Praising God When I Don't Feel Like It

Please read the sentence after this next one. During my freshman year of college, I had to take a course called "Ordinary Citizens In Nazi Germany" as a part of my orientation. The class discussed how an educated society could agree to support a man like Hitler and what we should learn from it today. 

The class wholly bummed me out. Like, we had a solid week of critiquing propaganda films followed by a week of holocaust footage. During a Michigan winter? You try to stay cheerful. 

Before each class, I began to listen to The Promise Ring's "Why Did We Ever Meet?" By "listen", I mean "dance around the room and sing at top volume". In my mind, I was defying the winter, the horrible class videos, and my crusty professor's emotionless, mustachioed commentary. 

And for the mile-long walk from my dorm to the humanities building, my plan worked. I chose to sing something uplifting despite how I actually felt, and it made me feel better. 

I didn't come up with this idea. In Psalm 42, the writer says, "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." Doesn't that make you stop for a minute? In this worship song, the writer reassures himself he will praise God again in the middle of the song! 

A friend once told me he didn't sing during times of worship because he seldom felt honest singing along. "If I don't feel like praising God, then why would I sing 'I will praise you'?" At the time, I couldn't argue with him. But now I see the flaw in his thinking. I mean, thirteen years later, but still, I see it now. 

The Psalmist sang praise and worship to God even when he acknowledged his real feelings. I sang and danced because I wanted my feelings to change. 

But more than this, it's a question of who or what we think deserves our worship. If you were to choose  to honor how you felt over honoring God, then aren't you worshiping your feelings? Haven't you made your emotions your god? 

Have you ever felt like you didn't want to worship God? What did you do?

The Idea Of Enough

Ever since my wife worked as an intern for Nashville's NPR station, I've found myself listening to their programming during my commute. I recently heard an interview where the guest told a story about Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller at a party for a wealthy banker. Vonnegut asked Heller if it ever upset him that the banker made more money in one year than he had ever made from the book Catch-22. Heller replied, "No, because I have something he will never have. I have enough."

We don't hear many people say that. We typically think about what we could have if we only had a little more. The meaning of "enough" is certainly hard to grasp. But then, what is the source of "enough"? I think it depends on what you want to gain. 

Some teachers talk about Luke 18:18-25 as if it's a story about the evils of money. A rich man asks Jesus what he has to do to gain eternal life. Jesus tells him, "live a perfect life by keeping the law." At first, this sounds like Jesus is saying "Just do what the Bible says". But I think Jesus knew nobody could live a perfect life except for himself. If that's the case, then maybe we can see Jesus' first response as his way of saying, "Well, you aren't capable of gaining eternal life." 

The rich man then says, "I've been doing that already. There's got to be something else." So Jesus looks past the dude's pride to its source and says, "Sell everything, give it to the poor, and follow me." This shook the rich man, because, well, he was rich. But more than that, he put his trust in the security and comfort offered by wealth above the life Jesus offered. 

Those teachers I mentioned often stop the story when Jesus says, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Then these teachers have expounded on money. 

I don't think the point Jesus made was, "Money is evil. Only poor people are righteous." Jesus merely revealed the man's idol. It could have been anything, guys. If a socialite had approached Jesus, he could have said, "How difficult it is for a popular man to enter the kingdom of God!" If this conversation happened between Jesus and a genius, it could easily have been, "How hard it is for an intelligent man to enter the kingdom of God!" If the men found comfort, security, and identity in his friends or the power of his mind, then he would have made relationships or intellect his god. 

I think we could fill in the blank "How difficult it is for a _________ man to enter the kingdom of God" with any descriptor. In fact, Jesus could simply have said, "How difficult it is for a man to enter the kingdom of God!" 

If he had said it this way, maybe we would better relate to the people hearing him. In verse 26, the people said, "Then who can be saved?" We all struggle with idolatry. I think John Calvin rightly said the human heart is a perpetual factory of idols. If we constantly find ourselves putting our trust in wealth, relationships, intelligence, or anything besides God alone, then who can be saved? 

Jesus then says in verse 27, "What is impossible with man is possible with God." 

So if Jesus wasn't saying, "Money is evil," what was he saying? I think he took an opportunity to tell us "You can't do anything to gain eternal life. Only I can do that for you. And if you try to do it on your own, you may as well try to successfully shove a giant animal through a tiny hole."

When we make something like money an idol, it will never give us enough of what we want. The idol will continuously promise to fulfill our desires, and then fail to really deliver. 

But what is impossible with these idols is possible with God. If we truly seek after God as the fulfillment of our desires, putting our trust in Him, finding our security and comfort in Him, He will always provide what we need. He is enough. 

Doing What Those Guys Did - Finding motiviation through heroes.

When my friends and I formed our band, The Summer Country, we spent a day discussing vision. Why did we want to play music in Nashville? What impact did we see ourselves having on the city? How did we want to achieve our goals?

During this discussion, we wrestled through the idea of merchandise. What would we make to sell and why? For the last seven years, all I had ever wanted to sell were recordings and books. I never even entertained the idea I would once again make the standard rock and roll Tshirt/sticker/button spread. If selling records exclusively was good enough for Fugazi, it was good enough for me.

Eventually, I conceded. We could in the future make non-record or book merchandise to sell. But I made a condition. For every normal business decision The Summer Country made, I reserved the right to do one punk thing. If we made Tshirts, for example, I would also have stencils made of our logo. Not that I'm encouraging anyone to commit vandalism. They could spray their car hood or the back of a hoodie. They could create their own merchandise without having to buy it from me.

So the point of that story is this: I have musical heroes. I look up to Fugazi, Piebald and Meneguar for what they created and how they created it. When it comes to music, I want to do the kinds of things those guys do. I know in the past I've talked about people turning musicians into idols, but I read something in James which made me rethink the subject of admiration.

James 5:10-11 says, "As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured." Then he uses Job as the example. Later, in verses 16-18, James writes, "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit."

It's okay to have heroes. We should find inspiration in what others do. Paul once wrote, "Follow me as I follow Christ." But looking at the condition of the church in America, and definitely the church in Nashville, I wonder how many people here really admire the heroes of the Bible. If we look up to Elijah, David, and Paul, wouldn't we see more people doing what they did? Would it become normal for us to meet a Christian who wanted to tell people about Jesus, pray for them, and expect to see results?

Maybe we would see a change in the dead religious culture of Christianity if we found inspiration from heroes in the Bible. And I don't mean that in a daily-devotional inspiration way where we feel good in the morning as we read about what other men did in the past. I mean it in a way where we allow the stories of godly men to motivate us into action. I want to see Christians read the Book and do what those guys did.

The Means and End - Considering the purpose of our efforts.

