May 1, 2002
Who do YOU say I AM? It matters.
By John Eldredge
" 'Be honest now-what is your image of Jesus as a man? Isn't he sort of meek and mild?' a friend remarked. 'I mean, the pictures I have seen of him show a gentle guy with children all around. Kind of like Mother Teresa.' Yes, those are the pictures I've seen myself in many churches. In fact, those are the only pictures I've seen of Jesus. As I've said before, they leave me with the impression that he was the world's nicest guy. Mister Rogers with a beard. Telling me to be like him feels like telling me to go limp and passive. Be nice. Be swell. Be like Gomer Pyle. Or as sweet and passive as Grandma Apple Pie.
I'd much rather be told to be like William Wallace.
Wallace, if you'll recall is the hero of the film Braveheart. (If you saw the movie unedited, and have a conscience, you'd have known you had made a large Spiritual mistake, however. An edited version of many films is available at www.cleanflicks.com )
William Wallace is the warrior poet who came as the liberator of Scotland in the early 1300's. When Wallace arrives on the scene, Scotland has been under the iron fist of English monarchs for centuries. The latest king is the worst of them all---Edward the Longshanks. A ruthless oppressor, Longshanks has devastated Scotland,...The Scottish nobles, supposed protectors of their flock, have instead piled heavy burdens on the backs of the people while they line their own purses by cutting deals with Longshanks. Wallace is the first to defy the English oppressors. Outraged, Longshanks sends his armies to the field of Sterling to crush the rebellion. The highlanders come down, in groups of hundreds and thousands. It's time for a showdown. But the nobles, cowards all, don't want a fight. They want a treaty with England that will buy them more lands and power. They are typical Pharisees, bureaucrats...religious administrators.
Without a leader to follow, the Scots begin to lose heart. One by one, then in larger numbers, they start to flee. At that moment Wallace rides in with his band of warriors, blue warpaint on their faces, ready for battle. Ignoring the nobles-who have gone to parley with the English captains to get another deal-Wallace goes straight for the hearts of the fearful Scots. 'Sons of Scotland...you have come to fight as free men, and free men you are.' He gives them an identity and a reason to fight. He reminds them that a life lived in fear is no life at all, that every last one of them will die some day.
'And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take OUR FREEDOM!'
He tells them they have what it takes. At the end of his stirring speech, the men are cheering. They are ready. Then Wallace's friend asks,
'Fine speech. Now what do we do?'
'Just be yourselves.'
'Where are you going?'
'I'm going to pick a fight.'
Finally someone is going to stand up to the English tyrants. While the nobles jockey for position, Wallace rides out and interrupts the parley. He picks a fight with the English overlords and the Battle of Sterling ensues-a battle that begins the liberation of Scotland.
Now---is Jesus more like Mother Teresa or William Wallace?...
Take the story of the crippled woman in Luke 13. Here's the background. The Pharisees are like the Scottish nobles---they too, load heavy burdens on the backs of God's people but do not lift a finger to help them. What is more, . they insist it is a sin to heal someone on the Sabbath, for that would be doing 'work.' They have twisted God's intentions..Does Jesus tiptoe around the issue next time, so as not to 'rock the boat'.... "But the Lord replied, 'You hypocrite! You work on the Sabbath day! Don't you untie your ox or your donkey from their stalls on the Sabbath to lead them out for water? Wasn't it necessary for me, even on the Sabbath day, to free this dear woman from the bondage in which Satan has held her for eighteen years?' This shamed his enemies. And all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did."
Christ draws the enemy out, exposes him for what he is, and shames him in front of everyone. The Lord is a gentleman??? Not if you're in the service of his enemy. God has a battle to fight, and the battle is for our freedom. As Tremper Longman says, 'Virtually every book of the Bible-Old and New Testaments---and almost every page tells us about God's warring activity.
I am attempting to rescue us from a very, very mistaken image we have of God-especially of Jesus-and therefore of men as his image-bearers. Dorothy Sayers wrote that the church has 'very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah,' making him 'a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.' Is that the God you find in the Bible? To Job-who has questioned God's strength, he replies:
Do you give the horse his strength
Or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?
Do you make him leap like a locust,
Striking terror with his proud snorting?
He paws fiercely, rejoicing in his strength,
And charges into the fray.
He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing;
He does not shy away from the sword..
In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground
He cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.
At the blast of the trumpet he snorts, 'Aha!'
He catches the scent of battle from afar,
The shout of commanders and the battle cry.
(Job 39:19-25)
The war horse, the stallion, embodies the fierce heart of his Maker. And so do we, every man is 'a stem of that victorious stock.' Or at least, he was originally. You can tell what kind of man you've got simply by noting the impact he has on you. Does he make you bored? Does he scare you with his doctrinal nazism? Does he make you want to scream because he's just so very nice? In the Garden of Gesthemane, in the dead of night, a mob of thugs 'carrying torches, lanterns and weapons' comes to take Christ away. Note the cowardice of it-why didn't they take him during the light of day, down in the town? Does Jesus shrink back in fear? No, he goes to face them head-on.
Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, 'Who is it you want?'
'Jesus of Nazareth,' they replied.
'I am he,' Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, 'I am he,' they drew back and fell to the ground.
Again he asked them, 'Who is it you want?'
And they said, 'Jesus of Nazareth.'
'I told you that I am he,' Jesus answered. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.' (John 18:4-8)
Talk about strength. The sheer force of Jesus' bold presence knocks the whole posse over..
Jesus is no pale faced altar boy with his hair parted in the middle, speaking softly, avoiding confrontation, who at last gets himself killed because he has no way out. He works with wood, commands the loyalty of dockworkers. He is the Lord of hosts, the captain of angel armies. And when Christ returns, he is at the head of a dreadful company, mounted on a white horse, with a double-edged sword, his robe dipped in blood (Revelation 19). Now that sounds a lot more like William Wallace than it does Mother Teresa.
No question about it---there is something fierce in the heart of God.
John Eldredge
May 8, 2002
Constitution--What are you made of?
If God zipped open your heart, what would He find in there? What are you made of on the inside? Is there anything being built in you that's permanent and has some solidity to it--not just cotton candy? I don't know what all the ingredients are and what it's going to take for me, and for us, to have the kind of breakthroughs that need to happen. It even has to do with having enough clear-headed conviction to say what I'm trying to say right now. Paul asked, "If the trumpet sounds an uncertain call, who will get ready for the battle?" It has to do, not just with having my head clear, but having my heart clear, and having some passion and conviction and direction.
I was reading Amos and Isaiah, and most of what you find in those books doesn't really have to do with the future so much. There will be a big section that will talk about a religious show, a religious parade (meaning hypocrisy), or a section about idolatry, or about immorality. These were things that everyone in Israel ought to have known really clearly--these things were in Leviticus. This was not new information in the sense of the prophetic. But somehow, there was something built into the inside of these men that those kinds of things just lit them on fire, it turned them, it made them burn, it made them roll over. For Jeremiah to say things like, "Since my people are crushed, I am crushed." That's not a theological statement. That's a statement about what is happening on the inside of a person based on his relationship with God. "Because my people are crushed, I am crushed."
When Lot was living in Sodom the scripture says he was "tormented in his righteous soul." He didn't just realize in his mind that there were some "wrong things" happening that needed to change. It went deeper than his mind. Knowing things are wrong is different than having something on the inside of you that could actually equate with torment. There is something being built. There is something with substance on the inside of us. I am convinced that whatever that is--that's the New Covenant. And to whatever degree that's lacking, to whatever degree that's missing, that is the degree that I am missing the Kingdom--the Kingdom that's within, the Kingdom that's the New Covenant.
If I want to "seek first the Kingdom," then I must know where that is! Jesus said the Kingdom was "within" us. So, that's where it is and that's where it needs to be built. That's the thing in other people's lives that warrants spending time with them. We walk with each other every day and blend our lives together in order to try to get at that "thing", that "thing" that's real on the inside and that aches and hurts and has passion and energy. That's what we want to cultivate.
Some of the sections in Isaiah are very colorful. There is something alive in this man. To say a couple of verses about idolatry is one thing, but there is an energy behind it. Isaiah is giving examples and throwing things around. He is not just talking about generic stuff. If I were going to address those kinds of things, would I even say it that way? Is there enough word, enough clarity of thought that I could go on for 60 chapters about one thing after another, almost in poetic form, just firing it with energy and conviction? There should be!
I recently read a section out of a book by Sparks that talked about a word called "constitution." This section of the book had to do with being overcomers. If we are going to be overcomers, it's going to be God building something in this certain place that has nothing to do with our mind, our emotion, our talents, or our backgrounds. It has to do with who we are and what we are made of. When we unzip Joe Shmoe, what's in there? And God is taking whatever that is, changing it, and beginning to build something there. This will determine how we face the future.
An analogy came to mind from my distant past. I used to play a lot of role-playing games growing up. I wasted a lot of time--time that could have been spent much more wisely. I almost flunked high school and college doing it. It was really goofy and idolatrous and very addicting kind of stuff. But, when you made up a character in the game, there was one category that I never really understood. It was part of the game so you had to do it. But I never really knew why. Each character (player) in the game would be assigned different physical attributes. Your character would have a certain amount of physical strength. This would determine whether you could open doors and how much you could lift. You also would have a certain level of agility to get out of jams, a certain level of intellect to solve problems, a certain level of wisdom, knowledge, dexterity and several other attributes.
There was one category called "constitution." It never seemed to mean anything, but after reading the section out of the book by Sparks, it began to make sense in hindsight. The category "constitution" had to do with what you were made of. It was not how strong you were, not how smart you were, not how agile you were. It was not your charisma, but it was, "What did you do in the middle of a crisis? Did you panic? What did you do when you were hurt or wounded? Could you still react and think clear-headedly?" It had to do with what you were made of. And regardless of all the other character qualities you had, if that category was low, you were worthless. It didn't matter how smart you were, how strong you were, or how agile you were; you were worthless because you had no "constitution." You were a wimp in the inward part of who you were.
