Monthly Archive for November, 2004

Sorry you think I did something wrong

Published
by
Dan
on 11/26/2004
in Bible Study
. 1 Comment

Micah 6:6-8
With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah has presented the case against Israel and all the wicked things
they have done. They have burned incense in the high places, sacrificed
their children and livestock to the Ba’als, and bowed down to the work
of their hands. Now they have heard the words of the prophet and wish
to make things right with God. They don’t want God mad at them and they
don’t want to experience the punishment for the things that have made
Him mad.

But.

They aren’t sorry for what they did. As a matter of fact, they think
that all of their acts were actually right, but God is mad that they
were offered to the wrong god. They ask if they can do all the stuff
they’ve been doing, but just slap a big fat YHWH sticker on it and that
will make it all ok again. Yeah, that’s it. We used to be judgemental,
but now we can be ‘discerning’ and do the same thing. We can stop our
idolatry and stop being proud of these idols we make and boast in our
creations that have crosses on them instead. We’ll stop writing songs
about falling in love with boys and write songs about Jesus, even
though we’ll still have the same seductive costumes and dance moves.

If our repentance is not a dying to self and a complete new life, but a
baptism of our sin into a Christian form, is it really repentance?

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

I realized recently that I’ve been dishing out some of this “I’m sorry
that you’re mad but not sorry I sinned.” It’s tough work to realize the
apology wasn’t from repentance but out of a desire to get out of
trouble. But what will happen if people accept that apology? Won’t I
just repeat my folly again, just as the Israelites were ready to repeat
their folly and offer child sacrifices to God?

He has showed you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require
of you?
Act justly
Love mercy
Walk humbly with God.

“I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather
than burnt offerings.”

Once again, the pure and simple message of Christianity-the activity of
religion that comes from a real-life faith in Jesus Christ as my Boss
and Friend-is not an act of do and do and you will be, but of be, and
Christ will do through you.

Be just.
Love.
Walk humbly.

Live.

Cutting through the pride to see God’s will

Published
by
Dan
on 11/16/2004
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

Micah 3:8 “But as for me, I am filled1 with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin.

1. Filled: Maylee, to fill, accomplish, finish, complete, maylee yade means ‘to fill the hand’ and is an idiom meaning to consecrate or ordain.

Micah 4:11 “But now many nations are gathered against you. They say, “Let her be defiled, let our eyes gloat over Zion!”
Micah 4:12 “But they do not know3359 the thoughts4742 of the Lord; they do not understand1067 His plan6783, He who gathers7695 them like sheaves to the threshing floor.”

In their pride, the nations are cursing God’s people and their land. They do not know God or His power or His love for His people or THEM. Micah just spoke of God gathering the nations for worship. He uses two different words for nations. One is races (as in lineage) and the other is more a geo-political word. He will call all of them too, and they will know Him.

3359: YADA, to know or perceive. It can be used of a husband and wife getting together and ‘knowing’ each other, it can be used of a musician knowing his instrument or a sense of right and wrong. It is not the same word translated as understand or acknowledge, which leads me to think it’s a gut-level know.

4742: MAHASAYBAYH, to think, devise, plot, plan, intention, imagination. Used to denote an artistic work or an invention.

1067: BIYN, to discern, perceive, observe, pay attention to, understand, heed, or attend to

6783: ESHAYH, consult or advise, advice or counsel, in the NT the word ‘boule’ is this word, and is used to talk about God’s will as it is set forth for people to make decisions and consider, whereas ‘thelema’ is what God does that makes His will happen.

7695: QABAS, to gather, collect, plunder. The focus of this word is not as much as the act of gathering, but the single location that they are all gathered to. It also does not denote a call to gather, as in an announcement, but the act of gathering, like in a harvest.

