This
story has been bugging me:
Then
he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down
from here. "For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge
over you, To keep you,' "and, 'In their hands they shall bear
you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.' " And Jesus
answered and said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not
tempt the LORD your God.' " - Luke 4:9-12
I’ve
been taught, and I’ll bet you have too, to base my choices and my
requests on Scripture. If I can support it from the pages of the
Bible, I’m safe.
This
passage puts the lie to that. In this story, Luci asks Jesus to do
something, AND HE SUPPORTS IT WITH SCRIPTURE! This is the secret code
we’ve been taught to trust blindly, and the devil is using it to tempt Jesus! 😲
In
this story, it’s pretty clear that obeying this scriptural request was very much not God’s will:
• Luci
(the debbil) was the one making the request.
• JC
had a better understanding of the whole counsel of Scripture, and
recognized that this use (with scripture!) violated the bigger
issues.
• Jesus
only did what he saw Father doing (John 5:19), and apparently Father
wasn’t showing off by skydiving from a clifftop, waiting for God to
rescue him from the law of gravity and from the consequences of his
own choice.
• We
could add that the quote (from Deuteronomy 8) was out of context, but
the worst out-of-context quoter of Scripture that I know is Scripture
itself. (But that’s another conversation).
I
realize that I’ve done this. I’ve done this: I’ve taken verses
as approval for my wishes and choices, and expected God to jump
through my hoops. And then I’ve gotten angry or disappointed when
he didn’t.
Principle:
just because I can find somebody doing it in the Bible doesn’t mean
it’s God’s will for my life. Or that it’s safe.
Principle:
Yes, look for what Scripture says on the topic, but don’t
stop there. Engage Holy Spirit, involve mature brothers &
sisters.
Most
importantly, know your Father’s heart, so when somebody tries to
use Scripture to pull you away from his heart, you’ll know better
and not follow that slimy trail.
Thursday
Led by Scripture?
Issachar, the Cat
Oh
my. God's using my cat to teach me a lesson again. Awkward.
Our
cat gets a healthy breakfast. Then she gets lunch at 1:30 or 2:00.
(She's a very well-fed cat.)
I
don't eat breakfast. They call it intermittent fasting; I have
breakfast at noon. (It keeps me from being a "very well-fed"
human.)
So
I was in the kitchen at noon the other day, chopping up the toppings for the
personal pizza I was going to have for breakfast. And the cat
saunters in, all affectionate, assuming that since I was in the
kitchen, I must be preparing lunch for her.
Then I heard the whisper. "It's easy to misunderstand what time it is if you depend on someone else for that information."
Immediately 1 Chronicles 12:32 came to my mind. "...from Issachar [came] men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do."
Personally, I believe it's more important in these days than ever before in my own lifetime at least, to understand the times and to know how to respond in the midst of these days.
And I cannot (I MUST not) depend on somebody's prophetic word, or what my pastor preaches about, or what that person on Facebook writes about. I must understand the times from knowing my Father, from walking with Jesus, from listening to Holy Spirit.
It's awkward when I get misled by gifted saints who are walking in step with God. It's awkward when I follow what they're proclaiming rather than what Father is whispering.
The Sugar Daddy
I've had a few people in my life over the
years that seemed to see me as a sugar daddy. Whatever they wanted,
they told me about it and expected me to get it for them.
Sometimes
that's been my kids or my grand kids when they were little, and in
those circumstances, it certainly is normal, and I think maybe even
healthy.
But when people who appear to be adults take that
role it gets awkward. It seems that Father is bringing this to my
attention rather a lot recently. So I'm thinking about it.
One
line of thinking that I have been working on is that if this is
uncomfortable for me, does that also mean that it's uncomfortable for
God, if I only come to him with my wants and needs?
The
reality is that he is not a man, and his reactions are going to be
different than mine. But I still think that's going to be an inferior
way of relating with him, through the Christmas list.
If
nothing else, relating to God through my list of wants and needs is a
sure fire way to discern my immaturity. That's the only appropriate
for children, young children. With God, it's only appropriate for
babes in Christ.
Another line of thinking here has been
about how relating through the wish list changes how I deal with
life, and not for the better.
That's focusing on my wants
and needs, in other words it's focusing on my lack. That's never a
healthy way to relate, either to life, or to God.
This
leads me to a similar topic that father and I have been discussing
recently. It's easy to look at life, it's easy to look at what other
people have, and view it in light of what I want, or what I need.
