Tag: God

Faith Like Jello

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Three Translations of Joshua 3:5

  • Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”, NIV 

  • Then Joshua told the people, “Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.”, NLT

  • Joshua told the people, ” Make yourselves acceptable  to worship the LORD, because he is going to do some amazing things for us.”, CEV

 

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The three translations of the same verse in Joshua each contributes a thought that adds to the whole.  Very often we need to make a comparison like this to speed our understanding.  There is a common theme of spiritual preparation.  Also anticipated is a direct intervention by God Himself.

Joshua is charged with not only the physical, but spiritual condition of the people.  He has sensed that God is going to amaze everyone, and He is on the verge of taking this mass of people through the river and into the Promised Land.  This will be the fulfillment of an awesome covenant promise.

Joshua has taken the initiative.  He declares the need of the people to prepare.  They are about to be led by God.  He builds anticipation for the grand things imminently approaching.  But the Israelites have got to prepare.  They must get ready.  Effort needs to be made. 

We have a strong tendency to see God’s promises apart from our efforts to prepare for them.  We think God saves us by grace.  But a faith that doesn’t work, cannot save.

“We are not made righteous by doing righteous deeds; but when we have been made righteous we do righteous deeds.” –Martin Luther

We cohabit with a Holy God who is like a strange roommate insists on sharing everything.  (Everything He does, in some way He does for us.)  “He picks up the tab” for everything!  Joshua, on the other hand, has 12 hours to get Israel ready.  The people must adjust.  He declares that everyone make themselves decent, to cleanse themselves from sin and give themselves to God.  Israel must do some things to get ready.

We must not enervate our faith to turn it into some religious jello— a blob with no backbone.  Our faith must work, and sweat.  If it doesn’t, we are in trouble.  I’m thrilled to be saved by grace through faith.  It is a precious marvel to me.  But I must remember that the grace that saves is a grace that works.  I don’t want my faith to be jello faith.  I want it to be a living faith.

“As in the candle I know there is both light and heat, but put out the candle, and they are both gone.”  Unknown

Blessings for a Blessed Person

Count your blessings everyday

Too often we forget the wonderful blessings that are already ours.  The most precious things are the intangibles.  A child’s hugs and a husband at peace are just a few we can count as ours.

 

“Surely you have granted him eternal blessings
       and made him glad with the joy of your presence.” 

Ps. 21:6

American Idols, the Next Season

 

“And though they worshiped the Lord, they continued to follow their own gods according to the religious customs of the nations from which they came.” 

2 Kings 17:33, NLT

 

Exclusive worship is not exactly the first choice of an outwardly religious people.  It can be offensive to the spiritual sensitivities of a people wanting an extra edge on blessing and favor.  We like to hedge our bets and cover our bases.  Worshipping Jehovah alone goes against all we feel and believe from a earthly viewpoint.

Idol worship is alive and well in America.  No longer restricted by carvings of stone or wood, we have ascended to worshipping concepts, or ideas.  For example, “materialism” used to be worshipped as a Golden Calf.  Today it is a god that is worshipped by many in a completely re-done format.  Go down to the Financial District of New York or San Francisco and you will see it laid out pretty obvious. Great effort and considerable activity is given to follow this idol.  Actually an idol is anything we love, find security in, look to instead of God.

Sex, power, music, art, politics, education, popularity and sports are open to people who want to worship.  The ritual of this kind of worship is easier and more prevelant then ever.  Christian believers are hardly immune.  People who fear God alone are rare.  We perpetuate attitudes and ideas that we pass on as our “values” to our children.  It is no wonder they rebel.  Often in their innocence they can see right through our hypocrisy.

We are specialists in spiritual syncretism.  It seems we have achieved a level of sophistication that idolatry and true worship have been blended to our tastes, and we swallow it all with minimal discomfort.  Heck, it even tastes good!  And it gives us so much in return (we think).

As we worship other things, we become enured to the truth.  We begin to actually prefer the taste of lies (as long as they are blended well).  Many times I have sampled other things, typically convenient and attractive.  Like a mineral vein in a mine shaft, it runs very deep and hidden.  It typically starts off small, and not hardly noticeable.  But it works its way through our minds and hearts.

When we first start worshipping an idol we have feelings of guilt and shame. Deep down we know it is not right (Isa. 45:16; Psalm 106:36) It is an universal truth that idols, in their mirage-like characteristics, lead us to spiritual poverty and confusion.  Since we become hardened by this false worship, we hardly notice.  When people (or books) speak truth to us, we will typically become angry and defensive.  We are pretty protective of our favorite idol.  Typically, if there is hostility, there you will find an idol.

Idolatry is running rampant through our culture.  It is not something we have “outgrown” as a civilization, rather we have “grown into it”. There now exists a sophistication to idol worship that the ancient Israelites lacked.  We have developed a blend that denies nothing and promises everything.  And any commitment to exclusive truth is regarded as fanaticism, hate and bigotry. 

“Little children, keep yourself from idols.”  1 John 5:21

Thy Kingdom Come

“Come and set up your kingdom, so that everyone on earth will obey you, as you are obeyed in heaven.” Matthew 6:10, CEV

 

The Lord’s Prayer is like a skyscraper that has an inner skeleton of steel, very solid and very strong.  Jesus wants to teach His disciples to pray–to pray intelligently.  He is eager for them to learn what He knows.  This prayer cuts through the grime of religious gobble-de-gook, and is intended to make disciples out of believers with its assertions of what is real.

There is a need for people to pray–really pray.  Jesus shares what is of ultimate importance; the need of people to bring down heaven to earth.  Heaven on earth!  Think of it.  The spiritual climate of heaven, brought to earth for men to enjoy.  It’s like when it’s 100 F. and you come into an air-conditioned building.  What a relief! This phrase of the Lord’s Prayer indicates our license to pray for outrageous things to happen in the culture we are steeped in.

So far, we have seen little that would lead us to believe that praying like this would affect our world.  But that would diminish and even trivialize Jesus and His teaching.  The problem must lie with us then, and we are the reason that it hasn’t happened.

Praying for obedience, praying for the will of God to come and take over.  Our Churches are not merely a spot for A.A. to have their meetings, or the Food Pantry on Mondays, or a Men’s Breakfast on Saturdays.  We are the place of God’s presence, the territory and throne of the omniscient and omnipotent One. 

So let us pray this prayer.  Let us invite heaven to earth.  Let us look for the obedience that is being perfectly done in heaven, to come to this planet as well.  It says in Isaiah– “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.”  Its an astonishing concept of an ever-expanding kingdom, always pushing its boundaries, never defeated.  Can we keep up?