That's been aching in me, and it's somehow related to Paul being in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in us. It has to do with whether in that place, that place inside of us, there is cotton candy or silly putty or rock in there. If it could never be said that there are rivers of living water gushing within you, if that is never part of your experience at all, or being tormented in your righteous soul, or in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in yourself or others around you, then it isn't real. If there is no energy at all, no dunamas, then you are missing what the New Covenant is. There is no other New Testament Christianity other than that which is inward, that which is real. If we are going to seek first the Kingdom, that's going to be the place that it has to come from. Where there is a hunger and a thirst for righteousness--not just to know stuff--but a hunger and thirst for righteousness, this is where we see our unrighteousness and it hurts us. The laziness and the dullness--there's a pain inside of us that hates it. It's a real pain and we must have enough energy and conviction to do something about it. We must fight through it, and wrestle with one another through it. If God is going to do anything in our hearts and make us a prophetic people--that's the place where all that stuff seems to happen. It's that inward thing that says who we are, whether we are Mickey Mouse or whether there is something else there.
May God help us out of this jam and make us into real people with backbone and spine and conviction where we are useful, and where there is fire. Jesus said, "I've come to bring fire on the earth and I wish it were already kindled." I'm convinced that's the same subject again. There is something in there that He wants to do in our lives and "fire" is the best word to describe it. Again, would you know whether that word would be characteristic of what is happening on the inside of you? Would "fire" be a word to fit? Would "rivers of living water"? Is there anything happening on the inside that has passion and direction and energy? If not, there is no Christian life at all. That IS the Christian life. That IS the Anointed Life. The Kingdom is within you, and if it's not, it's not anywhere else. It's nothing you can hang around.
May God do something in all of us to not let us be wimps and just exist the rest of our lives with a shallow level of fruitfulness and effect in each other's lives--a very dim lamp in our eyes with not much there, no real root, and worthless. In our workplaces we see things out of line, but there is never a heart of mercy that breaks for people that's real, that really breaks. Or there's never a heart that is tormented in our righteous soul for unrighteousness, especially with people who claim to be His followers. There are things that kind of catch our mind and we know we should probably address them, but we have no energy at all--no passion, no real conviction. God has to do that thing on the inside of us, and there is no set of things we can listen to that's going to change that. It has to happen on the inside. God help us.
How do I get there?
So you say to yourself, "Well, I'm not there. How in the world could I ever get there?" The key is real simple. The key is staying close to Jesus. There is a decision that you make based on faith and the promises of God, a conviction and a desire to respond in obedience to God. There is a part that is within your capacity as a mortal that God has granted you. You have the capacity to hold on to Jesus as he takes you down that road and journeys with you into that place where you have never gone and you could never go. You don't have the capacity to be that based on your willpower. But you have the capacity, granted by God, to stay very close to Jesus as He draws you to that place and takes one "created a little lower than the angels" and causes them to judge the angels. God has granted us the capacity, though created as dust, to be over the angels. He has given us that capacity. But, there is a process that only the Great Author and Pioneer and Architect and Builder of our faith and High Priest of our faith can take us through.
That's what that the Hebrews letter is about. The word "Hebrew" allegedly or potentially means "the journey," or the "passage beyond." That's what the word itself means. Our heritage is this passage beyond where we are and the Pioneer taking us there. It's interesting that all of that description of Jesus as the Pioneer, the One who forged the path--He is the perfect Man who became like us that we could become like Him. That book (Hebrews) is called "passage beyond" because He's the same yesterday, today and forever.
We can take that journey, and we can make it. There has to be a decision on our part. This is the thing that is within our capacity to decide for or against--to hear the Word of God, to respond to the word of God with faith and obedience. That's our part--to stay very close to the Master Teacher. Most everyone who comes close to the Kingdom, who comes close to that which God is really calling them to--as opposed to just be-bopping around--most everyone comes in one of several different modes. One is the Gomer Pyle mode, "Shazam! This is going to be fun! I can be a Christian with a lot of other Christians!" Then there is the John Wayne guy who is going to come in and "shoot 'em up." He's going to take charge and do a great work for God, and this is a perfect environment for him. You could create a lot of scenarios. Most everyone comes in with some false view of themselves, some false view of God, some false view of the church, some false view of what leadership is, and some false view of what a Christian is. Most everyone who draws near to God has misdefined almost everything and there is a process involved of dying to self and being able to see what God has written in the heavenlies. God has stamped into the very fiber of the universe who Jesus of Nazareth really is and what that means. The "glorious riches of Christ" and "the administration of the glorious riches of Christ" that Paul talked about in Ephesians 3 are both mind-boggling--way beyond our current capacity. The thing that God has given us the ability to do, is to face a scandal and to humbly and obediently pass through that scandal.
Finish the race! Finish the race! Have that sort of heart that says, "I will not quit! I will die first!" Years ago, I saw in the Olympics a wrestler. It was a tie match, 0 to 0, way into overtime. Right at a moment in time way into overtime, this guy just surged with this energy, slammed the other guy down, fought to get one point, and won, 1 to 0. It was just this battle, battle, battle, constantly fatiguing, draining battle. And he found it within himself to say, "I'm going to thrust forward."
