Tag Matthew

The Depths of David’s Emotion

Todd R 2 Comments

One of my favorite things about the Psalms is the honesty and outpouring of emotions from the authors.  Even King David is very transparent in the many Psalms he wrote as prayers to God, making him more relatable to us.  We can see he’s not perfect, we can empathize with his pain, and we can often see ourselves mirrored in David’s experiences.

Since David is known as a man after God’s own heart, we often see the depth of his concern for others.  One such passage is Psalm 35:13-14, where David cries out:

“But I, when they were sick—
            I wore sackcloth;
            I afflicted myself with fasting;
I prayed with head bowed on my chest.
I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;
             as one who laments his mother,
            I bowed down in mourning.”

How often do any of us put this much effort into crying out to God for someone else’s well-being?  But who are the “they” at the beginning of the verses?  Who is David so concerned about?  We can see that it is someone who was sick, but it wasn’t a brother or his mother, so probably not a family member.

David. Photo by Jack Hunter on Unsplash

The depth of David’s pleading to God for the “they” in Psalm 35 is even more striking because the “they”…are his enemies!  The Psalm begins with:

“Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me;
            fight against those who fight against me!”

The rest of the Psalm suggests there are many people making false accusations about David, “malicious witnesses” out to destroy him.  David cries out to God in verse 8:

“Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it!
And let the net that he hid ensnare him;
            let him fall into it—to his destruction!”

David vents a lot of negative emotions before getting to verses 13 and 14, but he does get to the point of concern for these enemies.  He lets off a lot of steam begging God for justice, but never writes about taking justice into his own hands.  This is the honesty I love about the Psalms – if you’re angry, it’s ok to vent to God!  But it’s not ok to pray to God so you can take vengeance on your enemies yourself.

It’s only natural to be angry at our enemies, but in Christ we are more than natural, so we don’t have to do what comes naturally.  Here is what Christ expects of His people, as written in Matthew 5:43-46:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”

David’s venting in Psalm 35 is the part that anyone can do, but what really stands out is the depth of David’s love for his enemies!  As I wrote earlier, how often do we put this much effort into crying out to God for someone else’s well-being?  Even if they are our friends?

Jesus enables us to be supernatural, which is sometimes what we need to love unconditionally and pray as David did.

“But I, when they were sick—
            I wore sackcloth;
            I afflicted myself with fasting;
I prayed with head bowed on my chest.
I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;
             as one who laments his mother,
            I bowed down in mourning.”

Is Christianity Like Improv Comedy?

Todd R 2 Comments

The TV show Whose Line is it Anyway? is probably the most-widely-known form of improvisational comedy, and one of my favorites.  Four performers act out short scenes based on a set of rules for each scene or game, spontaneously adding their own creativity and (if successful) humor.  For example, in the “Props” game, pictured, the performers were given two “P” shaped props to make jokes about.  The show wouldn’t be any good if they just showed us the props and explained the rules over and over again.  The show is pointless without spontaneous creativity.  But why am I writing about improv on a Christian blog?  But why am I writing about improv on a Christian blog?  Because today I’m writing about a Bible study that leaves us to ask: Whose Plan is it Anyway?

Whose Pun is it Anyway?

In Judges 6-7, God delivers Israel from the Midianites using Gideon, who thought God couldn’t use him because “my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”  At times, Gideon doubts God is speaking to him and that He really means what He says, but God patiently answers Gideon’s questions and performs miracles, encouraging Gideon to move forward.

Eventually, Gideon and his 300-man army attacked the enemy army, which was “like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance.”[1]  After Gideon split his army into three groups, this was the plan of attack:

“So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands.  Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, ‘A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!’”[2]

Whose Plan is it Anyway?
This is where improv comes in: the text does not tell us who came up with this wacky attack plan.  Was it God’s idea or was it Gideons?  Why leave it ambiguous?  I think it is because, either way, it is not a decisive factor in the victory.  The attack plan works because of God’s involvement, no matter whose idea it was.  If it was Gideon’s idea, he was only using the abilities his Maker had given Him for the purpose of glorifying Him.  If it was God’s, Gideon was also only using the abilities God gave him and dedicating them to God’s glory.

What’s amazing is that Gideon went from testing God with fleece to carrying out this attack.  God had Gideon convinced it would work, and that it would work because God would make it work.  Victory didn’t come from any advantage Gideon had or created, and all along God was determined to get the glory.  The plan would have failed if God had not put fear into the camp, and had not let Gideon know about that fear by way of a dream a Midianite soldier had.

