Lethal Christian Living

I'd like to introduce you to a man named Phinehas, Aaron's grandson. This man has quite the interesting story. It's fascinating, actually. Being familiar with Old Testament stories, this isn't necessarily one of those that you heard in Sunday School growing up, but I think it is so very important, and we can apply it very practically in our lives. You can find this story in Number 25. Please take some time to read it for yourself. Here is my summary:

Israel was in a mess. Many had turned to worship other gods, specifically the gods of Moab. Men were marrying the daughters of Moab and allowing them to bring these gods into their households; before long, these gods were worshiped instead of and along with the One True God. God was so displeased, so angry that He commanded all that worshiped Baalpeor (Moabite god) to be killed. He sent a plague on Israel.

After this event, an Israelite man still had the audacity to bring a Moabite with him into the camp before those who were weeping; he walked in front of "Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel" (v. 6). He took this woman to the tent. And one man, Phinehas, stood up for God. The Bible describes a gruesome scene (probably why it isn't told often in Sunday School). Phinehas goes after the man and the woman with his javelin and kills them.

The result: "the plague was stayed" (v. 8). Why? Because "he was zealous for My sake" (v. 11).

Phinehas had to take an extreme stand for God. A deadly stand for God. He swiftly and soundly cut off the problem. He gave no excuses. He gave no explanation. He stopped the problem. He loved God enough that He would not allow His name to be dishonored.

How many of us have a sin problem in our lives that needs to be drastically killed? How many times have we dishonored God in front of others with obvious problems in our lives? Our life needs to be filled with lethal Christian living. I think that we could all admit that there are some things in our life that just need to go. If we would only have the courage of Phinehas to cut off the sin in our lives, think about how much God could be glorified.

So, what needs to go? I'm not going to give any specifics; you probably already know. It's funny how God points out exactly what we need to fix. Take courage. Ask God for His strength to help you get rid of sin and choose right.

Shattered

Have you ever watched a movie that you already know the ending to? That one character who you absolutely love doesn’t make it. You know the scene. You’ve watched it a million times. He fights and loses the battle. The car crashes into the semi. She just can’t beat the cancer. They just can’t be together. You go into the movie knowing the ending. But you sit there watching it anyway. It’s like you’re secretly hoping that something will change. Maybe this time the warrior will come out victorious. Maybe the semi will stay on the same side of the road. Maybe she will go into remission. Maybe they can have happily ever after. We hold on to that little impossible hope.

As I was reflecting on a situation lately, I began to wonder if God ever feels this way about us. I can’t help but think that He sits there wishing for us to go the other way. Why can’t they just choose to hang out with the other friends? Why won’t he just turn off the TV? Why won’t she just be patient and wait on My timing? Why don’t they want to get out of bed and spend time with me? Why won’t they choose what they know is right?

We know that God knows everything. He has the power to do anything. He can be everywhere. So why doesn’t He change our lives if He wants something to happen a certain way? Does He really even care? We so underestimate God. We don’t understand the capacity of His love for us. He loves us so much that He wants us to love Him in return. He is willing to leave the choice to us even though He knows us. We’re going to mess up. We’re going to let Him down. We’re going to choose our friends over Him. We’re going to choose our sin over Him, and He watches.

Imagine His heart.

When you make that choice, you shatter it.

God loves you.

I know this is a feeble attempt at trying to see the heart of God. I can’t even come close to describing how He truly feels because I don’t know. I only know what the Bible tells us. It tells us that He sent His only Son to die for me, to die for you. He loved us as much as, if not more than, his own child. How can we even stand to hurt Him? Haven’t we done it enough?

The Thing We Never Hear About Lot

I was recently reading in Genesis and I came across this verse:

And while, he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. - Genesis 19:16

There are so many things that I learned from this verse right here. Here are a couple of the lessons.

First, we see our human nature. Lot was forcefully removed. I think that we often hear the story as “Lot left.” Not as “Two angels forces lot to leave the city.” They set him outside of it. We can see so many things about ourselves from this verse. Lot was warned. He knew full and well that Sodom was going to be destroyed. He had a conscience at some point because the New Testament tells us that he was a just man, but his conscious was so seared that he was satisfied in his sin. He was content to stay and be destroyed by his own stubbornness and love for sin. Don’t you think that we often do the same thing? We get so stuck in our sin. We are satisfied. We are content to stay in Sodom. It’s comfort, it’s constant exposure, it’s contentment in sin. But this brings me to the second point.

Second, we see God’s nature. God is merciful. We often don’t care enough about ourselves to remove ourselves from bad situations. But God does. He loves us so much that even when we are stuck in our own sin, He wants to help. So sometimes, he has to forcefully remove us from a situation. I can think of specific times in my life where God has done this for me. If you are a child of God, you can probably think of some too. It could be an ended relationship, an exposed secret sin, a humility check. You know. And sometimes, we’re tempted to be mad at God. Why would He do that to us? How could this ever be okay? Because of His love. God is so merciful to us even when we have no desire for His mercy.

