Old Testament

In Jesus’ Presence – VOTD.04.23.17

You make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11

It’s incompatible with the Christian faith to NOT want to be in God’s presence. After all, the practical result of being in God’s presence is joy. And who doesn’t want joy? And yet many Christians seem stressed out or bored and that suggests they lack this sense of God’s presence that today’s verse speaks of.

In fact, the whole of Psalm 16 makes being in the presence of God very compelling. It’s a natural desire for anyone who have been around those who have experienced being in God’s Presence to want the joy, comfort, and sense of well-being and love that comes with being in His Presence. It is available. So why don’t more Christians experience His Presence? (more…)

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Passed Over and Why it Matters to Us – VOTD.04.10.17

On that same night I will pass through Egypt… and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destruction will touch you when I strike Egypt.” Exodus 12:12-13

This evening Passover begins. It’s the commemoration of God delivering His people from the plague where the first-born all died except for His people who marked their doors with blood.

From Genesis through Revelation, blood is a major part of the picture of redemption. In Genesis 3, God, Himself shed the first redeeming blood when Adam and Eve sinned. He sacrificed an animal to provide skins to cover them.

Throughout the Old Testament with the constant sacrifices of bulls and goats and sheep, God taught His people that something had to die in our place for our sins. Passover was one special time each year that memorialized the first time God passed over and did not judge those whose door was covered with blood. Jesus died on the Passover, because God intended to use the imagery of that historical event to teach us what Jesus had come to do.

About 3400 years ago, Israel was in slavery in the land of Egypt. God sent Moses to Pharaoh and demanded that he let God’s people go. But Pharaoh laughed and mocked even the idea of a God of Israel. “Who is this god, that he should tell me what to do?” (Ex 5:2)

So God introduced Himself over the next few weeks. He brought 9 plagues upon Egypt to prove His existence and His superior power over Pharaoh and all things Egyptian. The suffering in Egypt was so profound that even Pharaoh’ priests literally begged him to listen to Moses (Ex 10:7). But Pharaoh still refused. (more…)

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Life in the Vineyard – VOTD.04.03.17

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ…If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.  1 Corinthians12:12,26

Last time we were talking about nurturing new believers and used Paul’s analogy of a mother nursing a child. Another metaphor that might help, is vineyards. Jesus used this in talking about vines and vine-dressers (Jn 15).

Sure, having a healthy vineyard includes weeding out the ugly, and often that’s all the help people will get from their more entrenched churchmates because it’s all we can see. But nurturing Christians can see a lot more and go much further.

A nurturing vinedresser can take the newly-growing shoots and attach them to a trellis so they can get the support sunshine and watering they need to grow higher, stronger, and more fruitful. Otherwise, the newbie might just wallow in the dirt and never go anywhere.

And while the nurturing person might do some weeding, too, they are also backfilling. Like Jesus’ warning about chasing out a demon and leaving the host clean but EMPTY, we often find that Christian discipleship programs are good at ‘weeding’ out the ugly in the lives of people we minister to, but leave craters in their place—like an open invitation for seven-times worse problems in the future (Lk 11:26) if we aren’t backfilling the hole that left with Jesus.

Hurt people are often the ones who are drawn to Jesus. He offers solutions they know they need. But hurt people have a real knack at getting themselves into situations where they will be hurt again and again. Nurturing disciple-makers know that removing the weeds from hurting people’s lives is not enough. (more…)

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Lonely in a Crowd – VOTD.03.27.17

Do not be afraid. I will save you. I have called you by name—you are mine… For I am the Lord, your God… Do not be afraid, for you are precious to me and I love you and give you honor—I am with you!” Isaiah 43:2,3,4

A Facebook friend posted a secular article on loneliness on Facebook. The illustration at the top of the story showed a man sitting in a crowd with empty seats all around him. At first glance I thought it was a church service—a view from the platform which I have seen scads of times. A closer look told me this wasn’t a church service, but it could have been. The pain of not being connected relationally doesn’t stop at the church door.

Loneliness is a crowd is a very real condition. It’s a state of mind that comes from feelings of separation from other people. The sense of isolation is very deeply felt by those who are lonely. The Old Testament word “desolate” pretty much sums it up: “someone who is solitary, forsaken, wretched.”

There is no deeper sadness that ever comes over the mind than the idea that we are alone in the world, that we do not have a friend, that no one cares about us, that no one is concerned about anything that might happen to us. Mother Teresa described loneliness as the leprosy of the modern world. No one wants to chum up with someone who is lonely. (more…)

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Vision, Farsighted and Perceptive – VOTD.03.21.17

Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, so that anyone can see it as they pass by. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it seems slow in coming, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.  Habakkuk 2:2,3

Some reading this series so far might think I’m leading up to setting goals and vision statements and so forth. Not at all. That ground has been well trodden over the past many years. When I speak of visions and purpose, I’m talking about something God gives us. A destination and a goal. Something ‘God lays on our hearts’ and gives us a passion for.

