Inside the Story

Readings for the day: Ezekiel 21-24

One of the biggest challenges we have to overcome...especially when we read the Old Testament...is out tendency to see ourselves as neutral, third-party observers. We read the words and then decide if we believe them to be true or not. We think of ourselves as dispassionate, rational, and objective. We stand outside the biblical story. We take the parts we like and we jettison the parts we don’t like. We believe we have options. We believe we get to determine what’s true for us. And we cling on to those passages that help us understand how we are to be saved. It’s a highly individualistic, highly rationalistic, thoroughly Western, uniquely Protestant approach to engaging the Bible. And it would have been utterly foreign to the biblical writers themselves. 

Ezekiel sees himself as part of one long continuous story that harkens all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He sees himself playing a very minor role in the grand sweep of God’s epic tale of deliverance and salvation. He understood himself to be caught up in this story. His life as one thread in a much larger tapestry. His job as a Jewish man, much less a prophet of God, was to find his place in this story. To play his part. To do the work his God had called him to do. So as he surveys the landscape of what’s happening around him. As he looks to the heavens and charts the courses of the stars or ponders the rise and fall of the great empires around the Ancient Near East or considers the desperate straights of his own people; he interprets all of these things from a theological perspective. He tries to discern God’s hand in all that’s taking place. Tragically, this includes the death of his own wife.  

 “Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down.” (Ezekiel 24:16) I cannot imagine the pain Ezekiel must feel at the loss of his beloved. We do not know much about their relationship but the fact that God Himself calls her the “delight” of Ezekiel’s eyes probably says much. Their love must have been strong. Their intimacy deep. And yet when she passes, Ezekiel is not allowed to mourn. This may strike us as a little weird but for Ezekiel’s contemporaries it would have been shocking. Jewish culture is highly expressive when it comes to grief. People in those days would literally hire professional mourners to weep and wail alongside those who had lost loved ones so they wouldn’t feel ashamed to express their pain and heartbreak. Funerals would last for days and involve the whole community. Food would be eaten. Stories shared. Tears cried. It was a powerful, visceral ritual designed to help those who had lost loved ones process their grief. But Ezekiel is denied this experience. Why?

Why would God treat his prophet in this way? How could Ezekiel see God’s hand in all this? What in the world made Ezekiel think that God was calling him NOT to grieve! NOT to mourn! NOT to weep? Again, it comes back to how Ezekiel understood himself. He lives within a much larger story that is unfolding over the centuries. God making Himself known to His people. God walking alongside His people. God relating to His people. Ezekiel understands all of life to be lived under the sovereign Lordship of Yahweh. Not just in the abstract but in the everyday. Ezekiel believed God was at work in every moment of his life. Every experience. Every success. Every failure. Every joy. Every pain. God ruled over it all and God was using it all for His purposes. So when his wife dies, Ezekiel somehow understands this to be yet another sign from God to His people. Ezekiel’s own life. Ezekiel’s own heartbreak will be used to demonstrate the depth of God’s heartbreak and grief over the sins of His people.  “Thus shall Ezekiel be to you a sign; according to all that he has done you shall do. When this comes, then you will know that I am the Lord God.” (Ezekiel‬ ‭24:24‬)

I know this sounds very strange to our ears and yet it is the key to understanding the Bible. It is the key to understanding why the people in the Bible did the things they did. It is the key to understanding why Noah built an ark. Sarah’s laughter. Abraham going up a mountain to sacrifice his son. Moses confronting Pharoah. Joshua renewing the covenant. Deborah’s song. Samuel hearing God’s voice. David dancing before the ark. The religious reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah. The tears of Jeremiah. All of these great men and women believed their lives were not their own. They believed they were instruments in God’s hands to use as He saw fit for His own purposes and glory. They had no identity outside of God. No independent existence apart from Him. They had no story to call their own. No, their lives were completely wrapped up in the much larger story God was telling about deliverance and salvation and redemption and final restoration! That’s why Ezekiel could look at the death of his wife through a theological lens, even seeing it as yet another prophetic sign for God’s people. 

Imagine how your perspective on life would change if you saw the world through Ezekiel’s eyes! Imagine seeing God’s hand at work in every instance. Every encounter. Every experience good or bad. Imagine seeing God’s purpose behind every success or failure. Every joy or sorrow. Every moment of every day. Imagine it was God speaking to you through every conversation. God teaching you and humbling you through every trial and hardship. Imagine God showing you His faithfulness as He gives you far more than you can handle. This, friends, is one of the deep and most profound messages running from Genesis to Revelation. God attempting to give us His eternal perspective. God trying to help see things from His point of view. From the vantage point of God’s eternal kingdom, everything changes. The rise and fall of nations. The 24 news cycle. The triumphs and tragedies of life. The ordinary and mundane. All of it transformed. Impregnated with eternal significance -or insignificance as it were - in God’s hands. 

If only Ezekiel were alive today! I think he’d say, “Don’t weep for me. Weep for the world. Weep for the lack of faith. The pervasiveness of sin. The rise of evil. The brokenness of God’s people. Save your tears for the coming judgment of God.”  

Is God not Just?

Readings for the day: Ezekiel 17-20

Today’s reading poses a very important question. One we all ask. One that seems almost hardwired into our souls. Is God just? God’s people have been asking this question for centuries. They look at their history. They look at their circumstances. They ponder their suffering and struggle and strife. And because of the difficulties they face in their lives, they wonder how God could allow such things to happen. They wonder how a good God could allow evil to flourish. They wonder how a loving God could stand by and watch His people endure such pain. They wonder how a gracious God could be so demanding. 

I hear these questions all the time. “Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.” (Ezekiel‬ ‭18:25‬) From the very beginning, we’ve been avoiding the responsibilities that come with being made in God’s image and being given a mandate to care for all creation. We keep trying to find someone to blame for all our problems. Rather than looking at ourselves and the depth of human depravity, we look to God and look to blame-shift. We try to escape the natural consequences of our selfish behavior by pretending that somehow the issue is God’s...”He made me this way”, “He set up the world like this”, “He is the one who allows evil to flourish...” All the while, we refuse to face the truth about the man or woman we see in the mirror.

God will have none of it.  “Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?” (Ezekiel‬ ‭18:25-29) God makes it very clear that He will not allow us to skirt our responsibilities. Our sin is the root of the evil we see in the world. Our rebellion is the reason for our difficult circumstances. Our refusal to follow the ways of God is why we face such suffering and hardship with so little hope. It is not God’s arm that is shortened or God’s strength that has failed or God’s justice that has let them down. The failure is their own. 

Thankfully, God is merciful. He is gracious. He loves us despite our sin. Listen to His precious words from Ezekiel 18 and be encouraged. “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.” Your soul is God’s. Whether you believe or disbelieve. Whether you are good or evil. Whether you feel worthy or unworthy. Your soul is God’s. He holds you in His hand. “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” You are only responsible for you. You are not responsible for the sins of your parents or friends or extended family. You are not at the mercy of your family’s dysfunction or broken history. You are not simply the product of your genetic makeup. If you are a Christian, you are a rational, spiritual creature who is endowed by Christ with His Spirit to make godly choices. “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” God doesn’t delight in your pain. God is not immune to your suffering. God does not derive a sadistic pleasure from the death of anyone, including the wicked. He loves everyone He made in His image and desires all to be saved and come to a knowledge of His truth. "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live." What God desires is NOT perfection but repentance. Humility rather than pride. A broken and contrite heart, God will never despise.

Friends, the secret to a life lived well before God has EVERYTHING to do with submission. Surrender. An honest, transparent acknowledgement of your sin. We come to the Cross on our knees. The ground is level. All are equally guilty in His sight and yet all are equally made righteous by the death of His Son. Nothing about you is left untouched. Unhealed. Unchanged. God will save to the uttermost those who turn to Him. 

The Gospel in Ezekiel

Readings for the day: Ezekiel 13-16

Time to take another deep breath and step back. If one can get past the graphic imagery of chapter 16,  one will see a compelling picture of the gospel emerge. A gospel that is as much for Israel as it is for the church today. In this chapter, God retells their national story from His point of view. He reminds them of their humble beginnings. Reminds them of His lavish blessings. Reminds them of their great betrayal. Reminds them of His everlasting covenant. This is their story. This is our story. This is the gospel story. 

