The Puzzle, May 3, 2010
Feeding on Folly
A scoffer does not like to be reproved;
he will not go to the wise.
The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge,
but the mouths of fools feed on folly.
Proverbs 15:12,14
Hmm. America is desperately in need of answers, these days. Where are we turning? Not toward God. In fact, many in positions of power are trying to throw off whatever remaining religious constraints might prevent them from striding ahead without interference from God, His followers or even His history. All the wisdom and knowledge we might need is available. Fools feed on folly, instead.
Why? A scoffer does not like to be reproved; he will not go to the wise. The scoffer automatically knows what will happen if he chooses to ask the opinion of the wise: He will be reproved for the silly things he is doing and shown the correct way to proceed. Scoffers don’t like that; they avoid those who would correct them. They don’t ask the wise; they especially don’t ask the Wisest.
There is a counterpart who always seems to know what to do. This is the person who seeks knowledge. He deliberately goes toward the one he thinks will know the answers. He patiently bears instruction, discipline and reproof. A person becomes wise by going to the wise, by seeking knowledge. He learns by wanting to learn. Instead of avoiding God, the one who wishes to gain wisdom goes to the One who invented it.
Part of the problem in our society is the tendency to take the way of the scoffer and the fool. This way skirts anyone who might contradict our shallow and selfish plans. This way makes sure the audience is composed of fans predisposed to grant adoring approval to anything and everything suggested, without scrutiny. This way rejects the cautious, reasoned, sometimes painful solution and goes for the one which sounds easier. Sometimes logic must be disconnected first, but no matter. What counts is getting our way without someone spoiling the fun.
It’s like the battle between healthy food and junk food. Only the disciplined can focus on what’s good for the body when what feels good is a ready alternative. When it comes to wisdom, it takes discipline to seek knowledge and ask the wise, knowing this won’t be nearly as much fun as feeding on folly. But folly only gets us into trouble. Wisdom gets us out. We should go to the wise and get real help.
Dave Ness
The Puzzle, May 4, 2010
The First Theologian
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:1-8
He was the first theologian. Adam and Eve were quite well acquainted with the LORD God, and didn’t really need anyone to explain His true intentions, but the serpent (a.k.a. Satan) was more than willing to help. Did God really say?... The question was knowingly followed by a huge exaggeration—but there is something about saying it even when the listener knows it’s not true which begins to turn the tide in the speaker’s favor. Eve corrects the serpent, but now she’s listening.
“You will not surely die.” Interpreted: “God is a liar. He’s just trying to scare you. In fact, you should call His bluff, because if you just partake of this tree, not only will nothing bad happen to you, but you will be as wise as God, because you will no longer know just about good; you will also know about evil.” Two of Satan’s favorite tricks—telling people “what God really means by what He said,” and convincing the innocent and naive that a firsthand knowledge of sin is somehow a good thing—wisdom, even. Both tricks worked on Eve. Adam first looked passively on, then stupidly followed his wife into death.
Their perfect bodies eventually died; they were expelled from their perfect world. All creation fell with them. The very first casualty was their innocence. So this is what it is to “know” evil. The serpent said that was a good thing. He seemed so smart. He was telling us all about what God was really like. The first theologian turned out to be a snake. If we want to know what God meant, ask God.
Dave Ness
The Puzzle, May 5, 2010
Children of a Greater God
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 1 John 3:1-3
God’s adopted children are very, very rich kids. It’s not just the money or resources which God could, and sometimes does, make available to us. It’s everything. The common childhood concept of “My Dad can do anything” becomes reality: My Dad can do anything! And the fact that the God who spoke the Universe into existence wants to call me His child!
We’re not bums hanging around in search of a hand-out and some pity. We’re children of the Most High God, with our own bedroom with our name on the door. The Book of Life contains our name, too. We’re not illegal immigrants who decided to try to crash heaven; we are not even “invited guests.” We’re citizens of heaven! (Philippians 3:20) We’re family! Heaven is not “a place I hope to go, someday”—it’s home! My home!
Meanwhile, we’re in the waiting area called Earth, being called names just like they did to Jesus. We haven’t grown into our heavenly body, yet, because it isn’t time.
One of these days...
