Just Confess, Your Stupidity.

DUH!

Leviticus 5:4-6  Or if someone swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do anything good or evil—in whatever matter a man may rashly pronounce an oath—even if he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, he is guilty in the matter. 5If someone incurs guilt in one of these ways, he must confess the sin he has committed, 6and he must bring his guilt offering to the LORD for the sin he has committed: a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering. And the priest will make atonement for him concerning his sin.

I was reminded recently about the importance of keeping vows to God. In the middle of it, someone brought up Judge Jephthah, who made a vow to offer the first thing that came out of his house, and it was his daughter. Some want to talk about how awful God is for making him do that. Many have tried to say that he didn't really kill her, but ordered her to live without a husband. The truth was, he probably did kill her, but God didn't want him to.

 As you can see in the passage in Leviticus 5, god didn't want people to keep vows that were rash or foolish. The stipulation was that if one did, there were two things that had to be done: confession and an offering. God does hold us to our vow, as it will cost us something if we have to break it, but he would rather have that than us doing something wrong, like Jephthah. God does want us to be people of our word, but not people whose foolish words bring us into sin.

We can't blame God for our stupidity, as it seems Jephthah or Saul did (Judges 11, 1 Samuel 14). We will have to confess and receive forgiveness, but the problem for many is that they would rather fulfill the sinful vow than confess that they were wrong. 

The only excuse that might be offered in Jephthah's or Saul's situation was that they were ignorant of God's law. Yet, even there God commanded that the leaders of Israel study the law, so even here they are not innocent. 

How does this apply to us? Don't make stupid vows, and second, don't blame God when you keep them.

Lord Jesus and the Covenant Prayer

 

John and Charles Wesley (kind of)

We are in the middle of a sermon series on the Wesley Covenant Prayer. I want to remind everyone why this is important. Wesley's Covenant Prayer is just a commitment to our salvation by acknowledging Jesus's Lordship in every area of our lives. 

When we think of our salvation, the Scripture that is central is Romans 10:9-10. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. We need to understand that Scripture speaks that our salvation comes by confession and by belief. Not that confession saves us. Confession is the outworking of what we have in our hearts according to Jesus (Matthew 12:34).

What do others say:

Wesley's Notes on the New Testament, Wesley says this. "Confession here implies the whole of the outward, as believing does, the root of all inward religion."

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges says, "confess to the mouth, submit and own him as supreme for thee, or for us." And points out the fact that this was an important part of adult baptism, us confirming that Jesus is Lord.

Barnes notes on the Bible acknowledge it, saying, "acknowledging him that Lord, that is, as having the right to rule over our soul."

Jameson - Fawcett - Brown Bible Commentary says, "Confession is the proper manifestation or the evidence of faith." In other words, if you believe it in your heart, it's going to come out of your mouth, which, as I referenced before, is what Jesus said: "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." 

So, if we truly believe that Jesus is Lord, that God has raised him from the dead, which is the ultimate evidence that Jesus is Lord, then we shall be saved according to Romans 10:9-10, so the confession and belief that Jesus is Lord is the centerpiece of what it means to come into the Christian life. The thing about it is that's just the beginning. Part of our Christian life is learning how to live out that belief in every area and allowing Jesus to truly be the Lord of everything in our lives.

I'm going to throw out to you that the Wesley Covenant Prayer is us looking at the Lordship of Jesus and applying it to our lives. It's kind of like a list of responsibilities or job requirements. How do you know that you have a boss? Well, one, he pays you, hopefully. He has the authority to say things and to make decisions on how you do your work. You can get the idea that there are guidelines. But also, if you work for someone, sometimes you have expectations. If you're going to work for me, here's what I expect.

The Wesley covenant prayer is us listing, as it were, our willingness to submit every area of our life to whatever expectations God has for us, whether that's prosperity or poverty, whether that's health or sickness, whether that's to be busy or to be set aside. It ends with a conclusion saying that we want this covenant to be established. In other words, we want the true what it means to be Jesus, to be Lord in our lives, to be firmly established in our hearts.