As they gloat, the are rejecting the approach of God and His will. As they harden in their pride, they resist absorbing God into their lives. We’ve read before that “the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9) and “Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)

The world is a proud and gloating place - everyone seeking their own ideas, their own opinions, their own interpretations, and even posting them on blogs like they have any worth :) . Even prophets make up their own messages so that they will be heard and loved. But God tells us that is not the way to know Him or to discern and heed His plans. There is a better way to have gut-knowledge of Him and the beautiful painting He is working on.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-His good, pleasing, and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

Lord, strengthen my hands

Published
by
Dan
on 11/11/2004
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

Nehemiah had people around him that thought “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”"(Neh 6:9) Sometimes I feel like people think the same thing about me and what I’m trying to
do. People may not want to help out, because they think I’m going to give up, or maybe I’m a dreamer with a lot of ideas but not much meat on the bones of my ideas.
I was praying about this and reading Nehemiah and came across this verse. In my case I don’t have people trying to make this happen like Neh did, but I think I do have people wondering how we’re going to do all the things we dream of doing. What may come as a shock is that I know already the exact way that everything will happen: God.
When Nehemiah was in this situation, the very next sentence says “But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” I read this, and not knowing what to pray specifically, I began to pray this prayer. Lord, strengthen my hands. I prayed it all day yesterday. Lord, strengthen my hands. Make my grip on You tighter. Make my efforts more effective. Make my skills more skillful and my movement bolder. Lord, strengthen my hands. Should I pray for confirmation of His call on our lives? Should I pray for signs and wonders? Should I pray for those helping us and those wondering about us? LORD, strengthen my hands.

So this morning I look up these two words in my Hebrew dictionary.

Strengthen: to be strong, courageous, (same word said to Joshua upon entering the Promised Land) support, encourage, preserve, confirm, construct, retain, harden

Hands: hand, power, strength, assistance, time, place, possession, a prescribed activity, a portion, a monument.

So when I pray, LORD, strengthen my hands. I am praying that God would help my assistance to be strong and courageous. Lord, strengthen my hands. Give me support for my time and my place. Lord, strengthen my hands. Confirm my prescribed activity. Construct my portion that You have given me. LORD, strengthen my hands. Preserve this monument of grace, this symbol of Your love that is my life. Lord, strengthen my hands. Be strong in Your strength. Do not hold back Your hand. Lord, strengthen my hands.

“Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for
tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then
the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a
miracle.” -Phillips Brooks, quoted by Samuel Zwemer in The Glory of
the Impossible.

Lord, strengthen my hands.

In man’s power or God’s power?

Published
by
Dan
on 11/4/2004
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

In Micah 2 he begins rebuking the men of both kingdoms: “Woe to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.”
Of course God hates it because here are His chosen people-the people that are called by His name to make His name great among the nations, and they are simply doing things that they themselves can do. Notice that at this time, they had altogether lapsed into idolatry and evil. Their rich were corrupt, their poor were desperately sinning against each other to stay alive.
We get ourselves into the same slump today. We fear shame or embarrassment, so we don’t risk our reputations. By spending so much time covering our outward appearance, we slowly miss out on hearing God’s voice saying “Come, be different. Risk this. You might stick out or you might never be noticed by anyone again, but look at my plan for you, it is wonderful!”
Their man-sized plans brought them shame after all. 2:4 “In that day men will ridicule you; they wil taunt you with this mournful song” etc. and so they are taunted by their powerless, man-powered, man-sized lives.
Doing the impossible is not easy at all. It is discouraging when you tell people and they remind you that it’s impossible.
It’s tiring when you are in the middle of it and don’t see any progress.
But, it’s worth it.
Look at Nehemiah and the people’s reaction at the end of Nehemiah. Look at the life of Joshua and his people compared to the life of those in Egypt or in the wilderness. Look at a reluctant prophet and his effect on Ninevah. Look at the Messiah’s effect on the man born blind, or the woman who bled for 18 some-odd years. Look at Paul’s travel to Rome and all the hardships he survived like shipwrecks and snakebites. Look at a tax collector and some screw-ball fishermen and their stand
against the authorities.
I want to be impossible. I want to live impossible. “they do it because it is in their power to do it” is what they are convicted of. May we be far from that. May be do it because it is beyond our power to do it and is only possible because “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27)

Where does the money come from?

Published
by
Dan
on 11/3/2004
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

Micah 1:7
            Since she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes, as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used.
 
Maybe this verse answers the question of whether or not a church should take winnings from the lottery or not. Money no doubt has a spiritual force.
 
Prov. 15:16 Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great wealth with turmoil.
Prov. 16:8 Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice.
Prov. 16:16 How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!
Prov. 16:19 Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.
 
So it is better to be righteous than rich.