Tag Love

God Breaks Out of All Boxes

Todd R Leave a comment

Written around 600 B.C., the Old Testament book of Habakkuk outlines a conversation between the prophet Habakkuk and God, in the few years prior to Judah’s exile in Babylon.  The book begins with Habakkuk’s complaint that evil was running rampant in Judah.  Habakkuk cries out to God about the prevalence of “violence” and “iniquity.”  He cries out about how people are ignoring God’s law, yet nothing is being done about it.  There was no justice.[1]  He’s tired of seeing nothing but evil in the world every day and is frustrated that God doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it.

Then comes Habakkuk 1:5, which to me is one of the most shocking verses in the Bible:

“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.”

Why is this verse shocking?  Because next, God tells Habakkuk that He has arranged for Babylon, a “dreaded and fearsome”[2] nation that does not respect God and that lives by the creed that might makes right, to conquer Judah.  Basically, Habakkuk asks God why He was allowing evil to prosper in Judah, and God answers that He will allow an even more evil nation to prosper and conquer Judah.  Habakkuk must have been perplexed, and God knew it.  He knew Habakkuk would “wonder and be astounded” and we probably feel that way sometimes too.

Habakkuk had expectations about what God could and couldn’t do, but here God says He can, and will, do things that shock us.  Things that we cannot understand, but things that will teach us to trust instead of understand.  Sometimes God doesn’t behave in line with our theological doctrine, but He always does so for a reason.

Another example of shock at God’s out-of-the-box behavior comes from John 13, one of my favorite New Testament stories.  Mere days before going to the cross, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”[3]

Photo by Photoholgic on Unsplash

Peter was shocked.  This was not what he expected from the Messiah, the incarnate Son of God.  So, when we get to verse 8, we read: “Peter said to [Jesus], “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.””

Peter was reluctant to accept a God that would serve him by washing his feet, but what Jesus was trying to tell the disciples was that if they wanted to follow Him as their master, they would have to serve as He served, even if it wasn’t what they expected from God.  They needed to be washed, and then to wash others.

Peter was learning that if Jesus is doing something, don’t question it!  His actions are right by the mere fact that He is doing it, whatever our reason or expectations tell us.  In the Old Testament, God decided to send His people to a Promised Land, then to cause a heathen nation to kick them out of the Promised Land.  In the New Testament, He showed us that His Messiah would be a suffering servant, to teach us to be suffering servants.

God will never do anything that contradicts His character as revealed in the Bible, but the Bible also says, “Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel?” in Isaiah 40:13.  God does not fit within our boxes, our expectations and rules.  We don’t fully understand Him.  Therefore, pay close attention to Jesus the Master, and be ready to follow where He goes, even though it might be shocking!

“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.”

[1] Habakkuk 1:2-4
[2] Habakkuk 1:7
[3] John 13:3-5

Forgiveness and Its Alternatives: A Quint of Quotes

Todd R Leave a comment
Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash

Dear fellow travelers,

Here is another “Quint of Quotes” from my collection.  These quints are five quotes somewhat related to each other, but not exactly in agreement.  These deal with the importance of forgiveness.  Hope you find them interesting and thought-provoking.  Enjoy!

“You can have vengeance, or peace, but you can’t have both” – Herbert Hoover, after World War II

“Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” -Malachy McCourt, Irish-American actor, writer and politician

“Forgiveness is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performs. It meets the greatest need; it costs the greatest price; and it brings the greatest blessing and the most lasting results.”  – Warren Wiersbe

“In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.” – Francis Bacon

“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.” – Jesus, in Luke 6:32-33

Religion That Puts People Before Issues

Todd R 2 Comments

I am on vacation this week, so I’ve collected some old posts about James 1:27 for the week.  I’m reposting them as is, but they definitely need some editing!

It’s become cliché to say social media brings out the worst of people, since they can hide from consequences behind internet anonymity and distance.  Mike Tyson, one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, said “Social media made y’all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.”  But disrespect and wanting to punch people in the face who disagree with us is nothing new.  Just one generation after Adam and Eve were made in the image of God and living in perfect love, their son Cain killed his brother Abel for uncertain reasons.  Genesis also doesn’t tell us exactly how Cain killed Abel, but we can be sure social media wasn’t involved.  Hate doesn’t require an internet connection or working Wi-Fi, only one person deciding that another person is a thing to be defeated, not as a person made in God’s image.  Sometimes by focusing on what we are disagreeing about, we can lose sight of the fact that the person disagreeing with us is inherently valuable.

Today, after months away, we return to a series on James 1:27, which says: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”  James gave careful thought to this phrase, not as hyperbole, but as an example of what perfect religion – worship of God the Father – looks like.  Eternal life is for people who love when there’s nothing more at stake than the person being loved, but putting issues above people is one way we get stained by the world and fail to represent Christ.  Note that I didn’t say ignore the issues – it’s a question of priority.