A short while ago, I wrote about how people either secretly or unknowingly try to worship idols alongside God. You know, just in case He doesn't answer our prayers the way we want or expect. This morning, I realized I had only addressed the means in that post, but not the end.

The end of James 4 and beginning of James 5 address the attitude of both means and end. James 4:13-16 focuses on the means. "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.' But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil."

We can make plans and never even consider asking God what steps to take. All of our experience and education can flop in a moment, but we still trust our brilliance. I never thought about it like this before, but is it godless when God's not in it?

James 5:1-3 confronts the ends with a heavy hand. "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!"

Why do we want money, success, comfort? Do we want to have more to give back to God and bless other people? Do we want a nice home so we can show hospitality to more people? Or have we fallen into America's Biggest Religion and simply want to satisfy ourselves? "Come now, come now," says James, "Consider the purpose of your efforts."

So I wonder, what does it look like for someone to keep God at the center of both the means and end of something like a business, a home, a relationship, or a church? Anything, really.

Idols In The Threshing Wall

I went on a mission trip eleven years ago to help Jewish people immigrating to Israel. For one reason or another, though, we only ended up having about four days worth of real work to do in Jerusalem. The rest of the time, we hired a tour guide to take us around the country. So yes, I too have gone on a mission trip that doubled as a vacation.

But even so, in the two weeks I spent over there, I learned more about my faith and its Jewish roots than all of my college religion courses combined.

On several occasions, the guide took us to places where the people of Israel tried to integrate idols into their worship of the one true God. Some were more obvious than others, such as the alter in the city of Dan where the people sacrificed to a statue of a calf. But one day, we went to a large and ancient threshing floor to learn about their agriculture. The builders had left small recesses inside the round wall circling the floor. Someone asked our guide if the people threshing there had put lamps in the walls to light their work after dark. "No," he said. "That's where they put idols to bless and prosper their harvest just in case they didn't see God answer their prayers."

Okay, so I've read the Bible. I know that God's people struggled with idolatry all the time. Maybe the threshing wall shouldn't have shocked me, but that was the moment I realized these people would have called themselves believers in God. They went to the temple. They put on the appearance of obeying God's laws. But inside of their home or their business or their relationships, they had idols. Just in case.

Ezekiel had the same kind of revelation in chapter 8. An angel takes him throughout the temple and shows him where the leaders and all the people really worshipped idols inside.

I know I'm not innocent of this attitude. In the past, I had plenty of days where I said, "God, I trust you, but I'm in real trouble if I don't get enough money for rent." Or, "God, I trust you, but I feel like I'll never get married if I don't do something about it myself." With those instances, and lots of others, I made decisions with a just-in-case mindset. I put idols in my threshing walls.

Have you ever found yourself saying, "God, I trust you, but..."?

Thanks, Joe Strummer - A Question For Other Christians Who Play Music

Those who know me well know I love punk music. And even if I don't buy into the fashion or posturing or misguided egalitarianism, the music still greatly inspires me.

I made this video a few years ago to tell people about my introduction to punk and why I think it's so important. Sorry for the swears. and the video lag.

One major archetype in punk music is the anti-rockstar. Sometimes it's just a part of the show while the dudes have their napkin rings polished in the passenger bus. Other times, you'll find guys like Joe Strummer who said, and I think in earnest, "Fame is an illusion and everything about it is a joke."

I think the idea of fame should greatly concern Christians who make music. Musicians, good ones at least, will always struggle with fame and celebrity. Some want to achieve rock-stardom more than anything. Some don't know what to do with it once they get it. They will all have to make a decision of what to do with applause and cheers.

I didn't know why it made me so uncomfortable until I had a conversation with my friend Mirf a few years ago. He ran an all ages venue in Michigan and was deeply involved in the world of music. While talking one night after a show, he said, "You know, I have to wrestle all the time with the fact that I'm in the business of idolatry. I bring bands in to this venue so people will come and adore them. The kids even buy shirts, albums, and posters with the band's image because of their admiration of the artists." I didn't say it then, but this rattled me deep. If he felt conflicted about bringing in those artists, how was I supposed to feel about being one of those artists?

Now, I don't get the impression God feels anger at my writing and performing music. In fact, there are plenty of days where I think He likes it. I'll probably like it when my kid learns how to draw pictures or play an instrument. I wouldn't like it, though, if my kid were to let fame get to his head.

I'm not sure there's a simple answer to this, but I know some of you are Christians who also play music. So what do you think about this? Is the pursuit of fame the pursuit of self-worship?

America's Biggest Religion - Part three of Questions From the Lifehouse Youth Group

It wasn't long ago I used to work at an old folk's home. I had some co-workers who found out about my faith and began to ask me questions. Some of them were simple, like, "Did God really flood the earth?" Some were sort of funny because I didn't expect them, like, "Do you think God could be a woman?" Once in a while, maybe most of the time, I got a serious question that turned into a lunch break-long discussion.

During one dinner shift, a cook went into some fit about churches getting tax breaks and said America's biggest religion didn't need it. "Christianity isn't America's biggest religion," I said.

He stopped and looked at me. "Really? What do you think it is?"

"Sex. More people worship that than Jesus." I think I said it because I knew he was a sex addict and I wanted to shake him up.

Fast forward to a youth group meeting where we got into a discussion about worship and idolatry. One of the girls asked, "What idol do you think people worship most?"

And because half of what I say is rehearsed to death, the word "Sex" began to form in my mouth when two things happened. First, I saw the look on my wife's face because she knew what I wanted to say. Second, I realized it wasn't the right answer. So instead, I told the girl, "Ourselves."

Of all the idols we worship instead of Jesus, I think we worship ourselves. Yeah, sex plays into that. But so does food, relationships, entertainment, and even religious activities like going to church. We do whatever we want to make ourselves feel good.

I wonder if some people hate themselves because something about their looks or personality doesn't please the idol of Self. Does that make sense? Can people hate themselves because they actually love themselves too much? Could it be such a person unconsciously knows they make for a poor god, unworthy of the worship it demands?

After all that, I don't want you to read this and think I'm promoting a new asceticism. Jesus told his disciples not to worry about themselves, but instead to seek God's kingdom first and He would give them everything they needed for their joy and happiness. I don't think Jesus meant, "Don't eat or wear clothes, but worship God," but rather, "Worship God, and you find your contentment and joy in Him."

What do you think is America's biggest religion?

Sparrows and Lillies, Insurance and Silverchair - A question on living out our trust in God.

The 90's had better radio rock than any other decade in America. I'll suffer no discussion on this. It's just the plain truth. I love 90's radio rock so much that I've told my wife I'd like to name a daughter Seattle.

But who would have known, who could have known, one of the best 90's radio rock albums would come from a trio of 15-year-old kids in the middle-of-no-place Australia? That's right. I'm talking about Silverchair and their hurricane debut album Frogstomp. Even if the rest of the album sounded like a dry fart, you have to love the song Tomorrow.

