Doing Christianity

“Sow rightousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.” – Hosea 10:12

I grew up in a protestant culture which scorned the idea of our human effort being of any spiritual value. Out eternal destiny (and thus value before God) was determined solely upon the work of Christ on the cross. In the words of the famous hymn, “nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling”. Those who belong in the reformed camp go even farther by saying that even our choice to “believe” is something that God determines, taking all practical responsibility for our eternity out of our hands completely.

Yet the OT and NT scriptures alike paint a picture portraying humanity having a dynamic interaction in our relationship with God. More often than not, God says that the ball is in our court. We lack because of our inaction, not God’s. What we do matters. As I said in a post a couple of days ago, only those who “hear and DO” Jesus’ commands will enter His kingdom. (See Dissonance)

In this passage, God recounts Israel’s responsibility to obey Him. The words: righteousness and unfailing love are legal words which would remind any Jew of the covenant God made with them in Deuteronomy. In that covenant, God outlined His expectations for how they were to live – and they had gravely transgressed. God says it’s time for Israel to seek Him. Seeking Him involves action. In context, it involves sowing and breaking up ground. These are agricultural metaphors for a farmer preparing their fields. The implication is obvious. If you want God’s blessing, you MUST put yourself in a position to receive it. Getting into that position is not easy, it involves repentance, it involves a change of lifestyle.

Paul said something similar in Galatians 6:7-8, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” Could it be that we have presented a version of Christianity depicted as solely a free gift with no strings attached other than to receive it when the Bible presents it as a free transfer of citizenship but one which requires you come in line with the laws of your new country? In chapter five of Galatians, Paul gives us two lists as an example of what living after the flesh looks like and what living after the Spirit looks like. I invite to you spend some time meditating on those lists. Use then as a grid through which you run each life choice to determine God’s will.

Now before I go further, let me clarify two things: I am not saying that if we do enough good works, we can earn a place in God’s kingdom. Like the thief on the cross, Jesus’ blood is enough to save at the end of an evil life if one is truly repentant (see the story of Manasseh in 2 Chron 33 and Jesus’ parable in matt 20). What I am saying is that genuine repentance looks a certain way, it involves us living as Jesus lived. If we aren’t on the journey of pursuing righteousness, then we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking we are saved.

Also, I am also not saying that we have the ability to do those good works in our own power. An early church heretic named Pelagius was condemned for that kind of theology. Paul makes that clear that we are sowing to “the Spirit”. At the point of repentance and regeneration, we receive the indwelling of the Spirit. Yes, we work, but we work according to the power and desire the Spirit provides. It’s not either/or (our work or God’s work), it our work AND God’s work. “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Phil 2:12-13)

Our Spirit empowered works are important of confirming whether or not we have truly received eternal life. If you have lived a life refusing to allow God to be master over your life, then no amount of “clinging to the cross” in some past emotional moment will save you. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 7:21)

So do. Sow righteousness. Ask God to break up areas of your life which have remained untouched by the scriptures. Surrender yourself to the control of the Holy Spirit. The result is we will reap a harvest of eternal life when Christ’s kingdom comes in its fullness.

We Become what we Worship

"When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree. But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.” – Hosea 9:10

We become what we worship. This is a biblical principle and we see it displayed in this passage. God is bringing up Israel’s history of idolatry. I love the words used to describe their beginning, “grapes in the desert.” They started well. They were refreshing to God. Out of the entire world, they were a special people dedicated to worshipping Yahweh. But that changed. Israel abandoned their call and worshipped pagan gods of the nations around them. The poetic wording of Hosea describing this event should not be missed, “(they) became as vile as the thing they loved.”

Throughout the Bible, God presents pagan idols as gods with no power – gods without ears, gods without eyes. Those who worship such things eventually become like them. They cannot see or understand, they become blind to the one true God. Their gods are evil beings (most with a demonic force behind them) and thus, in worshipping them, they become evil.

