Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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The blessing of forgetting

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Forgetting the past
Copyright: dirkercken / 123RF Stock Photo

A quick search of the word “remember” shows that many times Moses called the people of Israel to remember what God has done for them. Our God is a God who has acted in history and we should call these acts to mind and be encouraged by them.

But there are times when a good memory is not helpful. Paul tells us:

“. . . forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13b-14 NASB)

There are things we may choose to forget.

In the context of these verses, Paul has just outlined all the things that might have given him status if one could earn his salvation. Paul was like that annoying kid that always had his homework done and always had the right answer. If anyone could earn good standing with God, it would have been Paul.

But after coming to know Jesus as the Christ, Paul discovered that all that he thought were good works were nothing but rubbish that, if anything, made it harder to find peace with God. It is those things which Paul is choosing to forget.

From this I conclude that Paul encourages us to forget all the things that kept us from coming into a deeper relationship with God.

We all bear scars that resulted from things that we have done or have been done to us. We have junk in our lives that make us feel unworthy of God’s love. We bear the marks of growing up in a sinful world.

I’m not saying that the pain of past events doesn’t linger. And I am certainly not trying to minimize the difficulty encountered by those who have experienced abuse or neglect. I am not a counselor, but I can see value in working to identify the effects that painful situations have made upon us and seeking healthy ways of responding to that pain.

It is obvious from reading Philippians 3 that Paul did not have those things wiped from his memory since he just gave us such a detailed list of his religious accomplishments. So forgetting does not mean that past events never come to mind.

In what sense, then, should we forget?

Perhaps forgetting is choosing to no longer let those things determine our path forward. We may choose to not let those things define us and allow God to give us a fresh start.

We don’t need to be imprisoned by our past.

We have the opportunity to press on toward the goal.

Jesus made that possible.

Waiting . . .

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Waiting for justiceRecently, a news story broke that implicated many world leaders in hiding billions of dollars of money in off-shore corporations. In my country, trust in the government is at an all time low because many (most?) of them make decisions that line their own pockets regardless of the consequences. Our leaders have betrayed our trust and we have become cynical.

This morning I found this gem in Isaiah 30:

“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 30:18, ESV)

Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is a God of justice and we are blessed if we wait for him.

It is easy to lose site of this and be overwhelmed by the state of the world around us. But the recurring theme of Scripture is that God will eventually set things right.

Waiting is hard. I don’t like to wait.

But God (thankfully) does not work according to my time table.

Part of waiting is learning to trust.

Do I trust God enough to believe that his timing is perfect? Sometimes I do.

Other times I let circumstances push me toward anxiety.

So it is good to be reminded that those who wait for God are blessed. The God of justice will eventually make things right.

May it be soon.

So far and no farther

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As part of his prophecy against Babylon, Isaiah writes:

“These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments.” (Isaiah 47:9, ESV)

Line in the sandIt is as if God is saying to Babylon, “I will let you go so far and no farther.” Isaiah tells Babylon that they may think that they have the power to do whatever they please, but they do not.

In 2016, we live in a world that seems to be increasingly chaotic. Hardly a week goes by without a story of a homicide bomber (their intent is homicide after all). Radical Islam is intent on taking over the world. This is clear from their actions and, like Babylon, they think that they have the power to do so.

Thinking about Islamic Jihad is troubling, but I learn from Isaiah that no matter how much power the Jihadists think they have, it is not enough to derail God’s plan.

There are times when evil must by physically opposed and restrained. This is the purpose of government as mentioned by the Apostle Paul in Romans 13:4. But I am not here calling for a counter-Jihad against the radical Islamists.

What I am calling for is an increased fervor in prayer that God himself will restrain the evil.

It is one thing to force someone into a behavior with which they don’t agree. It is another thing entirely to change the motivation for that behavior. One is externally forced upon a person, the other is internally motivated. Force can be used to  externally restrain the Jihadists but the ultimate solution must come from internal motivation.

Only God can change the hearts of those who perpetrate evil. It is for this that we should be praying.

I am glad that we have security officials working diligently to thwart terrorist activities, but this is not enough.

All of Christendom must rise up in prayer to Almighty God that He intervene. Only God is able to bring about the peace that we so desperately crave. He longs to do so and has promised that eventually he will. For this we should be praying.

Can I remind you of what happened in Nineveh when Jonah preached? Perhaps Jonah and Nineveh would be a good topic for my next post.

A longing for justice

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Justice
Copyright: dizanna / 123RF Stock Photo

A fast scroll through the news or your Facebook feed can be overwhelming. This morning I am bombarded by news of bickering presidential candidates, government overreach, religious terrorism, friends dealing with disease and destructive wildfires. These are typical of what my world is facing on a day-to-day basis.

As Christians, we have the opportunity to bring all of our concerns to God in prayer, but where do we begin? It seams as though the list of things to pray about is way larger than our ability to pray about them. Perhaps this is why Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. But even when I pray, there are times when I wonder if things will ever be right.

But then, seemingly when I need it most, there are times when I read Scripture I find a nugget of encouragement that helps me see past the difficulties around me. I found one such this morning while reading through Isaiah.

“He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.” (Isaiah 42:4, ESV)

This verse is at the end of the first of the Servant Songs, which are parts of Isaiah’s prophecy where he writes about the Servant of Jehovah who Christians identify as Jesus of Nazareth.

This verse in Isaiah encourages me that at some point justice will be established. At some point, all the issues that I highlighted in my opening paragraph will be resolved. We will no longer experience terrorism, disease, or government corruption. We have a hope that rises higher than any flood of bad news that comes our way.

There will be an ultimate resolution, but we can also find hints of that resolution now.

We can actually see him working in the lives of some of those around us. Not only that, we see God working in ourselves. While we may feel that we take a step backward for every two steps forward, there is progress none-the-less.

I also like Isaiah’s reminder that Jesus will not grow faint or be discouraged about the mess we see around us. While we don’t understand why God allows any particular thing to happen, we can be assured that it is not because he has lost control or lost interest.

Because Jesus will not grow faint or be discouraged, we can find hope. That hope can then allow us to not grow faint or be discouraged. I am reminded of a verse from the old hymn, “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”:

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

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