Reality Rules

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. -- James 4:8

I happened to pick up Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest this morning and read the entry for today. It's based on James 4:8 and is call "The Authority of Reality", so I am riffing on that. 

Faith is acting on what you know to be true, what you know to be real.  I have a spare tire on my truck and a patch kit I carry on my bikes because punctures and road hazards are real.  We stop at stop signs, drive on the right side of the road, stay out of certain parts of town after dark, pay our taxes, watch what we eat, and all the rest because of what we believe to be real.  For me, I know, it is difficult to believe in anything other than the material world I see and experience on a daily basis.  I am, after all, a native Missourian.  "Believe half of what you see [perspective] and none of what you hear [opinion]" was drilled into me from birth.

My mother used to check the almanac for the various moon signs or whatever they are.  By the signs, you are told to plant potatoes and other root crops in "the dark of the moon".  My father's response?  "I always thought they do better if you plant them in the ground."  My favorite, though, was castrating calves.  Dad didn't have any fancy equipment, just a classic stockman pocketknife with a scary sharp spey blade, and he usually kept some pine tar in the truck.  We'd see a new calf, determine it was a bull, catch it, and cut it.  In the summer, if we had it available, we'd smear some tar around the cut to keep away the flies.  Back at the house, Mom might wonder if the calf would be all right as the sign was in not in the feet that day.  Dad again, "The sign is in the knife."

Since then I have experienced things that were inexplicable in a material sense, usually having to do with the timing of events -- things happening or coming together at just the right time to benefit me.  I have been in the right place at the right time on multiple occasions.  I have been blessed over and over, and I have come to believe that God is Good, all the time.  Have I experienced upheavals and tragedies?  Have I seen bad things happen to good people?  Have I been taken aback by the utter stupidity and the malice of people?  I have certainly, especially that last one. 

Malicious people are acting on what they believe to be true, on what they believe is real.  Perhaps they are philosophical atheists or practical atheists who believe we are alone in a purely material world with no one to answer to except our fellow humans.  Perhaps they believe in some kind of vindictive god, or they are deeply religious pharisees who think they are better than other people.  I don't know, but I pity them.  However, if they come to my house with their evil, the sign might be in the Glock. 

I believe Jesus, the Son of God.  I believe He described the real world perfectly and completely, that He is Truth incarnate.  I believe He is with me, that, now and then, He has worked through me, that He has guided my steps even when I had no idea what was going on.  By all rights, I should have been dead forty-nine years ago and probably more times than I know since, but here I am, and I am going to do my best to act on what I believe.  The just shall live by faith.  The just do it.

Interesting Times

For he says, In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.  Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. -- 2 Corinthians 6:2

Talk of living for today or seizing the day, means, for too many of us, ignoring the consequences of bad choices.  My sister used to leave the supper dishes unwashed.  Her excuse was that she might die overnight and someone else would have to wash them.  We use our credit cards for unnecessary purchases today without thinking about the interest and other charges we may have to pay later.  We eat too much and later complain about gaining weight.  We sit on the couch and watch television instead of exercising and wonder why we are out of shape.

I prefer the more colloquial and picturesque expression, “Make hay while the sun shines.”  You can listen too much to the weatherman, and one thing is sure:   there is no putting up hay when the sun isn’t shining.  Take full advantage of the current conditions.  If it is raining, cloudy, or dark, there are other things you can do. 

I am living today in the future I once looked forward to.  So are you.  I have said before that we cannot change the past but we can change what the past means through our actions and attitude in the present.  The future, on the other hand -- despite what some believe about determinism, is not set.  Our choices today play a part in how tomorrow plays out. 

We cannot know what will come to us tomorrow, but the Lord advises us to … not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Matthew 6:34).  All I really need to know is that, tomorrow, Jesus is still Lord.