1 john 2:15 tells us that the world has a philosophy comprised of three all-consuming passions: pleasure, greed, and pride. These are the gods of American culture. Our society is filled with people who give their lives for more comfort, for more toys, and for more prestige. That is the bottom line for many of us because we think these things will make us happy. America loves pleasure. Why is it that the pornography industry makes more money than the NFL, NBA and MLB combined? We love greed – always thinking the next purchase will somehow add worth or enjoyment to who we are. We love pride to the point of becoming obsessed with what people say about us or who we can manipulate to do our will. The common denominator in these three things is extreme narcissism. Right and wrong are subjugated to whether or not it benefits us. We, not Yahweh, become the center of our universe.

Seeking pleasure, greed and pride is antithetical to the kingdom of God. Jesus promises that at some point in time, we will be asked to step out of our comfort zone. At some time, we will be asked to give up some or all of our possessions. At some time, we will be asked to purposefully reject a position of power and embrace the role of a servant.

The beauty of this principle is that it works in a positive way as well. Yahweh is good. He is merciful and righteous. He is beautiful and majestic, benevolent and kind. When we worship Him, we become like Him. As we love Him above all else, His ways become our ways, His thoughts our thoughts. In listening to the all-wise one, we become wise. In loving the all-good, we become good.

Humanity was made in the image of God. As we embrace the Son of God, we fulfill our calling to reflect the glory and character of God in our world. So let’s check our hearts. Take time to ask God to reveal to us what we truly love. If it’s not Him, let’s repent. Because we become what we worship.

Dissonance

“’Israel cries out to me, 'Our God, we acknowledge you!' But Israel has rejected what is good;” – Hosea 8:2-3

Dissonance. It’s a word describing two opposing or clashing things happing concurrently. In music, a dissonant chord would be like hitting a black key right next to a white key on the piano. It makes you wince. Something is not right. The two notes don’t go together.

In this passage, Israel is living a dissonant lifestyle. Throughout the book of Hosea, God is describing the depths of evil to which His people have plunged. The funny thing is, they don’ see it! They cry out to God, “we acknowledge you”, yet at the same time they reject what is good. Do you see the problem? They say one thing but do another. That’s dissonance.

This hits way too close to home with me. Too often I disconnect knowing the right thing to do and actually doing it. I am content to read my Bible and make some mental notes about the right way to live and then go about my day and forget to put it into practice. I claim to love Jesus yet yell at my kids. I claim to have faith in God, yet refuse to step out of my comfort zone and put myself in a situation in which I have to actually trust Him. I claim that God’s kingdom is the only thing that’s valuable yet rarely open my mouth to tell anybody about it. Too often, I live in dissonance.

Jesus told a story in Luke 6 about the foolish man and the wise man. The fool built his house on sand while the wise one took the time to dig deep and anchor his house on bedrock. Can you guess which house stood firm when a raging storm and flash flood arose? The houses represent our lives. We all build our lives upon something. When explaining the story, Jesus said that both foolish people and wise people hear God’s word, the difference is that wise people actually take time to put God’s word into practice. The sad thing is that Jesus tells us many are going to hear His words, yet perish because they didn’t actually do them. They “fool”ed themselves into thinking that since they heard it, they got it.

What makes all the difference is action and time. It’s takes time to put God’s word into action. It takes more than intention, it takes a gameplan. We need more than just a list of what to do, we need to know how we are going to do it. What practical steps are we going to take today to put God’s word into practice. Then do it. Start small. A lot of small things often add up to bigger things. Yes, it’s going to take time, but according to Jesus, that effort is what separates the wise from the foolish.

So let’s not just be hearers of the word, but doers. Make sure that God’s word is sinking down deep into our hearts and bearing fruit in our lives. Let’s stop living dissonant lives where what we preach is different than what we practice. Instead of dissonance, let’s try harmony.

God Remembers

“but they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Their sins engulf them; they are always before me.” – Hosea 7:2

Do I live in such a way believing that God sees my every word, action and deed? Do I take the time to live in the reality that God know everything about me? That He is watching me? That He never forgets our actions – good or evil?

