by RobertCummins | Dec 17, 2015 | 54. Direction
Direction – Jeremiah 6:16
Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls.
What are these ancient and good paths where our souls will find rest? We can learn much from Jeremiah if we have ears to hear. The response of those Jews destined for annihilation or captivity was tragic. Even though a watchman with eagle vision was preaching, they said …
We will not listen. We will not walk in it.
The following is a list of what they would not listen to or walk in. Would the United States fair any better in God’s assessment? Let’s look at Israel’s specific errors and consider our own nation.
1. The word of the Lord had become a reproach to them; they had no delight in it.
2. Everyone was greedy for gain, (profit had become their god).
3. Leaders at all levels, especially religious ones, were guilty of false dealing.
4. Leaders peddled a shallow peace when in fact there was none.
5. They were not ashamed of their abominations. They had lost the capacity to even blush.
6. As a well keeps its waters fresh, so she keeps fresh her wickedness. Violence and destruction are heard in her; sickness and wounds are ever before Me.
This is how God feels about Israel …
Traditional sacrifices of worship became a stench to God. The day declines, for the shadows of the evening lengthen! There is only oppression. I am full of the wrath; I am weary with holding it in.
This is what God is going to do …
Pour this wrath out on the children in the street and on the gathering of young men together; for both husband and wife shall be taken, the aged and the very old. Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land, from the least of them even to the greatest of them. I am going to lay stumbling blocks before the people.
God’s council …
Flee for safety. Blow a trumpet. Raise a signal; for evil looks down and a great destruction awaits. Even God’s beautiful city and its temple were not spared. Be warned or I shall be alienated from you, and make you a desolation, a land not inhabited. Put on sackcloth and roll in ashes; Mourn as for an only son, a lamentation most bitter. For suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
Yet, to a people he is about to severely punish, he also says …
Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls.
The idea that God punished Israel does not shock us; they apparently deserved it, yet the idea of God punishing America is abhorrent. We might be bad, but surely not that bad! However, as I read God’s list, I was not comforted by the comparison to America. For those called to be in the world but not of it, I don’t believe flight is an option but sounding an alarm makes some sense. Mourning for our nation would also be good council. And, praying daily that we would individually and collectively have ears to hear would be extremely wise. Jesus’ council was quite straight forward …
Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour. Matthew 25:13
Father, please intervene in the affairs of our nation. In the multiplication of political words, we have no hope. We see the shadows darkening when our nation protects evil with its own laws. By your great mercies Oh Lord, show us the ancient paths where the good way is. Help us to learn how to walk that path, that we might not only find rest for our own souls, but the righteousness, peace and joy of your kingdom for this nation. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Dec 16, 2015 | 54. Direction
Direction – Nehemiah 8:1-10
As Ezra read God’s law the Jewish throng wept as one. The book of Moses was a painful reminder that, as a people, they had a history of hardening their hearts against God. What has changed? Were they any different than their parents who were taken from this city seventy odd years ago? Nehemiah did not seem comfortable with this purely emotional direction. He said …
Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
It was as though Nehemiah looked at their collective heart and thought, they are either going to be weak-in-mourning or strong-in-joy. As their governor, aware they had much rebuilding ahead, he promoted strength, and as we shall see, he had good cause.
For myself, grief and joy are not either-or propositions. They are co laborers in leading us into the fulness of God, so I grieve with those Jews, knowing that humans, including me, harden our hearts towards God. I grieve knowing that God’s discipline is not pleasant. While we have not been carried off as slaves to a conquering nation, I grieve that we are slaves nevertheless to a pantheon of masters to whom we have given our hearts.
God often gives us the desires of our heart until we choke on them. I believe my own nation is currently choking on her demands for personal liberty and happiness. I grieve because I do not see an Ezra standing above the crowd, calling us to repentance. Yet, for those with new hearts, grief does not have to metastasize into weakness. Because of Jesus, grief can be channeled into prayer and ultimately into joy. Grief can lead us into fulness of joy.
