Month: October 2022

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The poop-slinger and it’s posse.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Ephesians‬ ‭6:10-12‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Calling out the liar. The Apostle Paul, prolific writer of much of the New Testament, calls a spade a spade. But first, his admonition is to remind us where our focus and our (followers of Jesus) strength should come from – the Lord!

I love it! To be EMPOWERED in Jesus, endunamoó: to empower. That “dunamis” he speaks of is an overwhelmingly, supernatural power that comes from the creator himself! That power that raised Christ from the dead and dwells in those who believe. That is where our perfect and complete dominion comes from. It’s good for us to get that in our heads and hearts.

Paul then defines for us a real and capable enemy. It is because of this enemy that we should armor up. Every piece, an object lesson from what soldiers, warriors wore in the first century, just to give a visual.

Paul re-introduces the enemy by name… the LIAR, more specifically, the SLANDERER. It’s translated as diabolos, the devil, but that word has no real meaning then nor today. This creature cast out of heaven and thrown to earth is the “lie-thrower.” This fallen angel has taken up the chief position of being the one to bring charges, to constantly hurl complaints, accusations and slanderous lies to the battle in our minds. It feels like Diabolos describes most every modern politician and ridiculous bill on the ballot today – our mailboxes, spam texts and media messages are filled with lies because we have a midterm election coming up this November 8, 2022.

Just name any and every bad-actor on the world stage today and their backer is the diabolos. Paul says that pretty clearly. Don’t look at these evil puppets, playing their roles, look up the strings and see who’s holding the sticks! We are NOT fighting against humans, but evil rulers and authorities of the UNSEEN world, mighty powers and evil spirits in heavenly places. And for them, for that kind of battle, we need a lot more than weak words and cheap, repetitive memes on social media. We need more than protests and angry exchanges of sound bytes. We need powerful prayers of the Holy Spirit, going after the unseen “methodeia” crafty, deceitful methods of the slanderer.

Let’s see our real enemy, let’s wage war against the real cause and financial backer of these cultural disturbances, these attempts to separate and fracture our resolve. The poop-slinger and it’s posse!

Prayer

Dad,
Why is it so hard for us to see BEYOND this world, beyond ourselves into the spiritual world that is constant and eternal all around us. We are so selfishly bound to our five senses that we ignore what takes place in the heavenly. And we do so to our own demise! We need to be people of the Spirit, to not only see, but to fight and love through prayer in that realm. Help us not to be so earth-bound and heavenly ignorant! Amen.

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Saving the enemy.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.” 2 Kings‬ ‭5:2-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​The healing of a foreigner, an enemy. Here in Kings, Jeremiah has this well told story about an Aramean General named, Naaman. I talk about this often, but the Bible doesn’t often mention other countries, at least not in a specific thread of the grand story of the messiah. So why is an enemy of Israel (invaders) and one their generals given quite a bit of Old Testament real estate? Remember, Naaman is an ancient “gentile,” a non jew. Here in this story you have a seven degrees of separation from Naaman’s own servant, slave girl to his proclamation of God being the true God. This is after his rather second-hand, non-hospitable treatment by the Prophet Elisha. Elisha may not have even cared if this general lived or died, he was just teaching Jehoram a lesson about the authority of God’s prophet and the king’s own lack of true relationship with Jehovah.

All of this may have just been reminder to Israel and even to modern Jews today – their job, their reason for being “God’s people,” was to bring the story of God’s grace through the messiah to the entire world! The Jews wanted to keep their special relationship with God only to themselves, even though their were unfaithful to him throughout history. Of course, we and all of humanity behave adulterously, the same way. God and the restoration of humankind is NOT for one particular people group. He’s not the Jewish God, nor the Christian God, nor the Black, Caucasian, European, Hispanic, Asian Native American or Persian God – He is God above, and for all humans! God is not the patriarchal, nor matriarchal, nor binary God – He is creator of all, for all, above all. Ol’ Naaman going down to the river to dip reminds me that no one is outside of God’s love and He sees them. Romans 5:10, even while we were yet enemies of God, we were reconciled to him through the death of His son.

Prayer

Dad,
I have always looked at this story for the miraculous perspective of connections and the path it takes for someone to find you, admit who you are and give their life over to you. I’ve not really focused on the fact that this “foreigner” fits quite nicely in the story of how far you will go to reach a human being. I am grateful for that because you came after me and I so desperately needed you to come after me. Thank you.

