Godly Courage

Readings for today: 1 Kings 15:25-34, 1 Kings 16, 2 Chronicles 17

Humanity is broken. Though originally created in God’s own image to bring beauty and goodness to the world; we lost our way. Exiled from the Garden because of sin, we find ourselves wandering in the shadowlands of our own making. We grope our way through the darkness, struggling to make any kind of progress. We are at the mercy of something twisted deep inside us that causes us to choose sin over and over again. We just can’t seem to help ourselves. Proverbs 26:11 describes it viscerally, “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” We see this pattern repeated throughout Scriptures. From Genesis to Revelation, God reaches out to humanity. Raises up men and women after His own heart. Noah. Abraham and Sarah. Moses. Joshua. Deborah. Hannah. Samuel. David. But with each passing generation, things seemingly go from bad to worse. Spiritual entropy on display. The faithfulness of those who’ve gone before us is lost as our lust for power and control and self-gratification takes over. Jeroboam abandoned the ways of God and sets his kingdom on disastrous course. After he dies, chaos sets in. Constant conflict. Assassinations. Betrayal. Rebellion. And throughout we read this refrain, “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord...”

What keeps us from experiencing a similar fate? Courageous faith. I love how the Bible describes King Jehoshaphat. 2 Chronicles 17:6, “His heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord.” What does this mean? Jehoshaphat removed all the idols and shrines that kept getting built on the hills throughout Judah. He loved God and followed His commandments. He sent out his officials to the farthest reaches of his kingdom to bring God’s Word to the people. Doesn’t that sound like the Great Commission? Rather than wait for the people to come to him, come to the Temple, come to Jerusalem to learn about the ways of God; Jehoshaphat he sends out evangelists to them! Incredible! And what does God do in return? He honors Jehoshaphat. He entrusts him with wealth and riches. He gives Jehoshaphat power and authority. His kingdom experiences a season of peace as the fear of the Lord falls on everyone around them. 

Is your heart courageous in the ways of the Lord? Do you seek God daily for wisdom and guidance and strength? Do you love His Word? Hunger and thirst for time with Him? Do you love to worship? To gather with God’s people to bring God praise? Do you seek to serve Him in all you do? Is your work an offering? Is your home a temple? Do you share the good news of the gospel with those around you who do not know the Lord? Do you pray for revival in our nation? Do you want to see God move powerfully in our town?

Now more than ever, we need men and women of faith whose hearts are courageous in the ways of the Lord! It’s literally the only answer and the only hope we have! I’ve seen it in action. I’ve seen what happens when men and women dedicate their lives to God. They plant churches. They risk pain and suffering and persecution and death for the sake of the gospel. They give up all they have for the glory of Christ. If I’ve learned anything from my African brothers and sisters it is this...nothing can stop a man or woman whose heart is courageous in the ways of the Lord! Thousands of new churches. Hundreds of thousands of new believers. Entire communities and regions being transformed. There’s simply nothing like it on earth!

Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 17-19

A Daily Choice

Readings for today: 1 Kings 15:1-24, 2 Chronicles 13-16

Every day we wake up facing the same choice. Will we place our trust in God or will we trust in human strength and wisdom? Will we believe God when He says He will be with us or will we set up contingency plans just in case He doesn’t come through? Will we walk by faith or will we give into fear?

The accounts of the kings of Israel and Judah set these choices in stark terms. Abijah trusts God for his victory over Jeroboam and his much smaller army routs the larger army of Israel. Asa clears the land of pagan shrines and prostitutes, deposes his grandmother for committing blasphemy, and defeats a massive Ethiopian army many times the size of his own. However, each of these men had their issues as well. Abijah was not whole-hearted in his devotion to the Lord. Asa end his reign by cutting deals with the pagan nations around him rather than continuing to place his faith in God. Both of these kings faced choices every day just like we face choices every day and the impact of their choices rippled out to those they loved and served.

We are not kings nor do we live in ancient Israel but the challenge for us remains the same. Will we trust God when we face challenges? Some of which may seem insurmountable? I think about the challenge of aging. As we get older and our bodies fail or our minds wander, will we trust God and embrace the aging process with grace or will we do all we can to hold onto our fading youth? I think about the challenge of suffering. Maybe it’s a chronic illness or mental health condition. Will we engage God in prayer for healing even as we seek the help of the professionals He provides or will we allow our condition to make us bitter and frustrated and angry? I think about the challenge of doing hard things. This seems to be especially difficult for many of our young people these days. Will we trust God for the strength to overcome the obstacles life often puts before us or will we simply give up? I think about the fight against injustice in our world. So many assume we are powerless before the forces arrayed against us. The “powers and principalities” are too deeply entrenched for us to root out. Will we trust God and speak up for those who have no voice? Perhaps most importantly, I think about the people in our lives whom we love who are lost and wandering spiritually. Will we trust God and share the gospel with them patiently and persistently and prayerfully with the hope that one day they will turn and place their faith in Christ?

Every day we are faced with these and/or similar decisions. Every day the impact of the decisions we make ripples out on those we love and serve. Every day we get to choose whether we will trust God or trust ourselves. Will you place your life, your resources, your future in His hands?

Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 15:25-34, 1 Kings 16, 2 Chronicles 17

Praying for Revival

Readings for today: 2 Chronicles 4-7, Psalms 134, 136

“If my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I’ll be there ready for you: I’ll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land to health.” (2 Chronicles‬ ‭7‬:‭14 ‭MSG‬‬)

What will it take to win our nation to Christ? I’ve spent countless hours praying over and pondering this question. I’ve traveled the world and asked this same question of believers in different countries, some far more hostile to the gospel than my own. I’ve watched different Christians in different places use different methods as they sought to win their nation for Jesus. Some use politics. Some use social protest. Some seek to leverage wealth and power. Some seek to build a platform and become an influencer.

