Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #403: Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

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Questions: Have you ever seen something to which others were blind? Have you ever understood something so plainly but no matter how hard you tried, you could not enable others to understand?

My suspicion is that you have.

Teaching: In the Christian worldview, we understand why this is: God has to grant spiritual sight. God has to grant spiritual hearing. Otherwise, people remain blind and deaf to God’s truth.

Here is the way Paul illustrates this truth: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).

And in 1 Cor 1:18, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

And Jesus’ words are even more cutting: “but you [the spiritually blind and deaf] do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:26-27).

Encouragement: One of the countless joys of the Christian worldview is that it humbles people. None of us deserves saving; we’re all sinners by nature and by choice, “[b]ut God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5).

The Bible does not say that we were doing kind of so-so, just okay, or even limping along. No; it says we were dead. Dead people don’t regenerate themselves. They’re dead. Ergo, when anyone is born again, granted spiritual eyes to see and spiritual ears to hear, it is 100% of God’s sovereign grace.

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #402: To Give You the Victory

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To give you the victory.

Text:

When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ (Deuteronomy 20:1-4)

Questions:

  • What’s your initial reaction/gut instinct when you have a battle on your hands?
  • What does Scripture say about where the Christian’s reliance should be?

Context, Context, Context: In the passage above from Deuteronomy 20, God is instructing Moses. About what? Warfare. God, knowing all things and knowing how people instinctively react, teaches Moses some fundamentals about whom and what to rely upon when facing battles.

  • First, fear not. That comes straight from verse 1: “. . . you shall not be afraid of them”
  • Second, God teaches Moses why he is not to fear. It comes right there in verse 1, too: “. . . for the LORD your God is with you.” God is there–always.
  • Third, know that it is God who grants the victory. Deuteronomy 20:4 reads, “for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”

Encouragement: I have no idea where you are today in terms of spiritual warfare. What I do know, however, is that spiritual warfare is inevitable: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). But if you are in Christ, dear ones, victory belongs to the Lord. Keep short accounts with the Lord, work hard, and trust God for the results.

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #401: Godly Leadership

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Text:

When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold (Deuteronomy 17:14-17).

Questions:

  • What does the Bible teach about the importance of godly leaders?
  • What traits should be present?
  • What traits should be absent?
  • What possible dangers lurk when people have wicked rulers?
  • What blessings come via godly leaders?

Teaching: In the text above from Deuteronomy 17, God instructs Moses in all these issues so that he would model godly leadership. Peruse the text and see if you don’t see all of these things:

  • God blesses godly leadership. Leadership is inevitable. Someone will always take charge. The only question is, What kind of leader will he be?
  • The leader is to be “whom the Lord your God will choose” (Dt 17:15).
  • The leader is to be out for the team rather than out for self. The leader “must not acquire many horses for himself,” the text says in verse 16. In other words, if you see the leader using his position for his own agrandizement, “Houston, we have a problem.”
  • The leader is to be modest rather than self-absorbed. That’s what verse 17 teaches, namely, that the leader shall not “acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.”

Encouragement: It’s cliche for a reason: Organizations rise or fall based upon the quality of their leadership. “[I]f the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Ps 11:3). Let us be a discerning people who inculcate godly leadership.

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #400: For Your Good

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Text:

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

Moses was summarizing the main points of God’s covenantal nature for Israel’s hearing. As the shepherd of the flock, a picture of Christ and his church, Moses shouldered an immense responsibility. He was charged with leading a people but to lead them in God’s ways. Why? For their good.

That’s the phrasing that Scripture uses in Deuteronomy 10:13. God does what he does for our good, for the good of his people, because God is good, and what God does is good.

But did you notice how the first section of the text above begins? Did you catch the first requirement God has for his people? We are to fear the Lord. Why? Because that is the beginning of wisdom. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Pr 9:10a).

It’s when we don’t revere the Lord that we fall into sin. Sin festers, infects, and destroys when we fear men as ultimate rather than fearing God.