Meanwhile, I can be thankful that I have today.  Sometimes I think I was born a hundred years too late but maybe not.  It could be that you and I are alive today because this is our day.  The old Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times” has come to pass for us.  Peace, prosperity and ease are nice, but interesting is interesting.       

Unchained Delusions

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.  -- Proverbs 29:18

Another way to put it is when people stop attending to instruction in God’s truth they begin to reject all the restraints of society and tradition.  I wonder where something like that might be happening.  Older translations often say “where there is no vision the people perish”.  Throwing off moral restraint results in death, both individually and societally.  This is not coming to America.  It has arrived. 

Rather than repenting and turning back to God when we have been faced with the consequences of our decadence and decline, we have, as people like to say these days, “doubled-down”.  The culture applauds that which flaunts morality and tradition while ridiculing and attacking the righteous.  The accepted leaders in politics and the media are almost without exception morally twisted people. 

I know I keep harping on this theme, but the answer lies in the last line of this proverb.  It is up to us individually, in our local churches, among our friends and families, to hear the truth, speak the truth, and live according to the truth.  It won’t be as easy as it used to be.  If we are willing to do that, though, we will be all right.  Being all right may mean taking the express to heaven, but that’s OK, too. 

It does not matter what the majority says, what the popular say, what the rulers or the enforcers say.  What matters is what God says, because the Truth is the stumbling block upon which illusions will fall and shatter.  God will get us through if we stick with Him. 

I'll Stand Here

And next to him was Shammah, the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the men fled from the Philistines.  But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines, and the LORD worked a great victory.  – 2 Samuel 23:11-12

I don’t think this was particularly strategic ground in any normal military sense.  We often find ourselves in struggles and confrontations with the world, and the issues seem minor.  It’s hardly worth the conflict or the effort.  We are told to be at peace with people as much as is possible from our side.  Blowing up about every little thing or blowing things out of proportion probably doesn’t do much to advance the kingdom.  

I’m sure there were those among the soldiers who were fleeing who thought Shammah picked a poor “hill to die on”.  Who cares about that pea patch?  That’s the whole Philistine army coming across there.  Sometimes, though, it is the small battles upon which the outcome of the larger war turns. 

We might find ourselves wondering if some of the “insignificant ground” we have surrendered as Christians has led to us being under such an intense siege in the culture war these days.  If we had been more diligent in condemning the belittling of marriage through no-fault divorce and moving marriage from a sacrament of the church to a profane, civil ceremony blessed by the state (profane in the sense of not being sacred within the church), we might not be looking at the travesty of the state acknowledging, approving, and enforcing the ludicrous concept of homosexual marriage. 

If we had pulled our children from public schools and refused to support a centralized, government-run education system when the Supreme Court began to separate knowledge from morality, we might not have a generation of virtue-challenged, moral morons today.

But these things have happened.  This ground has been lost.  Maybe all we have left is a pea patch, and, if that’s all we have then it is worth defending.  Maybe that’s what Shammah thought.  I’m tired of giving up ground.  It reminds of the scene in The Warriors where Cowboy and Ajax are running from the Baseball Furies.  Cowboy says he doesn’t think he can make it.  Ajax asks him if he is sure that he can’t make it.  Cowboy says that he is sure.  Ajax says, Good.  He had had enough running.  He was ready to stand and fight and let people know what the Warriors were made of.    

The Lord put it in Shammah's heart to have had enough running, enough compromising, enough backing down and giving in.  We can’t speak for others.  We can’t say if this is their place to stand, but I think we can know when it is ours. 

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm (Ephesians 6:13).

Flights of Fear

There was another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah.  And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. – Jeremiah 26:20-21

I was just randomly reading earlier and came across this passage where the people of Jerusalem began to get rather hostile about all of Jeremiah’s negativity.  There was an outcry against the prophets, and Jeremiah was not the only one who was threatened.  I think there is a lesson for us here:  Don’t go back to Egypt. 