Where does our relationship with God begin? Not with us. We did not choose to love God. We could not choose to love God. No, we were helpless. Abandoned. Left all alone. Stillborn spiritually. It was not our beauty that caught God’s eye but our desperation. “And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born. "And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' (Ezekiel‬ ‭16:4-6‬) Out of pure compassion and grace, God adopted us as His own. Brought us into His family. Took us from the field where we had been cast. Bathed us. Fed us. Clothed us. Rocked us. Sang to us. Raised us. “I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.” (Ezekiel‬ ‭16:7‬)

What does our relationship with God look like as it matures? We grew up under His watchful eye and gracious care. When the time was right, God took us as His bride. He covered our nakedness with the corner of His garment. He made His vow and covenant with us. (Remember the ceremony from Genesis with Abraham?) He bestowed riches and honor and glory on us as befits the bride of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And the whole world marveled at what God had done. The whole world came to see the splendor and glory of Israel. The whole world envied the relationship she had with her God. 

But Israel grew proud. She began to believe her own hype. She read her own press clippings. She trusted in her riches and beauty and power and influence. She abandoned her covenant with the Lord and began to serve other gods. God’s bride now playing the whore. She literally took the gifts God had given her and gave them away to idols. Fed them with the bread God provided from His own hands. Things got so bad that Israel began sacrificing their innocent children to appease these other bloodthirsty gods. “How sick is your heart, declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute...” (Ezekiel‬ ‭16:30‬) 

Therefore God brought judgment on His bride. “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God...” (1 Peter‬ ‭4:17‬) God will not spare His bride. In fact, He holds His bride to an even higher standard. Higher than Samaria. Higher than Sodom. “Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.” (Ezekiel‬ ‭16:52‬) God disciplines those He loves out of a desire to see them cleansed from sin and brought to glory. "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son or daughter whom he receives." (Hebrews‬ ‭12:5-6‬) His desire is for His bride to return. To come back to Him. To be faithful and true once more. To remember from whence she came and to honor her Husband for all He has done. Why? So the world may again marvel at the intimacy of their relationship. So the world may again say, “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?” (Deuteronomy‬ ‭4:7‬)

This is why Ezekiel 16 ends with this note of hope.  “Yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant...I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God." (Ezekiel‬ ‭16:60, 62-63‬) God has atoned for His bride. On the cross, He paid for all her sin. He took all her punishment. All her shame. All her self-inflicted degradation on Himself. On the cross, the faithful Husband gave His life for the sake of His bride “so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” ‭(Ephesians‬ ‭5:27‬)

The Glory of the Lord

Readings for the day: Ezekiel 9-12

It is hard for us to fathom the national catastrophe that befell Israel. Harder still for us to understand the depth of their pain and suffering. Living as we do in the world’s most powerful nation, we cannot begin to grasp what it would be like to watch your entire way of life destroyed. However, all of that pales in comparison to the tragedy Ezekiel sees in his vision today. All the destruction. All the loss of life. All the famine and disease. None of that would have compared to the grief he felt watching the Lord leave His Temple. 

From the moment God had indwelled the Tabernacle in the wilderness, Israel had never been alone. They enjoyed His protection. They had enjoyed His provision. He had given them victory after victory. Established them in the Promised Land. Taken up residence in Jerusalem once they built the Temple. Over time, the Israelites began to take Him for granted. In fact, there was a sense in Jeremiah and Ezekiel’s time that the Lord was somehow “trapped” in the Temple. They believed they had the Lord caged. He had ceased to be their god and had now become a totem. A magic talisman that kept them from evil. This is why they stubbornly refused to leave Jerusalem when Jeremiah called them to submit to Nebuchadnezzar. They falsely believed as long as they had the Lord locked down in His Temple that they could never be fully defeated.  

Imagine their shock when Ezekiel relates his vision of the Lord leaving the Temple. Departing from the east gate. Rising above the cherubim where He normally sat. Heading out of the city that bore His name. Imagine their fear as their one hope departs, leaving them alone for the first time since their days in Egypt. It’s difficult for us wrap our minds around simply because we believe God is everywhere all the time. We hold onto the promise that God is always with us. We trust He will never leave us or forsake us.  

But what if the Lord is leading us into exile? What if the Lord is leading us into a season of suffering? What if the Lord is seeking to refine us and sanctify us? Are we willing to go where He leads? The reality is we too often take the Lord for granted. We too act as if He’s “trapped” in a relationship with us. As if God is “bound” by His unconditional love for us. We falsely believe our thoughts, attitudes, and actions don’t matter. We false believe we can reject holiness as a way of life. We falsely believe God’s primary goal is our personal happiness. Nothing could be farther from the truth. God does love us with an everlasting love. God does love us unconditionally. Nothing can snatch us out of His hand. Yes. Yes. Yes. But make no mistake, God is not “bound” to us. He is not “trapped” in this relationship. He is not co-dependent on us nor does He allow our whims, our feelings, our desires to shape His will for our lives. We sin at our own risk. We run ahead of God at our own peril. We stubbornly refuse to follow Him to our own detriment. 

Perhaps the best example of how God relates to us comes from the story Jesus tells of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The younger son comes to his father in the tale and asks for his inheritance. He wants nothing to do with his family any longer. He wants to be on his own. Live according to his own rules. Follow his own path. Find his own happiness. So he takes his money and leaves. The father lets him go. Many years pass. The son has spent all he has on sinful pursuits. He has abandoned all his father taught him. Now he’s desperate. Alone. Afraid. Ashamed. One day he plucks up the courage to go home. He has no hope his father will accept back into the family but he thinks he might be able to catch on as a hired servant. But while he is far off, the father sees him. The father’s been waiting by the door. Watching out the window. Longing. Praying. Looking forward to the day when his son will come to his senses. The father runs to him. Embraces him. Gives him a robe to wear and places the signet ring back on his finger. He is home. He is one of the family again.  

It’s a powerful story. One that reminds us of the great love of God. It should also remind us of the consequences of our sin. The father never stopped loving the son just as God never stops loving us. But the father did let the son go. He did let the son make his own sinful decisions and then face the terrible consequences. The same was true for Israel. God did indeed come to dwell in His Temple. Like the father from the story, He loved His children unconditionally. Over and over He forgave them. But then there came a day when they finally said, “We don’t want you here anymore. We don’t want to be your children. We want to do our own thing. Live our own lives. Pursue our own happiness. Chase our own dreams. And they don’t include you.” So the Father did what they asked. He left His home in their hands. He removed His glorious presence. The result is pain. Suffering. Heartbreak. Such is always the case when we abandon God.

At the same time, Ezekiel sounds a note of hope. Presumably, God could have chosen to leave His Temple and head in any direction. He went east. East to where the exiles lived. East to Babylon. East to find His wayward children. East to be with them in captivity. East to comfort them in their diaspora. East to provide for them and make them prosper. East to join them so they never would be alone. 

Friends, God’s glory doesn’t need a Temple. A house made with human hands. A sanctuary covered in gold. The Bible declares that we are temples of the Holy Spirit! Our hearts have become the residence of God Himself! This is why Ezekiel declares, “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel‬ ‭11:19-20‬) Furthermore, it’s why the Apostle Paul will later declare, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians‬ ‭3:16‬) Because God’s Spirit has taken up residence in our hearts, we ourselves are “being transformed into the Christ’s image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians‬ ‭3:18‬) Amazing! The great news of the gospel is that God’s glory now lives in us! And this is why we do not take Him for granted or presume upon His grace. Rather we should be deeply humbled by God’s willingness to dwell with us and in us and work through us.

They Will Know I am the Lord

Readings for the day: Ezekiel 5-8

Today’s reading is as brutal as they come. Violence. Disease. Famine. Destruction. Pain. Suffering. God delivering His people over to judgment. It is hard to read. Harder still to try and picture. But the hardest part is to accept is that this is all from God. All a part of His plan. It raises some extremely difficult questions. How can this be the same God who promised compassion and steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love Him? How can this be the same God who will later reveal Himself fully and completely in Jesus Christ? How can this God of wrath be the same God of love? Is this God bipolar? Manic? Schizophrenic? Does He have rage issues? Can He be trusted? Is such a God even worthy of our love? 

