Big Yellow Bus

I have this fear that pops up occasionally, like a lone Lego in the middle of the living room floor that keeps getting stepped on.  Actually, I've got a lot of those pesky Legos I seem to repeatedly step on in my life, but one of them is the fear that somehow God won't actually pull through in certain situations.  I fear that He won't, in fact, provide what is needed in certain situations.  Like, one day He's just going to pull a thread from the proverbial "rug of circumstances" and let the whole tapestry fall apart, and I'll just be left standing there looking at a big, messy, knotted pile of mismatched yarn, which would equate to a big, messy, knotted pile of my unanswered prayers.

For the most part, I'm content to persevere in my faith as long as everything seems to be working out according to plan.  As long as I can piece the circumstantial puzzle pieces together in a way that makes sense.  As long as I can seemingly "foresee" some purpose or direction.  But once I catch a whiff of the possibility that my big, yellow bus full o'faith might careen off a cliff into purposelessness or failure, all I can focus on are the jagged rocks of despair and fear below.  I begin to imagine having to collect all my precious-- albeit bent and broken-- puzzle pieces from among the crags in the rocks, strewn from one end of the unknown to the other; the sharp, jagged rock edges pricking me and scraping me as I go, serving only as a constant source of discouragement.  All this vivid imagery, all this provocative emotion, all while still safely inside my big, yellow bus full o'faith that is still safely on the road.

It's times like this, when I look to the example of Abraham's faith.  God told him that he would be a father of many nations.  So it made sense when God promised Abraham he would have a son, despite the elderly condition of himself and his wife.  Abraham could put his faith in God's ability to make his elderly wife conceive a child.  He could have faith in a God that big.  What didn't make sense was when God told Abraham to kill the son He promised to use to bring forth those many nations (Gen 21:12).  No son = no many nations.  That didn't make sense to Abraham.  Those circumstantial puzzle pieces weren't fitting together.  That big, yellow bus of faith was headed toward the cliff and down onto the jagged rocks below.  But as far as we know from scripture, Abraham didn't spend a whole lot of time concocting a litany of worst-case-scenario possibilities in his head.  As far as we know from scripture, Abraham went chips-all-in, he poured out all his faith onto God's promise, there was no plan "B".  Abraham had faith in a God Who was big enough to handle all circumstances, even the ones that seemed to render His own promises void.  Abraham had faith in a God Who cannot lie and Who keeps all His promises, so when God told Abraham to kill the son from whom He was going to bring forth many nations, Abraham reasoned that God would just have to raise him from the dead to do it (Heb 11:19).  Abraham believed in the ultimate sovereignty of God-- a God Who is not shaped by our circumstances, but rather, a God Who shapes all circumstances.

Surely I'm not the only one who is guilty of freaking out while God is still holding me safely in His hand?  Because that's the simple reality of the matter-- when we fret, we do it while we are being held in capable hands.  God is exceedingly capable and more than willing to hold us in His hands.  After all, we are His, we belong to Him-- His eternal treasure and dwelling place (1 Cor 3:9,16,17; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 2:22).  

Sometimes I can be Noah's ark, and sometimes I'm just a leaky, feeble vessel.  Sometimes my rug of circumstances seems like it will hold together, sometimes it doesn't.  Therefore, something I have to continually remind myself, is that it is Christ Who holds our "rug of circumstances" together, "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." (Col 1:17).  It is Christ Who is the "pitch and tar" that fills the leaky spots in our ark (Gen 6:14).  It is Christ Who is the Author and the Perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2).  Which means that no matter what direction it looks like our big, yellow bus o'faith is headed, it is always in capable hands and it is always headed closer to God.


"Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb 12:2)

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Heb 1:3)

"And He Who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose." (Rom 8:27,28)

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you." (Isaiah 43:1,2)

The Only One

The other day I was in heartfelt prayer with God, asking Him for His presence, crying out for Him to say something.  I was weeping because I so desperately wanted Him to tell me what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong, to give me clear directions.  During that time of intense seeking, I imagined the day that I will finally hear Him say my name, the day that I will finally see His glorious face, and as I sat there slumped over, praying and weeping, He impressed something deeply upon my heart:  "I love you as if you were the only one."  That one sentence, in all it's appropriate perfection, was the food that my soul was so desperately longing for.