The Singular Person
Psalm 113 is a Psalm about praising God and making Him known throughout the world, and ends with a very specific praise:

“He gives the barren woman a home,
            making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the LORD!”

To me, what’s most striking here is that this is a singular barren woman, not barren women as a group.  It doesn’t say that God ends all barrenness (although He might).  The Psalmist chose as a climactic ending to this poem about the heart of God and how He wants to be known a praise to God for giving a home and family to one barren woman.  This means that the sovereign God of all the universe is concerned about individuals, their specific circumstances, and their specific need for salvation.  He does not respond to an “issue” of the barrenness of women but responds in a way that satisfies the needs of individual people.  People are not statistics to Him, to be counted and divided into opposing sides until one prevails over the other.  Each person’s needs and path to redemption are unique in God’s eyes, and only He can provide for all.  He is the only way to a perfect world.

Similar to the “barren woman”, James 1:27 is about visiting specific “orphans and widows,” not fighting for the end of all afflictions for all widows and orphans.  He is fighting for people, not total victory in an argument.  While this might seem obvious to some, it’s so easy to exalt issues over people that we don’t always notice when we do it.

The Issue of Family
A common issue today is “family,” which I put in quotes because as an issue it doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone.  A lot of time and energy is put into fighting for “family values,” defined many different ways, and James 1:27, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world,” is relevant in multiple ways.

First, an earlier post of this series, said “whatever its source, civil law is a provision for a fallen world, not a pathway to a perfect world.”  In both the Old and New Testaments, God tells us there will always be poor in the land and that every civil law is inherently limited in a broken world.  Christians should “defend the family,” but in what way?  James 1:27 says to stand for individuals for whom the institution of family has already failed – widows and orphans.  “Pure and undefiled religion” succeeds where law fails, filling the gap with the heart of God, who cares for the specific “barren woman” of Psalm 113:9.  There is no perfect law that solves the issue of “family values,” therefore “visit orphans and widows in their affliction.”  Affliction comes in many forms and is too complex and diverse for any government to deal with entirely.

Second, when we fight for perfection in our laws, taking absolute stands on either side of an “issue,” we risk elevating law to a level it’s not possible of achieving, and we also may justify hurting people in the process, thinking the end result will be worth it somehow.  Once we see the world in fully black/white, either/or terms, it becomes easy to think that if only the right side came out ahead, the issue would be resolved, any collateral damage can be explained, and everyone would be happy.  However, consider the extreme example of violence around both abortion clinics and crisis pregnancy centers.  In that case and many smaller ones, when we cause harm to opponents, we prove that there are cracks in our own system, creating new victims on top of the existing ones.  Those left behind haven’t been helped, but new affliction has been added by those hoping it will be somehow worth it to win the “issue” battle.

Third, ministering to widows and orphans keeps us from the pollution of the world which insists that our salvation is political and based on power.  James 1:27 encourages us to reject a world that wants to put laws, culture, even hashtags above actual people.  The world too often believes the ends justify the means because belief in worldly utopia depends on a 100% solution, but also believes it’s ok to ignore concrete problems while fighting for a solution that will never arrive.  Salvation comes from only one source: the cross.

In the start of this post, I wrote that it’s become cliché to say social media brings out the worst of people, and its cliché because massive amounts of time and energy go into fighting over abstract issues and dividing into groups of “us” and “them”.  James 1:27 says that we are not defined by which side of an issue we support, and what we’re willing to do to achieve victory for our side, but by how we love those individuals for whom this world has failed.

It is better to minister to the ones who have been punched by this world than to add another punch to the damage.

Therefore, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” – Hebrews 10:23-25

And what are “good works”?  “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Religion That Epitomizes Love for God and Neighbor

Todd R Leave a comment

I am on vacation this week, so I’ve collected some old posts about James 1:27 for the week.  I’m reposting them as is, but they definitely need some editing!

What is religion?  In the Bible we get one definition from James 1:27, which says: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”  This may sound like a nice sentiment for a Hallmark card instead of a religion, but James was not resorting to hyperbole for mere effect.  He meant what he said, but what does he mean?

Photo by Robert Guss on Unsplash

Jesus Himself said that to love God and to love your neighbor were the greatest commandments, in a way the highest form of religion, so James is probably using “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction” as the purest, most undefiled form of love.  In James’ time, orphans and widows were the people genuinely unloved by the world – the ones who fell through the cracks of society.  Not only were they without a husband or parents, but society was not providing for them either and they were truly abandoned “in their affliction.”  Anyone caring for them would get no credit or recognition for it.  Therefore, the only motive for visiting them is love for them.  Pure love, with no impurity or stain from a desire to get something in return.

