Words and Works of Faith

Daniel tells us of an incident where 3 men who had been taken captives,  were told by God to live their lives without rebellion, have families and succeed until he brought them back.  These 3 were castrated and made servants of a pagan king and his court, yet they stood for what they believed – what they knew in their insides was true, though everything in the moment would seem to stand against that truth.

So the king came to them and talked to them about their stand and about their failure to comply with his wishes and their refusal to acknowledge the inevitable.  Then he gave them another chance.  He would sound the cue one more time just for them.  They obviously had his attention and a certain amount of respect but he was the king.  He warned them that if they failed him, no one would deliver them from him.

I don’t know if they conferred or if they answered in chorus, but I know they all agreed.  “We don’t have to be careful about our answer,” they said, “because our God will deliver us from you and your anger.  But if not, well, we won’t do it anyway.”

That made the king boil with rage and he irrationally ordered that a sufficiently hot fire be increased greatly and that these arrogant, insolent individuals be tied up –also an irrational decision if you think of it- and tossed into it.  He lost some good and faithful trained soldiers in the whole thing and then looked in to see that the 3 had been joined by a 4th and they were all unharmed inside the fire.

We get the symbolism and we celebrate the victory of these faithful men who weren't singed or injured in anyway.

Question 1:  Weren’t they supposed to live in peace and submit to the authorities over them knowing that God appoints rulers?

Question 2:  Once they confessed their faith that God would save them, wasn’t it a lack of faith for them to say “But if not . . .” Wasn’t that a wavering faith?

I will not belabor the similarities to our own world and its Godless efforts to weaken us and enslave us by stripping our dignity, questioning our right to believe, and acclimating us to accept carnal living and thinking.  I doubt there is a need, but if you want to debate that, I will let you flesh that one out without me, though I’m not opposed to honest questions or opinions. 

The end of the story gives us a view of God’s reaction to what they did.  On both counts the action of God exonerated them, but for the sake of arguments being waged about our testimony and moral stance in today’s amoral world, I will address the questions anyway.

Question 1:  We are commanded to live in peace as best we can and as it depends on us.  We are not to be punching the world in the face.  We are not to be the aggressors in the argument nor are we to be violent.  We are to be testimonies to the grace, power and rightness of God’s plan and we are commanded to stand firm in faith and in our convictions.  We are salt and we are light.  God is big enough to take care of his reputation, but be assured, Satan will bring the fight to us.  If we suffer, it should be for doing right not for being a giant pain in bootie of society. 

That said, there is a time to take a stand.  As I’ve said, Satan will be sure the fight is brought to us.  Jesus said “They will hate you, for they hate me.”  We have the right to say “No, I cannot go that far for peace, though I will not bomb your office in retribution.”  If we are to follow the Spirit of God, we must be willing to obey his voice when he says ‘Stand up’ and when he says ‘Shut up.’  We must be willing to speak when he says speak and pray when he says pray. 

I’m sure there were more Israelites who were chosen to be court servants, but the ones who are singled out are the ones who stood up when they were forced to cooperate with practices that watered down or directly disobeyed the commands of God and said “We cannot agree; we cannot cooperate.”  They didn't poison the food supply of the king.  They didn’t set fire to his storerooms full of forbidden foods.  They simply said “We can’t.”  But through God’s spirit, they became rebels with an alternative plan and God gave them favor.

In the second incident recorded, and the reading indicates there were more incidents that were not recorded, they were being forced to worship an image set up by the king.  So what if they had bowed their knees and stayed true in their hearts?  As long as the heart was pure, what is the difference?  Wasn’t the king the guilty party anyway for ordering them to do it?  Again, if you stand for righteousness, if you are true to God, Satan will be sure the fight comes to you.  These men had gained a leadership position and a reputation through standing for their belief and the indigenous servants didn’t like it one bit. They pointed out the non-cooperative behavior to the king. The three were not betraying or opposing the king, they were simply saying “No.  I cannot do that,” based on what they knew God had said.  Their allegiance was to God while their service was to the king.

