Category Archives: Obedience

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April 9, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, God's Grace & Love, God's Plan, Obedience, Salvation: A New You, Thanks & Praise, Trusting God, Wisdom & Guidance

DIVINE DISCIPLINE (Discipline – Part 1)

And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” Hebrews 12:5-6 (NLT)]

lion - tanzaniaIn C.S. Lewis’ fantasy The Horse and His Boy, Aravis, a young noblewoman, is attacked by a lion. After her wounds are cleaned and dressed, she’s told that the cuts on her back are neither deep nor dangerous and no more serious than the cuts of a whip. Aravis later learns from Aslan, the lion who attacked her, that the gashes on her back, stripe for stripe, equal the stripes laid on the back of the maidservant she’d caused to be punished. At first, this seems more like the Old Testament retribution of “an eye for an eye” than something Lewis’ Christ-like character of Aslan would do. What if the maidservant had been hung or beheaded? What then?

I began thinking about God’s justice, judgment, mercy and correction and the difference between them. We have a God of justice and mercy and yet those two words seem totally incompatible. Justice is getting the deserved punishment for the crime and mercy is not getting it. Justice is about penalty and mercy is all about pardon and compassion.  Justice would be the judge finding us guilty of speeding through a school zone and his judgment would be a fine of $1000. Mercy would be the judge coming to the defendant’s table, getting out his checkbook and paying the fine for us. Justice is served because the penalty is paid—mercy is given because we weren’t the ones to pay the fine. That, however, doesn’t mean there might not be some much needed discipline to correct our behavior. The merciful judge might send us to traffic school or require us to do community service as a crossing guard at the school. Moreover,  he will not protect us from the consequences of our offense. The ticket may cause an insurance premium increase or even a license suspension. Nevertheless, we will have been treated mercifully.

Was what happened to Aravis justice or judgment for her past behavior or was it discipline and correction intended the future? While Aravis’ action was rash, it was defensible. She deceived and drugged the maidservant who was watching her so she could escape from a forced marriage to an evil man. Under those circumstances, Aravis’ receipt of those slashes seems like an injustice. It’s easy to miss that those cuts on her back were not because the servant had been whipped. Aravis wasn’t being punished for what her servant had endured. She was being disciplined for her wanton indifference to her maidservant’s fate. Earlier in the story, when asked about the fate of the girl, Aravis coolly replied that she’d be glad if the servant had been beaten. It was only after receiving similar wounds that the once spoiled and haughty Aravis realized her thoughtlessness and showed concern for the servant’s welfare and fate. Within the next few pages, she both apologizes to someone and shows concern for his welfare (something the unwounded Aravis would never have done). Aslan’s discipline helped her become a better version of herself.

Because it’s usually unpleasant, discipline can feel a lot like punishment. While it may look like divine retribution or payback, it isn’t. Its purpose isn’t to make things right; its purpose is to make us right—to turn us from rebellion to obedience. Divine discipline is disapproval, instruction, correction, and direction. As it did with Aravis, discipline causes us to change both our point of view and behavior; it is through discipline that we become the people God wants us to be.

But consider the joy of those corrected by God! Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin. For though he wounds, he also bandages. He strikes, but his hands also heal. [Job 5:17-18 (NLT)]

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April 5, 2018

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Bible Stories, Forgiveness, Nature, Obedience, Sorrow, Grief & Regrets, Temptation & Sin, Today: Make it Count, Wisdom & Guidance

PAYING THE PRICE

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. [Galatians 6:7 (NLT)]

osprey“It wasn’t worth it!” I grumbled while applying cortisone over four painful red bumps on my foot. When walking around the lake at the botanic gardens, I’d spotted an osprey in a nearby tree. To get a good shot, I had to step off the paved trail into what I knew to be fire ant territory. Having had previous encounters with these stinging insects, I knew better than to stand there in sandals, but I did it anyway; the picture wasn’t worth the price I was paying for my poor decision.

