Psalm 98:1-9; Daniel 4:28-37; I John 4:7-21; Psalm 66:1-20
God can drive us to places we don't want to go. As Christians, we are taught to expect that - to follow Christ into difficult places when we commit to serve Him.
But God can drive us to other places, where we have no use. Indeed, King Nebuchadnezzar found himself toppled from his throne and driven into the wilderness, just like Daniel told him would happen. God drove him from power and privilege to danger and darkness, to grovel and scrap for survival with wild animals. Of use to no one, powerless for a time.
The evil spirit that possessed the man in Luke's gospel, who manifested itself in him as many, was driven out of him by a few words from Jesus. They too became powerless over the man, driven to oblivion.
John reminds us that God can drive out anything that blocks love from the world - including our selfish ambition, pride, fear. All God wants to dwell in us is love - for God and for others. As the King learned, [God] is able to bring low those who walk in pride. (Daniel 4:37). As God drives out sin and evil from our lives, through Christ, God brings us low. But God does not leave us there.
The King was restored to his throne with humility - now claiming the One true God: 34When that period was over, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me. I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored the one who lives forever. For his sovereignty is an everlasting sovereignty, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
Pride was driven out and replaced by the fear of the Lord. Fear, reverence, honor - the recognition that God is God, not us. God has all the power, not the unclean spirits of this world, that tempt us to think we are god, that we can go it alone, that we have it all together, that our needs matter more than justice and peace. God drives us to our knees, God drives us to consider the wasteland of our lives, God drives us to the brink, but God never leaves us there, to fear. For God sent Jesus into the wilderness to drive us home to God, and to dwell with us in love, by love, for love, forever.
13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. (I John 4:13-16).
The wilderness can be a place where purpose and perspective is shaped. And everything else is driven out. So be it to the glory of God.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Daily Thoughts on the Daily Scriptures - April 23, 2007
Psalm 97:1-12; Daniel 4:19-27; I John 3:19-4:6; Luke 4:14-30
It's been a few weeks since y'all have heard from me. We were in Marguaritaville, sunny Key West to see our son and his wife and then a week to "re-enter" the real world followed. What a beautiful escape! Key West is the home of Earnest Hemingway, and Jimmy Buffett, and every kind of Marguarita imaginable.
I confess I did not read the Bible on vacation. We even skipped church. I did pray for people as God popped them into my mind. But the disciplines I practiced were to relax by catching up with our kids, snorkeling, eating, a good book and plenty of beach time.
Coincidentally, our daughter-in-law, the photographer for the Key West Magazine, was doing a feature story shoot on "Keeping Faith in a Hedonistic Town," or something like that. It required that she interview and photograph the pastors in Key West about the faith of their Key West flocks, and attend a few worship services. Now she and our son don't attend church. However, on our Sunday there, she spent 2 1/2 hours at an AME worship service, and when we caught up with her afterwards she said it was cool, the energy and the Spirit. All of a sudden I really missed my church family. I was ready to come home. Interestingly, I also realized I missed the daily discipline of reading the lectionary with you all (yeah, I'm a Bible geek). And then, on Monday the 16th waiting in the airport for our fight home, we saw the news unfolding of the Virginian Tech shootings. Like the psalmist says, "clouds of thick darkness were all around me," as I was reminded we live in a world of evil and brokenness, not a tropical paradise.
How soon I had become disconnected from the world's pain and tragedy - it's heartbeat, and drifted from the heart of God. All I had to think about was shopping for souvenirs and what restaurant we'll eat in. I returned a bit restless. My flesh was relaxed but my Spirit was still hungry, my heart kind of dull. When you don't read the Word, that can happen to you. When you isolate yourself form the world's evil and tragedy, hedonism is contagious. That has upset me this week.
When we lose perspective on God's ways, God's purposes, and God's truth, we lose ourselves. How tempting it is to seek an escape from the very hard work of showing compassion and of taking a stand against injustice and evil, to pursue our own pleasures and protect our own positions of power. We are faced every day with choices as the dark clouds enter our neighborhoods, our businesses, our schools, and we can choose to follow Jesus' heart for peace and mission to the poor and grieving and exploited, or we can follow our own.
Daniel shook in his boots having to tell the King the truth about his dream: that the King was going to fall from his place of power and have to live with the wild animals, because of his hedonism. He challenged the king: 27Therefore, O king, may my counsel be acceptable to you: atone for your sins with righteousness, and your iniquities with mercy to the oppressed, so that your prosperity may be prolonged." Tough words to muster to your boss, huh?
