So…what do we do when the faithful fail? What do we do when we fail, when we slip back into a sin we thought we had left far behind, or when weakness overcomes our faith? There are many who would say that the cleansing of deep regret and overwhelming feelings of guilt are the right response to realign our hearts with the Father. Many of us believe that a sense of shame and guilt and the emotional pain of our failure will keep us from sliding into sin again. But there is an interesting passage in Nehemiah that raises a question about that course.

In the book of Nehemiah we find the prophet in exile. Jerusalem had been sacked and burned and the best and brightest of the Jews deported. When word reached Nehemiah that the city he loved was still devastated with the walls lying in heaps of rubble and the gates burned he cried out to God. God moved King Artaxerxes to allow Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and restore the city. After a remarkable restoration project, the wall and city gates were rebuilt. Nehemiah and the people were certain that all the things that had happened to Israel were because of their sins, so when the wall was completed Nehemiah called for a solemn assembly to re-consecrate the people and the city. Ezra the priest stood and read the Book of the Law to all the people.

The text says, “They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.   Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh.8:8-10).

The natural response of the people to their sin and the righteous standards of their God was to weep as they felt the guilt and shame of their sins and the sins of their fathers. And yet, God instructed them not to weep but to celebrate. This is a clear picture of the difference between condemnation and conviction.

Condemnation is a tool of the enemy that he uses against us when we fail. Condemnation produces shame and shame pushes us away from the Father at the very moment that we need to be drawing close. Remember, Adam and Eve felt shame in the garden at the moment of their sin and the realization of their nakedness. That shame caused them to hide from the Father and to blame others for what they had chosen to do. Satan loves to come and condemn. In response to the enemy’s strategy, Paul declares that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom.8:1).

Shame is the very thing that drives many of us to sin in an effort to cover or medicate our sense of unworthiness. Our unbearable feelings of insignificance, defectiveness, and inadequacy drive many to substance abuse, sexual addictions, comfort eating, and so forth. Condemnation simply increases our shame and our need to medicate so that we get caught in a destructive cycle. Condemnation convinces us that even God can’t love and that being the case … we are on our own. When we are on our own we are dangerous to ourselves and others.

Even in the face of their sins, Israel was commanded to celebrate rather than weep. The celebration was not a statement that their sins did not matter, but rather a recognition that God’s love and grace were greater than their sin. It was a celebration of God’s love and mercy that draws us back to him rather than driving us away.

In the Nehemiah passage, God calls on us to focus on his grace rather than on our failings. Bill Johnson speaks to this when he says, “The real problem is not in what we lack, but how we respond to what God has said. Focusing on our problems more than God’s answers should be a dead giveaway that we’re really dealing with condemnation not the Holy Spirit’s conviction. Focus on God’s answers – not your problems. When the Holy Spirit shows us where we are falling short. The bigger reality is not the areas where we’re not yet walking in our destiny, but the destiny itself…The conviction of the Holy Spirit is actually a call to turn our focus away from our sin and our limitations. He’s saying, ‘You’re made for more than this. Lift your head and set your sights higher’” (Bill Johnson, Strengthen Yourself in the Lord, p.136-137; Destiny Image).

There is a time for godly sorrow, but the sorrow should quickly turn from our self- focus on our weakness to God’s strength, from our unfaithfulness to his faithfulness, from our failures to his victory, and from our discouragement to his grace. The joy of the Lord is our strength. We will have greater victories over sin if we focus on Him rather than us. The constant goodness of God and his willingness to forgive any sin as soon as our heart turns to him is a reason to celebrate. It does no good for us to wallow in our self-loathing or despise ourselves as if beating ourselves emotionally will pay for our sins or convince God of our sorrow. Our sins are already paid for and the proof of repentance is not found in self-loathing but in loving God.

When we fail in our walk with the Lord, we should own it, confess it quickly, and then get on to celebrating God’s goodness and love. There is joy in that and in that joy we find strength for the next stage of our journey wherever we are. Blessings today as you celebrate the goodness and grace of your Savior.

