Don’t Spare the Rod

I read John 15 mostly…I also read chapters 16 and 17, I just didn’t really get anything from it. I started browsing through the Psalms, kind of desperate for something to stick out to me. I came to Psalms 23, I think we all know that one. One thing stuck out to me, verse 4: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Growing up I was no angel, I was spanked so often I was on a first name basis with the rod, so I had a negative reaction to the last part of the verse. I remember no comfort. Anyways, when I looked at the foot notes on that verse they said this, “rod: also used by shepherd for counting, guiding,rescuing and protecting sheep.” That’s more like it, none of those things sound bad to me…except the counting…I hate math. Anyways, it was good for me to see that in a new way.  Maybe I’ve been misinterpreting Proverbs 13:24 all along. “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” Maybe that verse is using the word rod like Psalms: he who spares guidance, rescuing, and protection hates his son.

Papa, please don’t spare me from your guidance, rescue, protection or discipline. It’s not always what I want to hear, I need it. Thank you Lord for those things in my life, I love you, I need you, I am nothing without you. You are magnificent, O King of Glory.

Faith in Action

2 Chronicles 13 has Abijah standing in battle array against Jeroboam.  Abijah is outnumbered two to one.  So what does he do?  He grabs a megaphone and begins to yell at Jeroboam.

Hey Jerry, you defied God.  You went against Rehoboam, he was part of David’s lineage.  He had a covenant with God.  And then you made these cow gods.  And, all of the really bad people stayed with you.  You’re toast, Jerry. I trust God and I have the Levites and the sons of Aaron with me.

Outnumbered two to one ad you taunt the other guy?  Why?  Because you understand your place in God’s plan compared to the other guy.  While hollering, Jerry sent a bunch of his men to Abijah’s rear.  Now he is surrounded.  But, instead of panicking, they cry out to God, the priests toot their horns, the men of Judah shout and God shows up and shows off.

The question is do I have this kind of faith to stand up to those who oppose me today?  Let me put it in my language.  God births a business.  He tells me that this is where he wants me.  People come to work for me and their lives are changed.  God tells Christian men and women that work for me that he doesn’t want them to leave, yet.  He has them where they are supposed to be.  God is moving.  Now DFW Airport stands before me in ful battle array.  A poor economy is sneaking up my backside.  Do I have the faith to understand my place in God’s plan and to stand up to my enemy?  Tell them go ahead and try.  If I don’t I need to.

Father, what is your plan?  Are we protected?  Will you see us through and fulfill your promises?  The answer is yes.

Thank you, Papa, for all that you do.  Thank you for divine protection.  Thank you for blessing The Airport Valet, our employees, and our customers.  ontinue to place your angels guard over and around your business.  Give me wisdom to steward well the resources you have put under me.

What really counts as unclean?

Acts 10 is a change of mind chapter for me.  It starts with Cornelius who is a gentile seeing a vision.  He was wide awake and saw something, not a dream.  He then sent men out to get Peter like the man in the vision said.  Peter went on to the roof to pray, most likely because he was a devout Jew and this was the time of day that they prayed.  As he is praying, once again in a wide awake vision, God the Holy Spirit speaks to him.  Peter sees a sheet (the sheet was carried down by 4 corners, maybe implying or referencing the four corners of the earth), full of clean and unclean animals and is told to eat.  The categories of animals it contains do correspond to a comprehensive Old Testament cataloging of the animal kingdom on land and in the air.    Peter is commanded to slaughter these animals according to the proper method and eat.  In the strongest possible terms and appealing to Ezekiel 4:14, Peter faces what he may view as a temptation or test of loyalty. He refuses, announcing his firm resolve to live in ritual purity: I have never eaten anything impure or unclean (Lev 10:10; 11:1-47; Deut 14:3-21). That is, I have never eaten anything that is accessible to every human being (NIV impure, literally “common”) but by divine mandate is forbidden to me as part of God’s holy people.  So, Peter is in a spiritual dilemma because such food is unclean, not only because God declares it to be such but also because if I eat it I will become ritually defiled, unfit to come into God’s presence in worship.  He was also in a moral dilemma because if he does eat he goes against what is his job as a Jew to abide by the rules and regulations set before him.  Peter was very good at following the Mosaic law to the letter and now what seems to be God the Holy Spirit telling him to do something other than his belief system or morals would normally talk him into puts him in a bit of a crunch. 