Now, I bring this up for one tiny, seemingly unconnected reason. The opening line in the second verse says, "You say money isn't everything. Well I'd like to see you live without it." And there I see a point of tension with a lot of people in the church.

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus tells people not to worry about stuff like food and clothing. Several people walk away from Him disheartened by the cost of following Him (as in Mark 10:17-22 and Luke 9:22-24). But does that mean we really give away everything? Give up the security of money, family, and career? Consider the possibility of homelessness, persecution, and death?

If not, why not? Where does Jesus tell us to hedge our bets?

Yes, Proverbs does tell people to make plans, and Paul does tell Timothy how men should work to provide for their families. My problem comes from the attitude culture fosters in us. "God provides, but just in case, there's UnitedHealth."

While writing this, a guy at my wife's coffee shop asked me to talk with him about God. Within two minutes he tells me how he needs to pay his landlord a certain amount of money by 9:00pm or else she would throw him out. As I'm talking with this guy, I tell him what I can do for him. Then I say, "But I really think we should pray. I've seen God answer prayer over and over again when it comes to this sort of thing." And then the guy got mad. He says, "I don't need prayer, I need to pay my rent!"

Before you or I go tsk-tsking this guy, let's be honest. We've all felt that way in very desperate moments. Haven't we all at one point reacted just like him? We know we need God, but in the middle of a crisis we want the material means to alleviate the situation first.

Just so you know, the man did let me pray for him. Within twenty minutes, I worked out a solution with his landlord and the guy got two phone calls for odd jobs. Without looking me in the eye, the guy mumbled, "Maybe that prayer did work." Ha.

Maybe you don't think you would react like that guy. If so, let me ask you this: What if you somehow lost your health insurance? What if you had an emergency that your insurance wouldn't cover? What if it affected your wife or kids? Would you pray, trusting God to take care of you? Or would you honestly wonder if a good God could allow such a thing to happen to you and your loved ones? How would you feel if someone said, "Let me pray for you" when you had 24 hours before the end of your known universe? Is it wrong to say we worship what or who we trust most?

I'm not saying insurance itself is evil (although I can't give the same confidence to insurance companies), but I do think we should consider our heart in light of what we find in the Bible.

What kind of attitude do you think Christians should have?

Drawing A Clearer Line - Some thoughts on the difference between a Christian and a person who talks about Jesus.

When I began to write this series on basic Christian living, I knew I would primarily address those who attended church or claimed to believe in Jesus, calling themselves Christians. For some, I hope this series gives them understanding on why Christians do and believe certain things like the Bible, the effectiveness of prayer, etc. I began with another goal for these essays, to draw lines between those who admire Jesus as a spiritual teacher and those who worship Him as God the Son.

Something stirred during the last few weeks while I continued to live in a home without internet access. A person left an anonymous comment on Back To Boardgames using language I have heard from people who believe in Universalism or what Francis Schaeffer called "Paneverythingism". It looks like a continuation of an earlier comment that for one reason or another isn't available.

But there you can see why I chose to draw these lines. This kind of thinking denies Jesus as God and His work of redemption, the foundation of Christian belief. In Romans 1, Paul introduces himself as one who lives to tell the gospel and defines it as the gospel promised through the Bible. He also makes clear this gospel deals with God's son, Jesus. In verses 18-20, Paul talks of evil men suppressing truth made known to them by God. Then, in verses 21-23, we read why wicked people denied the truth of God. "Although they know who God is, they do not glorify Him as God or thank Him. On the contrary, they have become futile in their thinking; and their undiscerning hearts have become darkened. Claiming to be wise, they have become fools! In fact, they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for mere images, like a mortal human being, or like birds, animals, or reptiles!"

One great definition of sin says we do so by worshiping, or glorifying, anything but God. It is to place anything above God. To think of something as more beautiful, trustworthy, or ultimate than God is to sin against Him. Satan's downfall came when he said to himself "I will make myself like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:14). He then planted the same lie in Eve's ear when he told her in Genesis 3:5, "you will be like God". Some claim that man's consciousness (whether the power of an individual mind, collective, vaguely defined spiritual "force", etc.) or thinking need only be corrected in order to achieve enlightenment. This kind of belief, and others like it, in one way or another conclude that we are, or are like, God. This kind of thinking is the very core of sin.

But these people who deny the God of the Bible must also deny the doctrine of sin. If we are our own gods, or if god is an impersonal force, than we have no outside standard from a perfect and unchanging God to which we must answer. If there is no sin, then Jesus had no need to die as payment.

My objective at this moment isn't to debate the existence of the biblical God, the reality of sin, or the redemptive work of Jesus. I want people to realize that they may sit in a church meeting next to people who agree with the kind of things said by my anonymous critic. They might sing the same songs of worship, recite words from the Bible, or help with community outreach.

But do not be fooled. Jesus did say He was God the Son. The Jews recognized this in John 5:18. He also made it clear that people had to believe in Him in order to gain eternal life when He said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me" (John 14:6). Jesus talked about Hell more than anyone else in the Bible, He said He was the Messiah (meaning He knew He would pay the price for man's sin), and He believed in the authority of scripture because He quoted the Tanakh (Old Testament) as such. Some people can say they believe in Jesus and yet miss His whole message.

If a person believes in Jesus as God the Son, then he will live a life of repentance and worship the God of the Bible alone. If he merely calls Jesus a spiritual teacher or a "good guy who set an example for us all", he should stop pretending to agree with Jesus and never refer to himself as a Christian.

I'm glad the person leaving the comment chose to remain anonymous because I want to attack the thought and not the person. My response to people like my anonymous critic, Wiccan neighbor, and Jehovah's Witness co-worker is to pray for them. I believe the Holy Spirit can turn their hearts to repentance by revealing both the ugliness of their sin and the goodness of God's grace. It's the reason I never addressed the critic directly. I do have an adversary, but he's not flesh and blood, and he's the reason I draw the line.



*Believe it or not, this experience has encouraged me to next write on why Christians need the Church. See you next month.

Slowly Drifting Into Lukewarm Waters - A closing thought on The Twelve.

I used to get beat up a lot in elementary school. Like, a whole lot. I won two of the countless fights. First against one kid, then later against two. From then on, I lost every fight because they typically involved a sizable gang of soccer players against one bookworm. My idea of fights changed from an unpleasant but sometimes necessary confrontation to something I should avoid at all cost.

But it wasn't fights I hated. I hated having people gang up on me. With every essay I wrote throughout this series of The Twelve, I had a growing sense of dread that another crowd of aggressors would soon form to pummel me.

