Category: Devotional

Ever Felt Alone? You Aren’t the Only One

I was struck reading Psalm 42 today. You’re probably familiar with the first two lines: As the deer pants for water, so my soul longs for You. But the Psalmist (identified only as a descendant of Korah) goes on to talk about how God feels far away. He knows that God is his “direction”, his “life”, and his “rock”… yet He still feels disconnected and aloof. Which is crazy to me since this guy is LITERALLY WRITING SCRIPTURE! We understand the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, and yet this Biblical author felt that God was distant and hidden!

Even in a time when God was performing unfathomable miracles, manifesting hordes of angelic theophanies, and sending prophets to speak for Him, and inspiring people to pen the most enduring words in human history… those very people felt far from God.

We often hold this mistaken belief that if God just moved like He did in the Old Testament things would be better. The world would believe more readily. Or some other wish-casting nonsense. The fact is that people felt the same then as we do today. Israelites being led around the Sinai Peninsula by a PILLAR OF FIRE walked away from God. There is nothing He can do that would make more people believe, short of commandeering their free will choices.

We’re not special today. We have the same problems and temptations all people have had throughout human history. Judas literally lived and travelled with Jesus, and STILL thought the money was more valuable. So if you feel like God is far away, know that you are not alone. This is something we have all experienced at one time or another. But it comes in ebbs and flows. Stay faithful. The tide will come in.

Barefoot & Pregnant in the Kitchen

There is a picture in the minds of people about the so-called “Proverbs 31 Woman”. She is quiet, reserved, raises the children, and keeps the home. And maintains a Godly disposition throughout. Frankly, I think this is based on some twisted, idealized Stepford Wife male fantasy… because it is certainly NOT what I read in Proverbs 31.

Seriously. Go read Proverbs 31:10-31. The woman described there is not some wallflower. She might be the single greatest human being to ever walk the face of the earth. Here is my list of her traits as gleaned from a quick reading of the passage:

Skilled in textiles. Skilled in agriculture. Skilled in ranching. Excellent culinary ability. Gifted in administration. Skills of assessment and negotiation. A landowner & trader. Shrewd in business. Multiple philanthropic concerns and activities. Always prepared for the foreseeable. Entrepreneurial. Well-kept and presentable. Known for wisdom. Known for kindness. Deeply observant.

If I gave you this list of skills and abilities and said it was a man no one would bat an eye. But now that we know what credit this verse is giving this superwoman, we can’t help but wonder… what’s left for the man to do? Seems like maybe he’s just a money-earner for the real manager of the household! Men! Learn your place!

Of course I am being facetious. Men have value just as women have value. But I think we cut BOTH genders off at the knees when we minimize one side of the equation. Women should not be artificially suppressed as the aforementioned “little woman”. Nor should men be seen as a human ATM simply providing for the smarter and more capable woman (a trope that shows in popular culture from time-to-time).

I don’t think it’s reasonable for men to expect their wives to have all the skills and abilities of the Proverbs 31 woman (nor it is reasonable for ladies to expect this of themselves)… because she is perfect. None of the rest of us are. But I think what we CAN take from this, is that a wide range of skills can be possessed by either men or women. My wife might have skills A, B, and C, while I have D, E, and F. Another marriage might see the wife with A, C, and F, while the husband has B, D, and E. There are an incredibly wide range of overlapping possibilities here and it’s impossible to apply a template to every marriage. Instead we all bring different strengths into the relationship and our partner will complement us by shoring up our weak side.

We should be working together. Shoulder-to-shoulder in the trenches. God gave men a much-needed partner, not a servant.

Walled Cities & Self Control

In the time of King Hezekiah’s rule all the big cities were walled. This helped with protection during a very command-and-conquest period in human civilization. Obviously these walls served a role that is difficult to overstate. This was THE primary method of defence. Just look at what happened to Jericho! How were the Israelites able to take it so easily? Because God brought the walls down. Given that this was the situation, it’s no wonder that the city walls were well maintained, often inspected, and a key part of the city’s infrastructure. It would be foolish, reckless, and even unthinkable to allow these walls to fall into disrepair. The future of both the city and her citizens was at risk of certain doom if those walls were less than perfect.

This brings us along to the portion of today’s reading that hit me hardest and that I want to share with you, Proverbs 25:28.

A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.

Do you lack self-control in one or many areas of your life? Every facet of our lives needs to be brought into submission. Every thought, even. If you are dealing with self-control issues in shopping, eating, time management, family, friends, work, etc, etc, etc then you are letting the walls of your city break down. You are leaving yourself open to continued attack from the Enemy. That area where your self-control is lacking is the EXACT place Satan will attack. It is your weakness!