The thing about the Wesley covenant prayer is this: not just a prayer for us as individuals, it's a prayer for us as a people. This prayer is meant to be a corporate prayer as much as it is a personal prayer. It's a reminder that we are not in this alone. We are in unity with our rightful ruler, the supreme authority, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Consider that as we continue our study of the Wesley covenant prayer.

Father in heaven,

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things

to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

John Wesley 

The Dragon's Queen 2 Blurb

 

Not final cover

How does this sound?

Princess Sara is ready to return and bring much-needed reformation to her nation. However, while she has been away learning the truth about herself and her people, everything changed. Evil didn't wait for Princess Sara's reformation and has brought murder and conflict to the peaceful nation of Rishona. With the help of the dragon, Draco, and David the giant, Princess Sara must find a way to remove those who are willing to do anything to gain power. Thus begins the struggle of the Dragon's Queen for control of her kingdom, because if you want to bring change, you've got to live long enough to do it. 

or

Princess Sara is ready to return and bring much-needed reformation to her nation. However, evil didn't wait for Princess Sara's reformation and has brought murder and conflict to the peaceful nation of Rishona. With the help of the dragon Draco and David the giant, Princess Sara must find a way to remove those who are willing to do anything to gain power. The struggle begins because if Sara wants to bring change, she's got to live long enough to do it.  

Which Blurb?

Which grabs you more? 

#1  In a world of talking animals, danger is coming. Max is left for dead. Link and Jezreel are secretly sent to discover it. Destiny brings Max and Link together in a place of peril, and they will discover an evil that is not supposed to exist. Their experiences will test them, and they will ask themselves, “Can faith triumph when everything goes wrong?” and “Can you stand for right when you are all alone?”

#2 An accident returns the memories of a lonely talking elephant named Max, but now he has a choice. Take the dangerous journey to reunite with his family, or first seek out those non-talking elephants who have cared for him. Confused about life, Max decides to trust the Creator and do what is right. He is joined by Link, a speaking otter, on a quest to find the group of non-speaking elephants that helped Max. The journey takes them to places they never dreamed of and carries them off to an evil that is not supposed to exist.  Max must ask himself, “Can faith triumph when everything goes wrong? And do you stand up for what is right even when you are all alone?”

 

Perseverance in James

This is sometimes such an understatement.

 James 5:11 says, "As you know, we count blessed those who persevere. You've heard of the perseverance of Job. And seeing what the Lord brought about, the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

As we look at this, in the context of Job’s entire story, there are things to note. Of course, God does not give a reason to Job for why everything happened. He doesn't explain anything. Job is left, at least, with this question: "Why?" Why did all this take place? When God said, "Can you answer these questions first?" And, of course, Job couldn't. This indicates that Job doesn't have the capability to understand the answer. 

So, despite that, Job persevered. He kept holding on to God. He questioned God, yes. He wondered what was happening and was asking if God had failed him, and wanted answers. He still held on to the Lord. Comments like, "in the last days, in my flesh, I will see God," and “my flesh will be destroyed,” this is not somebody who's expecting to be delivered. This is someone who's expecting to die horribly. Yet, has faith that God will raise him someday. 

And yet, at the end, God restores. Why? because God is full of compassion and mercy.

God didn't have to, but He did.

God showed compassion and mercy. We see that throughout the Bible. God promises to show compassion, show mercy, and reward those who are faithful.

Now, we know from Scripture and from what Jesus said that in this life, we may not have that reward. But this passage is not talking about receiving rewards in this life; we talk about what the prophets did. They persevered, but most of them died horribly. On the other side, this passage states that for those who are unfaithful, those who have stored up for themselves shall gain horrid things; they shall be judged (we see that beginning of chapter five). This is not always here and now, but it will come. 