God gave King David a passion when he wrote his famous lines: “One thing I ask from the Lord” (Ps 27) and it’s often in the spiritual realm but not always. Nehemiah’s vision was to build a wall. What makes our visions Godly is that they come from God, Himself.

Godly vision consists of a farsightedness and perceptiveness that come from Him. Farsightedness vision allows us to know what is ahead like a telescope. It connects us to the future God has prepared for us. Foresight is the part of a God-given vision that can ‘taste’ the future and gives us the motivation to press on toward the goal God has placed before us (Phil 3:14). (more…)

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Vision, Purpose, Goals – VOTD.03.20.17

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.  Ephesians 1:18
Where there is no vision, the people perish.  Proverbs 29:18

Vision is the bridge between our present and our future. Without it we perish, figuratively at least…Perhaps emotionally and even physically, too. When we’re without vision we spend our lives avoiding instead of engaging…avoiding risk, avoiding bother, avoiding discomfort.

That makes sense: If we’re not going anywhere, why deal with obstacles and irritations others face in order to get somewhere? (more…)

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Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 12 (final) – VOTD.02.28.17

Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way, that I may know you, that I may find grace in your sight  Exodus 33:13

Have you ever read a Christian book on rekindling the spark of love in marriage? These books not only show how to diagnose the nature of marital problems, but also give specific, practical steps and activities to help correct the problems. All of this might be helpful, or it might be useless, depending on the readers and their problems.

The same goes for dieting books, exercise, and a myriad of other problem-fix books and programs out there. There is a market for a “simple formula” we can employ to fix our not-so-simple problems. That’s one of the reasons it’s difficult to give a one-size-fits all answer to solving the first-love dilemma.

I think this is what Jesus faced in writing to the Ephesians. He knew a 3-step process wasn’t going to be useful to them. So what does He do? He gives us some broad relationship-improvement ideas. (more…)

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Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 10 – VOTD.02.21.17

They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially. [Jeremiah’s description of the false priests and prophets of his day.] Jeremiah 6:14

As we saw last time, we could talk about many symptoms of losing our first love—the presence or absence of dozens of things might indicate our first love is history. And this is where a lot of Christians and Christian teaching get it wrong. Just like an illness, treating the symptoms can bring some temporary relief, but it won’t cure the problem. The problem is much more complex.

The Message puts today’s verse this way: “My people are broken—shattered!—and they put on Band-Aids, saying, ‘It’s not so bad. You’ll be just fine.’ But they are not ‘just fine’!”

The Christian self-help bookshelves are full of books proclaiming the answer to all sorts of problems, when a lot of the symptoms really stem from a first-love problem. All they do is treat the symptoms. And it looks like it works until some new symptom pops up. So we go after that and think we’ve got it solved—it’s like trying to rid your yard of dandelions by cutting off the stems. They’ll keep popping up out of the turf because the root and seed in in the soil. Cutting off the symptom will never solve the problem. (more…)

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Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 7 – VOTD.02.13.17

Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do a new thing.  Isaiah 43:18,19

Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.  Revelation 2:5

True story: Three pastors were sharing lunch together the day before the church they all had served in celebrated a major anniversary. One was elderly and retired. Another was middle-aged and now serving in denominational leadership. The last was young, five-years-out-of seminary. The youngest remarked that it must have been amazing back in the day. To hear congregants tell it, the church was really on fire 25 years ago; three service, all so packed they had to set up folding chairs. The middle-aged pastor chuckled, “Is that what they’re talking about? Back in that day, all they could do was talk about how wonderful it was back when the church first began and there was such enthusiasm and team-spirit.” The elderly pastor practically choked on his sandwich. “Really!??!” he said. “Back when we first planted the church everyone was pining for the stability, programs, and budgets of the church we had broken off from.”

It’s easy to look back and conclude that things were better then. But nostalgia has its problems. For one thing, it simply makes us unhappy with the present. Living in what God did in the past can take our attention away from what God is doing today. (more…)

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Who Will We Serve in 2017 – VOTD.01.17.17

He won’t let the wicked rule over his righteous people; if he did, they might lead righteous themselves to do evil. Psalms 125:3

One of the things I love about the Psalms is all the zingers that are hidden in the middle of otherwise predictable praise and adoration. Sprinkled throughout the Psalms are little gems, expressing a truth that it’s taken for granted the reader already knows, and therefore provides little explanation.

Today’s verse is like that. Surrounded by verses about the safety net the Lord provides from our enemies, this verse happens to mention that He is also moving to protect us from those in authority over us… lest they lead us into sin.

We don’t have to read Old Testament history for long (or any other history for that matter), in order to see that evil leaders lead whole nations astray. False teachers lead churches astray. False prophecies cause more problems than we’d think, even when the prophets are God’s real prophets and their prophesies prove to be untrue, the result of which may seem insignificant and inconsequential.

Now, you and I might be bewildered why “everyone else” would follow these evil leaders / teachers / prophets, but apparently enough people do to tip the scales. So God promises to deliver his righteous ones from the authority of these evil and false entities, even while He makes no such promise for “everyone else”. (more…)

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