July 31, 2024

Micah 6.8 (NIV)

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth.*

When I am learning how to do something new, I like step-by-step, written procedures. Even if it’s only three steps, I’d rather see them spelled out. Micah says that God has shown us what is good and he tells us how to accomplish it in our lives. We don’t have to guess how; here he presents our procedures, setting “the highest standards for godly living.”*

Micah is addressing people who have been going through the motions of religion. They were offering extravagant sacrifices but weren’t leading lives of obedience – like people today who attend church and tithe while they also cheat - on their income taxes, on their wives, at their jobs. Instead of being valuable, their offerings had become “odious to God.”*

Not only must we act justly, we must love mercy – which speaks to a whole other level of commitment. To act justly may not involve emotional involvement but loving mercy requires us to be merciful without regret, resentment, or coercion. Walking with God requires action – obedience – but to walk humbly with him requires us to examine ourselves so that we conform our thoughts to his.

Perhaps this verse is less a list of actions and more a “trio of attitudes.”* If we make an effort to put on these attitudes, we will begin to establish a lifestyle that is pleasing to God.

True spirituality isn’t achieved through keeping a rigid formula.*

July 30, 2024

Jonah 4.10, 11 (NIV)

“You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people . . . Should I not be concerned about that great city?”

If you want to be used by God, you must care about what God cares about; what he cares about most is the redemption of the people he made.*

I once went to a lot of trouble to deliver a dog to my son and daughter-in-law, only to have them decide the next day that they couldn’t keep him. I had only “known” the dog for a week but that day as I made the 8-hour drive back home alone, I cried for that poor homeless pooch. (He went to a rescue shelter and then to a good home but . . .)

I’m not so different from Jonah who was angry over the loss of a weed. (At least my concern was for something that could show affection!) But where is my concern for orphans and the homeless and the lost? How often do I cry for them?

As God points out Jonah’s pettiness he also showcases our own. How can we be small-minded when souls are at stake? We certainly expect God to show his grace and mercy to us, don’t we?

Men vainly pretend to piety who are defective in justice and charity.*

July 29, 2024

Obadiah 15 (NIV)

“As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your head.”

Although he’s extremely patient with us, one day he will hold us accountable for how we’ve lived.*

Verse one of Obadiah clearly states that God is addressing Edom – not me or you. But the principle in this verse can be found in other places in the Bible, so we can safely apply its message to ourselves.

 

We automatically interpret this verse with a negative spin. We don’t think of the phrases “as you have done” and “your deeds” as neutral terms, neither good nor bad; but in II Corinthians 5.10, Paul writes, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” (Emphasis added.)

If we have not lived a righteous life, Paul’s words and God’s words to Obadiah could leave us with a sense of dread. But if we have lived our lives washed in the blood of Christ, we have nothing to fear. Our bad deeds will be erased from our record and only our good deeds will return upon our heads!

We can’t prevent God’s judgment but we can be saved from it.*

July 28, 2024

Amos 5.24 (NIV)

“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it.*

We know people who always do what they should. No more. No less. Maybe you are one of those people. Sometimes I’m that person. It can’t be said that we aren’t dutiful and responsible – but that’s not really enough, is it? So how should we define what is enough? 

God’s law isn’t just a list of “dos and don’ts.” It’s about the attitude of your heart. Jesus introduced the concept of “going the extra mile” in Matthew 5.41. When we do what we have to do, we are certainly obeying the letter of the law. When we perform more than just the bare minimum requirement, we are demonstrating that we have made a better choice – and it is likely that our hearts are more deeply involved in the action. 

This is the attitude that God wants us to have in our treatment of others. Treating people justly shows that we are obedient and faithful. But God wants our justice to be lavish – like his. “Justice cannot be a creek that goes dry part . . . of the year. It needs to be year-round, all encompassing.”*

  

Justice is not the same as mercy but God wants our justice to be merciful. “Let it be pure as running waters, not muddied with corruption or whatever may pervert justice.”*

When justice is missing, concern for others is missing.*

July 27, 2024

Joel 2.13 (NIV)

Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

The outward expressions of sorrow must spring from within.*

Maybe you have experienced such great sorrow for your sins that you have demonstrated it in dramatic ways. Tearing your clothes, loud weeping, and even self-mutilation are examples of outward signs of being sorry for your sins. Without some external sign of repentance, who would know that you have repented? But acting like you’re sorry can be – well . . . just an act. God knows your heart and you can’t fool him by putting on a good show.

But did you realize that your repentance can cause God to repent? According to Joel, if God’s people returned to him, he would relent from his plans for them. This should cause us to repent, not out of fear of his judgment, but because of God’s compassion and willingness to relent. And you should do it soon because “slow to anger” does not equal “never to anger.” There is an expiration date on his patience.

Focusing on the wonderful sacrificial death of Christ just naturally causes us to examine our own hearts, our sinfulness, our unworthiness, and our need for deeper commitment to the One who died for us.*

July 26, 2024

Hosea 9.10 (NIV)

When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your fathers, 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.

We become good or bad according to what we admire.*

Have you ever known a sweet, adorable child who grew up into a despicable adult? You wonder whatever happened to all that goodness. Is that child still in there somewhere or has he been totally replaced by another being? Hosea reports a similar sentiment in God’s words about his people. They went from being refreshing and juicy in a place where they were “most needed” and “least expected”* to being perverted and disgusting before the holiness of God.

