It's Not You! It's Me!

You've heard those words before, right? Somewhere, in the archives of your past relationships, someone so desperately wanted to get out the relationship that they lied to you. At least they were kind of enough to try and spare your feelings! But you got older and wiser, and well, let's face it, you had to use the line on someone else!

So is this a little blog entry about lying? No. About relationships? No. Actually, maybe. Let's see where this one goes.

In 1 Samuel 8, the people of Israel came to Samuel and asked for a king. While they put they seemed to place the blame on Samuel and his sons the true nature of their request comes out in the passage. Samuel was getting older and unable to lead Israel as he had in the past, and his sons were derelict in the duties, bringing corruption into their leadership. Samuel maybe felt that there was some element of failure on his part. He couldn't control the fact that he was getting too old to lead and he obviously couldn't control his sons who brought a sense of distrust over the people. It would almost seem logical that the people would ask for a king to give them leadership that they, at that point didn't feel they were getting. Really, if Samuel's sons were so out of control, the people of Israel almost look holy and righteous in their appeal.

However, their request that Samuel appoint a king to rule over them was not so noble. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 8:5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” And there it is. "Such as all the other nations have." It had nothing to do with Samuel getting old or Samuel's basket-case sons! Israel, just wanted to be like everyone else. It would be prophetic and eventually pathetic! They would not only become like other nations by having a king rule over them, but they would stray so far away from God that idolatry would become so common that God would (a few hundred years later) have to purge them of their sin by a Babylonian invasion. It's not that they hadn't dabbled in idolatry prior to asking for a king, but by Jeremiah's time, the practices and rites of idol worship involved such unspeakable human degradation, there was nothing else for God to do but to allow judgment for their sin.

So, what about the "it's not you, it's me" speech. Where does that come in? For once, this speech was used to encourage...and it was the truth! Here's the speech. It comes straight from God to Samuel. Samuel was so upset by what the people had requested that he prays to the Lord (verse 6). Here is God's answer, 1 Samuel 8:7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. God just told Samuel, it's not you, it's me! He was right. It had nothing to do with Samuel, it was God that they were rejecting. He desired to be their King. He led them, nurtured them and kept them, but now they wanted to be like other nations. They didn't want to be peculiar. They didn't want to be different. They wanted to blend in and look like everyone else. The people were using Samuel and his sons as an excuse to distance themselves from God. It seems that throughout history, man does whatever he can to put more miles between himself and God.

Today,the idea that God should be in charge of our lives grates against the 21st century mindset. We don't want God to tell us what to do. No, we'd rather have some philosopher, hanging on the brink of insanity lead us toward some mind-numbing, hopeless mantra that "everything is relative" and "what's true for you, may not be true for me." Or, we want some entertainer to speak on our behalf and provide a public platform for our skewed moral compass. Even in many churches, we prefer a show, rather than actually meeting to find out that there is a God who desires to change us so that we can shine His light in a dark world. It seems that we are giving the "it's not you, it's me" speech to God. I wonder if His reply isn't simply, "you're right!"

You may try to shake free from God and place distance between you and Him, but it cannot change His love for you! The people of Samuel's day rejected God, but He still loved them, as He will love you no matter how far you try to go to get away from Him.

What God Sees!

One of my favorite accounts in all of Scripture is the account of Gideon. The opening scene in Judges 6 is nothing less than a contrast between what we see and what God sees!

Because of their sin, Israel was under the oppressive rule of the Midianites. It wasn't like the Midianites ruled with dignity, they just waited for the Israelites to plant their crops, get read to harvest it and then would come marching in and either destroy their food supply or take it from them. It is likely during this time that the people of Israel were beginning to starve. This is where we pick up with Gideon. We find him threshing wheat in a winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites. Gideon saw pain, suffering and injustice. He was hiding in order to have just a small amount of food by which to survive. He saw weakness...that which was around him but also his own. This is where most of us are stuck. We see pain, suffering, injustice, sin and our own weakness. We think there is nothing we can do, so let's hide and try to eek out a living in a survival mindset.

Maybe you are hiding behind past hurts and failures while life seemingly continues to march forward. You might look around you and feel that others are not just surviving, they are somehow thriving...but not you. No, you've been weakened by your frustration, your bitterness, your anger and your resentment. Someone, somewhere over the course of your life hurt you and brought you under their rule. The pain they caused steers your life, determines your trajectory and you find yourself limping along all the while thinking that no one really notices your pain.

But, in the story of Gideon, an angel of the Lord appears and calls Gideon a "Mighty Warrior" or as the King James Version puts it, a "Mighty Man of Valor." Clearly, the angel had the wrong address! The idea that Gideon was a mighty warrior was something that Gideon could not see. Seriously, he's threshing wheat in a winepress. He's in hiding, he's afraid and then goes on to argue with the angel about God's plan.

Yet, in this story as in other places in Scripture where man tends to get in the way of God's plan, it is not what we see that counts, it is what God sees that matters most. We see pain, but God sees potential. We see frustration, but God's remedy is faith. God, at that moment was not looking at Gideon for what Gideon saw or was even projecting or saying about himself, God was looking at Gideon for what He was going to help Gideon to become. So how was that going to happen? Gideon just had to get on board with what God wanted and let God guide him through impossible odds to show that what really mattered in his life was what God sees.