These are all important questions to ponder but they also ultimately miss the point. God is God. He has made known His will. He has established His covenant. He has made clear His expectations. From the beginning, He has held nothing back. Nothing hidden. Nothing secret. He created us to fulfill His purposes. He is the Potter. We are the clay. Our problem is that we keep forgetting our place. We keep rejecting our role. We refuse to acknowledge His Lordship over our lives. Starting with Adam and Eve, we keep asserting our independence. We keep trying to be our own gods. Do things our own way. Worship as we please. Do things as we choose. And we forget Whom it is we were created to serve. We forget the One we were created to please. We forget God is God and we are not. 

We cannot say we haven’t been warned. God is more patient with us than we deserve. He forbears for generations as the sin piles up. He continues to reach out in love only to have the door slammed in His face. He continues to show us grace though we deserve judgment. He continues to be faithful though we ignore Him and walk away. There are consequences to such actions. The apostle Paul talks about them in Romans 1,  “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men...” And how does that wrath manifest itself according to Paul? God simply withdraws His hand. He “gives us over” to the lusts of our hearts. The lust of our eyes. The pride and arrogance of our lives. And the results are ugly. Harsh. Tragic. Horrifying. Human beings, left unchecked, are brutal creatures. It was Robert Burns who first coined the phrase, “Man’s inhumanity to man” in a poem he wrote in 1787 and the events of the last few hundred years only serve to confirm his analysis of the human condition. We are capable of unfathomable evil. We are capable of the most brutal violence. We are capable of the most horrifying, dehumanizing behavior. And if we’re totally honest, we all know this to be true. Given the right conditions, all of us are capable of just about anything. (See the infamous “Stanford Prison Experiment” of 1971.) 

How should a just and holy God respond? Righteous judgment. Our sin offends God on a level we simply cannot understand. Listen to how Ezekiel describes how God feels, “Then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols.” (Ezekiel‬ ‭6:9‬) God takes our sin seriously. Our problem is we don’t take it seriously enough. We gloss it over. We make excuses. We rationalize our behavior. We justify our thoughts, attitudes, and actions. We foolishly believe we are somehow special and will escape judgment. We presume upon our relationship with God. We are just like Israel who believed they were “immune” because they were God’s chosen people. 

But God will not be mocked. He vents His fury without mercy. "Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the Lord —that I have spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them.” (Ezekiel 5:13) It is scary. It is frightening. It makes us tremble. And if we aren’t careful we will miss what God is trying to do. In our fear, we will focus yet again on all the wrong things. God’s judgment is NOT an end in itself! It points beyond itself to something far greater! Far more important! 

“That they may know I am the Lord.” Over and over again we read this refrain. God using judgment to cleanse His people. To refine them. To separate the gold from the dross. The wheat from the chaff. He disciplines them in His love. He confronts the evil of their hearts. He forces them to come face to face with the depth of their sin and degradation. The utter futility of their idolatry. The full measure of their rebellion. Yes, it is harsh but it is also true. It is just. It is fair. It right. It is good. And it is ultimately so they may return in humility to the Lord. They must be broken. Their hardened hearts must be crushed. Their stiff necks bent. Their locked knees bent. God will indeed force them to their knees through judgment so they may again experience the joy of being in right relationship with Him. This is the point of their exile. This is the point of their suffering. God wants His people back. And He will not relent until they return. 

It’s a sobering reality. Especially for us Christians. To think of all that Christ endured as the Father poured His wrath out on His Son. To consider all Christ went through as he experienced the depths of hell and God-forsakenness. He took on the full weight of human sin. As terrifying as the judgment is in Ezekiel, it pales in comparison to the judgment Christ suffered on the Cross. Reading these words through the prism of the Cross should make us appreciate more and more the wonder of Christ’s sacrifice for us. We should find ourselves marveling at the great love of God who would take our place. Bring judgment on Himself. Freely lay down His life in order to save us from our sin. Amazing love! How can it be that Thou my God wouldst die for me?

Visions

Readings for the day: Ezekiel 1-4

Welcome to Ezekiel and some of the strangest writings of the Old Testament! The next several weeks will be confusing if it’s your first time through so let me give you a few tools to help you navigate this book. Let’s begin with some history on Ezekiel himself. Ezekiel was born into a priestly family, most likely during the reign of King Josiah in Judah. You will remember King Josiah was one of the faithful kings of Judah and dedicated his reign to cleansing the land of idols and restoring the true worship of Yahweh. He was married but his wife died just prior to the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC. He was taken into exile along with many of the leaders and influential people of Judah and resettled in Babylon. There it appears he held an important leadership position among the exiles even before receiving his call to be a prophet.

What sets apart the leadership of Ezekiel are the strange visions he received from the Lord. Like Daniel and the Apostle John, he is given the gift of being able to see beyond the veil of this world into the next. But what he sees is overwhelming. Confusing. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to us 21st century readers. This is a style of writing known as “apocalyptic.” Not unique to the Bible, it has parallels in a lot of ancient near east literature. It has several features you will need to keep in mind as you read.

• Revelation - The very word, “apokalypsis” in the Greek means “revelation” or “disclosure.” Apocalyptic literature is marked by a direct revelation from God to a seer or prophet, usually in visions or dreams, who then writes down what he sees. 
• Mystery - The meaning of the visions are often shrouded in mystery. They might refer to past, current, or future events. They may include strange images from the world beyond. While the seer or prophet may write them down in great detail, decifering them is a significant challenge.
• Symbolism - The visions are rife with symbols drawn from nature, ancient near east mythology, astral phenomena, etc. These symbols are used by the seer or prophet to make sense of what he sees and could represent coded language in order to pass imperial censors who may be screening their correspondence.
• Resistance Literature - Because the prophet is typically writing from an “exilic” perspective where he and his people live under oppression, his focus is on the future rather than the present. The visions are meant to provide hope to a people who are suffering.
• God is sovereign - The overarching message of the apocalyptic genre in the Bible is that God reigns. He is supreme. He will judge the nations. He will have the final victory. Despite their present conditions, God’s people are to place their trust in Him.

Ezekiel sees a vision. God appears to him in all His glory and splendor. Living creatures with strange faces. Wheels heading in every direction. High winds. Burning coals of fire. And above it all a throne where a majestic figure sits. It’s so overwhelming that Ezekiel sits speechless for seven straight days. 

What is the content of the revelation Ezekiel receives? His calling to be a prophet. Ezekiel is called to be a “watchman” for Israel. He will speak God’s Word to His people. He will embody God’s messages through his actions. He will become the vessel through which God will make known His will. This will not be an easy call. Serving God as His prophet never is! There is always a cost! The people will resist him. The people will reject his message. The people may even beat and attack him. But Ezekiel’s job is simply to be faithful. To sound the trumpet. To give fair warning. To confront God’s people on their sin.

And what will the confrontation look like? This strange scene where Ezekiel lays on his side for 390 days and 40 days respectively to atone for the sins of each kingdom. The 390 days represents the 390 years between the apostasy of Jeroboam of the northern kingdom of Israel when he set up idols for his people to worship and the Babylonian Captivity that Ezekiel is now experiencing. (975-c. 583 BC) The forty days represents the final years of apostasy in the southern kingdom of Judah. Taken together, the 430 years represented matches the number of years Israel was enslaved in Egypt before the Exodus, meaning the key to their future hope lies in the faithfulness God has shown them in the past. God will repeat what He has done and deliver them again from slavery but only after they have returned to Him with all their hearts. 

What does any of this have to do with us? Wise and discerning Christians will see the similarities between the apostasy/exile of Israel and the reality of our own apostasy/exile in the church. We too have a need for God to raise up faithful “watchmen and women” who will proclaim the Word of God with boldness. Prophets who will speak God’s truth regardless of how it is received. Men and women who understand their first call is to please Christ rather than people. This is just as hard for us today as it was for Ezekiel back then. And it is the job of every Christian. The call of every single person who claims to follow Jesus. We are the ones whom God has sent! We are the vessels He has chosen to use for His purposes! 

Rock Bottom

Readings for the day: Lamentations 3:37-66, 4-5

I remember hitting rock bottom. It was August 1992. I had just finished my first summer after my first year of college. Things were not good. I had bombed my first year of school. Too much drinking. Skipped too much class. I had been in Maine all summer coaching lacrosse and through myself into the “camp counselor” lifestyle which involved a lot of drinking and casual sex. Several nights, I woke up passed out at the bar where we partied. I was about as far from God as can be. I came back in a dark place. Depressed. Empty inside. Ashamed of the person I was becoming. My whole life was in a tailspin and I could feel every rotation. 

