Archive for the ‘Leadership Blog’ Category

 What causes us to pursue God in prayer? Do we turn to the LORD only with petitions or in time of need – looking for that “genie in the bottle” to grant us our wishes? Or, do we follow the example of Daniel and allow Scripture to motivate us toward God with a humble attitude of repentance?

I will include the first 19 verses of Daniel 9 in this post and recommend that you take the time to carefully read them. Daniel recognized who God was from “the words of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet.” Although it appears from all accounts in Scripture that Daniel lived a pretty dedicated and holy life before God, he felt led to pray a prayer of repentance for the corporate sins of his nation, Israel. Daniel declares the truth regarding both God and man as he pours out his heart to the LORD. May God grant us all the tenderness of heart necessary to be touched by His Word in the same manner; is it time for God’s people to turn to the LORD God and plead with Him in prayer and petition, in fasting, (and in sackcloth and ashes?) for the corporate sins of our nation?

^“1 In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom- ² in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. ³ So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

 ⁴ I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed:
       “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, ⁵ we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. ⁶ We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

 ⁷ “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. ⁸ O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. ⁹ The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; ¹⁰ we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. ¹¹ All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.
       “Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. ¹² You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. ¹³ Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. ¹⁴ The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.

 ¹⁵ “Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. ¹⁶ O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.

 ¹⁷ “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. ¹⁸ Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. ¹⁹ O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”” (Daniel 9:1-19 NIV bold and italics added)

I wonder if the LORD ever gets jealous of “nature” when we speak of natural and supernatural events and circumstances. Do we realize the LORD is in all things?

When we overlook the LORD as sustainer of everything, we fail to give credit where credit is due. In Colossians 1:17b, we read that “in Him all things hold together.” Hebrews 1:3 reminds us the Son is “sustaining all things by His powerful word.” In Isaiah 46:4 the LORD reminds the children of Israel that He is their sustainer. “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.” (NIV)

The reason we can pray “I shall not want” from Psalm 23 is that God holds all things together. Do we realize that “our daily bread” comes from the LORD’s sustaining power, or do we just credit “nature” for the provision of food?

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17 NIV)

Most of the time when we think of ‘sin’ or of what would bring the LORD’s wrath upon us, we consider all of the ‘really bad’ things we could be doing but aren’t doing. God’s standard is much higher. James 4:17 says, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” God cares not only about sins of commission, but also, sins of omission. And further, Romans 14:23b states, “everything that does not come from faith is sin.” For the majority of us, I think this is where we most often fall short of the glory of God. We assume that our good works will please the LORD when all they do is bring curses upon us.

This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on the flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD… But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him… I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:5-10 NIV)

Where do we put our trust? In whom or what is our confidence?

Okay, I don’t know Latin, but it is possible to look up definitions of foreign words for us illiterates. So when my reformed friends begin throwing around the Latin words ‘sola’ or ‘solus’ I can research the meaning of the words and I find that ‘sola’ means alone or only (feminine form) and ‘solus’ means alone or only (masculine form). The term ‘sola scriptura’ obviously means only scripture or scripture alone. I love that concept; we find ultimate authority in Scripture alone and we don’t rely on any other document or source as an authority. Now comes the confusing part. Those same reformed friends take the adjective “sola” and make it into a plural noun. They have FIVE “alones” and call them the five solas.

Like most theologians that attempt to simplify God’s connection with man, they seem to complicate stuff. Besides holding ‘sola scriptura’ as a primary teaching, they add ‘sola fide’ (by faith alone), ‘sola gratia’ (by grace alone), ‘solus Christus’ (through Christ alone), and ‘Soli Deo gloria’ (glory to God alone).

While I agree with all of the five (sola) doctrines; I just wish we had a better adjective to express the level of importance for each of these fundamental beliefs. How do we articulate the grandeur and awesome nature of each aspect of the LORD’s revelation without immediately going to a universally exclusive superlative?

Question: How do we approach the LORD in an acceptable manner?

“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2b NIV)

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17 NIV)

Answer: We quit trying to be our own lord, and recognize the true LORD; we approach him as servants without an agenda. He is God.

When Isaiah 55:6 says, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near,” it implies that there may be a time when the LORD is not near and He may not be found. A few chapters later, (Isaiah 63:17) asks, “Why, O LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you?”

Another related passage we might turn to is Zechariah 7:8-13.

⁸ And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: ⁹ “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. ¹⁰ Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’

 ¹¹ “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. ¹² They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.

 ¹³ ” ‘When I called, they did not listen; SO when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty.

In Zechariah 7, the LORD clearly had justification for not listening to disobedient people with closed ears. They made their own hearts hard by not paying attention to the words sent by the Spirit through the earlier prophets.

Are we listening to the words sent through the earlier prophets? Or, have we closed our ears and hardened our hearts toward God’s Word? I implore you to “Seek the LORD while he may be found.” Get your hearts and ears into Scripture; be doers of the Word; “Call on him while he is near.”

 Scripture quotes in this post are from the NIV.