There are a couple ways you can thrust forward like that spiritually, too. One way says, "I'm not going to quit. I'm going to thrust forward. This is very difficult for me, it's killing me even, but I'm going to thrust forward and if doesn't work out alright, then I'll die and I'll quit." That sort of thing is not what God has called us to do. But there is another way to thrust forward that says, "Finish the race!" "I'm not going to try to sprint a little bit harder to keep this person from passing me, and if they pass me, well then I'll just let up because there is no use. He's beaten me anyway." "No! I'm going to finish the race! I'm going to run all the way through that line no matter if it takes every ounce of courage, every ounce of strength even to the point of death itself. I'm going to finish the race. I'm going to the finish line. I don't care what happens around me. I'm putting it all on the line.
The one way, I might have a surge at this moment of pain in my life spiritually--this time of embarrassment, this time of failure, this time of confusion or frustration. "Okay, God I'm really going to buck up for you; I'm going to tighten my belt; I'm going to thrust forward." And so, we surge with some bit of adrenaline and it doesn't work out and we say, "Aw, it doesn't work. God's not faithful. I can't do it. That's for other people; it's not for me. I tried." That is not the unmovable kind of faith that Paul wrote about. It's not the unmovable, unshakable, indestructible life that the Hebrews writer wrote about. Their kind of faith--the faith that showed up in Hebrews 11 that saw women's children brought back from the dead and saw nations subdued--was the kind of faith that says, "I'm not quitting under any circumstances. This isn't a one time surge to overcome this difficult moment and if it doesn't work out, 'Well, I tried and I guess this just wasn't for me.'" This is pressing all the way to the line and finishing the race, even if it kills me. If I die, I will not turn back and I will not let up. I refuse to let up. Unshakable, unmovable, indestructible life. Nothing will stop me. If I fail 7,000 times--WATCH MY EYES--I'm going on, and you can't stop me. Nothing--principalities, powers, the past, present, future--nothing can stop me. I will go on.
Now THAT'S' within you to make that kind of choice. You can make that choice. You can't decide how successful you are going to be or how much you will know or how fruitful you will be or how many problems you will encounter in your walk or what your temptations are going to be. Those are things you may not be able to have too much say-so about at this moment in time. But what you can do is resolve before the heavenly hosts and all demons in hell, "I'm finishing this race. I don't care how it turns out or how many people pass me or if I fall down and bloody myself. I'm going to get up, and I'm going to finish the race. I'm going to the line and nothing can stop me." You can have that heart. That's within your capacity.
God has given each of us the ability to believe Him and to stand on His
Promises no matter what we see with our eyes. A quitter is the final word.
THE DECISION THAT EVERYTHING HANGS IN THE BALANCE ABOUT IS: BELIEVE GOD AND
PRESS ON OR BACK OFF AND QUIT BECAUSE OF PAIN, FRUSTRATION, OR CONFUSION. If
everything that I ever knew that was right and good backfired and fell
apart, I've got to have the heart that says, "Nevertheless, God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, and I'm going to believe on Him
and I will not perish. I will not shrink back and be destroyed. I will not
be amongst those that shrink back and are destroyed. I will press forward. I
will do all that I possibly can, no matter who I am, no matter what I have,
whatever gifts I have or don't have. I don't even care. I'm going to finish
the race. I'm going to believe God, and I'm not going to give up on the
confidence that I had at first under any circumstances, regardless of the
past, present or future."
You can walk by faith and not by sight. You can do that. If you will do
that, you will experience things that are beyond anything you could ever ask
or imagine. Because it's faith that pleases God. This is the victory that
overcomes and destroys and blows away the world system and any hold it could
ever have on you. This is that victory, even our faith. God has given you
the capacity to believe Him. If you can believe Him, all things are
possible. Hold onto that. MAKE THAT CHOICE. Although you may never be able
to make any other choice, make that choice and God will blow you away with
His grace and His kindness and His mercy and all the things that could ever
come from a life that is surrendered to Him in trust and in obedience and in
love and in peace. Because we believe Him who has spoken these promises and
has been resurrected from the dead and has ascended to the right hand of the
Father--because in times past God spoke through men in prophetic messages
and various ways, but now through his Son, through the rock of His Son, we
can live and we can prosper. We can reign in life, Paul said, because we
believe Him. We hold onto that no matter what. If there was any way I could
inject this into you, I would. As individuals, one by one, if I could get in
and stuff it into you so that you could live that way, I would do that. But
it's something that you yourself, have got to, on your knees, on your face,
look towards God and say, "I believe you, no matter what, I believe you, and
nothing will ever cause me to waiver from the man Jesus and His hope and His
promises."
A Prayer
anonymous
May 15, 2002
New Age Thinking
Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD--that you alone
are the Most High over all the earth. The New Age Movement is very attractive to the natural man who
has become disillusioned with organized religion and Western
rationalism. He desires spiritual reality but doesn't want to
give up materialism, deal with his moral problems, or come under
authority.
I've discovered six unifying factors in New Age thinking.