But God is not a cosmic killjoy. That is the opposite of what Scripture reveals. For God’s people, Scripture teaches that in God’s presence is fullness of joy (Ps 16:11). That’s the way the human story began. We had fellowship with God. We walked with God. Eden was not just a real geographical location in the ancient Near East but it was a picture of what man was created for–fellowship with God and a creation fit for him that he was to steward. God had provided everything and pronounced it good. Moreover, God had created for man a helper suitable/fit for him, namely, the woman. And there you have the paradigm: a husband and wife, commanded to be fruitful and multiply, and to fill the earth as stewards responsible to God. And it was done for their good.

Encouragement: But the nature of sin is to thumb one’s nose at the wisdom of God’s ways and to believe the liar and father of lies. Yet God, being rich in mercy, has determined to save a people for himself: “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—” (Eph 2:5). God is the great rescuer of us spiritual rebels. And he does it all for our good and his glory. Those two things–our good and his glory–are inextricable.

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #399: Why the ‘Shema’ Matters

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Text:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Dt 6:4-9)

This was one of the first passages I committed to memory in my years of studying Scripture. It’s the Shema. That is from the Hebrew word for “Hear.” The emphasis here (pun intended) is upon hearing the Word of God and doing it. It’s the same principle Paul labors in Romans 10 where he writes, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17).

Hear the Word and do the Word. The principle recurs in James’ letter, too: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas 1:22). Hear but then do.

The Shema matters because it is the map for discipleship.

And the Lord teaches his people why this hearing and doing of the Word is crucial: “for the LORD your God [is] in your midst” (Dt 6:15). God is always present. When we experience that reality in our bones, it changes our heart, nature, mind, will, and affections.

Oftentimes I think we suppress that knowledge, just as Paul teaches in Romans 1: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom 1:18). That’s the default position of the rebel: suppression of the truth of God.

Encouragement: God is “in the midst,” dear ones. Wherever you are, God is there. He is inescapable. Therefore, let God’s people both hear his Word and do his Word. Trust God with the results, because we will give an account (Rom 14:12).

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #398: You Have Lacked Nothing

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Text:

“For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing” (Deuteronomy 2:7).

Context, Context, Context: Moses is leading the people “into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea” (Dt 2:1). He reminds Israel of the basics–God’s nature, God’s attributes regarding his steadfastness, his providence, his care, his being with them, his sovereignty. (The basics are called that for a reason; they’re the foundation upon which God’s people are to build and live. If we have wrong ideas about God, we invariably will have wrong ideas about people.) So Moses reminds the people constantly of basic theology–the fundamentals of God and his attributes.

And then Moses unpacks it for them even more by reminding them that God “knows your going through this great wilderness” (v. 7a). Let’s unpack that. In short, Moses reminds them that nothing escapes God’s knowledge. He is, after all, omniscient. He knows the people are in the wilderness. They are there because of their sin and recalcitrance, but also because God is teaching them about himself via his servant Moses.

Then in the second half of verse 7, Moses reminds them, “These forty years the LORD your God has been with you.” See the pattern? The immanence of God. All that means is that God has dwelled in the midst of his people. They’ve not been alone or just stuck with each other. God has been there all along, laboring to teach them via his servant Moses.

And then in the last clause of verse 7, Moses reminds them that they have “lacked nothing.”

Encouragement: Ever felt like you were in a spiritual wilderness? Ever felt caught between Migdol and the sea? Of course; we all have. Therefore, let us return to this basic and fundamental truth: We lack nothing because God is in the midst.

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #397: Importance of Biblical Imagery

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Text: “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart” (Pr 3:3).

Context, Context, Context: Like all the book of Proverbs, this is instruction in practical wisdom for everday living. The first part of the verse provides the negative, what not to do. Solomon, writing under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, tells his son to not to be the type of person who shirks steadfastness and faithfulness.

The seond part of the verse provides the positive, to bind those things like a necklace. Solomon says to “bind them around [our] neck; write them on the tablet of [our] heart.”

