The Unreceived Gift

He came to His own,

and His own did not receive Him.

John 1:11

Since John foreshadows the end of the story, I don't think it will do us any harm to skip there for a moment either. The saddest part of the greatest story ever told is that those who were meant to hear it and believe instead rejected it.

One in four babies born in the world are born in China, even with population control laws in place. Another fourth of the world's children are born in India, where there is no population control. But to neither of these two prolific and ancient civilizations was Jesus born. Christianity has often been touted as the White Man's religion, but Jesus wasn't born to European parents. It has been called a Western religion, but Jesus wasn't born in a Western Civilization. Jesus was a Jew, born to Jewish parents in the Jewish nation and raised as a Jew in a Jewish culture. He wasn't schooled by Eastern mystics or Egyptian sages or Western pagans. He was schooled as a Jew by Jews to grow up and be a Jew. Jesus came to the Jews.

It wasn't by accident that the Savior of the world had humble beginnings in a nation that seemed to be nothing more than the crossroads of greater civilizations. When God became flesh, taking on the form of a man, He did so as Jewish man. It wasn't an arbitrary choice, it wasn't happenstance or coincidental. It was deliberate and very intentional. For it was through the Jewish race that God has always revealed Himself to the world. Even though the ancient progenitors of all mankind could not be called Jews by any stretch of the word, there was a direct ancestry of holy men from which the Jewish people descended--Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, Eber, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, became the father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The Twelve Tribes of Israel became a nation of three-million in Egypt, and it was through them that God brought His law to earth, carved in stone just for them. It was to Israel that God entrusted the mysteries of life, liberty, and the pursuit of true happiness--the joy of knowing and serving the Lord. It was to the Jews that He promised a deliverer; it was to Abraham, the father of the Jews, to whom the Lord promised blessing beyond imagination and descendants beyond number, and through whom the Lord promised He would bless all the nations of the earth.

So in fulfillment of His many great and precious promises to His Chosen People, when God became flesh, he came in Jewish flesh, a Jewish man come to save the Jews. He gave His life and ministry to help the Jews, to aid the Jews, the save the Jews. Some received Him. Some believed Him. But the saddest part of the greatest story ever told is that in the end, Jesus came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. They rejected Him as a nation, rejected Him as their Messiah, rejected Him as their king. And though that was a bad decision for them, it was a good decision for me. Because they did not receive Him, He was given in turn to the nations who were lost without God, lost without Him. And they received Him, and as many as did became the sons of God.

Knowable, but Unknown

He was in the world,

and the world was made through Him,

and the world did not know Him.

John 1:10

This passage just keeps getting richer for me; the more I look at it, the deeper each simple statement about Jesus becomes. Take this verse for instance.

Once more John emphasizes Jesus' role in creation--the world was made through Him. Jesus caused the universe--in the Greek, the cosmos--to come into existence. He was the spoken Word of God that brought it all to pass. He brought the world forth on a universal stage and caused all things to happen according to His Divine will, plan and purpose. In six days He finished the work, and on the seventh day he rested from the labors. Jesus made it all!

Then Jesus came into the world that He had made. The creator of the universe, eternally existent before anything was, stepped into His creation and made Himself known. Recently I heard someone comparing the human perspective of the created universe to the Divine perspective. From where we stand, the universe is enormous, unfathomable, unmeasurable. Just about the time look as far as we can through our giant telescopes, we invent a better telescope that shows us a universe still without end. And yet from God's standpoint, perhaps He sometimes says, "The universe? The universe? Now where did I put the universe?" The created cosmos may be big (and big is such a small term to describe the infinite wonders of creation), but our God is bigger still. In spite of that, He was still able to enter His creation as He willed and do as He willed.

Do you remember the old song:

How big is God?

How great and wide His vast domain.

To try to tell, these lips can only start.

He's big enough to rule the might universe

Yet small enough to live within my heart!

The Creator of all that is entered His Creation as part of it, but when He did, His Creation did not know Him. He knew His creations, but they did not know Him. He perceived everything in the cosmos and understood it, but the cosmos did not perceive His presence, nor understand Him. The world at large did not become acquainted with Him, though He became acquainted with them and all their sorrows. He knew them, but they did not know them. To put it a different way, even though they saw Him and heard Him and experienced Him in a close-up and personal way, they were never intimately knowledgeable about the heart of the One who came to them.

What a shame, what a sadness, what a tragedy. The Creator came into the world He had made, and the world did not know him. But He came so that they might know Him, and in knowing Him believe unto eternal life!

The First Witness

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light

that all through him might believe.

He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

John 1:6-9

Each of the Gospel accounts, in their own unique way, connects John the Baptist with the beginning of Jesus' ministry, and with good reason. John the Baptist was the first witness for Jesus Christ. He was a man with a mission, sent to precede the Messiah with an urgent call for people to repent. There were special prophecies spoken over him before he was even conceived, spoken over him at his birth. Prophets of old made statements that were fulfilled in the man, John.

John could rightly be called the first apostle, as that is what is said of him in the original language. He was a man given orders from God, one both sent and driven by God. I believe there is the implication in the Greek that it also means he was ordered by God to go to an appointed place at an appointed time, which is why we know absolutely nothing about John the Baptist from the day of his birth until he appears on a wilderness stage along the Jordan River with his loud cry for repentance and commitment. He had no purpose in life but to bear witness to the Light, and until he had something to talk about, he had no reason to be in the public eye. But when Jesus was ready to enter the ministry, John was ready to witness it.

John was a man sent from God, and he had one purpose in life--he came to bear witness of the Light, that through him all who heard him might believe. He came to bear witness...Do you know what a witness does? The witness of a crime points there finger in a police line-up or in a courtroom and says, "That's the man." The witness of an event gives a detailed and accurate account of what they heard, saw and experienced first hand. The witness of a document signs their name and says, "I affirm that this document is faithful and true." John was sent from God to be a witness, and what an example he gave us!

One of the things I've always found most interesting about the Biblical concept of witness is the Greek word behind it: marturio. Though in the lexicons it is simply one who bears witness or gives testimony, the Greek word lends itself directly to another English word with an even more impacting application--martyr. A martyr is one who lays down their life for their belief or their message. Jesus commissioned His disciples to be witnesses, and said that the Holy Ghost would give them the power to do it. Every one of those men save John the Beloved Apostle, starting with John the Baptist, gave their lives as martyrs for the cause of Jesus Christ. They gave their lives in service to the message of repentance and salvation. They gave their all for Jesus! Perhaps most importantly of all, we need to understand that being a witness for Him is more than telling someone about Him. We must first die for Him, that we might live, and continually die everyday on the cross with Him, that He might live through us.

John came to bear witness of the Light, the true Light that gives Light to every person born on this planet, and John also understood that he himself was not that light. He had that Light shining upon Him, and He stood as a representative of the Light, but his life was limited. There are many things which give limited amounts of light--the flame of a candle or a lamp, the fire on a hearth, a spark from a stone, an electric lightbulb. But these all are limited in their extent and in their endurance. Eventually, a lightbulb burns out and a flame exhausts its fuel supply and goes out. None of these are true light, they only bear a resemblance.

Jesus is the true light, the real nature corresponding to the name of Light. He is the genuine article, the real deal, not a semblance but the reality of Light. He has no limitations, and He has no end. His Light will never be extinguished, and He shines everywhere! He shines His Light into the hearts and upon the lives of every person born, and to those who receive Him as Savior and Lord He gives His Light to guide them forever!

In Him Was Life

In Him was life,

and the life was the light of men.

