Making A Way Through The Troubles

Isaiah 43:16-21

Have you ever worked a maze puzzle?  There is a starting point, and the goal is to make it to the end point.  There are many dead ends, paths that are blocked, and paths that lead to nowhere.  If you’ve ever walked a maze, such as a cornfield maze that many farms make in the autumn, they can be fun, but also frustrating when you go down a dead end path, and your way is constantly being blocked.  Life is often like that, when your way is being blocked with problems and broken or failed dreams and desires. Sometimes the problems are quite serious, and unless you can find some way out, the end result will be disastrous.  If only a way would open up for us to find the way through!  In our Scripture for today from the prophet Isaiah, the Lord gives a promise to His children, that when we turn to Him, He will make a way.  Let’s look at this Scripture.

In this Scripture passage from the prophet Isaiah, he presents to us several different scenarios where the people’s pathway through life has been blocked, or come across some danger, preventing them from getting through.  The first one is by a body of water from getting to the other side (vs. 16).  If in life, we have to make it to the other side of the “water” for our health, our safety, or just to survive, how are we going to get there?  We have run up against a block to our path, and there is no way through.

Next we read of the horse and chariot coming (vs. 17).  In the days of Isaiah the horse and chariot were the most dreaded military might there was.  To face an army of chariots and powerful horses was a terror, especially if your army had few or none, and at that time only a wealthy and powerful nation had them.

The third dreaded pathway Isaiah mentions is that of the wilderness and desert (vs. 19-20).  If someone is needing to get to a destination, they don’t want to have to pass through a wilderness or a desert.  Those places don’t have water, and can frequently have fearsome and dangerous animals.

However, what does the Lord tell Isaiah?  As the prophet relays His message to us, God promises His children that He will make a way for us through the waters.  We might be facing some terrible danger in our life, but God says that if we are trusting in Him, He will put down those “chariots and horses” that are coming against us.  Their power will be extinguished.  The Lord also promises those who are in a covenant relationship with Him that He will make a road for us through the wilderness, and bring rivers of water for us to drink from when we are fainting.

The path of our life often may be narrow and tough.  Our situation may be as hot and barren as a desert, or as forlorn and meaningless as a wasteland.  However, with Jesus in our life as Savior, He will make a way for us.  He promises to make a way in the wilderness.  God delights in blessing us with surprising moments of joy where He turns our path in life from despair to one of wonder (vs. 19), if only we will see them.

Another lesson that the Lord has for us here is that He does not want any of us to live in the past, either continually bemoaning our past sins, or crying over the past tragedies we have gone through (vs. 18).  With God’s forgiveness we can leave our past mistakes behind, and live for today and the future the Lord gives us.  With His healing, we can move on from the past tragedies and hurts we have gone through, and go on in the life He gives us now.  Forget what is past.  Don’t dwell on it.  All it does is tire and depress us.  We need to learn what lessons there are from past mistakes or past hurts, and then look for the new way the Lord is setting out for us.  Let go of the painful past to make way for what God has in store for you today.

Sometimes tragedies in a life can be so strong and deep, the pathway in life has struck such a dead end, that we would wonder how God could possibly bring good out of it.  But just like the seeds of some trees are only released in extreme heat, such as a forest fire, in like manner God can and does bring good and “new life” from tragedies.

God wants us to look and listen to what He is doing for us in Jesus Christ, our Savior.  If we are abiding close to Him in our life, He has promised that He will make a way for us through the water, through the desert, and put down any “chariots” that come at us.  We just need to trust in His promises!

The Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32 

Our Scripture reading to close out this fourth week of Lent is a very well-known parable from the Gospel of Luke, that of the Prodigal Son.  Most of us are familiar with this parable that Jesus told the crowds, and especially the Pharisees and scribes who continued to try and discredit Him with the people, and trap Him in His words.  Let’s take another look here, and see what new lessons the Lord could teach us.