Some of the newest genetic research is revealing the impact of environment and decisions we make on our own genetic structures. This influence on genes is called epigenetics and science is discovering that what we are exposed to or expose ourselves to not only affects our brain structure but actually turns on and turns off certain genes. This effect on genes can also be passed on to our children. What that means is that our children are not born into this world as blank slates ready to be written upon. They bring with them certain predispositions for certain behaviors and probably attitudes that they inherit from parents. What the parents chose to involve themselves in or expose themselves to impacts what is passed on to their children at a genetic level.

In practical terms, if a parent exposes himself to years of pornography, his child will likely have a predisposition toward pornography or addiction at a genetic, cellular level which means that his child may have a real vulnerability or attraction toward that sin as he or she grows up. On the other hand, if a parent exposes himself or herself to the word of God and practices godliness, a child of that parent will have a genetic predisposition toward godliness and will be drawn toward the things and people of God. Epigenetics is in its early stages but research is strongly pointing towards these realities. It means that not just physical characteristics are passed on to children but also behaviors and attitudes may be passed on as well.

This research adds a dimension to God’s declaration in Exodus 20 that the sins of the fathers will be passed down to the children to the third and fourth generations. This verse stands not as a judgment but a warning that what we do will affect who our children are. It’s not that our sin and brokenness cannot be overcome by the blood of the Lamb, but that our destructive and sinful behaviors do not just affect us but our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren as well. Our sins cannot only establish neural pathways that create habits and addictions in our own brains, but make our children vulnerable to the same destructive impulses. That should be a motivation for godly living.

This new research, which simply confirms what many of us suspected anyway, helps to explain why certain scriptures state that God does not punish one person for another’s sins or the children for the sins of the parents and yet other scriptures say that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children. God is not punishing the children but warning us that in some way our sins are passed on to the children.   We know that demonic spirits are given legal rights to family lines through the unrepented sins of “the fathers” but now science is also confirming that our sins or our righteousness affect them at the deepest levels of their genetic makeup.

However, since environments turn on or turn off certain genes, it stands to reason that repentance and a change of lifestyle can also change us at a genetic level so that our predispositions can lose power over us and our children. God is brilliant and has called us to the behaviors that give life not only to ourselves but our descendants. As this research progresses, I am confident that the words we speak will be classified as part of the environment that shapes the expression of our genes. The tongue has the power of life and death. Science does not replace God but simply continues to reveal his wisdom and confirm that he understands our inner workings so well that he must indeed, be the designer and creator of man.

Make good choices today for your sake and the sake of your children and their children! Blessings in Him.

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.         As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:13-17)

I’m always amazed at the impact Jesus had on ordinary men and women and especially “sinners”. In one sense, of course, we are all in that category but scripture often speaks of sinners and those who lived a sinful lifestyle and made no effort to cover it up or repent of it. Typically these people were social outcasts who were not welcome in the homes or synagogues of moral, religious people.

Levi (Matthew) was considered a sinner because he collaborated with the Romans and got rich by collecting taxes above and beyond what the Romans required of Jewish citizens. To the Jews, he seemed like a traitor who got rich off the sufferings and poverty of his own people. Tax collectors were hated. My guess is that Levi wasn’t welcome at the synagogue. His friends were those who shared the same reputation as he did. They essentially had no one else to socialize with. The Romans still saw them as inferior and backward because they were Jews and the Jews saw them as traitorous.

And yet, Jesus walked by and extended an invitation for Levi to be one of his disciples and Levi got up immediately and left his career behind. Not only that, but in celebration of his new found relationship with Rabbi Jesus, he threw a huge party at his house and invited followers of Jesus as well as all of his tax collector friends. The religious leaders of Israel were offended and questioned the righteousness of Jesus because he mingled with the unrighteous. We are not so different.