The first is monism--the belief that all is one and one is all.
It says we all swim in one great cosmic ocean. History is not the
story of humanity's fall into sin and its restoration by God's
saving grace. Rather, it is humanity's fall into ignorance and
the gradual ascent into enlightenment.
Monism is a counterfeit to the unity Jesus prayed for in John
17:21. That unity is possible only when we are united together in
Christian fellowship.
Second, all is God. If all is one, including God, then one must
conclude that all is God--trees, snails, books and people are all
of one divine essence. A personal God is abandoned in favor of an
impersonal energy force or consciousness, and if God is no longer
personal, He doesn't have to be served.
New Agers say, "When I was a little child, I believed in God.
When I began to mature, I stopped believing in God. Then I grew
up and realized that I was God."
A third unifying factor refers to a change in consciousness. If
we are God, we need to know we are God. We must become cosmically
conscious, also called "at-one-ment" (a counterfeit of
atonement), self-realization, god-realization, enlightenment, or
attunement. Their faith has no object, neither does their
meditation, so it becomes an inward journey. To us, the essential
issue is not whether we believe or mediate, but who we believe in
and what we meditate upon. We believe God and meditate upon His
law day and night.
The fourth unifying factor of the New Age Movement is a cosmic
evolutionary optimism. There is a New Age coming. There will be a
new world order with a one-world government. New Agers believe in
a progressive unification of world consciousness eventually
reaching the "omega point." This is a counterfeit kingdom and we
know who its prince is.
Fifth, New Agers create their own reality. They believe they can
determine reality by what they believe, so by changing what they
believe, they can change reality. There are no moral absolutes
because there is no distinction between good and evil.
Sixth, New Agers make contact with the kingdom of darkness.
Calling a medium a "channeler" and a demon a "spirit guide" has
not changed the reality of what they are. They are in contact
with the god of this world instead of the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob.
Recently I received a call from a lady who was concerned about
the turn of events in a small group she was attending. It had
started out as a group of supposedly Christian women. The one
woman began to function as a medium, and they thought they were
hearing from God. They recorded six hours of videotape, and in
that six hours, five different personalities can be identified in
the medium. The group was convinced they were hearing from God,
Jesus, the Holy Spirit and two angels.
The lady functioning as a medium was later identified as not
being a Christian. In the tape her eyes roll back in a trancelike
state. At one point a voice says through her, "It's going to snow
here tomorrow." I'm surprised that when it didn't snow the next
day, they couldn't see the snow job being done on them!
How can a thinking person, professing to be a Christian, consider
this as anything other than demonization? But it isn't just
lonely homemakers who are being deceived. This deception is
invading every area of society today.
Father, keep me alert to the deception of New Age thinking around
me, and help me dismiss the darkness I encounter with the light
of Your truth.
Neil Anderson
May 22, 2002
Wearing Our Colors and Living on the "Other Side"
"Out of the corner of her eye, Lena Horne saw what looked like a small,
dark-brown bag falling from the window of the 14-story apartment building at
3833 South Langley Avenue. It hit the ground less than 20 feet from her
feet and lay there motionless amid the debris scattered around the
courtyard. Lena thought it was a bag of trash. As the thirteen year old
walked to the rear entrance of the building and banged on the door, a boy
rushed up and begged her for help. 'Somebody just threw my brother from the
window,' he pleaded. Lena ignored him.
An hour later, she went back outside and saw two children struggling
with a pair of arms and legs at the spot where she'd seen the bag hit the
ground. But now she saw a face, it's nose and mouth smeared with blood. A
tiny boy was spitting up teeth and barely breathing. Her screams brought
the neighbors, the police and an ambulance. They were too late.
Within hours, two boys--ages 10 and 11--were in custody, charged
with the murder of 5-year-old Eric Morse. Police say the boys lured Eric
and his older brother, Derrick Lemon, 8, into vacant apartment 1405 in the
Ida B. Wells public housing complex on Chicago's South Side and dangled Eric
out the window twice. Derrick fought them, but the two boys let Eric drop
to his death 150 feet below. The reason: he had refused to steal candy for
them."
I took this story word for word from an article in U.S News & World
Report (February 27, 1995). So many lessons can be drawn from this tragic
story. One is we don't know the value of a thrown-out bag that we step
over. Some untapped potential may be in there if we would only take the
time to look. Or another lesson may be what do we hold in our hands? Is
it a life? Do we drop it or do we hang on to it with all our might?
Or this could be another editorial on the decreasing value of life.
Or the increasing callousness of bystanders. Or the increase of gangs,
crime, problems in public housing, etc. This could all be the Democrats or
the Republicans fault, right?
This story has been told and exploited again and again and again.
But I believe they have missed the point. A child died. That is tragic
enough. A child died because he wanted to do the right thing.
His mother taught him that stealing was wrong. It was wrong for him
to steal that candy and he wasn't going to do it. He wasn't going to do it
despite the harassments and threats. He wasn't going to do it. It cost
him his life.