In this parable that Jesus tells, we see a father and his two sons, who are probably young adults.  As the story begins, the younger son demands of his father his share of the inheritance.  He didn’t want to wait until his father died, he wanted it right then.  This disrespectful son was basically telling his father to hurry up and die because he wanted his money, and if he wasn’t going to die then for his son’s convenience, then to give him his money right then.  The son took his money and traveled far away, and began to live it up (vs. 11-13).  He probably bought expensive clothes, fine wines, a shiny new chariot, threw extravagant parties, etc.  The Greek word for “prodigal” means dissolute, and conveys the idea of an utterly debauched lifestyle.  This young man wasn’t just spending recklessly, he was wild and unrestrained.  He was decadent and depraved.

But that didn’t last forever.  A famine came and the economy crashed.  The son’s money quickly ran out and all of his sin-loving “friends” abandoned him.  He had nowhere to turn, and eventually ended up feeding pigs.  It got so bad for him, and he was so hungry, that he even envied the pigs for their slop (vs. 14-16).

This son symbolizes sinful, lost mankind, far away and estranged from God.  They live their lives any way they desire, with no thought of God or their condition at all.  This young man’s situation could not have been more desperate.  He symbolizes the sinner, estranged from God, and who is spiritually helpless and in despair.  After a while, this son came to his senses.  He recognized and admitted that he was a sinner, and that despite his shameful conduct, he needed to return to his father (vs. 17-19).

Now we turn to take a look at the father.  How had he felt when this son had basically told him he wished he was dead, and demanded his inheritance?  Some parents might have written this child off as dead to them, but as we read that is not what this father did.  He is a picture of God, eager to forgive, and desiring the returning sinner.  As verse 20 indicates, this father was always on the look-out for his son, hoping and praying for his return.  Periodically through the day he would scan the horizon for some sign of the boy, and one day his prayers were answered.  When he saw a figure in the distance that looked like his son, this father took off in a run to greet and welcome the boy home.  Despite the stench of the pigpen his boy had been living in, this father took him into his arms in a loving, forgiving embrace.

The Lord God is not indifferent or hostile to us in our sinful condition, like the false pagan gods are portrayed as.  He is the Savior, longing to see sinners repent, and return to Him, even more than this father did.  Jesus rejoices each time a sinner is saved (Luke 15:7, 10).  God’s love is constant, patient, and welcoming.  He will search for us, just as a shepherd does for the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7).  God will give us opportunities to respond to His love and forgiveness, but He will not force us to come to Him.

Finally, we see the other son, the one who did not run off with his share of the inheritance, but remained at home, working for the father.  When he heard that his brother had returned, and that the father welcomed him back with love, giving him his status as son again, along with new clothes and a banquet, he became angry and resentful (vs. 25-28).  This son is representative of self-righteous people who are indifferent and even hostile to repenting sinners.  Many of these types of people say they want to see sinners get saved, but they certainly don’t want them to come into their church.  They avoid them and won’t welcome them, for fear that the “stench of their sins” might come near them.

The father was not happy with this son’s attitude as he came out to plead with him to come in and rejoice (vs. 28-32), and neither is God happy when He sees a self-righteous attitude in us.  Do we resent God’s gracious forgiveness of others whom we consider to be “far worse sinners” than ourselves?   That would be acting like the Pharisees, for whom this parable was primarily directed.  Don’t be self-righteous, but rather, rejoice when others, no matter their background, come to Jesus.  If you are far away from God, living in the slop and sin of the world like the prodigal son, God is there longing and waiting for you to return.  Do not hesitate one more day.  Return to the Lord, as His loving arms are waiting to welcome you home.

A New Creature With A New Feature

II Corinthians 5:17-21

The man had the same name, and looked exactly the same as he did a few years earlier when some of his casual friends and acquaintances had last seen him.  Now there was something different about him.  It was like he was a new person.  In a very real sense, he was a new person, since accepting the Lord Jesus as his Savior.  This is something that the Apostle Paul explains in our Scripture passage today in his letter to the Corinthian believers.  Let’s take a look at what the Lord is telling us in His Word.

How can someone change from being a real rascal or even worse, into a good and godly man or woman?  This is more than just making a New Year’s resolution to be a better person, as we all know how long those resolutions last.  Paul opens our passage today by telling us that when we come to Christ, accepting Him as our Savior, we become a new creation (vs. 17).  As we read throughout the New Testament, Scripture teaches us that before we were saved we were children of darkness, children of the devil.  When we become saved, though, we are now a new creation.  We are now sons and daughters of God, children of the Light (Ephesians 5:8; I Thessalonians 5:4-5).