John's words remind me that we DO know right from wrong - our hearts condemn us, but obedience to the truth is the problem: to obey God and love each other. How easy we can be led astray by "other spirits" that make false promises, keep us politically correct, that satisfy our flesh, and tell us we can play it safe, cut us off from others' needs.
Jesus did anything but that. He brought the spirit of truth not the spirit of error. He lived and stayed among the poorest, getting away for a time to be with God, not escape. He came for the poor and the exploited, bringing freedom not slavery. And like all the prophets before him, he was run out of town for preaching righteousness and justice and love. (Luke)
I loved my vacation. We all need to take breaks and I will take many more to places of beauty and paradise. But I will take the Word with me, and seek God in all places, so as not to waste away in Marguaritaville.
It's been a few weeks since y'all have heard from me. We were in Marguaritaville, sunny Key West to see our son and his wife and then a week to "re-enter" the real world followed. What a beautiful escape! Key West is the home of Earnest Hemingway, and Jimmy Buffett, and every kind of Marguarita imaginable.
I confess I did not read the Bible on vacation. We even skipped church. I did pray for people as God popped them into my mind. But the disciplines I practiced were to relax by catching up with our kids, snorkeling, eating, a good book and plenty of beach time.
Coincidentally, our daughter-in-law, the photographer for the Key West Magazine, was doing a feature story shoot on "Keeping Faith in a Hedonistic Town," or something like that. It required that she interview and photograph the pastors in Key West about the faith of their Key West flocks, and attend a few worship services. Now she and our son don't attend church. However, on our Sunday there, she spent 2 1/2 hours at an AME worship service, and when we caught up with her afterwards she said it was cool, the energy and the Spirit. All of a sudden I really missed my church family. I was ready to come home. Interestingly, I also realized I missed the daily discipline of reading the lectionary with you all (yeah, I'm a Bible geek). And then, on Monday the 16th waiting in the airport for our fight home, we saw the news unfolding of the Virginian Tech shootings. Like the psalmist says, "clouds of thick darkness were all around me," as I was reminded we live in a world of evil and brokenness, not a tropical paradise.
How soon I had become disconnected from the world's pain and tragedy - it's heartbeat, and drifted from the heart of God. All I had to think about was shopping for souvenirs and what restaurant we'll eat in. I returned a bit restless. My flesh was relaxed but my Spirit was still hungry, my heart kind of dull. When you don't read the Word, that can happen to you. When you isolate yourself form the world's evil and tragedy, hedonism is contagious. That has upset me this week.
When we lose perspective on God's ways, God's purposes, and God's truth, we lose ourselves. How tempting it is to seek an escape from the very hard work of showing compassion and of taking a stand against injustice and evil, to pursue our own pleasures and protect our own positions of power. We are faced every day with choices as the dark clouds enter our neighborhoods, our businesses, our schools, and we can choose to follow Jesus' heart for peace and mission to the poor and grieving and exploited, or we can follow our own.
Daniel shook in his boots having to tell the King the truth about his dream: that the King was going to fall from his place of power and have to live with the wild animals, because of his hedonism. He challenged the king: 27Therefore, O king, may my counsel be acceptable to you: atone for your sins with righteousness, and your iniquities with mercy to the oppressed, so that your prosperity may be prolonged." Tough words to muster to your boss, huh?
John's words remind me that we DO know right from wrong - our hearts condemn us, but obedience to the truth is the problem: to obey God and love each other. How easy we can be led astray by "other spirits" that make false promises, keep us politically correct, that satisfy our flesh, and tell us we can play it safe, cut us off from others' needs.
Jesus did anything but that. He brought the spirit of truth not the spirit of error. He lived and stayed among the poorest, getting away for a time to be with God, not escape. He came for the poor and the exploited, bringing freedom not slavery. And like all the prophets before him, he was run out of town for preaching righteousness and justice and love. (Luke)
I loved my vacation. We all need to take breaks and I will take many more to places of beauty and paradise. But I will take the Word with me, and seek God in all places, so as not to waste away in Marguaritaville.
9For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10The LORD loves those who hate evil;
he guards the lives of his faithful;
he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
11Light dawns for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
12Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name! (Psalm 97:9-12)
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