So I recently preached a sermon from Judges 6:11-22 concerning Gideon. It amazes me the plethora of ideas and opinions that exist concerning this man. Some call him a coward. Some call him a magician. Some accuse him of having no faith. I simply see him as, well, human.
Gideon was from the smallest clan of the tribe of Manesseh, he was the youngest in his family, he grew up in a family of idolaters, he was unschooled in the ways of God and yet, this is the man that God chose to lead the attack on the Midianites. When God showed up in the winepress, God already knew what to expect.
Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide from the Midianites. He was obviously fearful as was the rest of Israel as they have began to live in caves. The Midianites and the people of the east would show up at harvest time and destroy the crops and decimate the land. The people were poor and oppressed. Gideon was a most unlikely choice to lead considering the fact that, well, he was afraid. Judging from the book, before Gideon met God at that winepress, he was a naturally timid man. In spite of this glaring weakness, God called him a "mighty man of valor" in verse 12.
Gideon and his experience with God points out something that is critical to understand and deal with in our walk as Christians. The emotion of doubt. Many treat doubt as if it is the worst thing that someone could ever do but have you ever stopped to think that that we are naturally doubtful and skeptical people? Human beings are frail and weak and when anything comes up that we don't understand, doubt will be present. Gideon had two adminitions from the Angel of the Lord in the text and both times he doubted. Let's examine:
12And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir,a if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14And the Lordb turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
Gideon was skeptical and confused because he grew up in that generation that did not know God nor His deeds (see Judges 2). He was also focused on his limitations as opposed to being focused on God. In verse 13, the word "lord" (Hebrew, adon) shows that he also didn't really know who he was talking to. However, in verse 15, he uses the term Lord (Adonai) which indicates to me that God was beginning to reveal Himself to Gideon. Adonai is a term that is reserved for God and basically is used to ascribe to majesty and glory to God; it is used to indicate his mastery over everything.
Let's think about doubt from a new testament perspective. Jesus says in Matthew 21:21, 22 that if we believe (have faith) and do not doubt, whatever we ask will be given to us. Interestingly, this statement is made in the context of man asking something of God. When we ask of God, James says that we should ask without doubting otherwise we are double minded and therefore should not expect anything from God. One word for doubt, "diakrino" (which is the word used in Matt 21) is a Greek legal term which means to "discern two sides" or to "judge". When we begin to wrestle with our flesh, that's where doubt arises. When we start wavering between what we know God is capable of and what our flesh is telling us that He can't do...then we have a problem. However, doubt is normal. What we must avoid is that doubt pushing us to unbelief, which is the absence of faith.
Now, let's think about this from the other side. When we ask God for something, we should not doubt. However, what about when God asks somethings of us? As is the case for Gideon. God is saying to him, you are going to deliver Israel from the Midianites. Gideon's skepticism is natural because he is a timid man that had not done ANYTHING to thwart the Midianite oppression for the seven years that it had been going on. He was content to hide in the winepress threshing wheat. The funny thing is, when God came to Gideon He already knew every excuse that Gideon would make. He knew every hoop that Gideon would jump through. But God was patient with Gideon because, I believe, he wanted to move Gideon to faith.
If you read the text further, you will see that when Gideon wanted to prepare an offering to confirm If he had "found favor" in the sight of the Angel of the Lord, the Angel waited patiently for him. This is a picture of God's patience with us. Is God averse to is asking questions when we are confused about what He's doing in our lives? I think not. He's well able to answer anything that we ask. Is it wrong for us to ask for confirmation? The funny thing is, many think that Gideon was trying to manipulate God. God was actually manipulating Gideon because with every answered question, Gideon was moved closer and closer to carrying out what God had purposed when He showed up at the winepress.
Am I saying that we should walk in doubt and fear? Am I saying that we are terrible if we ask questions? No, what I am saying is that doubt is a human emotion that we will all struggle with and God has the answer and He is not afraid to erase our doubts with His grace and patience. I think that sometimes people are overzealous in their treatment of Gideon. They are either too hyped up about him or too hard on him. He's human just like all of the others in the Bible that doubted (see Moses, Jeremiah, Peter, Thomas, etc.). If you are struggling with doubt, pray that God would erase them and pray for answers to your unanswered questions. Let God, by His grace, patience and answers, move you to trust and faith in Him. Grace and peace to you from God the Father and Lord of all.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Why, Why, Why?