It’s not just fire ants that cause us to regret our poor choices. Wanting to sow his wild oats, the prodigal son enjoyed himself while recklessly spending his inheritance but, when the hungry young man was slopping pigs, he knew his wild living hadn’t been worth it. Adam and Eve (and the rest of mankind) paid a hefty price for a bite of an apple: banishment from Eden, painful childbirth, marital discord, toil and death. I wonder if David thought adultery worth the price he paid: his first son by Bathsheba died, he was humiliated when Absalom publicly took his wives, and violence and rebellion plagued his family. King Manasseh knew better than to build pagan shrines, sacrifice his own children, and place a carved idol in the temple. The price he paid was being led away to Babylon in bronze chains with a ring in his nose. Fortunately for him, Manasseh was given a second chance by God; not everyone is so lucky. Lot’s wife had been warned; was that last look at Sodom worth the price she paid? Then again, as a pillar of salt, she could gaze at the city’s ruins forever.

After nearly 3000 prescription pills were found in her possession, a sheriff’s deputy in a northern community pled guilty to “attempted possession of a controlled substance.” Punishable by up to a year in prison, she was sentenced to seven days in jail and a year of “conditional discharge.” Less restrictive than probation, conditional discharge means the court retains jurisdiction over her with several provisions including drug and alcohol evaluations, no employment where she might have access to drugs, and no use or possession of a firearm. Since the original charge was negotiated down from felony possession (meaning four to fifteen years in prison), most of us would think she got off easy. Apparently expecting probation with no jail or restrictions, the defendant was shocked by what she considered a harsh sentence. As a deputy, she couldn’t plead ignorance of the law or its consequences; nevertheless, she thought the price she paid too high. My study Bible speculated that had David known the cost of his sin, he might not have bedded another man’s wife. I disagree. As a king, David knew the law given in Leviticus: the punishment for adultery was death for both he and Bathsheba! Like the deputy, he knew the consequences and like her, he got off easy.

Stepping onto an ant hill has painful consequences but so does sin. The penalty I paid for that photo was negligible compared to the cost of many of our poor decisions. When choosing between right and wrong, the price we pay can be far greater and longer lasting than a few insect bites. Although Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross and God promises forgiveness when we repent, we still have to face the consequences of our sins here on earth. We, however, are not the ones who get to pick and choose what those consequences will be nor do we get to complain and say, “But God, it wasn’t worth it!”

Temptation can be tormenting, but remember: The torment of temptation to sin is nothing to compare with the torment of the consequences of sin. Remorse and regret cannot compensate for sin….though sins can be forgiven immediately – the consequences can last a lifetime. [Edwin Louis Cole]

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong. [Hebrews 12:11-13 (NLT]

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March 26, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Church & Worship, Family, Friends & Fellowship, Love & Works, Obedience

HONOR THY FAMILY

mute swans and cygnetsThey [the Pharisees] asked him, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.” Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?” [Matthew 15:1b-3 (NLT)]

When the Pharisees asked Jesus why his disciples ignored tradition and didn’t wash their hands before eating, theirs was not a sanitation or health question. Rather than dirt, they were concerned about defilement. More interested in washing their hands than purifying their hearts, they believed hands could become ritually unclean even by touching someone as “unclean” as a Gentile or tax collector. Eating with unwashed hands meant that the sinner’s impurity was passed to the food which would defile the person eating it. Some Pharisees even considered eating with unwashed hands as sinful as sex with a prostitute. Although Salmonella and E. coli can be passed along on someone’s hands to their food, someone’s sins certainly can’t.

Jesus responded to their question with one of His own when He asked the Pharisees why they violated God’s commandments. After all, breaking a man-made tradition is hardly the same as breaking one of God’s direct commands. The Pharisees had a tradition called korban (meaning “a gift” or “offering”).  When a korban vow was made, the Pharisee transferred all of his assets to the temple but retained the use of them until his death (sort of a “life estate”). Those assets could not be transferred or used to benefit anyone else. As a result, while the Pharisee could live quite comfortably, he could not help the poor, disadvantaged or even his parents. The commandment they were neglecting was the fifth one—that of honoring one’s father and mother. A wealthy Pharisee’s parents could be in dire financial straits and yet he could self-righteously ignore their pleas for help. As so often happened with the Pharisees, they supplanted God’s command of honoring parents with a law that gave them prestige and honored only them!

Willing to neglect their family responsibilities in the name of religion, the Pharisees had misplaced priorities. I thought of them when one of our pastors proposed we ask ourselves what things we value the most, in what order we put them, and how we allot our resources to them. He then shared his experience of being called into a council meeting at another church several years ago. When questioned about the amount of time he gave the church, his response was that he lost one family when he put the church first and he was not about to lose his new one the same way. Family would always come before the church. Note—he didn’t say God but “the church” and there can be a big difference between the two.

