day no. 14,253: 500 years ago today

500 hundred years ago today, Martin Luther changed the course of human history. 

So here's a toast to that which is worth protesting and that which is worth proclaiming and the discernment to know the difference!

day no. 14,252: clickity clack

Genesis 39:10

And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.

Sin was pursuing Joseph. This wasn't a matter of Joseph merely staying offline or avoiding the clickbait, this was the pop up ad trying to make you its prey. This is a predator stalking the perimeter, the stumbling block inserting itself under your feet, finding you and hoping to find you out. But Joseph resisted. By grace through faith in God alone, he endured the onslaught of opportunity after opportunity proving that even for mere men in every temptation God has provided a way of escape, that we can endure it.

day no. 14,251: no matter how you slice it

Genesis 39:2-3

The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.

One might ask, "If the Lord was with Joseph, why is Joseph enslaved in a foreign land by the betrayal of his own brothers?" But such a view assumes a particular script off which a God must work in order to be the Lord. The question assumes that the Lord's presence or assistance must come to pass in particular ways like health, wealth and prosperity. To be fair, a sign of God's hand on Joseph's life was his prosperity in whatever circumstances his enemies placed him, but the cynic would question God for allowing Joseph to be enslaved in the first place.

day no. 14,250: from bad to worse

"No problem is so bad that you can’t make it worse." – Douglas Wilson

No injustice committed against us is so bad that it justifies any response we may have to it.

day no. 14,249: fight fuel

Napoleon is often credited as saying, "an army marches on its stomach." 

As much as an army relies upon weapons, strategy, courage, and camaraderie, it relies upon food. A well-armored band of loyal, heroic waifs may fall victim to their pangs before they fall prey to their enemies. 

It is easy to overlook obvious needs when focusing on pressing needs. When you think of battle, you naturally focus on bullets and bombs. The narrowness of the category can push ordinary needs like food and water to the periphery.

Jonathan's eyes were brightened by good food. Not just having something to eat, but having something good to eat made all the difference. Food doesn't just keep us alive, it can give us an appreciation for living and the fuel to continue fighting the good fight. 

God could have made food purely functional, but He made it taste good. 

day no. 14,248: drift and blur

Hebrews 2:1
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

On our most recent vacation to Custer, I found myself screaming, "Atticus!!!" as I watched him and his brother, Finneas, slowly drive away on an electronic, John Deere-themed gator. We were playing outside and I had instructed everyone to stay within hearing distance as my parent's home is located on a chunk of land in the Black Hills Forest of South Dakota. Atticus and Finneas watched their sisters, Penelope and Laurelai, disappear down the long, gravel driveway clinging to the back of their Papa Tony on his 4-wheeler. So they pirated the electronic gator and gave chase. What of Atticus' eight year old knees were not able to contort into his seat, he splayed out the driver's side "door" as the 12-volt gator struggled down the sloped driveway. As I began to suspect that their difficult journey down the driveway would be matched only by their trek back uphill, I shouted, "Atticus!" The electronic, high-pitched hum of the gator matched by his focused pursuit of his Papa Tony's 4-wheeler drown out my plea. While progress was slow-going, the distance between us was growing and the volume of my intercession had reached its maximum capacity as I screamed, "Atticus!!!" to no avail. They were drifting away. I had shouted as loudly as I could. And they had not paid attention. They had invested their focus on other things. And the road back was going to be difficult, if not impossible.

Hebrews, chapter 1, informs us that God has never spoken more clearly or loudly as He has by sending the Word to become flesh in the form of the man, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a shout from Heaven, a final Word, authoritative, clear and loud. We must pay MUCH closer attention to what we have already heard, lest we drift away from it. Our focus needs more focus. When we get distracted, we drift. We are always focused... on something. And whatever is not in focus, is blurry and bound to be assumed, forgotten or ignored. 

We MUST focus more on Jesus. We MUST pay the costs associated with focusing on Him. Everything costs something and paying your attention to Jesus will take it from other things. You are either drifting away from Jesus by focusing on other things or drifting away from other things by focusing on Jesus.

day no. 14,247: the LORD will fulfill His purpose for me

Psalm 138:8
The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me; 
Your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. 
Do not forsake the work of Your hands.

The Gospel is not merely a New Testament invention. Grace by faith in God alone has been and always will be plan A and there is no plan B.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

day no. 14,246: my thirties victory lap

30 came and went without much notice honestly, but 40 feels differently. I am 39 years old today. I don't yet feel old in that I can run, jump, dance, think, etc… like the man of yesteryear, but I am beginning to feel the weight of being older, if only on paper. So here's to one last year of life in my 30's.

day no. 14,245 continued... happy birthday!

I'd like to give a special shout out to two special ladies. 

First, my mom. If it weren't for you, there'd be no me. Happy Birthday!

Second, my wife's mom. If it weren't for you, there'd be no Paige. Happy Birthday!

day no. 14,245: right and wrong

Genesis 38:26

Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.”

Judah was not wrong to passionately propose that Tamar's obvious sins deserved damnation. He was wrong, however, to overlook the fact that his secret sins deserved the same.

day no. 14,244: without a doubt

Genesis 27:32-33

And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.” 33 And he identified it and said, “It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”

Jacob was called to identify "the body" so to speak. The brothers had carefully planted the evidence to produce a particular story. But they didn't tell him the story and then ask him to believe it, rather they planted the props and allowed their dad to arrive at the conclusion himself, thus securely anchoring it in their father's mind as the obvious story of what certainly must have happened.

day no. 14.243: delegating demise

Genesis 37:26-27

Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.”

Judah's two concerns here are that killing their brother won't really benefit them and that their premeditated murder would cost them something. His solution? If we sell him, we can now profit to the tune of 20 pieces of silver. And we can avoid accruing a moral debt of bloodguilt by letting someone else deal with him. Problem = solved! God used Judah's bloodless logic to protect Joseph's life and in turn God was going to use these events to save the lives of these treasonous brothers.

day no. 14,242: engineering the inevitable

Genesis 37:18-20

They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams."

Joseph's brothers sought to put an end to their brother's dreams and in so doing put into motion the very events that would secure its fulfillment.

day no. 14,241: read the room, Joe

Genesis 37:8

His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

Know your audience Joseph. Read the room. Either Joseph is a jerkwad or he's clueless. Either would understandably result in saying this kind of thing to people who already despise you. Now, Joseph is not wrong or lying here. His dream was real and it will really come to pass. And God will even use his telling of his dream to produce the events that will ensure that the dream becomes reality. But that doesn't mean Joseph is doing well to publish it in this way. While Joseph's brothers intended evil was used to produce good by the sovereignty of God, so Joseph's social ineptitude (outright arrogance) was also used for good despite its obvious shortcomings.

day no. 14,240: everything you wish you possessed

Genesis 37:4

But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

When someone whose attention we crave gives their affection to another, we often end up despising the other rather than the one we are striving to please because our deepest desire is still to be the object of their affection. So when a child desires to be loved by a parent and that parent freely gives their love to a sibling, the child hates the sibling, not the parent for the lack of love they feel. Or when a spouse commits adultery, the wounded partner often lashes out against the other woman or man instead of their spouse. When we want to feel loved by someone in particular and they give that love to someone else, we cannot bring ourselves to hate the one we wish loved us. It is imprinted too deeply to deny. So all that passion is redirected at the one who has everything you wish you possessed: your father's love, your spouse's eye, etc…

day no. 14,239: the Lord of the living

Genesis 35:29

And Isaac breathed his last, and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Isaac lived a full life and now lives in the presence of the God Who calls Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Someday he will rise in the resurrection of the righteous and live fully finally and forever in God's presence along with those who call on the Name of the Lord of life.

day no. 14,238: just desserts

Genesis 34:7

The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing must not be done

Dinah deserved better and Shechem deserved worse. The sons of Jacob could not make right the wrong done to their sister, so they tried to give Shechem the wrong his deed demanded.

day no. 14,237: God is my God

Genesis 33:3
(Jacob) himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

Jacob walked on the street side of his wife and children. He put himself between the danger and his beloved. While one may take issue with the level of meekness he employed in approaching his brother, one cannot take issue with his level of responsibility in leading the way by facing the danger. Jacob could have avoided this perilous situation if it were not for his faith in following God's command for him to return. In this, we see a changed Jacob. He chooses the dangerous journey because God has chosen it for him and he protects his family at the risk of his own life.  

Genesis 33:20
There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

The man who wrestled with God limped back and forth to gather the stones he needed to erect an altar that reached high into sky declaring boldly, "Israel's God is El!" (short for Elohim) In other words, "I, Israel (formerly Jacob), worship the one, true God. The only God that exists… He is my God! He isn't just God in general, He is my God specifically. I worship Him. God is God of Israel!"

day no. 14,236: our present privilege should inform our present duty

"Let present privilege awaken us to present duty." - C. H. Spurgeon

Remembering who we are and what we have been given by grace through faith in Jesus Christ should produce a peculiar power. When the true disciple hears, "It is finished!" it spurs him on to greater endurance, not lesser indifference.

day no. 14,235: crown the Head and the whole body shares the honour

"Crown the Head and the whole body shares the honour"  - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

1 Corinthians 11:3
But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

Ephesians 5:23
For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior.

When Jesus is honored, we are honored if we are in Him. When the Head receives its crown, the hands do not complain. Crowns are for heads. The hands are blessed when the head carries the weight of the crown for the rest of the body. The hands are honored as part of the body whose Head is crowned.

day no. 14,234: who, if and for how long?

In reflecting upon Exodus 33-34, I had the following thought:

If you choose God, you will have Him completely and forever. If you choose the world, you might obtain it, but only in part, only for a moment, and even then only to be taken away forever.

day no. 14,233: wrestling with God

Genesis 32:24-30

And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

Before you get too carried away thinking Jacob walked away from an encounter with God victorious, consider again the details. Jacob would not let go and had his hip placed permanently out of joint by a flick of God's finger. Jacob did not pin God down. Jacob did not wear God out. He held on to God. Despite his fear of the future, he refused to let go of God. This was not easily done. It took all night and there were times where I imagine he felt like letting go of God altogether, but he persevered until the sun rose and received God's blessing as a result, and a new name, a new identity: no longer the trickster, the deceiver, but the one who wrestled and struggled with God, the one who gained hard fought blessing. Jacob previously received his father's blessing by deception, but on this night he received his Father's blessing by determination.

day no. 14,232: holding Him to His promises

Genesis 32:9-12

And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. 12 But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’"

Jacob holds God to His promises and we should too. God is given glory when we believe His promises and call Him to act in accordance with what He has clearly said He would do. This is faith. This is believing that God is Who He says He is and will do what He said He will do.

day no. 14,231: two camps

Genesis 32:1-2

Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God's camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

Mahanaim means "two camps." Jacob is beginning his story as a God story. God is with him and he is with God wherever he goes.

day no. 14,230: the fear of his father Isaac

Genesis 31:53

So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac

While Laban swears by gods plural, Jacob swears by God singular and adds the emphatic, "the Fear of his father Isaac." Make no mistake about it, Jacob's intention is to place the fear of God into Laban. His contention is not only that there is only one, true God; but additionally, that this God is to be feared. He cannot be lost like one of Laban's household gods. As for them, what are they? They can be taken, manipulated, broken, rusted, misplaced, or lost altogether. Laban is travelling mile after mile trying to find a god who needs his help. Jacob is travelling mile after mile knowing it is God who helps him.

day no. 14,229: always seen and heard

Genesis 31:50

If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.

 

Even when no one else sees, God sees. Even when no one else knows, God knows. This is the great comfort of the child of God and the great terror of those who oppose Him.

day no. 14,228: you are

Jeremiah 23:33

When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, "What is the burden of the Lord?" you shall say to them, "You are."

This is one of the greatest comebacks of all time. So much so that we still use it. And to make matters even better, this is God instructing Jeremiah on how to respond to his critics. "You are!" was God's idea.

day no. 14,227: father and husband hunger... satisfied

Genesis 29:30

So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.

Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah and everyone knew. Jacob knew it. Rachel knew it. Leah knew it. And God knew it…

Genesis 29:31

When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

When no one else was looking out for Leah, God saw her and provided for her. Her father offloaded her, her husband ignored it, but God took notice and took care of her…

Genesis 29:35

And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.

And finally, God won her over. While the sting of being ignored and overlooked still stung, the attention God gave her served as salve for her wounds. He was the Father and Husband she always wanted. Leah could have just as easily said that she didn't need a father or a husband because they failed to live up to her desires. But the longing of her soul was not to be fatherless or husbandless, but to find a father and a husband that matched the depth of her true desires. In God, she found both.

day no. 14,226: the long and short of it

Genesis 29:20

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

 

7 years ago I had a 1 1/2 year old son and a 6 month old daughter. I had never purchased a home or planted a church. Today, I have an 8 year old son, a 7 year old daughter, a 5 year old son, a 4 year old daughter, a 1 year old son, and a 3 month old baby girl. I've bought 3 homes and planted 2 churches. This all happened in the same amount of time that flew by for Jacob as he worked and waited to marry Rachel.

day no. 14,225: baby steps

Genesis 28:20-22

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you."

 

Often our initial steps toward Jesus are clumsy. Here Jacob begins to lean in, but his heart is still clouded with caveats. His initial interaction with God is one of quid pro quo. As painful as this is to watch, it is likely akin to the place many of us who now maturely live began. There is a lot of good in this, a heart that wants to receive and to give, but it is a young, immature faith. That said, the smallest degree of genuine faith when present, even in an otherwise dirty soul, will eventually spring up to fruitful life.

day no. 14,224: the former and the ladder

Genesis 28:12

And (Jacob) dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!

 

Jesus makes it clear in John 1:51 that He is the ladder that connects Heaven to earth. Jesus is Heaven descending to bless the earth. Jesus is the escalator upwards bringing the sons of men to the presence of God. There is one bridge between God and man, the Godman, Jesus Christ who here appears to Jacob.

day no. 14,223: hit points

"If you throw a rock into a pack of stray dogs, the one that yelps is the one that got hit." - D. L. Moody

 

Whenever you try to preach or teach a Biblical principle to a group in general, you will find a few individuals who take exception. This means your words are hitting their mark.