This is meant to be a very short post to vent my frustration. I am simply fed up with Microsoft Windows 8. WHY DID YOU RELEASE A PRODUCT WITH SO MANY BUGS?! WHY DID YOU RELEASE A PRODUCT THAT NEEDS UPDATING AND PATCHING EVERY SINGLE DAY? If it was unfinished, you should have kept it in the lab- you have zero competition in the PC market. I don't need my cellphone to match my computer. I don't need an apps page and a desktop! I don't need a computer that crashes every 3-5 minutes when I run programs that use a lot of memory. It simply makes no sense. Please, in the future, be practical and not cute. This is annoying and it is by far the WORST experience that I have ever had with any windows operating system. You should have stopped at 7 and left it there. Windows 7 runs beautifully. It recovers documents, it autosaves, it just works. Why fix what is not broken? Just a dumb move all around. Have you experienced this? I wish I could call Bill Gates personally. Ok, I am done ranting...for now. Lol!
Be blessed.
Be blessed.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Justifiable Homicide
In the criminal justice world, there are times when homicide is a non-punishable offense. Say for instance, if your life is in imminent danger and you protect yourself. The legal dictionary defines justifiable homicide as: "a killing without evil or criminal intent, for which there can be no blame, such as self-defense to protect oneself or to protect another, or the shooting by a law enforcement officer in fulfilling his/her duties" (The People's Law Dictionary. S.v. "Justifiable homicide." Retrieved 9/9/2013 from http://legaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Justifiable+homicide).
I submit to you today that there is a justifiable homicide that must take place each and everyday in the life of the believer. Galatians 5:24 says this: "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." The verb is in the aorist tense which denotes a once and for all action. Think of the imagery here. Think of how painful a crucifixion is. Now, think of how difficult it is for us as Christians to walk the narrow path, the sacrifices that we must make, the things that we are to separate ourselves from.
So, why does this once and for all action not result in instant perfection? I mean, if we have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, why is it that the flesh continues to operate? The Romans designed crucifixion to induce maximum pain and slow death. It was not intended for one to die instantly, but to drag the process of death out. Many hung on crosses for days before finally succumbing to death. So, while the flesh has been crucified, it is stubborn and does not die easily! That's the most frustrating thing about trying to live a holy life but it is also a reminder that the one Who began the good work will also bring it to completion.
Because the flesh is slow to die and because sin is constantly trying to find a breach in the armor, this is something that we must do every day. We must put the flesh on the cross each and every day that we wake up. It is justifiable homicide because the flesh is set against the Spirit and is therefore in direct contradiction with God. The flesh and the carnal mindset is set on death and therefore we must crucify it before it kills us! If we follow the passions and desires of the flesh which only seeks to gratify itself, we will eventually be led to destruction. We are told by Jesus that we must pick our cross up every day (Luke 9:23). Although we are created in God's image, sin has distorted the image and the flesh is in constant rebellion against the Living God.
Don't take this as some sort of legalism or works based religiosity. The flesh does not always, as we have been conditioned to think, have to do with sex. We might have a desire to do harm to our neighbor or to lie to stay out of trouble, or share the latest gossip...the word flesh is not always pertaining to sex. Passions and desires are simply strong emotions and depending on the motivation for those emotions, they can be negative or positive. Here, we are talking in the negative sense because it is the flesh or the sinful nature that creates these passions. If God is the motivating force behind a passion or a desire, then it is by default positive because God is always good and God cannot tempt us to sin (James 1:13).
So, how do I put the flesh on the cross every day? How difficult will it be? Well, that depends on who is doing the crucifying. If I try to do it in my own strength, it will never happen. Although the verb is in the active voice, we cannot do this alone. The active voice means that it is an action that is completed by the subject so we must take the initiative to carry the act of crucifying the flesh out but the true renewal comes from God's Spirit. We crucify the flesh by "walking by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16). Walking simply means the way that we live our life. We are to live life submitted to the Holy Spirit and walk according to His guidance. When we do that, the Holy Spirit is able to steer us away from sin, away from danger and keep us from gratifying the desires of the flesh. The verb walk in verse 16 is active but it is also imperative! We MUST walk by the Spirit if we have any hope of crucifying the flesh. We have to live in submission to the Spirit at all times. Will we mess it up at times? Yes, but we have to be active participant in walking by the Spirit.