There is only one place to go when you hit rock bottom. You turn to God. Within the first week or so of being on campus again at college, a friend of mine invited me to a student ministry. I figured I had nothing to lose. I didn’t realize it at the time but my life changed the moment I walked in those doors. God met me there in a powerful way. Drew me in. Gave me new life. New hope. A sense of joy. I looked around and saw so many students who seemed to have something I did not. I joined a small group Bible study to find out how to get it. Those men loved me. Blessed me. Put up with my foolishness. I remember asking them to hold me accountable to only drinking one beer an hour at the parties I attended. I failed almost every week but they stuck with me. My life was still not going well. I was still drinking far too much. Still missing too much class. But there was something about this group of guys. Spending time with them became my lifeline. The highlight of my week. Going to Late Nite - our student ministry fellowship - was something I looked forward to. It was a bright spot in an otherwise dark time for me.

A few months went by. I found myself walking alone on the way to the Dal Ward Student Center. Right by the parking garage. I can still picture exactly where I stopped and looked up. A realization hit me that day. Looking back, I can see how it had been growing all semester. This sense that God was very real. The young men I studied the Bible with believed Jesus wasn’t just some old dusty historical figure they admired. They actually believed He was alive and suddenly I realized I did too. And if that were true then everything in my life needed to change. 

Lamentations is an account of what happens when we hit rock bottom. It’s ugly. Especially when we’re watching the fall of a nation. I’ve seen what happens when governments fall. When political unrest and instability reigns. I’ve seen the effects of famine, drought, and starvation. I’ve witnessed what happens when people lose all hope of ever escaping poverty. I’ve been approached by women selling their babies in the streets. I’ve seen disease ravage bodies because they had no access to healthcare. I’ve held the hands of the dying and prayed over them as they pass from this brutal world. When I read Lamentations and the accounts of the ash heaps, women boiling their children for food, people wandering listless in the streets, and those wishing for a swift end at the edge of the sword; I think of some of the places I’ve been. This is actually happening today in places like Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Myanmar. The people in these places suffer tremendously and in their suffering, they look to God. They beg for help. They ask Him to intervene. 

The good news is God often does through efforts of His people. Through organizations like World Relief, World Vision, and International Justice Mission who intentionally go to the front lines of these conflict zones to offer what they can. From the opening pages of Genesis, God had determined to bring blessing to this world through the creatures He made in His image. To them He gave dominion and authority over all He had made. To them He gave power and responsibility to care for all He had made. To them He gave the command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And now that call comes to us. What will we do with it? How will we come alongside the suffering? Will we be the ones God uses to lift them up? This is the truth we are forced to confront over and over again. Whenever the question is raised, “Why does God allow such suffering?” We have to look in the mirror and own the fact that we are the ones who created these conditions. We are the ones who tolerate the inequalities that exist in our world. We are the ones who spend our lives building up riches and resources while so many around the world go without. The real question. The honest question. The question we don’t want to face is not...”Why does God allow such suffering?” That’s passing the buck. Playing the same blame game Adam and Eve began way back in the Garden. No, the real question is “Why do WE allow such suffering?” We who have the means and the technology and the resources. Why do we continue to withhold these things from those who need them most? 

Lament

Readings for the day: Lamentations 1-3:1-36

As a general rule, we do not like grief. We try to avoid the experience of loss. We are afraid of embracing our pain. Lament does not come naturally to us. As a pastor, I see it all the time. Someone we love passes away but we tell people we’re fine. Someone we care about breaks up with us and we tell people we’ve moved on. A relationship breaks down and we tell people we’re better off. It’s all a lie, of course. We are hurting. Heartbroken. Suffering in silence. We go home at night to an empty house or climb into an empty bed and the tears start to flow. Memories get triggered sometimes quite unexpectedly and the grief hits us yet again like a ton of bricks. Special days like birthdays or anniversaries come and go and our hearts ache for the one we loved and lost. 

This is true for communities as well. I think about the collective grief of our nation in the wake of 9/11. Or the collective grief of our community in the wake of a police officer being killed in the line of duty. Or the collective grief of a school when a student commits suicide. Life is hard. Pain is real. And the mature believer in Jesus Christ is not afraid to embrace lament as a regular spiritual discipline. Crying out to God is a good thing. Expressing to God our deepest emotions is a good thing. Telling God our fears and failures and heartaches is a good thing.  

Traditionally, Jeremiah is considered to be the author of Lamentations. The angst he feels as he watches the destruction of his city cannot be overstated. The grief must have been overwhelming. Furthermore, Jeremiah clearly considers the destruction of Jerusalem to be at the hand of God. His righteous act of judgment on His people for their sin. The words he uses to describe what God has done are terrifying. The Lord has “cast down from heaven to earth”, “swallowed up without mercy”, “cut down in fierce anger”, “poured out His fury like fire”, “laid waste”, “scorned”, “disowned”, and “determined to lay in ruins.” God is relentless. He will not rest until there’s nothing left. His judgment is complete and final. And what is Jeremiah’s response? Lament. And what does lament look and feel and sound like? “My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city...Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street." ‭(Lamentations‬ ‭2:11, 19‬) It is almost too painful to read. In fact, I bet most American Christians have never read Lamentations for this very reason. 

But pain is the reality of our existence. There is no escaping it. The more we try, the worse things get. The more we avoid, the worse we feel. We are so wrapped up in always “feeling good” that we lose touch with reality. We believe it is our inalienable right to be happy. All the time. But perpetual happiness is a fantasy. An illusion. Life is full of discomfort and pain. Life is full of heartache and heartbreak. Life is full of disappointment and failure. One cannot truly live and love without experiencing these things. This is why a healthy theology or system of belief must include lament. Your faith in God must be big enough to handle disappointment and failure and existential pain. This is the lesson God wants us to take away from Lamentations. From the prophet Jeremiah’s example. In the midst of all he suffers. In the midst of all he sees his people suffer. He still holds onto faith... 

 “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lamentations‬ ‭3:21-26‬)

Raw Emotion

Readings for the day: Jeremiah 51, Psalm 137

One of the most important things to keep in mind as you read the Bible is the different genres of Scripture. It’s not all directions and commands. There is history. There is poetry. There are wisdom sayings. There is storytelling. There are parables. And all of it is God’s Word. All of it is useful for teaching and correction and encouragement. 

Today’s reading from Psalm 137 is a gut-wrenching one. It is a song sung from the perspective of those recently exiled to Babylon. Force-marched over 900 miles, they arrive. Captives. Enslaved. They had just witnessed the destruction of their entire way of life. They come to the waters of Babylon and they sit and weep. Their cries fill the air. They shared their memories of better days when they walked the streets of Zion. They were so heartbroken, they longed to hang up their instruments and sing no more but their captors forced them. Adding insult to injury, they mocked them saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” Sing us one of the songs of deliverance. Tell us stories about the God who abandoned you in your hour of greatest need. It is an incredibly heartbreaking scene. 

It reminds me of a book I once read titled, Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans.  Scholars have uncovered a treasure trove of prayers going all the way back to the days of slavery and it is powerful to read them. To place oneself in their shoes and imagine their pain and suffering. To hear their hearts as they cry out to God for deliverance and healing and freedom. It is not a book you can read dispassionately. It brings tears to your eyes at times. The raw emotion is moving. It’s also what informs so many of negro spirituals. Songs like Go Down Moses, Give Me Jesus, and Wade in the Water. Their music and prayers rose out of their pain and gives them an unmatched gravitas. 

The Psalm ends with a terrible request.  “O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” (Psalms‬ ‭137:8-9‬) This is horrifying and yet it is as honest and real as it gets. By including it in the canon of Scripture, God is not promising to answer such prayers as much as letting us know He listens to them. No matter how dark our prayers become. No matter how angry we get. Even if we lace our prayers with profanity and frustration. God hears them. God welcomes them. God is a big boy and can handle all we might throw at Him. He is not afraid to get down into the muck and mire. Not afraid to dig through the manure pile that our lives can become. He is with us in the midst of the deepest heartaches and terrible tragedies. It doesn’t matter whether we find ourselves in Jerusalem or Babylon. At home or in exile. Feeling blessed or cursed. God is there. We can talk to Him. We can share our deepest thoughts and emotions with Him. We don’t need to be ashamed. We don’t need to hide. He is our Father and He understands our fears. 

