Tag: Selfishness

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Wickedness Within.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Confuse them, Lord, and frustrate their plans, for I see violence and conflict in the city. Its walls are patrolled day and night against invaders, but the real danger is wickedness within the city. Everything is falling apart; threats and cheating are rampant in the streets. Psalms‬ ‭55‬:‭9‬-‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

On the run again, David is hiding and being hunted from his own son Absalom. Absalom wins the hearts of the people, plotting to take the throne away from his father. David has to run. At sixty years old, David feels completely exhausted to have to return to a life he had long forgotten – life on the lamb! In David’s mind he wishes he could escape this reoccurring nightmare, ”Oh, that I had wings like a dove; then I would fly away and rest! I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness. Interlude How quickly I would escape— far from this wild storm of hatred.” Yet, within this prayer, is an interesting perspective on the state of Israel.

From David’s view, the city, the kingdom is in trouble – but not from a foreign enemy. He sings, there is “wickedness within.” David’s song makes me reflect on our own country and the condition of its own constituents. What if the enemies within, the rampant evils within are greater than any threats from others? What defenses are prepared to hold off the disunity, the lawlessness and violence within. Since our 9/11 attacks, I wondered if our own enemies have figured out that they do not need to declare war on America. We have tremendous internal divisiveness, coupled with selfish desires to be free in a “self-proclaimed” liberty. We have thrown off OG morality and decency, which alone, is enough to destroy us from within!

Our sacred individualism over community, our personal rights over what’s best for our country, has left us weak and defenseless with our internal struggles. We are just weeks from a highly divided and controversial national election. And what are the debates and the divides, our personal preferences above anything else! Who will guard our independence, interests and individualism? Oh, how desperate we desire to escape the boundaries and restraints of what is good and right, true and just. Forgive us oh God, for we know not what we do! Save us from ourselves. Restore us to yourself. No matter who wins the white-house, may we rise to be one nation under God, indivisible and with justice for all!

Prayer

​Dad,
I can clearly see in Your Word that you care deeply about how we live our life, especially when it comes to subjects like justice and mercy. Maybe true justice IS mercy? Being right and doing right is a mystery of life. Even in all the pain and mayhem that Absalom brought to Israel and his own father, David would not raise his hand to participate in his end! Similar to King Saul, David must have had enormous internal conflicts navigating the extremes. In the end You Oh Lord are the only one capable of delivering justice and mercy! Have mercy on us Lord, but let your justice rise to destroy evils in our land. Amen.

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Wisdom Authentication.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

”If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.” James‬ ‭3‬:‭13‬-‭16‬ ‭NLT‬

Right now, many of the logins to apps or websites want absolute proof of verification that it’s really me. One of those verification tools is called an authentication app. It’s an app that produces a random number every few moments and that number has to match the login request. It’s a high tech authentication process!

James writes that wisdom also requires authentication. The verification that one is both walking in wisdom and understanding God’s ways is what? Behavioral proof! James, the brother of Jesus watched, first hand, the way Jesus lived, probably closer than others. Jesus spoke a lot, he taught, he preached, and he prayed. But the most powerful lessons were learned by how he treated others. James had a premier seat to observe God’s wisdom being lived out in Jesus!

Doing good works with humility verses boasting, lying and living a jealous, selfish life is an amazing authentication process of true, godly wisdom. But James pushes the message of human wisdom even further. He basically says that human wisdom reeks of jealousy and self ambition and it is epigeios: earthly, psuchikos: carnal or sensual, or daimoniódés: demon-like! Demon-like? Whoa. Where you find this boiling zeal of self, this carnal ambition, James writes that you will find nothing but disorder, instability, disturbance and anarchy in the moral sphere.

Our culture is currently filled with human wisdom today! This human wisdom has eroded all sense of honor and good and looks much more sensual, selfish, even demonic. God’s wisdom is clearly contrary to our human desires. And, God’s wisdom shows up, not in hot words spewed in judgment, but rather living and behaving in honor and humility. In these culture wars and outbreaks of rampant social viruses, our authenticity is found in doing kalos: beautiful, attractive, good anastrophé: behavior or conduct. If I want to really be wise, I must convert my good words into great behavior and live it consistently.

Prayer

​Dad,
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you (and others) Oh Lord! Help me translate and convert all the good things I know about Your wisdom into behaviors to those around me. It may take longer, but it will have a much more eternal effect on me and those around me. Thank you for your wisdom, operating in mercy and grace for us! Amen.

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God makes a deal.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Mount Sinai. The Lord did not make this covenant with our ancestors, but with all of us who are alive today. At the mountain the Lord spoke to you face to face from the heart of the fire. I stood as an intermediary between you and the Lord, for you were afraid of the fire and did not want to approach the mountain. He spoke to me, and I passed his words on to you.” ‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭5‬:‭2‬-‭5‬a NLT‬‬

Moses calls the people of Israel, now free from Egyptian slavery to listen to the deal God wants to make with them. This deal is unprecedented! There has never been a deal like this made between any other god and humankind. The ancient gods only made deals where they were the takers, the receivers. They made the rules for people to benefit them and no one else. A deal with those gods were all about them, not us. Yahweh God was different. His decrees and regulations were all to benefit humanity. The first four were about keeping the relationship with him, much like a marital contract. Even the sabbath rest was demanded for our own good and called for a weekly investment into a relationship with Him. The other six were given to protect and uphold the sanctity of human relationships. Starting with parents and working through the normal breaches and breakdowns of relationships – murder, betrayal, theft, lies, and coveting or desiring someone else’s belongings. These are still the big five of relational failures.