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Beer Brawlers.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.” Proverbs‬ ‭20:1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Honestly, I choose NIV because of their witty play on words. The Hebrew words are interesting. The word for wine isn’t unique it’s just yayin: wine. Ah, but shekar: intoxicating drink, strong drink is different and the word shakar is to be drunk. You can be “shakar” on wine or strong drink.

I believe Noah (Genesis 9:21) is the first guy to be written up for being drunk and the first thing he does is strip naked and lay around in his tent! After what Noah had been through, I can’t blame him for IMMEDIATELY planting a vineyard, patiently waiting for the grapes to ripen and quickly making booze so he could get drunk fast. I’m not saying it was right, but I get it.

History is filled with fermented fruits, then later barley. Then even later, the stronger, aged process of liquor came along. Wine and beer, apparently, have been around for a very long time. The Bible makes a clear distinction between “drinking” and “drunkenness.” One is permitted, the other is just wrong!

The wisdom writers catch a perspective that most drinkers and non-drinkers seem to miss. Anything to do with excessive alcohol or similarly controlled substances that impair judgment and directly leads to unintended consequences should be seen as dangerous and is not worth the momentary relief, levity or fun it proposes!

Proverbs personifies wine and beer as mockers and brawlers (hamah: to murmur, growl, roar, be boisterous) and tells us THEY can LEAD us astray. Like a pair of permanently invisible handcuffs, these excesses carry their victims away and pave a path of addiction, shame-cycles, broken relationships and possibly worse when driving a murder-weapon down the street.

The evidence is clear, one too many means YOU are not in control any longer. I’ve seen this hundreds of times in my family of origin. We had the wine, beer and whiskey drinkers. And although my wine-bibbing kin faired better, because of their restraint, my beer and hard liquor crew were constantly cursing, fighting, bleeding and bashing into other vehicles while driving. I knew one thing when my family gathered – if booze showed up, there was going to be a regrettable, never forgettable brawl! It was enough that slurred speech or boozy-breath can trigger a PTSD response in me.

The Apostle Paul gives the believer an alternative high. I know folks don’t want to look at it this way, but he says “don’t get drunk on booze, get high on the Spirit of God!” (Eph 5:18). Paul even proceeds those words with this, “don’t be foolish.” You want to drink away your sorrows or shoot up to disconnect with the harsh reality and stress – drink in, get “soaked” in the Spirit, shoot up or snort the presence of the living God by the power of the Holy Spirit! Get yourself before your Holy God and let His peace comfort and hold you. Don’t give in, don’t give up – get into God’s presence. Everything else is just a fake and dangerous substitute playing on your pain.

Prayer

Dad,
I’m sure that we often feel like Noah, overwhelmed with the circumstances or even consequences of our life. But we are so desperate for you and it shows up in such lousy ways. We feel trapped, surrounded and see no other way out, so we REACH for the drink, pill, puff or needle. Help us to reach for you! And when we do, please meet us, save us from ourselves and our selfishness. Amen.

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The real art of the deal.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.” Luke‬ ‭16:8-9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Dishonest and shrewd, and Jesus tells a story about it? The culture, the world, is far better at being fast and effective when it comes to the art of the deal.

A rich man finds out his manager has been wasting his money. I guess the rich hate waste. The word for waste is diaskorpizó, to scatter. Or, over-scatter, effectively spreading finances to thin. The rich man felt he was losing control of his cash-flow or cash on hand. Of course he is. We find out the manager had a lot of unpaid invoices out there! Even in this barter-system of running a business, payments were overdue. Not good.

When the man is called on it, and finds out he’s going to be fired, he decides he too old to work hard and to proud to beg. It is then that he comes up with a plan. The plan is a decent plan. Call all the clients and offer them to pay now and get the debt cut nearly in half! It’s like a post-discount on deals already done. The owner gets his quick cash, the debtor is happy and maybe the manager gets a little love for brokering these deals.

Jesus says the rich owner finds this act, shrewd. However, the greek word is phronimós: sensible. To a wealthy business owner, shrewd is a compliment! It’s smart, savvy and makes sense. Why didn’t the manager think of this before he let the accounts get so far in arrears? Maybe that’s part of the point Jesus is making?