That is how God loves each one of us.  God's love for you is as if you were the only one.  Paul tells us, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes [the time of perfection; completeness] the partial passes away... Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely." (1 Cor 13:9-12).

My NASB translation also puts verse 12 this way:  "Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."  I can't decide what fills me with more wonder and longing:  to know that I am "fully known" by God, or to know that there will come a day in which I will know God fully and completely, even as I am now fully and completely known by Him.

Meditate on the fact that God knows you fully and completely.  Every sigh, every joy, every struggle, every victory, every defeat, every moment, meticulously recorded and pored over by the eyes of the Creator of the universe, the Author of all reality, "the Founder and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross..." (Heb 12:2).  The joy that was set before Him was us.  We are His joy.


"Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy.." (1 Peter 1:8)

"Jesus said to him, 'Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.'" (John 20:29)

"And I pray that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of His love, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph 3:17-19)

Abandoned

There are many hurtful emotions that we will struggle with through the duration of our time here on this side of heaven-- despair, discouragement, anger, resentment, bitterness, sorrow.  But in my opinion, there is no negative emotion so quite like abandonment.  I think it's because abandonment, at its core, is such a multi-faceted emotion-- involving a sense of betrayal, a sense of being forsaken and cast away, all mixed together with a sense of worthlessness.  It involves trust issues which affect us on a primal level.  No matter what age we are when we experience abandonment, in our mind we feel like we are a helpless child at the mercy of our circumstances. 

Of all the emotions that Jesus experienced during the last week of His life here on earth, I feel very strongly that His sense of being abandoned was likely the most riveting and acute.  All those who were closest to Him, all those in whom He had invested His life and teachings, all those whom He trusted to be there for Him when He needed them most, were scattered and gone.  We are given a vivid picture of His sense of abandonment when the Gospels record His cry toward heaven as He hung on the cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt 27:46).  I think one of the things we so easily forget about Jesus' crucifixion was that He was utterly alone and utterly abandoned the last twelve or so hours of His life.  He made the greatest sacrifice in all of creation and He did it alone.  Abandoned.

After Jesus was crucified, those who followed Him and believed in Him experienced their own sense of abandonment.  All their hopes and dreams, all the good they imagined being accomplished through Jesus' continuing ministry on earth, was shattered and gone.  What confusion they must have felt?  What a sense of discombobulation, as they reassessed their purpose and their mission.  As they reassessed all that Jesus had promised, and now He was gone.  Had they misplaced their faith?  Had they been deceived?  I can imagine Peter replaying his conversation with Jesus, after many of Jesus' disciples left Him during His ministry after His teaching on being the Bread of Life, when Jesus told them "..unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves." (John 6:53).  Jesus asked His disciples, "You do not want to go away also, do you?"  To which Peter replied, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." (John 6:67,68).  Now that Jesus was gone-- dead, crucified, and entombed-- to whom would they go?  Abandoned.

Abandonment is an emotion I have unfortunately experienced more times than I care to recount. People who should have been there for me, but weren't.  People I should have been able to trust and depend on, but couldn't.  People I thought were going to stay with me, but left.  Every time, in my mind, reverting back to a helpless child at the mercy of my circumstances.  Abandoned.

But one very important thing that we must remember is that we cannot use our circumstances or emotions to define God's character.  Our circumstances and emotions will always change, but God does not change and neither do His promises.  Even now, as I write this, there are circumstances in my life in which I am tempted to feel abandoned by God.  My circumstances make me ask, "What are You doing God?"  To which He replies over and over again, "I am tending my sheep." 

You see, Jesus is the Good Shepherd, "I am the Good Shepherd.  The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." (John 10:11).  Jesus purchased us with His blood; we are His sheep and He is our Shepherd.  Jesus, anticipating the Disciples' sense of abandonment after they saw Him crucified, spoke to them before all those things happened and said, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." (John 14:18).   And again, after Jesus' resurrection, He told them, "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matt 28:20).  

