Category Archives: The Character of God

With God on Our Side

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God is on our side.  Says who?  Says God.  And who, exactly, is referred to by the word, “our?”  You.  Me.  Everybody.  He’s on our side.  Chile, Vietnam, Belgium.  God’s plan is to bring peace throughout the world.  I’ll bet your first thought is, “Yeah, right; I’m sure that’s going to happen.”  But peace looked no more likely when God sent that promise (repeatedly) than it does today.  And He was serious.  Be honest: Wouldn’t you really rather have a world filled with peace?  Isn’t there a part of you that yearns for that?  God does, too; He’s on our side.  And He is already working to bring it about.  The reason it looks dubious from our vantage point is because God is not in a hurry.  He exists beyond the strictures of time.  His work is done thoroughly, not necessarily suddenly.

So, how do we know He is actually working on it?   One of His promises to bring world peace, given through Isaiah, specified that He would do it through the work of a “Chosen Servant.”  The Servant would be born to Israel in the line of David.  He would be rejected and eventually killed by being “pierced.”   Nevertheless, this “Servant” would then “see the light of life.”  His work on earth, which would look at first to have failed, would be accomplished in a quiet but relentless way.  And God promised:

he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” Isaiah 42:3b-4

Seven hundred years later, Jesus fulfilled those prophesies of the Servant.  As unlikely as it would seem, this impoverished, homeless guy, who lived a short and relatively obscure life in a conquered land, has had His Name and teaching gradually spread across the entire globe.  Quietly and yet relentlessly.  God says His work will continue until all nations live by it.  He got the first part right; I believe He’s right about the endgame.

So what is our part in all this?  It is to recognize that God is on our side and shut up!  Except God said it in a nicer way:

He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalms 46:9-10

People used to say, “God is on our side; fight harder!”  God says, “I’m on your side, stop fighting.”  When nations understand that, peace will come.  If you truly yearn for that, join Jesus in praying, “…Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Got a Light?

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Next time you are lost in the woods at night, being chased by bloodthirsty monsters (Happy Halloween!) notice that a flashlight might keep you from tripping, but it can’t show you the way.  That’s because you are holding it and you are lost!  What you need is to follow a guiding light from a safe place, a light that doesn’t change it’s direction if you get confused or turned around.

In ordinary life the same principle applies, even though it is sometimes harder to see the monsters and we don’t realize how lost we are.  Isaiah knew the problem with trying to light your own way:

But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.  (Isaiah 50:11)

And he had the solution.

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God.   (Isaiah 50:10)

John Newton discovered the truth of that and was later inspired to write, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” (Amazing Grace)

Knowing You Know

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You’ve seen the videos of someone getting on an elevator, not realizing everyone else on it are about to play a practical joke on him?  As the doors close and they start up, everyone in on the prank casually turns around to face the back of the elevator.  The look on the face of the new guy goes from startled, to confusion and stress before he turns around, too.  He knows the door is at the front, knows that nothing good will come of turning to the back, and yet he thinks, “can all these other people be wrong?”

That’s what happens in a culture when moral standards slide.  It soon begins to feel as though you are the only one who knows which way is right.  It is helpful to remember that “what is right,” as defined by God, is a collection of manufacturer’s instructions to ensure you don’t mistreat and break the product.  Ignore those to your own sorrow.  Even if everybody else is doing so.

7 “Hear me, you who know what is right,
you people who have taken my instruction to heart:
Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals
or be terrified by their insults.
8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment;
the worm will devour them like wool.
But my righteousness will last forever,
my salvation through all generations.” Isaiah 51:7-8

Reliable

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Mom stands by the curb, tearfully watching her little one board the schoolbus for the first time.  Dad swallows hard and wraps his son in a fierce embrace.  The young man will board a plane and head off to his first deployment overseas.  This is the heartbeat of God as He allowed His chosen people to be carried off to exile.  Here’s what He told them:

“Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the people of Israel, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born  Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.  I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”  (Isaiah 46:3-4)
Almost sounds like God is saying, “This will hurt Me more than it does you.”  But notice carefully God’s promise to sustain them and carry them, even in their time of banishment.  And rescue them.  That’s the heartbeat of God.  “For God so loved the world…”

That’s His heart toward you, too, even if you have wandered off into an exile of your own making.  You may have run from Him, but He loves you and will never run from you.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

(Psalm 139:7 -10)

One

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When his football team was in hopeless disarray, Vince Lombardi took them back to the first fundamental: ​”Gentlemen, this is a foootball…”  When God’s people were in hopeless disarray, He did the same.  

He said, [I want you to] “…know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.”   (Isaiah 43:10b-11)

That’s the foundation.  Start there or nothing else will make sense.  And yet, people commonly refer to “my god,” as distinguished from “your god.” The real God is the only God, from eternity to eternity.

He is One.

Them Hypocrites

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What does Halloween have in common with hypocrisy?  Masks.  The word, hypocrite, comes from a Greek word for mask.  Halloween is better: you get candy and the masks are not as scary.