So how do I shore up my self control? Great question! Here are a couple of practical tools to help you.

Maximize Self-Control

Preserve your self-control effectively by avoiding temptations. This strategy ensures you don’t deplete your reserves prematurely. When faced with cravings for food, drink, spending, or other undesired behaviors, try diverting your attention with positive activities. Go for a walk, chat with a friend, tackle household chores, or engage in any task that shifts your focus away from temptation.

Strategic Planning

Anticipate situations that could challenge your resolve. Prepare in advance for how you’ll resist temptations to maintain your willpower, even after experiencing initial depletion. For instance, if you struggle with afternoon sugar cravings, fortify yourself with a satisfying lunch rich in fiber, protein, and whole grains to stave off hunger.

Regular Exercise of Control

Like a muscle, your self-control strengthens with consistent exercise. Engage regularly in activities demanding self-discipline to enhance your willpower over time. One time I put a chocolate bar in my fridge three months before a big youth retreat. Every time I had a craving for it, I would pray for my students instead. When we got home from that retreat and I finally got to eat it, it was SO satisfying! Simple games such as “red light, green light” or “freeze dance” can instill self-control habits in children from an early age.

Focused Goal Setting

Concentrate on achieving one goal at a time instead of spreading your efforts across multiple objectives. This focused approach prevents depletion of self-control in one area from affecting others. Once behaviours become habitual, they require less effort to maintain, freeing up energy to pursue additional goals.

Prayer!

God wants to help you! Pray about those things that trouble you.

Are You Unredeemable?

No. That’s it. No. I think this is hilariously accurately summed up by the Backstreet Boys who said, “I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, what you’ve done… as long as you love me.”

This idea struck me as I was reading today’s passage about the great (if underrated) king Hezekiah. His first order of business after taking the throne was to restore Israel in relationship with God. He cleaned the land of the idols, shrines, pillars, and foreign gods. He re-opened, restored, and rededicated the Temple of the Lord built by Solomon. And he called every person from both Judah & Israel (those who were left after the Assyrian raiders came through) to come and worship the Lord. And they didn’t get everything right. They had to move Passover back a month because the people and facilities weren’t ready. They had commoners offering sacrifices because the priests weren’t ready. The even had unclean people partaking in the meal, after king Hezekiah prayed for grace from God. And the Lord blessed all of it! It was never about the rituals. The rituals were there to show US how UNHOLY we are and how much we needed God. God just wanted our hearts. Our genuine love for Him fuelled by understanding of what He was doing to bring us into good standing.

The point is this: even if you are so far gone that God has sent multiple prophets to tell you of the impending judgement, you can still turn it around and come back to Him! You are never too far from God. You are never too broken to be restored. You are never too lost to be found. Neither is anyone else.

Indicting God

Isaiah 13:13-16 reads:

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, they will all return to their own people, they will flee to their native land. Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated.

The accusation is often made against God that He is a monster! Enacting the worst crimes against humanity. How could any conscionable person support such a deity!? Here in Isaiah 13 we have a prime example of just that. God will bring wrath, which includes babies being killed before their parents eyes, and the rape of women! In the face of such horrifying acts, the only people who could worship this entity are either evil or ignorant! … right?

Obviously as a pastor and apologist I don’t think I am either evil nor ignorant, so how do I square this circle? Truth be told, I really don’t struggle with this one. I see it as something of a non-issue as far as morality goes. There are several truths we can point to in order to stand our ground that God is not some sort of moral monster.

Point #1: What value do we have? On the non-theist side we are merely the product of random chance! Luck! We have no purpose or reason for existing and our lives are only worth what we decide they are worth. On this view, I think our SHOES are more valuable than we are. At least they exist for some reason! Imagine Hitler had won World War II. Who is to say he was wrong to exterminate people because of their immutable characteristics or genetic heritage? It sounds awful to say, but if he had won, it would be the dominant view. And what charge would the Godless bring against a ruling Nazi party except that they “don’t like it”? Only through the value imparted to us by virtue of our creation in the image of God almighty can we even bring a charge against Him that carries any weight. The atheist sits in God’s lap and slaps His face.

Point #2: God can do what He chooses with His creation. If the destruction of one, or ten, or a hundred, or a million leads to the salvation of those who would otherwise be doomed to hell (which I contend is God’s primary goal on this earth), then it is well within His rights to do so. Do we look at the story of Moses & Pharaoh and cluck our tongues at God? Gee, Lord, weren’t you a little hard on the Egyptian rulers there? Why give Pharaoh over to the hardness of his heart just to make an example of Him? Well because that displayed God’s power, and glory, and became the cornerstone of the Jewish faith that was the foreshadow of what Jesus would do. And Jesus is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. God doesn’t do anything randomly, but with great care and foresight. So we can trust that no matter what has happened, it has happened because God has a greater plan. Even if we cannot see it, we know that He causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him.