Uriah’s escape attempt ends unhappily (vv 22-23):  Then King Jehoiakim sent to Egypt certain men, Elnathan the son of Achbor and others with him, and they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people.  In biblical types, Egypt generally stands in for the world system.  Thus the threatened prophet’s flight into that nation could be interpreted as a warning to those who would resort to carnal means to defend themselves. 

As we read through the narrative of the Apostle Paul’s adventures in the Book of Acts, we see that he occasionally used his Roman citizenship and the laws of the empire to his advantage.  When he was arrested by Roman soldiers quelling a riot caused by his presence, the Apostle advised the centurion of his Roman citizenship to forestall being “examined by flogging” (Acts 22:23).  He was shipped out to Rome after his prolonged imprisonment by the governors of Palestine because he appealed his case to Caesar, as was his right as a citizen (Acts 25).  Yet this same Paul states that “ … the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh …” (2 Corinthians 10:4) and that “… we do not wrestle against flesh and blood …” (Ephesians 6:12).

We should always be careful about resorting to worldly and carnal means.  As Uriah found out, the world’s system is no protection against the world’s animosity.  We know that God uses doctors to heal, police officers to protect, lawyers to defend, and judges to decree justice – sometimes, but the kingdom is not ruled by such.  Again, we have the familiar words of Jesus to guide us, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness … (Matthew 6:33).  Our only true protection and security is to be in Christ, clothed in the whole armor of God and protected by the shield of faith. 

The Rabshakeh was trying to instill fear in the hearts of the men of Judah and Jerusalem, but even the devil will tell the truth when it suits his case:  Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him (Isaiah 36:6). 

Far better to say with a shepherd boy … the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's … (1 Samuel 17:47).

What the Net Dragged In

 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.  When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.  So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous -- Matthew 13:47-49

This little parable follows after the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares and its explanation.  It is related, for, as the weeds are separated out at harvest and burned, so the undesirable fish are cast away. They are not thrown back.  Those aren’t the fish the fisherman wants reproducing. 

I was reading Herman Ridderbos’ comments in his book The Coming of the Kingdom.  He discusses the question of why the tares could not be separated before the wheat was harvested.  When you think about it a little, this is the question that troubles a multitude of those in the valley of decision, as Joel says.  Why do we have to wait for the wicked to be removed from among us?  Why does God work only at the end of history?  The atheist’s answer is that, obviously, there is no God, and we are living in a delusion. 

The promoters of evolution ought to understand this better than anyone -- except for the fact that they reject the idea of the cosmos and existence having any meaning at all.  What we believe is that nature is very much part of the language of God and part of His revelation.  As we know from observing nature, if a predator is removed from the environment, the ecosystem is thrown out of balance.  There is overpopulation of the prey species and food sources are depleted to the point, in some cases, of irreversible destruction. 

If that is part of God’s revelation then we can see, as Jesus is teaching in these parables, that there is a balance to be maintained in the development of the kingdom.  There will come a point when the kingdom is perfected, when it is matured to a degree that allows us to move into an entirely new realm of existence.  This is depicted in the parables as the time of harvest, of the drawing in of the net.  When that Omega point is reached, the balance that has been part of our maturation process will no longer be necessary, and those influences will be removed while the righteous are brought in to their ultimate purpose and destiny. 

The answer that we give to the problem of evil will never be good enough for some of those who pose the question.  There are times, when I am battered and down, that it sounds pretty hollow to me.  I understand. The elk need the wolves as much as the wolves need the elk, yet it doesn’t make the kill any less painful or gruesome for the creature caught by the fangs.  I don’t know if elk have some sort of animal understanding of the interplay between themselves and their adversaries.  Perhaps they have something that gives them peace when it is their time to go down.  

 I do know that we have access to the wisdom of God.  A person may choose to live an animalistic, materialistic life.  He doesn’t have to.  The truth is all around us.  No one has to be a weed or a bottom-feeding scavenger, but even they, blindly, serve the ends of the kingdom.