Sometimes hypocrites wear a mask with deliberate intent to deceive.  But much of the time, what looks like hypocrisy is simply someone trying to act more like a Christian.  Sadly, many churches have taught people to do that. Trouble is, people respond to hypocrisy about like they do to other dead things.  

Jesus had a better idea. Instead of trying to act like a Christian, come to Him in faith and come alive in your soul with His life.  Then, He takes care of the changes.  They flow from inside without masks.  

He said,

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  (John 15:5)
Pay attention to that last part and put away your masks.  Make your home in Jesus and He will live in you.  But, hey, before you go, help yourself to some candy….

Fingerprints of Jesus

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One of Isaiah’s prophetic descriptions of Jesus, written 700 years in advance, seems to be overlooked by many who claim to be advancing His work.  Isaiah’s batting average with details from the future was astonishing; there is no reason to think he got this one wrong.  He describes the style with which Jesus would accomplish His work:

He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.  (Isaiah 42:2-4)

The work of Jesus will be:

  • Quiet
  • Gentle
  • Relentless
  • Completely successful

Jesus clearly stated that not everyone claiming to be doing His work really was.  If you want to identify His work, look for those fingerprints. You won’t find them amidst the violent, flashy, noisy or manipulative.  His work advances steadily and quietly, one soul at a time, like candlelight passed from one to another.  And it has not stopped or even faltered in all these years.

What Moses Also Saw

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When you promise yourself you won’t repeat (whatever wrong thing you struggle with) and then blow it – yet again – how many times will God forgive you and give you another chance?  If you are sincere, it will seem unlimited.  But is there any hope for you?  Will you ever break free of that cycle of despair?  

There is.  God showed Moses how He would ultimately fix us.  He showed Moses that He would bless the His Chosen People abundantly in the Promised Land, so long as they remained faithful to Him.  He showed Moses how they would mess that up and be banished.  This would happen again and again.  But the cool thing is how God also showed Moses what He would do to fix that cycle of hope followed by failure.  For them.  And for you.

“The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.” ( Deuteronomy 30:6)

Circumcision is a perfect metaphor, if you think about the tough exterior that forms around our sinful hearts.  The first time we deliberately sin it bothers us.  The next time?  Not so much.  And God’s plan is to remove that callous and make us responsive to His ways. He will do it so we can live!  How will He do it?  God gave another glimpse to Ezekiel:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  (Ezkiel 36:26-27)

When God causes His Spirit to be born into a calloused heart, He lives there softening and removing that tough, unresponsive exterior. This “reborn” heart becomes responsive to God. 

Jesus promised to give new life to anyone who trusts Him, through the birth of God’s Spirit in their hearts.  Their sins are forgiven, their souls are cleansed and they receive God’s Spirit.  Ultimately, the cycle of failure is broken.  They are set free.  

Mo and Zeke saw it coming.

What Moses Saw

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Moses could see it coming; he knew they couldn’t keep it.  He had just rescued his people from slavery in Egypt.  He’d been sent to deliver them to a land where God promised to bless them. But, before they even set foot in the land, Moses knew they would eventually mess it up, turn away from God and lose evrything they had. He warned them.  You can read it for yourself in the 29th chapter of Deuteronomy.   

Moses saw it coming and it happened, just as he said, 800  years later.  The Promised Land was overrun and destroyed.  The survivors were carted off to Babylon to live in exile.

But Moses also knew:

“…and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.  (Deuteronomy 30:2-3)
As unlikely as that would seem, it also happened, exactly as he said it would.  I am convinced God allowed that to demonstrate the tangible benefits of turning back to love and obey God “with all their hearts.”  Jesus also proclaimed this to be the most important commandment.

These days I sense a general attitude of despair and pessimism in the USA, a sense we have stumbled off in the wrong direction from which there seems to be no possible course correction.  Maybe Moses was on to something.

Who’s to Blame?

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If you get caught speeding and get a ticket, do you blame your dad?  Do you say, “He shouldn’t have let me drive that fast.”  Probably not, unless you are the neurotic sort.  And yet, you hear people commonly say, “If God is good, why does He allow such wickedness in the world?”  

They blame God for our wickedness, believing in a kind of god that does not exist.  Their idea of a good god is one who automatically makes it impossible for people to disobey his instructions.  Then when people do bad things, they blame God.  A dad who operated like that would never be considered to be good.  God, the real God, does not force obedience.  He lovingly instructs and allows us to choose.  Forced obedience is for robots, not humans.  In order to correctly assess who is to blame for the problems in this world, we have to believe in the God Who really exists.  

And how are we to know what He is like?  He is like Jesus.

And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.   (John 12:44-46)
Jesus did not force His followers to obey; He invited them to do so.  He promised them, if they did, they would discover that “the truth will make you free.”  Same thing with the real God.  

Instead of blaming God for our problems, why not try living by His instructions?