After finishing Malachi, I let out a deep breath and thought to myself, "I made it. On to the next topic." But then I felt the Holy Spirit confront me through scripture in a few passages. He had more hard lessons for me in Matthew 13 and Deuteronomy 8:11-19.

The parable of the sower comes from Matthew 13. Instead of reciting what we may assume as familiar and recognizable verses, I'll paraphrase in hopes we will begin to recognize the hard truth of this passage. A man went into his field to sow, or scatter seed. Some fell onto the hardened pathways and were eaten by birds. Some fell on rocky soil where the plants soon sprouted. But the shallow soil didn't allow for deep roots and the sun caused the plants to wither. Some seed fell among thorns and the plants could not compete with the weeds for nutrients. They also died. But some of the seed fell on good soil. These plants grew strong and their roots went deep. The seed and grain they produced in their growth multiplied many times over.

Jesus later explains this story to His disciples. The soil represents our hearts and how they respond to the Word of God, or the seed. The heart may be so hard that it doesn't at all recognize or accept the truth of God's word, so like birds, an enemy to the farmer, our Enemy steals the seed away.

The heart may have a surface conveniently covered in soil. It may look ready for life to grow in it, but the hardness of the path lies below the surface, preventing firmly established roots. When trouble or pain comes like the inevitable heat of the sun, the showy plants wither away and die. If the farmer didn't know what lay beneath the surface, it may have come as a surprise. Those plants appeared healthy and vibrant, but they had no substance in the soil of the heart.

The heart may have soil where the word could grow, but thorns and weeds also occupy that heart. Jesus explained how the thorns represented "the worries of the world and the deceitful glamor of wealth". They vie for attention in the heart, take its energy, and cause the word planted to "produce nothing". One might look at this patch of soil and think, "Well, there's a plant there. They've obviously accepted Jesus enough to invite Him into their heart. It's just a shame about all those thorns..." But in Matthew 13, it doesn't appear Jesus would agree. What's the difference between a plant growing among stones and thorns if neither produces a yield?

It's the heart removed of harness and worldly cares which grows strong and bears goodness.

Moses warned God's people of the hardness and thorns before they entered the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 8:11-19. "Be careful not to forget the Lord your God by not obeying His commands, rulings, and regulations that I am giving you today. Otherwise, after you have eaten and are satisfied, built fine houses and live in them, and increased your herds, flocks, silver, gold and everything else you own, you will become proud-hearted.

"Forgetting the Lord your God - who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves; who led you through the vast and fearsome desert, with its poisonous snakes, scorpions and waterless, thirsty ground; who brought water out of flint rock for you; who fed you in the desert with manna, unknown to your ancestors; all the while humbling you and testing you in order to do you good in the end - you will think to yourself, 'My own power and the strength of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.'

"No, you are to remember the Lord your God, because it is He who is giving you the power to get wealth, in order to confirm His covenant, which He swore to your ancestors, as is happening even today. If you forget the Lord your God, follow other gods and serve and worship them, I am warning you in advance today that you will certainly perish."

God brought the people of Israel through the Sinai Desert for them to learn this lesson: They were weak and helpless. He is their only source and hope for life. That last verse stung like a kidney punch when I thought of the message of The Twelve. If you follow other gods and despise God, who is your source of life, you will die.

So here I sit before you all with purpled eye-sockets, hugging my stomach after getting dog-piled by every minor prophet, Moses, and Jesus Himself. Revisiting the theme of each minor prophet, I experienced heavy, heavy conviction. It was so easy to write as if I were on the side of God and prophet, shaking my head in disbelief at the foolishness and evil pervading God's people. After a few days of prayer and reflection, I realized that I am as wicked and foolish an idolater as any of God's people in the days of the prophets.

When I applied for my job, I went to that particular business because I believed God wanted me there to speak into peoples' lives. He made it clear to me - this job wasn't about the paycheck. Over time, I let little cares, little weed-seeds, take root in my heart. I began to care about my pay. I began to care about career advancement. I was proud of my financial responsibility and strong work ethic. As Moses put it, I began to say to myself, "My own hard work and abilities have given me favor and success."

Ugh. What a load of crap. James 1:17 is clear that every good thing in my life comes from God. In 4:13-16, he confronts my proud attitude. "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a city, stay there a year trading and making profit'! You don't even know if you will be alive tomorrow! For all you are is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wants it to happen, we will live' to do this or that. But as it is, in your arrogance you boast. All such boasting is evil."

Why is it evil? Because I have put my trust in myself, in the wealth I could produce, and was frustrated over the wealth I didn't produce because I thought I deserved more. God appears nowhere in that line of thinking. I didn't put my trust in Him. My faith rested on me, on money, on success and a good reputation. Hosea likened this to adultery. Joel warned of God's wrath toward the proud. Amos told many "believers" they deserved this wrath. Obadiah encouraged his listeners to trust God's reputation more than surrounding circumstances. Jonah showed the futility of thinking anyone had the right to call God unfair in His judgment. Micah shattered the idea of acceptable worldliness or "harmless sin". Nahum reminded us that God alone is perfectly able to judge between good and evil. Habakkuk abandoned his attitude of entitlement and humbly, even joyfully, accepted God's judgment. Zephaniah condemned the worship of anyone or anything less than and apart from God. Haggai showed the how focusing on our circumstantial problems took away from worshiping God. Zechariah gave a plea to follow God instead of our own wisdom. Malachi shook us awake with a sober reminder that God wants our whole heart's devotion and nothing less.

I once noted how the pre-exile prophets often spoke against idolatry, serving false gods that promised fertility, prosperity, and security. The post-exile prophets may not have had to compete with Ba'al or Molech in terms of statues or furnaces, but the sin of the people remained the same. They worried over provision and security, failing to trust in God to give them all they needed, and thus living without faith. The writer of Hebrews drew a hard line in saying anything apart from faith is sin.

In the past two months, I have heard a large number of people use variations of this phrase: "Yeah, it's good to have faith, but you have to think about..." That's not to say we should live without thinking or having a plan, but the people who said these things were worried about the practical needs of everyday life. God tells people to avoid laziness and work hard in Proverbs, but Jesus also told His listeners not to worry about what they will eat or wear. Work hard, but know that God provides. Any anxiety takes your trust from Him and puts it in some worthless idol like the economy or your own abilities. One man looked at my fiance and said, "God forbid you get pregnant..." because he thought it would destroy us financially. Yes, it's good to have a stable home in which to bring a child. My future wife and I want very much to prepare before we have a family. Scripture is clear, however, that children are a blessing from God. Why would I want to forbid any blessing and call it a curse just because it didn't appeal to an idol of finance? Where is my trust in God if I carry that attitude?

