Practicing What We Preach

Day 226: Matthew 23

Wow. Matthew 23 was very eye-opening for me. I mentioned in a previous post that Jesus really gets on to the religious leaders because of their hypocritical ways, but in this chapter, wow, he is harsh. He tells the people and his disciples that they should follow the teachings of the religious leaders and the Pharisees but that they shouldn't follow their example because they don't practice what they preach. They are hypocritical--appearing to follow the laws but in reality being hateful and despicable. Jesus argues that the Pharisees and the religious leaders are clean and pretty on the outside, but their hearts are filthy and dirty.

And what will their punishment be? According to Jesus, sorrow awaits them. He says this phrase over and over again. He even says that these religious people will be held responsible for the deaths of all godly people OF ALL TIME (v. 35), including Abel who was killed by Cain. Wow. Jesus is serious about one thing: he wants us to practice what we preach.

Of course it's easy to think, "Those Pharisees. Those hypocrites." and not to see ourselves in them at all. But it is the religious people Jesus is addressing here and it would do people who consider themselves religious to consider how we might be like these people Jesus condemns. Are we hypocritical? Do we want others to see our good deeds, even though our hearts are evil and hateful inside? Do we have unpure motives? How are we like the Pharisees? What might Jesus be saying to us?

For me, he's reminding me that purity begins in the heart. Outward deeds that are good do not mean that they come from a pure heart, and a pure, clean heart is really what God wants from us. He doesn't expect perfection by any means, but he does expect us to practice what we preach--not to deceive and be hypocritical. This lesson is one we've heard over and over in our lives, but it's obviously a very important one to implement. The kingdom is at stake when we don't practice what we preach, and for unbelieving people, hypocrites are what they simply find unbelievable.

The Last Shall Be First

Day 223: Matthew 20

It's interesting that this passage about the parable of the vineyards where the first shall be last and the last shall be first came today. Tonight, we went to a memorial service for a man who went to our church for a little over a year, and Shane read this exact same passage at his funeral. This man was in his early 80s and had spent decades of his life in jail. I don't know what he did to get there, but it had to be something big since he had spent so much of his life there. His family didn't have much to do with him, and they really didn't care if we had a memorial service for him or not. I can understand that. For most of his life, he was a bad man, not just in the moral sense but also in the legal sense.

During his time in jail, he must have become a Christian because the moment he got out, he wound up at our church. And he was a faithful Christian for this past year. He even helped another young man, also an ex-con, who started coming to our church. He was a changed man.

But his family didn't want to forgive him. His daughter didn't come to the funeral. They didn't want to show him grace; he didn't deserve it. But in God's eyes, he has just as much of a place in the kingdom of heaven as anyone else does--those who come early in their life and who don't commit felonies, and those who come later on. God is holding a spot for this man, too. He's holding a spot for all of us. In his eyes, we're all the same--no matter when we respond to the call. Those of us who have been faithful Christians as long as we remember may not see this practice as just. But we know that God is a just God, and this form of justice is one that we should implement as well. Loving people and forgiving their past is God's way of justice. He did it for all of us, and extending this same grace to others--no matter when they might come to believe--indicates that we are living out God's form of justice.

Rambling Idiots

Day 182: Ezekiel 20-24

With all that is going on in our country today--a bad economy, a massive debate about healthcare for all, poverty, injustice, and on and on and on--I read Ezekiel with a mind towards God and all that he can do to save our country. God can solve all our problems. He will do so when he comes. All the stupidity, idiocy, and hatred will be gone and replaced with love. Come, Lord Jesus, please come soon and save us from all this. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of America thinking that they alone are your people. I'm tired of people not looking out for the poor, the orphans, and the widows. I'm tired of people equating Christianity with America and seeing the values of both as one and the same. Please, Lord, come soon. But if you don't, please show Christians how to live in this culture but to be different from it. Please, Lord. Please.

Planning Our Own Course

Day 165: Jeremiah 10-16

Jeremiah 10:23-25. Hear the words of Jeremiah, the prophet:

"I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die."

This passage is interesting to me for a variety of reasons. The first sentence ("I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own.") speaks true to me. This life I have is a gift; the lives we all have are gifts--gifts from the Lord. He decides when we live and when we die, and he is in control, literally, of our lives.

The second sentence, however, doesn't ring quite so true to me. We are able to plan our own course. We decide where we live, what we do with our lives, how we raise our children. We decide whether we go to church and, if so, where we go. We decide how we treat people, what sins we commit, and how we love. We are in control of many aspects of our lives.