How easy it is for Satan to lead us down this same path to degeneracy. One compromise after another until what we used to consider vile is now perfectly acceptable. You think it hasn’t happened to you? What is your favorite TV show? What do you spend your money on? Where do you go in your spare time? What amuses you? Do you really want to become as vile as the things you love?

The devil gets into the garden wherever the fence is the lowest.*

July 25, 2024

Daniel 6.10 (NIV)

Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the window opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.

Integrity is the ability to choose faithfulness while resisting compromise.*

Daniel’s jealous Babylonian colleagues knew that the only way to trap Daniel was through his religion. They appealed to the king’s vanity and persuaded him to pass a law that for the next 30 days, anyone who prayed to anyone or anything other than the king would be tossed to the lions.

Because of his status in the government, Daniel probably was one of the first to hear of the decree, allowing him time to start scheming a way out. Daniel could have tried to use his political clout to expose the agenda of the officials; he could have prayed in secret for the next month; but Daniel did not compromise. He was not required by the Law to pray at any particular time, at any assigned place, or in any specific position, but it was his habit to pray three times a day, in his room, on his knees. So, in spite of the new law, three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, thanking God just as he had always done.

It is ironic that Daniel was appointed to his position of responsibility because of his integrity and now it was the very thing that was being used against him. He shows us how to remain faithful in the midst of a hostile environment and how to “live with and serve people who do not share or respect [our] beliefs.”* He may have been tempted to compromise in order to save his life but he clung to his faith in the God he worshipped and obeyed.

When Christians believe God placed them in their community to transform it for his glory and respond by committing themselves to prayer, holy living, and sacrificial service, there is no limit to the amount of change God can bring about.*

EXTRA SPLASH “[Daniel] is among the few Bible characters against whom no flagrant sin is recorded.”*

July 24, 2024

Daniel 3.17, 18 (NIV)

“If we are thrown into the . . . furnace, the God we serve is able to save us . . . But even if he does not, . . . we will not serve your gods .”

I want to shine like gold, but I don’t like the fire.*

This passage has been one of my favorites for many years, ever since I heard a sermon based on it. One line that the preacher kept repeating spoke powerfully to me: “I am expecting God to do great things. But what if he doesn’t?” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were sure that God could save them from the fire. They also knew that he might choose not to; even so, they would not bow to false gods.

God used these verses to speak to me at a time when every day seemed a little worse than the one before. He helped me to determine in my heart that I would not bow down and worship the god of defeat. I knew that God was able to deliver me from my personal fiery furnace but I also learned that he could be glorified in my defeat if I was strong in my faith.

My God is able to deliver me, but even if he doesn’t, I will still praise him. 

Those that pray in faith may rejoice in hope.*

July 23, 2024

Ezekiel 22.30 (NIV)

“I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none."

Intercessory prayer is . . . the one way that a single believer, limited to one place and one moment of time can affect ministries around the globe.*

The gap to which Ezekiel refers is in the “moral wall that protected Judah from judgment.”* He was looking for someone who was willing to stand in the weak place in the wall to keep sin out; but no one was willing. Whose job is it to guard the wall today?

Remember the recycling slogan: “Think globally; act locally”? It works that way in the Kingdom of God, as well. Each of us does what we can where we can, trying to make a difference within our own sphere of influence. Some are called to ministry beyond their corner of the world but some of us, in the words of another writer, “have been called to stand at the boundary between the church and the world, that place where the local congregation touches the local culture, and ensure that the culture feels the impact of the church and that the church feels the hurts of the world.”*

When we are trying to determine our calling, “border agent” isn’t a job that usually come to mind* but that is exactly our function if we are not called to “professional” ministry. We help to protect the church from the influence of the world while making sure that the world is influenced by the church. But more than that, we must be willing to stand in the gap and intercede for the sinners to God.

What was Jesus doing in the final hours of his life? What pressed urgently on his heart? . . . his final assault on the kingdom of darkness . . . was not a miracle or a sermon to the multitudes, but a prayer for the church.*

July 22, 2024

Ezekiel 13.10 (NIV)

“They lead my people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, . . . and when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash.”

Are we going to preach a biblical message or a popular message?*

A coat of whitewash might improve the appearance of a wall but it doesn’t add to its strength. In the same way, we think we are being nice when we tell people what they want to hear. While there is nothing wrong with being sensitive to another’s feelings, lying to them is inexcusable.

One of God’s least favorite things is prophesying falsely. False prophets wanted to make everyone happy and to be liked, while true prophets told it like it was going to be, regardless of how they may have dreaded their audience’s reaction. Watering down the message to make it more palatable wasn’t going to change their future.

Do all false prophets know that they are leading people astray? Perhaps not always. But teachers and preachers beware! Paul says in Galatians 1.9 that if anyone is preaching any other gospel, “let him be eternally condemned.” He doesn’t make special provisions for those who misspeak out of ignorance.

 

How do we recognize false prophets? We can recognize a counterfeit by knowing the truth. We don’t come to know the truth by passively allowing another to feed us the only nourishment we receive; we have to get out our knives and forks and dig into the meat for ourselves. Compare every message (including this one) to God’s word to determine its truth.

Those are the most dangerous seducers, who suggest to sinners that which tends to lessen their dread of sin, or their fear of God.*