesus. We need to ask God to shine His light into our lives and show us our sins. Then we need to repent, not just once but daily-sometimes hourly if we're honest. We also need to be filled to overflowing with His living water so there's no room in our temples for Tobiah. Let's pray with the Psalmist, "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23,24

Priorities

Because of their repeated and willful disobedience to God's law, God allowed the Israelites to be taken captive. The exiles were carried off and held captive for 70 years. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed. Eventually, as told in the book of Ezra, God put it on the heart of Cyrus, King of Persia, to send the Israelites back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. Cyrus also called on the people of Persia to give gifts to the Israelites for the rebuilding. He removed the articles of the Temple from the house of the gods of Nebuchadnezzer and restored them to Israel. The people whom God raised up for the purpose returned to Jerusalem.The first thing they did was to rebuild the altar and offer sacrifices to God. They did this before beginning the work on the Temple. I believe they were acknowledging the sins of their ancestors that had led to the exile and were consecrating themselves to God. They were acknowledging God's sovereignty and their need for Him. Sometimes God calls His people to a task but then instructs them to wait on Him. Unlike the builders in the book of Ezra, we find it hard to wait and sometimes rush ahead without being properly equipped. I think of the Israelites at the base of Mt. Sinai. Their leader, Moses, had gone up on the mountain to meet with God and receive His law. The Israelites became fearful and impatient and asked Moses' brother Aaron to make them a gold idol which they began to worship, calling it their god. Then there was King Saul. The Israelites had disobeyed God in asking for a king. He had given them their wish, having Saul anointed as King. King Saul's first activity recorded in the Bible is that he went out and attacked the Philistines. Nowhere does it say that he was instructed to do so. In reading the story in I Samuel 13, it seems that he had proceeded without seeking God. Verse 4 says, "So all Israel heard the news: 'Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become obnoxious to the Philistines.'" The people joined Saul but were so frightened by the situation that they hid. It says that the men who were with Saul were quaking with fear. Somehow Saul knew that the Prophet Samuel was to come on the 7th day to offer sacrifices to God. Samuel didn't arrive on time and when Saul saw his men beginning to scatter he decided to offer the sacrifices himself, something he was not authorized to do. When Samuel arrived and confronted him, Saul answered, "I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord's favor,' so I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering." Instead of seeking God's direction in the first place, Saul had rushed ahead and had gotten himself and his people into hot water. Then he compounded the problem by offering the sacrifices he was not in authority to offer. How often do we rush ahead with something, maybe even something good, without first seeking God? Then, when things don't go according to our plan, we wonder why. We may even begin to try to manipulate God or other people or to blame them for our failure. I feel like that is what Saul was doing. He had gone ahead with his own plans and when things didn't look good, he decided to try to get God on board. When Samuel did arrive and confront Saul, he told him that had he obeyed God, his kingdom would have been established over Israel for all time. His disobedience, however, would cost him his kingdom. Reading further in I Samuel reveals that Saul didn't learn his lesson. Back to the Israelites in the book of Ezra; because they had sought God and His forgiveness and protection, they were able to rebuild the Temple. They faced much opposition but they were enabled to complete the work. The Bible makes it clear that God desires to bless His people. II Chronicles 16:9 says, "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." Isn't it neat to think of God looking for people to pour His strength into? He does this through the framework of our commitment and obedience to Him, not by blessing our agenda. God already has a plan. We need to seek Him and submit and then watch the glorious results.