They were not disrupting funerals or bombing offices, they were simply standing on what they knew to be right; they were obeying a higher calling.  That was more important than their reputations, their jobs or even their lives.  Why do we think the world will applaud our stand for God or our steps toward righteousness?  When obedience ends in death, death is transcended.  One man wrote “A dead prophet makes no converts.”  Yet life and death are in the hand of God, not man and an unfaithful prophet makes a difference in favor of the enemy of God. 

We must, however, be sure we are listening and hear the voice of the spirit and not the voice of a man with his own agenda.  That comes from the conditioning of repeated obedience through the smaller matters.  God honored the obedience of these men with amazing divine action.

Question 2:  Many people speak of our testimony and our assertions of faith as though what we say is the real value of faith.  Peter denied Christ, yet Christ was on his side and prayed for him to be able to fulfill his calling.  Peter could never undo his denial of Christ, but he went on to be a giant of faith and stood for Christ in the face of governmental, religious, and even colleague criticism.  Denial of Christ isn’t one word on one night around a campfire.  It is a life style that results in disbelief and disassociation.  You can deny Christ and never speak the words “I don’t know him.”

Some people ask for healing.  They speak it into their lives or the lives of others and expect that word to hold power.  But they forget that the power lies in the word of God that refuses to go back without accomplishing what it was sent to do.  My word really does not have that kind of effect unless it is bound to the living word breathed by God into my spirit.  If it has that, it will not be ineffective no matter how weak I am.  When I pray, I am either praying to my own psyche –which is useless, or I am speaking to the unlimited God of the universe which holds all the power I could imagine.  Prayer is not a wish list for us to command.  The word of God will not be bound to our arrogant or selfish desires.  It has no sticking power there.

So what did these guys say exactly?  Well they didn’t say “God can do this, but that doesn’t mean He will.”  They didn’t say, “It may be my time to die.”  They said “God will deliver us from you.  But if not, we still stand on his command.”  I believe they were saying “There is something more important than us being rescued.”  I believe they were saying “Pleasing the God of eternity is more important than living in this temporary world.”  They were standing firm, believing that God would do something miraculous with their testimony in life or death.  They were believing in plans, in hope, in the future.  They were proclaiming the awesome power of their God to control the universe for them and still conceding that he would be awesome and they would win regardless of what it looked like to the king.  The result is laid out for us as an example of how faith works.

In the coming time, we will face conflict.  There will be miraculous events in the conflict.  How we relate to God’s personal voice within will determine our part in both the conflict and the miraculous. God delivered Peter from the prison in an amazing miraculous act.  God empowered Steven to endure death by stoning and his death was a testimony to many and resulted in the eventual salvation of one of the key men in the spread of the gospel.

First, we must know what God has said about good and evil so we can avoid personal pits that trap us in sin or unbelief. The Psalmist said “Your word is buried deep in my heart so that I will not sin against you.”  Second, we must know the voice of God as it speaks today, and determine to obey before we hear the word. Third, we must seek wise Godly counsel and wait for God’s command to speak or act.  We are needed; we are privileged to be part of the amazing family and work of God in this day.  Let us stand firm and see the salvation of our God.

Love the Sinner

I read a well written blog about the phrase “Love the sinner; hate the sin.”  Her stance was that we should love the sinner and leave the sin to God.  She said the statement carries a judgmental air and separates us from being helpful to those in sin.  While I assent to a lot of what was said, it troubled me much.  I’ve never liked that phrase.  Yet I have several deep inner questions that arise after reading the blog.  As is normal, I’ve chewed on it for awhile and now I take it to the page.

First of all, I address the phrase.  Honestly, it doesn’t matter whether I hate the sin or not, and in the long of it, it does not matter if I love the sinner.  Should I let another’s desire to commit certain acts deter me from my own stand?  What if I dearly love some of those people involved in those acts?  What if I don’t like them so much anyway?  That changes neither the guilt nor the result of sin.  Doing nothing to restore that person adds our guilt to theirs.

We are to love those of the household of faith, but we are also admonished to pray for those who are taken by sin and we are told to restore them to walk separate before the Lord.  A proper procedure for doing that is given in various places in the New Testament.  And we are cautioned to consider our own behaviors when we do either of those.