So, what else might Jeremiah be saying in this sentence? He could be talking about predestination. Many church faiths believe that God has called people--a select few--before the creation of the world, and that those few are already predestined to follow God. My religious faith does not believe this principle. We believe that anybody can become a child of God. Perhaps God already knows who will make the decision to follow Him, but he allows us to make this choice rather than pre-selecting it for us. I tend to agree with my church heritage because I believe in free will.

So what else could he be saying? If you look at it within the context of Israel--the people who was selected by God to be his people--then it seems that we could also read this passage from that of a people who are already committed to the Lord. For these people--people who want to live a life committed to the Lord--then many of the decisions are determined by God's words to us, his instructions on how we should live, how we should treat people, and how we can become more like Christ in our daily lives. When we look at that sentence through this lens, then we can read it differently. Our decision to become a Christian and our decision to commit to God should, theoretically, lead us to give our lives away. Less of self and more of thee. We no longer make our own decisions; instead, the decisions we make are shaped and formed by our decision to live a life for the Lord. Wow. How amazing is that!

And the last part, verse 24, is so human. Jeremiah says, "So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die." Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? For God to be gentle and kind, rather than harsh and angry? Have you prayed for God to "correct you"? Perhaps we can see more about how kingdom life by reading these words. More about humanity. More about our Lord. More about ourselves and the plans we have for our lives.

Hope in Christ, Value in God

Day 144: Ecclesiastes 9-12

After finishing Ecclesiastes today, I'm not quite sure whether or not Solomon reconciles the meaning of life--how he answers the question. At one point, he does say that we cannot understand the work of God who made everything (11:5), from which I infer that we don't understand God's ways and so there really is no answer to Solomon's question to why life is meaningless.

But maybe the reality is that even though our lives may seem meaningless at times, in Christ, we can have hope. We can have a new understanding of the meaningless of our lives. Christ gives us a context of interpreting hard times; he transforms the meaningless, the vanity, into hope. So even though there may not be an answer in Ecclesiastes, we have the advantage of looking at the book through the lens of Christ. Christ brought redemption; he brought hope. He still brings hope today.

It does seem that Solomon reconciled the meaningless of life in that he understands the importance of seeking God. At the end of the book, he claims in Ecclesiastes 12:13: "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."

Confessions of a Distant Descendant

Day 44: Joshua 22-24

I have to confess something. I have been reading the Bible for several weeks now and although I have learned a lot about God--his nature and character--I don't feel that I have grown closer to Him. I don't quite understand why not because of how much I have learned about this, and I find this rather frustrating.

My reading so far has taught me a lot about several things: the church, values of God, God's commands and His will, the stories of God's people, sin, obedience, and discipline. However, I'm struck by how our modern notion of "a personal relationship with God" was not evident--or realized--with the vast majority of Israelites. Moses and Aaron had a relationship with God. Joshua and Caleb did, too. Adam and Eve. Cain. Jacob. Joseph. And a few others here and there.

In spite of these few mentioned "personal" relationships with God, the majority of Israelites are not reported to know God in this same way--personally. Rather, they knew him as a group. Israel was God's people. God knew Israel, and "Israel"--not individuals--knew God.

This concept is extremely different from today's widespread views that Christians can and should have a personal relationship with God and that Christians are saved individually through salvation and not as a whole. While I have some thoughts on both of those topics (which I'll save for later when we get to the NT), I mostly want to point out this difference.

I'm not sure from where the contrast originates, but I have a few ideas. It could be a difference between the old law and the new law--the old law that Moses handed to the Israelites and the new law that Jesus instigated. Or it could be a difference between cultures--the Israelite culture and an American culture that emphasizes the individual.

Regardless, the fact that I do not feel I have grown in "my personal relationship with God"--despite reading scripture every day and learning a lot about God in general--troubles me. I'm not sure where the answer lies or when in the Bible this concept of individual/personal relationship with God originates (or if it's in there at all or more the result of church tradition). But I am going to be watching out for it as I continue to read. I'm going to pay special attention to the contact that humans do have with God--in the OT and the NT--so that I can learn more about what this means and grow deeper in my relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Growing closer to God is one of the reasons I'm doing this. I don't just want to know about God; I want to know Him, and I want Him to know me. I pray that God will continue to show me how to use my imagination to envision a different relationship with God than I have now and to see the possibilities that exist when what now seems distant comes nearer.

Deuterono...WHAT?

Day 38: Deuteronomy 21-25

Have you ever wondered why we (as Christians) believe and abide by certain passages of scripture while other passages of scripture are chalked up to being cultural and we therefore don't see them as relevant? For example, the reading for today discusses what happens when a man: marries more than one woman, hangs someone on a pole, needs to kill rebellious children, takes a woman captive, flogs someone in the presence of a judge, has to marry his sister-in-law because his brother dies, wants to find proof of a woman's virginity (I have to admit that I hate the idea of this one), and loans money to people and shouldn't charge interest to someone from the same country while he should charge it to "foreigners".