Point #3: WE DID IT TO OURSELVES!! This might be the biggest, most important one in my mind. Here we have Babylon, an evil kingdom that murders, kills, destroys, sacrifices their young on the altar of Molech, and treats women like trash. Yet, when God allows his wrath to be exacted by human warfare (and all the atrocity that comes with it) we clutch our pearls and scream “How dare God do this thing?!” We really need to get a grip here. God has not CAUSED these invaders to act so despicably¹, He simply allows them to proceed unfettered in their military conquest in order to achieve His goal of destruction of one side. We know this is how God works because that what He did to Israel — allowing evil Babylon to come in a capture them!

Questions? Comments? Ask away. Happy to get into this with anyone who is interested to do so.

Unless you are a Calvinist, like we talked about before. If so… godspeed to you but you’re on your own, Al Capone. ↩︎

Destruction of the Flesh

The latter part of Isaiah 1 paints a powerful and rather interesting portrait of Israel.

In verses 21-23 God lays out the charges against her. Israel is a prostitute, a murderer, worthless, weak, rebels, thieves, bought & sold, and calloused in their heart and spirit.

Verses 24-25a have God bringing his wrath down on an unfaithful Israel. Raising His fist against her — a metaphor that Isaiah uses constantly.

Verses 25b-27 has God talking about purifying Israel, restoring good judgement & counsellors, a rebuilding her reputation. But this process is bookended by rebellion and destruction.

Verse 28 again Has God visiting wrath upon the rebellious.

Verses 29 & 30 tell of a repentant people who understand the shame of what they have done.

Verse 31 once more has the evil-doer being destroyed, this time by their sin.

I think this is a fantastic flow and way to think about the effects of sin and how God uses them for His purposes of judgement. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 5:5 writes, “[H]and this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.”

Sin comes to and for all of us. It is rather unavoidable. However, when we are convicted by the Lord or called out by a brother or sister in the faith it is our responsibility to act on that conviction and deal with the sin. If we refuse then Paul says we are to be disfellowshipped. The purpose of this is to let sin run its course. When it does there will be one of two outcomes.

Your sin takes a toll on you physically, mentally, spiritually, and/or emotionally (this part is unavoidable) and then you repent, see the truth and return to God. This doesn’t un-do the consequences of sin, but it still puts you in a good place in light of eternity.
Your sin takes a toll on you physically, mentally, spiritually, and/or emotionally (I told you, unavoidable) and you do not repent. Your sin continues to destroy you and you are lost in both this world and the next.

Why would God do this? Why cast out the immoral brother or sister? Because when the consequences of sin are minimized, the value of grace is diminished. And if we don’t see how our choices can bring us to ruin, the impetus to change is severely impacted, possibly even erased entirely. But when our sin causes us to lose things that we care about, we suddenly see that we need a way out. And then, when that way out is presented we take and are glad for it. And so this is why God wants our sinful and unrepentant brothers and sisters to be cast out. To fully experience the destruction of their sin. Because when they do, it will put them in the best position to begin to make things right.

One Small Mistake Gone Uncorrected

Well, it’s finally happened. The sin of the northern kingdom of Israel has lead to their dispossession of the land and their captivity in Assyria. They were cheats, liars, murders, drunks, idolators, adulterers, and even child-sacrificers, yet not none of those are the reason their land is dispossessed. No, Israel lost their land because a decision made roughly 660 years earlier — during the time of Joshua. But before we get to that, let’s take a look even further back, 690 years — during the time of Moses. Deuteronomy 7:1-2 reads:

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites,Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you — and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.

Destroy them totally. Make no treaty. Show no mercy. This serves as both the Lord’s judgement on the wickedness of the Canaanites as well as His promise-fulfillment and blessing on Israel. But what happens? 30 years later Joshua 17:13 reports:

However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they subjected the Canaanites to forced labor but did not drive them out completely.