The Power of God

Readings for the day: Jeremiah 49-50

Exile from the Garden. Death in the Great Flood. Confusion at the Tower of Babel. Plagues in Egypt. Conquest of Canaan. What do all these biblical events have in common? God’s perpetual war against evil. God has made it clear from the beginning of time that He will not allow humanity to persist in sin. Just as He did not allow Adam and Eve to stretch out their hand and eat of the Tree of Life in the Garden after their sin, so He will not allow us to go on living in idolatry. God hates sin. He hates the idolatry of our hearts. He hates unrighteousness. He hates evil. 

Now I want to be very clear here. Just because God hates sin DOES NOT mean He hates sinners. Just because God hates idolatry DOES NOT mean He hates those who make the idols. God loves the world. God loves His creation. God loves those made in His image. And because His love is fierce and loyal and steadfast and true, He hates what sin does to us. He hates how it corrupts us. He hates how it breaks us. He hates how dehumanizes us. In this way, God’s “hatred” is strangely comforting. It is strangely comforting to know God hates my sin so much He would die on a cross for me. It is strangely comforting to know God hates my sin so much He would send His Spirit to indwell me and sanctify me from within. It is strangely comforting to know God hates my sin so much He gives me the opportunity to repent and return to Him an almost infinite number of times. And what is true for me is also true for entire communities. Cities. Nations.  

God sets out to destroy the Ammonites. To punish them for their sin. The discipline of God is harsh and brutal and terrifying. But the section ends with a strange promise. God will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites. God sets out to destroy Elam. To punish them for their sin. The discipline of God is harsh and brutal and terrifying. But again, there is this strange promise. God will restore the fortunes of Elam.  

God set out to destroy His own people. The nation of Israel in both its northern and southern kingdoms.  “Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭50:17‬) He punished them for their sin. The discipline of God was harsh and brutal and terrifying. But now the tables turn. The very instruments God used to bring about His discipline now come under His judgment. Where is the might of Assyria? What happened to her? Her meteoric rise in human history was matched by her sudden fall. The same is true for Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was the mightiest ruler of his time but his empire would not last. Why? Because he did not just battle with Israel. He went to war with God Himself. 

Psalm 2:1-6 says, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, "As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill." No one can resist God’s power. No one can match His might. It is God who holds the fate of the nations in His hands. God who directs their paths. God who sets their courses. It is God who causes them to rise and fall according to His will and His plan. No one escapes God’s judgment. No one can hide from His sight. No one can run from His presence. God is on the march! He will not rest until the whole earth is cleansed. He will not relent until the whole earth repents and turns to Him. He will not let up until sin and evil is utterly defeated and destroyed. 

What is our response? Fear? Trembling? On some level, the answer is yes. Even better, it should humility. Confession. Repentance. Joy. For this same God has promised to make all things new. Including you. Including me. He has promised one day to wipe away all our tears. Eliminate all pain and suffering. Gather His children to Himself in glory to live forever safe and secure in His loving arms. Turn to God, friends. Suffer under His discipline no longer. Let His Spirit cleanse you and sanctify you and give you a heart that beats for Jesus alone.  

The Kingdom of God

Readings for the day: Jeremiah 45-48

 “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." (Revelation‬ ‭11:15‬)

I wonder if we truly grasp the implications of what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. Do we really mean what we say when we ask our Father to accomplish “His will on earth as it is in heaven.”  It reminds me of the famous quote from Annie Dillard, “On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. ” Or the great quote from CS Lewis, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” We simply cannot see beyond the horizons of this world. We refuse to look past the immediate gratification of our desires. We are all materialists at heart, believing this world is all there is and refusing to acknowledge the reality of a bigger, larger, more glorious kingdom. We hold onto the power and privilege of this world and refuse to surrender our hearts to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We give Him part of our lives - as if we have that option - and believe He will somehow give us a pass on the rest. We believe He’s returning one day but we forget that with that return comes the final judgment when all of our thoughts, attitudes, and actions will be laid bare. 

I am not sure why God’s actions take us by surprise. He tells us quite clearly and frequently in not so many words that the kingdoms of this world WILL become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. He tells us every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. In heaven. On earth. Under the earth that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He tells us He will punish sin and iniquity to the third and fourth generations. He tells us He will protect and defend and discipline His people. He tells us idolatry is a capital offense that deserves the death penalty so it shouldn’t surprise us when He executes such judgment on the pagan nations. I know it is scary. It is a picture of God we are not used to seeing. We don’t like this view of God. We don’t want to acknowledge holiness as a part of His eternal character. We would much rather settle for an indulgent god who loves us as we are and never challenges us or judges us but always accepts and affirms everything we say and do. But such a god bears no resemblance to the God of the Bible.  

It is hard to read these words from Jeremiah. It is hard to think about the millions of people who will suffer as a result of the judgment God brings on their nation. It is easy to think of them as innocent bystanders who simply are collateral damage in this war God is waging against the false gods. However, innocence is a lie. There is no such thing as an innocent human being. We are all guilty of idolatry. All guilty of betraying our first love. All guilty of sin and have gone astray and the wages of our sin is death. The just consequence for our behavior is death. God is not losing control here. He is not lashing out. God is not suffering from “road-rage.” He is acting in accordance with divine justice.  

You may not buy this idea. You may think I’m making excuses for God. After reading this, you may want to throw out your Old Testament. But before you do, please understand you will also be throwing out the cross. The cross makes no sense without the Old Testament. The suffering and death of Jesus makes no sense without all that has gone before it. Christ comes embedded in a story that is already in progress. In fact, the crucifixion is the apex of this story! It is the climax to this grand narrative! It is the place where God throws down ALL His judgment. ALL His wrath. ALL His righteous anger at human sin. Jesus hangs in our place. Jesus stands in the gap. Jesus becomes our substitute. Taking it ALL on Himself and fully satisfying the Father. And this is why the Father gives Him all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus bought the throne at the price of His own blood and He shall reign forever and ever! 

In fact, He is reigning even now from on high. The world ignores Him at their own peril. He is preparing to come again. This time with glory and power from on high. So hear in Jeremiah’s words a warning. Bow the knee. Surrender your will. Submit to Christ. For He is your King! 

Family Feud

Readings for the day: Obadiah 1, Psalms 82-83

There’s nothing worse than a family feud. Especially one that lasts generations. Two brothers grow up together. Polar opposites in personality, they never get along. One is favored by his father, the other by his mother. One loves hunting, camping, fishing, and the outdoors. The other prefers staying at home, reading, studying, enjoying the finer things of life. One is big and strong. A mountain of a man. The other is small and thin. He’s the intellectual. One day, the big, strong older brother comes in from hunting and is famished. The younger brother has been cooking all day. The older brother asks for some food but the younger brother refuses him unless he gives up his birthright. The stage is set for the younger brother to usurp the older brother’s place in the family. Many years pass. Their father is failing. It’s time to divide up the inheritance. The younger brother steals the favored place in the family. The older brother is enraged. He seeks revenge. The younger brother leaves home. He’s gone for years. When he finally comes home, he’s prospered. In his absence, so has the older brother. They meet. They forgive. But their families remain separate. Their clans do not mingle. There is no indication they even see each other again.  

Fast forward generations. Hundreds of years. Edom and Israel are now mortal enemies. Locked in perpetual conflict. What began with a bowl of porridge has become a tribal war. Seems crazy, doesn’t it? And yet, it’s not an uncommon story. Especially in “honor/shame” cultures where defending one’s family reputation is taken very seriously. Through it all, God has been watching. Watching these two “brothers” fight. Watching their descendants go back and forth. Now judgment has come for Esau has gone too far.  “Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.” (Obadiah‬ ‭1:10‬) It’s painful to read. 

Family feuds are the worst. There’s nothing worse than going to war with the people you love. Husbands. Wives. Mothers. Fathers. Children. Grandchildren. Brothers. Sisters. It’s heartbreaking. It doesn’t matter if the conflict is large or small, it is always painful. And working through it requires great courage and humility as we forgive. Reconcile. Restore relationships. It’s some of them hardest work we will ever do. 