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. John 15:11
In Christ we have joy. In him, we recall that … Ours is a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; and He did not forsake Israel, even when they made for themselves a calf of molten metal and said, “This is our God who brought us up from Egypt.” God, in his great compassion, did not forsake them in their wilderness. Nehemiah 9:17-19
Can you imagine a day when an Ezra (or ten thousand Ezra’s) bless the Lord and all the people answer, “Amen!” some lifting their hands and others bowing low to worship the Lord with their faces to the ground? I don’t know the timing, but I can imagine this because I am sure that …
At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father for God is on record saying, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” (Philippians 2:10 and Isaiah 45:23)
We can have joy because Christ is our life. Nehemiah was right, ultimately joy and strength are our direction. We may pray that he comes but we must not wait on an Ezra, or any preacher or a new President. Paul has told us the path we are to take.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
Father, may the Ezra’s arise and may their recital of your word break our hearts. More than that, I pray that our knees might bow and see the holiness of this moment, so pregnant with possibility. I pray that in our Christ-strengthened hearts we might see our idols and cast them down. Thank you that you do not forsake your own people even after we have chosen leaders who help us build and sustain our golden calves. May our tears flow freely until we have room for you as our Treasure. Faithful Father and Dearest Friend, for your name’s sake, let this be.
by RobertCummins | Dec 14, 2015 | 54. Direction
Direction – John 15:9-17
Please take the time to consider Jesus’ precious words. That’s much more important than my rehash.
There are certain truths that bear repeating. Peter and Paul believed this wholeheartedly …
Because the stakes are so high, even though you’re up-to-date on all this truth and practice it inside and out, I’m not going to let up for a minute in calling you to attention before it. This is the post to which I’ve been assigned—keeping you alert with frequent reminders—and I’m sticking to it as long as I live. 2 Peter 1:12 MSG
To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. Philippians 3:1
New people must hear. Established ones must be reminded. All good pastors celebrate core truths. I listened to a message of this sort yesterday. While the material is in the School of Christ, 1000-level classes, it remains alien to the core curriculum in many main line evangelical churches. A great refresher course, in harmony with our passage, can be heard on YouTube. Look for; Bill Johnson- The War in Your Head .
Jesus is big on remembering as well. He returned to this one regularly – “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” No doubt the Holy Spirit continued to remind the disciples of it and expand upon its meaning after Jesus ascended. When they recalled Jesus’ words; “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” there is little doubt, a dying man on a cross came to mind … but who is that man hanging there! Would love hang them on a cross too? As they processed this question, the Holy Spirit made his key point …
A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. Matthew 10:24
Jesus absolutely had Israel on its heals. To religious leaders, he was practically an anti-Jehova. It was obvious he was from God. His signs could have only come from heaven but he defiled the traditions of the elders; he broke the Sabbath and he associated with unclean persons even women! Why? Why couldn’t Jesus simply comply – then die on the cross? Because he was showing them what God was actually like and it was so unlike the God they had imagined. Everything until this time had been mere staging to reveal God as Father and Friend.
Religious Jews were choking on this. Running in their mind was a well conditioned tape saying, “God is holy! God is an all consuming fire! God is angry and ready to punish sin! God demands sacrifices of blood to cleanse men of wickedness. God might have been Abraham’s friend but their wineskin had no place for a Father or a Friend. The leaders knew intuitively, a tribe of people thinking about God in these familiar terms was going to raise questions about their titles and roles (not to mention their neat robes.) What relevance would they have if God has come down looking man eye to eye, speaking to him openly and directly?
No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
Jesus knew his old wineskin audience was tough. They had invested much, if not all, in the traditions surrounding the old covenant. Jesus had to face off with the advocates of old revelation. Religious sects like the Sadducees, the Essenes and Pharisees had collected the crumbs but this manna (as interpreted by them) had long since gone stale. While Jesus blessed little ones he spoke woes to those misrepresenting God.
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Matthew 23:13
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23:27-28
We are blessed people if we find the Holy Spirit has come, troubling us with notions which are out of sink with the traditional tape running in our minds, upsetting our traditional ideas about him. God is not a spoiler as we might propose. He is our Teacher, Father and Friend. In this capacity, it is no trouble for him to remind us …
Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Jesus must win The War in Our Head so that …
His joy may be in us, and that our joy may be made full.
Father, by your great mercy, erase every inferior and competing thought recorded on the tape running in our heads. Slay every lofty thought exalted above the actual knowledge of who you want to be to us. Amen.
