Learning from the Imperfect

One of the things I love about God’s word is that it is filled with real people; real, normal, defective people. Only Christ has the blessing of being perfect. The rest of us are bumbling along like those very large bumble bees that come out in early spring flying rather haphazardly looking for tasty pollen or just looking rather scary when they hover a little too close.

Image by Alex from Pixabay

Today in my devotional reading I was led to read 2 Chronicles 15. If you read 2 Chronicles 14 through 16 you’ll get the whole story of Asa the King of Judah during the time of the two kingdoms: Israel and Judah.

Early in Asa’s reign we see that he was a righteous king doing “what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” (14:2). Asa removed foreign altars, broke down the pillars, cut down the Asherim and commanded Judah to seek God. The result of these righteous deeds was that his kingdom had rest from war. He and his people enjoyed a time of peace.

Unfortunately, things rarely stay the same. Eventually, Ethiopia rose up against Judah. This was Asa’s response.

“11 Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; let not man prevail against You.””

— 2 Chronicles 14:11 (NASB 1995)

What did God do for him? He whooped the Ethiopians’ butts. (See 14:12-15)

In Chapter 15 we see the Spirit of God come upon a prophet named Azariah. He goes to meet Asa and tells him the following:

“2...Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
3 For many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.
4 But in their distress they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and they sought Him, and He let them find Him.
5 In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands.
6 Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress.
7 But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.”

— 2 Chronicles 15:2-7 (NASB 1995)

There are several things we can learn from this piece of Scripture:

1 - Our relationship with God is dependent on our choices. This does not mean God isn’t completely sovereign, but He has given us a free will. When we choose to make Christ the Lord of our lives He and His father come and dwell with us.

“23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”

— John 14:23 (NASB 1995)

If we seek him, He will be found.

“29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”

— Deuteronomy 4:29 (NASB 1995)

“10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.”

— Psalm 34:10 (NASB 1995)

“6 Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.”

— Isaiah 55:6 (NASB 1995)

If we forsake Him, He will forsake us.

Can we lose our salvation? That is a question only God can answer. His word tells us, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Theologians attempt to answer this question, but my simple response is, don’t walk away from Jesus. I mean, why would you want to? I don’t get it, believe me. I know people who have chosen to walk away. People I love. Does that mean He has forsaken them and they are no longer saved? I don’t know. All I know is I never want to walk away from this amazing God who allows me to call Him Father! It is this simple choice of faith that convinces me He will never leave me or forsake me.

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2. If we are strong and take courage, our work will be rewarded. Azariah told this to Asa, and I think we can take this as encouragement as well. There are times when I wonder if what I have labored over will make any difference. Will those I love come back to God and the truth of the whole of Scripture? Will the time I spend helping and working be remembered? Does anything I say make any difference in anyone’s life? I’m sure you have felt similarly in your walk with Christ.

However, this verse reminds us that if we continue to be strong, and have courage our work will be rewarded. Another passage I return to again and again is Psalm 126.

“1 When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter
And our tongue with joyful shouting;
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us;
We are glad.
4 Restore our captivity, O Lord,
As the streams in the South.
5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.
6 He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.”

— Psalm 126:1-6 (NASB 1995)

I love this psalm because it reminds me that those who sew in tears will one day reap with joyful shouting. God knows our tears and I like to believe He has jars of our tears in heaven which we will one day use to anoint His feet when we bow before Him. Read The Gift of Tears from my blog back in 2016.

“8 You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?”

— Psalm 56:8 (NASB 1995)

Image by Michal Navrat from Pixabay

The whole point of being rewarded is so that we can give our gifts back to Him. You could say that is what Asa did. He used his position as King of Judah to restore the altar of the Lord: offer sacrifice to the Lord; enter a covenant with the Lord, and make an oath to the Lord. In return, God rewarded Asa with rest on every side.

“8 Now when Asa heard these words and the prophecy which Azariah the son of Oded the prophet spoke, he took courage and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He then restored the altar of the Lord which was in front of the porch of the Lord.
9 He gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who resided with them, for many defected to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
10 So they assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign.
11 They sacrificed to the Lord that day 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep from the spoil they had brought.
12 They entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul;
13 and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman.
14 Moreover, they made an oath to the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets and with horns.
15 All Judah rejoiced concerning the oath, for they had sworn with their whole heart and had sought Him earnestly, and He let them find Him. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.”

— 2 Chronicles 15:8-15 (NASB 1995)

Image found on Pixabay.

3 - Our imperfection is perfect in God’s eyes. If that sounds like it doesn’t make sense don’t worry, I will try to explain. Let’s look at the last few verses of this chapter.

“16 He also removed Maacah, the mother of King Asa, from the position of queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah, and Asa cut down her horrid image, crushed it and burned it at the brook Kidron.
17 But the high places were not removed from Israel; nevertheless Asa’s heart was blameless all his days.
18 He brought into the house of God the dedicated things of his father and his own dedicated things: silver and gold and utensils.
19 And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.”