Frankly, I don’t think God is as concerned with step 1, 2 and 3 as He is with the restoration of the person to a right relationship to the body of Christ and to God himself.  We should be involved in the ministry of reconciliation – regardless of our other gifts and callings, for that is the purpose of the church.  As each example of healing in the New Testament had personal characteristics, the ministry of reconciliation will have personal characteristics; but in the end, that is the point –to be reconciled to God.

If I allow my fear of sin, rejection, or even punishment to dissuade me from following my God, I cannot call that anything but sin.  If I fear being labeled a judgmental person or being misunderstood so much that I ignore the ministry of reconciliation, I have transgressed against my God and his purpose in me and I have transgressed against the person who needs to be reconciled.  Jesus cautioned us that if he was hated and misunderstood we should expect the same because in the end, the enemy is the same. 

The truth is people love their sin.  They don’t want it identified as sin because then they must deal with it one way or the other.  This is true of all of us.  And Paul said in Romans that is why the law was given: to make sin seem sinful.  It was a necessary job and the law did it pretty well.  The problem is people centered on the law and not on the rift between God and man that comes from disobedience, ignorance, and self –centered living.

The definition of sin given in the blog also disturbed me.  This is a personal vendetta, but the idea of tying sin to the breaking of God’s law ignores about half of the Bible.  I know Adam and Eve were told not to eat the fruit of that one tree and they disobeyed.  But Satan made it about rules and restrictions to confuse the real issue.  Satan himself was created for greater and more noble things than he ever aspired to, though he was the greatest of God’s creation in his prime.  His pride and selfishness made him separate –fall short- from the glorious plan of God.  He became the antithesis of God and the enemy of God’s design.

God gave Adam and Eve dominion over all He created on earth.  They were designed to be so much more than what they became when, self-serving, they separated themselves from the ‘glory of God.’  Sin is missing God’s mark.  God designed each of us with a purpose and a plan.  We are born into the “missing it” family.  God provided redemption and reconciliation so that we can partner with Him to be brought back into line with His glorious design.

Paul argues that the law not only came after the offense, but hundreds of years after Abraham’s example of ‘righteousness by faith.’ Christ came to undo the works of Satan.  Before God breathed life into the dirt sculpture that would be Adam, Jesus was already chosen to be the sacrifice for sin, the gap sealer, the restorer of the plan, the reconciler of those who miss the target.

The third problem I had with the article was the lameness of reconciliation.  It appeared to me as a huge hole in her reasoning.  And so, I will say what I feel about how we are to reach a world that is condemned, separated from God and headed away from the purpose for which they are created. 

            Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

The first step to a personal ministry of reconciliation is to love God and love people.  Loving people does not mean that you see no evil.  It means that your concern is not based in personal opinion or in social opinion, but is based in your love for God and his design which results in a love for the person that supersedes human emotion and selfish concern.

The woman caught in adultery was given as an example in the article.  A big point is made of the fact that Jesus did not condemn her.  A small point is made of his command to go and sin no more.  Now if the ‘sin’ is simply breaking a law, I could see that.  But I believe his concern was that her sin was sending her away from her target which was God and His design –she was missing her mark.  He had to address that or the rest was useless. The compassion of Jesus waited to address her sin until the others left based on their own guilt. But their guilt had no bearing on her need to be reconciled.

The second step to being a minister of reconciliation is to learn how to hear and follow the voice of God.  God desires that people be saved from the doom that awaits if they continue down a path of error.  He wants his servants to be involved in the process of bringing people to repentance, redemption, reconciliation and renewal.  Since redemption and restoration are individual, the methods and timing of our message must be individual also.  The only way to accomplish that is to hear from God and respond in obedience.  It may not make you popular or loved in this world that okays every evil and thrives on it, but it will be the saving of many precious lives.

My personal experience is that God most often brings us into a prayer of reconciliation before he sends us with words of reconciliation.  But I have also experienced times when God said “. . . . . .” and it didn’t take a month of prayer to figure it out.  To obey is better than sacrifice because it shows confidence in and respect for the God who commands us.