The new birth is a fresh beginning.  Our sins are forgiven.  We receive the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, and lives Christ’s life through us.  We have a new spirit and a new nature.  Christians are brand new people on the inside (vs. 17).  The Holy Spirit gives them new life, and they are not the same anymore.  Because of that, our desires and goals should be conformed to those God has for us.

Though we become a new creature, there is no automatic delete button to get rid of all of our old bad habits and behavior.  Depending on how long we had lived in sinful behavior, those habits and actions may have a stronghold on us.  We need to replace those habits with new and godly ones, renewing our minds with God’s truth (Romans 12:1-2).  After a person is saved, and the more they cling to and abide in Jesus (John 15:4-8), the more old value systems, priorities, beliefs, and loves are gone, and they are replaced with things of God’s Spirit.  Evil and sin are still present, but should no longer control them.

A good example of this in the Bible was with many of the believers in the city of Ephesus.  When they were saved, they turned dramatically from idol worship, the occult, and other pagan practices.  This change was so striking and complete that the local idol makers and occult stores noticeably lost business.  Because of such a large drop in their revenue, these pagans started a riot because so many were turning to Jesus and giving up their old practices (Acts 19:17-41).

In addition to becoming a new person in the Lord Jesus, when we are saved we are reconciled to God and made righteous (vs. 18-19)  We are no longer God’s enemies, strangers, or foreigners.  Paul continues, telling us that our trespasses or sins are no longer imputed to us.  That means that they have been forgiven, no longer held to our account.  Instead, God has imputed, or charged our sins on to the account of Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God.  Jesus took our sin upon Himself, even though He was sinless.  God then imputes, or charges the righteousness of Jesus on to our account (vs. 21).  We do not have to bear the penalty of our sins.  Instead, we receive His righteousness.  Our sin was poured onto Jesus at His crucifixion.  His righteousness is poured into us when we accept Him as our Savior.  The sinner is declared righteous, based on the merits of Jesus.

Because of this, we have the privilege to bring this message to others (vs. 20).  The message we bring from the Bible is the message of God.  We are Jesus Christ’s ambassadors, sent with His message of reconciliation to the world.  We have the job of telling others what God did through Jesus, making it possible for everyone who has faith in Him to have eternal life.  Let’s spread that message to others today! 

When The Crisis Comes

Psalm 34

Sometimes we find ourselves in a sticky situation.  Occasionally it is our own mistakes or sins that bring us into those circumstances.  At other times they are situations that the devil throws at us to trip us up and trap us.  Sometimes these circumstances can be very serious and even threatening to our safety or life.  Our psalm for this week was written right after such an event in the life of David.  Let’s look into this Scripture and what the Lord can teach us here.

As mentioned, this psalm was written by David.  We know that several years in his early adulthood were spent on the run from the murderous plots of King Saul against him.  At one time he thought he could find safety hiding in a place no one would expect, that being in the court of one of the Philistine kings, King Achish (I Samuel 21:10-15).  However, Achish’s noblemen and courtiers whispered suspicions to him that David couldn’t be trusted because he had frequently fought against the Philistines.  When David found out, he knew he was in imminent danger.  He quickly decided to act like a madman by crawling on the ground, scratching at doors, and drooling.  By doing that they just kicked him out of the city, and his life was spared.  David knew that this deliverance was from the Lord, not just his own ingenuity, and he penned this psalm in praise of Him.

We all find ourselves in various degrees of problems, most perhaps not so serious as that, but there are some of you who may be in a really desperate spot.  How can we find such help?  The answer for David and for us is by turning to the Lord God.  God promises great blessings to His people.  Many of these blessings, though, require our active participation.  God promises here to deliver us from fear (vs. 4), save us out of our troubles (vs. 6), guard and deliver us (vs. 7), show us goodness (vs. 8), supply our needs (vs. 9), listen to us (vs. 15), and redeem us (vs. 22).

However, in order to receive God’s blessings we must seek Him (vs. 4, 10), cry out to Him (vs. 6, 17), trust Him (vs. 8), fear Him (vs. 7, 9), refrain from lying (vs. 13), turn from evil, do good, and seek peace (vs. 14), and serve Him (vs. 22).  David said that these qualities and behaviors are found in those who fear the Lord.  Reverence is more than just sitting quietly in church.  It includes obeying God.

