Tag: sin

His Love, That Laments

 

 


The LORD’s kindness never fails! If he had not been merciful, we would have been destroyed. 23The LORD can always be trusted to show mercy each morning. 24Deep in my heart I say, “The LORD is all I need; I can depend on him!”

Lamentations 3:22-24, CEV

“I can depend on him!”  There is a deep and very significant commitment to a love that always energizes.  He is kind far beyond our human definition of kindness.  The verse in Lam. 3:22, says that “it never fails.”  It has an endurance and constancy that just isn’t diminished by our issues.  It is solid, and it won’t ever weaken on us.

We must wait, however, on mercy.  We need to beg for it, and cry aloud for it. On our knees, beseeching Him for it. “Mercy, give me your mercy, I will ask for nothing more, and nothing less.”  Lamentations as a book carries a lot of judgement.  Jeremiah seems to unload on unfaithfulness, idolatry and rebellion. Reading it, and thinking about it gives no comfort to our wounded hearts.

Not that it is a difficult book for us, rather we must understand His judgement on our sin to be tempered by a wonderful mercy.  Yes, we have sinned, and yes we can find mercy.

There was a significant ministry that poured out of Jeremiah.  The verses quoted become a clarion call to all of us who struggle to understand.  ‘How can we who sin so much, and so regularly, find a mercy so compelling that our future is now altered?’

Jeremiah, systematically evaluates God’s mercy.  He sees it and expresses it as a profoundly secure grace.  It seems to be concrete, it pours over us and solidifies over our hearts.  If we trust in it, we become quite solid and set in grace and a dear mercy.

“The Lord is all I need; I can depend on Him.”  Here we see a certain assurance that Jeremiah has found.  He always seems to move in the direction of strength and security.  And I think we should do the same.  Depending on someone simply means we put our confidence in that person.  Jeremiah simply states that he has become quite secure in God, and all that He does on our behalf.

Related articles

The Evil of Twisting Scripture

“It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death.”

Judges 16:16, NASB

This has become a savage and vicious verse for me.  I used it to alienate a dear sister in the Lord. Vicki was a dear one who ran our office.  She had a heart that fully embraced our work of evangelism in the inner city in San Francisco.  She was an exceptional secretary.

She was wonderful.  She would constantly reach out to me, with the desire to see me established in this ministry of evangelism.  Her heart of kindness motivated me to press into the work of the Lord.  But there was something in my own heart that opposed her presence that was directed to me.

But her constant questions and comments every single morning had become a burden and a hassle.  Out of this frustration, I became somewhat more and more brazen and cynical toward her. I don’t really know why, really. Vickie continued to reach out to me, but I thwarted her work.  She wanted so much to contribute, and I figuratively slashed her tires with my dark skepticism.

One day I read this verse in Judges 16:16, “It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death.”  I so very absorbed this and laid it on her.  I can see her now opening the Bible she kept in her desk.  She read with eagerness “the Word of the Lord” from me, and she was crushed. The tears streamed down her face.

Mishandling the Word like this should be a capital offense.  I have deeply regretted that moment when I slammed my sister with my twisted interpretation of scripture.  I wounded her very deeply, all ‘in the name of the Lord.”  I imparted to her with “my verse” which was a certain evil, in spite of my noble ministry of evangelism to the lost.

“Brothers, do not speak evil of one another” (James 4:11). Is not this a word which is much needed by some of us today? Alas, in some quarters the habit of discrediting others behind their backs has become so common that it is regarded almost as a matter of course; the mentioning to others of a brother’s faults or a sister’s failures, the repeating of unfavorable reports which have come to our ears—is so general that few appear to make any conscience thereof.

But we do this every day. We contaminate everyone around us with an awful evil.  At the first observation, it seems true and holy.  But as we press into it we find a powerful iniquity.  It is camoflaged and hidden.  But it is quite corrosive and detrimental.

Oh, dear one.  I hope you can circumvent this issue.  I hope you can resist the evil of misguided truth.  We effect so many, we come to this place of analysis where we can reject those on the boundries.  We place them into our “unacceptable” folder.

Related articles

Joy Comes in the Morning

“I will test you
with the measuring line of justice
and the plumb line of righteousness.
Since your refuge is made of lies,
a hailstorm will knock it down.
Since it is made of deception,
a flood will sweep it away.”
                                   ~Isaiah 28:17

The ways in which our Father tests us certainly can seem clandestine to closed eyes.  Most of us familiar with our own trials and tragedies would agree that these excruciating circumstances are spiritual tests.  I know I’ve had my measure of the mire.  I have lost three children — one to an abortion — and I have also lost three precious people to suicide in three years, and several more as well.

