Today’s “Sunday Share” comes from C. Christopher Smith, who writes that “Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount were not meant primarily for us as individuals. Rather, they offer a vision of what maturity in Christ looks like for our church communities.” He suggests that churches that practice “stability, conversation, and rhythms of work and Sabbath” equip their members to “follow in the patient way of Jesus.”
What practices help your church community develop disciples?
Full article linked below. (Estimated reading time 8 minutes)
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and other fruit of the Spirit can be hard to come by during political campaign season. Social media and traditional news outlets are usually geared toward sharing bad news in normal times, but during campaigns the mudslinging and negative attitudes go nuclear. Hyperbole is not supposed to be taken literally, like if I said, “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” but in politics it seems every election is the most important ever and the other candidate or party is going to destroy everyone. Responsible civic participation is a must in a healthy society but when it becomes apocalyptic, it may be a sign we’ve put government in a place only God should be.
Around 600 BC the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk was stressed out. Ancient Israel had the law of Moses and the temple in Jerusalem. They had God’s prophets, priests, and kings. Habakkuk’s circumstances should have been ideal. He saw his political, religious, and economic systems as the best possible, because they were from God Himself. However, it had all been corrupted by sinful man, often for the benefit of the powerful. Therefore, God told Habakkuk that He was about to do something utterly terrifying, unexpected, and unbelievable to His people:
“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” – Habakkuk 1:5
God gave Habakkuk really, really bad news. Everything around him was going to crumble, because God was going to use the horribly wicked Babylonians to judge Israel and violently take them captive into exile. To us, this would be like God promising us that all of our worst political fears would be realized and that there was nothing we could do about it. Naturally, Habakkuk couldn’t believe it, so he asked God to teach him and waited for an answer:
“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.” – Hab. 2:1
In God’s reply, He tells Habakkuk that “the righteous shall live by his faith.”[1] Not only will God ultimately judge the Babylonians, who were just tools in His hands, but His people must trust and be patient in the meantime, even exiled from the Promised Land without Israel’s institutions, which had proved useless anyway. Habakkuk felt much better, finding peace and even joy! He ends his book with this powerful prayer of faith and joy in Habakkuk 3:17-19:
“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, Yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer’s; He makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.”
Habakkuk’s joy was real, although his situation was horrible. None of this is hyperbole, so why don’t more people have the unshakable joy of Habakkuk? For most of the world’s population, it isn’t because their circumstances are worse than his. So, what is it about politics and the fear of losing an election that robs us of joy and peace? Sometimes there’s no quick solution and a lot of long-term self-examination is required.
Sometimes we must also say:
“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.”
So, over the next 4 Saturdays, I’ll be re-sharing some old posts related to reducing the political temperature. Maybe we can even find some joy in knowing our sovereign God is real, He is in control, and He knows what He’s doing, whatever our circumstances.
In chapter two of the book of Joshua we meet a prostitute named Rahab, who lived in Jericho. When Joshua sent spies into Jericho, Rahab hid them and lied about it. Bible commentators have a lot of things to say about Rahab’s lie: Perhaps a lie isn’t as bad a sin as letting the spies be caught. Maybe it was ok because she did it for a good reason. Or it was ok because it was somehow in faith. These explanations should worry us, because if we accept any of them, we can be tempted to apply the same principles anywhere we see fit. Should we rank sins, and allow ourselves to “only” do the lesser ones? Or only do them when we think it is in the best interest of the church or our country? Should murder or other crimes be allowed when we think it is for the greater good of mankind?
I think what really makes the story of Rahab tricky isn’t whether what she did was a sin, but that we know – in general – that God works through sinners, but we don’t like to think that through to the specifics. We don’t want the sins of the sinner to happen quite so close to God’s action of working through sinners. It makes us a little uncomfortable, but the truth is that God has only worked through one sinless person ever – Jesus. Every other person He has used has sinned, and God’s will has always come out ahead.
The message of Rahab’s lie might not be that sin is sometimes ok. It might be that no matter how bad our sin, Christ’s sacrifice is greater. Without this being true, there is no gospel, but somehow it still makes us uncomfortable at times and we want an explanation for God using sinners that just isn’t there, except the explanation of the cross.
Sometimes God’s grace overwhelms our sin, and we succeed in spite of ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we did the right thing. Thank God for His love and let His grace overwhelm you today! Don’t look for explanations or excuses, but kneel before the cross where sins of all kinds and degrees were paid for.
Too often I start reading something thinking it will be encouraging, but find it filled with phrases like “post-Christian world,” or “Christianity’s decline.” I just read that apparently, I’m “living in the ruins of Christendom.” However, because Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” our faith and hope are not based on any ruin or decline we see in the communities and world around us. Other things may end up in ruins or in decline, but Christianity does not. It was not in decline on Good Friday and it is not in decline now.
In a recent post about the massive expansion of Christianity under Communist China, I wrote: “As Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 – ‘And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ This rock is the gospel of the kingdom of God, and not even a brutal regime like that of Chairman Mao could prevail against it.”
The best of the kingdom of God is always in the future, never in the past, which brings me to the Rewind Wednesday part of today’s post, from last November:
“Today, many will hear the good news of the kingdom of Jesus, and some may hear and be saved! Also today, none will be snatched out of His hand! (John 10:28)
During the pandemic, most of us found we had extra time on our hands. In my case, I did not have to commute to work, and many other activities I’d normally do were shut down, so it was easier (not easy) to make time for private time with God in Bible study and prayer. However, as I’m now in “Return to Office” mode, working 2-3 days a week in the office, I’ve been reminded of Mark 1:35, which says: “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, [Jesus] departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”
Jesus got up early after a very busy night, which Mark describes in verses 33 and 34: “That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.”
I am not naturally a morning person, and finding time has been harder, but as I’ve written: “whether you’re working at a job, at home, retired, a student, a parent, or in any role in this world, as God’s creativity was to be reproduced by Adam and Eve, the character of Jesus is being developed in His people in this world.” “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”[1] If even Jesus needed daily prayer and time to listen to the Father to get His work done, how much more do we all need that time?
My post-pandemic routine is different than my pre-pandemic routine, and daily time with God is not about the means, but the end. He has work for each of us to do, and whatever your means of having relationship with the Father, making time to spend with Him is vital for approaching each day as an act of worship and service.
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 