One last word I will offer.  Give up your opinions of right and wrong and agree with God.  Whether in my life or in the life of those I love, I must agree with God before I will have the power to participate in change.  Sometimes facing my sin – my missing the target of God’s purpose and plan is difficult because I forget the power of the cross that has redeemed me.  When we focus on ‘the breaking of God’s law’ and not on the plan He had from the foundation of the earth to redeem us, we will get sidetracked.  When I accept my own lack and God’s unthinkable provision, I have the strength to ask for change in myself that is based in his love and redemptive power not in my ability or desire.  The Bible says that even faith is a byproduct of God’s love and grace.  It doesn’t come from the natural man.

Well written story -or Not!

A well written plot has elements of surprise –twists- set in the expected.  The expected gives us footing, but too much expected and we lack interest.  Too many twists and we lose continuity and purpose.  It’s like the old Americana paintings where you can’t really define any subject or purpose to the work, just lots of stuff -  or like a 3rd grade art piece that has a smiley sun, a tornado, and a house fire with big flowers scattered everywhere.  Of course if you give a 3rd grader long enough to work, he’ll likely include a super hero to save the day.

I love a good story where the plot makes a sharp turn when you least expect it.  Of course that hairpin curve in the literary effort is best when inserted close to the end of the story.  I remember reading a book where the numerous curves began early on.  The characters were interesting enough that you stayed engaged and then it ended and I found myself saying “What?  WHAT?!”  The ultimate ride had ended in a literary death spiral.  The bad thing is I remember little about the tale except the utter disappointment in the conclusion.  It was the second in a series and I bought the 3rd.  But the betrayal I felt in the second didn’t find a purpose in the final installment and I never read another book by that author.

In the visual world, the twisted plot works better in a movie than in a series.  I remember about a year ago when I got involved watching a series that had a good bit of tension and like the above mentioned book, the characters were well written.  Then after several opportunities when I could have done something meaningful with an hour, I realized it was just a soap opera dressed in clandestine clothing.  Again, the realization left me frustrated.  Oh yes I do remember how many seasons ‘Dallas’ ran, but it didn’t really run in my life.

I tell so many stories that a friend said “You need to write your memoires. My stories are as much about the fun I have telling them as they are about the facts of my existence.  It’s not that I rewrite them, but as my living goes, the stories reinterpret themselves to my heart and mind somewhat differently.  It’s hard to hear someone else recant ‘my stories’ because if my heart isn’t there, my memory is very seldom satisfied in the telling.  Maybe that’s part of why I don’t write my memoirs.  Without the interaction of people, the story loses its best part.

I do write the dark episodes, but that has a very different purpose and they hide in my files and are seldom seen by the general public.  Like certain relatives, I only visit on rare occasions.   I know they are a part of me and who I became and I would never do away with them, but the visit isn’t ever truly pleasant.  You sigh in relief as you say goodbye and walk away leaving them right where you found them.  I am sure I hold that spot in the mind of others within my circle as well.  It’s part of being human.

My story, which is beginning to chapter out, is more like a series of stories than a group of chapters and pages.  I don’t know how many chapters or pages are left or what their character will be. Spiritually speaking, that’s up to my publisher.  

In the movie The Pursuit of Happyness there is a point when the narrators says “This chapter I call ‘being stupid.’”  I know that title, though it doesn’t relate in the same way his did.  I hope I don’t have any of that left in me, but I can’t make that guarantee.  Stupid seems to recur in my story like the main theme in a symphony.  I seem to have two kinds of stupid: one I call ‘Willful stupid’ and the other I call ‘Noble stupid.’  And there in lie the twists and surprises of my life.

My family is basically long lived.  90 something is not uncommon.  My father died in his 80s and it seemed way too soon.  His last twenty years were full of physical and emotional difficulty.  As I look at my own life, I understand more the effect of that the further I go on this journey.  My mother will be 98 in September.  I am in the second half of my 6th decade.  I’ve always wanted to be Caleb from the Old Testament and walk out at 80 and demand my greatest challenge yet.  As days pass, I don’t believe that is my destiny and it is certainly losing its appeal.  Yet I do believe that what life I have left will have a few twists and unexpected turns.  I fear some; I relish others in my consideration.  I’d like to think of myself as Eli from ‘the Book of’  I will last until my personal task is complete if I stay on the path.  I may be solitary in a crowded world.  I may be hated or feared or loved or respected but it won’t change the task or the result if I am faithful to the one voice inside.

