Josiah, the Tenderhearted (July 17)

Sin Is Always Against God (July 20)

SIN IS ALWAYS AGAINST GOD (JULY 20) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/sin-always-against-god-july-20/ "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9). WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE GREATEST MOTIVATION TO AVOID SIN? For most people, it would be the prospect of terrible things happening to them in this life as a consequence of their sin. (“If I steal drugs from the hospital and get caught, my nursing license will be revoked.”) A thing may be wrong in principle and should be avoided simply because it is wrong, but most of the time we are more concerned about the consequences of getting caught. But Joseph had the right idea in Genesis 39:9. Tempted to indulge in sin with his employer’s wife, he not only said no, but he said no for the very highest reason: “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” He was a young man at the time of this story, but even at that age he understood that sin is always against God. Yes, it may damage other people horribly, and yes, we may damage ourselves with consequences that follow us for the rest of our lives — but with or without those consequences, sin is always a dishonor to the love of the God who made us. We may see ourselves as being nice people. We may treat our friends and loved ones well, avoiding most of the obvious things that would have bad consequences in our relationships. Our good reputation and the love of so many who know us may testify to the fact that we are decent people for whom sin is not a major problem. But sin is a problem we are all involved in (Romans 3:23). When we recognize that sin is a violation (even privately) of what we know to be God’s will, it is clear that we are not innocent — not a single one of us. And if the gospel is about the forgiveness of our sins and the restoration of a right relationship with God, it is also clear that we all need the gospel. We can’t be forgiven without it. The temporal consequences of sin are certainly serious, and I, of all people, would not advise you to disregard those. But the eternal consequences are far greater. And the fact that, as Joseph knew, sin is always against God should weigh more heavily in our thinking than any social consideration. Separation from God is the worst of the worst things that can happen. And the best of the best news is that in the gospel God is willing to bring us back to Him. "Sin is essentially a departure from God" (Martin Luther). Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

When We Don’t Want To Be Delivered (July 19)

WHEN WE DON’T WANT TO BE DELIVERED (JULY 19) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/when-we-dont-want-delivered-july-19/ "Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness" (Exodus 14:12). HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT DELIVERANCE FROM TROUBLE IS OFTEN A GREAT BOTHER? Our present situation may not be ideal, but compared to the hardship of getting out of it, it sometimes looks like the lesser of two evils. Perhaps the best thing would be just to tolerate the status quo. After all, it may get better eventually. When Moses agreed to return to Egypt and deliver the people of Israel from their slavery in that land, he had some difficulty getting them to accept him as their deliverer. But the real trouble began after they got out into the desert and realized how hard it was going to be, even with God’s help, to make the trek to Canaan. “Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” From our perspective, we can see the foolishness of their thinking. They were completely out of touch with how desperately they needed to be delivered from Egypt. If they had seen the seriousness of their situation, they would have accepted any hardship in the process of being rescued. In the modern culture of wealth, progress, and comfort, very few people see the need to be saved from anything that might be called “sin.” The motto of modernism might be this: “We’ve still got a few wrinkles left to iron out, but we’re doing pretty well.” Occasionally, however, people do see the truth about their separation from God. Yet they don’t find the cure proposed by the gospel very appealing. When they realize that God intends to completely rebuild their character from the inside out (with radical surgery instead of bandages and pain relievers), their reply is much the same as Israel’s — leave us alone; we don’t want to be delivered. So a choice has to be made. We can stay where we are, which is easier (at least in the short term), or we can let the Great Deliverer begin to break our chains. Between now and eternity, there is a “wilderness” that will have to be traversed. But even the wilderness is part of an extraordinarily good plan to set us free. "Many of our troubles are God dragging us, and they would end if we would stand upon our feet and go whither he would have us" (Henry Ward Beecher). Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

God Heard Their Cry (July 18)

GOD HEARD THEIR CRY (JULY 18) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/god-heard-their-cry-july-18/ ". . . and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God" (Exodus 2:23). IT HAD BEEN FOUR HUNDRED YEARS SINCE THE DAYS WHEN JOSEPH ENJOYED THE FAVOR OF PHARAOH, AND IN THE INTERIM THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL HAD BEEN ENSLAVED BY THE EGYPTIANS. In the grief of their bondage and hard labor, they cried out to God — and God heard their cry. We all know the story of Moses being sent by God to deliver Israel from Egypt and lead them to freedom. Whether we are students of the Old Testament, the New Testament, or both, we’ve heard the word “salvation” many times. But the word has become a term with such religious overtones, we may forget the basic meaning of it. To “save” is to “rescue.” I well remember when I was a boy that Mike Williams, my best friend at the time, saved me from drowning. I had dived off the high diving board, had the wind knocked out of me, and was floundering. Mike saw it, quickly swam over, and pulled me to safety. In other words, he “rescued” me (and still it makes me nervous to think what would have happened had he not acted so quickly). When God heard Israel’s desperate cry, He sent them a rescuer, a deliverer — in other words, a “savior.” Moses did for them what they were helpless to do for themselves; he pulled them out of a very bad situation. And it was God who made the arrangements, He being moved by compassion for their groaning. Physical slavery is horrible, but the truth is, we’ve all been in a much worse slavery. Jesus put it very plainly: “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). And unlike physical slavery, slavery to sin reaches into eternity and produces a plight too terrible to contemplate — if we are not rescued from it. But, of course, that is exactly what the gospel is about. God has sent us a Deliverer, and we, like Israel in Egypt, have to decide whether to trust that our Deliverer is telling us the truth about His mission. Israel’s rescue was by God’s grace. So is ours. As with theirs (Exodus 12), ours depends on doing certain things God requires before He delivers us (Acts 2:37,38). The gospel must be obeyed to be effective, but it starts with a heart honest enough to cry for help. Speak to him, thou, for he hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet -- Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. (Alfred, Lord Tennyson) Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