And the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:4-5

In just five short verse, John has given us so much theology about the identity of Jesus Christ. He was the Word who was with God, who was God, who was in the beginning with God. All things that were made were made through Him, by Him, and for Him--and without Him nothing was made. He was life, and He was light! Wow, this Jesus that we serve is something wonderful!

In Him, the Gospel says, was life. He was the source of life. The giver and sustainer of life. So much of his identity, especially in John's record, is tied to life. Jesus called Himself the Bread of Life, the Water of Life, the Way the Truth and the Life. At the tomb of Lazarus He called Himself the Resurrection and the Life. He is life, and the life that He gives is the light of men.

Did you know we cannot survive without light? Turn off the sunlight, and we die. Going back to the beginning, which we have done with John repeatedly, we find that the first thing God said was, "Let there be light," and there was light. It was the first thing He created in Genesis. But if you read on in the creation account, you find that God did not create a sun, moon, or stars for four more days. How could there be light without a celestial body to shed it? Consider Revelation 21:23--the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

Jesus Himself, eternally existent with God in the beginning, was the light that lit this planet for four days without a sun! Life and light begin with Him!

The light shines in the darkness; I mean, that's what it does. Try to define darkness, and really the only way to describe it is that darkness is the absence of light. There are many levels of light intensity, but there is only one degree of darkness. If it's dark, you can't see at all, but add one particle of light and suddenly things are visible. Shine a lot of light, and darkness turns into shadows and shades of gray. Shine enough light, and darkness dissipates completely. Jesus Christ is that kind of light. He shines a sovereign light into spiritual darkness and darkness has to flee.

In that spiritual sense, you must come to the light to understand the light. Just seeing the light of Christ shine gives you neither knowledge nor understanding. There were those who witnessed firsthand the things Jesus did, and still they did not know to believe. Still they doubted and questioned and wavered and refused to believe. The darkness did not comprehend the light. Many times our response to the light is, "Why does it have to shine so bright? Can't we dim the light just a little bit?" But He shines as light ever bright unto the perfect day! But there is in the language of the Bible the understanding that not only does the darkness not understand or comprehend the light, it cannot overcome the light.

Darkness is not the presence of anything that makes it dark; it is the absence of light. Darkness cannot combat the light, nor can it overcome or repress the light. It is always the light that wins out over the darkness every time it shines. Jesus is that kind of light!

Creative Power

All things were made through Him,

and without Him nothing was made that was made.

John 1:3

John has a way with words. It all seems so simple, and yet it's so deep. Jesus was the Word. He was in the beginning. He was with God. He was God. He was in the beginning with God. And through Him God made everything.

Everything that exists, everything that has ever existed or ever will exist, does so by the power of the spoken Word of God. Jesus was the breath and the sound and the voice of God. Jesus was the Word going forth from the presence of God to accomplish the Father's sovereign plan. We see it happening, witnessing from the darkness that first creative event when God simply was, when His Spirit hovered over the face of the deep. And then God said...

We know what He said. But John tells us in His Gospel that it was more than just speaking. When God uttered the command from His presence, the Word went forth, second person in the trinity in action because God spoke His will and His mind. The Word turned on the lights. The Word separated the ocean from the sky. The Word brought dry land out of the deep and caused it to produce plant life. The Word brought fish and birds from the sea, brought animals from the land. The Word brought forth man from the dust and breathed into Him the breath of life. All those things which God created He did so through the power of the Spoken Word.

Psalm 33:6 says that by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

Proverbs 8 personifies Wisdom as the creative agent of God, which is again the Spoken Word of God. Wisdom is the very mind, will and intention of God. Wisdom is the heart of God. Wisdom is that which framed the worlds and sustains them.

Paul writes in Colossians 1 that by the Spoken Word of God all things were created in heaven and on earth, both visible and invisible, even thrones, dominions, principalities and powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Get a hold of that! Jesus is the Spoken Word of God, the Verbal Inspiration of God, the Creative Power of God in voice. By Him all things were created. Through Him all things were created. And for Him all things were created. This planet was not the random collection of space dust thrown together by a swirling mess following the big bang; life here was not a random collision of proteins to form the first amino acids, which are key to DNA, the building blocks of all life; humanity is not some kind of cosmic evolutionary byproduct. God made us by Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. We were put here to look like Him and to be like Him. And David says we are fearfully and wonderfully made!

The Word

In the beginning

was the Word,

and the Word was with God

and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

John 1:1-2

When the Apostle John put pen to paper for his telling of the story, he goes back to the beginning as well. Only he reaches back into the mists of eternity and starts at the very beginning...the same beginning Moses recorded 1500 years earlier, the same beginning spoken of in oral traditions around patriarchal campfires for 2500 years before that. He starts with the commencement and initiation of all things, at the very first.

Genesis has already established that at the very beginning, God was already there. In fact, that one simple statement is the foundational basis for everything the Scriptures have to offer us--in the beginning God. No explanation, no reasoning. Just that. In the beginning God. John shows us that the Gospel message, the good news about salvation, started before start. In the beginning was the Word.

Much has been made over the fact that Jesus was called the Word in John, or rather the logos. John will use the term over and over again in referring to Jesus Christ, the very embodiment of God, God made flesh, the fullness of the Godhead in human bodily form. Nothing that I can say about logos is a mystery or a revelation; any lexicon would tell you the same.

In Greek philosophy, logos was used "to designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates a changing universe."

Logos was a word spoken by a living voice, a word which embodies a conception or idea.

Logos was the sayings of God, the moral precepts of God, the decree and mandate of God.

Logos is prophecy, it is declaration with power, it is continuous dialogue and instruction, it is proclamation, it is testimony, it is narrative.

Logos is the subject, that which is spoken of.

Logos is the mind, reason, and will of God.

And just in case anyone missed his point, John says: The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Jesus was with God at the very beginning; when you read the Genesis account you find the reference to God creating, to the Spirit moving, and to the Word bringing things about. God said, and it was. That spoken command to be was Jesus. Though the word "trinity" never appears in the Bible, we understand from the very beginning of both the Old Testament and the New Testament that God was eternally existent in the triunity of God, Word, and Spirit, or Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Jesus was with God, Jesus was God; He always was God, and He was always with God. They are one, and yet different. They are two, and yet the same. What a wonderful, beautiful, mysterious concept!

One more thing might be said of Christ at the beginning. John says it here, In the beginning was the Word. In Revelation, John records the words of Jesus saying, I am the beginning and the end. Not only was John telling us when Jesus was in the opening line of his Gospel; he was also telling us who Jesus was--Jesus was the beginning.

The Beginning

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark 1:1

Every story has a beginning.

The greatest story ever told has it's beginnings, its roots and origins, in eternity past, for it is the story of the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God eternally existent in three persons--Father, Son and Holy Ghost. For eon upon eon and so on with neither beginning nor end forever, He Was, He Is, and He Is To Come. But on a night 2012 years ago, the Holy Ghost moved upon and overshadowed a Jewish virgin, through His sovereign power conceiving in her womb the Father's Only Begotten Son. And that's where this story begins.

The story itself is good news to the world. At a time when things are so bad, or at the very least uncertain, in our world, there is still good news, and only one source for that good news. It is found in this which we call Gospel. When disorder, depression, disease, divorce, and death seem to be the overriding factors in our society, there is good news. When war and terrorism and violence among men is all we hear, there is good news. When lust and greed and envy and sloth and gluttony and wrath and pride are the celebrated virtues of the day, encouraged and fulfilled in whatever way seems best to us, there is good news. When sin abounds and the love of many has grown cold, there is good news.