I do hope I leave a good, funny and useful, if somewhat badly written, story behind when it is over.

Believe Listen Obey Receive

Perhaps God doesn’t want us to follow ‘great teachers’ and ‘knowledgeable scholars’.  Perhaps He wants His sheep to know His voice and follow Him and never follow another.  Perhaps He doesn’t want us to figure it out.  Perhaps He wants us to believe in Him completely and only, to listen for His directive from the inside out, to obey immediately for that moment alone and to receive the love and wonder that He brings to that simple act.

There are so many ‘good teachers’ who have figured God out.  But there is always a twist to the story.  There is always an opinion mixed with the truth.  I am a teacher and I want to be ‘right’ in what I teach and how I teach.  But there is always a confused little girl still trying to get out through my methods.  There is always a touch of waywardness in my best effort.  Both Paul and John wrote of this mystery: how can we belong to God and be so earthbound.  John went so far as to say “if you say you have no sin, you lie.”  He was addressing the redeemed.

The number of my future years are surely less than my past years and so there is a great need in me to know that I am doing the right thing.  I’ve always been a black and white sort of person.  My spirit seeks the Lord and a higher calling.  And yet I know my feet are mired in this earth for it is what I know, it is where I was brought up, it is where I was trained even to reach for God.

With the need to do good and leave a legacy, there lurks a remnant of pride that will grow and bloom at the least encouragement.  It is daunting.

Because of the ‘last push’ syndrome, if you will, I find my self looking for my path again.  I examine the past with those places where I experience the power and pleasure of my God, but I look to the future.  What should my ‘last days’ look like.  I pray for clarity and purpose.  I read the ‘manual’ and pray for wisdom knowing that God promises to give it.  What I have received has been a bit difficult for this ‘ducks in a row’ gal to feel comfortable with.  Tell me to go to Somalia and teach the wonder of God among the downtrodden.  That would be out of my comfort zone, but I’d start planning.  Yet God only says “believe . . . listen . . . obey . . . receive” and “let each day teach you more.”

This mandate actually began for me in 2002.  I was feeling that life was about to change for me.  I was considering leaving public education to start my own teaching studio.  There was great turmoil in my gut and God would only say “Listen for my commands on the inside.  Get used to hearing and obeying just me.  This will be a personal walk of faith.”

I kept asking “What do you want me to do?” and the answer came again and again, “Don’t do anything unless I tell you.  You are going to learn to follow me.”  I took on a familiar project I was asked to do and it fell flat.  I begged God for reasons feeling so humiliated.  His reply was “I didn’t tell you to do that.”  People questioned my devotion, my commitment.  I slowly began to understand.  When God said “do it” it was effective.  When others or my mind said “do it” it fell flat.

And so, it did not seem out of character for a Good, Eternal, Loving and Merciful God to say “Believe, listen, obey, and receive.”  This summer He has added the emphasis of Jeremiah 29:11.  He has a plan, a purpose, a hope, a future.  Therefore His commands are not heavy, even when they seem scary or hard.  I believe in His Goodness.  I believe in His Eternal life.  I believe in His Love,  I taste daily His Mercy.  I must listen.  His voice is not hard to recognize, it is HIS voice.  Obeying often confronts my humanity, my faith, my parameters, my understanding for He is God.  The only God.  He didn’t say understand or compare.  He just said ‘Obey.’

There is a measure of preparation for the ability to obey.  Communication daily through prayer and His written word, translating the wonders of His creation into knowledge about Him, His designs and His rightness, and considering with caution the words of His servants, all prepare me to obey when I hear the command.

The receiving is amazing me already.  An endurance race requires patience.  I want to take off on a full gallop when God wants me to dance.  Yet He is trustworthy.  If I sink in the waves, he will reach for my hand and pull me out.