Despite whatever sense of abandonment our circumstances may seem to convey, we must use God's word to define His character.  And His word tells us that He is the Good Shepherd, Who laid down His life for us and purchased us with His own blood.  He has promised us that He will never leave us as orphans and that He is with us always, even to the very end of the age.  No matter how tempted we are to allow a sense of abandonment to become our embrace, we must look that temptation in the face and proclaim the truth of God's character and the great promises we have been given in His word.  We are not abandoned.

"I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." (John 14:16-18)

"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.  If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.  And you know the way to where I am going." (John 14:1-4)

"I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.  He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.  I am the Good Shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep." (John 10:11-15)

Stay Close To Me

My five-year old had an ear infection one day last week, so I had my little side-kick tagging along with me while running my never-ending errands.  We got out of the truck and as she got about two feet ahead of me, I reached out, pulled her back and said, "Stay close to me."  As I held her against my body, protecting her with my presence, I thought about how God does the same thing with us.  Even two feet away from me could expose her to getting hit by a distracted driver in the parking lot, but having her right by my side means that I could at least keep my body between her and any potential harm.

Her proximity to me doesn't determine whether or not she is my daughter, neither does it determine the degree of my love for her.  She is my daughter all the time, no matter where I am or where she is.  My love for her is the same, whether she is in my arms or whether she is at school.  But her proximity to me does determine my ability to have a tangible influence upon her and her circumstances.  During this present darkness and time of increasing confusion and deceit, we need to fully grasp the implications of what this should look like in our spiritual lives.  Scripture says, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!' For He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.'" (Psalm 91:1-4).

God says to us, "Stay close to Me".  He says this because our proximity to His truth is the only way a person can be rest-assured that they are not being deceived.  He is the truth, and His truth is the way, because it is His truth that gives us life (John 14:6; John 6:63).  Mysticism, sexual immorality and idolatry have invaded the church and most people are too asleep or scripturally ignorant to see it.  God has given us His word in scripture to ensure that we have a way to see through the devil's lies, but we have become so bold in our ambivalence toward truth that we now sit at the table with the devil and critique God's word over coffee.   For the most part, the church today is drowning in a sea of ambivalence, lulled to sleep by the rocking waves of apathy.  So many of us are like my 5-year-old daughter, wandering out alone into the parking lot, led by our own ideas and desires, oblivious to oncoming traffic that could harm us.

The farther away from God's word we drift, the harder it is to receive the life-giving sustenance that comes from its truth.  Without the life-giving sustenance of God's truth, we simply practice a dead and empty religion fed by emotional experience.  Over and over again, it seems we find ourselves back in the Garden, giving audience to the enemy of our soul.  If you are compromising God's word in any area of your life, you are exposing yourself to deceit.  And the sole purpose of deceit is to lead us to destruction.

"The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder.  He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. For this reason, God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, in order that judgment will come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness." (2 Thess 2:9-12)

"..hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it was taught, so that by sound teaching he will be able to encourage others and refute those who contradict this message. For many are rebellious and full of empty talk and deception" (Titus 1:9,10)

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, as you hold firmly to the word of life." (Philippians 2:14-16).

Almost Right

Often times, speaking truth will make you unpopular, ostracized, ridiculed, and even hated. We need only to look to Jesus to see the effect His truth elicited from the religious establishment of His day. When I read about His ministry, I see how people were either irresistibly drawn to Him or irresistibly repulsed by Him. His truth was like a sword that divided dark from light, bone from marrow, or as Spurgeon says about discernment: "knowing the difference between right, and almost right." 

But God does not call us to be popular or to pursue the approval of men.  He calls us to be obedient (John 15:14) and to be lights upon a hill (Matt 5:14).  And we shine that light from the hilltop by being beacons of truth.  He calls us to shine the light of "right", so that we can dispel the darkness of "almost right".  Which brings me to the point of this post, which is the tapestry of truth and untruth woven together in the book/movie, "The Shack." 