After hearing from some of these men and women, it horrified me to think that I might have initially agreed with them and bowed to the same idols. In his discussion on Matthew 13, Francis Chan warned, "Don't assume you are good soil". My heart may not have been a hardened path, or full of stones, but I can see how weeds had begun to choke my trust in the Word of God which told me "Be anxious for nothing". I saw myself living and working for reasons other than God's glory.

I read Revelation 3:15-17 and felt the Holy Spirit calling me out on my sin. "I know what you are doing: you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth! For you keep saying, 'I am rich, I have gotten rich, I don't need a thing!' You don't know that you are the one who is wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked!" I was becoming lukewarm because of my growing trust in financial stability and the pride in achieving it. If I continued this drift into lukewarm waters unrepentant of my ways, would God have been right in spitting me out? Does that sound like one receiving salvation?

In this conviction, I read verse 19 and accepted it with resolution. "As for me, I rebuke and discipline everyone I love; so exert yourselves, and turn from your sins!" Even though I may have felt beat up on the playground, it was more like the time my mom tackled my brother to keep him from running away to a dangerous place. It was a hard, violent action, but it kept him from going toward willful destruction. I am sure of my salvation only because the Holy Spirit's conviction brought me to repentance. This isn't to say that my exertion saves me, but it lets me know that He is at work in me. I don't want to be casual about my salvation, so I'm willing to paddle out of these waters with both hands if necessary.

This essay is in part public repentance, but it is also a challenge. I learned a serious lesson. Why wouldn't I want you to examine your heart the same way? I'm asking you to please consider these questions. What makes you think you're good soil? What makes you think that you haven't been an idolater and let the cares of life pull you away from trust in God? If you were to look deep inside yourself and see sin choking the roots of your faith, would you be willing to go through the turmoil of letting God pull it out? Or is your world so precious you would rather go on living like the Pharisees who honored God with their lips while their hearts were far away from Him?

So maybe it wasn't a gang of people surrounding me in this time of conviction. I can see it now as God speaking to me in every passage, wrestling with me, poking His finger in secret places and dislocating joints. Like I said at the beginning, it's so much better when the confrontation is one-on-one, and this is one fight I feel good about losing.

Twelve of the Twelve - Malachi and casual worship.

My friend Abe is probably tired of me ripping him off, but I have to tell this story since I'm writing about Malachi. One day, Abe tells me he can sum up the whole book in four words.

"What are they?" I ask.

He waits a moment for dramatic effect and says, "Don't F*** With God."

We laughed for a solid minute. Giggling. Seriously.

Of the three post-exile prophets, Malachi offers more of a punch in the mouth than a pat on the back. He began his ministry after the death of Nehemiah, Judah's reforming and God-fearing governor. It would seem that the hearts of the people had again grown apathetic, proud, and selfish. The first line of Malachi's prophecy sounds like one of the encouraging words of his contemporaries. "'I love you,' says the Lord." The next line calls the people out on their proud hearts. "But you ask, 'How do you show us your love?'"

This is an important theme in Malachi. God reveals an aspect of His perfect and unchanging character and rebuts the arrogant questions of the people. Like Job, the people have no response. The writer intends for the reader to understand this: God is perfect.

Every believer, including me, you, and your pastor, we've all questioned God in some way by asking, "Do you really know what's best?" I can say that we ask this question with confidence because it lies at the heart of every sin. When we question God's perfection - His perfect love, goodness, justice - we begin to listen to the lie that we know better.

Some food in the temple was considered holy, special and set apart. The priests thought to themselves, "Well, it's all food. We can offer whatever and that should please God." God responds in Malachi 1:6-7, "'A son honors his father and a servant his master, But if I'm a father, where is the honor due me? And if I'm a master, where is the respect due me?' says the Lord of Hosts to you priests who despise my name. You ask, 'How are we despising your name?' By saying that the table of the Lord doesn't deserve respect." The priests at the time ignored God's command to only sacrifice healthy, spotless lambs. They thought it was acceptable for them to offer blind, sick, and lame animals. God cuts through any possible excuse saying in verse 8, "Try offering such an animal to your governor, and see if he will be pleased with you! Would he even receive you?"

It's been fourteen years since I've been in a real fight. Maybe you wouldn't call it a real fight, but it was the last time I actually struck somebody. In 8th grade, I beat up a kid in gym class because he made a remark about my brother going to jail. It was for something minor and he was only in there for a couple of days, but I was heartbroken that week. I loved my brother even though he made a bad choice. So I lost my temper in the middle of class and knocked the kid to the floor. Then he said something that still amazes me. He sat up hugging the stomach I'd just kicked and asked with total sincerity, "What did you do that for?"

In Malachi 2:13-14, the people hug their own stomachs after the beatdown in chapter 1. "Here is something else you do: you cover the Lord's alter with tears, with weeping and with sighing, because He no longer looks at the offering or receives your gift with favor. Nevertheless, you ask, 'Why is this?'"

Here are some sins Malachi addresses throughout the book: giving pathetic offerings (1:7-8), complaining about the "ritual" of worship (1:13), needless divorce (2:14), diminishing the seriousness of sin (2:17), and denying God's goodness (1:2, 3:13-15). Last night, my fiance and I met with a couple for dinner. While we talked, I casually flipped through the Archeological Study Bible and read the introduction to Malachi. The writers noted how the prophet didn't talk about gross idol worship like the pre-exile prophets. Judah hadn't taken on foreign gods like Baal again. Instead, they had given themselves over to a lame form of orthodoxy. They went through the motions. They went to church. They tossed a few dollar bills into the offering (you know, if they had cash in their wallet that morning). They lived as if God didn't care about their day to day lives.

In 3:14-15, the people said, "There is no point in serving God. What good is it to obey His orders or to walk about as mourners before the Lord of Hosts? We consider the arrogant happy; also evildoers prosper; they put God to the test; nevertheless, they escape." I have heard people in the church say similar things. It's easy to look at the world around us and wonder why the wicked have more fun. So maybe, they thought, it's not a big deal if I party like everyone else. Maybe it's okay if I take advantage of a few gray areas at work. Maybe it's okay to justify my flirting because of my wife/husband's lousy attitude. I don't have to give anything to the church. Jesus still loves me. I still pray. I'll go to heaven without having to give up my life or happiness. Right?

If all of that were so harmless, then why does God sound so pissed? Why does He want us to know He won't be effed with? Because He's holy and perfect. He deserves everything. The people of Judah were only giving God their Sabbath and holidays, not their hearts, not their lives. If you think I'm overreacting, read 2:2-3, "'If you won't listen, if you won't pay attention to honoring my name,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'then I will send the curse on you; I will turn your blessings into curses. Yes, I will curse them, because you pay no attention. I will reject your seed; I will throw dung in your faces, the dung from your festival offerings; and you will be carted off with it.'"