If you are like me when I was a youth pastor, you drilled into your
group--in every conceivable way--right from wrong. As a parent you do that
also. You teach and you show from example right from wrong only to watch
your precious ones go off to school to be absorbed into some crowd that
doesn't know right from wrong.
So you preach, "Take a stand for Christ!" "Stand up!" "Make a
difference!" And all you get are glassy stares and unbelieving looks saying
"You don't know what it is like." "These are my friends. My Christian
friends stab me in the back." "What has Christ done for me lately?" Oh,
how I know this. I am at school with them.
For what to do about this right from wrong problem, read Josh
McDowell's Right From Wrong. However I want to tell you one more story.
It is an understatement to say that I am a Minnesota Viking fan.
Anyone who knows me personally knows that I love Sundays in the fall. I get
to begin the day with church and then I get to watch Viking football. Those
two together make it clear to me that Sunday truly is the Lord's day.
Living in Virginia and in dreaded Redskin territory, it is a rare
thing for Viking games to be on TV. A very rare thing. Thankfully though,
I have found the Northern Virginia Viking Club which allows me to see every
game. Every game!
Before I found the Northern Virginia Viking Club, I would scour the
sports bars on Sundays looking for the Viking game to be on. Often I would
come up empty. Can you picture this lonely Viking fan going from bar to bar
dejected? (Don't get hung up about me going to a bar now.)
There is always one particular game I knew I could find. It was
Minnesota against the Pittsburgh Steelers and down the street from my home
was the Pittsburgh Black and Gold Club. So for this one game I excitedly
dressed in my purple and gold and went to watch my game.
Well, the place was packed. And everyone was wearing black and
gold. I was the only one there in my purple and gold (no exaggeration
either). I looked until I found one lone chair and sat wondering if I would
be noticed. As if. The colors got me noticed but what really did it was I
couldn't contain my cheers. The Vikings dominated (of course) and the lone
voice told everyone in the club that I was there.
At halftime, people got up to order food or go to the bathroom or
just to shift and find space. Many people walked past me saying, "Wow,
you've got guts to come here." "I really admire that you can sit here with
us." Finally I came up with the best answer to those comments. I said,
"I'm a Christian so I live my life everyday like this."
What a truth that is. Everyday we Christians put on our colors (or
so we should) and sit in a crowd that is living on the other side. And if
we are cheering for our Saviour, people might be saying about us, "Wow,
you've got guts." "I really admire you for being here."
This is what our youth are dealing with everyday when they go to
school. They do not have the adult privilege we have of narrowing our
selection of friends as we grow older. They ride the bus, share lockers,
play sports with people on the "other side." Sometimes they are the only
ones wearing their colors and cheering for the Savior.
Some are not doing it. It is easier for them to blend into the
crowd. But others are doing it. And what a difference they are making.
By the end of that Viking-Steelers game, the Vikings had won (of
course). And instead of being harassed or thrown out of there, I stayed a
while longer talking to my new found friends who had found a respect for me.
I believe that it was because I stayed a Vikings fan in the midst of them
that I was able to share about Jesus, my Saviour. If I could speak to them
about Jesus in Viking colors, there was something for them to listen to.
How do you teach that to your youth? How do you teach taking a
stand for right amongst the wrong? Do what I do when I go preach to other
youth groups. Pray a lot. Live your life like that. Pray some more.
Continue to live your life like that. And pray that your words when you
preach or teach or share or do a skit or stand on your head will penetrate
past those glassy stares and touch a nerve. You will touch a nerve someday.
Something Eric Morse learned touched a nerve. Let his death not be in vain.
Written by Brenda Seefeldt
May 29, 2002
Coming Home to God's Love
The theme for this week is Coming Home to God's Love. I love that theme because Hosea is a difficult book, I want to admit that right up front. This is a very, very difficult book, and yet it is a book that tells us something about the love of God that, perhaps, we learn no where else in the Bible, as we are going to find out today, and throughout the days of this series. We're going to see that God uses Hosea in a very, very strange and unique way to prove His love for His people.
You know, a young man from Brooklyn went off to war one time and shortly after going into battle, in one of the fiercest of the battles of the war, he lost both of his arms. And he asked a friend of his to write back to his sweetheart back home, to release her from their engagement because he felt he was unworthy of her love. When she received the note, she did not answer him. Instead she rushed to where he was, threw her arms around him, and said, "These hands will never let you go, because I love you."
You know, that's a lot the way it is with us and with God. We are so undeserving. We don't have anything to commend ourselves to God. But God throws His arms around us and He says, "I love you, anyway." And we can come home to God's love any time. Some of you may be far from the love of God, today. You've wandered away from the life of the church. You've wandered away from the life of God's family. And you're here searching and seeking and wondering what it's all about.
My prayer is that during the time we spend here in this Book of Hosea, that you will learn what it's all about, and that you will feel the hard tug of God's arms around you, pulling Himself close to you as well.
Well the theme for the Book of Hosea is a very difficult theme. Basically there are three things we're going to learn from the Book of Hosea and they are these.
Number one: sin always brings judgment. You can mark it down, friends. It'll happen every time. Sin always brings judgment. That's the first part of the theme.