James, the brother of Jesus, enlightens us, his readers, regarding reasons for not obtaining our desires. Sometimes we don’t acquire what we wish for because we just don’t ask; or we may have asked wrongly or with an unacceptable motivation. We can make improperly motivated requests to God; this implies it is possible to have pure motivations. So what motivates us? How should we approach the Throne of Grace?

Hezekiah provides us with a positive example of pure motivation in Isaiah 37. Sennacherib, the wicked king of Assyria, sent a message of imminent destruction to Israel and Hezekiah. King Hezekiah responded by laying the pages of the message out before the LORD and praying the following prayer.

“O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.

“It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God.” (Isaiah 37:16-20 NIV)

This prayer isn’t a plea for God to provide anything for Hezekiah or even for the people he ruled as king. In great humility, Hezekiah praises the LORD, exalts the Most High, and makes a plea for God to act in such a way that the LORD’s glory will be evident to the nations of the earth. Do we care about the world’s perception of our God? Do we pray to our LORD with the understanding that it isn’t about us – that we exist to bring glory to our Creator? Or, are we motivated by personal comfort, personal reputation, personal peace, and squandering God’s blessings on our own passions?

Sometimes, when I am reading through the Scripture, I come across a statement that just doesn’t “feel right” and I begin to question God in my heart. Exodus 9:12 states, “the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh…” God holds Pharaoh accountable and judges him for his actions and attitude. How can that be fair or righteous when the LORD was the one to do the hardening? Even prior to Moses returning to Egypt (Exodus 4) the LORD said to Moses, “I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.” Did Pharaoh have a chance? Could he have made a different choice?

Maybe the fact that this bothers me just shows that I am idolatrously placing my free will on a pedestal. My idea of ‘fairness’ is that I get to make all final decisions that concern me. I am the boss of me! God can only do what I give him permission to do. Ouch! Time for repentance of my attitude; but that doesn’t provide a satisfactory answer to the “it isn’t fair” worry.

Why would the LORD harden the heart of Pharaoh and then still hold Pharaoh accountable for his hard heart? Romans, chapter one, gives some insight into how this might be appropriate and within the character of God. Verses 18-32 lay out a strong case for why God can justly and righteously turn individuals over to their own impure lusts, dishonorable passions, and debased minds. God has clearly revealed himself to ungodly and unrighteous men, but they (we?) suppress the truth. Since they (we?) do not see fit to acknowledge God, He is actually allowing their (our?) free will to rule; he is just giving them (us?) what they (we?) think they (we?) want.

Are we endangering our relationship with the LORD by trusting in ourselves more than in Him? Are we acknowledging Him in all our ways? The only ‘unfair’ action that God may be accused of is demonstrating His love for us while we are sinners.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (ESV)

Is reading this blog part of whatever? Is eating and sleeping and going to work part of whatever? How do we do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus?

The answer to those questions must become a life-long pursuit.

As people, we like to measure things and look at the numbers. How big is our paycheck? How much can we count on for retirement? How many square feet do we have in our home? How many ‘friends’ do we have on facebook? Even pastors and churches get into the quantification games. How many members does our church have? What was the attendance for each service or event? How big was the offering?

In 1 Samuel 13 and following, you can read about Israel’s first human king and his propensity to be guided and led by the numbers. Saul noticed that the enemy had mustered troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude. Apparently, his own soldiers were noticing the same thing and his numbers began to dwindle as they hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns, and some found communities to blend into. Saul recognized that if he didn’t do something soon, his whole army might just disappear, so he took it upon himself to make a sacrifice without waiting for Samuel, the prophet-priest. Samuel immediately arrived and pointed out to Saul that he should have obeyed God instead of trying to do things on his own. At that time, Israel’s army numbered only about 600.

Saul’s son, Jonathan, was still among that number and he and his armor bearer snuck away; not to hide in a hole or a cave, but to go up against a strong garrison of the Philistines. Jonathan recognized that God could use a great number or a few to fulfill his purposes. Because of these two men, the Philistines were routed.

The contrast between Jonathan and his father is apparent in how they viewed the numbers. The numbers were the same for each of them but the language, heart, and faith of the two are polar opposites. Saul saw the people scattering from him and wanted to make a show of worship to convince the 600 that he still had, not to leave also. Jonathan saw those same 600 and said, “It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.”

Any time we start looking at numbers and assuming that our security is in how many or how much, we have taken our eyes off of God. Saul never really gets it. When his own army had swelled to over 200,000 he was winning a lot of battles and he kept doing things his own way. God had commanded Saul to totally destroy the Amalekites for how they had treated God’s people, and not to take anything from the spoils. Saul decided he knew better than the LORD and spared the king and some of the finer things and some of the best livestock. When Samuel confronted Saul, Saul tried to cast blame on the people and then say that the animals were for a sacrifice to the LORD.

Samuel responded with the following quote – a quote that gets repeated numerous times in Scripture.

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry, because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:22-23 ESV)

Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. Man counts and enumerates, but God provides. Instead of just taking account of what we have or how strong we think our position is by the numbers, let us look to the LORD and determine that our hearts are fully devoted and steadfast in seeking and knowing Him.