Tag Archives: Hebrews

No shortage of worldly advice

Posted on February 18, 2014 by | Comments Off on No shortage of worldly advice

dear-abbyIt never fails. If you ask advice from your family and friends on how to handle a problem, a crisis, or just a difficult situation, most of the advice you will get is based on a worldly understanding of the problem and not focused on giving thoughtful, spirit led and soul-stirring advice. In fact, there are several places in the Bible where the extent and commonality of worldly advice is truly demonstrated.

Within the story of Job, his wife offers him the worldly advice of Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die (Job 2:9b). Even Job, in his day, acknowledged the worldview of seeking godly counsel when he told his friends, What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me (Job 15:21). While he was in the middle of a trial by the hands of Satan, he had enough wisdom to realize that neither his wife or his friends were providing Godly advise, but were offering what he correctly called “the counsel of the wicked.”

Now do not misunderstand, not everyone that provides us advice is wicked; however, their advice must be weighed against what the Bible tells us. I would not count Job’s wife as a wicked woman, however, her advice was wicked—it called for Job to curse God and wait for judgment. To curse God would be a sin, and the wages of sin is death; after this, the judgment of God (reference Job 2:9, Romans 6:23, and Hebrews 9:27). What terrible advice to tell someone to willfully sin and await the judgment of God!

Just as Job’s wife probably loved him deeply and wanted to see him out of pain and suffering, many of our family and friends, some saved, some not, also take no pleasure in seeing us endure pain, hardships, trials, and confusion. Often they are quick to offer up solutions to our problems. I think of the story of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and her understanding of God’s promise and the customs of ancient Mesopotamian society. She knew she was past the age of bearing children, but rather than to wait upon God and to see what He had planned, she told Abraham, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai (Genesis 16:2). There can be no doubt that Sarah loved Abraham and she wanted to bear him an heir, the son of promise, but based on her own understanding of their situation, she offered advice that can be considered as the “counsel of the wicked.” God warns us to Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). Even the prophet Jeremiah added that The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9). If those who are truly walking in the faith can offer us bad advice, what makes us think that the world’s advice will be any better?

In truthfulness, we cannot expect the lost world—whether it be family or close friends—to be able to offer godly and spirit led advice either. David, the psalmist and King of Israel, penned the words, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful (Psalms 1:1) as both a warning and promise to us as we seek to find meaning in the trials and obstacles we face. When we take advice that is founded on the common worldview and not centered on a God-ward worldview, we are inviting even more difficulty into our lives.

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Are you worshiping a totem or the God of the Bible?

Posted on February 13, 2014 by | Comments Off on Are you worshiping a totem or the God of the Bible?

Totem_polesIn the late 19th Century, when the fields of anthropology and sociology were still in their infancy, David Émile Durkheim was travelling around the world studying various tribal religions of Stone Age societies.  Naturally curious about the development of religion, he set out to visit Polynesian societies within the Pacific Basin, Alaskan Inuit, Native Hawaiians, and even some of the Pacific Northwest American Indian groups.  His original theory was that each of these religions shared similar traits that could connect them to a much more ancient worship system rooted somewhere within Asia.

As he prepared his research for his latest work, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, he made an observation in the Pacific Northwest that not only confounded him, but also caused him to question his own faith in God.  As a child, Durkheim had been raised as an Orthodox Jew in France.  As he attended higher education at the end of the Nineteenth Century, he adopted humanism and forsook all but the ceremonialism of his childhood faith, more out of tradition than out of reverence.  Before his death in 1917, Durkheim had returned to worshiping the God of his fathers but with a stronger passion and zeal than he had as a child, a fact rarely discussed in academic circles today.  The explanation of his change of heart towards the God of his youth came from his academic inquiry of the Pacific Northwestern Indian totem poles.

As Durkheim began to catalogue the totem poles that he encountered in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and the Canadian Pacific Coast, he learned that each small tribe had at least one to as many as three totem poles in each village, depending on the age of the village.  He also learned that each village would, within a generation, choose which gods or spirits to be featured on the totem pole.  Normally, these various tribes would select animals that they believed had the best qualities that they all should aspire to have.  He noticed that strength was represented by a bear, intelligence was represented by birds (either an eagle or owl), ravens represented negotiation skills, turtles represented strength and determination, foxes represented quickness and agility, and fish represented a giving spirit.

What he began to notice is that each of these things assigned to animals – called “personification” within anthropology – was actually traits that the members of the village already, in some form or fashion, already possessed. Within the process of creating a totem pole containing representations of these traits, these Indian groups were not worshiping animals or spirits, but were actually worshipping themselves – they had created their gods in their own image! Durkheim saw a visual interpretation of what the Holy Spirit led Isaiah to write, Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made (Isaiah 28).  In Durkheim’s last year of life, he decided to use his theories on the Pacific Northwestern Indian religion and apply it to his own Jewish faith from childhood.  What he discovered was that just as the Pacific Northwest Indians crafted their own faith to match their needs, he had actually done the exact same thing with his Jewish faith, changing the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob into a God that could not be trusted and only recourse was to adopt a godless existence through humanism. For the rest of his life, Durkheim returned to the Orthodox Judaism of his childhood with a renewed appreciation of his faith.