Like improv comedy, God’s rules only go so far before the performers need to take over.  God gives us patterns, which are like the rules of an improv skit, not step-by-step instructions in every aspect of our lives.  Adam and Eve were shown a pattern in the Garden of Eden, Moses was given a pattern for the tabernacle on the mountain, and Jesus lived a pattern of how to love the Father and our neighbor.  Beyond the patterns and rules there is so much to do and explore.  His will is for His people to make the world like Eden, to worship Him as He should be worshiped, and to love the world the way Jesus loved.

The Little Things
To hear and obey His voice, we must spend time with Him in prayer and study, diligently learning the patterns He has laid out for us, but He does not expect us to stop there. At some point, we must take the guidance we have and move forward with the wisdom and creativity He has endowed us each with.  When we do we will be like the servant who successfully invested his Master’s resources, and in return “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”[3]

However, if we either do not diligently seek Him, or if we say He has not given us enough instructions, we may find ourselves cast out from the Master’s presence, hearing: “you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.”[4]

In Gideon’s story, we see God’s compassionate understanding toward His people who struggle to hear and obey His voice but keep trying.  We, like Gideon, are not always faithful over the little things such as prayer, study, and regular worship.  But Only He fully knows the depth of our doubts and struggles, and He provides what we need to trust Him and move forward in faith, knowing our doubt is never fully overcome until eternity.

In the story, we also see that we must often act on trust, even when we think we have incomplete information.  Like Gideon, we should be imperfectly persistent, wrestling with God who knows our faith is imperfect.  He can bridge the gap to us in His unlimited grace.

So, where does God’s guiding voice stop, and our God-given creativity begin?  Like a good improv comedy scene, the parts can come together perfectly, glorify God, and encourage His people to come along in faith, as the men of Naphtali, Asher, Manasseh, and Ephraim joined the battle against the Midianites once it was clear God had delivered the victory[5].  When we seek Him and find Him, and in faith move forward to spread His character and creativity in the world, glorifying Him.

God is glorified when His people attempt things that sometimes don’t make sense, then succeed because He provided the way.  It’s always His plan anyway.

Soli Deo Gloria

[1] Judges 7:12
[2] Judges 7:19-20
[3] Matthew 25:21
[4] Matthew 25:27
[5] Judges 7:23-25

The Kingdom Jesus Wants

Todd R 2 Comments

At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, He spent 40 days alone in the wilderness and at the end of this time was confronted directly by the devil with three temptations.  In the first, the temptation was to fulfill His physical need for food.  In the second, to display His power presumptuously.  This post will focus on the third temptation, as recorded in Matthew 4:8-10:

“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”  Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
             “‘You shall worship the Lord your God
                        and him only shall you serve.’””

As with the first and second temptations, Jesus uses God’s Word to combat the temptations, in this case quoting Deuteronomy 6:13.  Jesus knew that to live a life of perfect obedience, He needed to worship God only in every action He took.  Even one action that gave in to Satan’s ideas for Him would have made Him an imperfect sacrifice and we would all still be dead in our sins.  There would be no Christianity and no salvation for anyone.

But I also think Jesus knew that the kingdoms of the world just weren’t worth ruling.  Sinful people need a Savior who can heal them, before anyone will be able to rule them.  Therefore, Jesus was not interested in the unredeemed kingdoms of the world, but in redeeming His people and building His perfect kingdom person by person.  The world as it is just isn’t good enough.

After all, what good is a kingdom full of people who only worship the wrong things?  What good is a world without hope of redemption in Christ?  In his book A History of Christianity, British historian Paul Johnson doesn’t shy away from the evils of the world and the failings of the church, which some say disprove that there’s a loving God.  However, in the epilogue Johnson asks what if there was no Christianity at all?

“Certainly, mankind without Christianity conjures up a dismal prospect. The record of mankind with Christianity is daunting enough… for there is a cruel and pitiless nature in man which is sometimes impervious to Christian restraints and encouragements.  But without these restraints, bereft of these encouragements, how much more horrific the history of these last 2,000 years must have been!”[1]

On the other hand, what if Christianity is true?  In a world redeemed by Christ, man does not have “a cruel and pitiless nature,” but the perfect sinless nature of Jesus.  There will be nothing but encouragements to live a life of love for God and others.  Restraints won’t even be needed.

This is the kingdom that Jesus finds worth ruling, and will rule, eternally, thanks to His overcoming of Satan’s temptations and perfect life of obedient love, so we someday may have a perfect life.  In this kingdom,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
                        and him only shall you serve.’””

Eternally.  Amen.

[1] Johnson, Paul.  A History of Christianity.  (1976).  P. 517.

How Shall Christians Be Known?

Todd R 1 Comment

The mark of a relationship with Christ has taken many forms over the ages, but with one common factor: a self-sacrificing love.