And the good news is this--that Jesus came to save us!

At the heart of this story is the principal character, the one about whom the story is and around whom the story revolves. He is Jesus, whose name means God is Salvation. From His inception within the eternal Godhead to His conception in the womb of a virgin, from His birth in humble surroundings to His death with the base and His burial with the rich, and from His victory over death and hell by His resurrection from the dead to His promised return to rule and to reign, He is salvation for all who will believe and receive this good news!

He is also the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. He is the one chosen to redeem us from our sins, slain before the foundation of the world was ever laid, always destined from time immemorial to be the Savior of All. He is the Anointed Prophet, for He came proclaiming the Word of God. He is the Anointed Priest, for He ever lives to make intercession for us at the right hand of the throne of God. He is the Anointed King of Kings, and He shall reign forever and ever! He was conceived under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and later commissioned by the coming of the Holy Ghost upon Him, and He read the words that said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me and has anointed Me!"

Not only is He Jesus Christ, the Anointed Savior, but He is also the Son of God. He was one with God from the beginning of eternity, but at the beginning of His earthly mission, He willingly took off the glory of the Godhead and came in the form of a humble servant, weak in the flesh, but still the Son. Though we are all called sons of God, He was the only begotten, the only one ever conceived simply by the power of the Word of God and the Will of God. He came from the Father, yet He was always one with the Father. He came to do the will of the Father, and fulfilled it completely before He returned to the presence of the Father. And one day He will return and gather us to Himself that He may present us to the Father as sons also, sons not by birth but by choice, His choosing and ours.

This is the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God.

God Will Take Care of Us

Have you ever seen someone who obviously isn't serving God succeed, and succeed well, and then wonder how God could allow them to do so when it seems like those who are serving God can't even get a single step up in life?

Have you ever wanted the rewards and riches that life has to offer, and been just a little envious of the fact that those who would do anything to get them don't deserve them, and those who deserve them won't do what it takes to get them?

There are those in this world who do as they please, with no regard to either God or man. They live by the precepts of lust, greed and covetousness, doing whatever they can to get what they want and satisfy every physical craving and hunger their body and soul demand. They lie to get what they want, steal too. Some may even kill for it. They blaspheme and fornicate and dishonor those things that God gives high priority, and when they are done, they shrug their shoulders, dismissing with a laugh any thought that there might be consequences to pay.

Recently there have been some thoughts--passing, fleeting musings--of how unfair it is that I sometimes seem to be struggling through life with no relief in sight while trying to please God, and those who could care less about pleasing God have no cares or worries in the world. But today, the Spirit really moved me when I began to read Psalm 37. And what does the Scripture tell us to do?

• Don't fret about them; they'll get what's coming to them.
• Trust in the Lord and do Good
• Dwell in the land and feed on God's faithfulness
• Delight yourself in the Lord...

AND HE WILL GIVE YOU THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART!

• Commit your way to the Lord and trust in Him
• Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him
• Cease from anger and forsake wrath

It goes on an on with good instructions for clean, Godly living, assuring us that the righteous will be rewarded and the wicked will be punished, and I have to decide for my life which I'm going to be. But my favorite verse in the whole Psalm is verse 25:

I have been young, and now am old;

Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,

nor his descendants begging bread.

I Value Faith

Faith is foundational to my worldview as a Christian. Without faith, nothing else matters. Without faith, all the things that should matter become irrelevant. Without faith, it is impossible to please God, which is the reason I am here in the first place.

Faith is first and foremost in the things I value, the prime factor in fulfilling my roles, relationships and responsibilities.

Faith is the reality of the the things I hope for, the proof of the things I cannot see.

Faith is the substance of belief, an abiding conviction and persuasion that, first of all, God is, and secondly, that He rewards those who are really looking for Him by being found.

Faith is the assurance that One far greater than myself and all the collective universe combined is absolutely sovereign and in control of all things, and that He works all those things out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Faith is the confidence that life has meaning, that God has a purpose, and that I have a destiny.

Faith is the trust I place in the grace of God for salvation through Jesus Christ, the knowledge that what God has promised, that will He also do, that what God has started, He will also complete in you!

Faith is what produces from within me the character of Jesus Christ, that driving force that inspires me to be more like Him and less like myself, which also results in good works that exemplify my faith.

Faith without works is dead, therefore I prove my faith by what I do.

Faith is the victory that overcomes the world and its ways.

Faith is the beginning of life, the end, and the beginning of eternal life with God in Christ.

Faith is fundamental to everything else--Family, Friendship, Fellowship, Freedom, Fitness, Forgiveness, Fruitfulness, Faithfulness, and the Future. Faith is everything.

Yes I Am

In trying to think of ways to explain what it means to be a Christian, I never run out of ideas. I could probably blog from now 'til Jesus comes and never get through testifying about what it means to be a Christian. But I want to move on to other topics, as well. So let me sum up...

I am a Christian. I follow Christ. I am His disciple. I was made by Him to be like Him, and I want to become more and more like Him every day. I believe in Him, and I believe His Word. I am a student and a teacher, an imitator and an example. I belong to Him, and I want to be with Him.

I am forgiven. I am redeemed. I am born again. I am loved unconditionally, and I love in return. I am a new creation. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. I am committed. I am determined. I am resolved. I am persuaded. I am confident.

I have hope. I have life. I have a future. I have assurance. I have all that I will ever need in Him. I have a calling on my life to worship Him and to serve Him. I have a destiny. I have a purpose, and God has a plan for me.

Most of all, I am blessed in every possible way because I am His, and He is mine.

I Believe

Being a Christian, belonging to Christ, means that I believe and have placed my trust in something far greater than myself. I am a mere mortal living out my human existence in a frail, flawed, fallen state. I do not have the power, the knowledge, or the ability to do anything that even remotely comes close to saving myself in either a temporal or eternal sense. But the good news is I don't have to. God, through Jesus Christ, has done everything necessary for me to be redeemed, saved from sin, sickness, satan, self, and ultimately eternal separation from God. All that is required of me is that I believe.

I believe in God, the eternally existent I AM, who was before anything else was, who is all the time everything I need Him to be, and who will continue forever to be after everything else has reached its end. I believe in Him as the Almighty Creator, who brought all that is into existence through the power of His spoken Word and who sustains it all with the power of His will. He is the source of everything everywhere, and without Him there is nothing that can exist now, that has ever existed before, or that will ever exist after.

I believe that the Bible is the divinely inspired revelation of God to His creation, that those ancient texts provide my human understanding with all the information I need to know God and to live for Him. It is my all sufficient guide for faith and conduct, for belief and practice. When it speaks, I speak; when it is silent, I am silent. If it says it, I believe it, for it has the answer to every question and the solution to every problem. I believe that it is the written Word of God, and that every word within it is meaningful to my personal life. As I have often said, I believe it all from Table of Contents to Maps.

I believe that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, that he was God made flesh to dwell among men, to bear my sins in His sinless body to the cross on which He paid the ultimate sacrifice for my salvation. I believe that He has been given the Name above every name, and that it is the only Name by which we can be saved. I believe in Him as my Savior, my Healer, my Baptizer, any my soon-coming King of kings and Lord of lords. I believe that He died, that He was buried according to Scripture, and that He rose again on the third day, and that He appeared to many witnesses who gave testimony concerning the reality of His resurrection. And I believe that He is alive today, sitting in heaven at the right hand of the majestic throne of God in heaven.