In effect, the Pharisees put the church or religion before both God and family. If we look at those Ten Commandments, the first four have to do with our relationship with God; the rest have to do with our relationship to other people and parents are at the top of that list. It would seem that, after God, our next priority should be family; after all, once done with creation, God created the family unit (and not the church).

While we probably won’t pledge our entire estate to the church while watching our parents lose their homes or beg on the street, I wonder if, as our pastor once did, we occasionally misplace our priorities. Do we allow our church responsibilities to overshadow our family ones? There are lots of worthy causes and, sometimes, we’re torn as to where to put our resources. While we’re never too busy for God, God work and church work aren’t always the same; there is a fine line between the two. Although I don’t pretend to know where it is, I think the Holy Spirit will let us know when we’ve crossed it. The Pharisees turned a deaf ear to the needs of their families; we must never do the same.

If God cared only about religious activities, then the Pharisees would have been heroes of the faith. [Francis Chan]

But those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers. [1 Timothy 5:8 (NLT)]

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March 14, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Church & Worship, God's Word: The Bible, Knowing Him, Obedience, Salvation: A New You, Sharing Our Faith, Wisdom & Guidance

STUDENTS FOR LIFE

He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” [Luke 6:39-40 (ESV)]

roseate spoonbill - corkscrew swampIn Pieces of Eight, columnist Sydney Harris tells the story of a dinner party at which an elderly Albert Einstein was seated next to an eighteen-year-old girl. Unaware of his identity, she asked the famed professor what he did for a living. “I devote myself to the study of physics,” he responded. Shocked that he still studied physics at his age, she told him she’d finished her physics studies the previous year! Without a doubt, Albert Einstein knew more about physics than anyone else of his time and yet he continued to study physics until his death. Harris’s explanation is that the physicist recognized that what he didn’t know far outweighed all that he did.

In Jesus’s day, the word disciple referred to a student or apprentice and was usually associated with people who devotedly followed a religious leader or philosopher. Christian writer Dallas Willard suggests replacing the word disciple in our Bibles with apprentice or student to get the true meaning of the word. Just as Einstein continued to be a student of physics, if we are true disciples of Christ, we must continue to be His students. Discipleship doesn’t end with accepting Christ; it begins. It requires commitment to be with and know Him, to grow more like Him, and to continually learn from Him.

Einstein continued to spend time in his physics laboratory. We must continue spending time with Jesus through prayer and Bible study. In studying the Gospels and Acts, we find His words, repeat His words, and reflect on them. In the Epistles, we learn how to apply those words. We then turn our attention from the New to the Old Testament to learn our history and how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies. Finally, we fulfill the commission given to the original disciples. The students are to become the teachers and find new students. Since the blind can’t lead the blind, we will continue to study and, after reading from Genesis to Revelation, start over again! We are life-long disciples who, like Albert Einstein, recognize that what we don’t know far outweighs what little we do.

Any fool can know. The point is to understand. … Learning is not a product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it. [Albert Einstein]

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. [Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)]

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March 8, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Family, Friends & Fellowship, Fruit of the Spirit, Love & Works, Obedience, Salvation: A New You, Temptation & Sin, Today: Make it Count

AGAPE

Coronado beach - Bil PavlackaJesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” [Mark 1:29-31 (NLT)]

Last summer, we enjoyed beautiful sand sculptures created by Bil Pavlacka on Coronado beach. One had been constructed as a memorial to the seven sailors who died on the destroyer Fitzgerald that month. It was not Pavlacka’s first memorial; he’s sculpted sand to honor a Navy Seal killed in Iraq and to recognize the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting and the Paris and Brussels attacks. Those sculptures were labors of love—love for people he never personally knew but people he knew were his neighbors.

What a contrast his work is to the bumper stickers I recently saw on a truck parked beside us. There didn’t seem to be a minority group the driver wasn’t anxious to hate, insult or possibly worse since the back window also sported a “License to Kill Arabs.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 917 hate groups (such as white nationalists, black separatists, racist skinheads, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, anti-Muslim, anti-LGBT and anti-Semitic zealots) currently operate in the United States. Based on his bumper stickers, the truck’s owner must have belonged to several of them. How easy it is to spout hate for people we don’t even know; yet, they are our neighbors!