David tied respect for the Lord with the way we use our words (vs. 12-13).  We need to keep our tongues from evil, and our lips from telling lies.  In Psalm 39:1 David even suggests that sometimes we ought to put a muzzle on our mouth to keep our tongue from sin!  Our words have the power to build up or to tear down.

Our Father in heaven is all-wise and all-loving.  When fears start to overwhelm us, we need to stop and remember that He is our God, and He will always hold us up.  When we believe that God is good, we can release our fears.  When we are afraid of the problems, and even the danger that surrounds us, it is good to remember the occasions in the past when God has heard and answered our prayers, and delivered us from our fears (vs 4).

As we read verses 9 and 10, this is not a blanket promise that we will have everything we want.  This is a praise for God’s goodness.  All those who call upon God in their need will be answered, sometimes in unexpected ways.  God knows what we need.  To have a relationship with Jesus is to have all that we really need.  When we have a desire, we need to ask if that is really a need, whether it is really good for us, and if it is the best time for it.

When we are feeling the farthest away from God, He is actually the closest to us.  In times of trouble, no one is closer than Jesus Christ.  He did not abandon David when he was hiding among the Philistines, nor will He abandon us in our times of crisis.  God has promised to save us, even in our darkest time.  We can praise Him that we are His people and He is our Deliverer.

When a crisis comes, and we can be sure that they will come at some point in our life, we should cry out to God.  But we must be sure to do so with righteous hearts.  Then He will hear and answer, either fulfilling our hoped-for request, or providing a different solution.  Because God is omniscient, loving, and sovereign, we can fully trust that He will answer us in our best interests.

Actions And Consequences

Joshua 7 

Sometimes what seems like such a small and seemingly insignificant event in reality is very important, and its consequences can be far-reaching, affecting many lives and situations.  Very often when someone thinks that what they do won’t matter or make any difference, they are sadly mistaken.  In our Scripture today from the Book of Joshua, we will read how the wrongful actions of one man brought devastating consequences, not just for himself and his family, but also for the whole nation.

In the previous chapters of the Book of Joshua, we read of the great defeat of the city of Jericho at the hands of the Israelites.  Prior to the conquest of Jericho, God had given the people a very specific command.  They were not to take any of the treasures from the city for themselves, as God had declared them cursed (Joshua 6:17-19).  What things of value in Jericho were to be given to the Lord.  That would be like a symbolic first-fruits offering, giving to God the treasures of the first city conquered in the Promised Land.  After that, all treasures from subsequent conquered cities could be theirs.

As our passage opens in chapter 7, Joshua sent a few men to spy out the next city to conquer, which was Ai, just to the east of Bethel.  They came back with the report that Ai was smaller, and would not need the whole army to conquer it.  However, the smaller army of the Israelites were whipped, and had to flee in defeat, with 36 soldiers being killed (vs. 2-5).

What went wrong?  God had instructed the people to enter the Promised Land and take possession of it, promising them victory over the pagan nations.  Now, right at the start, they were fleeing in defeat.  Joshua was puzzled and he fell on his face, tearing his clothes, and praying to God for answers (vs. 6-9).  God quickly responded, telling him that the nation had sinned, disobeying His commands.  He told Joshua to find the sin and root it out from among the people (vs. 10-15).  Through prayer, it was revealed to Joshua that the man who sinned, who brought defeat upon the people, was Achan (vs. 16-23).

Achan had disobeyed God’s explicit command, as he took some silver, some gold, and an elegant garment in Jericho.  He was indifferent to the evil and idolatry of the city of Jericho.  He underestimated God, and didn’t take His commands seriously.  There were four steps in the progress of Achan’s sin.  First he saw the items.  Then he coveted them.  He desired to possess them despite God’s command.  Then he took them, in direct disobedience to God.  Finally he concealed them, thinking no one would know and it would be undetected.  Achan was wrong.  This was also the same path David took when he sinned with Bathsheba, and the path of many of our sins.