That imagery is so helpful. Why? Because we can all visualize it. We’re to don faithfulness and steadfastness upon us to such a degree that they become our custom, our habit (in the sense of a garment, too).

Then Solomon provides even more imagery to drive the point home. He says we are to “write them on the tablet of [our] heart.” The core of our nature in the biblical worldview is the heart. It’s the seat of what Edwards calls our “affections,” or our desires, will, mind, and emotions. When God’s law is written upon the heart of a person, the person is changed by divine, sovereign grace.

Encouragement: Last night before my wife and I retired to bed for the night, I was telling her about a friend of mine at work. I said, “Every time he and I are together, I just feel better. You can feel Jesus on him.” She knows well of whom I was speaking. She and I love this man, and it just so happens that he and my wife share the same childhood hometown. Why does my friend affect me and others the way he does? Well, he lives out Proverbs 3:3; it’s that simple. What a blessing.

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #396: A Novel, Ladybug, & a Full Moon

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Morrison’s Song of Solomon is a beautiful, painful, well-crafted narrative of, well, dark times in America’s past. I am not quite through with it yet, but I cannot praise it quite enough.

I laid it down on the table beside my reading chair and took Ladybug out to do her thing before our bedtime.

When I did, she and I remained outside for a few moments. As she went off under the trees to do her thing, I gazed at the moon high above the oaks.

And Psalm 8 ran through my soul.

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #395: The Lie: Sinners’ Damning Superpower

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Introduction: Ever realized this reality, namely, that we humans have a ‘superpower’? It’s the power of being able to lie. We sinners, dear ones, can do something God cannot: lie.

Why This Matters: There’s a passage in Numbers 23 that is so encouraging to Christians. It’s this: God cannot lie.

Text: God is not man, that he should lie,
    or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
    Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19)

Teaching: Balaam finally started to get his life right. He finally started to serve God rather than Satan. The truth is freeing. That’s what Jesus was teaching:

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

Encouragement: The Christ-follower will be known via his transparency, his veracity, his truthfulness. Sinners’ ‘superpower’ (the ability to lie) is not one to cultivate; it is one to see for the evil it is. Balaam was finally figuring this out in Numbers 23, and we do well to learn as he did.

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #394: Lessons from Balaam

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Introduction: It’s a story as old as time itself–one of moral corruption and its costs.

The story is found in Number 22-24. It’s the story of a morally compromised pagan seer/magician of sorts (Balaam), a wicked king (Balak), a talking donkey, and the holiness of God.

Question: What are the costs of corruption at the top of any organization?

Context, Context, Context: The wicked people of Moab feared Israel. Why? Because God had demonstrated time and again that he was determined to save a particular people and deliver them into a land promised to them. And God always keeps his covenant promises. God, unlike sinners, cannot lie.

Wicked Balak thought he’d buy God’s favor. How? With money. He’d simply pay Balaam to curse Israel and bless Moab. Simple enough, right? This is an old, old story: “If you do this nice thing for me, I’ll be sure to reward you via _______.” That’s a very old story indeed. It’s the nature of pagan people. There’s no fear of God, and thus corruption increases.

As first, Balaam seems to be above the fray. He does not give in to Balak’s offer. But then Balak increases the offer: “Once again Balak sent princes, more in number and more honorable than these” (Num 22:15). And you might guess what happened next. “So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab” (Num 22:21). In other words, he succumbed to the bribe by a wicked ruler to curse a people God had determined to bless. In sum, Balaam chose to defy God.

Teaching: The ironies of Numbers 22 are myriad. It’s the donkey that rebukes the so-called seer/magician Balaam. It’s the beast who schools the man. The donkey can see the angel of the LORD and bows down, but the man who’s supposedly the seer is blind as a bat. Balaam strikes his donkey repeatedly, but it’s Balaam who is stubborn, blind, and recalcitrant, not the donkey.

Encouragement: God taught Balaam a valuable lesson, namely, that God’s blessings are not for sale. Our duty as believers is to be faithful to the Lord and not forfeit our souls for fame, money, or power. God is not mocked.