I read the book when it first came out, years ago, at the behest of a friend.  I had no interest in it before I read it, and I had even less after I read it.  For me, personally, all I needed to know was that God is misrepresented as a woman.  You misrepresent our holy God, Who is worthy of deep reverence, obeisance and awe-inspiring fear,  and you've lost me at "hello".  In God's personal revelation to us through His word, He has chosen to manifest Himself with male characteristics.  He describes Himself as a Father, He came as the Man, Jesus Christ, and for whatever reason He has chosen to reveal His amorphous Self with male characteristics is not only His prerogative, but also according to His infinite wisdom and purpose, which requires no explanation to us.  That one, major scriptural inconsistency in "The Shack" is enough for us to reject it altogether, but there are a whole host of other scriptural errors to choose from.  Should you like to explore them, I have included links to articles that expound on such errors at the end of my post.

I anticipate many a response to say, "It's just a story".  Yes, it is just a story, but it is a story that points us away from scripture and towards a deceitful portrayal of God, His character, and His purpose.  "The Shack" is just a story, but it is a story through which we are seeking to be entertained by a misrepresentation of God.  That is the black-and-white issue here.  Not only are we seeking entertainment through a misrepresentation of God, but entertainment which also delves into further misrepresentation of scripture.  I feel that this is just one of the many testaments to the rampant spirit of compromise that pervades the church today.  We see this story as one man's journey to find truth, so we join him on this journey, only to find that his journey leads him to the same, sweetly hissing serpent who is ever-eager for an audience to listen to his lies, "Did God really say....?" (Gen 3:1). 

The devil is a great story teller and we are no match for his brilliant schemes of deception.  When it comes to God's church, Satan will never attack us head-on.  He will never seek to deceive us through any expected or anticipated means, which is what makes him a master deceiver.  The way Satan works is through subtlety and incremental compromise.  He is a master strategist who specializes in "almost right."  And by the time you are aware of his presence, by the time you are aware of his schemes, he has long-since been at work all the while, right under your nose.  That is because the devil doesn't approach us dressed in a red cape and pointy horns, "He comes as everything you’ve ever wished for.." (--Tucker Max).

As Christ's representatives on earth, as His lamps upon a hill, we are entrusted with His word, to hold it in our hearts, pure and undefiled, "As for God, his way is upright; the word of God is pure;" (Psalm 18:30); "..And the words of the LORD are flawless," (Psalm 12:6); "Every word of God is pure.." (Prov 30:5).  As His people, as His holy ones, as His treasured inheritance, we must be zealous about upholding God's word, with a zero-tolerance policy towards compromise.  We must be zealous for our Father's house, because the enemy of our souls is zealous to defame and malign it.  We shine as beacons of light from atop a hill when we have hearts that long to glorify God by standing for truth.  In this day of gross compromise within God's church, in this present darkness, in this time of waywardness, rebellion and deceit, we cannot afford to be complacent and ambivalent towards a radical pursuit of truth, and a willingness to persevere by shouting that truth from the rooftops to anyone who will listen.

God calls His church to be "without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless." (Eph 5:27); "..holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence.." (Col 1:22); "make every effort to be found at peace with Him, without spot or blemish." (2 Pet 3:14); "..keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ," (1 Tim 6:14).  "Almost right" is a wrinkle in truth, it is a blemish smudged upon flawlessness, and a stain splashed across  the narrow way.  "Almost right" is the most tenacious and devastating of Satan's schemes, therefore "almost right" is our enemy, no matter how appealingly it is woven together with "right".

 

"This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough!" (Gal 5:9 NLT)

"...Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?" (1 Cor 5:6)

"Because zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult You have fallen on me." (Psalm 69:9)

"The decrees You issue are righteous and altogether trustworthy. My zeal consumes me, because my foes forget your words. Your word is completely pure, and Your servant loves it. I am small and despised, Yet I do not forget Your precepts." (Psalm 119:138-141)

"With my whole heart I seek You; let me not wander from Your commandments! I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You." (Psalm 119:10-11)

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a lamp stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matt 5:13-16)

What Does 'The Shack' Say About Your Pain?

The Shack- Impressions

The Shack- CARM

Shifting Sand

I’m reading about the Southern Baptist Convention and their International Mission Board’s involvement in supporting the construction of a mosque in New Jersey.  Do we, as Christians, allow other people to choose their religious preferences?  Yes, because we are no greater than God, Who allows all men free will to choose their devotions.  Do we, as Christians, encourage or promote other religions that deny that Jesus is the Son of God, Lord of all creation, and the only Name given by which men may be saved?  No, because to do so is to go against the very faith we claim to hold in Christ and His Gospel of Salvation.  To encourage anyone’s denial of Christ is to be complicit in such a denial (Matt 10:32-34; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26).  A saving belief in Christ is faith in Him as Lord, and a genuine faith in Him as Lord compels us to share that truth with anyone who will listen.