Look at the people who followed Jesus. Former tax collectors, at least one political terrorist, uneducated men, former demoniacs, perhaps a prostitute, and one swindler who would ultimately betray Jesus. These were not the names you would want to list as your board of directors for a new worldwide evangelistic association. If you think about it, Paul addressed the church in Corinth with a surprising reference to some of their past lifestyles. “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor.6:9-11).

The first century church seemed to be made up of a large number of formerly unsavory characters…the kind we Christians tend to avoid today and mark off as highly unlikely candidates for the gospel. In fact, very few of us would even have contact with the list of lifestyles Paul mentioned. It’s a rare church that would have former drug dealers, strippers, prostitutes, alcoholics, embezzlers, and gang members in their pews because most of us would never present the gospel to someone like that.

But Jesus seemed to move among that social strata with ease…more ease than with the Pharisees. Somehow, Jesus spent time with and developed relationships with these men and women without compromising his standards and without alienating them. In fact, they were much more responsive to the gospel that the moral people of his day.

Of course, reaching those blocks of broken people is not without its challenges. We would wonder if our children were safe around them. We would most likely hear words in our church buildings that might cause us to blush. The scent of alcohol on someone’s breath Sunday mornings would not be uncommon and the church might get to know a few more bail bondsmen that we would like. We would also have to struggle to know how to love homosexuals without approving of their lifestyle and would struggle to even know how to relate at all to transsexuals.

But those are exactly the people Jesus went after. Those were the people who found a home in the church. Those were also the lives that were drastically changed…many of whom died willingly in the face of Roman persecution without recanting their faith. Can you imagine what testimony nights were like in those churches?

I’m thankful that in my church I do know former drug addicts and former drug dealers. I know former prostitutes and former homosexuals. I know former pornography addicts and former criminals. These are the most passionate people I know in the Kingdom of God. These are the most fearless and spiritually gifted people I know and the most evangelistic. They would all tell you that a person who has been forgiven much, loves much (See Luke 7:47). Jesus knew that and he wants us to know it now. I’m going to pray for more opportunities to reach the social strata that Jesus seemed to have such a heart for. Perhaps, you might pray that as well.

Blessings in Him…the one who came slumming for each of us.

In my last blog, we reflected on the accounts of Christ’s birth as presented in the gospels. They barely match the idealized sweetness and serenity of our cultural version. In our scrubbed version, Mary peacefully sees herself as blessed above all women to be carrying the Son of God in her womb and Joseph serenely stands by as her faithful companion. Life is never that easy, even when you have had visitations from angels.

I try to put myself in Joseph’s place when I think of the story and I imagine that there were still questions in his heart about his bride. Did he really have a visitation from an angel or was that a dream manufactured from his subconscious to deal with her unexplained pregnancy? And what of Mary? Did she sense the doubts in her husband? Did they talk about it or just push ahead? Why would she travel so far from home in the last month of pregnancy to sign up for a census with Joseph? Her presence wasn’t required. Wouldn’t such a trip put the child at risk? Perhaps, it was just easier to travel than to endure the accusing looks of neighbors and relatives if she had stayed at home.

Philip Yancey puts it this way. “In contrast to what the cards would have us believe, Christmas did not sentimentally simplify life on planet earth. Perhaps, this is what I sense when Christmas rolls around and I turn from the cheeriness of the cards to the starkness of the gospels…Luke tells of a tremulous Mary hurrying off to the one person who could possibly understand what she was going through: her relative Elizabeth who miraculously got pregnant in old age after another angelic annunciation. Elizabeth believes Mary and shares her joy, and yet the scene poignantly highlights the contrast between the two women: the whole community is talking about Elizabeth’s healed womb even as Mary must hide the shame of her own miracle. In a few months the birth of John the Baptist took place amid great fanfare, complete with midwives, doting relatives, and the traditional village chorus celebrating the birth of a Jewish male. Six months later, Jesus was born far from home, with no midwife, extended family or village chorus present” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p.3; Zondervan).