Those who are faithful to God, those who persevere in the midst of suffering, in the midst of being faithful and yet not seeing great rewards like the prophets, those who persevere against those who treat them wrongly, and those who suffer like Job, will be rewarded by God. Some people say we shouldn't think about a reward because Jesus himself is a reward, and he is. God doesn't have to give us anything else, but it is very clear in Scripture that God is going to give us more. He's going to reward us in a way that we could never imagine. God restored to Job twice what he lost. God promised in the Bible that he would restore to Israel the things that they lost. And here we see God is promising through James that he will reward us if we just persevere.

Judgment day for the Christian isn't just about avoiding the bad consequences because we were forgiven. It's going to be about reward. Why? Because we deserve it, because we're great people. No. Because God is merciful. We're called. Part of our job is to be faithful, to persevere. We don't, we aren't earned a reward. But God's going to give it to us one, anyway. That's a wonderful God. I'm glad I serve him.

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

First, some background information,  I thought my talk later on Tuesday aggravated my trigeminal neuralgia, but it seems the problem was a growing abscess in one of my molars. After almost a week in absolute agony, the infection moved into my neck, causing it to look swollen on Saturday. I went to the ER, then transferred to a Methodist in Indianapolis, an hour away, where this morning, at 4 am, I had the abscess drained. I'm recovering from oral surgery, and then I will have to have the tooth removed, also painfully. To make things more challenging, I have a severe sore throat and am having issues swallowing due to the other pain.

This passage in Psalm 22 and then from the cross, is somewhat controversial. Some see it as a declaration that the Messianic Psalm refers to him. Others see this as Christ's humanity calling out to God, " Why? " I'm not always going with those, but see this as both.  Now, unfortunately, I have the personal experience to understand it. Before Saturday, I was in my room and crying out to God, " Have mercy. God have mercy." I did this through a mouth I could barely open for I don't know how long. The pain caused me to shake as I sat on the edge of my bed, nearly weeping. As I was crying out, the thought entered my mind would you do anything for this to stop? I said yes, but then I remembered my own preaching; those are annoying sometimes, that at times our suffering is for a greater purpose. Would I have done, I thought, anything to feel better? Now I remembered there were reasons in this world I should want to endure. I changed my plea to, "Have mercy, or give me strength to endure."(I have also preached on that boy, my pastor, myself is annoying). The pain didn't magically get better, and as you read, it got even crazier. Even now, I had to pause writing first due to the pain of oral surgery and then, as I felt the fear of being there. At one point on Saturday, I broke out in a cold sweat, as I had never had one, as the nurse was digging into my hand for the third time to set an IV, and that wasn't the worst, but back to the subject. Once I remembered that there are reasons (those that don't God will work for good, but more on that in another devotion), I still cried out in my heart, "God, where are you?" but at the same time I was calling on the strength to endure in case this was what was needed.

I believe this was Jesus on the cross, both experiencing humanity, yet trusting God. Jesus words touched those who need hope that the story doesn't end on Friday; it's a victory declaration. It is also words that walk with us, not just in our Gethsemane but in those moments we are on our cross. Jesus, the great mystery, who touches us wherever we are.

If I'm dying...

 

What if you knew you would die in a day/month/year, what would you change? 

There is a reason for this question to be asked, but too often it can bring shame and guilt. It should bring hope, but it's hard to let it do that in a world that says you don't do enough. 

So here is my answer.

If I knew I had one year to live, of course, I would change things, and I should. Some responsibilities and issues need to be covered if I'm going to die. However, I should live neither in fear of death nor in denial. I need to plan as if I'm going to live, which includes writing a series of books that will take more than a year to write. I need to live with integrity and love, so if I'm taken from my family today, they will not feel as if I cheated them for some dream in the sky. 

If a 19-year-old is going to die in a year, yes, quit college; if not, stick with it. If you don't think you're going to die, plan and invest, but don't count on them. If you're working all of the time, stop and smell the roses and invest in things that can't be bought. 

Okay, I've ranted long enough. The answer is, am I living today as God would have me, not culture, not peer pressure, nothing but God, and if I am, I'm okay.