Jesus Christ is the Son of YHWH God and He is also YHWH God in the flesh.  Jesus is fully God and fully man, He was crucified as the propitiation for the sins of mankind, He died and rose again, conquering sin and death once and for all, and He is the only way to salvation.  Any religion that denies these eternal facts cannot be supported or encouraged by Christians who are commanded to “Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature, He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not, shall be condemned.” (Mark 16:15,16) and “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19,20).

I will never forget when, in my mid-twenties, I came face-to-face with the reality of the exclusivity of the path to eternal salvation in Christ.  Although, throughout my college years I would readily acknowledge my Christian faith, I fell into the same seductive humanistic mindset that so many lukewarm Christians fall into during their most formative years.  My relationship with Christ was shaped by the ideas, customs, and social behavior of society, rather than scripture.  My Christian faith was based on humanism and subjective personal experience, rather than Who God has revealed Himself to be in scripture.  Because my faith was based on subjective experience and cultural influence, I had built my house on shifting sand:  “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock…But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” (Matt 7:24,26).

The trendy cultural “inclusivity” that was hammered into me during my late teens and early twenties, crashed head-on into the exclusivity of Jesus’ claim that, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6).  It was one of the many forks-in-the-road I have encountered in my walk of faith, times when I reached certain milestones in which I could choose my own reasoning, over the truth of God’s word and the leading of the Holy Spirit.  At that time, my personal experience and reasoning posited that God transcended all religion, including Christianity, and could not be defined by any one religious structure, but rather, it was our myriad of religious structures and experiences that altogether led to the one, true God.  The humanism and cultural inclusivity that was so seductively appealing to my intellect, dictated that God is all-loving and all-merciful, therefore surely, He will not turn away anyone who seeks Him, no matter what path they're on. Besides, I reasoned, we have His assurance: "Knock, and the door shall be opened unto you." (Matt 7:7).  A brilliant intellectualization of my subjective spiritual experience, if I do say so myself.  But it’s total garbage.  It may be a convincing argument for those who know just enough scripture to recognize it as scripture, but not enough to be transformed by it.

Lest we forget, Satan manipulated God’s words to deceive Eve.  A few verses down from "Knock, and the door shall be opened..." at Matthew 7:7, Jesus also says, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (v. 13,14).  At John 10:9, Jesus plainly tells us that He is the gate.  And yes, scripture says that if we knock, the door shall be opened, but Jesus plainly tells us that He is the One standing on the other side of it (Rev 3:20).

It grieves me to see so many who are well-intended toward the Christian faith, fall into the trap of vanity by consuming the bait of over-intellectualizing their spirituality, as Paul warns:  “I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the One you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it way too easily.” (2 Cor 11:3,4).

Which is not to say that we are to neglect our intellectual reasoning, but rather, we are to have it fully submitted to Christ, “We tear down arguments, and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor 10:5).  We subject our intellect to obedience in Christ because Satan appeals to our intellect and reasoning, and without the authority of Christ over our mind, we do not stand a chance against our eternal enemy.  Satan seeks to entice and deceive us through our intellect and reasoning, while God seeks to set us free through our childlike faith and surrender.  So many have condemned Eve for her disastrous choice in the Garden to pursue her own reasoning, over her faithful trust in God, all the while not realizing that we make the same choice over and over in our own lives.

True brilliance is the humility to admit that we are but dust and true wisdom is the meek surrender to God’s revelation to us through scripture.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt 5:5)

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Prov 9:10)

“And to man He said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.'" (Job 28:28)

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.” (Psalm 111:10)

“But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body. The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.” (Eccl 12:12-14)

"Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you what he is like:  he is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built." (Luke 6:47,48)

Hungry

The other day I took my five-year-old daughter to have a cavity filled at an early morning dentist appointment.  As we walked out of the dentist office after the procedure, she looked up at me, still a little loopy from the oral sedation she had to take for the procedure, and said, "I'm hongwy Mama, feed me."  She said this because she was "hongwy".  She also said it because she's five and she can't feed herself.  She also said it because I am her mother and it is my job to feed her when she is "hongwy".  That's the way it works.

