God's Guidance, in Light and Darkness

Exodus 13 finds the Israelites departing from Egypt. God leads the people on a roundabout path, in order to avoid Philistine territory. How do they know the correct path? Exodus 13:21 (NLT) reads,

The Lord went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night.

This passage reflects how God, through his Holy Spirit, guides us, both in good times and in bad. Our responsibility is to pay attention. Let us recognize his "pillar of cloud" during good times and his "pillar of fire" during bad times. In order to recognize that guidance, we need ears and eyes that are tuned to spiritual frequencies. As written in Proverbs 20:12 (NLT),

Ears to hear and eyes to see—
    both are gifts from the Lord.

Making Sense of the Trinity

The Trinity is one of the most difficult concepts in faith. In this post, I try to make sense of it. But be warned: I am not a professional theologian!

First off, as Paul points out, as early as Genesis, God, when talking to himself, speaks in the plural. For example, after Adam and Eve eat fruit from the tree of life, God says (Genesis 3:22, ESV),

Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

So there's an early hint that God consists of multiple "elements," for lack of a better term. More importantly, we need all three of those elements for our own salvation.

First, we need the Father to extend to us his infinite mercy, because we are infinitely sinful. Without him grabbing our attention and extending to us his mercy, there is no salvation. (This topic steps into the area of unconditional election, which I know is a subject of debate among different denominations. I will leave that debate to trained theologians, but I'll add that, to me, it really doesn't matter. The main point is that we need God for salvation.)
Second, we need the atoning death of the Son. Without that atoning death, we are bound by the Old Testament law. As written in Deuteronomy 27:26 (ESV),

Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.

Therefore, if we break any part of the law, we are cursed. But we all break the law! So how do we avoid this curse? As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV),

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

That is, Jesus served our sentence for us, freeing us from the law, and entering us into a covenant of grace.

Third, we need the Spirit, because even after receiving salvation, we are still drawn to sin. We need the Spirit to give us new life, and guide us in proper paths.

That's my (admittedly amateurish) understanding of the trinity. If our prayers, let us acknowledge and be thankful for all three elements.

Sermon Podcasts

I recently discovered the website SermonAudio.com, which collects thousands and thousands of recorded sermons available for free download. The sermons are searchable by speaker, topic, or Bible passage. Even better, the same website has a smartphone app with all kinds of neat features. In particular, the smartphone apps allow playback at 1.5x and 2x speeds, which means you can listen to a 40 minute sermon in 20 minutes!

At this time, I don't have much advice on which speakers to listen to, because I'm still becoming familiar with the website. (I've enjoyed John MacArthur for some time. I've also been listening to the classic teachings of C. H. Spurgeon. And I even found sermons from a pastor at a church around the corner from my house!)

The point is, we have a nearly limitless collection of sermons available to us!

Focus on Heavenly Matters

In 2 Chronicles 25, King Amaziah of Judah is assembling his army. In doing so, he pays a large sum of silver to hire 100,000 soldiers from neighboring Israel.

But at this time, God is angry with Israel for turning from him. So a prophet tells Amaziah (verses 7-8, NLT),

Do not hire troops from Israel, for the Lord is not with Israel. ... If you let them go with your troops into battle, you will be defeated by the enemy no matter how well you fight. God will overthrow you, for he has the power to help you or to trip you up.

Upon hearing that warning, Amaziah should have trusted God. Instead, Amaziah is worried about the silver! (verse 9, NLT),

Amaziah asked the man of God, “But what about all that silver I paid to hire the army of Israel?”

Amaziah clear is focused more on earthly matters than he is on heavenly matters. The prophet then answers (verse 9, NLT),

The Lord is able to give you much more than this!

The lesson: God's power is infinitely greater than silver, fame, human praise, or any other earthly pursuit. In our prayers, let us turn our focus to heavenly matters, and place our trust in his salvation.

What Does Being "Saved" Mean?

People of faith often talk of being saved. What exactly does that mean? I've posted on this topic previously. But returning to this topic, I am reminded of a sermon I once heard by John MacArthur. In that sermon, he said that Ezekiel 36 provides the perfect description of what it means to be saved.

Specifically, turning to chapter 36, verses 25-27 (NLT),

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

That's what happens when we turn our lives over to God.  Today in our prayers, let us ask God to give us that salvation.

God's Infinite Mercy

I recently read The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. First off, the book is not a swashbuckling adventure in the mold of The Da Vinci Code. Rather, the book is a series of dialogues that explore possible links between Isaiah 9:10, the 2001 terrorist attacks, and the global economic meltdown of 2008. The book has generated some controversy, so I won't wade into those discussions here.

Nonetheless, I was completely struck by a conversation that began on page 226. Without giving away important parts of the plot, that conversation notes that, as humans, we tend to grade our own righteousness according to our own self-created standards. But we should be comparing ourselves to God's standards!

The books asks us to consider the most evil person ever born (whoever that might be). How much distance, measured in righteousness, separates us from that person? Maybe a lot, but that distance is finite. Now consider the distance, measured in righteousness, between God and us. That distance is infinite! That means that, from God's perspective, we are worse than the most evil person even born, when viewed from our perspective.

How do we overcome such an infinite gap in righteousness? As Jesus says in Matthew 19:26 (NLT),

Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.

God's mercy is infinite! All we can do is humble ourselves before him, and accept his infinite love.

Anyway, that material in the Harbinger is already in the Bible. But it struck me nonetheless.

David's Prayer in 1 Chronicles 29

I've posted previously about 1 Chronicles 29. In this post, I turn to that chapter again.

Of course, the Bible contains many of David's prayers in the Psalms. What continues to amaze me is David's spiritual understanding, which is many levels deeper than mine! 1 Chronicles 29 contains one of my favorite prayers by David.

To set the scene, the Israelites are preparing to build a temple of worship, and they have collected all of the necessary building materials. David then issues the following prayer, which appears in 1 Chronicles 29:10-20. I won't copy the whole prayer. (Here is the entire prayer.) Rather, here are a few highlights from the NLT translation.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength.

O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name! But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us! We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.

What a prayer! David displays such humility, reverence, and perspective. Today, let us try to emulate David's example.

Avoiding the Backslide

I posted previously about reacting to God's discipline. Now, suppose that we react appropriately, and God removes (or lessens) our affliction. What next?

Unfortunately, when God sends us blessings and good fortune, it's easy to become comfortable and fall into spiritual complacency. Turning to 2 Chronicles 12, God has established Rehoboam as king of Judah. Then, in verse 1 (NLT),

When Rehoboam was firmly established and strong, he abandoned the Law of the Lord, and all Israel followed him in this sin.

The subsequent verses describe how, after this backsliding into sin, God inflicted punishment upon the nation.

The New Testament speaks even more directly about the dangers of backsliding into sin. Turning to 2 Peter 2:21-22 (NLT),

It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”

Similarly, in John 5:14 (NLT), Jesus, after running into someone he had previously healed, says,

Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.

And, again, in Luke 11:24-26 (NLT), Jesus says,

When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.

The message is clear. When we are fortunate enough to have our affliction lifted (or lessened), we must fill our spirits with God. Do not return to a sinful lifestyle.