So it isn't what you see about yourself that really matters most, it is what God sees in your life. God sees great things! God sees potential! Rather than hide behind something, get ready to be part of God's solution to the problems you find around you. Begin to see what God sees!

The Wrong Kind of Thankfulness

And so here I am after a long time of not posting anything, trying now to get someone, anyone to read what I’ve written. Maybe you’ve checked once or twice and just thought to yourself - “Ha, I knew he wouldn’t keep it up.” Well, I’m back… for now! I make no guarantees for the future.

These thoughts arose as I was preparing for a message entitled “Time to Fill Your Thank Tank” to be given November 20, 2011 at Praise Tabernacle. In the sermon, I make reference to a story Jesus told about a Pharisee and tax collector who went up to the temple to pray. Since the sermon is about thanksgiving and being thankful, the words of the Pharisee’s prayer jumped off the page at me. Here are his words so you can see for yourself:

        Luke 18:11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank         you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even         like this tax         collector.

        Luke 18:12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ (NIV1984)

I’m not sure if you saw it, but let me point out a couple of things he says in verse 11.

1. He addresses God as the object of his thankfulness - Good place to start. I’ve been saying for years that to be really thankful, it’s best when thanksgiving is directed in the appropriate direction - most appropriate is God. However, this is where the positives for this religious leader comes to an end.
2. He thanks God that he is not like other men - I’ve heard and said the expression before “there for the grace of God, go I.” There’s nothing wrong with that when there is a sense of humility and realization that God is the one who has delivered you and brought you out of your sin. But really? He thanks God that he’s not like these sinful people? This guy clearly thought he was better than everyone else around him, “even this tax collector,” he says.

Let me just go on record at this point and say, this is the wrong kind of thankfulness! The story Jesus told was to teach those in the crowd who trusted in their own righteousness that repentance and humility gets God’s attention, not being thankful at how good you think you are in your own eyes. What this man failed to see was that he was exactly like those “other men” because his heart wasn’t right with God and all the outward expressions of religion don’t change that.

His most egregious error was that of actually attaching thankfulness (a quality we are reminded at least once a year to possess) to his supposed position with God; and then to thank God, as if somehow God had something to do with him being so prideful, stuck-up and horribly deceived. He was thankful alright, but he was the wrong kind of thankful.

Let’s be thankful to God that He has delivered us from sin, but stay away from the comparisons to others because that’s the wrong kind of thankfulness.

To Infinity and Beyond... Through a Mac

I really was making better use of my time when the question came to me, what it would be like to screenshare from one Mac and then through that screeenshare, open up a screenshare on the other Mac back to the one I was on?

Here's the result. Cool, huh?

The Bible Software I Use and Recommend

As a 2nd generation pastor, I remember seeing all the books in my Dad's library and remember often seeing them spread out on his desk as he would study and labor over his messages (for many years preaching 3 times a week). I wonder how many hours Dad would have saved with Accordance. Of course, by the time computers became a must have for most pastors, Dad was in the later years of his ministry and I was in the early years of mine. A few years ago, I discovered Accordance and was pleasantly surprised at the time by how fast it was (that was Accordance 6). Now at version 9, Accordance is just as fast as ever, is native to the Mac and continues to provide excellent resources for in depth Bible study. I have only begun to scratch the surface of using Accordance, but there are excellent quality resources like a the Lighting the Lamp Podcast and a knowledgeable community of users in the Accordance User Forum to help get you started. You won't regret it.

I don't remember the last time I had books spread out all over my desk because they are now neatly organized in my Accordance Bible Software workspace.

The new Multimedia Preview gives you some quick insight into a few of the things Accordance has to offer.

Thirsty?

When Jesus was on the cross, He said, "I thirst." Viewed from the physical perspective, He no doubt needed something to quench His thirst. He was becoming severely dehydrated through all that He was suffering. But we also have to wonder if He wasn't sensing the great spiritual thirst of all of mankind as the sins of the whole world were placed on Him. It was the thirst felt by billions of people around the world.

The solution? Get a drink. John 7:37 (NIV) "... If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink." The One who felt thirst on the cross, is the answer for quenching the spiritual thirsting of your soul. Nothing else will ever satisfy your thirst like He will.

What does Christmas mean to you?

Most of us think of any number of things when it comes to Christmas! Right now there is the smell of an apple pie baking in the oven (thank you to my dear wife for that)! Maybe for you it brings to mind your family, your loved ones and of course to most children it’s about what will be under the tree. But the account of the first Christmas according to the Scriptures shows multiple lessons of one of the most important of all Christian responses - obedience. Both Mary and Joseph in their own individual encounters with the Lord had to follow Him in obedience to His plan. The shepherds had to obey in order to experience the wonderful blessing of seeing the Savior of the world come to be one of us. The Magi, later on, obeyed the voice of the Lord and returned to the own country by another way.

In the end, without obedience to the plan of God, the real meaning of Christmas is lost! But as the main players show, obedience to His plan is nothing but the beginning of something revolutionary!

Merry Christmas!