Family Discipline in Love

Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.
Deuteronomy 8:5-6

Discipline is a mark of love. God speaks these words through Moses to a generation that had grown up in the harsh wilderness of Sinai. They were fed by manna from heaven. Their clothing and shoes miraculously lasted an entire generation. They looked for everything to come from the hand of God even as their parents suffered punishment for disobedience. They learned discipline that led to continued obedience.

Hard circumstances enter the lives of God's children. That is true. And the question is often "Why does God bring them?" You can say "allow them" if you like, but personally, for me, that softens none of the reality of the hardship. God is sovereign and pain and difficulty do not supersede His control. If they come to us, He has full knowledge and control over that truth. So, He must be God beyond our thoughts about hardship and He must be a God Who will use hardship in us for His purposes.

When life is hard, it is for our good. God is disciplining us... not in a punishing sense, but in a maturing sense. Difficulties bring their own growth moments. They are deep. They may be emotional. But they are still chances for us to grow closer to our Father as we learn discipline.


- Posted with my iPad. The Apple Kool-Aide tastes fine.

The Good Desert Sands

For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.
Deuteronomy 2:7

Moses talked about the wilderness wanderings as a real spiritual experience of great positive impact... why? The reason he could do so has to do with the audience to whom he is recounting this history. This is the generation that will enter Canaan. The grumbling, faithless Egyptian slave generation have all died in the desert. This new generation, the children of slavery, has grown up in the wilderness. They understood God's provision and leadership in the desert sands. It defined their relationship with God.

In many ways God will use the difficult circumstances of our lives to shape us into a people of faith. That is what I know about God. I appreciate that God saw fit to save me, save my parents when I was very young, and provide me solid church and schooling experiences. My share of desert difficulty came in my teen years, and later in young adulthood. God is sovereign and His purposes prevailed! For through it all, I believe God shaped me for the unique ministry of working with hurting or confused people, some of them casualties of Christian snipers... my own experience at times.

In the desert, Israel lacked nothing. The nation had all she needed in a sovereign, loving, and caring God. The same is true for me. My deserts have been moments where God has become the dearest thing to me. In the desert I have lacked nothing, because the Lord my God has been with me.


- Posted with my iPad. The Apple Kool-Aide tastes fine.

Peace & Pain

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. ”
John 16:33




There is a two-fold contrast of promises that Jesus makes to His disciples here. It is not particularly enjoyable to contemplate, but it is ultimately comforting. Jesus announces that He came into the world to bring peace to them through relationship with Him. That is well and good, but there is more to it. He could not guarantee that peace meant a conflict life in this world. It meant that pain would come from the world even while they were receiving peace in Jesus.

Christianity runs counterculture to the way things generally are in the world. We hold to absolute truth; the world runs from truth. We say sin brings judgment; the system says being bade is fun and a personal pleasure, even a right in some instances. We decry injustice and evil for what they are; the system perpetuates personal wealth and pleasure at expense of other people. All of that brings "tribulation" to those who swim against these currents.

Jesus' final words provide the perspective and encouragement we need: "...take heart; I have overcome the world." He would do so by dying on a cross at the hands of the powers of this world. He would then carry the sin of that world and later rise from the dead to offer victory over sin and death in this world to all who would change and be changed by trusting in Him.


- Posted with my iPad. The Apple Kool-Aide tastes fine.

God of the difficulties.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 11:9

God’s encouragement to Moses was that He was going to use even the rejection of His will by Pharaoh for His glory. The king might defy the Lord God of Israel, but Egypt would see God’s wonders multiplied among them. They already had. The tenth plague, though horrific, would make a deeply personal and spiritual impact.

This passage also makes it clear that Moses had gained respect with the Egyptians. He had not yet convinced Pharaoh, but the people of the land respected Moses and were in favor of the Israelites (Exodus 11:3). This resulted in Israel leaving Egypt with many of the treasures of the people. So even defiance of God has a purpose by God in His plan. That is an overwhelming sovereignty, but it makes sense. For God to be Who He is, He HAS to be able use even the worst of human choices for His glory. When we see bad road ahead, we should go forward knowing God will take us through it, in ways that His power will be known!

I find this to be a motivating encouragement given my days. This current economic depression has hit home in many personal ways. I know good people who are out of work. I know others who have seen their incomes drop dramatically. I have friends who are trying to sell homes in a depressed housing market because they cannot afford to pay a mortgage, and I have seen ministries (including my own) take substantial set-backs. I have had to make adjustments as well. And it is not easy to experience. But I know this: the banking crash, the housing crash, the construction crash, the governmental takeover of big business… all these did not take God by surprise. Perhaps he wants to get the attention of a pampered and self-driven people. When He does, His wonders are multiplied among those who know Him. That is what I know will happen and it makes no difference whether trillions in tax dollars stimulate our economy or not!

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Trial,Bad Economy,Providence,Stimulus Spending,government bailout

Out of the frying pan…

Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

Exodus 6:9

Things have gone from bad to worse from the point of view of leadership for Moses. He knew that deliverance for Israel was going to be a “hard sell”. All of his objections to the Lord involved the fact that he felt Israel would not believe him. And now, as God has given Moses a spiritual “pep talk” for the people, his fears are realized. Israel will not listen to him. Moses knew Pharaoh would resist. He was not prepared for Israel to resist.

Moses follows the same patter in Exodus 10:12. He spoke objections against God’s plan. He was disheartened as well. God patiently encouraged him to continue with his message to Israel and his confrontations with Pharaoh. He knew Israel had a broken spirit in the midst of unbearable labor and slavery. And Moses too was being broken.

Before God brings incredible victory, there is often unbearable loss. Sometimes we must know deep sorrow in order to receive inexplicable joy. That is what is going on at this point in the book of Exodus. Moses and Israel are working through the results of Pharaoh’s hard heart to God. And they are not responding to God with commitment to Him either. There are times when we fall out of the frying pan and into the fire. And it is when those bad to worse moments happen that our faith is tried the most.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Trial,Loss,Providence

Trouble

Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all."

Exodus 5:22-23

Two observations about Moses’ response to God in this first “crisis’ of leadership are noted today. First, Moses seems really focused on himself. The people he worried about leading were upset and turned on him when their first request resulted in more hardship from the Egyptians. God had warned Moses that Pharaoh would not be favorable at first (Exodus 4:21-23). But this did not stop Moses from turning the people’s accusations to God.

A second fact to notice is the meaning of what the ESV translates as “you have done evil”. This is theologically impossible, so we are left to debate what Moses’ complaint means. Was Moses being disrespectful at worst, or just theologically sloppy when he seemed to accuse God of being complicit in what was wrong? I don’t think so. The Hebrew word that is translated as “evil” in verse 22 is the same word that is translated as “trouble” in Exodus 5:19. The idea behind the word includes hardship. This softens the accusation considerably when we realize that God’s moral uprightness is not being questioned. But Moses is questioning God’s sovereignty. That is a big difference. Moses knows God brought this trouble in His plan. He also knows Pharaoh has brought trouble. The tension between God and the strongest ruler on earth will be driving subplot of the Exodus story.

So a good view of God needs to include a healthy perspective on trouble, difficulty, trial, and basically “the bad stuff” in our lives. It is one thing to see God as sovereign, with even difficulty under His control. It is another to accuse God of being unfair or bad for not eliminating struggles, difficulties, pains, and outrageous sins. I think Moses just questioned his experience, but did not lay moral blame on God.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Trial,Difficulty,Providence