— 2 Chronicles 15:16-19 (NASB 1995)

Here we see the imperfection. Asa did good things, but the world around him still held imperfections and unfortunately these imperfections eventually took their toll on Asa. Read 2 Chronicles 16 to hear the end to Asa’s story.

The final point I want to focus on in this post is verse 17. “But the high places were not removed from Israel; nevertheless Asa’s heart was blameless all his days.” Due to this, God kept peace under Asa’s rule, until the 35th year of his reign. What stands out to me in verse 17 is that Asa’s heart was blameless all his days.

Is my heart blameless all my days? If you knew the things I sometimes think, or the feelings I sometimes feel you most certainly would question my blameless status, but here is the thing, in Christ, when I am buried with Him in His death, and raised with Him in His resurrection, I am blameless. Amy is blameless all her days.

Isn’t God amazing? It isn’t about what we do to try to be good people. It was, is, and always will be about what God has done, and is doing, and will do. He is God. He is good. He is the One who put together the plan to redeem a sinful, broken world. He is the One who hung on a splintered tree so that I might have life and have it more abundantly. He is the perfection in all of our imperfection.

Faith Musings: Nothing to Boast About - Part 9

We should be drawing this study to a close this week. I hope you have enjoyed this look at 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. I can only say it was one of those Holy Spirit directed studies that I had not been intending to do. You must understand, what I put on the blog is most often things I am learning and/or struggling with. I hope I can always bring you the same clarity and understanding that the Holy Spirit gives me when revealing truth in His word.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

“10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

— I Corinthians 2:10-16 (NASB 1995)

Last week we looked specifically at verse 13 diving into the concept that it is the Holy Spirit who teaches us and who gives us God’s wisdom. Paul’s teaching came, not from human wisdom, but from the wisdom taught to him by the Spirit of God. The same is true in our own lives as we grow closer to God and learn to listen to His Spirit with open ears. We looked specifically at 1 John 2:27 which reminds us that when we have His anointing, or the Holy Spirit we have no need of other teaching or wisdom. God’s wisdom is all we need. I also made a note that we must have His discernment to make sure that what we are saying is of the Spirit actually is His Spirit and not the spirit of the world. Remember, the spirit of the world is not for God.

Let’s start looking at verses 14 - 15.

14 - But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

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I think this verse is pertinent to what is happening in the world as we look around at the violence, hatred, and sin that permeates all cultures. In our own country we have seen a definite uptick in violence as a way to respond to ideas, people, religion and beliefs that are not liked or agreed with. This is the response of the natural man. Our sin nature wants what it wants and it looks at the things of God as ridiculous.

Even as believers we find ourselves regularly battling against this old nature and fighting to turn to Jesus and His truth rather than give in to our baser sin nature. The difference is, we have God’s Spirit gently reminding us how much God loves us, what He did for us and why His wisdom is always better than the world’s.

Why does the natural man think God’s teaching and wisdom is foolish, after all, didn’t God create man in His image? Shouldn’t that give man His wisdom? Unfortunately, this is what Satan tempted Adam and Eve with in the Garden. See Genesis 3. There were two things going on in the Garden. The first, the Serpent, or Satan, was intent on causing God’s beautiful creation to crash and burn. The second, Adam and Eve made a choice to not trust God. If instead of listening to the Serpent they would have ran to God and asked Him what to do, they would not have made that same choice. God’s wisdom, would have given them the understanding to know what Satan was plotting.

Sin is what took away the ability to know and understand God’s wisdom. What God intended to be the norm, a regular, intimate, relationship with Him, became obscured by the veil of sin. It is only by giving our lives to Him in an intentional choice to trust Him, that we receive the Helper and the ability to know God and understand His teaching and wisdom.

“12 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,
13 and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;
16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

— 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 (NASB 1995)

What we see in our country right now is the spirit of the natural man fighting against what they see as the foolishness of God, because they can’t understand it. Why does this surprise us? God has always had a better way, but He allowed mankind to make their own choices and He still does, even to the point of violence and persecution.

“5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

— John 1:5 (NASB 1995)

15 - But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.

Image by Thomas from Pixabay

Seeing that our Creator is a spiritual being, and when we are in Him we are also spiritual beings, we are able to appraise, or to use a more unfavorable word, judge, all things. (I thought that chicken looked pretty judgmental to me. what do you think? Ha, ha.) What does this mean? In simple language it means that we are able to look at everything around us and discern what is actually happening. For instance, the things that are happening in our country are looked at political and idealogical differences, but one who has the Spirit of God, knows there is a spiritual element to these things. Of course if we speak that, we are seen as even more ridiculous and unaware. What is most concerning to me is the disparity in the church. We know it is okay to have differences of opinion, but when that turns into anger, and anger turns into hate, then as people with God’s Spirit we need to step back and recognize the spiritual side of things.

With regard to the second half of that verse, we are appraised by no one. In other words, people can judge us on the outside. If I commit a crime I will go to court and be sentenced, but only God judges our eternal soul. Only He knows where we are at spiritually. That, to me, is why it is important to get to know people and have dialogue with people. We may find we have a lot more in common than we do differences.

16a - For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him?