In the book of Genesis, Joseph, son of Jacob, has a fascinating story.  Joseph was favored by his father, despised by his brothers, sold into slavery in Egypt, but eventually rose to a position of prominence under Pharaoh.  In Genesis 41, Pharaoh learns that Joseph has interpreted dreams and calls for his help with Pharaoh’s own distressing series of dreams.  Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams as a prophecy of seven years of famine and recommends a plan to get through it.  After this interpretation comes Genesis 41:38, where “Pharaoh said to his servants, ‘Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?’”  We connect Pharoah’s recognition of God’s Spirit in Joseph to the correct interpretation of dreams, but there is more to it:  Joseph also cared for the people of Egypt and oversaw the plan to survive the famine.

In the book of Acts, after Peter’s proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to many “rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem,”[1] Acts 4:13 records that “when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”  These crowds knew that Peter and John had been with Jesus, that they had a similar spirit.  They had something that comes not from this world’s schools or from what it holds in distinguished, high regard.  Instead, “they were uneducated, common men,” but they carried the mark of Jesus.  They had a connection to an unknown source of boldness and were concerned for the spiritual needs of all people.

In the Psalms, a Psalmist (probably David) wrote in Psalm 119:97-98:

“Oh how I love your law!
            It is my meditation all the day.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
            for it is ever with me.”

The Psalmist praises God’s commandment as a source of wisdom better than anything available to his enemies.  By meditating on God’s commandments, the Psalmist is “wiser than my enemies,” because he has a wisdom from an unworldly source.  He carries the mark of Christ, but what is this commandment and what is this wisdom?

Photo by Khadeeja Yasser on Unsplash

In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus says the greatest commandments are: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  In other words, any and all commands of God are subordinated to the command to love God and neighbor, including our enemies.

In John 13:34-35, Jesus reiterates the rule, telling His disciples: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Therefore, how can all people “find a man…in whom is the Spirit of God?”  Where will the world find astonishing boldness and good news among even “uneducated, common men”?  They will find it in those who have the fruit of the Spirit, which begins with “love,” but also includes “joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”[2]

So, does someone have a physical need like those impacted by the famine in Joseph’s day?  Does someone have a spiritual need for hope that only the gospel can provide?  Love provides the answer to both needs, and by love will the world know Christ’s disciples.

Therefore, make Christ known today by loving someone as Christ would.

[1] Acts 4:5
[2] Galatians 5:22-23

Stay on Target

Todd R 2 Comments

Every Christian needs some “Gold Five’s” in their life.  Who is Gold Five?  He’s the guy known for saying “stay on target” repeatedly in Star Wars.  If you’re a fan, you know this line, but for those who don’t, here is some background:

In Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, released in 1977, the climax of the story is a space battle between the good rebel forces and the evil Empire.  The Empire built a moon-sized battle station capable of destroying entire planets called the Death Star, which was getting into position to destroy the rebel base.  Fortunately, some rebel spies stole plans for the Death Star and located one fatal weakness: an exhaust port that led to the main reactor, but could only be approached by a long trench in the surface of the Death Star.  After other pilots failed, the hero, Luke Skywalker, was getting into position to fly his X-wing starfighter down the trench.  He’s under constant fire from cannons and enemy fighters and distracted by the intense battle going on everywhere above him.  But in this battle only one thing really mattered: attacking that exhaust port.

Enter Gold Five.  We don’t know Gold Five’s name, but as Luke was flying down the trench and having trouble focusing, Gold Five radios to Luke several times “stay on target!”  Luke refocuses[1] on his mission and succeeds in firing torpedoes down the port and destroying the Death Star.  Just in time, of course.

Every Christian needs to hear from people like Gold Five – people who keep us on target – often.

Luke was distracted by enemy cannons and Tie Fighters, and our enemy seeks to distract us in many, many ways.  There’s a massive spiritual and physical battle constantly raging all around us.  Much of our culture is designed to draw us to every “new” thing.  These are constant messages telling us to pay attention to things we shouldn’t.  To put our politics or other philosophies above our obedience to our Maker.  To fight battles that aren’t ours and that keep us from our own goals.

Temptation to stray from Christ’s specific mission for us is everywhere, and the desire to not give Him our best with everything He’s given us can be strong.  When these distractions bombard us, we need to hear “stay on target.”  Not once and probably not twice, but over and over again.  When the world is screaming loudly in our eyes and ears, we need to hear Gold Five speaking into our headset.  We need someone to encourage us to stay on the path God has laid out for us.

As Jesus is quoted in Matthew 7:13-14 –

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

There are many voices that lead to the wide path of destruction, but who are your Gold Fives?  How can we all be better Gold Fives?  We all need more of them.

Stay on target!

[1] With some help from Obi-Wan as well.