I believe in a whole lot of other things, but mostly what I want to communicate is that I believe in God, I believe in His Son, and I believe in His Word, and those three have made me what I am, govern my life completely and make me become what God wants me to be. And I cannot pick and choose what to believe about God; I must put my faith totally and completely in what He has revealed of Himself to mankind through His Son and His Word. And in doing so, I know I can never go wrong.

I Belong to Him

Being a Christian is not about belonging to a church or a denomination or a religion. Being a Christian is about belonging to the God of all that is. In fact, belonging to Him is what makes me what I am. I am a Christian because I am His.

In a world that embraces independence and personal freedom, I am proud to say that I belong to God. I cannot live without Him, I cannot live outside of Him. I live because He says I live, and that life should be lived as He says it should. I am not my own. This body that holds my soul and my life will one day be exchanged for a new one incorruptible, but both this shell and the glory that awaits belong to God. In accepting God as my God and Jesus Christ as my Lord, in receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a seal of adoption, I have given up my freedom and my independence. Whatever freewill I had I have gladly surrendered to Him who is able to keep all which I have committed to Him.

And I am not my own because I have been bought with a price. I am saved by grace, the free gift of God, but just because it was given to me freely does not mean it was obtained without a cost. Jesus Christ paid the price for me with His own precious blood, with His very life and breath, purchasing through His sacrifice my very existence. I was a slave to sin and satan, bound for hell with no redeeming qualities in and of myself. He has redeemed me by grace, not because I deserved it but because He wanted to do it out of His own love for me. And because the price has been paid and I have been ransomed from a lifetime of sin and an eternity of separation from God, I live my life in the Son of God.

I have become the precious possession of God, His own special individual. I am indebted to Him forever for what He has done for me, and I know that I can never repay Him what I owe. But He has forgiven any debt I owe, erased the account that was against my name, and extended His love, His grace, His mercy to me freely, asking only that I give myself totally and completely to Him. Now I no longer have authority over my body or my ability to choose to what to do with it. To exercise my own authority is to reject His. To choose myself over Him is to reject the wonderful gift so liberally given to me. This body is His, a body prepared to do the will of God, a temple prepared as a dwelling place for the very holy presence of God, a living sacrifice offered as holy and acceptable to God. This is my reasonable service, for I am His servant and His Son.

I belong to Him.

I am a Christian

Titles are impossibly inept in defining and describing what is really meant by the statement, I am. To say that I am a Christian is more than just putting a definition on my current status or commitment. It is more than an explanation of the beliefs and convictions to which I subscribe. To say I am a Christian is, to me, a summation of my very existence. It is what God intended me to be from the beginning of creation, what He destined me to become at His appointed time, what He wills for me to be until the end of my life that I may inherit the eternal things beyond this earthly life and existence. To say I am a Christian should in and of itself explain me and everything there is to know about me. Before I am anything else, I am a Christian.

But what does that mean?

"They were first called Christians at Antioch," the Bible tells us. It was originally a term of derision, of bias and prejudice and hatred, an epithet uttered against those who were different. It was applied to those who followed the teachings and imitated the lifestyle of the one called Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. And it was taken up proudly as a banner proclaiming to the world who they were and what they were about. These were the disciples of the Christ, the anointed one, the lamb of God who died and rose again to take away the sins of the world and save for all eternity those who believe in Him for salvation. Yes, I am a Christian.

I am a disciple of Him. I am a student of Him. I am a follower of Him. I read His word to know what He said and did, to learn what He expects of me, and what He has promised. I pray to Him and I a converse with Him, knowing that He hears me because His Word says that He does, but also knowing that He talks back because I have experienced it for myself. The Lord Jesus Christ still communes and communicates with those who are His. I try to live my life as He would have me live it, thought I will be the first to admit that I do not always measure up completely to the fullness of His stature and standard. There are times that I fall short of His glory, but when I do I know that I am falling on His grace.

Ultimately, as a Christian I want to be like Him, just like Him. I want to look like Him, and walk like Him. I want to talk like Him and touch people like He touched them. In His Word He promised His disciples that if they lived in Him and became like Him, they would do as He had done and greater things also. I strive to live in Him and to become like Him, so that I can do as He did.

My Manifesto

A number of years ago, I went through the personal exercise of developing a mission statement for my life. I identified my several roles in life and the ideals I valued most in helping me fulfill my responsibilities, and then I brought it all together in a manifesto that I have tried to revisit annually to keep me mindful of those truths I believe foundational to my life. Now I'd like to present that manifesto here and write about the values that shape me and my worldview.

I am a Christian.

I am a preacher.

I am a son.

I am a brother.

I am an uncle.

I am a friend.

I value

Faith

Family

Friendship

Fellowship

Freedom

Fitness

Forgiveness

Faithfulness

Fruitfulness

Future

I will love and I will serve.

I will honor God above all else.

I will honor those things I value most

in fulfilling the responsibilities of my relationships and roles.

I will honor Jesus Christ in all that I do,

continually growing to become more like Him.

This is my manifesto.

A Blessed Tent

The house of the wicked will be overthrown,

but the tent of the upright will flourish.

Proverbs 14:11

Who is more blessed? Is it the one who is settled in a house all his own, with all of his furnishings and possessions and treasures under a solid roof? Or is it the sojourner in the portable tent? We live in a church culture that continues to insist that wealth and worldly success are the marks of true righteousness, that obtaining power, possessions and popularity are signs of God's favor and blessing upon a life. And many times, our pursuit of God has more to do with what we can get out of the relationship rather than how we can grow.

Abraham was a man of God who dwelt in tents, with Isaac and Jacob his descendants. He was rich by this world's standards, but he had no house to call home. He was called to follow God wherever God led him, which meant his humble abode needed to be mobile out of necessity. In a moment's notice, it could be taken down, rolled up, and packed on a camel's back for a journey to God-knew-where. A house all his own might have kept him from being that obedient, that willing to break camp and move whenever God wanted him to. A house all his own might have offered so much comfort that the inconvenience of a transient lifestyle might have made him stay put.

Abraham never had a home on this terrestrial sphere, and he never owned a piece of ground except a burial plot. But the Bible said he understood he was just a pilgrim in this world of sin, someone who was passing through to a far better country. With eyes of faith he looked beyond what man could build to that city which has foundation, whose builder and maker was God. Having received the promise of an earthly inheritance, He kept his eyes on the skies, the true prize of the righteous...not a home built of wood and stone, but a mansion of glory in the presence of God.

And consider those who had houses while Abraham dwelt in tents. The five cities of the plain were consumed by God's fire for their sins, and Lot lost all he had in the conflagration. Two generations later, the city of Shechem was put to the sword and burned by Abraham's grandsons. Four generations after that, Joshua led the people of Israel in conquest, taking over those cities that had been built by the godless. Houses don't make you safe, and cities don't make you secure. It is rather the relationship with God that grants you safety and security.

I'd rather be blessed in this tent as a faithful man of God, than die in spiritual squalor in a house all my own.

Jesus Didn't Come Today

The Long Day ended at sundown, and Jesus didn't come.

Maybe you're not familiar with the Long Day, but it is a forty-eight hour period celebrated by the ancient Israelites to commemorate their new year--Rosh Hashanah. It is actually known by several names or alternate designations, but called primarily in the Bible the Feast of Trumpets. It was a High Holy Day, a special Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, and a holy convocation, the first day of the seventh month on the religious calendar, but the first day of the first month on the civil calendar.