No sin is insignificant.  Because of Achan’s sin, men died, men who had nothing to do with him.  The army and people were now filled with fear.  Joshua was questioning God.  The effects of his sin was felt by the entire nation.  Our actions affect more people than just ourselves.  Our sin has consequences.  God cannot allow sin to go unchecked.  He is not content with our doing what is right some of the time.  He wants us to do what is right all of the time.

Because of Achan’s sin, God had threatened to withdraw His presence (vs. 12), so Achan and his family had to be destroyed.  Some might read this and recoil, thinking God was being too harsh.  However it was not God who was being harsh.  It was Satan and sin that was harsh.  Satan steals, kills, and destroys (John 10:10).  God had plainly and clearly given instructions not to take anything from Jericho.  To disobey this was to do so in the face of God, with defiance and arrogance.  God’s holiness is not to be trifled with!

It is most likely that Achan’s family knew what he had done, yet they did nothing to stop him, to get him to give it up, or to report the grave sin.  At this time the Israelites lived in one room tents.  They all would have seen him bury it, yet they kept silent.  They were accomplices with this sin.  Many people died because of Achan and his family, so now they would die.

In reading the account in this Scripture we need to see that victories that should be ours can quickly turn to defeats if we disobey God’s instructions.  It is time to get the sin out that is hidden in our tents.  God will not bless sin!

No Christian Karma

Luke 13:1-9

Every once in a while when a tragedy occurs we hear someone say that this came upon the victims because they were getting judgment for their sins or behavior.  Perhaps we have even been guilty of thoughts like that.  In our Scripture from Luke’s Gospel this week we read when the Lord Jesus addresses such thinking.  Let’s look at what He has to say, and what we need to learn from His message.

As our Scripture passage opens, some people have told Jesus about two incidents where a number of people had died (vs. 1-5).  One was when Pontius Pilate, (the Roman Governor of Judea under Emperor Tiberius Caesar from around 26 - 37 AD.), who had several Galileans killed for some unspecified infraction of their laws.  The other was when 18 people were killed in Jerusalem when the tower of Siloam fell, crushing them to death.  It was a common belief among Jewish people back then, and among some people even today, that when something bad happened to someone, whether resulting in death, injury, or illness, that it was because they were sinners.  They believed God was judging them because they were terrible sinners.  They believed that if one was in good health, and never had any accidents, then God loved them and was blessing them.

Jesus was quick to correct these people in their thinking that those who were put to death by Pilate, and those who were victims of the tower falling were worse sinners than anyone else.  Disasters are a part of the brokenness of this world.  Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes happen, and people are frequently victims.  Auto accidents, airplane accidents, fires, and diseases happen, too.  They have since the fall of Adam, and it doesn’t necessarily mean the victims are worse sinners than those who are spared.  The victims of tragedies are not necessarily recipients of Divine judgment.  Whether a person dies in a tragic accident or miraculously survives is not a measure of righteousness.

Sometimes sin is clearly linked to a problem, such as when an alcoholic has an accident while drunk, or a promiscuous teen gets pregnant.  However, we should not judge people when there is no clear link.  A man will reap what he sows (Galatians 6:7-8), but God doesn’t promise that justice will always be here on earth (II Thessalonians 1:6-7), and He doesn’t promise a carefree life to the righteous (John 16:33).  There is no “Christian Karma”.  Don’t mix Christianity with Hinduism!

Jesus warned here, though, that this doesn’t mean the people who survive a disaster are without sin.  Jesus clearly warned that there is a coming day of judgment for everyone, and we need to be prepared for that day.  Instead of judging and blaming others, everyone should look to their own day of judgment.  Because we live in a dangerous world where tragedies occur without warning, we must always be ready to meet the Lord God (Hebrews 9:27).  All of us need the Savior, and need to be saved.

Jesus continued on by telling a parable about a barren fig tree (vs. 6-9).  The owner of the fruitless tree wanted to chop it down, but his gardener said to wait one more year.  The fig tree represents those who have brought forth no fruit at all for the Lord.  The parable shows the Lord’s forbearance, but also His eventual severity on those who continue to remain fruitless.

Outward appearances don’t necessarily indicate authentic faith.  The fig tree looked good from a distance, but had no fruit.  When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday the crowds cheered.  Yet just a few days later those same crowds were calling for His death.  Our faithfulness matters greatly to God, but only when it’s the genuine article, the Fruit of the Spirit, which is produced when we abide in Him.  Jesus warned His listeners that God would not tolerate forever a lack of productivity.  We need to begin to bear fruit for God’s Kingdom.