Let me share something with you about the flesh, it will not die as long as we keep it on life support. As long as we throw the flesh a bone every now and then, it will remain content and exert as much influence as we allow. We feed our desires through what we consume visually and audibly and the temptation that we give in to. When the Holy Spirit is speaking, don't shut Him out! When there is something that you know is arousing or stimulating to the flesh, remove it or remove yourself. My prayer is that we all would become increasingly obedient and submissive to the Holy Ghost. Grace and Peace my brothers and sisters, in Jesus name!
I submit to you today that there is a justifiable homicide that must take place each and everyday in the life of the believer. Galatians 5:24 says this: "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." The verb is in the aorist tense which denotes a once and for all action. Think of the imagery here. Think of how painful a crucifixion is. Now, think of how difficult it is for us as Christians to walk the narrow path, the sacrifices that we must make, the things that we are to separate ourselves from.
So, why does this once and for all action not result in instant perfection? I mean, if we have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, why is it that the flesh continues to operate? The Romans designed crucifixion to induce maximum pain and slow death. It was not intended for one to die instantly, but to drag the process of death out. Many hung on crosses for days before finally succumbing to death. So, while the flesh has been crucified, it is stubborn and does not die easily! That's the most frustrating thing about trying to live a holy life but it is also a reminder that the one Who began the good work will also bring it to completion.
Because the flesh is slow to die and because sin is constantly trying to find a breach in the armor, this is something that we must do every day. We must put the flesh on the cross each and every day that we wake up. It is justifiable homicide because the flesh is set against the Spirit and is therefore in direct contradiction with God. The flesh and the carnal mindset is set on death and therefore we must crucify it before it kills us! If we follow the passions and desires of the flesh which only seeks to gratify itself, we will eventually be led to destruction. We are told by Jesus that we must pick our cross up every day (Luke 9:23). Although we are created in God's image, sin has distorted the image and the flesh is in constant rebellion against the Living God.
Don't take this as some sort of legalism or works based religiosity. The flesh does not always, as we have been conditioned to think, have to do with sex. We might have a desire to do harm to our neighbor or to lie to stay out of trouble, or share the latest gossip...the word flesh is not always pertaining to sex. Passions and desires are simply strong emotions and depending on the motivation for those emotions, they can be negative or positive. Here, we are talking in the negative sense because it is the flesh or the sinful nature that creates these passions. If God is the motivating force behind a passion or a desire, then it is by default positive because God is always good and God cannot tempt us to sin (James 1:13).
So, how do I put the flesh on the cross every day? How difficult will it be? Well, that depends on who is doing the crucifying. If I try to do it in my own strength, it will never happen. Although the verb is in the active voice, we cannot do this alone. The active voice means that it is an action that is completed by the subject so we must take the initiative to carry the act of crucifying the flesh out but the true renewal comes from God's Spirit. We crucify the flesh by "walking by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16). Walking simply means the way that we live our life. We are to live life submitted to the Holy Spirit and walk according to His guidance. When we do that, the Holy Spirit is able to steer us away from sin, away from danger and keep us from gratifying the desires of the flesh. The verb walk in verse 16 is active but it is also imperative! We MUST walk by the Spirit if we have any hope of crucifying the flesh. We have to live in submission to the Spirit at all times. Will we mess it up at times? Yes, but we have to be active participant in walking by the Spirit.
Let me share something with you about the flesh, it will not die as long as we keep it on life support. As long as we throw the flesh a bone every now and then, it will remain content and exert as much influence as we allow. We feed our desires through what we consume visually and audibly and the temptation that we give in to. When the Holy Spirit is speaking, don't shut Him out! When there is something that you know is arousing or stimulating to the flesh, remove it or remove yourself. My prayer is that we all would become increasingly obedient and submissive to the Holy Ghost. Grace and Peace my brothers and sisters, in Jesus name!
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