James specifically refers to “God the Father,” who has always taken His own, and His people’s, responsibility to widows and orphans seriously.  He wants to take care of them, but Psalm 94:6-7 says about the rulers of the nations, including Israel: “They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, ‘The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.’”  They preyed on those nobody cared about, and also boasted that not even God cared.

When any group of people – even one with God’s institutions of His law, temple, priests, prophets, and kings ruling the literal promised land – neglects the oppressed, their religion is impure and defiled.  All institutions – including ones provided by God – are useless outside of God’s purpose for them.  The temple was a way to approach God by sacrifice, foreshadowing Jesus’ death on the cross, but Judah used it as a way to appease Him so they could do their own thing.  Jeremiah criticized the religious leaders of his day, who thought they were free from judgement, repeating “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD,”[1] treating the temple as more important than God Himself and a reason God would always bless them.  However, God doesn’t want us to follow a checklist of religious observance – He wants us to be His loving family.

Because they replaced love with empty religion, Israel was cast into exile under the Babylonians, and Jeremiah cries in Lamentations 5:3 that “We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.”  Perhaps God would teach compassion to His people through painful discipline and experience, having to live like those they ignored.

Unstained
Visiting widows and orphans keeps one unstained from the world when society thinks it’s ok to leave some behind.  That it’s ok to think we can’t do any better and that God doesn’t see, and that He doesn’t have an answer for it.  That if we follow the letter of the law, or rely on institutions, but not on the spirit of love, God will just look the other way because we tried our best.

Therefore, don’t visit widows and orphans because its popular, because a law tells you to, or for any reason besides Godly love, because when we mix in worldly motives, we risk loving only those who are popular to love or who our government and culture have put in favored positions.  Maybe we even reduce love to a comment about distant people trending on social media at the time, and not those individuals who are actually suffering the most.  These people are often right in front of us.

It is by ministering to specific widows and orphans in their need that the Christian retains the preservative power of salt and the illuminating power of light to the world.[2]  It’s not the idea, but the actual visiting that is pure and undefiled.  Me writing this and you reading this is only an idea.  But it is a beginning.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Heaven is for people who love when there’s nothing more at stake than the person being loved.  Only Jesus has met the standard of this love, but He has made a Way to Life for those willing to accept His Truth.  Jesus willingly takes our stain on the cross, and gives us His righteousness as a free gift, but only if we actually want His righteousness more than we want our stained world.  In Christ, the Father will change His people into people who care for widows and orphans.  People like that don’t need anything else to make a perfect society.  It’s loving people that make a perfect society, not rules and institutions, and certainly not good intentions that leave people behind.  Paradise will be a society that is pure, undefiled, and unstained, and where the only Institution needed is Jesus, our Prophet, Priest, and King.

No better solution exists than God the Father’s plan to build a family where everyone loves Him and loves their neighbor as themselves, and when we visit widows and orphans, we illustrate the truth that God sees them and cares for them, even when nobody else does.

Visiting widows and orphans is Religion that epitomizes love for God and neighbor.

[1] Jeremiah 7:4
[2] Matthew 5:13-16

Provision for Eternity

Todd R 2 Comments

The story of Joseph in the book of Genesis is full of drama, but more importantly, lessons.  After being sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, Joseph rises to the position of overseeing all of Egypt, under only Pharaoh.  God blessed Joseph with the ability to see and interpret others’ dreams, and he was able to interpret one of Pharaoh’s dreams, which foretold seven years of bountiful harvest that would be followed by seven years of famine.

Based on this glimpse of the future in a dream, Joseph recommended the following plan, which they put into action: “Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years.”[1]  This stored provision of food would help get Egypt through the years of famine.  But there’s also another lesson in Joseph’s plan.

Like Joseph, we have knowledge of the future that, in our case, we have learned through the Bible – that destruction is coming to this world.  Not just a regional famine, but worldwide, total judgement and destruction.  God’s word is like a dream that God has interpreted for His people through His Spirit so we may prepare for that future time.

How do we make provision for the world to come?

Photo by Diane Helentjaris on Unsplash

In Joseph’s case, he had Egypt use its current resources to invest in the future he knew was coming.  We can do the same, but how?  We can invest through our tithes and offerings.  By loving someone as Christ would.  By giving our time in service.  By supporting missionaries.  By being a strong witness in word and deed.  We do it when we do anything to advance God’s kingdom in this world, in His church and among our neighbors near and far.

These investments don’t save us – we are only justified by faith in what Christ has done for us – but that same Christ has told us to “lay up” these investments in Matthew 6:19-20, which says:

 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Many of us save and invest diligently for goals like retirement, college, vacation, a house or a car, and we should.  But we should also save and invest diligently in eternity, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”[2]

How can we invest today?

[1] Genesis 41:34
[2] Matthew 6:21