We are called to love one another—not romantic (eros) or friendship (philia) love—but agape or unconditional sacrificial love—like the love God had for us when he sacrificed His son and the love the good Samaritan had for a total stranger. It has nothing to do with attraction, affection or even liking one another. Agape love isn’t emotional; it is a choice. It also happens be one of God’s commands.

Agape love is like building an intricate sandcastle; it takes time, effort, dedication and patience. On the other hand, hate is like those bumper stickers or a well-placed kick aimed at a sandcastle; it is thoughtless and destructive. Jesus doesn’t ask us to like everyone but He does expect us to love them—to be kind, considerate, understanding, patient, tolerant, polite, and good to them. Fortunately, we don’t have to do it on our own—the Holy Spirit empowers us to love one another as God loves us. Like building a sand castle, however, it doesn’t come easy and there will be times our efforts fail. Nevertheless, we must keep at it until we get it right. What we can’t do is take the easy way out with hate!

It is the duty of every Christian to be Christ to his neighbor. [Martin Luther]

We love each other because he loved us first. If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers. [1 John 5:19-21 (NLT)]

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March 2, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, Fear & Doubt, God's Grace & Love, God's Promises, Miracles, Obedience

SUMMONED

prairie coneflower - blanket flower - black-eyed susanListen, O heavens, and I will speak! Hear, O earth, the words that I say! Let my teaching fall on you like rain; let my speech settle like dew. Let my words fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants. I will proclaim the name of the Lord; how glorious is our God! [Deuteronomy 32:1-3 (NLT)]

My granddaughter recently received a summons to jury duty. Although she attended law camp last summer and just might do better than some jurors, at fourteen, she’s not qualified to serve. Trying to get her out of jury duty, however, appears to be easier said than done. Because the grand’s birth date is “invalid,” the on-line juror qualification questionnaire cannot be completed. Her mother’s call to the clerk resulted in being told that the youngster must come to the court house to prove her age by presenting them with her driver’s license. When it was politely pointed out that at fourteen she has no license, the clerk irately asked why she got the summons. “I don’t know; you’re the ones who sent it to her!” was all her mother could reply. Let’s hope jury duty is an excused absence from junior high because it appears that the district court does not want to take “No!” for an answer.

When God summons us, He doesn’t take “No” for an answer either. Moses was sure it was a mistake when God called to him from that burning bush. He protested by listing all of his inadequacies and God countered with His assurances and provision. In his final objection, Moses claimed to be an inarticulate tongue-tied speaker so God gave him Aaron to act as his spokesman.

Aaron, however, died before the Israelites reached Canaan and, in the book of Deuteronomy, we finally hear Moses speak. In his first speech (lasting four chapters), Moses gives an historical review of what brought the people to be standing on the plains of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho. An articulate powerful account, it’s as inspiring as one of Billy Graham’s sermons. The next thirty chapters are equally moving as Moses summarizes the Israelites’ covenant obligations and blessings.

To the county clerk, my grand was merely a name and address but, as the one who made us, God knows everything about us. He knows our weaknesses and capabilities and, unlike government bureaucracy, His summons is never in error. God knew what He was doing when he called Moses and He knows what He’s doing when He summons us. Where we see liabilities, inability, inadequacy and failure He sees assets, possibility, ability, and promise.

I can’t help but think of A.A. Milne’s Christopher Robin and the words he spoke to his bear, Winnie-the-Pooh: ”There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you.” Indeed, we are braver, stronger and smarter than we think and more capable than we can imagine. Moreover, like Christopher Robin, God is always with us. It is His faithfulness to us that empowers us to do His work.

When God puts a calling in our hearts, He won’t leave us stranded. He equipped and enabled Moses with wisdom and oratory skills and He’ll equip us. Moses’s final speech in Deuteronomy (ending with both a song and a blessing) rivals any motivational message given by Tony Robbins, Dave Ramsey, or Bear Grylls. When you doubt your abilities, remember that those eloquent words in Deuteronomy were spoken by a man who, because of his stammer and ineptitude at oration, considered himself unqualified. God knew better!

Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you. [Deuteronomy 31: 8 (NLT)]

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