Every one of us, to some degree, has casually sinned in these ways. We don't always fear God and show Him the respect He deserves. If this is enough to suffer a curse and a mouthful of manure, then where can one find any hope? Malachi gives this message from God in 3:16-18, "Then those who feared the Lord spoke together; and the Lord listened and heard. A record book was written in His presence for those who feared the Lord and had respect for His name. 'They will be mine,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'on the day when I compose my own special treasure. I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then once again you will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the person who serves God and one that doesn't serve Him.'"

Our hope is found in Jesus, the son of God. Scripture tells us in Galatians how those who accept Jesus die to their old selves and are raised in Him. We are hidden in Christ. When God looks at the heart of a believer, He sees Jesus, and He spares us. In this passage, we also see a promise of a day where we will see who prospers more, the righteous or the wicked. The people of Judah may not have served Baal, but they served other idols. They were idols of money, romantic fantasies (I'm looking at you, Meg Ryan), and comfort. Ultimately, the people of Judah worshiped themselves. They thought they knew best, just as Adam and Eve thought they could be like God. It's only when we give up our lives, offer all that we have and all we are to Jesus, that we will find true life. I wouldn't want to give anything less to the God who created everything.

Nine of the Twelve - Zephaniah's indictment against complacency.

My girlfriend knows this girl who, in my opinion, is a total brat. God help her. One night during a painfully selfish episode, I asked her, "If you could be your own god, would you?"

She gave me the Stink-eye and said, "I don't know." Like I was dumb for asking. I kept my mouth shut and nodded my head. She might not have thought of it to know but her answer was the same as "Yes". Every idol and false religion is just a variation of the serpent's lie in Genesis 3, "You will be like God." Either you serve God, or you serve whatever vehicle promises to fulfill your selfish desires. These vehicles, like money or romance or achievement, become idols when we do not submit our hope and trust to God alone.

Even thought this girl goes to a church, I don't know if she is a Christian. I've never asked. But I do know a handful of people who say they're believers while acting like every other idol-worshiper. In conversation with them, I hear them speak of God not as Lord but as a means for wealth, success, perfect fitness, etc. Not that I'm saying God doesn't want this for us, but there's so much more to Him. A.W. Tozer once said that idolatry is worshiping anything less than God, including a reduced version of God. I've heard this reduced version referred to as "Easy Gospel". It doesn't cost you anything and gives you everything in this life. We'll talk more about this later, but for now, let's look at Zephaniah.

In the first verse of Zephaniah's book, a genealogy notes the prophet as a cousin of King Josiah, sharing Hezekiah as a great-grandfather. Josiah was distinguished in the Bible as a good king who pleased God. He removed official places of idol worship and restored the Temple. This reform came after two generations of wicked kings who worshiped Molech and belonged to a cult devoted to "The Army of Heaven". In my Bible, Zephaniah starts at the bottom of the right hand page and only shows the first verse. My surprised at verse two when I turned the page was probably a distant echo of the shock Josiah may have felt. "'I will completely sweep away everything off the face of the land,' says the Lord."

It would seem that, despite Josiah's reforms, idolatry continued throughout the country and held to peoples' hearts. Zephaniah 1:4-6 names the different idols. "I will stretch out my hand over Judah and all those living in Jerusalem. I will wipe every remnant of Baal from this place, the idol-serving priests and even their names, those worshiping heaven's army on the roofs, also those who worship and sear by the Lord but swear by Malkam as well, those who turned away from following the Lord, and those who haven't sought the Lord or consulted Him at all."

If Zephaniah knew about this ongoing practices, the king most likely had knowledge of them as well. Josiah might not have personally worshiped idols or promoted their worship but we can guess he at least demonstrated a tolerance toward idol worship in his kingdom. Instead of giving this a governmental application, I'll compare the average Western church with Judah and modern versions of these idols.

Baal/Asherah worship was a fertility cult. It ultimately had to do with agricultural (financial) prosperity and implemented sexual perversion as a part of their ceremonies. If you look at the history of something like televangelism, it doesn't take long to find stories of greed and sexual perversion. This problem is obviously bigger than TV preachers. Beau Black, writing for the Baptist Standard, cited a statistic saying between 40 and 70 percent of evangelical Christian men struggle with pornography. It wouldn't surprise me if the real number were closer to 70 than 40. It also wouldn't surprise me if this number reflected the percentage of pastors who struggle with porn. And this statistic doesn't even consider the women who also deal with this issue. I would look further into these statistics but I hesitate to run a Google search including the word "porn". I guess for now, the Press will have to suffer some limits of research. When a friend of mine came to visit me in Nashville, he noticed the city's high number of adult stores and strip clubs. He wondered aloud why there were so many. I answered his rhetorical question, "probably because there are so many pastors." I didn't mean to be cynical but I had that 40 to 70 percent statistic in mind.

The people who worshiped Malkam, another name for Molech, would sacrifice their children by fire to this false god. I won't go into the common comparison to abortion here. Instead, I'll focus on what Zephaniah said about people swearing by both God and Molech. Overall, the way Zephaniah puts it, the very thought of someone worshiping God and aligning themselves with something as evil and wicked as Molech downright confuses me. There are some who belong to organizations and societies that make oaths to a vague, catch-all, "god-as-you-know-him" name. Of all these organizations and societies I've read into, at some level below the surface, one realizes they do not at all serve the one, true God. I know of people who belong or once belonged to these societies and the more I learn, the more I wonder whether they were duped or if they ever truly accepted Jesus as their Lord.

The Army of Heaven cult was a weird version of modern day astrology mixed with pseudo-biblical mysticism. 2 Kings 23 tells of Josiah tearing down the altars to the Army of Heaven that his grandfather Manasseh had built in the Temple and removing its priests, but Zephaniah's words make me wonder if the king had succeeded in completely eradicating its practice from his kingdom. I don't know many churches that promote astrology or biblical mysticism, but I have heard a decent number of church-goers discuss these studies. Our society tends to have a casual view on this sort of thing.

Most of all, in this first chapter of Zephaniah, I can see how much God hated the attitude of false religion masquerading as what I know call Christianity - those who worshiped the Lord and had hope in Jesus, the coming Messiah. Why is it that so many Unitarian churches appear to promote Christian tendencies on the surface when their very message is "god-as-you-know-him"? I've seen the West support a belief in "God", but discourage belief in Jesus. It's culturally acceptable to use what Francis Shaeffer called "the word 'God'" and go to church. This reminds me of Keith Green's story. He used to believe in something he called "God" and looked to Jesus more like a spiritual teacher or guru. Then he came to saving faith, became a genuine Christian, and went on to say convicting things like, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian the same way going to McDonald's doesn't make you a hamburger."

