Tag: A Word for Wednesday

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And Voila! A New Ethos!

Misdirection. That’s what it’s called when the magician draws his audience’s attention away from where his trick is occurring. He might use a gesture, for instance, to create a momentary distraction, or instead divert the crowd’s attention to one area while performing his prestidigitation in another. Then with an “abracadabra” and a “presto chango” — behold the new reality! Though part of us wants to believe our eyes and marvel at having witnessed the impossible, we know better. What we really experienced was the mastery of deception.

I believe “the deceiver of the whole world”1 has been misdirecting society over the past several decades in a very specific way. While distracting us with one hand — prosecuting our judgmentalism to the point we fear to discern God’s truth or to speak our convictions — he has, with his other hand, usurped God’s moral law with a new illusory one. What we once recognized as sin is now proudly asserted — and harshly defended — as good. As in Isaiah’s day, we “call evil good and good evil, . . . put darkness for light and light for darkness, . . . put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”2 [Insert your own examples here, for there are many.] Then here is the sinister irony behind all of this: judgmentalism in the new ethos is alive and well, perhaps more harshly than ever. And woe to those who resist this new “morality,” for they shall be canceled. (I speak in a human sense.)

Then how do we live amid such rebellion?

Test yourself. Do you submit to Biblical authority in all matters? Do you feel free to say so when challenged by society? If not, pray that God “grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”3

Don’t be a gullible audience. Acquiescence to falsehood is not peace. Real peace, lasting peace, comes from faith in — and obedience to — Christ Jesus: “The peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.”4

Fight the right enemy. Ours is not to tear down people, even our persecutors, but to love them and fight for them against our common enemy, “the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”5

Fight falsity in a heart of love. Instructing his young protégée Timothy, to command against teaching false doctrines, Paul asserted, “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”6 This is our goal, too.

The new ethos, it is an illusion. Don’t let the master of deception distract you, but keep your eyes on Jesus. He is truth, and before Him all falsehood is exposed.

Father, shine in the darkness; shine brightly through Your people. May darkness be dispelled and hope resurgent wherever we go in Your name. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Revelation 12:9 ESV
2 Isaiah 5:20 NIV
3 Ephesians 3:16 ESV
4 Ephesians 6:12 ESV
5 John 14:27 NLT
6 1 Timothy 1:5 NIV

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How To Drive on a Slippery Slope

Driving down a snow-covered road one winter day, I hit an icy patch and my car began to fishtail. Living in Northern Michigan, I had been emphatically taught how to respond to these situations, but as a 16-year-old driver, I hadn’t had much practice. So, with the back wheels angling off a bit to the right, I appropriately “steered into the skid,” turning my front wheels in the same direction. Unfortunately, I overcompensated, turning them so far to the right that the car fishtailed severely in the opposite direction, completing a full 360-degree spin before slowing enough for me to recover. It was a powerful lesson in overcorrection, and at the mercifully meager cost of momentary fright.

Sometimes we as believers find ourselves skidding in a spiritual sense into judgment of others, holding the transgressor in contempt as harshly as their transgressions, if not more so. But we have been taught how to handle these icy patches, so as our tail-end begins to slide in the wrong direction, we do well to recall this lesson from our Instructor: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged.”1 Echoes James, indignantly, “Who are you to judge?”2 Increasingly, we understand this—we’ve navigated this peril before—so we “steer into our skid,” recalling God’s Word and realigning ourselves in the direction of non-judgmentalism.

But correction can easily lead to overcorrection. Sometimes in our determination not to judge people’s hearts, we “turn the wheels” so far into our skid that we fishtail severely in the opposite direction, reluctant now to call out right from wrong. “Do not judge” effectively devolves into “do not discern.” But didn’t Paul say “the spiritual person judges all things”?3 Yes, for the Greek word he chose in this case does not mean to pass judgment on the words and deeds of others, but rather to examine, evaluate, or discern a matter. To such scrutiny we Christians are called. In fact, this kind of judgment hails as mature “those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”4

We now drive on an increasingly slippery slope amid “those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”5 It is not ours to pass judgment on these—such would be a diversion for us, and only our righteous God knows people’s hearts. Instead, let us discern what is true, good, and right, then unswervingly speak it and live it for the good of the Kingdom and those who desperately seek it.

Father, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.”6 In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Matthew 7:1-2 ESV
2 James 4:12 ESV
3 2 Corinthians 2:15 ESV
4 Hebrews 5:14 ESV
5 Isaiah 5:20 NIV
6 Psalm 119:105-106 NIV

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He Will Lead You

“This is love for God: to keep his commands.” —1 John 5:3 NIV

A few years ago, a pastor friend said of a particular kind of sin, “I’m not so sure that’s a sin any more under the new covenant in Christ.” Aye yai yai! I was stunned. His was but one voice articulating what I perceive to be a troubling trend among believers today: the notion that Jesus’ love tolerates sin (it doesn’t) as if to make it OK (it isn’t). God’s liberating love and grace are far greater—far more empowering and transformational than this. Let’s look.

Our sin is onerous before God; it has been so since our Edenic fall. Indeed, it was our sin that put Jesus, our unblemished sacrifice, on the cross. “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities.”1 He did not come to make us comfortable with sin, but as Him who “takes away the sin of the world!”2 Then, if we have been rescued from the penalty of our sins, are they now OK? “By no means!” exclaimed Paul, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?”3 Sin still exists, and God’s disposition toward it has not changed.

In fact, it is in the context of grace that Jesus tells us to obey God’s commands, and it is only in the power of grace that we can. Jesus taught His disciples, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”4 And Peter exhorts us to appropriate the grace we have received: “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”5 Peter again, “[Jesus] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”6

Then does Scripture put us back under the Law, so as to earn God’s favor through our own power and grit? No, we have neither the natural strength or inclination to do so. Rather just as by grace God’s Son suffered our death, so also by grace His Spirit guides our life. For what God foretold has proved true: “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”7 God’s Spirit, alive in us through faith in Christ, leads us away from sin and onto God’s ways of good and right. Jesus’ love does not tolerate sin; it overcomes its power, both in death and in life. Trust Him, and obey. He will lead you.

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.—
1 John 2:1 NIV

Father, thank You for Your unconquerable love and grace. Open my heart to know Your presence and to follow Your lead. Just for today, I lay aside my will for Yours. And tomorrow, may I do so again. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Isaiah 53:5 ESV
2 John 1:29 ESV
3 Romans 6:1-2 ESV
4 John 14:23 NIV
5 1 Peter 2:16 ESV
6 1 Peter 2:24 ESV
7 Ezekiel 36:26-27 NIV