We have all seen those spam ads on social media. "Click
like, and share this with your friends, and you will get a chance to
win one of these." (First of all, 99% of those are a pure
fiction. Nobody ever wins them. They are what is called "Like
Farms," and they will sell the social interaction to
unscrupulous advertisers later on.")
Or the posts
that asked your opinion: " Do you like the red one or the blue
one or the brown one?" (Yeah, more "Like Farms. ") These are clear temptations to be unsatisfied with God's provision for you.
A
more subtle version of this one is when somebody shares a testimony
of what God has done for them, it's a temptation for me anyway, to
react with a desire for that blessing rather than praise for what
God has done for them. This one masquerades as spiritual maturity,
spiritual hunger. It's not. It's the flesh.
Personally, I
am working to rid my thinking of, "I want that," or "I
want one like that for me." (Remember, this is my process, not
necessarily yours.)
Wanting that, whatever "that"
is, only serves to stir up the lust of the eyes, the lust of the
flesh, or the boastful pride of life. I hear those are not good
things.
So yeah, this involves more awareness of my own
self. It involves being on guard a little bit more than I used to be.
It does not however mean doing away with any desires, goals and
aspirations.
If I really do want that, rather than just
engaging my flesh to meditate on it, I tried to bring it to Father.
It's my goal to discuss it with him, and if it gets his and my
approval, then I will ask him for it. I will also probably discuss
with him what I need to do in that process, so that I don't retreat
him as a sugar daddy.
This represents a change I am
working to implement in my life: becoming less reactive, and more
proactive, more intentional.
I want to be a mature son,
working with him in the administration of his kingdom, not a whiny
toddler fussing about my wants and needs.
I remind you
again, this is what he's doing in me. He may or may not be doing this
in you. On the other hand, if this offends you, if this makes you
angry, he may actually want to make a change like this one in you
too.
Think of this as an invitation to grow in maturity, if he's taking you this way.
Wednesday
Which Gifts From God Don't Need God's Power?
Friday
Sometimes we fire blanks.
Thursday
A Very Messy Narrow Way
I have some children, and now they have children. And of course, once upon a time, I was a young child myself.
But all in all, there’s WAY more “yes and amen” than “do not touch” in the Kingdom of God.
Go forth. Explore. Discover your freedom.
“I came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it…”
Target Fixation
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
In these passages, God’s telling us to focus our attention on stuff that – should we actually put our attention on them – we’d become “excellent” and “praiseworthy” in our character; we’d become Christ-like.
But regardless of the result, it’s still a command. “Do this.” “Think about such things.” “Fix your eyes on Jesus.”
Are We Mere Men?
Audacious Prayer
Baby, That's Not Love
Wednesday
What is a Tidal Wave, really?
Thursday
Mixing Promises with Faith
Believers Who Find Fault
Favorite targets for these people include:
a) Famous Christians (“Did you know that this famous leader once sinned? Gasp!”),
b) Politicians (This doesn't need much explanation; there aren’t many Christians who can say positive things about all three: Trump, Clinton and Obama),
c) Poignant Facebook posts (“Martin Luther is an evil man because some of his followers did bad things!”)
I’m convinced that this is a model given to us by the accuser of the brethren, since these are indeed accusations, and it’s aggressively marketed to us by the secular (and, to a lesser extent, Christian) news media.
When I run across people who have to begin their conversation with criticism or “We need to know both sides of that!” then I’m afraid I make the assumption that this is a person who is more influenced by the news media than by the Spirit of God. (I don’t like assumptions, particularly in myself.)
Our Instruction Book gives us certain standards for our behavior, and for our conversation with each other, standards like “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt.” (Colossians 4:6)
And one of those standards is not fault-finding: Proverbs 11:12 “People without good sense find fault with their neighbors, but those with understanding keep quiet.” & Jude 1:16 “These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.”
Another of those standards is the solution: fixing our attention on whatsoever is good and right. Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”.
Faultfinding is a fundamental failure to meet Scriptural standards, I’m afraid. It’s also something I aggressively discourage in conversations on this page (as I am doing in this post).
Off the record, my motivation for discouraging this is not Scripture: you are responsible for your own response to that standard; that’s not my job.
I speak up because being around that particular work of the enemy (the “accuser of the brethren” Revelation 12:10) is like swimming in a sewer for me: it’s incredibly distasteful, and more importantly, it’s really quite dangerous to my own health.
If you want to find fault with people, living or dead, do it somewhere else. If you to take a crap, don’t use my swimming pool for that purpose.