Jesus says it is interesting that the “sons of this age” (aión: a space of time, an age) are quicker at thinking on their feet, adaptive in crisis than the sons of the light (clearly referring to Jesus himself as THE light of the world). How can the kids of the Kingdom of God think and behave in a dimmer capacity than those of this world’s culture?

The New Living Translation uses the word, “dishonest,” about the manager’s decisions, but the greek word is not so harsh. The word is adikia: injustice or unjust. It closer to being improper or not appropriate for this man to do this with his “master’s” money. If it were straight up dishonest the business owner would have been mad, but in Jesus’ story the rich man epaineó: to praise or commend the manager. Remember, the manager in this story had not been technically fired yet, so he still had the authority to broker these kinds of deals with the debtors.

Jesus then says another one of his odd, scratch-your-head kind of sayings, ESV says it best, “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” “It fails” is a euphemism for DIED. What? Huh? How superbly crafty Jesus’ words become for all generations and cultures. Make and USE the friendships of the rich to benefit both the wealthy, by modeling generosity and grace teaching them, and to re-direct their money to the causes of the poor. The generosity portion of this story would be to the debtors of the rich man, the redirection to the poor would be the manager he fired because he would now be destitute and homeless. The manager must have been a renter 😬. Thus, when you die, both the rich and poor will celebrate your life because you behaved generously to both.

What a story to unravel and decode for everyday living! What do you see as an application for your life? I’d love to know.

Prayer

Dad,
My head is still spinning trying to decode this story that Jesus told his disciples. Luke puts it in here as one of the many stories of the rich and the myriad of cultural twists and word-plays that Jesus loved to tell. I can confirm and completely agree with this, your thoughts and ways are way above and beyond my own. These stories are like mysteries, splinters in my mind to unravel, understand and then try my best to live into or up to. Either way – genius. Raving reviews on this one God!

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Doomed cycles of repetition.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“She defiled herself with immorality and gave no thought to her future. Now she lies in the gutter with no one to lift her out. “Lord, see my misery,” she cries. “The enemy has triumphed.” Lamentations‬ ‭1:9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​We need mercy to escape the doomed cycles of repetition.

Poetic reality sets in on the people of Israel, personified in the city of Jerusalem. The city is the people, the people the city. There is a healthy recognition in deep grief. Their sin, our sin, will ALWAYS catch up to us. As humans, we have this unique ability to think we can do the deed and just keep running from the consequences! Jeremiah writes this incredible analogy; “He wove my sins into ropes to hitch me to a yoke of captivity.” And, I must never forget, captivity was true love and justice in action. Babylon was a decisive, punishment of discipline, not destruction.

From the dizzy heights of Solomon’s success, his global reach of riches and power, to the depths of being dragged off to another country and watching all of what Israel had become in the city of Jerusalem raided and burned to the ground. The warnings ignored. The threats thought impossible. Now the people must face reality. But did Babylon do it’s job? Did it work? Did it fix their sin problem? Did they repent and turn from their sin and deep cycles of immortality? Temporarily, yes. Permanently, no.

Even with the most massive lesson in all of history, the rise and fall of God’s own people and the picture of the city of God – the rehabilitation and transformation was only temporary. The permanent solution, our permanent resolve would not be found in these cycles of sin, repentance, mourning and change. It would only be found in the work of Christ, God’s own son.

Without God’s own solution to our selfish cycles of sin to confession and back again, we would be forever trapped in generational repetition. Jeremiah records these horrible moments to ultimately point to hopelessness with out Christ.

The city of Jerusalem, the people of God would never be the same and will never be the same until the final days of revelation that Jesus is the messiah. These writings are meant to be a reminder of our morbid morality and the power and mercy of God to redeem us even while we are caught in mid-cycle of sin!

Prayer

Dad,
Looking into the perfect mirror of your word and seeing a clear reflection of who and what I am, even in my best effort, is so depressing. These words are not ancient, they are transcendent and eternal! These glimpses of humanity only remind and reinforce what I already know – I am a selfish sinner saved only by grace and has nothing to do with my poor attempts to perfection. I rest, not on my promises to never sin again, but only on your Word, your promise to clean me, restore me from all unrighteousness. In that and that alone do I find solace, peace and most of all HOPE.