Josiah, the Tenderhearted (July 17)

JOSIAH, THE TENDERHEARTED (JULY 17) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/josiah-tenderhearted-july-17/ "'. . . because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,' declares the Lord" (2 Kings 22:19 NASB). WHEN KING JOSIAH HEARD WHAT GOD HAD PROMISED TO DO IF ISRAEL BECAME UNFAITHFUL, HE WAS STRICKEN WITH GRIEF. A godly man himself, Josiah might have hoped he would be spared the horrors of what was going to happen, but it didn’t matter. If the nation was going to suffer, that was cause for great sorrow. God put it this way: “Your heart was tender and you humbled yourself . . . you have torn your clothes and wept before Me.” Unfortunately, that is not the response that is typical when people are confronted with the reality of God’s judgment upon sin. One dictionary defines “tenderhearted” as “easily moved by another’s distress; compassionate” (AHD). By that definition, Josiah was tenderhearted. If he had been one of the few godly members left in the congregation at Sardis (Revelation 3:4), he would still have been torn with agony to hear the Lord say to the group as a whole, “I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead” (v.1). Tenderhearted people are grieved when others (family, community, church, nation, etc.) are in sin. But as important as this point is, there is another that is even more so. When it becomes obvious that we ourselves are among the unfaithful, what is our response? Do we repent or do we retaliate? Hearing the statement of the gospel that we are under the penalty of death for our sins, are we tenderhearted enough to cry out with those on Pentecost, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37,38), or will we, like the crowd that murdered Stephen after he charged them with sin by his presentation of the gospel (Acts 7:54-60), attack the messenger because we are offended by the message? The gospel “breaks” all of us. Some are broken by the honest recognition of their sin, and in their sorrow they embrace the gospel of God’s forgiveness. Others are broken by an anger and defensiveness that leads only to destruction. O God, please break us in such a way that You may heal us and give us Your eternal life. "We must be broken into life" (Charles R. Raven). Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

Wholehearted Repentance vs. Pretense (July 16)

WHOLEHEARTED REPENTANCE VS. PRETENSE (JULY 16) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/wholehearted-repentance-pretense-july-16/ "Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 3:10). AS CHILDREN, WE SOMETIMES EXCUSED OUR FAILURE TO KEEP A PROMISE BY SAYING THAT WE “HAD OUR FINGERS CROSSED.” The promise was not binding (we said) because we didn’t really mean it, as indicated by the secret crossing of our fingers. A lawyer would say the contract was not a “bona fide” (“good faith”) commitment — we never intended to do what we said. In the days of Jeremiah, the people in Jerusalem and Judah had become guilty of idolatry just like the ten northern tribes of Israel. Having been called to repentance by the preaching of the prophets, there had been occasional reforms, but the repentance had not been genuine or thorough. “Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.” Were their fingers crossed when they said they would return to God? Did they not even intend to repent? We don’t know. But in any case, the Lord said they did not return to Him with a “whole heart.” The person lacking a “whole heart” is one whose mind is not made up. He may not be deliberately dishonest in the statement of what he plans to do, but his plans are complicated by doubts. Like a man in a wedding ceremony who pledges to love his wife with “all his heart” but has not really closed the door of his heart to a previous relationship, the people of Judah only pretended that they had put away every “god” except God. The opposite of wholeheartedness is double-mindedness. It is the problem of the person whose mind is torn between competing loyalties — and it is a problem we are told to get rid of. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8). There is no damage to our souls that Christ cannot repair. But He will not be manipulated by fake repentance on our part. If we expect His forgiveness and help, we’d better lay it all down before Him, with extreme honesty. No exceptions and no excuses will be allowed, and if we have in mind anything other than complete repentance, we’d better not insult Him by saying that we’re sorry. "Christ can do wonders with a broken heart if He is given all the pieces" (Old Saying). Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com