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a very famous story. Two brothers and a father. The younger brother comes and shames his father by asking him to give him his inheritance early. For some reason, he doesn’t want to be part of the family anymore. The father graciously agrees. The older brother is horrified. His anger begins to smolder. The younger brother heads off on his own. He wastes everything he has on sinful living. Gossip and rumors filter back to the family of his experiences bringing more shame and more dishonor on the family’s reputation. The older brother is enraged. He secretly begins wishing his younger brother would die. Meanwhile, the younger brother loses everything. Things are so bad, he takes on the most shameful profession there is for a Jew. Feeding pigs. He’s starving. He’s destitute. He has nothing left. Coming to the end of himself, he finally decides to return home. To face the family he once left. To ask for mercy and perhaps be taken on as a hired servant. On his way home, he rehearses what he will say when he finally sees his father. But while is far off...the Bible says...the father sees him! He’s been waiting! Hoping! Praying for the day when his younger son would appear on the horizon! He runs to him. He embraces him. He gives him the family robe and signet ring. He welcomes him home with a feast. Meanwhile, the older brother’s rage now erupts. He refuses to embrace his brother. Refuses to forgive. Refuses to reconcile. Refuses to welcome him back into the family. And what does the father do? Runs to him as well. Embraces him. Assures him of his great love. 

The parable ends with a cliffhanger. What will the older brother do? How will he respond? Will he follow his father’s example and embrace his brother once again? Think about your own family. What relationships need reconciliation? Where does forgiveness need to be offered and received? What does restoration look like? Think about your own position in your family. Are you the prodigal son whose left home and damaged relationships? Are you the older brother whose anger and rage threaten the possibility of reconciliation? Are you the father who embraces both his sons with grace and love?  

Fear or Faith?

Readings for the day: Jeremiah 41-44

One of the things I get to do in my line of work is help churches that find themselves in crisis. Leadership failings. Trust issues. Organizational chaos. There are lots of reasons churches struggle and when it gets to a certain point, they cry out for help. That’s often when I am called to go in. We begin working with the pastors. Working with the elders. Working with the leaders. And the biggest challenge we face in these situations is to help people who are often hurting, angry, fearful, and afraid walk by faith. 

Jeremiah faced the same challenge. The national crisis of God’s people deepens with the murder of the Babylonian governor. The people of God come to Jeremiah and ask him to pray on their behalf. What should they do? How should they respond? They are naturally afraid of the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar. Will he return and utterly destroy them? Will he seek retribution for the murder of his official? What’s going to happen? How should they respond? Jeremiah seeks the Lord on their behalf and the Lord graciously answers.  “If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you. Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, declares the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭42:10-12‬) What an amazing promise! Even now, after all their sin and rebellion, God is willing to forgive and show mercy and establish them in the Promised Land. Even now, God is willing to bless them and help them and come to their aid. Yes, it will require a step of faith. It will require them to be humble. Submit to Nebuchadnezzar once again. It will require faith as they wait to see how the Babylonians will respond. But if they will do these things, God will be with them. 

Sadly, their fear gets the best of them.  “Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, "You are telling a lie. The Lord our God did not send you to say, 'Do not go to Egypt to live there,' but Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon." (Jeremiah‬ ‭43:2-3‬) They flee to Egypt. Back to the place where they were once enslaved. They begin to worship Egyptian gods. They leave the land of promise for a foreign land to serve foreign masters hoping they will protect them and keep them safe. 

We walk by faith and not by sight. It’s not easy. It often seems illogical to our human minds. Azariah and Johanan were doing what made sense. It makes sense to run for cover when you are afraid. It makes sense to run to Egypt, the world’s only other superpower, to escape the wrath of the Babylonians. It makes sense to flee when you’ve just been conquered. Seen your way of life destroyed. All that you hold dear carried off to a foreign land. Watched the local governor that empire left behind to rule get murdered. It is natural to be afraid in such situations. But it is PRECISELY in these moments. When things are at their darkest and most bleak that we turn to God in faith.  

Many churches I’ve worked with over the years simply have not been able to make this turn. They keep trying to handle things on their own. They keep turning to their own wisdom. They keep trying to operate according to their own strength. They falsely believe if they can just get another pastor. If they can just get rid of a certain leader. If they can just hit on the right program. Or attract the right kind of people then they will find success. They turn to business principles. They talk vision and values and policies and procedures. They try so hard and all the while God is in heaven reaching out to them. Calling them to slow down. Simplify. Sit with Him in prayer. Rebuild trust by spending time together in the Word and just sharing life. 

Thankfully, I’ve seen some wonderful successes along the way as well. Churches who finally come to the end of themselves and are ready to submit to God. Ready to walk by faith not by sight. Ready to look past the attendance and budget and building issues and community reputation and let God restore them. They are ready to put aside all the talk about vision and values and leadership and let the Spirit show them the way. They are ready to stop looking to organizational solutions for spiritual problems and instead rely on God. It’s a beautiful thing to watch as God builds them back up. Replants the fields and brings in a harvest. Friends, if we trust God, He will come through! 

Blind but now I See

Readings for the day: 2 Kings 24-25, 2 Chronicles 36:1-21, Jeremiah 52

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see. 

Those words ran through my head this morning as we read about the final days of the Kingdom of Judah and the end of Zedekiah. It’s a pretty gory picture. The King of Babylon captures him as he tries to escape. Makes him watch while he slaughters his sons and then puts out his eyes. It’s that last detail that I found myself pondering. Why does it appear so many times in these readings? Jeremiah mentions it twice in chapters 39 and 52. The historians mention it as well in 2 Kings 25. Perhaps it’s just a painful reminder of how utterly broken Zedekiah had become before the judgment of the Lord. 

As I pondered this little detail, I began to wonder if there wasn’t something more symbolic at work as well. After all, Zedekiah had been spiritually blind for years. He reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem but did evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not honor God. He did not walk in God’s ways or according to God’s commands. He disdained the Word of the Lord and rejected the worship of the Lord. So perhaps his physical blindness is simply the logical consequence for his spiritual blindness and that’s why it’s mentioned so many times. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it...:-) 

I remember my own spiritual blindness. I was raised in the church. My parents were faithful to take me to worship every Sunday. I sang in the choir. I hung out at youth group. By all outward appearances, I was incredibly engaged. However, my heart was hard. Selfish. Locked in sin. I was blinded by my own desires. My own fears. My own doubts. I could not see God. Could not hear God. Did not want to follow God. This was all exposed my freshman year of college. Once outside of the protective rhythms and accountability my parents set, I floundered. I was lost. I wandered aimlessly. I drank heavily. Skipped class. Avoided God. When confronted, I blamed others. I blamed my professors. I blamed my friends. I was so blind I could not see the wretch I’d become.  

That’s when I met Jesus. He confronted me on a sidewalk right outside the UMC up on the campus of the University of Colorado. He opened my eyes and it was like I was seeing the world for the very first time. The light was blinding. The exposure painful. All my sins were laid bare before Him. There was no escape. I was overwhelmed by sorrow. Overwhelmed by grief. Overwhelmed by the depth of my sin. The road back to health was not easy. It was one tentative step after another. It required facing the consequences of my actions. The brokenness of my relationships. The anxiety of my failures. But Jesus was faithful. He was the light for my feet. The lamp for my path. Because my eyes had been opened, I could actually see the way He laid out for me.  

I have no idea where you find yourself this morning. If you are blind or if you can see. Perhaps you are like Zedekiah or like I was prior to receiving Christ. Groping in the dark. Stumbling around in the shadows. Blinded by your desires. Fears. Doubts. Failures. I pray you come to Jesus! The One who specializes in restoring sight to the blind! Let Him open your eyes! Let Him show you His glory! 

Disappointed with God

Readings for the day: Jeremiah 38-40, Psalms 74, 79

Have you ever been disappointed with God? Ever feel like He let you down? Ever wonder how His plans for you could be good when so many bad things are taking place? I imagine that’s how King Zedekiah felt in today’s reading. He hoped against all hope for an 11th hour rescue. He simply could not believe God would abandon His people. Abandon His city. Abandon His Temple. He fundamentally could not bring himself to believe things had gotten that bad. He knew his history. He could look back and tell you story after story about God relenting from disaster as the last possible moment. But then he watches in horror as the Babylonians storm a breach in the wall. He tries to escape only to be captured and endure unbelievable heartache as his sons are executed in front of him. It is the last thing he will ever see as his eyes are the next things to go. He is then shackled in chains and carried off to exile. It’s a tragic ending to a tragic story.  