One of these days, He’ll be back. Jesus is coming for His Church. He will appear, He will gather His brothers and sisters to Himself, and we’re all going home! Somewhere in that process we’ll be perfected at last—not “perfect” as we imagine, but something that will knock the walls out of our best imagination efforts. We shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. Sounds worth it.
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. The reality of being God’s child and the hope of eternity with our Dad is enough to make us want to be cleaned up and ready to go when the bus arrives to take us home.
God’s child, huh? What are the implications of that? Who is richer than we are? Who has a stronger Father than God’s children? We’re children of a greater God—greater than anyone, anything, all of them put together. And He is the One who chose us, rather than it being the other way around. Man, do we have it made!
Dave Ness
The Puzzle, May 17, 2010
Happy Hearts and Homes
A glad heart makes a cheerful face,
but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.
The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge,
but the mouths of fools feed on folly.
All the days of the afflicted are evil,
but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast.
Better is a little with the fear of the LORD
than great treasure and trouble with it.
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is
than a fattened ox and hatred with it.
Proverbs 15:13-17
What’s on the face starts in the heart. And we get to choose what’s in the heart. Those who choose a cheerful heart have “a continual feast.” Those who choose victim status spend their days feeling “afflicted.” There aren’t any good days for victims. There is only one bad, unfair thing after another. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast.
The person who has chosen to be cheerful, the one who refuses victim status, regardless of what happened, has a continual feast of one good day after another. Why? It doesn’t depend on circumstances. It depends on the heart. A cheerful heart always has good days—some are better than others.
What applies to the heart applies to the home. When the choice is made to have strife, where hatred is harbored, fancy food or expensive possessions don’t counteract the poisonous atmosphere of that home. Far better is the person barely getting by, financially, but who enjoys rich relationships, hatred-free.
We get to choose. If we’re applying for victim status, we all qualify, at least in our minds. Anyone who has been on this planet a week has already suffered some humiliation and injustice. Newborns are welcomed into the world by people who make them cry on purpose. It’s a wonder they don’t sue. It doesn’t get easier.
We can choose a cheerful heart or we can grant ourselves victim status and consider ourselves “afflicted.” Poor, pitiful victims. It turns all our days evil.
We get to choose the atmosphere of our home. Will it be tarnished by hatred and envy? Or wallowing in peace and contentment, even as the Jones’ leave us behind and sprint into yet another tax bracket?
A cheerful face, a home where love is—these are not accidents of fate, but the direct results of choices of the heart: “Non-victim.” “Forgiveness.” Joy.
Dave Ness
The Puzzle, May 18, 2010
The First Victims
In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.” Genesis 4:3-10
It started with Adam and Eve, perfect people in a perfect setting who suddenly are convinced they are victims in need of liberation through knowledge. The prescription given them by the serpent becomes the first sin, and The Fall.
Their first son determines to take the same route which cost his parents the Garden. When his brother Abel’s sacrifice to God is accepted and his is not, rather than repentance and a change of heart, Cain just has a hardening of heart. He tells himself it’s unfair. Shouldn’t God treat everyone the same? Why would God show favoritism and accept one person’s offering, but not another’s? Cain let his anger roam free. He told himself he was a victim of unfair treatment from God, and he took it out on the one who pleased God.
The first murder victim in history was a result of a brother who painted himself as a victim, when in reality he was just a sinner who needed to repent. Victims have “rights”—lots of them. They have a right to be angry; they have a right to all privileges and rewards, regardless of their actions; they have the right to do whatever they want, and feel justified in doing it. They have the right to smart off to God and think they’ll get away with it. The problem with victim’s rights is that they exist only in the mind of the self-appointed victim. The most harmful right of all is the right to be a victim. Once that one is claimed, all the rest follows. It leaves a trail of genuine victims in its path.
Ah, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, does it? God, spare us from victim status. It’s an ugly, downhill plunge. Sin desires to rule over us all. We must master it. If we refuse victim status and do what’s right, we’ll be accepted by a God who doesn’t make victims or mistakes.
Dave Ness
The Puzzle, May 19, 2010
Love Before First Sight
Twenty-five years ago, today, our eyes first met. It was like coming home. Not only were we already in love; we were also engaged to be married. My long-distance call across the 4,000 miles which separated us had been intended to let her know my feelings, without any pressure for an answer, but her immediate response had been, “Yes, without reservations.” We got engaged over the phone. Twelve days later, we met, face to face, for the first time.
The funny thing is, I already knew her better than anyone I had ever dated. The letters and phone calls had effectively opened our souls to one another. The bizarre and wonderful courtship which originated with a God-ordained prank phone call from Nebraska teen camp and culminated in a meeting at Anchorage International Airport was so obviously an answer to both of our prayers. Was this beautiful lady God’s answer to my prayers for a partner for life? I’ve never been more sure of anything.
I’m still sure. Always have been. She is still beautiful and wonderful. She has been at my side through it all, these past 25 years, since the October day we wed. I have thanked God for His gift countless times through the years.
In the weeks leading up to our engagement, I told myself again and again, “This thing is rigged!” I just knew God was behind it all, orchestrating the whole thing. Today, as I was thanking Him again, I felt Him say to me, “If you think that was rigged, wait until you see what I have for you in heaven!”
What a God we serve! He can do anything! We can trust Him, absolutely, and if we know for sure that something is from Him, faith is not that hard, especially if God has treated you like He’s treated me!
I love God. I haven’t seen Him, face to face, yet, but that doesn’t matter. I know Him and He knows me. I love Him and He loves me. One day, I’ll meet Him, face to face. I’ll be home in heaven, where things are definitely “rigged”! And once again, I’ll know it was love before first sight.
Dave Ness
The Puzzle, May 20, 2010
Options Which Aren’t
By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 3:10-15
Some options aren’t. For example, how many times have we heard fellow Christians discount righteousness—living in a right relationship with God instead of following the old, sinful path—as unreachable and irrelevant? In other words, “God doesn’t truly expect His children to pay any real heed to standards of holiness. They are just there to remind us of how hopelessly lost we are without Christ.”
Really? Then why is the standard of holiness used in books like 1 John as a dividing line which tells you who belongs to God and who belongs to the devil? It’s not just in an isolated place or two, either. Again and again and again in 1 John, the apostle beats the same drum: You can’t serve God and ignore righteousness.
Throughout the whole Bible, holiness is never portrayed as just an “option,” for Christians seeking extra credit with God. It has, and always will be, God’s standard. What else would a holy God expect of His people, but holiness? Righteousness is not optional, for followers of a holy God. Righteousness through Jesus is available to all, but like a kid with a coat, we must “put it on” in order for it to do us any good. Throw away the sin; put on the righteousness of God.
The same thing applies to love for our brothers. Interesting, how many Christ-followers try to beg off on this one, but the scripture is relentless when it comes to love. Thirteen times in 1 John alone, the call comes through: Love your brother! If you don’t love your brother, don’t bother trying to tell God you love Him, because you’re lying!
Living a holy life before God. Loving our brothers. Those are a couple of options which aren’t. Instead, they are life-changing requirements which show very clearly on whose side we are. No more excuses. We get to follow Jesus, but we don’t get to do it without holiness and love.
Dave Ness
The Puzzle, May 24, 2010
Hot-tempered Self-control
A hot-tempered man stirs up strife,
but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.
Proverbs 15:18
Hot-tempered Christian. That sounds like an oxymoron to me. I think it’s supposed to. James advises Christ-followers to be “slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19-20)
So what does produce the righteousness of God? The Holy Spirit. When we invite Him to assume total control of our lives, we can expect the fruit of the Spirit to begin to grow in us (if we want it). The fruit? But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; ...
(Galatians 5:22-23)
All the fruits of the Spirit are in contrast to out-of-control anger. Put “hot-tempered” next to any of them, and it sounds like an oxymoron: Hot-tempered joy? Hot-tempered patience? Hot-tempered kindness? Hot-tempered goodness? Hot-tempered faithfulness? Hot-tempered gentleness? Hot-tempered self-control? Hmm. Something is wrong with the picture of the self-proclaimed Christ-follower, filled with the Spirit, who always grants himself exemption when it comes to controlling his anger. Something is wrong, indeed. The fruit of the Spirit doesn’t look like out-of-control anger. Maybe we aren’t to excuse ourselves for our impatience and lack of self-control just because “that’s the way we are.”
How do quick-tempered people do a better job of keeping their cool?
-We quit making excuses for our behavior and let the Spirit mold us.
-We choose peace and patience (fruits of the Spirit) instead of anger.
-We hang around with a calm God.
-We assign more value to being patient and less value to being comfortable. If getting our way is a priority but learning patience isn’t, the years will roll by as our temper only gets edgier, when God’s will is that we would be acting more like Him than we used to. Anger doesn’t just happen—we decide to get angry. Anger is set up in advance when we assign great value where it doesn’t belong, and not enough value when it comes to our character development. If having the fruit of the Spirit called patience in our life is important to us, we will continually grow in that direction. If all we care about is getting our way, and we’d just as soon not ever have to use patience, anger will increase its control over our lives.
What will grow in our lives, a hot temper or the fruit of the Spirit? Whichever we want. But one grows at the expense of the other.
Dave Ness
The Puzzle, May 25, 2010
Geezers and God-pleasers
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. Genesis 6:5-8
Genesis 5 details the life-spans of Adam’s descendants. Those guys lived a long time! Had Hallmark been around then, they would have had cards saying, “Happy 900th Birthday!”; “Congratulations on your 450th wedding anniversary”; etc. Methuselah took the prize. He made it to 969 years before breathing his last.
With age comes wisdom. Right? Well, it depends. It seems that for those who choose to be as bad as they want to be, all advanced age gets them is an ever-bigger pile of accumulated sins. People who wise up by turning toward God seem to grow kinder and wiser as the decades roll by, but not so those who choose sin as a career path. I’m thinking just about people who hang around on earth for the better part of a hundred years. What would happen to those bent on evil if their life span was multiplied by nine or ten times? They would just have that much more time to sin! It would be like ornery to the tenth power!
That’s what God was looking at, in the days leading up to the Flood. The long life spans only gave people more time to do evil! There were some really old geezers hanging around, with no other purpose in life than exploring new ways of sinning. There was one exception, and only one: Noah. Only one person was even attempting to please God. The story of Noah is confirmation of a true cliche’ I have often heard: “If you were the only person on Earth, God would have done all this just to save you.” Noah was the only person on Earth who was trying to please God. God provided a plan of salvation when only one person was interested.
After the Flood, human life spans were drastically shortened. Less time to get in trouble. We have maybe ten decades to do what we’re going to do. If we choose sin as our lifestyle, 100 years is more than enough time to do the damage we’re going to do to ourselves and the world, and be out of the picture. If we’re not seeking God, the longer we live, the worse we’ll get (and the harder to live with). On the other hand, if we choose to please God, however long we live doesn’t seem long enough to our fellow man, because we bring blessing on Earth. And for those who follow God, we don’t just get long life. We get eternal life.
Dave Ness
The Puzzle, May 26, 2010
Loveless Christians
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:7-12
You’d expect to see more love. Considering there are places like this one where it pops up three times in the same paragraph, “love one another” is a very hard command to overlook. It requires some serious overlooking to even try.
Why then do we not observe more love among believers? It’s not a priority. It’s easy for us to get caught up in other things, forgetting that God has set up love as a dividing line between those who know Him and those who don’t. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. And there’s plenty more where that came from!
“Loveless Christians” would be another one of those oxymoron’s, then, wouldn’t it? While a cult or two can get away with focusing on beliefs and submission without love, Christianity isn’t supposed to. So what’s going on? Shouldn’t we see more love?
The answer is “Yes.” The two greatest commands, according to Jesus, were to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Why is it that so often these commands are basically knocked down or off the priority list by people claiming to serve God? Should the wonderful Christians who do love God and love people stand out as exceptions, or should that devotion be considered normal Christianity?
Many of us have prayed for spiritual transformation in our country. Would it, could it ever happen without love? At the same time, what would be the effect of a greatly increased love for God, a love for fellow believers, a love that reached out to people who don’t even know God? Would it result in “transformation”? How could it not?
The spiritual awakening and transformation we so desperately need will not come about because of advertising or church growth techniques. The change comes when we obey the oft-repeated command to love one another. It’s what shows who really knows God.
Dave Ness
The Puzzle, May 28, 2010 (Originally written 3-22-05)
Anything But Prayer
If revival came just because we needed it, we’d already have it! We also have to want it, including the change that accompanies revival. There is a personal cost, as God’s Holy Spirit renovates areas of our lives which we thought were fine. There is a big cost for those in ministry, who are called upon to help restore broken and messy relationships and lives. There is also a cost in prayer, and not just for a handful of ministers. Revival comes through prayer.
Winston Churchill used to say of Americans, “Americans always do what’s right—after they’ve tried everything else.” That’s quite true of the American church as well. We’ve tried it all, haven’t we? If there were a way to have life-changing renewal in our land without prayer, we’d have found it by now. We haven’t. Each cute new “trend” turns out to not quite do the trick, unless one counts forming a new mega-something out of the disemboweled remains of a bunch of littler churches as “life-changing renewal” (I don’t).
Meanwhile, the best way I know for a pastor to have time alone is to announce a prayer meeting which will consist only of talking to God for about an hour!
There just has to be another way to get revival without prayer, isn’t there? We’re wasting time if we’re looking for it.
How about committing to join with some other believers in spending at least an hour a week in praying for a spiritual awakening, and repenting for the sins of our nation?
Do we really need to spend that much time in prayer, when there is so much else to do? Let’s put it this way. Would we ever have fallen in love with our spouse if we hadn’t cared to focus our attention directly on them for even an hour a week? So, a spiritual awakening, the experience of falling in love with Jesus all over again, is going to happen when it’s not even worth an hour of anybody’s time?
Let’s pray. We’ve already tried everything else.
Commit yourself to at least one other person, to pray on a regular basis for a spiritual awakening. Open your heart to fall in love anew with Jesus Christ, and undergo whatever changes that brings about. Pray for yourself. Pray for others, by name. If we want revival, we’d better talk to the only One who can send it. Pray.
Dave Ness
The Puzzle, May 31, 2010
Praycrastination
The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns,
but the path of the upright is a level highway.
Proverbs 15:19
The pattern in Proverbs is to make a statement, then state the opposite, or state the same idea in a different way. What does it tell us, then, when the “opposite” of “upright” is a “sluggard”? You know, the Bible really is down on laziness! That Protestant Work Ethic thing is not just a fable.
So, more bad news for sluggards. Not only do they not have gainful employment very often or for very long, but everything they do feels like trying to plow through a hedge of thorns. And when people who haven’t shaken the nasty habit of laziness encounter pain (vis a vis thorns), what do they do? They quit.
In this proverb uprightness is equated with hard work. Either one makes for a smoother path ahead. And both uprightness and hard work? Level highway. “Some people get all the breaks!” Hardworking, upright people. Lazy people don’t.
Procrastination is a form of laziness, which only results in more work in the end, either for the procrastinator or the care giver. I had never thought prayer had anything to do with procrastination until I recently realized how many times I have used prayer as an excuse not to do something or not to decide something. So I coined a new word to describe a bad habit: Praycrastination.
I’m for prayer. I try to pray about anything and everything. I’ve never been sorry I prayed about something. Not once. Wishing I had prayed? Many times.
Prayer is not the problem. The problem is when prayer is used as an excuse not to decide something, or not to do something we know God wants us to do.
We plead that we “need to pray.” Good idea. Except when we forget to pray. Or when we use “more prayer” to avoid making a decision. Or pray without seeking an answer, just complaining to God about the situation, then saying we’ve “prayed about it.” If prayer about a decision never comes to a decision, did we really pray about it? Or is “more prayer” sometimes just a way to postpone making a necessary decision? We should always pray, but pray toward a decision.
One more form of praycrastination is when we pray and get an answer, but
neither tell anyone nor commit to act on it, so the decision is easily forgotten. We prayed, God showed us what to do; then we went on to other things and never got around to actually doing what God told us to do. Another term for this form of praycrastination is “disobedience.”
The Lord gave me three words to help break this habit: Pray. Decide. Do.
Dave Ness
Puzzle Archives
Servant Connection, P.O. Box 1747, Longview, WA 98632
Servant Connection is a 501(c)3 non-profit ministry dedicated to the spiritual transformation of America.
Donations are tax-deductible. Donations may now be made using PayPal at this site.
Contact Pastor Dave Ness, Servant Connection Founder, at connect@PrayingForAmerica.org
(360) 431-4245
|