This brings me back to the topic of Easy Gospel and Tozer's definition of idolatry. The Bible teaches that God is holy. Wayne Grudem defines holy as something special and set apart form common or ordinary things, clean as opposed to defiled. The beings who surround God and praise Him in Revelation 4 call Him, "Holy, Holy, Holy." Using the word three times was a Hebrew literary device to describe its perfection. God isn't just holy, He's perfectly holy. In the Temple, there was the Holy Place and then the Most Holy Place. God dwelt in the Most Holy Place. The Holy of Holies. What we see in Zephaniah 1 is an attitude that seeks to reduce God and put Him on the same level of importance as the false religions of the surrounding nations. I think they intended to make God more culturally appealing so they wouldn't look like the weird, backwater country with the un-hip religion. In chapter 2 and 3:1-4, it looks like they succeeded when God angrily compares them to other nations.

God also felt grief for His people. I mean, they were pissing Him off, but it still pained Him. When He took Israel out of Egypt in Exodus, He called them "His people". In Leviticus, He gave the blessing for them to be holy as He is holy. They were supposed to be special as a nation, set apart from the others, dedicated to God and God alone. I know that this essay may sound like I'm grinding and axe for the church. Please don't mistake me. I love the church. I don't intend to make blanket statements. But I do live in the West, see what our culture calls Christianity, and I see many who fit the comparison.

Like that girl I mentioned at the beginning, there are people who may say they're Christians while displaying an exhausting kind of selfishness. Like Zephaniah's Jerusalem, they want all the grace but none of the conviction, salvation but not the life of repentance. There are churches that would are willing to accept sin and ignore God's call to holiness and their responsibility to biblical church discipline. Josiah's family had a history of worshiping both Molech and the Army of Heaven. I wonder if he turned a blind eye to their continued existence (at any level) because of something like family feelings. That's speculation, of course, but I do wonder. The people of Judah might have called themselves holy, but God through Zephaniah exposed their hearts.

Thankfully, the third and final chapter of Zephaniah offers hope. The first reference to Jesus occurs in 3:5. "The Lord, who is righteous, is there among them." The idea of God dwelling with His people first appears in Genesis when He walked with man in the Garden of Eden. Despite the separation caused by sin, God again expressed His desire to dwell among His people when He ordered the Tabernacle (an early form of the Temple) built. The name given for Jesus in the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 7 is "Immanuel", translated "God with us".

In Zephaniah 3:9, God promises, "For then I will change the peoples, so that they will have pure lips, to call on the name of the Lord, all of them, and serve Him with one accord." This is a picture of cleansing, of salvation, of God Himself changing our hearts. The part about pure lips reminds me of Isaiah 6. There, Isaiah sees God and cries out, "Woe to me! I [too] am doomed! Because I, a man with unclean lips, living among a people with unclean lips, have seen with my own eyes the King, the Lord of Hosts!" Then one of the angels takes a glowing coal from the Temple altar and touches it to Isaiah's lips. The angel says, "Here! This has touched your lips. Your iniquity is gone, your sin atoned for."

We can read books like Zephaniah, think about its application to our lives, and wonder like Isaiah if we too are doomed. But God the Son, Jesus, came to live among His people as a man, died to take our punishment, and rose again to offer us new life. Before He returned to Heaven, Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1 to wait in Jerusalem. Again, He promised, God would come among His people in the form of the Holy Spirit. Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit then indwells those who accept Jesus as God. Our bodies become a temple of the Holy Spirit, something like the Most Holy Place.

This should cause some sort of heart change in a person! Paul explains in Galatians that the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control as "fruit" in the life of a believer. Of course one quick prayer doesn't make us immediately awesome and none of us ever reach perfection. The process God uses to make us more holy is called "sanctification". Like God says in Zephaniah's prophecy, this change of heart comes by His power alone.

This raises a few questions. Have you seen this sanctifying work in your life, where by the Spirit's enabling you become more like the holy, set-apart person God desires? Do you see more of the fruit He produces in your life now than in the past? If your answer is yes, God be praised. We can high five and continue to encourage each other. If you see your Christian brothers or sisters struggling , then talk with them, pray for them. Don't be like Jerusalem and tolerate them with an attitude of "I'm okay/you're okay". If your answer is no, please take a moment to pray and ask God to reveal idols you may have in your heart. Open yourself to the Holy Spirit's conviction. Be willing to receive His correction and change.

Encouraging Endurance - Or, avoiding Ishmaels.

A pastor I know in Michigan once told me that he sat in the front row of his own sermons. My weblog’s description says that I write about what God teaches me through prayer. Very often, I feel like I’m exposing my own life in Jesus rather than teaching others how to live. For example, Ribs, Patience, and Trust. So I’m going to get a little personal here.

I believe that God has made several promises for my life. I’ve written all of them down and regularly read through them as I pray. He has fulfilled some of them and this encourages me to keep asking for the others. Even so, I have yet to see the other promises fulfilled. Sometimes, as I wait, I become frustrated and even despair. “Will these ever happen?” When I talk about it with other believers, I feel silly because I know in my heart God is faithful. The knowledge of God’s faithfulness, though, doesn’t necessarily make me feel better.

Certainly, you all have experienced this feeling. It’s easy to forget we serve an infinite God who lives outside of time, who created time and has sovereign control over it. Spiritually, we can grow weary in trusting and waiting. In that weariness, I have looked for distractions. Then the distractions become idols as I seek comfort from the frustration. God told me those promises to give me hope for things to come and I believe this is why the writer of Hebrews encouraged believers to endure in their waiting. Hebrews 10:36, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” (NASB)

In The CJB (Complete Jewish Bible) translation, the word “trust” substitutes for the word “faith”. Trust implies that a person’s life demonstrates their belief in the truth. They have a confidence in what they know. Hebrews 11:1 describes, “Trusting is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see.” The following verses describe how different men in the Old Testament trusted God’s promises and were called righteous. This lifestyle is so important, the writer says in verse 6, “And without trusting, it is impossible to be well pleasing to God, because whoever approaches him must trust that he does exist and that he becomes a Rewarder to those who seek him out.”

Of all the people mentioned in this passage, I like the one about Abraham best. Hebrews 11:11, “By trusting, he received potency to father a child, even when he was past the age for it, as was Sarah herself; because he regarded the One who had made the promise as trustworthy.” One could read this verse and think, “Yeah, Abraham. He must have really trusted God with the promise of a son.” But even Abraham and Sarah got tired of waiting at one point. In Genesis 16, Sarah pimps her Egyptian slave-girl out to her husband so they can have a child somehow, anyhow. Abraham doesn’t seem to put up much of a fight, which I find interesting.

