Yesterday (2010), on the way back to MIU, a man was approaching me from the opposite direction on the footpath. Seeing me, he reached down and picked up a huge rock with one hand. He then crouched holding the rock out and looking at me as if he were going to hit me with the rock. I was quite startled. I wasn’t sure what to do. The only way around him was to walk up a mound to the right of him. I am 55 years old. It is not a time in my life when I want to start acting like Nicolas Cage or Harrison Ford. But then, I have never been able to back down from a challenger, even when I knew I would be defeated. My options seemed to be: 1) to be fearful and back down 2) to fight or 3) to trust the Lord to protect me and see if I could just walk around him. Option one is just not in my character. Option two is stupid. If the man were a better fighter than I, I would only get beaten, and he would get what he wanted anyway. If I were a better fighter than he, I would only beat him, and there is a strong likelihood that there would be some severe and unpleasant spiritual and legal repercussions for me. That only left option three. I made the decision to move forward and unaggressively walk up the mound. I guess he realized that I was not going to be intimidated by his stance. By the time I was even with him, I had the higher ground. He set the rock down and went on his way after I passed. I think it was the glory of the Lord that protected me. What if he had attacked as I passed by? I honestly do not know what I would have done or how it would have turned out. But this one thing I know, God would ultimately have been glorified.
Caleb is 85 years old. He was forty years old when they left Egypt. He was chosen to represent Judah when the spies were selected to spy out the land. He and Joshua alone brought back a good report because they knew the glory of the Lord. But the Lord promised him that for his faithfulness he would receive the land upon which his feet had walked. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and 5 years of fighting in the campaigns to break the back of the Canaanites, Caleb reports, “I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day.” Caleb knew it was the glory of the Lord that sustained him. That gave him the faith to say, “Give me this mountain!” May his tribe increase! What mountain is there in my our your life that for the glory of God, we need to face? His glory is more than sufficient! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
PSALM 10
David Hannum, P.T. Barnum’s rival in the Cardiff Giant Hoax is reported to have said, “A sucker is born every minute.” It was eventually revealed that Hannum was the sucker. Perhaps Barnum could have added to the quote, “And two out looking for him.” That is a very cynical view of life, but probably fairly true. Have you ever wondered why payday loan stores and pawn shops are usually located in or near a low income community? One reason is that the rich do not need them. Another reason is that the rich are rich because they understand the principle of unreasonable usury. If the rich need a loan, they know how to and are able to get a low interest rate and to borrow only what they know they can pay back. They know that if you convert the fees and charges of a payday loan into an APR that it would be equal to 50-200%! Then again there are the Donald Trumps of the world who know how to use loans to get what they want, and then if they are unable to pay it back, they know how to use the bankruptcy laws to their advantage so that they can convert the travesty into an economic advantage for them. On the other hand the poor are usually desperate and make desperate decisions in order to make ends meet now.
Jesus said that the poor will always be with us. It is easy to make a simple claim that the poor are with us because, as the first thirteen verses of this Psalm indicate, the wicked are abundant and seek to take advantage of those who have the propensity to fall into poverty. Indeed, that is one of the reasons that the poor are with us. But there would be those who are in poverty whether or not the wicked were there. Otherwise, how could the wicked crouch and wait to catch the poor in his net? It is also easy to make a simple claim that the poor are with us because of their own poor decisions. And that would very often be accurate. So it would seem that the poor will always be with us because of two reasons. The poor are desperate, and the rich are heartless.
Why doesn’t God do anything? Is it His place? To the degree that He is the Great Judge of all the earth. It is His place. And because we are moral agents, He delays His judgment for at least two reasons, to reveal our hearts and to give us time to repent. During that delay, it appears that God doesn’t care. But let us not be deceived. God is a judge and a help, particularly to those most vulnerable, the fatherless and the oppressed. They are in poverty not by choice but by circumstance. A simple view of the Lord as our King and Judge forces us to declare and ask that He will do something about the poverty. When we ask Him to do something, He calls us to join in with Him in doing something. He asks us to work with Him in seeing His glory in the way He works to rescue the perishing. That is His glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
JEREMIAH 36
With the exceptions of Satan, Adam and Judas, in my opinion, this is one of the most flagrant acts of rebellion recorded in Scripture. A day of fasting had been called by someone. The people were gathered in Jerusalem to fast over their national crisis (under the thumb first of Egypt and now of Babylon). It was day of fasting or humiliation when one humbles one’s self before the Mighty God to seek His forgiveness for one sin. A public day of fasting is for public repentance. Jehoiakim had been repeatedly warned by Jeremiah. Remember 22:13-23? Jehoiakim was specifically warned about abusing the poor, but he would not listen. Jeremiah was detained by authorities at the court, probably because of his warnings against Jehoiakim. Now was the time for Jehoiakim to repent. It was appropriate for the day of fasting. If this whole day were not just a pretense, now was the time for Jehoiakim to publicly humble himself. Jeremiah dictated the prophecies given to date to Baruch. He had them delivered to the public celebration. Note that the king was not in attendance. After the reading, the officials warned Baruch and Jeremiah to go hide while they took the message to Jehoiakim.
It was a moment of great tension. Everyone present knew what was at stake. Would the king humble himself, or would he respond inappropriately. Everyone sensed what would happen and no one really wanted to oppose the king. The king listened intently; at some point, he rose and took the scroll. It was evident what he was about to do. Three men implored him not to, but their pleas were not strong enough. The king took the very words of God in his hands and threw them in the fire! And yet, no one expressed dismay at such flagrant disrespect against the Lord! There was not enough passion with in their lives to drive them to fall to their knees and cry for mercy for themselves and their nation when such pride had filled the leadership.
Our country writhes in the filth of our pride. Our president has declared that we are not a Christian nation. You know what? He is descriptively correct. Maybe our nation was once founded upon Christian principles, but the issue is that we no longer function that way! And none of us really has the passion to cry out before God and beg His forgiveness for our sin! Why? The fault is not the presidents; it is ours! Look at our churches! We are more concerned about running our programs in a way that is more attractive to people than we are about gathering together to humble ourselves before God to listen to what He has to say about us, repent and proclaim His glory! Why would we want to attract more people rather than call them to repentance? Even if we did gather to listen, would we truly hear His voice, or would we be like Jehoiakim and burn the word of the Lord in the nearest fire? I fear that the glory of the Lord has become so sullied among us that all the world can see is our sin. Why would the world want our Lord, when all that they can see is our sin, our lack of passion for Him? That is all that could be seen of Jehoiakim. Lord, uncover our sin! Bring a spirit of repentance upon us! Remove our sin as far as the east is from the west! Humble us! Unveil your glory once again! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
ACTS 17:1-15
When Paul preached, what did he preach? I think it is summarized in verse 3, "explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ." It is a simple message, a true message and not difficult to grasp. Yet at the same time it is impossible to grasp. This simple message speaks of the glory of Christ. This simple message had such a life changing message upon people in Palestine, Asia Minor and Macedonia that when Paul and Silas came to Thessalonica, their enemies cried out in a frustrated rage, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too." Can speaking the glory of Christ be that powerful? It can and will be. We are just too afraid to speak it. Or we really haven’t seen it. Or we speak of things related to the glory of Christ but not the essence of His Glory. The King of Creation, the King of Glory, became flesh for the express purpose of being the substitute for our sin. He died in our place. He defeated death and thereby that sin, by rising from the dead. He ever lives to intercede for us. If we repent and believe in Him, we can know God. It is a simple glorious message that has and will turn the world upside down. Indeed, we serve a glorious king! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
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