Responsibility

1 Kings 21:25, 27, 29 ESV

There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited…And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth an went about dejectedly…because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring about the disaster in his days;…

As I listen to the news summarizing a legal dispute between Oklahoma and a native American concerning the jurisdiction of his tribe and the reservation standing of certain land, the reporter giving the summary said a most amazing statement. She made the comment “of course, congress can work out conflicts IF IT would only do it.” This small statement set my head spinning. I know it to be true as many others but we often fail to give Congress its due. Preparing for another election cycle sparked Bethany to ask her mom, “When you turn eighteen do you have to vote?” In answering that question Kelly had to say no, but she was responsible weather she voted or not.

Coming back to the Congress of the United States, we rarely place responsibility firmly on them. Why? They are the single most powerful body in the United States. Does their failure to act make them not responsible for what transpires? As President after President continues to consolidate power under himself and Supreme Court Ruling after Supreme Court Ruling legislates new laws, who has the authority and responsibility to act? Does failure to act absolve one of the responsibilities for the consequences?

As a 19 year-old man lays dead in the CHOP zone of Seattle, are not the Protestors that would not allow emergency personnel in to treat the victim responsible for that loss of life? Of course, they are responsible for the death that man, they were the secondary cause of his death. So, to is congress. By refusal to act when it is their responsibility to act, they are culpable.

Does what has transpired prior to absolve persons of responsibility in the presence? Simply because my brother hit me am I then not responsible for my actions in retaliation? Of course not, my actions become understandable but I do not become innocent of them.

Looking at the text about Ahab, I have to wonder, is Ahab going to be in heaven? You see, he was manipulated by his wife, time and again he followed her like Adam did Eve, and found himself further in sin. God confronted him with the reality of his sin and he did the most unexpected thing. He listened, took responsibility, and humbled himself. He did not say “the woman you gave me, gave me fruit” or pass the buck in anyway. And what does God do, despite all that had come before, all the wickedness he had sown, all the men he had killed, God still has mercy on him! Man is always responsible in and of himself for his actions, it does not matter what has come before. Did God show mercy to the point that Ahab will be in heaven? I can’t answer, but God shows us that even he had a trait worthy of resemblance.

The Christian must look at all this and realize that we are responsible for our actions, not the actions of others, no matter what influence they may have over us or our lives, our actions, our thoughts, and our words, are just that, OURS. We have authority and power over them and our only hope for mercy is the humility of owning them and repenting of the sin is found in them.

Coram Deo

United Front

Isaiah 51:8 ESV

For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool;

But my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.

News gets really hard to hear. Recently I have been educated on the most current ruling of the United States Supreme Court and am sorrowful, baffled, and deflated a little. I join the long list of those thinking the battle is over before he is called from the front and the equally long list of men fighting the wrong fight and assume, they are losing when victory is actually on the cusp.

Listening to commentary on the latest ruling of the court led to some curious paths for me. One commentator had noted that Justice Kagan had specifically crafted her argument and questions during oral argument to persuade Justice Gorsuch of the outcome she desired. Other commentators on the court have noted how the “liberal” justice rarely break ranks and the “conservative” justice are far more likely to but that it is not always the same one as it had been with Justice Kennedy.  Does this mean that those that hold to reasoned argument are “weaker” and that inevitably the “liberals” will write the right side of history?

With this question and others like it weighing upon me, I fall to God’s providence in my reading plan and come to Isaiah. Isaiah is working through the reality of the pending doom of his beloved society. Knowing the fall of Jerusalem and the temple is coming at the hands of the Babylonians, even as it appears victories are being one over sin and corruption during the reign of Hezekiah. Recognizing the improvement, he sees for a veneer, seeing the reality of the King’s son of destruction coming, he is encouraged. He is encouraged because no matter how bad or things look for righteousness those set against it are moth eaten food for worms. Even as it appears the corruption will win the day by all earthly measure it is a fiction; their fate is sure.

BUT stands at the middle of the two sides. The structure has two parallels, one of temporal decline, the other of eternal glory. It is easy to let the tyranny of the immediate rule our days. Loosing sight of the victory that awaits. Looking at the strategy of the Liberal justices to only use arguments as weapons to divide and simply hold a “party-line” in defense, it is hard to see when they might “lose”.

It is not the first time God has moved to destroy a kingdom and empire through social corruption and perverse judges, but if he will, he has also divided a united front before.

For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another. (2 Chronicles 20:23)

Let us be encouraged because the end is sure, and let us not sin against God by failure to pray for fallen sinful men that think they know what they want even when they are only sowing destruction on themselves! (1 Samuel 12:23)

Coram Deo

Humbling

Deuteronomy 8:3 ESV

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers, know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Powerlessness is a humbling reality. To watch as lawlessness takes hold of our institutions and our streets is gut-wrenching. To know that good men and women are losing everything because of the few. Courageous police officers are losing the honor due them because of soulless actions of the few. Entire communities are branded in the hearts and minds of others as images of the few are captured on cameras and ‘go viral’. In the midst of all of this, others are commanding action and protest. Labeling and branding those who don’t join. Why?