So he has sex with his wife’s slave. Of course, this attempt to speed along God’s promise through their own wisdom turned ugly. Hagar, the slave-girl, becomes pregnant with a son named Ishmael. Only then does Sarah regret her actions. She complains to Abraham, who shrugs his shoulders and denies any responsibility in the matter. Sarah quickly comes to hate Hagar, treating her “so harshly that she ran away”. Craig Brown, pastor of City Church in East Nashville, noted how Exodus uses the same word for harsh treatment to describe Egypt’s cruel abuse of the Hebrew slaves. Sarah didn’t just say mean words and give cold looks. This wasn’t mere gossip with the other slaves to vilify Hagar. She beat the shit out of this poor woman, possibly to a point near death.

Looking at the story of Hagar this way, we might think differently of this righteous man of faith who’s trust stood as a testament in Hebrews 11. Instead of judging Abraham, though, we need to recognize this as a cautionary tale of what can happen when we fail to endure. It would do me well to remember what can happen when I try to take matters in my own hands because I’m frustrated and impatient.

When God appears to Abraham in chapter 17, he falls on his face in repentance. In no passage do I see where God punished Abraham for his sin (unless you consider adult circumcision punishment). What does God do? He repeats His promises. He encouraged Abraham to trust His promise and wait for the miracle.

In light of this, we can read that famous passage in Hebrews 12:1-4 with some new perspective. “So then, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses (referring to the people spoken of in chapter 11), let us, too, put aside every impediment – that is, the sin which easily hampers our forward movement – and keep running with endurance in the contest set before us, looking away to the Initiator and Completer of that trusting, Jesus – who in exchange for obtaining the joy set before him (or promised to Him), endured execution on a cross as a criminal, scorning the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Yes, think about him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you won’t grow tired or become despondent. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in the contest against sin.”

Jesus, as our example, endured death on the cross because of God’s promises. He knew of the promises in the Old Testament where God would bring salvation through His Son, the Messiah. He repeatedly told His disciples that He had to suffer and die so God might fulfill these promises. During the beatings, mockery, unjust trials, shame, and crucifixion, Jesus could have called down angels and had them slaughter every offender. Yet He obediently endured and continued to trust the Father through it all.

Among the many things I believe God wants to give me, He has promised me a wife and children. A few years ago, I “grew tired and became despondent”. It pains me to say it, but I picked someone who I figured would say yes. We dated, got engaged, and I went on my merry way toward sinful misery. God, in His mercy, convicted me and I ended the relationship. Since then, I’ve continued on in trust, allowing Him to direct my steps toward a wife. But the path doesn’t always make sense and I must admit that I find myself again growing tired. I’m saying this partially to let you know of my own journey in trusting God. I’m also saying this because I need to sit in the front row of my own sermon. Abraham was 100 years old when God gave him Isaac as a son. I don’t think I’ll have to wait that long for God’s promise in my life, but shouldn’t I trust Him as if I did? Do I ever have a right to let doubt and weariness justify my own Ishmaels?

As an encouragement, I’ll end with James 1:2-4. “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (NASB) God uses hard times like these because it produces endurance. It makes us stronger, more able to handle bigger promises and the challenges involved. James tells us that endurance through these struggles will come to our good. In them, we will lack nothing.

The Reason Why We Shouldn’t Fear Anything.

Now that baseball season is over, I don’t have any good reason to watch television. I can see Heroes online, you know? And that’s a better deal because I don’t have to endure so many commercials when I watch television shows online. Advertisements, more than many things, bother the hell out of me. During the World Series, though, I saw a Wendy’s commercial that annoyingly fits well with what I want to tell all of you today. The ad has two well-cast “everymen” sitting at work. One guy has a Wendy’s bag and asks the other guy how he liked his chicken sandwich. The second dude says, “I don’t remember.” Then the girl on the Wendy’s bag starts giving him a hard time about eating boring food.

This commercial is relevant to my point because memory sometimes fails more than serves us. I remember learning about “Mass Amnesia” from… somebody, I can’t remember. It’s a phenomenon that causes us to forget things like the outrage over gas prices crossing the dollar fifty mark, why we thought that Macarena song was so good, or how my teacher in elementary school convinced an entire fourth grade class that overpopulation would strangle the earth by the time we were twenty-five years old. Which is now. I hate this about my brain because sometimes I forget the most important of truths. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus is Lord. I can put my trust in Him. My ears will hear, my own mouth will say words that evaporate into the air, and then I’ll forget to live in the confidence of these truths.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve said that the Bible is absolutely true, infallibly true, the standard of truth. But then I go through my days with a low level of anxiety hanging out in my chest and giving me headaches. Why am I stressed? Why am I worried about anything? Why am I ever afraid?

Just before Jesus ascended into Heaven, his disciples came around him. Matthew 28:17 says, “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.” My paraphrase would read, They hung out with the Messiah, whom had so recently died a brutal death; but some suffered from mass amnesia and wondered if He really was the Son of God. It makes me wonder how easy it could have been for some of them to forget what Jesus said in the very next verse, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”

I love the wording of Revelation 4:2, “Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne.” One. Only One sits on the throne. God alone rules everything, and everything is subject to His rule. He loves us and He has it under control. This is the reason why we shouldn’t fear anything.

This post almost had the title, or at least the subtitle, “The Only Reason We Should Ever Fear Anything.” I decided to accentuate the positive. But really, that old question still demands an answer. Why am I ever afraid? It’s because in my heart, I’ve put other things on the throne. I sometimes worry about having the money to pay bills, so I put success and financial responsibility on the throne. My thirties will be here before I know it, and I sometimes think if I’m not married and having babies before then, I’m going to be miserable. I’ve put relationships and family on the throne. Certain family members have at times expressed concern over me wasting my talent. I sometimes listen to them. When I do, I’ve put my abilities on the throne. So many things have sat on the throne in my heart that didn’t deserve the seat. That’s God’s chair. When we put our trust in something or someone else to save us, preserve us, make us happy, or give us hope, then it has become an idol. Only then should we fear because deep inside of us, intricately woven into our souls, is the understanding that our idols can and will fail us.

If I genuinely put my trust in Jesus, then I also trust in His authority, His victory. Jesus has been and always will be mankind’s only hope. He alone can guarantee security through His salvation. Everything else, including good things like achievements or relationships or success, falls short of our security in Jesus. Sometimes these things assert themselves as having power over us, but any power they have first came from God. Remember the conversation between Jesus and Pilate in John 19:10-11? Pilate was offended that Jesus wouldn’t answer a question, so he said, “‘You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?’ Jesus answered, ‘You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above.’”

Now that’s fearlessness. Jesus just had the shit beat out of Him, and there He is, toe to toe with the governing ruler, telling him that he has no say in whether He lives or dies. It’s a beautiful, albeit gruesome, picture of how we should deal with fears. God is in control. He’s on the throne. Whatever happens, I know this is true. I’ll just have to try not to forget it.