It is the only Jewish festival celebrated in connection with the New Moon, that first silver sliver of light that appears after the waning of the moon has ended. In ancient times, the appearance of the New Moon was unpredictable in terms of the exact day--it could occur on either of two days--and this gave rise to the saying, "No man knows the day or the hour." After a month long procession of trumpets, the shofars fell silent on the eve of the Long Day, and two witnesses stood together at the break of day watching for the rising of the moon. When they saw the light, a trumpet was sounded again, this time a long loud blast on the trumpet, the stuttering of the tongue against the roof of the trumpeter's mouth adding staccato notes between continuous long blasts until the trumpeter ran out of breath. It was called the great trumpet blast, and was also referred to as the Last Trump.

Jesus could come on any day, but there are many indications in Scripture that the Feast of Trumpets--the first of three fall feasts in Israel--is the next thing to be fulfilled on God's prophetic calendar. And Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:51 concerning the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the catching away of the living, "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed--in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." And so the day of the last trump is always marked on my calendar.

It is marked on my calendar, not because I think I can live like I want to 363 days of the year and then repent on Rosh Hashanah just in case, but because Rosh Hashanah serves as a reminder that Jesus Christ is coming back, with a trump and a shout, and I want to be ready whenever that day comes!

Sudden Destruction

He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck,

will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Proverbs 29:1

There is a vast difference between punishment and discipline. Discipline is about making one a better person, about teaching them to learn from their mistakes and do it right the next time. Punishment, on the other hand, is about making one pay for their mistakes. Discipline is for children; punishment is for criminals. Discipline is for for servants; punishment is for unrepentant sinners. Discipline produces a disciple. Punishment produces a prisoner.

God wants us to be children He can disciple so that we become what He desires us to be. His Word shows us what He expects of us, what He desires for us. But He won't ever make us do what He wants us to do. We don't have to be disciples. We can instead choose to reject His Word and rebel against His will, thereby becoming slaves to a cycle of punishment that leads to our destruction.

Perhaps the worst thing we can do is not change under the loving discipline of God. We choose to sin, to transgress God's ways, and then we suffer the consequences of our actions. On top of that, the Holy Spirit within us brings conviction from the Word, and we suffer guilt and condemnation from the Word and from our own hearts. The voice of God tenderly calls us back to Himself, beckoning us to return to Him from a moment of willful wrongdoing. And what do we do? Just as we had a choice when it came to sinning, we have a choice when it comes to changing.

But the one who is oft rebuked and corrected and called to change, and chooses not to change, is promised nothing but sudden destruction. And this kind of destruction is eternal and without remedy. So it's much better to change now under the chastening of the Lord, than to suffer the consequences of stubbornness and stupidity forever.

A Happy Man

Happy is the man who is always reverent,

but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

Proverbs 28:14

I want to be happy. I think everyone wants to be happy, and I don't think there is anything wrong with desiring to be happy, or actually being happy. The problem is with the route people take to get happy.

Some people find happiness in pleasure, in recreation, in possessions. Some people find their happiness in their accomplishments or accolades. But the Word of God teaches us that true happiness is found in becoming and being like Jesus Christ. The great Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the beatitudes that read like this: "Blessed is the man..." should really be understood to mean "Happy is the man." Happy is the man who is pure, who is holy, who is hungry for righteousness, who is peace loving and meek. Happiness is about our relationship with God.

Having a reverence (and a healthy fear, as I've come back to all month long) for God is the source of our happiness. Happy is the man who is always reverent, who always honors God, who always lives to please God. Happy is the man whose focus is upon worshiping God and living for God. Happy is that man!

But when we harden our hearts against God, refusing to do what is right and live the way that is right, when we rebel, we bring about our own calamity, and eventually destruction. And we do so under the deception that we will be happier doing what we want to do rather than doing what God wants us to do.

Friend, let me tell you--you will never be happier than when you are doing what God wants you to do.

What I'd Rather

Open rebuke is better

than love carefully concealed.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend,

but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Proverbs 27:5-6

We all have our preferences. I'd rather have steak than salad. I'd rather have Coke than Pepsi. I'd rather have Dr. Pepper than Pepsi. I'd rather have Sprite or Sierra Mist or 7-Up than Pepsi. I'd rather have sweet than unsweet. I'd rather have it cold than hot. There are a lot of things I'd rather...

I'd rather have someone in my life who loved me, than someone who hated me. I'd rather have someone in my life who was honest with me, than someone who was deceptive. I'd rather have someone in my life who was faithful, than someone who was treacherous.

But there are some people in the world who would rather surround themselves with false friends who will tell them only what they want to hear, who will flatter and praise, who will always agree no matter what the question asked or position taken.

Solomon believed it is better to have someone to rebuke and correct you openly when you need it, than someone who loves you secretly. How much better it is to have someone in your life who is willing to tell you you're wrong when you are, than someone who will just go along with whatever you want to do, regardless of whether it is right or wrong. I might learn from the one who is open and honest, but the one who hides their feelings is of no value or help to me at all.

A friend, a true friend, will confront my sin. A true friend will correct me when I'm wrong and show me a better way. A true friend will be absolutely honest with me, and a true friend will do it in love. And it may hurt to hear it, but at least I'm hearing it from a friend who loves me. A kiss from an enemy can be dishonest and deceitful; just ask Jesus about that kiss from Judas. A kiss can cover for hatred and spite. A kiss can distract from truth. But there's nothing dishonest about correction. And Solomon believed it was better to be wounded by his friends for a moment than to be betrayed by a kiss for nothing.

Searching for Answers

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,

but the glory of kings to search out a matter.

Proverbs 25:2

How many times have we heard it said, how many times have we said it ourselves--why didn't God just say so? There are any number of issues--practical, theological, revelational--which are not directly addressed by name in the Scriptures. There are lots of doctrinal beliefs that are not exactly spelled out in black and white in one neat little sentence package.

For instance, nowhere does the Bible say, "Tongues is the initial physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Ghost."

Nowhere does the Bible say, "The rapture of the church will happen before the seven years of tribulation God is sending upon the earth."

Nowhere does the Bible say, "God is eternally existent in the persons of Father, Son and Holy Ghost."

In fact, the term rapture is never used in the Bible. Neither are trinity, demon, or millennial reign.

And why do you think that is? Some would point out the fact that since there is no clear-cut doctrinal statement in the Scripture on these and lots of other subjects, we cannot make a solid stand on any of them. However, this is not the tack we should be taking with these issues.

Proverbs 25:2 says that God hides things for us to seek. He put lots of interesting concepts in the Bible, only He spread them out through several books over several hundred or even thousand years, and the reason He did so was so that we would search those concepts out. He wanted us to become familiar with the Word so that we would be able to follow themes from the opening verses of Genesis to the final amen of the Revelation. He wanted us to seek truth in the entirety of Scripture, not just find one simple statement and say, "This is what I believe." He wanted us to base our beliefs on what the full gospel and the whole counsel of His Word!

Thank God for Grace

Let's face it. I'm a messed up man, the son of a messed up man, from a long line of messed up men that goes all the way back to the first messed up man--Adam. I'm far from perfect, but then I've never met anyone who wasn't. We are members of a fallen race, living in a fallen world. Our messed-upness is both the cause and the result of our separation from God, and our continued messed-upness will certainly result in eternal separation from God. I have no hope that I can help myself be any better than I am...

But God in His grace has offered me forgiveness of my sins through Jesus Christ His Son, redemption from destruction and an abundant life in Jesus Christ, and the promise of an eternal inheritance incorruptible preserved in Heaven for me by Jesus Christ.