The vision’s purpose is 1. Proving a new freedom in association of Jew and Gentile is best accomplished if a mixture is present.  2. Divine revelation is required if Old Testament revelation and the layers of ethnic prejudices built upon it are to be set aside.  3. That the things Peter has once believed and followed are put aside and now no man is different.  Peter was rocked that day on that roof and later says that while he is talking to Cornelius and the rest of the once unclean gentiles.  What happens is amazing!  Peter breaks his Jewish custom that it is against our law to associate or visit with a Gentile (literally, “a person of another race”), he is not pointing to explicit Old Testament teaching as much as to Jewish custom.  Goes into this mans house and speaks the word of God.  Holy Spirit falls and everyone is baptized by Him. 

So, for me the question then becomes what is my idea of God? Am I following it because its biblical or because its customary for my time and my religion?  What is God trying to make clean in my life that I once thought was unclean and haven’t touched because of “my” beliefs?  What does God want to use to reach the gentile (lost) people in my life?  Do I need to break things that I once thought were wrong and walk into their house, or bar, or hang out spot and speak the word of God.  I don’t know maybe they will all get saved and then filled with Holy Spirit.  This was just a good time of self examination.  Don’t say I wont do that because that is unclean or customary but not biblical, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” 

Faith

OK.  You know we sleep to the New Testament playing on my MP3 player 24×7.  Every day, I wake up to a new passage.  Today I woke up to the MP3 player playing Mark 11 and it captured me this morning.  So, that’s what I studied.  IT IS RICH…  Here is just SOME of the greatness of this chapter.

Mark 11:12-14

Jesus curses a fig tree because there is no fruit on it; and rightfully so.  Did you catch the end of verse 13 where it says “… for it was not the season for figs.“  Clue #1: This isn’t about a Jesus taking it out on a fig tree because he was hungry.  The end of verse 14 provides Clue #2 where it says, “… and the disciples heard it.“   OK.  I think Jesus was setting them up for a lesson, which comes “later”, when we get to verses 20-26.

Mark 11:20-26

The next morning the fig tree is dried up from the roots (Clue #3: OK… even Roundup doesn’t kill a fig tree overnight - something supernatural is going on here).  When Peter notices (Yeah Peter!) Jesus lays it on them.


22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

OK.  Quick Greek lesson.  Faith (v22) = pistis, which means to “believe to a complete trust.”  Doubt (v23 “does not doubt”) = diakrinomai, which means “judge, or to judge there is a difference.”  Heart (v23) = kardia, which means “inner self, including: the volition, the mind, the desires, etc., though the facility of the intellect may be slightly more emphasized.” Believe (v23) = pisteuo, which is “faith, believe to the extent of complete trust.” Says (v23) = laleō , which implies a literal breaking of the sound waves, to speak aloud.  Received (v24) = lambano, “to take hold of, grasp, grab, acquire.”

I’m not advocating a “name it and claim it” mentality, because the Scripture is also clear that the Lord will give us the desire of our hearts – meaning when we are close to him, in intimate fellowship with Him, our desires will be planted in us by Him.  This means we won’t be asking for a new Lexus, or a million dollars, or any self-centered, self-pleasuring thing.  We will want what He wants and our prayers will come into agreement with His heart.

What I do think this passage, and what Jesus was trying to teach the disciples, is this.  Our mind is the key to our belief and ultimately our faith.   Clearly, “doubt” in this passage is the antithesis of “faith” – in this passage.   When I unpacked “doubt,” it is very clearly dealing with the mind – “to judge”, or “to judge there is a difference.”  That says to me that my mind is evaluating what’s coming out of my mouth (aka, my prayer) with what it believes and measuring up any discrepancy, or difference.

The second key for me, comes in verses 25-26.  An odd place, at the surface, to throw in a seemingly unrelated statement.  But Jesus does not throw down random thoughts.  These are very related.  For the sake of brevity, unforgiveness affects our prayers.  Its related to the previous thoughts.  If I haven’t forgiven someone, then when I pray to Father,  my mind (my “heart”) is constantly evaluating the truth of it all.  If I haven’t or can’t forgive someone, then the truth of God forgiving me is something my heart can’t receive, and if God hasn’t forgiven me, then how can I pisteuo that He will hear – much less answer – my prayers?   This is when my heart diakrinomai (doubts).

What then is the significance of “says” in verse 23?  Again, for brevity, and I may write another blog later on this, it has to be audible.  I know I am way too guilty of praying silently, quietly, and in my Spirit – not always with my tongue, aloud, audibly.  I believe there is significance to the implications of the word laleo.  Jesus cursed the fig tree (which remember was NOT in season) aloud (the disciples heard it) because there is power in our words and in our audible prayers.  This is going to require some more digging into…

I’m sorry for the length, but breakfast with Papa was GOOOOD this morning!

Daddy, you are SO good.  Thank you for your Word.  Thank you for time with me this morning.  May the truth of your Word and the truth of your examples sink deeply into my heart today, so that I will not doubt in my heart, so that I will not judge there to be a difference in what I say and what I know about You.