But we’ve seen this before, have we not? After Adam’s all, God raises up Seth only to watch as humanity descends into chaos. He raises up Noah and rescues him from the flood only to watch Noah’s descendants rebel and build a tower to the heavens. He scatters them and then raises up Abraham only to watch his descendants end up in slavery in Egypt. God raises up Moses and delivers them from bondage. Brings them to a land flowing with milk and honey only to watch them forget Him and do what is right in their own eyes. So he raises up David. The man after God’s own heart and sets him on the throne. But now David’s descendants have followed the same path and ended up in the same place as those who’ve come before. In each case, I am confident the people of God believed God would never leave them or forsake them. I am confident they believed God would remain steadfast, loyal, and true. And I imagine they were incredibly disappointed when judgment came.  

The reality is our disappointment with God is often grounded in entitlement. We make the mistake of taking God’s grace for granted. We treat His commandments with disdain. We presume on the unconditional nature of His love. We fail to acknowledge the seriousness of our sin and refuse to take responsibilty for the selfish choices we make. Bonhoeffer called this “cheap grace.” Grace without cost. Love without sacrifice. Relationship without rules. Unfettered freedom which isn’t really freedom at all. This is what Zedekiah believed that led to his destruction. This is what Israel believed that led to their destruction. And this is what far too many of us believe if we’re honest.   

Friends, we cannot blame God for the consequences of our sinful choices. We cannot blame God for our rebellion. He has warned us over and over again what will happen should we choose to reject His ways. We cannot claim to love God and not follow His commands. The two always go together. Yes, we are saved by grace. Yes, Jesus loves us with an everlasting, unconditional love. Yes, God’s forgiveness is always within reach. But only for those who repent. Only for those who confess. Only for those who acknowledge their sin and who actively seek to turn from their self-centered ways. This is the truth of the gospel! Grace and demand hang together. Only those who believe obey and only those who obey believe. Or as the old hymn puts it, “Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus.”

Rejecting the Word of God

Readings for the day: Jeremiah 33-37

God’s grace is truly amazing. No matter how bad things get. No matter how far we fall. No matter how fast we run. God is always quick to forgive. Quick to relent of the judgment our sin rightfully deserves. Jehoiakim is another in a long line of evil kings. Kings who reject the will of God. Kings who worship idols. Kings who seek their own glory and power instead of humbly serving God. Judgment is coming. Jeremiah has been sent to proclaim the impending doom. The sins of Israel are many and have piled up over the years, creating a mess God intends to use Babylon to clean up. It’s going to be ugly. It’s going to be tragic. It’s going to be painful. Many will suffer. Many will die. All they hold dear will be destroyed as God’s justice rolls down on the earth. 

But even now at the eleventh hour, there is hope. God’s mercy makes one last appearance. God commands Jeremiah to speak a word of grace to the nation. To speak words of life instead of death. He gives them one last chance to repent and turn from their wicked ways. “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin." (Jeremiah‬ ‭36:2-3‬) Jeremiah obeys. He writes everything down on a scroll and gives it to his servant, Baruch, to proclaim. Baruch goes to the Lord’s House and reads it in the presence of all who’ve gathered. Officials from the king’s household hear the news and they ask Baruch to come and read the scroll to them. Eventually, the scroll makes it’s way into the king’s presence for one final hearing. The tension builds. How will the king respond? Will he repent? Will he turn back to the Lord? Will he humble himself and bow the knee? Sadly, the answer is no. He takes out a knife and cuts the scroll to pieces as each line is read and then proceeds to burn it in his fire pit. His rejection of the Word of God is complete and final. So is his doom.

One cannot so easily dispose of God’s Word. It has a power all its own. Coming from the Holy Spirit, it is eternal. Unquenchable. Inflammable. Unbreakable. The grass may wither and the flower may fade but the Word of God endures forever.  (Isaiah 40:8) So again the Word comes to Jeremiah. Only this time, judgment has replaced grace. Justice has replaced mercy. God’s wrath is about to be fully unveiled. “Thus says the Lord, You have burned this scroll, saying, "Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cut off from it man and beast?" Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night. And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the people of Judah all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, but they would not hear.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭36:29-31‬)

It is a serious matter to reject the Word of God. To disobey His commands. Whether by ignorance or by deliberate defiance, we rebel against God to our own peril. God takes our sin seriously. Far more seriously than we know. He is so holy. So righteous. So just. His nose cannot bear the stench of sin. His eyes will not behold the stain of sin. His presence will not endure even the appearance of sin. It must be dealt with. It must be done away with. A price must be paid. A sacrifice offered. It will either be us or it will be Christ. Either you receive Christ as your perfect sacrifice. Receive Christ as your perfect substitute. Receive Christ’s atoning death on your behalf or you will bear the punishment yourself. You will receive all the judgment and righteous anger of God. It will be eternal and unending because the depth of your sin and rebellion is eternal and unending. 

I know this sounds harsh. I know this doesn’t feel good. What about God’s love? It is there! In Christ! One cannot separate Christ from the love of God for Christ Himself is the love of God!  “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John‬ ‭4:10‬) God has provided a way for you to escape the coming judgment just as He provided a way for Jehoiakim to escape his coming judgment! Repentance! Faith! Accepting the perfect sacrifice God Himself has offered on your behalf! Do not reject the Word of God, friends! Receive Christ and live!

For I Know the Plans I Have for You...

Readings for the day: Jeremiah 29-32

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭29:11‬)

If only I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard this verse quoted at a graduation, wedding, seen it on a t-shirt or coffee mug. It has become cliche. A platitude we like to use to support the fulfillment of our dreams and desires. It’s why proof-texting is a dangerous business. 

Jeremiah 29:11 is a verse embedded in a story. A tragic story. The story of Israel’s exile. They have lost their home. They have been forcibly removed. (Think Trail of Tears or something like it...) Their leaders have been tortured and put to death. All of their cultural icons - including the Temple of God itself - have been raised to the ground. In short, their collective identity as the people of God has suffered a massive hit, leaving behind an emotional and spiritual crater that will not be easily filled. Especially not as they rebuild in a foreign land. 

Think about the collective shock we all felt on 9/11 when the planes hit both towers and the Pentagon. Think about the grief we all felt. The rage. The anger. Now multiply that many times over. Imagine terrorists taking over our country. Capturing our leaders. Torturing them on national television and executing them. Imagine them systematically destroying every monument we’ve ever built. Washington. Lincoln. Jefferson memorials all destroyed. Arlington. Mount Vernon. Monticello. All burned to the ground. Imagine them trying to erase “America” from the face of the earth. This is what the Israelites experienced and as they begin to settle into captivity. Into slavery. Into their new lives as strangers and foreigners in a new land and then they receive this letter from Jeremiah. 

• “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭29:5-6‬) In essence, live your lives. Do what you’ve always done. Don’t spend your days looking back at where you’ve been but forward to the future. 
• “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭29:7‬) Pray for your enemies. For those who destroyed your way of life. For those who killed your loved ones. Conquered your land. Burned your cities. Destroyed your nation. And don’t just pray. Actively seek to bless them. Bless their city. Bless their communities. Be salt and light in this new place. 
• “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭29:10‬) Settle in for the long haul. This is not going to quick or easy. You will be in exile for generations. Your children and children’s children will be born here. You may actually never return home yourselves. 

It is only AFTER all these difficult things have been said that Jeremiah pens the words we love to quote so much, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭29:11-14) 

Friends, the hard truth we don’t like to think about very much is that God’s plans for us often include exile. Suffering. Hardship. Pain. God uses things as tools to knock off the rough edges of our lives. To refine out all the impurity. To strain out all the sin. His “good” plans for us that give us a future and a hope include taking us through the fire so that we can be made pure and holy as He is pure and holy. Seeking God with all our hearts means trusting Him with the direction of our lives...even when that direction doesn’t appear to be comfortable or safe. It means letting Him lead and guide us into dark valleys where all we have is His presence. It means trusting the Good Shepherd to eventually find us green pastures and still waters though the journey may be long and arduous to get from here to there. This is what Jeremiah is trying to communicate to his people as they start their heartbreaking, gut-wrenching exile in Babylon. God is with them. He has not forgotten them. He will eventually redeem them. This is their hope! This is their future! And though they themselves may not actually get there, they can trust God will bring their descendants home.   

False Prophets

Readings for the day: Jeremiah 25-28

My heart is heavy today. Yesterday the news broke of a systematic coverup in the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. Over 300 priests abused more than 1,000 child victims over a span of 70 years. This news came on the heels of new allegations against what many consider to be the flagship church of evangelicalism. Bill Hybels, their founder and former senior pastor, has been accused by several women of inappropriate sexual advances, harassment, and abuse. The most damning allegations coming from his former executive assistant. Sadly, the church leadership refused to heed the cries of the victims and closed ranks around their leader, refusing to allow an independent investigation. This past week, both of Hybel’s successors as well as the entire elder board of the church resigned in disgrace. Frankly, it all makes me want to vomit.  