That is also the way our relationship with God works.  We should come to God in prayer, looking for Him so we can tell Him, "Abba, I am hungry.  Feed me."  We cannot feed ourselves the spiritual food that we need from God, because He is the only One Who has it.  We ask God to feed us because He is our Father, and it is His job to feed us when we come to Him and tell Him we are hungry.  And just like my compassionate reaction to my own daughter's pleas to be fed, He reacts to our pleas with infinite compassion.  I long to fill my daughter's hunger, it is something that gives me great fulfillment and peace, knowing that she is fed and taken care of.  God longs to fill our hunger, that is why Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst." (John 6:35).

Something I increasingly observe is that we are not hungry for God because we are too easily filled by the things of the world.  C.S. Lewis puts it this way:  "It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”  We are far too easily satisfied with the vacuous and temporal fulfillment of our flesh.  Our bellies are so full of worldliness, that we are content to nibble upon spiritual scraps, even though God has provided access to a limitless buffet of holiness, wisdom and peace. 

When the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, God gave them an abundance of manna each day, far more than they could ever consume.  But God told them to only collect what they needed for each day, "Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted." (Exodus 16:21).  Jesus reiterates this daily dependence on God when He teaches the Apostles to pray, "Give us each day, our daily bread." (Luke 11:3). 

God tells us that we need "daily bread", but some of us are just getting weekly bread when we make our obligatory church appearance on Sunday.  We show up at church, empty and hungry, trying to get filled on an hour of corporate worship and then stretch that hour of bread to try and make it last through the week.  When the Israelites tried to do that, their manna rotted and was inedible, "Moses told them, 'Do not keep any of it until morning.'  But some of them didn't listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell." (Exodus 16:19,20).  We cannot grow spiritually on maggoty, rotten bread, but many of us are trying to.

Instead of being hungry for God, many find themselves frustrated and cranky.  I have heard people refer to this hungry/angry condition as "hangry".  How many of us are "hangry" about our spiritual growth?  There are three types of Christians:  hungry, hangry, and those who are so used to going without any food at all, that any hunger pangs they may have once suffered are long-since gone and they exist in spiritual numbness.

Are you spiritually numb?  Are you ambivalent about God's presence and His call upon us to be well-equipped in His word (Heb 13:20,21; 2 Tim 3:16,17) and to pursue holiness (Lev 20:26; Lev 19:2; 1 Peter 1:14-16)?  Then ask God to give you a heart of flesh (Ezek 36:25-27; Ezek 11:19,20) and to quicken your spirit (Rom 8:10-13).

Are you hangry?  Are you frustrated in your walk with God?  Are you trying to fill a belly that is full of the world with maggoty, rotten bread?  Then ask God to examine your heart and show you the changes that need to be made in your habits and life (Psalm 139:23,24; Psalm 19:12; Job 31:6), and then surrender, in daily faith, to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.  Ask Him to teach you and to give you ears to hear and a heart of obedience (Psalm 143:10; Psalm 16:11; Psalm 25:4,5; Psalm 86:10-12).

Are you hungry? Do you find yourself wondering if there is more to be had than the religion you are being offered, when your true heart's desire is for more relationship?  Then meditate on Jesus' promise to be your daily bread as you seek His presence and fellowship through daily prayer and regular Bible study (Luke 17:19; Matt 9:22; Luke 7:20).  Pray for Him to put you into fellowship with other hungry brothers and sisters.  Believe that when you come to Him and look up and say, "Abba, I am hungry.  Feed me"  that He will be faithful and compassionate to provide far more than you could ever hope to consume (Philippians 4:19; 2 Cor 9:8; Eph 3:8).

"Jesus answered them and said, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.'...So they said to Him, 'Then what sign do You do, that we may see and believe You? What work do You perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat."' Jesus then said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' Then they said to Him, 'Lord, always give us this bread.' Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst.'" (John 6:26-35)

"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36)