That’s where it all fell down. No one ever corrected this initial mistake. And so it festered and it grew and its roots got larger and went deeper and it eventually destroyed Israel. A long-time family friend who fostered many at-risk children was driving around Vancouver’s Downtown East Side some years ago and her foster kids asked about the drugged-out homeless people so prevalent in that area. My friend felt the Lord give her a word of knowledge and she replied to her foster children, “They never planned to come here and live on the street, but they made one bad choice. And that led to another, then another, then another.” (paraphrased)

So it was with Israel. One small mistake uncorrected led to destruction. Slowly but surely. In this case it took over 600 years, but it came. However, like I said yesterday, God is a gentleman and He has given us the ability to choose. Only God can save us, but we have to submit our lives to Him. Every part. Or that one, teeny tiny thing we are holding back will eventually turn into a mighty Oak tree that dominates the landscape of our lives. I’ll leave us today with this warning from the Prophet Isaiah:

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land;but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 1:18-20

God is a Gentleman

I grew up Catholic, which meant that God was far away and most waiting with a big stick to whack me if I stepped out of line. Eventually I became an agnostic and that lasted into my teen years. Then I got saved in a Pentecostal church when I was about 15.

During these formative years of my faith I was taught that much of what God does depends on what we do. I was always told that “God is a gentlemen”, He will never force Himself of you. God sort of reacts to what we are doing and orchestrates His will accordingly. This is broadly called “Arminianism”. In this way of understanding God, much is made of human free will, but God’s sovereignty suffers rather severely.

Once I became a pastor I worked for a few churches and one of them was staunchly “Calvinist” — the opposite of Arminianism. This says that everything that happens is because God willed it to be so. On this understating of God, much is made of God’s sovereignty, but human free will suffers severely.

By the way, if this stuff makes your eyes glaze over, don’t worry about it. Both of these camps are going to be in heaven. This is absolutely NOT a salvation issue… even if both of these groups are wrong.

We see throughout Amos, Isaiah, and now Hosea that God repeatedly tells that people that once they turn back to Him, He will restore them. So clearly we need to find a way to balance the free will of the creature (God will not restore us until we repent) with God’s sovereignty (He is in control of everything). How is this done?

Well, it’s long and complicated, and takes more time to explain than I really want to invest in this particular post. But essentially I believe it works like this:

God knows how you would respond in any given set of circumstances.
God has total sovereign control over everything.
God chooses not to override our free will, but to arrange the circumstances to achieve His desired outcomes.
In this way God is sovereign over everything that happens, but we are also allowed to exercise our free will.

That to say that I think my youth pastor when I was 15 was right. And that position is backed up by the preponderance of the Biblical evidence. Essentially… God is a Gentleman.

Is Marital Sex for Personal Gratification?

No.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

In all seriousness, the answer is ‘no’. Of course it’s okay if you enjoy sex (within the bounds of Biblical marriage), but enjoyment is not why God created it. Sex actually serves two purposes. One is the production of children. God told Adam and Eve (and by extension, the rest of us) to “be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and steward it” (Genesis 1:28). The second — the one I want to highlight today — is union. This is also rooted in creation. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

This second reason is what Hosea is highlighting in today’s reading. God (via Hosea) uses a sexual metaphor to talk about the re-union of Israel to Himself. This is meant to help us understand that our commitment to God is singular, intimate, and eternal. It is an act of devotion. Obviously with God these adjectives describe a NON-sexual encounter, but nonetheless our refusal to be devoted in this way is compared to prostitution!

In the same way for our marriages to be Biblical, the primary reason for sexual union should not be an orgasm. The primary reason is an expression of singular, intimate, eternal devotion. That’s why we’ve called it “making love”. This brings me back to my pity opening statement…

The title of today’s devo asks, “Is Marital Sex for Personal Gratification?” and my response, “No”, while technically true does not tell the whole story. The answer is, of course, that while personal gratification IS an outcome of the sexual union, it is not the primary or even secondary purpose. Instead, that gratification is a reward for our faithfulness and devotion.

Getting it Twisted

One of the more surprising things in the Gospel of John is when Jesus says that He must be lifted up by God in the same way that Moses lifted up the snake in the desert. If we go back to that snake in the desert, we see that God used the instrument of destruction to bring about healing. We call that “redemption”. But here we see that King Hezekiah (the most righteous king of Judah) had to DESTROY the bronze serpent because people began to worship it. Seems like we will worship just about ANYTHING, if it doesn’t get the in way of us doing exactly what we want to do. And so the people took a thing originally designed for good and twisted it for evil. To the point where it had to be destroyed for the salvation of those very people.

Just because something was designed for good or accomplished good, doesn’t mean it will always be good for all time. We still need to evaluate those things. I know as a pastor I have done events that were a huge success the first time, but didn’t yield the same results the following year. I think it’s important that we bring everything back to God. And if that event, or job, or thing, or dream that God gave you has become twisted… it might be time to destroy it and start fresh.