The passage above speaks in memory of when God chose to humble his people. To bring them down in their own sight. To help them realize they were but men. What was the method he chose? Starvation. He would deny them the idolatrous idea that they could provide for themselves, that they were the ones in control. He wouldn’t even let them have a map as they wandered in the wilderness, choosing instead to make them follow at his beck and call (Exodus 40:36). God provided for them. God fought for them. God led them. They were nothing, so much so that at one point he basically says they are a bad batch and he should start over with Moses! (Exodus 32:10)

The beloved story of the Prodigal Son hits its turning point when the son has been humbled completely. A famine had taken what hope he had. His stomach drove him to repent and turn again to his father. It is not a new method to Gods treatment of men. (Luke 15)

It is humbling to watch as what you hoped would be words of peace and hope are quickly cast aside, and what you meant as joke or casual comment to lighten the conversation is taken as an act of war. Eventually you are tempted to the sin of sticking your head in the sand. The sin of failing to continue to point to Christ. Jesus tells us in Mathew that “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). In Revelation chapters two and three, he tells us “the one who conquers” will receive the prize. In chapter two verse ten this is defined as being “faithful unto death”.

The purpose of the denial of food in the desert and the provision of daily bread through manna, was that his people might learn that we don’t live by bread alone, but by the word of God. That “his people who are called by his name might humble themselves”. Let us not believe the “religious right” have the power to effect change in the hearts of the American people. The Gospel of Christ has this power. Let us persist with patient endurance, telling of Christ’s Virgin Birth, Sinless Life, Atoning Death, Burial, Resurrection and Imminent Return that he might conquer the hearts of those we love. Continue to bring the focus on the Son, the center of creation.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Trunks

Psalm 79:13 ESV

But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever;

from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

My children gaze in wonder at the rare and amazing things scattered over my bed. It’s not Christmas but close. The looks of intrigue and curiosity flash in cyclical repetition as one item after another is added to the bed. Questions stream from their lips: what is that, who is that, can I have this… Spring has sprung and cleaning has begun. Our latest touch with the foster care system has left us noting the need for space and rearranging our house. This led to the need to find space. Although the young girl we watched for a couple weeks has left the shift took place, space must be found.

Even as I write the irony of my situation does not escape me. Throughout our marriage I have often lovingly teased Kelly’s mom. As we would often come back from her parents’ house with one bag after another with everything from Kelly’s Freshman prom dress to trash bags full of pristine stuffed animals, and some not so pristine. Yet, here I am with one box, one Rubbermaid, and one trunk full of junk. Everything from the mouth piece to my baritone (we borrowed the baritone), to my baseball card collection lies on the bed waiting for the verdict of its future. Some found themselves back in the box, others, to the trash, and others to some hidey hole my kids have found. My hotdog bank that sings Take Me Out to the Ballgame has a future on Devin’s side of the dresser, I am looking forward to hearing that over the next few years…

As item and photo is examined stories are told, adventures recounted, losses mourned. My children often beg for stories of when I was young. Longing to place themselves in the narrative of history. The cleaning spree this year has provided ample opportunity to tell stories about why a little boy found a certain item worthy of being hidden in a trunk and the same for the young man and why certain things are in a cigar box he received when his granddad died.

Recently our family has set aside the Saturday before Memorial Day to go and decorate the graves of grandparents and stillborn babies in Natoma and Hays. Remembering what God has taken and what God has given. Even as I have no memory of one of my grandfathers and the only memory of the other is crawling on his nursing home bed, I can give the stories I have been told, and how God worked even in men who never knew him. How he moved in the stillborn baby to press and push a daughter to think about eternity and him, finally submitting to him and setting the trajectory of her life.

We praise God for the good and the bad things of our lives. It is not enough to only do it in your heart and mind. Have you found someone of the next generation to do them to? If you think you have no stories to tell. Find a trunk and see what stories come out of it.

Coram deo

Guaranties

2 Peter 1:8 ESV

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Am I unique? The simple answer is yes. Just like every snowflake is unique. Each made differently, bearing a different crystalline form. Yet, they all kind of look the same and tend to melt at the same temperature. I ask though because often I look at life and wonder am I the only one that has this problem? Am I the only one who sees this absurdity? Why am I the only one laughing? Am I musing because they are unique or rather because I know that all of us are dealing with these issues?

Monday’s are hard. All though I might be unique in this assessment I would be willing to wager ( gasp ) a reasonable amount, this observation is not a particularly unique one. Yet, I do find it odd that it is also true for Pastors, even when the majority of those I talk with take Monday off! Every week the Pastor scatters seed. Then like a small child we go out the next day and go to the garden to look and see if anything “has happened” only to be disappointed that nothing sprouted overnight. As silly as it is, it tends to be the case, at least in my life, and I believe I am not unique. Walking the worn path of the Christian “way”. Doing all we can to till ground, scatter seed, and water, all done with the hope of seeing a righteous harvest. That childlike faith has the added frustration of hoping that the things we sow will be reaped shortly and the sin we sow will never be reaped at all. All Christians have the temptation to be disheartened after “going out on a limb” and seeing no change. Worse than anything else is the temptation to believe that all the work and stress are “ineffective and unfruitful” acts. That all the Christian’s (Your) labor is inconsequential. Even a bad reaction at least means we said something of consequence!

As Peter works through this second letter, he tells us the secret to never having an ineffective or unfruitful walk. By growing in personal holiness. Specifically: virtue, knowledge, self-control steadfastness, godliness, brother affection, and love. In this verse he does qualify the mere possession of these things by saying they need to be “increasing” for this assurance to be reasonable. In verse ten he makes the point even more plain by telling us to be “all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities…” Noting it is ours to MAKE and to PRACTICE these things.

He then tells them he is going to “continue to remind them” of these qualities even though they have them and know they need them. He is going to continue to beat that drum, until he goes home in glory (v11-4). The continued focus on Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, second coming AND our soul’s appropriate response to it (growth in the aforementioned virtues) keeps us from giving way to the Monday morning ritual. Keeps us from giving way to the temptation to sin against God and man by loosing heart in this battle for the souls of men.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO