Answers for Today, August 2, 2010
Lousy Listeners
The ear that listens to life-giving reproof
will dwell among the wise.
Whoever ignores instruction despises himself,
but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence.
The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom,
and humility comes before honor.
Proverbs 15:31-33
We have this big thing in America about education, the power of knowledge, etc. As a nation, we think we’re pretty smart. After all, we’re leaders in the “Information Age.” When it comes down to it, though, as a nation we are lousy listeners! We don’t listen very well, or even try, especially when it comes to our elders or to God. There seems to be little interest in listening, whether it’s politicians listening to their constituents or husbands listening to their wives. And if what is being said ranks as “reproof”—constructive criticism, we’re really not interested in hearing it! How dare anyone approach us with the information that we are doing something wrong! We’ll sue!
The person willing to listen to reproof, especially from God, will grow ever wiser and more intelligent. The person not willing to receive correction from anyone, who always has to be right, won’t learn much, no matter how many degrees they plaster on their wall or how much money they make. Wisdom doesn’t start with wanting to be smart; it starts with listening.
In our nation we’d rather be thought smart than to be smart. That’s a generalization, of course, but unfortunately, truer than we’d like. The same goes for honor and humility. We crave honor but disdain humility. Not only do we not seek to be humble, ourselves; we sometimes even despise it in others, considering it weakness, instead. We tend to lump honor, self-esteem and outright pride together as something of a birthright, while the Bible counters that until we learn some humility and decide to listen, we ought to forget about being honored.
One of the best ways to honor someone is to listen to them. How many of us don’t stink at listening? We seek our own honor, but the more we seek it, the more elusive it becomes. Humility comes before honor. Humility begins, not by trying to be humble, but by focusing my attention on someone besides me. When we listen, especially to God, when we get our minds off ourselves and focus on other people, listening to them, learning from them, loving them, something happens: Wisdom and honor show up when we’re not looking.
Dave Ness
Answers for Today, August 3, 2010
It’s Complicated
And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” Genesis 21:8-13
It’s complicated. Ishmael’s story begins in Genesis 16 and continues to this day, where Abraham’s descendants through Ishmael hate nothing on earth quite as much as the nation of Israel, Abraham’s descendants through Isaac and Jacob. It’s still complicated. Very. It started out that way, too.
Abraham had received promises from God which included having a son. He believed God, but after still being childless some years after the promise, Sarah, a practical, take-charge kind of person, came up with the idea of using her servant as a surrogate wife. Abraham agreed to it. The plan worked out, biologically. Relationally? Not so much. Abraham finally had a son, the slave girl had an attitude and Sarah felt even worse than before. She took it out on everyone.
The person happiest about the whole situation was Abraham, who was perfectly fine to let Ishmael be the promised son and call it good. God was insistent, though. The promised child would be born to Sarah. Isaac’s arrival was evidence that God was willing and able to keep His own promises.
But now what about Ishmael? Abraham and Sarah’s attempt to help God fulfill His promise had created a sticky situation. Ishmael’s juvenile mocking was the last straw for Sarah. She wanted him and his mother gone. Abraham wondered how it had gotten this complicated. And God told him to listen to Sarah! Funny. God hadn’t told him to listen to Sarah when she suggested the surrogate deal in the first place, but now, when Sarah wants to send them away, He does!
When Abraham dutifully sent his son Ishmael away, God took over, establishing nations through Ishmael, too. But back at home, it was finally now according to God’s plan, not man’s.
God always gets His way. If we make His plan our first choice, our path will be straight and studded with miracles. If we supply our own plans or borrow the plans of others, it quickly gets complicated. That’s O.K. God still gets His way.
Dave Ness
Answers for Today, August 4, 2010
Fake Presents
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
James 1:16-18
The offers keep coming. The sender calls them “presents,” “free gifts.” They are always supposed to be offers too good to pass up. In reality, all they are is temptation. And something weird about temptation is that every single time, the temptation is to accept a fake in place of what God offers for real!
Here’s how it works. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights... Got that? If it’s good, it came from God. If it’s perfect, it came from Him. Now, here comes temptation. What is the devil’s line? “This is good.” His advertising is over the top. What he’s pushing is always going to make you feel good, look good, etc. The label is always that this is “good,” except for when “bad” is more desirable, making it, in effect, the new “good.” Either way it’s a fake. It’s a lie. From the Garden of Eden through this afternoon, all he’s ever offered were poor substitutes for real joy, real love, real riches. It’s all he has, just fakes, poor imitations of what is offered by a real God. If it’s truly good, it came from God. Period. If it’s truly perfect, it came from Him. If we believe that, it will save us worlds of trouble! It will give us the good sense to reject every offer by Satan of something supposedly superior, which is, in fact, a poor substitute for what God offers. God is good. What He has for us is good. Accept no substitutes!
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Who? Us? We would never believe that what Satan has stamped “perfect” actually is perfect, instead of being an absolute and evil forgery which will only keep us from the genuine, perfect gift God had for us. We immediately recognize that every image the devil throws up on the screen is a fraud, all his promises are lies, and that every single truly good thing comes from God. I wish we were that smart. I wish I was that smart.
If it’s good, it came from God. If it didn’t come from God—if this is temptation—it’s not really good; it’s a fake, no matter how good or perfect it looks. If we could just camp out on this truth, we would be like a kind of firstfruits of God’s Creation, the truly smart people, the ones Satan couldn’t fool. What was the first lie he told the first humans? “Eat this. It will make you wise.” No. Really smart people believe God and ignore Satan. God is good. Satan is not. Ever.
Dave Ness
Answers for Today, August 9, 2010
Prayers and Plans
The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the LORD weighs the spirit.
Commit your work to the LORD,
and your plans will be established.
Proverbs 16:1-3
I still remember pawing through the Bible, searching desperately for guidance in regard to the first big decision of our soon-to-be-married life: What to do about a vehicle. I had an hour in which to make the decision; my fiancé, already gone, had left it to me. It was hard enough for me to make decisions which only affected me—now I was faced with trying to do the best thing for the two of us, when I honestly didn’t know what that was. It was my introduction to the responsibilities of a husband.
I don’t remember all the different passages I hastily consulted. The only one which sticks in my mind is the one which sealed it for me, Proverbs 16:3, which in my New International Version read like this: Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
Ah! The sweet relief which comes with a promise from God! Lord, do you mean that if I’m checking with you, listening to you, trying my best to be obedient, I can just go ahead and make plans and not have to worry too much about if I’ve drifted out of your will? And that there will be times when you don’t specify some great divine plan for my life, but instead just give me the green light to go ahead and plan, but keep listening for your guidance and you’ll bless whatever I do? Yep.
The decision I made that day was a good one, one I still feel good about 25 years later. (I still have the vehicle)! Had I chosen to go with the other option, I think I would have been satisfied with that decision, too. When we start out with committing stuff to the LORD, our plans have a way of succeeding, even if we didn’t get any voice from heaven and we basically just thought it through and did what we thought best. Prayer is such an integral part of good planning. If we start with prayer, and we commit our plans, our work, to the LORD, meaning He can do absolutely anything to our plans that He wants, we enter a safety zone where our intentions (to please God) are what is honored. If we begin with a commitment to try to please God and a readiness to go whatever direction He indicates, then maintain that attitude, our plans will succeed. He makes sure of it.
Dave Ness
Answers for Today, August 10, 2010
A Willing Sacrifice
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Genesis 22:6-9
An angel’s voice stops the upraised knife on its way down. A ram in the thicket replaces Abraham’s only son on the altar. God will provide. Yes, He will. More than any other event in his life, this one marked Abraham for all time as a man of faith and obedience.
But what about Isaac? How much faith would it take to submit to this scenario? After all, how hard would it be to get away from a winded centenarian trying to kill you?! But instead, you carry the wood for your own sacrifice, then allow this living fossil to tie you to it without protest? Abraham isn’t the only one on the mountain who has faith!
The theme of Isaac’s life seems to be submission. It wasn’t out of weakness; it seems to have been his calling. Isaac wasn’t the visionary, nor was he the strong-willed rebel. He was a man of faith, and his faith is what caused him to submit to God’s plan, even when it looked like God’s plan would kill him. Where do we fit? Sometimes all God is requiring of us is enough faith in Him to submit to His plan. He’s not asking us to be visionaries or leaders. He’s not asking us to come up with a plan. He’s asking us to submit to His. He is asking us to be willing to be a sacrifice—usually a living one— and submit to His plan.
It takes faith to submit. Sometimes that’s all that’s required of us. We might want to do all kinds of impressive stuff and be used of God. We want to dazzle people, change the world, plus have a great family, too. And sometimes, all God is asking of us is that we allow someone to tie us down on the altar of whatever, and be willing to give our lives for the cause, one day at a time. Instead of martyrdom, our calling will usually be more along the lines of marriage, parenthood, unheeded servanthood. The headlines will probably go to another. But we and God will know that the whole thing wouldn’t have happened without a willing sacrifice.
Dave Ness
Answers for Today, August 11, 2010
What Helps
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. James 1:19-21
Some people seem to believe that if they get mad enough, it will make them more righteous. This might be true if they got mad at sin and filthiness enough to get rid of it in their lives, but instead they tend to get mad at the church, their family, the government or themselves. Man’s anger doesn’t result in righteousness. What does? The “implanted word,” which is able to save our souls. How does that happen? Instead of railing at ourselves or God or the world in general, we accept what God says about us, then do what He says. He gives us instructions—practical ones—about what to do to live a righteous life. It starts with coming clean before God, admitting our sins, asking forgiveness. An important next step is to distance ourselves from wickedness and whatever mars our relationship with God, and purposely accept His Word, not just in acknowledgment but in action. As the Holy Spirit leads us, we learn to reverse the bad habits we’ve accumulated and develop new ones—like listening first, then speaking; like choosing not to be offended over every little thing. The fruit of the Spirit begins to sprout in our lives. Our friends, and especially the people we live with, notice a change for the better.
This instructional passage in James needs to come alive in the Church, these days! When we look at the culture at large, we often find exactly the opposite of what is prescribed here. That means that if Christians would live out this scripture, we would really stand out! We should at least try. I hear too many excuses from Christians for why they can’t live the way the Bible tells us to: “I’‘m just this way.” “I can’t control it.” There are all sorts of excuses for why sin seems to be unavoidable, often coming from people who have surrounded themselves with temptation and sin, on purpose. Relationships are routinely discarded, when all that would need to happen to reverse everything would be to listen more, talk less, and refuse to get offended and fuel the anger which not only doesn’t help in the righteousness category; it also doesn’t help relationships.
If we just followed this passage we would stand out pretty significantly, even in the Church. We could either take God’s direction or we could be like everybody else, with our excuses and our anger and no righteousness to show for it, plus lousy relationships. Our choice.
Dave Ness
Answers for Today, August 25, 2010
Simple, But Hard
The LORD has made everything for its purpose,
even the wicked for the day of trouble.
Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD;
be assured he will not go unpunished.
By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.
When a man’s ways please the LORD,
he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Better is a little with righteousness
than great revenues with injustice.
The heart of man plans his way,
but the LORD establishes his steps.
Proverbs 16:4-9
We get pretty upset about the wicked. (The wicked are never “us”). We wonder if justice will ever be served, and we fret about how much stuff they get away with. But right here in scripture is the reminder that the arrogant in heart are neither unnoticed by God nor unpunished by Him; He’ll take care of it. We don’t have to. That’s a relief. Kind of. It does seem that God might need a little help, maybe some suggestions on what might constitute a just punishment for the arrogant people who tramp around in our lives. And there are times when we feel God has a right to be told about the injustices and wickedness we observe in others, just in case He forgot to be omniscient that day.
The fact is, when it comes to dealing with arrogance and wickedness in other people, our duties are usually very limited. Our main duty concerning the arrogant is to not be one of them. And it’s not our problem to punish the wicked. It’s our job to not be wicked. It’s all quite simple, really. Sometimes annoyingly simple.
This whole passage is a gentle reminder that our responsibilities lie in monitoring our own attitudes and actions, not those of others. There are some roles where we are responsible to correct the behavior of other people (parenting, for example), but those roles aren’t where the problem lies; the problem is when we are distracted by the misdeeds of those over whom we have no control.
In the alternate path God lays before us, we focus on pleasing Him, rather than correcting others. We mind our own business, live to please God, avoid wickedness, pursue righteousness and find life to be simpler, happier and blessed, to the point where even our enemies co-exist peacefully with us. Simple, but hard.
Dave Ness
Answers for Today, August 27, 2010
Playing With Matches
At a pastor’s gathering the fare was the usual: Inspirational talks, prayer, testimonies, practical instruction, plus some housekeeping items, lunch. During the session, we were challenged to get alone with God for a few minutes and seriously examine our personal spiritual lives, particularly the level of our commitment to Christ. I looked around at people standing alone under trees like children counting down for hide-and-seek, and I wondered what God might be telling any of the others. What He told me surprised me.
You don’t expect to make a difference, anymore.
Huh? I realized He wasn’t addressing just me but our whole group and beyond: You don’t expect to make a difference, anymore.
With a few exceptions, I thought of how many in the group were in their assignments as place-holders, trying not to make a mess of things, hoping for enough money and parishioners to not look bad or lose the building, hoping to survive and maybe even show a little attendance growth. Impacting the entire region for Christ? I wonder if that was even on any of our minds, much less the expectation that it would occur.
It’s easy to become like the Israelites who had endured Goliath’s taunts for forty days, coming to consider it normal for each morning to begin by listening to someone trash talk them and their God, then going on with life in a paralyzed army.
It took David coming in fresh from God’s presence to put the thing in perspective, again. “No, this is not O.K., and it’s not normal. God wants me to do something that will make a difference.” The other Israelite braves had resorted to dreaming of tax exemptions for the guy who could somehow make Goliath go away. They’d stopped expecting to make a difference, themselves, even the king.
The Early Church wasn’t perfect, but they did tend to live in anticipation. Once in a while their faith ran low, such as when they were trying to pray Peter out of jail and Peter practically had to beat the door down to convince them their prayers had actually been answered, but mostly they expected something to happen when they prayed. They prayed a lot.
When Paul set out for Corinth, he didn’t expect Corinth to be the same when he left. It wasn’t. Paul expected Christ to make a difference everywhere he went. He audaciously approached a Christ-less landscape with his tiny team and expected to leave a string of churches in his wake. That’s what happened, time and again.
There’s a difference between occupying a spot for a few years, trying not to fail, and setting the place on fire for Christ. It’s the difference between building a fire and playing with matches.
Dave Ness
Answers for Today, August 30, 2010
Paths to Choose
How much better to get wisdom than gold!
To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
The highway of the upright turns aside from evil;
whoever guards his way preserves his life.
Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor
than to divide the spoil with the proud.
Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good,
and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.
Proverbs 16:16-20
These are daily choices with eternal consequences. Will we seek wisdom or gold? Will we choose the highway of the upright, not stopping for evil, or will we live an unguarded life with a haughty spirit to match? Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. I’ve heard that. According to God, pride’s a bad choice; according to the world, it’s a requirement, particularly if we want our share of life’s goodies. What to choose? The world promises riches; God, blessing. We know God delivers on His promises. The world? Not so much.
If we could just make a good choice once and for all and be done with it, that would be nice, but we don’t have that privilege. (We also fortunately aren’t locked into an entire lifetime of bad choices, either, no matter how rotten our track record—we get to change our mind and change our direction and find peace and forgiveness in Jesus if we ask for it. Praise God!) Whether good choices or bad, it comes back to “daily.” We all make daily choices as to which path we will pursue—walking in humility with a righteous God or flaunting our freedom to make stupid decisions and not have to pay for them, at least not today.
Back to that once-for-all decision thing. In one way, it’s like that. When we come to Christ in humility, repenting of our sins, we get the eternal life He wanted us to have all along, born again as a new person. It’s a one-time choice, good for eternity! But each day we are faced with all sorts of decisions. Will I stay on the highway of the upright or try a little adventure, assuming it will be O.K. with God and everybody? Righteousness doesn’t work on auto-pilot. We daily choose to continue on God’s path or veer off on our own (very expensive). Better think this through. Which path leads to blessing here, eternal life there? Pick that one, again, today. It’s better than riches, pride and being lost.
Dave Ness
Answers for Today, August 31, 2010
Fun Faith
The man bowed his head and worshiped the LORD and said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the LORD has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen...”
Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing has come from the LORD; we cannot speak to you bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has spoken.”...
And they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.”
Genesis 24:26-27,50-51,58
This whole story is packed with faith. There is the faith of Abraham, who commissions his head servant to make the journey back to his homeland, to try to get a wife for his son Isaac. Abraham is adamant that Isaac himself not go there.
The unnamed servant is a faith hero who prays expectantly and sees God’s answers before he is finished praying.
There is the faith of Isaac, who is willing to commit himself for life, sight unseen, to whomever the servant brought home!
And there is the faith of Rebekah. All she did was water a stranger’s camels, and the next day she is leaving home forever to go marry someone she’s never met!
Because it’s from God, it all works out, beautifully. Faith is fun! There is nothing quite like looking at a situation and knowing, “This is from God.” There’s no experience quite like answered prayer, so specific, so perfectly timed that there is no question about it being mere coincidence. Living by faith is the best way to live.
This is not to say that we discard logic, planning, hard work or common sense. It is to say that when we put our trust in the LORD and we know it’s Him saying, “Jump,” we can make the leap and never regret it.
This story has a lot of meaning to me. Twenty-five years ago, a beautiful young woman responded in faith to a single pastor waiting on God, and our lives were brought together by God in a wonderful and bizarre long-distance courtship. She had the faith to say she would go with this man, whom, like Rebekah, she had never met face to face. We got engaged over the phone. Twelve days later, we met for the first time. We’re still together, still in love, still living by faith. When we’re sure it’s God who is doing the arranging, it’s not only O.K. to take a leap of faith, it’s fun.
Dave Ness
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