There are times I can scarcely comprehend the magnitude of what I have lost.  Some days, it is a hourly struggle to remind myself of the goodness of God in the midst of my oceanic anguish.  I pray constantly for the blessing of relief — even through the maddening rage of my grief — and I have a handful of blog subscriptions (including this one) that help me stay focused.  Many times, the words I read provide the precise encouragement I need.

I have devoured The Book of Job many times, and God’s speech always gets me at the end.  But, recently, I realized that Job’s three friends not only failed Job, they also failed in the eyes of God, who tells Eliphaz, “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:7).  While the focus of the book is obviously on Job, that verse made me realize something very significant.

When so many bad things happen to just one person, is God testing just one person?  Is The Almighty so short-sighted?  Wasn’t He testing Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite as well?

Is not the same true for us today?  When we see our brothers and sisters enduring their own fires, isn’t God testing us through them?  Do we understand the magnitude of our Father’s love so very well as to serve Him so gratefully by serving others?  The purpose of loss is not suffering, but to learn compassion for those who are suffering.  In that sense:

Injustice is the measuring line of justice,
and suffering is the plumb line of righteousness.

Such evidence demands a verdict.  For without injustice, we have no need to demand justice.  And without suffering, we have no means to express our faith in gratitude through service.  Through my many trials, the times I have experienced the greatest joy has not been when God has taken away my pain — but when I have ministered to others in pain.

Granted, serving others does not remove my anguish or my struggles, but it has been through my suffering that I have come to understand the suffering of others with profound compassion.

And that brings me a wonderfully excruciating joy.

“Weeping may last through the night,
but joy comes with the morning.”
~Psalm 30:5b

Compatibility for Dummies

____________________

Believers are to learn the skills of compatibility.  The classic definition is “to be able to exist harmoniously.”  The word is used in a dozen different fields, from agriculture to zoology.  But the particular area we are to look at is the “spiritual.”

The Holy Spirit is the prime teacher.  The same Spirit that holds me is holding you as well.  As a result we connect in a way that is profound.  This is all done supernaturally, and it is one of best arguments for the existence of God I know of.  The world is full of discord.  It is fractious and divided.  But believers can walk in harmony and love.

I was just 17 when I enlisted in the Army.  It truly was a learning experience. One of the basic principles is conforming by adaptation.  We all wore the same clothes.  Wore the same boots.  We ate together, and developed military skills together.  We also marched together in both large and small formations, keeping in step as a group.  We did lots and lots of marching, hours and hours a day.  It had a definite purpose.

Compatibility is learned; but it also is supernaturally given.  A piano player may play Mozart, because the gift lies within.  But that same musician must practice.  You could say what they have is both a talent and a skill.  In the very same way, the agreement I have with you is supernaturally easy—and physically hard.  However it is a skill to be learned.  Once we learn to do this, it will become easier and easier.

The essential foundation for this is the “Word of God.”  We can’t walk with a brother who is clearly at odds with the Bible’s teachings.  But we all know that sin is at epidemic levels, and we are all affected.  I suppose “humility” plays a huge part of staying in step with another saint.  The Lord is so gentle with the strugglers, can’t I do the same?

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.”  1 Peter 3:8, ESV

Nevertheless (even with this in mind) we must be committed to the Word—first and foremost.  Everything must proceed from this common point.  Loving someone else will almost always involve servanthood.  Washing someone elses feet will almost always develop compatibility.

In Bible college I had a running feud with a fellow student.  He seemed to me to be incredibly arrogant.  Things came to an ugly head and the animosity was thick.  One day in prayer I heard the Holy Spirit speak.  “Go to your brother and wash his feet.”  I charged into his dorm room and became a servant.  I became connected to him in a profound way.

Being compatible does not mean we all do the same things.  We share the same Spirit but we don’t have the same gifts.  My theory is we are all designed with certain strengths, and proscribed weaknesses.  These make us vulnerable and open to another.  In Nehemiah 4, we read of men who built, and men who guarded.  Both were necessary.

The main issue for us is learning compatibility—and all the skills that enable us to practice unity.  We must understand, we are already connected in an amazing way.  But we must “practice” it.

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”   Phil. 2:3, ESV