The second part of the theme is: repentance always brings salvation. And that's the good news. Sure, sin brings judgment, but if we repent of that sin, God draws us back to Himself and we receive His salvation.
And the third part of the theme is this: underlying all this, my friends, is the unfailing love of God for His people.
Now, we want to focus on the love of God. We want to learn something about the love of God. Here we are in Hosea 1, beginning at verse l. "The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel." Now, let me stop there. We're not at the end, obviously, even of the sentence, but I want us to think about this man Hosea. Just as I say, this is not a very popular book. This is not the kind of person you go to often. The name Hosea in Hebrew means salvation.
Do not confuse Hosea with Hoshea. Hoshea was the last of the kings of Israel. You can learn about him in 2 Kings 17:1. It says, "In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea, son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years." Now it's the same name, but one has an 'H' in the middle and one does not. Hosea means salvation. Hoshea was the original name, by the way, of Joshua. Remember when God was calling those 12 spies to go into the land, Numbers 13:16. "These are the names," He says, "of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua." He changed his name. Now that happened a lot in the Old Testament.
And you recognize that Joshua in the Old Testament is the same root name for Jesus in the New Testament. So, Hosea's name means salvation in the Old Testament, as does Joshua, as does Jesus in the New Testament. It's great to have a name in which you're bringing people back to the love of God and your name actually means salvation. I get excited when I think about people's names. And this name, Hosea, is a name that ought to be on all of our lists, friends, because Israel needed the salvation of God more than any other people on the face of the earth. And yet God called them back to His love, because He's just that kind of God.
Well, I think we need to establish, right at the beginning of our study of Hosea, what kind of times these were--what kind of things were going on in the land during this period of time. Because, let's face it, these people were living in some pretty good times. Economically, things were wonderful for these people. Hosea is the prophet of the Northern Kingdom. That would be the ten tribes to the north. So what it says in verse one, that it was during the reign of Jeraboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, he's basically that king we're going to deal with in this series.
So, Hosea is the prophet for the northern tribes. He is the man who is prophesizing just prior to the fall of Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom. And so, he's living in the last days. The only thing is, the people don't know they're living in the last days.
See, they don't have a clue what's about to happen to them. They're economically very strong. They're morally very weak. They're having good times. Everybody has a lot of money. They're taking vacations. They're going to the south, to the beach. They're going to the north country to the mountains. They're living a lot like we are in America today. And they just don't know what's right around the corner, because sin always brings the judgment of God.
I think there are some really significant 21st century lessons that you and I can learn right from this Book of Hosea. So when Hosea prophesied, no one could have guessed how close the end would be. But it was right around the corner.
Now, it says there that Jeraboam was the king during this time. And in order to understand a little bit about Jeraboam and why these times were so good, let me have you put your hand in there, Hosea. I don't want you to lose that because it's too hard to find. Let's have you put your hand in Hosea and turn back with me to 2 Kings 14.
I want to read to you just a little bit of the historical account of Jeraboam II. This is Jeraboam II, 2 Kings 14. Let's get some historical perspective on these last days before the fall of Samaria. 2 Kings 14:23, "In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeraboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord." (vv. 23-24)
Now, let me stop there. If you think the political system in the U.S. and Canada or in Western Europe is bad, how would you like to have a bad ruler for 41 years? It's bad enough to have a bad ruler for a term or two as President or Premier or whatever, but this is a king who was king for life. So for 41 years, this man does evil in the sight of the Lord. Let me read on.
"He did not depart from all the sins of Jeraboam the son of Nebat." Now, this is another Jeraboam. This is the first of the kings of the northern tribe. "He did not depart from all the sins of Jeraboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher."
"For the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter; and whether bond or free, there was no helper for Israel. And the LORD did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven; but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did--his might, how he made war, and how he recaptured for Israel, from Damascus and Hamath, what had belonged to Judah--are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Jeroboam rested with his fathers, the kings of Israel. Then Zechariah his son reigned in his place." (vv. 24-29)
Now, I took the time to read all of that, because tucked away in those verses, those historical verses, are the reasons why they were having good times. Now let's step back just a moment to see what we've learned.
This man Jeraboam was a very remarkable king. He had great influence. He's the man who restored the northern and the eastern borders of Israel to the way they were during the time of Solomon and David. This is the man who had significant conquests to the north and to the east. And he had great influence down the Mediterranean coast as well. In the south, Uziah was the king at the time, the king of Judah. And he did pretty much the same thing. So this is really a second golden age for the people of Israel and Judah.
Before Jeraboam II, before this man came along, their situation was vastly different. In fact, during the reign of Jehoahaz, who would be the grandfather of this man Jeraboam, during his reign, the Bible tells us that the army of Israel was reduced to 50 horsemen, only ten chariots and ten thousand soldiers. They were decimated. The country was almost wiped out. But, God in His great wisdom did not allow the king of Syria to come in and completely destroy Israel. You can read all about that in 2 Kings 13:7 in fact. He did not allow it to happen.
Jeraboam began to restore the country, began to bring the country back, began to build the armies again, began to allow for economic recovery. This was the golden age of Israel. And Jeraboam was the man who was almost solely responsible for it. Obviously, the hand of the Lord God was on him.