Moses announced this covenant, this promise or agreement between God and His chosen people. These stipulations would fulfill God’s promise to Abraham and as Moses told them, it would protect and prosper them as they made their journey to their own land. “So Moses told the people, “You must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, following his instructions in every detail. Stay on the path that the Lord your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy” Vs 32‬-‭33‬.

We may look at this entire process as a simple arrangement. Keep the commandments and reap the benefits of living in relationship with God. We now know that it would not be possible to keep God’s rules. It isn’t God’s fault, it’s our own sin that would prove time and time again that we are promise breakers and choose our own way, our own rules. All of which leads us to leave or wander from a relationship with God. God knew we couldn’t keep the rules and provided one and only one that would not only keep every single law in the covenant, but also become the physical and spiritual sacrifice for our sin, our selfishness, our rebellious desires – that is Jesus! In one way or another I have broken every one of the big ten commandments. But God is faithful. He is always right, true and just!

Prayer

Dad,
Knowing myself a lot better than I did when I was young. And knowing you much better as well. I can see how keeping the law, the contract would be impossible. I am thankful that you provided a way back to you even before I came to fully understand how it all worked. Thank you for your grace, your gift of forgiveness and reconciliation. Thank you for rescuing and restoring me when I was so lost and broken.

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When God feels distant.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“O God, do not be silent! Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, O God. Don’t you hear the uproar of your enemies? Don’t you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up? They devise crafty schemes against your people; they conspire against your precious ones.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭83‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Asaph records this Psalm after the Assyrian army tore through the land, wiping out almost everything and everyone. Asaph’s basic prayer is “God do something!” The enemy is loud and arrogant, he says. Can’t you hear them… because we sure do! It is hard to watch wars and evil atrocities rise up then, in ancient times, and now in modern times. We face enemies within and enemies without. We are constantly fed news telling us – someone or something is always after us. Bombings in other countries and violence, either in weather or crazy mobs here at home.

I can hear myself asking God similar questions. “Don’t you hear the uproar?” There seems to be a basic baseline of irritability and incivility. News about levels of uncertainty are rising. Why would a woman, simply denied a refund at a clothing store, go home and return with a rifle? We are all desperate for someone to intervene. Politicians and police are not going to do it.

I agree with Asaph! God, we need you to not be silent, but to rise up. Isaiah prophesied in 59:19, “So shall they fear The name of the Lord from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.” God, we are flooded with evil all around and it’s overwhelming. Help us. Save us. Show up in your mighty mercy and grace to stop the rising tide of chaos, anarchy and instability. Asaph asked God to “scatter them [the enemy] like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind!” in verse 13. Come near to us Oh God!

Prayer

Dad,
We are not better than anyone else in this country, but my concern is not just for those who walk with you. My heart breaks for the wickedness towards the innocent, our children our poor, our seniors and widows who struggle. There are insidious plans laid out for our littles one – destroy those plans! There are pressures and financial struggles for the poor and those on fixed income – rush to their aid! Give us wisdom and courage with effective plans to help them. Give us leaders who make wise decisions of justice and remove those who are in it for personal gain and selfish agendas. Rise up Oh God!

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Liberty with consideration.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial. Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others.” 1 Corinthians‬ ‭10:23-24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

People do not believe that Christianity is all about liberty, freedom. We’ve been pitched so many lies and have self-inflicted stereotypes that even believers in Jesus don’t know they been freed from one master to be bound to another.

According to several Biblical writers we are freed from sin because Christ paid our death sentence. Yet, even in freedom, there are restrictions and restraints! How so? Being free from sin means that we are not mastered by selfishness, greed, lust, lies and deception. But we are, however, mastered by love, forgiveness and consideration towards others. This is where culture has corrupted the word love. Love is a self sacrificing, deeply considerate of others word. It is not a pleasure only, neurochemically induced feeling.

Christian freedom is upward and outward focused. This whole idea of “self-love” is absurdly repugnant! We are God-loved. We can be loved by others. But as soon as we twist this word to be all about my, mine and I it is no longer love at all. Freedom is considerate love! It’s a supernatural check and balance of what I want. In Paul’s admonition here, it’s about eating meat previously sacrificed to idols – filthy by association of spiritual hocus-pocus mumbled over some chunk of meat that has been presented to fake-gods, statues and carved rocks. Fake gods are plentiful but completely useless. It’s like offering meat to a fictitious alien then selling the meat at a discount store – alien offered cheap meat!

Ah, but if someone has come to Jesus out of a cult, out of a false religion, out of aliens-r-us it would be quite offensive to wave idol-meat, or cult-alien-meat in front of them and serve it at a dinner gathering. It’s insensitive to their past experience and doesn’t allow them to grow to a place of maturity when that meat-offering may be less of a trigger in their past.

This is the hard part, the forgotten part about love and freedom – it’s NOT all about us! This is why restraint and self imposed boundaries are good for us, even in our freedoms. This helps us keep a check on our motives and our rights. We may be within our rights, but it may not be helpful and considerate to someone who’s struggling.

Prayer

Dad,
I have a feeling that we have got caught up in the wrong crowd when it comes to freedoms, rights and even love. These are specific ideals that Jesus laid down on our behalf and instructed us to do the same. This is where we have not led our culture in humility and truth. We’ve adopted similar thoughts and practices simply mimicking our natural bent of selfishness. Help us God to continue to see you and reflect you in all circumstances we find ourselves in.