The most effective method by far happens to be the most ancient. The most biblical. Plant churches. Evangelize the lost. Serve the world with humility, sacrificial love, and an abundance of grace. The time I spent in Ethiopia recently only reinforced this truth for me. As we meet with indigenous denominational leader after indigenous denominational leader, we hear the same thing. They each love their nation. They have a passion to see their people come to Christ. They are united in their efforts to reach the lost. So what are they doing? They are praying fervently. They are sending church planters to some of the hardest to reach areas of their country. Regions where warfare has recently raged. Regions where there is famine and potential starvation. Regions where there is tribal unrest. No hardship is too great. No suffering too much to endure. They ”count everything as loss when compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ” and they are winning a nation to Him as a result.

Imagine what could happen if the US church would rediscover a similar passion? Imagine what could happen if believers in the US developed a passion for evangelism? Committed their time and resources and energies to planting churches in neighborhoods where there is no gospel presence? Imagine if we could put aside our denominational and secondary theological differences? Humbly repent of our sin? Imagine if instead of seeking to dominate, we instead sought to serve? After all, it is God’s steadfast love - “hesed” in the original Hebrew - that leads to repentance and revival.

Do you pray for revival? Revival in God’s Church? Revival in our nation? Revival in your own heart? For years now, this verse from 2 Chronicles has been lifted up as the model prayer for revival. So how do we put it into practice? We humble ourselves. Before the Lord. Before each other. Before the world. We are broken people. We are sinful people. We have no right to claim any moral high ground. We ask God to continue His sanctifying work in us. We beg the Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to understand the mind of Christ. We seek God’s face. We stop believing the world revolves around us. We stop treating God like some on-call, cosmic concierge whose only purpose for existence is to meet our emotional needs. We stop treating worship like a consumer product and instead give God the worship He deserves in the way He demands. And finally, we turn from our wicked ways. We come clean. We confess. We repent. We make ourselves vulnerable and transparent before God, before each other, and before the world. Most importantly, we do these things authentically with no other agenda than to come clean before our Heavenly Father.  

Readings for tomorrow: Psalms 146-150

God’s Temple

Readings for today: 1 Kings 5-6, 2 Chronicles 2-3

Today’s reading ties together several threads in Old Testament history. Here are a couple of the key texts…

“So Solomon broke ground, launched construction of the house of God in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, the place where God had appeared to his father David. The precise site, the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, had been designated by David.”(2 Chronicles‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬ ‭MSG‬‬)

“Four hundred and eighty years after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s rule over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, Solomon started building The Temple of God.”(1 Kings‬ ‭6‬:‭1‬‬ ‭MSG‬‬)

“The word of God came to Solomon saying, “About this Temple you are building—what’s important is that you live the way I’ve set out for you and do what I tell you, following my instructions carefully and obediently. Then I’ll complete in you the promise I made to David your father. I’ll personally take up my residence among the Israelites—I won’t desert my people Israel.” (1 Kings‬ ‭6‬:‭11‬-‭13‬ ‭MSG‬‬)

Mount Moriah is the modern-day Temple Mount. It’s the place where Solomon built his Temple. It’s also the place where the 2nd Temple was built by Zerubbabel which is the same Temple King Herod expanded and remodeled during his reign. But that’s not the only place Mt. Moriah is mentioned in Scripture. Moriah is also the region where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac and it was on one of the mountains in that region that Abraham built his altar. Those of you who remember the story from Genesis 22, probably recall it was the angel of the Lord who appeared to stay Abraham’s hand. Mt. Moriah is also the place where King David saw the angel of the Lord relent from his destruction of Jerusalem at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 1 Chron. 21:16 tells us, “David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven...” This is really what temples were all about in the ancient world. They were the places where heaven and earth came together. A “thin space” if you will where the veil of this world peels back as God intervenes to meet us in a powerful way.

The timing of the Temple is important as well. 480 years have passed since Israel first set out on their Exodus journey. Whether the number is literal or symbolic, there was theological significance attached to it because the Temple represented in a very real way the fulfillment of all God’s promises. He had delivered His people from slavery. He had given them the Promised Land. He had conquered their enemies and now they were at peace with their neighbors. Everything God said He would do, He did and the building of the Temple served as a monument to God’s great faithfulness.

Finally, the Temple represented the fulfillment of the covenant of God. It was the completion of the promise God made to David, Solomon’s father, and it represented the eternal nature of the relationship God desired to have with His people. If Solomon - and by extension Solomon’s people - will walk in faithful obedience before the Lord, God would be with them. He would live with them and dwell with them. He would bless them and protect them. He would guide them and give them a hope and a future.

So what’s our takeaway? How is a passage like this relevant for our daily lives? Well, first and foremost, I think it’s important for us to recognize sacred space. Particular places or particular times and seasons where God showed up in a powerful way. Bending the heavens to come to earth to perform a miracle or do a mighty work on our behalf. Such spaces will hold a special place in our hearts as well they should. Second, we need to recognize the importance of God’s timing. He may not work as quickly as we would like or on the timeline we’d prefer but He is always faithful to His promises. Our job is walk in faith. Walk in obedience. Surrender our lives into His hands. Finally, and most importantly, we need to remember that we are now temples of the Living God. We are walking, talking “Mt. Moriah’s” due to the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. God has touched down in our lives. He has done something in our hearts. And we need to praise Him continually for the miracle of spiritual rebirth.  

Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 7-8, Psalm 11