I wish I could say such incidents are rare but they are not. There are far too many false prophets running around these days. They masquerade as end times prophets, health and wealth preachers, and sexual predators who prey on their congregations. They are cult leaders. Religious charlatans. People who claim to speak for God but in reality are purveyors of hate. They defend the indefensible. They justify their abuses. They claim special anointing and protections from the Lord himself. And they lead many astray with their lies. Unfortunately, the religious life seems to attract such shady characters. Men - and it is almost exclusively men - whose character is utterly corrupt and who see the church as an easy mark. A soft target because of the grace she proclaims. 

Sadly, it seems like such has always been the case. Throughout the book of Jeremiah, we have encountered many a false prophet. People claiming to speak for the Lord who are, in reality, seeking to hold onto their power. The man we meet in today’s reading - Hananiah - is simply the latest in a long line of court prophets who seek to advance their position by flattering the king. Hananiah’s message to Zedekiah is that he will defeat the Babylonians. God will break the yoke from their necks and set them free. It is clear pandering to maintain political privilege and power and it bears a striking resemblance to the many pastors of our day who sell out the gospel for a place at the political table. Both progressives and conservatives are guilty. Think Al Sharpton and Robert Jeffress and many others we could name. These are the kind of men of whom God speaks when He says, “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭23:21‬) 

Friends, God will not be mocked. When Hananiah falsely prophesied a great victory over Babylon, Jeremiah foretold his doom. “And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, "Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.'" In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭28:15-17‬) Over the course of my short life, I have seen this pattern repeated over and over again. Those who speak falsely in the Lord’s name are eventually exposed for the religious hucksters they have become. They fall into disgrace and the examples are legion. God will not allow His name to be spoken in vain. God will not be manipulated for our purposes or bent to our will. He will not share His glory with another and woe to any man or woman who declares falsely a Word from the Lord! Woe to any man or woman who calls evil “good” and good “evil!” Woe to any man or woman who would subvert the Word of God and twist it to serve some other purpose! God is watching! He sits on His throne even now! He will expose what is done in secret! He will bring to light the sinful agendas of every human heart! Nothing is hidden from His sight!

At War with God

Readings for today: Jeremiah 21-24

Today’s reading makes me so thankful for Jesus. Jesus died in my place. He took the full wrath and fury my sin had earned on Himself. He endured the suffering. The pain. The horrors of hell that I may live. Without Christ, I would be lost. Rightfully condemned. At the mercy of God’s judgment. Just like the people of Israel. 

 “I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭21:5) These might be some of the scariest words in all the Bible. Can you imagine what it must be like to be at war with God? To be in complete rebellion against your Creator? Not just ignoring His will but consciously, intentionally, even eagerly seeking to disobey? The sons of Josiah knew full well what they were doing. The priests and prophets of Jeremiah’s time were fully aware of their actions. The people of God who lived in the cities and villages were not ignorant of the commandments of God. They simply chose to ignore them. They simply chose to reject them. And the consequences of their actions are devastating. 

Israel will go into exile in Babylon. They will lose their land. They will lose their homes. Their Temple will be raised to the ground. Their glory pounded into dust. Even worse, their God was now fighting on the side of the Chaldeans! No longer their Protector. No longer their Warrior. He was for them is now against them. Who can resist His might?  “I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls...I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence...I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭21:4, 6-7‬) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a Holy God!

And yet, even amidst this national catastrophe, Jeremiah sounds a note of hope. There will come a day when the sins of Israel have been paid and the Lord will visit His people once more. “I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The Lord is our righteousness.'” (Jeremiah‬ ‭23:3-6‬) As is so often the case in the prophetic literature of the Old Testament; it is always darkest before the dawn. The promise of a Messiah rises out of the ashes of their sin like a phoenix spreading it’s wings. David will not be abandoned. A righteous Branch shall come from his line. A king who will reign with justice and righteousness and wisdom. One who will restore the fortunes of God’s people. One who will defeat their great enemy once and for all so they may finally dwell secure. He will even have a name...יְהוָ֥ה צִדְקֵֽנוּ...“The Lord is our righteousness.” 

Jesus is our righteousness, friends. God made Him who knew no sin to actually become sin on our behalf. To bear the full weight of the world’s sin. Past. Present. Future. He took all my sin. All my brokenness. All my fears. He took all my rebellion. All my rejection. All my disdain. He took all my selfishness. All my greed. All my lusts. And He nailed them to the cross. By His wounds, I am healed. By His brokenness, I am made whole. By His chains, I am set free. By His death, I am given new life. 

The reality is my flesh is at war with God. The desires of my heart are bent towards evil. My thoughts and attitudes and actions are corrupt. And God is at war with me. His Spirit waging a battle for my heart. He has invaded my life. Invaded the innermost depths of my being in order to cleanse me. Purify me. Refine me. He is a consuming fire. He will not rest until my life reflects His glory. And the more I surrender. The more I submit. The more I cooperate with the work of the Spirit, the more I will experience the freedom Christ promises. This is no easy task. The flesh and its desires must be crucified. Put to death. There can be no safe harbor for them in our souls. We must allow the Spirit to “save to the uttermost.” We must open ourselves up fully and completely to His work. Only then will we be truly set free.  

Follow your Heart?

Readings for the day: Jeremiah 17-20

”Just follow your heart.” It makes for a great Disney tune but it’s not a great philosophy for life. Unfortunately, our culture promotes this lie relentlessly. Everyone from Silicon Valley icons like Steve Jobs to Hollywood entertainers like Rihanna to academic luminaries/political activists like Robert Kennedy Jr. to sports stars like Mia Hamm all share the same advice. “Follow your heart.” “Trust your gut.” “Believe in yourself.” “Do what your heart tells you and your mind will follow.” It sounds really good, doesn’t it? Almost biblical. It taps into our innermost longings. It affirms our secret desires. It seems like the only path to true happiness and joy. 

Sadly, the opposite seems to be true. Steve Jobs followed his heart and became an international celebrity and Silicon Valley legend but lost his family in the process. Rihanna followed her heart and became an international pop star/businesswoman but suffered tremendously in an abusive relationship with fellow singer Chris Brown. Robert Kennedy Jr. followed his heart and found great success in law and academics but has been married three times along the way. Mia Hamm put US Women’s Soccer on the map but it also cost her a marriage along the way. None of these folks are necessarily bad people. (Well, maybe Steve Jobs...) They are human just like the rest of us. We all make mistakes. We are all prone to failure. Shoot, I could give you several examples from my own life as well where “following my heart” has led me into a ditch.

Why? Because “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah‬ ‭17:9‬) These ancient words still ring true today. We simply cannot trust our hearts. We cannot trust our feelings. We cannot trust our emotions. They change with the wind. They are influenced far too easily. The endorphin rush they create overrides our rationality. Eats away at our commitments. We find ourselves doing the very things we hate and not doing the things we love. We find ourselves wrapped up in all kinds of “wrong” when we know there’s a better, truer path to “right.” It’s craziness. Literal insanity to trust in an organ that is so fickle and yet we seem to fall into this same trap over and over again. 

So what’s the answer? We must turn to the Lord. The One who made us and shaped us and formed us and fashioned us. The One who called us and claimed us as His own from eternity. The One who first established us and gave our lives purpose and meaning and showed us the way to true fulfillment. The One who would not abandon us in our sin but came to us. Suffered for us. Died for us. All to set us free so that we might live again.  "I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds." (Jeremiah‬ ‭17:10‬) 

Here is the fundamental question we have to answer on a daily, even hourly basis. Do we trust the One who created us and loved us? Or do we trust ourselves? Do we trust in the One whose love is always steadfast, loyal and true? Or do we trust our fickle, human hearts? Do we trust the One who never makes mistakes? Never falls down on the job? Never fails to deliver on His promises? Or do we trust the guy or gal in the mirror with the incredible spotty track record? The great news of the gospel is that we have a Good Father in heaven who delights in giving good gifts to His children. We have a gracious Savior who gave His own life to deliver us from slavery to sin. We have the Holy Spirit living inside us who promises to guide and direct and show us the way to true joy and everlasting peace.  

Follow your heart? I’d rather follow the Lord.