Let’s take heed of the warnings the Lord Jesus gives us here.  First, we should not be quick to judge others when some tragedy happens, whether it is God’s judgment or not.  It is not for us to judge.  Secondly, Jesus warns us to be looking to our own life and be ready, for judgment will come one day for each of us.  And lastly Jesus tells us we need to be bearing fruit for God in our life.

Learning From The Example Of Others

I Corinthians 10:1-13

There is a saying, believed to have been said by Winston Churchill, that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  If we don’t learn from our own mistakes or the mistakes of others, we are likely to repeat them.  This is why military leaders study the battles and military maneuvers from past wars.  Often sports coaches have their players watch and study recordings of previous games to learn from mistakes they made.  And parents try to guide their children so that they won’t make the same mistakes in life that they did.  In our Scripture today from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, he shared that one of the things that we are to learn from Biblical accounts is to not to make the same mistake that the people of the past did.

As our Scripture opens, Paul discusses the account of the people of Israel while they journeyed through the wilderness, enroute to the Promised Land.  As we read through the Old Testament books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy we see how the people repeatedly sinned against the Lord God as they worshiped false pagan gods, complained about their food and provisions, and rebelled against Moses and their leaders.  The Israelites misused their newly-achieved freedom, fell into idolatry, immorality, and rebelliousness, thus disqualifying themselves from receiving the Lord’s blessings.  Now Paul was warning the Corinthians that they needed to take a good look at this example, and not fall into the same sins that the Israelites did (vs. 6).

The Israelites died in the wilderness because of their failure for self-discipline, and indulgence of their every desire.  Four major sins characterized them:  idolatry, sexual immorality, testing God, and complaining.  There were several specific events that Paul brought up that we need to take notice of and learn from (vs. 7-10).  The first is when the people made the golden calf and worshiped it (Exodus 32:1-28).  The next is when they worshiped Baal of Peor, and then engaged in sexual immorality with Moabite women (Numbers 25:1-9).  The third was when they complained about the food that the Lord miraculously provided them with, and put God to the test (Numbers 21:5-6).  Lastly, Paul gives as an example when they complained against Moses and Aaron, and God judged them with a plague (Numbers 14:2, 36; 16:41-50).  In each case the people were tempted, and they failed by yielding to the temptations, and were thus judged.

There are several things we can learn about temptation here.  First, temptation deceives us.  It offers one thing, but delivers another.  The bait on the hook looks good, that is, until we take it.  Then, when we give in to temptation, it increases sinful desires.  We become tempted by more, and have the potential to give in again and again.  Christians are free to say no to temptation.  We don’t have to give in.  Lastly, our past doesn’t have to define our future.  Just because we failed doesn’t mean we have to again.

Paul warns those who are over-confident, and think that they would never fall into sin like the Israelites did, or like the people they love to point the finger at (vs. 12).  It is easy to look at someone else who has fallen into sin and think that this would never happen to us.  Yet it easily can!

Lastly, we come to verse 13, one that many people like to quote.  People often use this verse to refer to suffering and sorrow.  However, the context of this verse is temptation, not suffering.  God always provides a way for us to choose to follow, in order to get out from falling into temptation.  We don’t always have a way out of suffering that comes our way.  In those times, when suffering is great, we need to throw ourselves on God’s mercy, and He will hold us.

God will not allow us to be tempted to sin above our ability to withstand.  He will show us a way out as we run to Him.  Every day God shields us from the devastating onslaughts of Satan that would otherwise leave us defeated.  When temptation hits, He makes a way for us to escape.  We need to identify what lures us to sin, and then run from things and situations we know are wrong.  Wrong desires and temptations happen to everyone.  Others have resisted temptation, and so can we.  God will help us resist it.

When warnings are given, whether a coming tornado warning, or warnings of sharks in the water, we need to listen.  Those who ignore the warnings are likely to pay the consequences.  Paul tells us the Bible is filled with warnings to avoid the temptations that brought down people in the past.  Remember these lessons, so we can avoid repeating their errors.  There is a coming Day of Judgment.  God warns us, and we need to heed His Word!