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There is not one person on this planet that knows the mind of the Lord to the extent that he is able to instruct Him. God doesn’t have to be teachable. He knows everything. The theological word for this characteristic is omniscient. It is not just knowing things like 2+2=4, or that all matter is made up of atoms, and all the other billions of bytes of data in the world. Omniscience includes an awareness, understanding and insight. God doesn’t just know stuff, He knows us. Isn’t that mind bending? Read through Psalm 139. God knows our thoughts, when we lay down, when we rise, where we go, what we are going to say, and the very condition of our heart. He knows every child ever used in the sex trade. He knows every tumor rooting itself in a human’s body. He knows where your lost cat is. He knows the pain you carry deep beneath your smiling exterior.

To the natural man, this doesn’t make sense. In fact, it may be the case they don’t want it to make sense. Knowing that there is a being who knows your every thought, your every pain, your every dark sin is too much. The crazy part is, He knows all that and still He loves us. He loves you, and He wants you, every single bit…the good, the bad, and the dark ugly.

16b - But we have the mind of Christ.

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Perhaps it is because I have the mind of Christ that as I have been typing this I want to fall to my knees and cry. Not only to shed tears for so many who are hurting, angry, and lost, but for my own wretched soul. He has done it all. He has provided a way when there was no way. He provided a light in the darkness, a path through rocky mountain slopes; food for my peckish soul and water for my dried up heart. He has done it all, and I have nothing to boast about, except in Him.

Mulling it Over - Romans 8:29

We are working our way through Romans chapter 8. I know I have taken a long time to get through this passage, but it has been worth the plodding pace. There is so much in this chapter to chew on, so like our friend the cow, we will continue to ruminate on this a few verses at a time until we are done.

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Today’s verse is one that has been included in what I like to call the predestination/freewill debate. I am no theologian, but I am a believer in a powerful and mysterious God, who can be beyond my human comprehension. In fact, I prefer it that way. He is beyond our complete comprehension and understanding. He gives us enough information to know His unchanging character, His complete and boundless love, His merciful forgiveness, and His long suffering patience. I do not need to know every single thing about Him, or completely understand his ways.

“8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

— Isaiah 55:8-9 (NASB 1995)

I have always believed that the most important aspect of the Scriptures are the Gospels of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is pointing forward to the necessity of a Savior, and the New Testament is the fulfillment of the prophecies and the subsequent start of the church. I most definitely agree that all of Scripture is the inspired Word of God and all of it is important and we can learn from it, thus the reason I am spending so much time on these different passages, even the pieces that may not be easily explainable.

“29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; ”

— Romans 8:29 (NASB 1995)

Let’s dive in to this verse phrase by phrase.

For those whom He foreknew…

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It is no stretch of the imagination to understand that God is all knowing. We could read all the books in the world and still not have a fraction of the knowledge He has. That doesn’t mean He just knows everything about the universe and how it all stays in place and was put together, but he knows you and I.

I have been doing a personal study on Psalm 139, a passage I have long loved. I shared some thoughts on the first three verses on a Faith Inspiration post recently. (Click on the link to go directly to that post.) From that psalm we learn how much God knows us, and it isn’t just current knowledge, it is from the foundation of the world. To say “those whom He foreknew” makes perfect sense. He knew each and everyone of us from the beginning of time.

He also predestined…

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This is where, for some people, things get sticky. There are basically two theological points of view that underly the predestination/freewill debate: Calvinism and Arminianism. I am choosing to not go into details on those two points of view. A good comparison of Biblical texts that are controversial between the two can be seen here. You can also look up each and see what their basic points are if you are not familiar with them.

However, let me make clear, God is the one who gives us knowledge and understanding. It is important to search things out ourselves and ask for God’s wisdom and direction when looking at different passages. I think things are pretty clear when it comes to sin, Christ’s role in atoning for our sin, and our need to believe in the work of Christ on the cross and His resurrection to have eternal life. Also, if a person leans one way or the other, does not mean they are not saved.

Remember, God is God. He is almighty. He is beyond our finite minds to understand. There is most certainly a way for Him to predestine something, and also give us freewill to choose. The key is to not get hung up on it.

…to become conformed to the image of His son…

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I think the important point here is what follows the word predestined. What did God predestine us to do? To become conformed to the image of His son. Isn’t this what God wants for everyone? He wants all of us to accept His son as our savior, and be conformed to His likeness. He wants all of us to look like Jesus. Christ left us the Holy Spirit to make this possible.

You might be thinking, there is no way I can be perfect, but God knows that. The fact that we are still in our flesh means we will continue to struggle until the day He takes us home, but we do have the power and strength through Him to become more and more like Jesus.

…so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren…

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Jesus is not only our savior, but our brother. We become His brothers and sisters when we believe in Him and call God our Father. When Christ died for us and rose again He became the firstborn among all of us who believe, meaning we will all, like Him have eternal life and rise from the dead by the power and might of the Father above. Indeed, there will be many brothers and sisters because of our belief in the finished work of Christ, not what we believe about predestination or freewill.

Next month we will look into verse 30 and learn more about the process God uses to draw us to Himself, make us His own even though we are sinners and bring us to future glory.

I hope you will join me then.