The writer of Hebrews reminds us, “there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Heb 4:13) We can never hide from God. We can never go off radar. God being everywhere present is a part of His nature. It’s a part of His glory. There are no secrets to God. Did it ever occur to you that it never occurs to God? Not only does He see the present, but He can equally see the past and future. This is His glory and we ought to worship Him for it.

This is both a terrifying thing and a wonderful thing. It’s terrifying for the unbeliever. Because He is a just judge, no sin will go unpunished. God says vengeance belongs to Him (Rom 12), there will come a day in which He will judge the world and its inhabitants. Solomon said, “Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.” (Eccles 12:13-14)

For those who have run for refuge to the cross of Jesus Christ, we have been forgiven and changed. God’s Spirit lives in us and is working out that salvation in every aspect of our lives. Because of our faith and repentance towards Jesus Christ, we no longer have to fear condemnation on judgment day. God will declare our sin as covered by the blood of the Messiah’s sacrifice. God has promised never to remember our sins against us again. That’s good news!

But that’s not all, God also promises to reward us for our obedience to Him. (The obedience that He Himself creates within us by the Spirit!) For us, God’s memory is a good thing. God never forgets our struggle to follow Jesus. He never forgets the little times we choose to obey when no one else sees. He never forgets one act of love or kindness. He sees and knows. He promises that nothing we suffer in this life as a Christian will compare to the reward He’s preparing for us when His kingdom comes.

So, consciously remember to walk in the light of God’s presence today. Believe and act that each choice has eternal consequences. Because it does!

Missing the Point

“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” – Hosea 6:6

Jesus quoted this passage twice in the gospel of Matthew because of its significance to His day. I believe each generation of Christianity faces the challenge of this verse. Too often, I find it easy to put my Christianity on auto-pilot and simply do the motions each week. This is exactly what Jesus and Hosea was warning God’s people against. Outwardly, they did the ceremonies, the rituals. Technically, they were doing what God had commanded. But there is more to Christianity than simply a to-do list. Just as Paul said there is more to love than simply acts of self-sacrifice (1 Cor 13).

In Hosea’s day, the people still did the sacrifices, they offered God the sheep from their herds. In their minds, they were worshipping God. But while they praised God, their hearts were far from Him. They were not committed individually or as a nation to put God’s ways first in their day to day life. One moment, they would offer a sacrifice up to God and the next, they would cheat the poor and oppress the less fortunate. They saw their duty to God as finished when they walked away from the altar. They thought they had God fooled.

In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees were hounding Jesus’ for spending time ministering to the spiritual needs of tax collectors and sinners (those whom they deemed too far gone for God’s grace – the untouchables). While they so quickly shut people out of God’s kingdom, they would condemn Jesus for breaking their tedious interpretations of the Mosaic law. They couldn’t see the discrepancy between hating their fellow man and overzealously defending some minute, blown-out-of-proportion command.

Both sets of groups were missing the point. It’s so easy to do. Christianity becomes a checklist rather than a heart in love with our Creator. We limit salvation to a set of rules rather than a relationship with the one who made them. We claim to love God, yet that love doesn’t make any difference in how we live, how we treat out spouse, how we spend our money, how we use our time. We use God for our own purposes (usually as some form of a glorified Santa Clause), instead of laying down our lives before Him to be used for His purposes.

Are we fooling ourselves? Are we so busy doing “religious” things without taking the time to stop and truly consider the call of Jesus even in our most menial tasks. Nothing in our life is secular, everything is sacred. Everything. Every bite, every word, every chore is something to be done by the power of the Holy Spirit and for the glory of God.

I remind you, as I am also reminding myself. Stop playing a game. Go big. Dare to step out of your comfort zone today and follow Jesus into the unknown. That’s where we experience his power. That’s where His grace meets our inability and transforms us into agents of His salvation.

Running to the Healer

"When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sores, then Ephraim turned to Assyria, and sent to the great king for help. But he is not able to cure you, not able to heal your sores.” – Hosea 5:13

How many times do we bandage spiritual wounds with physical Band-Aids? In this chapter, God is depicted as a moth, as a rot, as a tearing lion. Each image conjures the concept of God as judge. God is acting in faithfulness to His covenant in Deuteronomy. God’s people have prostituted themselves out to false gods the surrounding nations. God, in His righteousness, is disciplining them for their sin.

We must never forget that while God ought to be the ultimate object of our love, He must also the ultimate object of our fear. Jesus told us, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt 10:28). How many times, I plunge into sin without the slightest fear of God’s discipline?

For Israel, God’s discipline involved letting foreign nations overrun their borders and cause havoc among the people. But in response to God’s judgment, what did they do? They ran to another pagan king for help. They pay off a nearby superpower to fight for them against their oppressors. It’s an exercise in missing the point. It is God who is fighting against them, yet they don’t turn to God for healing.

Let’s bring this home a bit. How often do we try to solve our own sins by turning to our own solutions. To solve our finance problems, we would rather try to supplement our income or cheat on our taxes than confront our greed. To solve our marriage problems, we would rather make an “if only” list (“if only my spouse would do this…if only my spouse would realize that…, etc”) than confront our own selfishness. How many times do we crack open a magazine (or do a web search) for help rather than the Bible.

True humility and brokenness sees our sin for the corruption of our soul that it is. It comes to God for help to fix it. Yes, God’s process is often painful. God always tells us the truth. God doesn’t let us coddle our sin, He demands we forsake it. Arriving at this point is never easy because sin makes us natural control freaks. However, when we realize that we have made a mess of our lives and the only Jesus can heal us, we have reached the point where God’s grace can make its move. Instead of running to substitutes, remember to run to the One who can actually make a difference. In the end, you will find that God’s ways are much betterr than doing things our way. Why? Because He’s just that smart.

God Laughs

“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.’ The One enthroned in heaven laughs…” – Psalms 2:1-4

What an incredible picture. The psalmist describes the entire world, with its leaders, with its weapons, with its best intellects, with its cutting edge technology, gathering together to rebel against the rule of God. They have bought into the lie of the serpent in the garden, “You will be like God”. They long to throw off any accountability to the Almighty and His Messiah (This is one of those psalms which is also a prophecy about the future coming of Jesus Christ).

I don’t know about you, but if I were God that picture would scare me. For that matter, I get anxious when just one or two people are out to get me. Too often the fear of what people think about me paralyzes my ability to boldly follow Jesus Christ. But God responds in a completely different way.

This passage reminds me of the one of the stories of Elisha in the 2 Kings 6. Because he was a prophet, he could predict for the king of Israel the troop movements of the kingdom of Aram (who was at war with Israel). The Aramean king found out that Elisha was informing on him so he sent his army to surround Elisha’s house. While his servant was freaking out, Elisha calmly asked God to open his servant’s eyes. At that moment, Elisha’s servant saw the armies of heaven in all their glory and splendor filling the heavens. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them,” Elisha commented.

I also think of Jesus talking with his disciples in the garden. When the soldiers came to arrest Him, his disciples resisted and in response, Jesus told them to stop. “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt 26:53) These verses show us that God is not worried at all about the evil of our world.

In response to such open, blatant rebellion, God…laughs! He scoffs at the utter ridiculousness of his creation having any power or authority over Him. He spoke them into existence, a mere word would snuff them out again. In fact, Jesus is described in Colossians as the sustainer of our world. All God has to do is stop – take a break, cease to give - and everything would come undone.

These passages teach us that even in the darkest moments of our lives, the question is not, “God, can you?” but “God will you? We must never doubt God’s ability. That is never in question. When those times of difficultly come, the question is “God what is your will in response to this crisis?” This is another way of saying (as Jesus taught us), “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” Sometimes God will do something miraculous – like take the situation away; sometimes the miracle is giving you strength to endure. We ought to trust in God’s love, God’s care, and God’s faithfulness to bring about His saving purposes in our world. Unlike the wicked pagans described in Psalms two, the people of God joyfully submit their futures, desires, longings and wellbeing to the One who is all-wise and all-powerful. The One enthroned in heaven.