As Christians, if we are not careful, we can do the exact same thing in our quest to understand our relationship to God. The prophet Jeremiah, as he was led by the Holy Spirit, wrote, Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? (Jeremiah 16:20). The apostle Paul pondered this tendency of man to create God in his own image as he wrote to the early Christians in Galatia, Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods (Galatians 4:8). What both verses show is that while we know the truth about God and what he expects from us, there is a strong  fleshly desire to create shortcuts, different interpretations of scripture, or a justification of our actions.  When we do these things, we now are worshipping a Jesus of our own making – or a totem Jesus.

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The things of which we need to “take heed”

Posted on February 5, 2014 by | Comments Off on The things of which we need to “take heed”

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When I do my morning Bible study, I use a daily devotional, one chapter of the book of Proverbs, and two chapters of Bible reading.  This morning, as I was reading in the sixth chapter of Matthew when a phrase I’ve read many times suddenly caught my eye: Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven (Matthew 6:1; emphasis added).  I decided to do a Bible study on that two-word phrase, mainly out of curiosity, to see how it is used in scripture.  As I began to study this phrase, I began to learn some interesting lessons from that small little two-word phrase.

The phrase take heed is used fifteen times in the New Testament and is not found anywhere in the Old Testament. According to Dr. Ed Vallowe in his book, Biblical Mathematics: Keys to Scripture Numerics, fifteen is scripturally significant since it is always connected with rest.  Vallowe states that fifteen is always associated with deliverance or salvation and is a concept that is demonstrated because three times, the children of Israel rested on the fifteenth day of the month as found in the book of Leviticus 23:6-7, Leviticus 23:34-35, and Esther 9:20-22 (1). As I continued my study, I began to notice are fifteen distinct things that the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles Peter and Paul told believers that they must take heed of. While not commonly used today, the phrase “take heed” simply means to pay special attention to or to be on the lookout for whatever is being described.  Here are the first four things of the fifteen that as Christians, we must pay attention to:

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven (Matthew 6:1).

It’s pretty straightforward that we are not supposed to draw any attention to ourselves when we do give to others in their time of need.  When we make a big spectacle of our giving, we take the emphasis off of God.  Instead of God’s generosity being the focus of the gift, as demonstrated through our ability to give, we place ourselves ahead of God. In the next three verses, Jesus warns that when we place ourselves as the source of blessings, we will get the rewards (whether good or bad) of man.  

No one likes admitting they need help; often a good deed given in anonymity to them not only serves as a demonstration of God’s love for them, but it can also ease the feelings of guilt or shame associated with the need.  If that same person was given a gift by someone who would turn to brag on themselves, not only could it create a situation where the person in need feels that they owe a debt to the giver, but could also serve as the beginning for contention within the local congregation.  Jesus tells us to do them secretly and uses the image of us doing something with our right hand that the left hand does not notice – in other words, seek not the accolades of men, give in private and do not make a spectacle of your giving.  Allow God to bear witness of your deeds, the condition of your heart at the time of the gift, and allow God to be the one that openly blesses you for your obedience to Him.

Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven (Matthew 18:10).

It is hard to believe but some people are extremely uncomfortable around children or do not wish to be bothered by children.  Unfortunately, this attitude is carried with them throughout all that they do.  As a former volunteer and a professional with a youth-serving non-profit organization, I often heard volunteers complain about the youth of the program.  In the past, I have even been in churches where members openly complained about the youth in the church – the messes they make, the damage the older kids do, the waste of floor space in the building that a nursery causes, and so on.  Again, the Lord Jesus Christ is pretty straightforward in his teaching that as Christians, we are to do nothing that could discourage or cause children to not come to the Lord Jesus Christ.  As adults, we need to do whatever we can to bring those young children boldly to the feet of Christ.

Imagine standing in the chamber of the Great White Throne, with all the hosts of Heaven watching, while angels explain to the King of kings and the Lord of lords that some ill-spoken word, deed, or action by you said to that person brought before the throne was the reason they rejected Christ.  Imagine the brokenheartedness of the Heavenly Father as He gazes over to see you, a child of his, bought by the blood of the Lamb – and the very cause this person before Him now is awaiting the final judgment and be sentenced to the lake of fire.  It is after the Great White Throne judgment of God that the apostle John wrote, And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away (Revelation 21:4). It’s a painful reality that many of us will face as we see those who we could have shared the gospel with, could have been a better example of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ to get condemned to eternal punishment.  What a day of great sorrow that will be!

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