Without the forgiveness, the grace, and mercy of God, I would be lost and drifting in this life, hopeless and helpless, without purpose or plan, without a future. But now I'm saved; I've been born again. I'm a new creature; old things have passed away, all things have become new! I'm a child of God, bought with a price, His own special possession. I am part of the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, and the holy nation! My slate has been wiped clean; my present is ordered by the Lord; my destiny calls and I press on toward the goal, the upward call that is in Christ Jesus!

The Bible tells me that if I love God, I will keep His commandments. If I love God, I will not sin. But it goes on to say that if I do sin--and boy, do I--I have an advocate with the father who pleads my case. I have a comforter who comes along side to help me when I falter. And I have a friend who sticks closer than a brother; when I fall, He is there to help me get back on my feet and continue on my journey. And when I confess my sins to Him, He is faithful, He is fair, and He will forgive.

Those are just some of the reasons why I love Proverbs 24:16.

A righteous man may fall seven times and rise again,

but the wicked shall fall by calamity.

Where am I going?

A man's steps are of the Lord;

How then can a man understand his own way?

Proverbs 20:24

I have often asked the question of Christian people: Would you like for God to send a seven-foot angel with a telegram on the end of a flaming sword that will tell you everything about your life for the next 20 years? And I'm always surprised that there are actually people who will respond in the affirmative! As for me, I'm happy not knowing where I'm going to be, what I'm going to be doing, and who I'm going to be with this time next year. I live my life with a little insight into what I call "the next step", for which I believe God prepares all of us if we are sensitive to His leading.

The Proverbs are full of little statements like this about the sovereign power and order of our God. We plan, but it is God who directs. We try to live righteously, and God orders our steps. And I believe this--I don't have to have coffee and toast every morning with Jesus so that I can know what I need to do that day. There are plenty of things I have to do; lots of things I should do; and many more things that need doing. God gave us wisdom to prioritize our day; so let's prioritize--what must be done, what should be done; what needs to be done. And then add a fourth, what do I want to do? But what I want should always come after I have fulfilled the others, not before.

And when God wants to interrupt our schedule, we need to let Him. We need to listen to His voice, the guiding of the Spirit, and we need to obey. But I trust that God is the one ordering my steps, and I know I may never understand everything, so I don't even try. I simply trust the One Who Does.

A Life of Fear

The fear of the Lord leads to life,
and he who has it will abide in satisfaction;

He will not be visited with evil.

Proverbs 19:23

Here it is again--the fear of the Lord. Having it is good for you; it leads to blessing, wisdom, and life. Not having it turns you into a fool going to your own destruction. As I've said before, it is healthy to fear the Lord, to have a reverence, respect, and regard for His Word and His will, for His very person. Having it leads to life.

Remember that Jesus said of Himself, "I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be safe; he shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief comes not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy, but I have come that you might have life, and life more abundantly!" In fact, nearly ever statement Jesus made about Himself had to do with life. He said, "I am the bread of life. I am the water of life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the light of life. I am the resurrection and the life." As the vine, He is the source of our life as well. Jesus is life, and fearing Him leads to it!

Not only does it lead to life, but fearing the Lord leads to being satisfied in life. When we please the Lord with our fearful walk, we reap the benefits of His pleasure. I'll tell you the truth; I'd alot rather live in His blessing than in His wrath. Those who have no fear of the Lord do whatever they want with no regard for righteousness, no regard for conscience, no regard for the prompting, appealing call of the Holy Ghost. They go on their way to destruction. But for those who have found the Lord and fear Him as they should, there is a satisfied life that surrounds them, and that awaits all who would come into it!

Creatures of Community

God never intended for us to be isolated individuals; we were created for community. In the beginning, we were made by God to be like God so that we could have fellowship and communion with God. Shortly after the beginning, God saw that it was no good for man to be alone, so He created woman and blessed them to be together forever, becoming one flesh and filling the earth with others like them, who would in turn be like Him. We were made to be together, and yet the malady of our day is loneliness.

Solomon had something to say about isolation and community in Proverbs 18.

A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire;

he rages against all wise judgment. (v. 1)

It is not good for man to be alone. First of all, if we are only listening to ourselves, we develop a very narrow perspective on life and the pursuits of living. Our worldview is as small the sphere that is our world. If we don't hear other voices, we may never know that some with gifts and talents different from our own may have something beneficial to contribute to our lives. If we don't share our heart in community, we may never discover that some of our ideas aren't so good, or that some of our actions would best be left undone. We need the perspective of community, but one who remains individualistic and isolationist seeks only his own good and rages against any wisdom except his own.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing,

and obtains favor from the Lord. (v. 22)

It is not good for man to be alone. God made woman to be the comparable and equal partner to man in all things. Woman and man, they complement each other, they fit together, they two can become one in body, mind, soul and strength, one in heart. So when a man finds the woman who wants to be his comparable and equal partner in all things, when he allows his wife be his comparable and equal partner in all things, he obtains the favor and blessings of the Lord. It's not about each man finding just any woman, it's about the right man finding the right woman, and thereby finding God's favor.

A man who has friends must himself be friendly,

but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (v. 24)

It is not good for man to be alone. But if someone wants companions and fellowship, they must first be companionable. If someone wants friends, they must themselves be friendly. When we isolate ourselves and concentrate on feelings of loneliness, our tendency is often to withdraw ever further from community, draw even further away from other people. Instead, God wants us to make an effort toward other people. And in spite of the old adage "blood is thicker than water", there is nothing better in this world than a friend on whom you can depend!

We are creatures of community, and that's how God wants us to be.

Living by the Word

He who despises the word will be destroyed,

but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.

Proverbs 13:13

I live according to a Christian and Biblical worldview. That means that my life is governed solely by the principles of God's Word, and it's a good way to live.

There are a lot of different ideas in the world about how a person should live, how they should conduct themselves, how they should believe. Some have a live and let live mentality; others, a live and let's kill. I am neither. While I believe in each individual's right to make their own choices to determine the kind of life they are going to live, and I have no intention of infringing on those rights, I also intend to exercise my right--nay, my responsibility--to tell them what the Bible has to say about our life and our choices. If someone doesn't want to accept my worldview, it doesn't make me hate them or want to dispose of them; that's their choice.

But what we all need to understand is that each of us must ultimately face God with the decisions we have made and reap our eternal judgment--punishment or reward; it's our choice.

And this verse brings us upon the concept of fear again, this time the fear of God's commandments and God's words. Disobedience to the word of God meant destruction. At the time this Proverb was written, the penalty for being caught in transgression of God's word was death. If you steal, you die. You kill, you die. You commit adultery, you die. You lie, you die. Worship a false god, you die. Worship an idol of any kind, you die. Blaspheme God, you die. Work on the Sabbath, you die. Dishonor your parents, you die. And finally, covet something in your heart, you die. The commandment was something to be feared, honored and respected.

Today, the penalty is the same, only it is not measured out instantly or immediately. The punishment for our sin, if we remain in an unrepentant state, awaits us in eternity. But if we have feared the commandment of the Lord, we will be rewarded!

Hey Stupid!

Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge,

but he who hates correction is stupid.

Proverbs 12:1

I have joked that I'm a wealth of useless information. For instance--armadillos have leprosy, Emily Morgan was helping Santa Anna with his siesta, and the Melungeons are a mixed race people group from the mountains of western Virginia and the Carolinas. But I'd also like to think I know lots of useful stuff, too. The fact is, I like learning, because I like to know. And I always want to be right.

Instruction doesn't bother me, and I've found that there is always room in my life for more. Just this week, a Pastor friend took me to the Word and showed me something new that just might revolutionize my thinking on a certain matter. Now finding something new in the Bible shouldn't be all that unique--but what he showed me was something I had read, studied, and taught others many times over without ever seeing what was REALLY being said. So thank you, Ed. I learned something this week, even while I was trying to teach others.

But with instruction comes correction, which most people don't like. I don't like being told I'm wrong; probably because it happens so seldom that I forget it's possible (a little humor here). I don't even like being proven wrong, because I try so hard to be right. But when the correction comes, I have a choice. I can either change so that I become right, or I can insist on continuing to be wrong.

He who chooses the latter, the Bible says, is just stupid.

More Fear

The fear of the LORD prolongs days,

but the years of the wicked will be shortened.

Proverbs 10:27

Up to this point, Proverbs has been laying a foundation about wisdom, perhaps the main lessons Solomon wanted his son to learn. But moving into Chapter 10, we find the familiar pattern of Proverbial couplets--something about the righteous, something about the wicked, and so on and so forth. This verse is one of several like it, but I focused in on it because if went right along with my thoughts over the last few days about the fear of the Lord.

If the Bible can make any other point clearer, I don't know what it is. God is good for you. God is good for your health, your happiness, your family, your finances, your relationships, your profession. In every area of life, things are made multitudinous times better by the blessing of God.

Fearing God will prolong your life; sin will shorten it. If that concept is a little vague, think about it this way. People who aren't Christians have no convictions about what they do to their bodies, even though they know what they do may harm them. Habits like smoking, drinking and doing drugs are not habits normally associated with a Christian lifestyle. Sex outside the blessing of marriage can be just as dangerous, what with all the diseases and jealous lovers out there. Criminals running afoul of the law could be shot; if they go to prison, they could be shanked; if they cross their own, they could get the shaft in a mortal kind of way.

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, holy living increases your chances of survival!

So You Want to be Smart

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 9:10

I think education needs to have a high priority in everybody's life; I'm just not sure that we are going about it the right way. I mean think about it.

We send our kindergartners to school and Teacher reads them the classic literary work about Jimmy's two mommies or Lisa's two daddies. Soon they're being introduced to really intelligent concepts like our ancestral ascent from the bottom of the primordial soup as amoeba which evolved into monkeys which evolved into us--never mind that there are still monkeys! They're bombarded with all sorts of atheistic, anti-Christ, anarchist propaganda that usually goes against any kind of common sense parenting. Then they're given prophylactics and little pink pills and encouraged to go experiment, and if the experiment produces undesirable results, a secret trip to the local PP can fix your little red wagon and no one ever needs to know.

Our culture tells us that in order to be successful and make lots of money, we need to be a rock star or football star or porn star...OR we need to pursue higher education. And what does higher education give us? A Bachelor of Science, otherwise known as BS. Not satisfied with a four year degree that takes no less than five years to earn? That's okay, because next you can get an MS, or More of the Same BS. Still not ready to enter the work force and put those papers to work? Get a PHD, where it's Piled Higher and Deeper! Or as one friend of mine puts it--you spend four years learning a little bit about everything, then you do a Master's Degree to learn more and more about less and less, and finally you get a PHD after which you know everything about nothing.

I have nothing against education, and I have nothing against pursuing higher degrees. Perhaps one day I'll earn something more than my 98.6 degrees. But it has been my observation that a lot of people are educated far beyond their intelligence, or at least their capacity to function rationally in the real world. Getting an education has become a god in our pantheon of cultural universalism, to be pursued at all costs to the forsaking of all other constructive pursuits, and then when we get our education, we either don't know what to do with it, or we're overqualified for any job we might want to get.

Some people think that an education, a degree, and letters after their name are actually what is important in life. But what so many people, educated and not, often fail to understand is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Getting to know the Lord is true understanding. Want to know the meaning of it all? Know the one who made it all mean something.

Hating Evil

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;

Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.

Proverbs 8:13

There it is again--the fear of the Lord. Fear does mean terror, and the reality of coming face to face with Almighty God ought to strike terror in the hearts of those who don't know Him. Fear also means being in awe, which ought to be the attitude of Christians when coming into His presence. Fear is reverence and respect, something that is often lacking in the casual Christianity of today. We feel free to be familiar with God, as if he is our buddy coming over for snacks and football. But seldom do we really exercise the healthy fear of him that we should have.

It's not that I have anything to be afraid of, really. I mean, even though He is a God of justice and judgment, He is also a God of fairness and forgiveness. He may be a God of wrath, but He is also a God of love, and in wrath He remembers mercy. As long as I keep my life altared before Him, penitent and humble, I have everything to be in awe of and nothing to be afraid of.

But now the wise king tells us that the fear of the Lord means to hate evil. We who fear the Lord are to hate what God hates, and He's already told us what He hates--pride, dishonesty, violence, evil, wickedness, discord. These are the things that God hates, and Solomon reiterates them again here. So I ask myself this question: Do I hate what God hates?

Do I hate pride and arrogance, or do I find myself thinking just a little more highly of myself than I ought?

Do I hate the evil way, or do I find myself tempted to walk just a little too closely to that line, wondering what it would be like to cross over for just a moment?

Do I hate the perverse mouth, or do I handle the truth a little too lightly and color my language with words God would not approve?

If I really feared God, and I really hated the things that God hates, I wouldn't be doing them. Of course, the NT shows us the reverse side of the fear factor--He is a God to fear, but He is also a God to love. But that liberating love holds us to the same high standard as legalistic fear. If you love me, Jesus said, keep my commandments. And John said, If you love God, you do not sin.

I need to hate what God hates, but even more, I need to love the Lord!

Wild Women

I don't have a specific verse to reference, but rather the 7th Chapter of Proverbs. Solomon is said to have written the Proverbs at the pinnacle of his kingship, after he had been established as the wisest, richest, and most powerful king Israel ever had. His son Rehoboam, who succeeded him, was probably in his late teens or early twenties, and this was the great collection of his father's wisdom and life lessons, written just for him.

It's interesting to me that Solomon had so much to say about the right kind of woman his son should look for, especially considering that Solomon had 700 wives, 300 concubines, and virgins without number in his harem. He spends lots of time telling his son about the right kind of woman to look for, and a fair amount of time telling him what not to look for.

And the kind of woman he wanted his son to definitely avoid was the immoral kind, the seductress who flatters with her words, enticing men into her house and into her bed. Her clothes are suggestive, her heart is crafty, and her ways are loud and rebellious. She doesn't like to stay home, but would rather be out roaming around. She's free with her affection, and enticing with her speech, and though she is persuasive and complimenting, going with her means going to your death.

I'd say each and every one of those characteristics are red flags to the godly man looking for a good woman.

Can God Hate?

These six things the LORD hates,

yes, seven are an abomination to Him:

a proud look,

a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked plans,

feet that are swift in running to evil,

a false witness who speaks lies,

and one who sows discord among brethren.

Proverbs 6:16-19

My dad must have preached at least a thousand sermons in my hearing through the years, but there are few that I can truly remember. It would probably put a strain on my memory to recall even a handful of the messages he delivered, but this one I remember well. It may have been my favorite of his sermons of all time, probably because he preached it multiple times when the need arose. And the other thing I remember is that it never failed to make somebody mad...usually the sower of discord among brethren.