But the interesting thing about this man Jeraboam was this--the wealth abounded. Everywhere you looked, the stock market was doing very well. Everybody was tucking a little away for a rainy day. In fact, they were tucking a lot away for a rainy day. They had never seen economic prosperity like this. But as is usually the case, folks--we're going to find this out very quickly in chapter one--when economic prosperity abounds, usually the social conditions in the country deteriorate.
I want you to think about this with me. Side by side with wealth, there was significant poverty in this realm. Side by side with those who were making a great deal of money, were those who were making almost no money at all. And the gap between the poor and the wealthy was getting wider and wider in the economic good times of Israel.
Development programs today, the United Nations tells us that one-fifth of the population of the United States consumes 86 percent of the resources of the United States. And the lowest one-fifth consumes 1.6 percent of the resources. Now what that means is that the wealthiest one-fifth of people in the United States consume almost everything we have in the United States. And the lowest--see, while economic times are prospering, booming--sometimes social inequity gets wider and wider, farther and farther apart. That was happening in Israel.
Justice was almost nonexistent at this time. Amos, the prophet, who was a contemporary of this man Hosea--Amos the prophet, in Amos 8:5-6 speaks of those who use false balances by deceit so that they can rob the poor. The rich, robbing the poor, in their markets.
In fact, even Hosea himself, chapter 12 in this book, verse 7, says that they have deceitful scales, because the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and nothing seems to be done about it. That's the way it was when Hosea was the prophet. There was significant economic boom, but not very significant social boom. And you know, friends, every time there is a significant economic boom, social things do not follow. Usually moral things do not follow as well.
And while this country was strong physically, while this country was strong economically, morally they were a mess. I mean, just think about the things that were going on. Let's just notice a couple of them here in the introduction to this Book of Hosea.
Look at chapter 2, verse 8. Hosea 2:8 says this, "She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold--which they used for Baal." This is God speaking here. He's saying that, "My people have not acknowledged that all the blessing that they have comes from Me. I'm the one who gave them the grain. I gave them the oil. I gave them the silver and the gold."
What did they do with it? They used it for another god. Morally, these people were becoming corrupt. Skip ahead to chapter 11. There are only a few chapters in this book so we're going to look at all of them in this series.
Chapter 11, verse 1 and 2, "When Israel was a child, I loved him," God said. "And out of Egypt I called my son. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them."
The economic times were booming. Social times were not. And moral times were in the pits. So, anytime you have a great, great, economic boom, social things do not seem to follow and morality seems to decline, you know what's going to happen to that country. These people didn't know and I am afraid we don't know in the United States of America either. But if we know anything about history--if we can see what happened in Jeraboam II's day--after this man Jeraboam was finished, after he was no longer the king, the fortunes of the country just sky-rocketed downward.
Think about this. Jeraboam's son, Zechariah, I read about him a few minutes ago, Jeraboam's son was killed by Shallum after he only reigned six months. And then Shallum was in turn killed by Menahem after he reigned only one month. Now, how would you like to go through economic times that are good because of the stability of a 41 year old reign and then suddenly, a man succeeds him six months and then one month. The man who came in after him, Menahem. He ruled for 10 years, the Bible tells us, 2 Kings 15. And even though he ruled for ten years, his son was put on the throne and his son was killed almost immediately by military leaders. There was a coup in the country. And things fell to pieces.
The fortunes of these people went down the hill very dramatically. And it wasn't very long until the next Assyrian king came along, Shalmaneser V. Shalmaneser V marched right into the region--marched right into Samaria, the capital. And Shalmaneser V took the capital of the ten northern tribes in 722 B.C. And all that we're going to learn about occurred just prior to the fall of the capital.
You see, that's what makes this book so up to date, because they did not have a clue what was coming. And it was right around the corner and they were living it up. But they were not living for God. Hosea prophesied in the days that are strikingly similar to ours. And while these people were, the nation, were living it up, they had no idea how soon the judgment of God was going to come. And you know what? I'm not sure we know how soon the judgment of God is coming.
But remember the themes of this book. Sin always brings judgment. Repentance always brings salvation. And underlying it all, there is always the love of God for His people.
Next week: Part 2 - Living With an Unfaithful Wife
www.backtothebible.org
Our Father, we know that flesh and blood can't possibly reveal these things,
but You, our Father, can open the eyes of hearts that are willingly and
purposely soft before You. We declare to You that You are faithful and true.
Your goodness is everlasting. Your mercy is from beginning to end. You are
all that anyone could ever need--the Alpha, the Omega, the I Am. You fulfill
every great and precious promise, and we cling to You, regardless of what
our eyes can see, our experience, our histories, and our seeming potential.
We know that all things are ours in Christ Jesus. So we look to You and
pledge to You a solid, stable, unwavering walk devoted to You. We worship
You, we love You, and nothing else could ever sway us from that. Amen
- Psalm 83:18 (NIV)
Freedom in Christ Ministries
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Part 1 - Living in Good Times
by Woodrow Kroll
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