Human nature versus God’s nature. What a contrast! I’m so grateful that my nature is not the nature of God. If it was, boy, would we be in trouble! But in spite of my sin and stubbornness, God is perfect. He is love. He is merciful. 

Yearbook Catastrophe

“So, I have a question for you,” my teacher said at the beginning of class. “How many of you, when you got your yearbook, the first picture that you looked at was your own?”

Over 75% of the class raised their hands. The only reason I didn't raise mine was because I hadn't gotten my yearbook yet. But that gave me the greater responsibility; now, I had the chance to keep my actions in check.

You see, I've also been reading a book called From Pride to Humility. I highly recommend it if you haven't read it before. It's very short but very convicting. God was already working on my heart about pride, and now, my teacher brings up a simple everyday situation that I show pride. Why is pride such a big deal anyway? Because God hates it (Proverbs 8:13, Proverbs 16:5). If I love God, why would be something that God hates?

Pride is seen in so many little ways. The book that I mentioned earlier says that it is the root of all sin. It is what had Satan cast out of heaven. Pride causes us to be focused on self and not focused on God. It makes us talk about ourselves, think low of others, and cut others down. It can also be seen in self-pity because the focus is on yourself, not God. It's easy to be proud in so many ways, so we have to be careful. Even then, we will make mistakes. I still went back and looked at my picture first!

What's the best way to learn humility? Ask God to teach you to be humble (Matthew 7:7). But be prepared because God will teach you even when you least expect it. I'll tell you about that story in a later post.

Call the Ambulance!

"Call 9-1-1! He's not breathing! I think his heart may have stopped!"

The paramedics rushed onto the scene a few moments later. One feels the neck of the patient. No pulse. Immediately, he begins CPR while the others put the man on the stretcher and into the ambulance.

3 John 2 says, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." John is wishing this elder good physical health. He knew this elder was spiritually strong. How about you?

What if your physical health was a reflection of your spiritual health? Maybe your diagnosis would be just a common cold, a nuisance. This could be a small sin affecting your life, but it could get worse if you don't take care of it. It could worsen to pneumonia. Or maybe you have cancer, a seemingly small sin that has begun but is rapidly spreading such as bitterness, immorality, or maybe even a lie. You need surgery to cut that tumor out of your body or perhaps chemotherapy that will take weeks or healing. You may need to cut that sin out of life, or it may be a longer healing process of restoring fellowship with God. Maybe you aren't breathing, or you have an eating disorder. Your body is not getting the nutrients that it needs. You aren't in God's Word daily. You don't spend time with Him in prayer. Or maybe your heart has stopped. There is no passion for God, no desire whatsoever to serve Him or love him.

So what is your diagnosis? Are you spiritually healthy? Or will those around you say, "We need the doctor! Call the ambulance!"

Such Small Sin, Such Great Sacrifice

For all sin. For murder, theft, abuse, immorality. All of these put Christ on the cross. He died for all sin.

The greatness of this fact should never cease to amaze us. But sometimes, we put so much emphasis on all of the big sins that I think we forget about the fact that it was all sin that put Christ on the cross. It wasn't just murder that put Him there. It was that simple lie that you told yesterday, that unkind thought when someone cut you off in traffic, that angry spirit at a friend. Christ died for the small things. Even if one of these seemingly small sins was all that we did, it would still not be enough to get us into heaven. Christ died for all sins, great and small.

So as you go throughout the day, think about those small sins. Those are what He died for. He saved us from that! So why do we continue in sin? Romans 12:1 tells us that we should present ourselves as a “living sacrifice” and that this is our “reasonable service.” Let's not take for granted God's great grace in saving us from these small sins. May it cause us to live our lives for Him.  

East to West, Not North to South

Psalm 103:12 – As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Today, one of my teachers spoke of this beautiful truth, so I thought I would share it with you. This verse holds the beautiful truth that Christ removes are sin far from us. But think about how far this really is. He didn't say the north and south. Eventually, if you travel on this earth, you will come to the point where you are going south. Then, when you come around again you will meet the north because the earth is a sphere.

But God chose the words “east” and “west.” The east and the west will never touch. You can keep going around the earth in an eastward direction and you will never touch west. The same is true if you travel the opposite direction. You have to physically turn around if you want to go the other direction.

This is how far God separates our sins from us. They can't be reached. Yes, we will make mistakes and sin again because we are human. But God forgives when we ask Him too. And if you know Christ as your personal Savior, His precious blood has already covered yours sins past, present, and future. That gives us every reason to live for Him!

So next time you travel east or west, think about the vastness of God's forgiveness. Think of the beautiful truth of this verse, and thank Him for what He has done for you.