It wasn't necessarily his preaching against sin that made people mad; everyone agrees that sin is bad, in principle. Pride is bad. Lying is bad. Murder is bad. Scheming and evil are bad. Stirring up trouble is bad. No, those things we could almost always agree on. What always got peoples' dander up was the word associated with God in this verse--the word hate. It's there, in black print on the page of my Bible--the same Bible that says God is love and God so loved the world that. But here it says God hates something. Actually, it says God hates someone.

A look. The tongue, hands, heart and feet. Those are things that belong to a person. But the false witness and the sower of discord--those are actually people. And God hates them.

It was hard for people to reconcile their faith in a loving God with a Scripture that says God hated them if they lied about somebody or stirred up trouble among somebodies. And yet it does say that. Hate is a stronger word than dislikes. It doesn't merely indicate God's displeasure. It invokes God's wrath and necessitates His action. And it's not just about sin...this doesn't say God hates sin. It says God hates the one who is committing it.

So what do we do with that? I'd suggest humility, honesty, kindness, purity, righteousness, honesty again, and love. I think those are things God can love about us, and then we won't have to worry about that thing that makes us uncomfortable about God.

Live Long and Prosper

Hear, my son, and receive my sayings,

and the years of your life will be many.

Proverbs 4:10

Nobody wants to die young. Nobody ever thinks they will die young. And truth be told, nobody wants to die old, either. Nobody wants to die. In fact, some people cling to life with a death grip, forgive the pun.

I've watched people go through torturous medical procedures and treatments, constantly taking pills and having surgeries and undergoing experiments, in an attempt to have just a few more miserable years of existence on this world that is passing away. If you had nothing else to look forward to after you die, then I might understand your unwillingness to let go of this life just yet. But for those who are believers in the Son of God as savior, it really makes me wonder if people really believe in heaven and that they are going there.

Now, I'll admit that I'm not particularly fond of dying...then again, I've never tried it. I don't intend to load up on the bus and go now, but when my time comes, I'm pretty certain that I will want to cross quickly over that chilly river into the eternal presence of God. You won't find me lingering on the banks when Jesus calls me home; I'll be ready to wade in deep and swim the wide waters to that happy golden shore. That's where my heart is, my home. That's where I know I will always belong.

In the meantime, I have found the secret to a long and happy life, and it doesn't include the words diet or exercise. I suppose those things might contribute to a body fit for optimal use in this life, but the true secret to a long, healthy and happy life is not to be found in fruit and bran. It is found in knowing the Lord, in obeying His commands, and in receiving the wisdom that He wants to impart to you through His word.

Health and Strength

Do not be wise in your own eyes;

Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

It will be health to your flesh,

and strength to your bones.

Proverbs 3:7-8

Here it is again--this concept of fearing the Lord, and what such healthy fear produces in our lives. God is not a mean God, but we must understand that He is just. He is not arbitrary in His decisions or commandments, rather He is deliberate in following His own eternal plan, and everything He does has eternal purpose and reason. Fearing Him--giving Him honor and reverence and respect and love--is the best thing we can ever do for ourselves.

Sometimes our own image of ourselves gets a little big in our own eyes. As I joked with a friend just tonight--People who think they know everything really annoy those of us who do. When we start thinking that we are the ones who know it all and that no one else can add to us, when we start thinking that we are the only ones who are right and everyone else is wrong, when we start thinking that we always know best and everybody had better fall in line and follow our lead, that's when we really need to take a step back and ask ourselves, who am I really, and what do I really know?

That's why Solomon writes here, Don't be wise in your own eyes. Paul would say it this way: Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought. Take heed when you think you stand, for then you fall. The Bible is replete with warnings that our trust should never be in ourselves, because we fail and are prone to failure. We are going to make mistakes, we are going to mess things up, because we are not perfect. We are not all knowing, all powerful. We are not God.

Instead of trusting ourselves, we need to trust in the Lord--we need to fear the Lord, and those who fear the Lord depart from evil. When we fear the Lord, we choose not to displease Him or dishonor Him or discredit Him in anyway. When we fear the Lord we choose not to yield to temptation. When we fear the Lord, we choose not to sin. And that choice, based in the fear of the Lord, brings life and health and strength and peace to our lives!

If...Then

My son, if...

Proverbs 2:1

Proverbs 1:7 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (later Solomon will also say that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom). But Proverbs 2:1-5 tells us that seeking wisdom, knowledge and understanding lead to understanding the fear of the Lord. It almost sounds like a conundrum, a Catch-22 if you will. Fear leads to Knowledge leads to Fear and Knowledge.

But we must understand that it's not an endless and unnavigable circle. Fearing the Lord will make us want to know Him. Knowing the Lord will make us want to fear Him, not in terms of being scared of Him, but of being reverent toward Him. But both take effort on our part. So what does the Wise King tell us to do?

Receive what he has to say. Treasure it. Listen for it. Apply ourselves to it. Cry out for it. Ask for it. Seek it. Search for it. All are actions of our own will. And if we do these things, we will begin to understand about fearing God. The more I know Him, the more I respect Him. The more I respect Him, the more I listen to Him. The more I listen to Him, the more I understand about Him. The more I understand Him, the more I love Him. The more I love Him, the more I want to know about Him. And this cycle, reproduced over and over again continually in our hearts, is what leads to us becoming what He wants us to be.

But we also need to understand that true wisdom and knowledge come from the Lord. We can read books and sit in lectures and learn lessons and excel in the academics of God. But what we really need to learn we can only learn from an intimate, personal relationship with Him. And from that relationship comes the things we really need in our lives.

If You Want to be Wise

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,

but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:7

I may have mentioned this here before, but I love the Book of Proverbs written mostly by Solomon and contained among other wisdom literature in our Bible. For at least twenty years now I have tried to read from the Proverbs daily. In doing so, one can go through the Proverbs once a month as there are 31 chapters and 30 or 31 days all but one month. So when I look to the Proverbs on any certain date, I turn to the corresponding Proverb and try to gain some wisdom for my day from the inspiration of God.

Proverbs 1 never fails to grab me where I live, because it tells me why I need to read it, what I get if I read it, and what I need to do when I have read. Throughout Proverbs, there is a key thought expressed repeatedly, but done so for the first time here: If you want wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, you start by fearing the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is not something we hear a lot about anymore. Many times we would rather picture God as the benevolent bearded grandfather loving us from a plush recliner in his den rather than the Almighty seated on the Great White Throne in Heaven. I don't know why, but I always imagine that throne as a massive block construct of stone. We want to hear about the love of God, but not His laws; about the compassion of God, but not His commandments; about the care of God for our needs, but not His conviction of our sins. We want the likable God, not the fearful One.

But as God, He is one to be feared. Reverently feared. Honored above all else. Held in highest esteem and deepest regard. Respected. Obeyed. Praised without reservation. Served without regret. Followed without retreat. We need a healthy understanding that He is the One who gives us light and breath, and He can take both away by the power and authority of His own will. We need the realization that He once washed the planet clean in a flood of water that destroyed all but eight human inhabitants and their animal cargo on the Ark. He once rained fire and brimstone down on a valley of sinful cities and opened up the earth to swallow 25,000 complainers. One day, his anger and wrath will be poured out on the earth and its inhabitants for their continual rebellion and rejection of His love, but He also makes covenant with those who responded to His call, providing the means of salvation and the way to eternal life, and blessing all who receive with the riches of heaven.

The Proverbs of Solomon were written for us:

• to know wisdom and instruction
• to perceive the words of understanding
• to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment and equity
• to give the simple ones prudence
• to give the young ones knowledge and discretion
• to give understanding of proverbs, mysteries, wise words and riddles.

But without the fear of the Lord in our hearts, all the wisdom in the world will never do us any good.