Thanks!
Does the Bible Tell Lies?
If somebody is telling you a flat-out lie, and I report, “This is what they’re saying,” without describing it as the truth or as a lie, Then am I telling you the truth to you? Or am I lying to you?
Related to that:
If somebody is telling a flat-out lie, and the Bible reports, “This is what they said,” without describing it as either truthful or a lie, Then is the Bible speaking truth? Or is it lying?
Of course, I’m going to argue that if the Bible is just reporting what they said, that this it is telling the truth, even if what it is truthfully reporting is a lie. Even when the Bible accurately quotes their lying words, it is telling the truth, and you can have confidence that they did, indeed, tell that lie.
For example, when Bildad the Shuhite says to Job, “When your children sinned against him, [God] gave them over to the penalty of their sin,” [Job 8:4] and the Bible truthfully reports Bildad’s fake news, then the Bible is still speaking the truth, even if Job’s children never sinned, and even if Bildad can’t tell his sphincter from a scepter.
Or when the Bible accurately quotes a snake calling God a liar, and declaring “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil,” [Genesis 3:5], then the Bible is still telling the truth, even though the words it is quoting are a flat-out lie, literally straight from the devil’s mouth.
This leads to a very awkward and uncomfortable place. I’m going to say this bluntly:
- Not everything the Bible says is true.
- Some of what the Bible says is a lie, because
- Sometimes the Bible truthfully reports people’s lies.
That’s going to trigger some folks, but take a deep breath and think about it: we’ve just discussed two specific lies that the Bible quotes. The Bible accurately (“truthfully”) reports the lies. But they’re still lies. They’re still in the Bible. The Bible contains these two lies (and many more).
What’s even more challenging is that the Bible doesn’t generally identify whether people are speaking the truth or telling a lie, just like it doesn’t comment on whether what they’re doing is wise or stupid. It never commented that the snake was lying, or that Bildad was lying.
And there are some epic examples of stupid choices and stupid thinking that the Bible reports to us. If you think about it, you can think of several yourself.
“But what about that verse that says it’s all inspired?”
The verse actually says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” [2 Timothy 3:16] Yep. That’s what it says. And yes, this is true!
So yeah, it’s still good for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Some of it, by virtue of accurately reporting people’s stupid choices, is particularly helpful for the rebuking and correcting parts! (Yes, David really did seduce his good friend’s wife, and then murder that friend to cover it up. No, we are not teaching that you need to do the same thing!)
In other words, yes, the Bible is still precious, and it is still God-breathed and useful nutrition for saints. But like all nutrition, some of it needs to be chewed well before the nutrients are available to help saints grow.
Don’t just grab pieces and swallow them whole. Find out who said it, who they said it to, and the circumstances they were said in. Learn to chew your food carefully.
Maturing in Discernment
Learning About Partnering With Angels
One of the topics that it seems that God’s talking about – and it’s terribly uncomfortable to the traditions I was raised in – is the topic of angels. I believe that God is speaking to his children about angels, who are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.”
There are some reasons that this topic has scared people in the church: some leaders have feared that people would be more enamored with the angels than with the God who created them. And some believers have become so angel-centric that they can’t even spend time with their Heavenly Father without invoking angels.
Sure, there are legitimate concerns to avoid. (There are always legitimate concerns to avoid.) We’ll avoid the dangers, but avoiding the dangers isn’t our goal. Our goal is receiving what Father gives us, because if the Creator of the Universe thinks we need it, then who are we to argue? We need it.
I have a couple of these fellows who live at my home. They guard the peace and the people of my home. They’re also eager to do stuff, so they roam my neighborhood, terrorizing any demons they find. And frankly, they provoke me to press into Father, to dig into the Word, to learn more about how to live with angels.
They didn’t teach me this stuff in Sunday School.
Fulfilling the Law and the Prophets
- Perhaps
the context tells us some things?
- There
may be a Jewish metaphor here that we’re not catching because we’re not
first century Jews. That might change the meaning here.
- He
might be talking about a purpose of the Law and the Prophets that he’s
going to fulfill.
- He might be talking about and end of the Law, but one that is not His doing.
So the Law and the Prophets are still valid, under Jesus’ new interpretation, until the temple was destroyed. That’s what it meant to the writer and the original readers of the Gospels. We cannot impose our 21st century cosmology onto the text.
Jesus was declaring that the fulfillment of everything the Law and the Prophets spoke about was upon them: they were about to see the realization of everything they’d been waiting for for the last couple of millennia!