After reading this list, what do you think of these laws? Don't most of them seem outrageous to you? Outdated, even? They do to me. But why is this the case? Why do we view some laws, particularly in the Old Testament, as being outdated, ancient, and purely connected to Jewish culture, while others within these same passages are viewed as laws for us today? Hard and fast rules we need to follow?

I can only guess at the reason here (and I'm sure there are many, with one being that Jesus changed and extended many of these laws), but it seems to me that the answer has to do with our own current notions of right and wrong. That is, when we view a practice as "right"-eous today, we thus view the biblical practice as outdated and associated with the Israelite culture; however, when we view the practice as sinful today, we view the biblical practice as right (and therefore relevant, appropriate, and current).

For instance, today, I think we can all agree that we view it as wrong to flog, hang, or murder people. As a result, we view the biblical commands related to these "sins" (or practices) as something that was cultural to the Israelites and therefore not relevant to us today. However, when we view a behavior or attitude today as "sinful," we refer to the passages in the Bible (where it is also deemed sinful), and we justify our way of looking at the world through the biblical lens.

But, why isn't everything cultural? How do we decide what's cultural and what's not? I don't know, but I think it's something we should all consider as we decide what we believe and why we believe it.

And, just in case you're still wondering about the kinds of passages that have me thinking about these issues, I leave you with Deuteronomy 25:11:

"If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity."

Uh, was this a common problem? Do we need a law for everything?

Spiritual Giants like Moses

Day 28: Numbers 9 to 12

Have you ever known a spiritual giant?

I can think of several people in my own life who have made quite an impression on me.

My father.
My mother.
My great-grandmother Meme.
My husband.
My in-laws.
Friends like Danny Mathews, Andrew Johnson, Amy Konermann, and Shelly Willbanks.
Preachers and teachers I’ve had: Michael Lewis, Mike Cope, John Risse, Shane Alexander, Becky Van Rheenan, Candace Vogt, Charles and Judy Siburt, and Karen Alexander.

I have had many spiritual mentors in my life. These people study and mediate on scripture. They bring new insights to Christianity and what it means to live a cruciform life. They are prayer warriors. They practice spiritual disciplines. They talk the talk and walk the walk. They are mentors, friends, and advisers.

When we meet someone like this, we know that we have seen Jesus. We have glimpsed what it is to live life in the kingdom of God. What makes people like this so special is that they allow us to realize all that God intended life in Christ to be like. Even though we may not often meet people who become mentors, advisers, and heroes to us, we know that at this moment, we are glimpsing more than humanity; we are glimpsing the life-changing ways of Jesus Christ.

Moses was a spiritual giant. He had the Spirit of God resting on him, and God listened to him. When the Israelites complained about their hardships and God sent a fire to burn among their camps, God prayed to the Lord and the fire died down. When the people complained that they had nothing but manna to eat, Moses prayed to God, saying, “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.” And so God took the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on seventy Israelite leaders. These 70 men helped carry the burden of the people, and Moses no longer had to carry it alone. When Miriam and Aaron oppose Moses and God curses Miriam with Moses, Moses prayed for God to heal his sister, and God did so.

God responded to Moses’ requests for forgiveness and healing, which suggests that Moses was a man of God. Moses responded to the call of God to be a leader of the Israelites. The people trusted Moses, and Moses became the voice of the people to God.

Even when Joshua, Moses’ assistant, became worried and jealous when other men began prophesying, Moses showed humility, expressing how much he desired all God’s people to use the gifts that God gave them—even if it meant that some power or prestige might be taken from him.

Moses is someone to be admired and imitated. He is a “spiritual giant” (so to speak) of his community. They go to him, and he goes to God. His life has obviously been touched through his relationship with God. I hope that my life is also one that has been touched through my relationship with God. I hope that yours is, too.

"He leadeth me"

Day 16: Exodus 11-13

“The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.”

God freed the Israelites from slavery. He finally persuaded Pharaoh to let them go. And when they were freed, he led them.

God led the Israelites.

Just like God led the Israelites from their enslavement, he also leads us from ours. Not only does he free us, but he also shows us the way out. He leads us just like he led them. I find this very comforting.

And what's more is that he set the example for us on how we are to behave with new Christians. Not only should we show them how they can be released, but we should also lead them afterwards. We should show them how to live. He leadeth me/us, and now we lead others.