This is not to say that God’s grace was not present for the couple but it contrasts our scrubbed view of “away in a manger” with the sacrifices truly made by those who carried the Living Word into the world. The traditional village chorus that gathered around a family when a son was born was provided by our heavenly Father in the fields outside Bethlehem when angels sang to shepherds. We have no record that Mary heard the chorus except through the report of shepherds she did not know. After signing up for the census, the gospel’s indicate that Joseph and Mary stayed on in Bethlehem rather than returning to their families in Nazareth. Perhaps, that is another indicator of how unwilling family and neighbors were to accept the story.

Matthew tells us that magi (wise men) came from the east to see this new king. These astronomer/astrologers had seen a new star and assumed it was a sign for a great king. They probably came from the area of Babylon where the prophet Daniel had prophesied that a never-ending kingdom would be established in the days of certain earthly kings. Perhaps their study of his writings led them to Israel when this “new star” appeared.

They first stopped to see Herod and ask if he knew where this “new king” was staying so that they could worship him. Herod blessed their search and asked them to let him know as soon as they found this child. The magi were warned in a dream and returned home without notifying Herod of their find, but Herod consulted his Torah scholars who suggested that Bethlehem might be a likely place. Herod immediately issued an edict to kill all the male children in Bethlehem under the age of two according to the time that the magi had first seen his star. That suggests that the Jesus was perhaps 18 months old at the time, since Herod would want to give himself a margin of error for destroying any potential rivals to his throne.

The magi found Mary and Joseph still in Bethlehem in a house, not a stable. By their gifts, God funded Mary & Joseph’s flight to Egypt to escape Herod’s death squad. And so, the King of Kings, born in a stable to poor parents, became a political refugee to Egypt to avoid death. So why did God choose this hardship for the birth of the Savior?

Yancey puts it this way: “Nine months of awkward explanations, the lingering scent of scandal – it seems that God arranged the most humiliating circumstances possible for his entrance, as if to avoid any charge of favoritism. I am impressed that when the Son of God became a human being he played by the rules, harsh rules: small towns do not treat kindly young boys who grow up with questionable paternity” (Yancey, p.32). When the writer of Hebrews says that we have a high priest who understands our struggles, he does not exaggerate. I also believe that the struggles of Mary and Joseph taught them to depend totally on God for direction, protection, and provision which was their legacy to this Son of God born into the world who also had to learn those things.

So I love the homey feelings of Christmas and even the idealized Christmas cards we see because they reflect the serenity that Jesus, through his suffering, has placed within our hearts. But the hardship of the first Christmas increases the value of the gift – a gift of love and sacrifice. It also raises the question of risk. God entrusted himself and our salvation to simple parents in a hostile world who still had the free will to ignore his directions and dreams sent their way or to simply refuse his offer of being God’s instruments for bringing his Son into the world. Love risks and so God risked it all and placed it in the hands of a young couple whose faith completed the task. May we have faith to complete the tasks he has assigned to each of us and let’s be thankful this Christmas for the gift that did not come easily. Blessings in Him.

Thanksgiving has blasted by and we are speeding toward December 25, Christmas Day. I am hoping to slow our place soon so that I can absorb some of what Christmas is all about – the great gift of Jesus to a lost and dying world. Every Christmas I return to one of my favorite authors who always helps put the frantic pace of Christmas back into perspective. The author is Philip Yancey and the book I go back to is The Jesus I Never Knew. I want to share some of his thoughts and some of my own in an effort to help you recalibrate this season if you, like me,  need some help.

Yancey reflects on this season when he says, “Sorting through the stack of cards that arrived at our house last Christmas, I note that all kinds of symbols have edged their way into the celebration. Overwhelmingly, the landscape scenes render New England towns buries in snow, usually with the added touch of a horse-drawn sleigh. On other cards, animals frolic: not only reindeer but also chipmunks, raccoons, cardinals, and cute gray mice…The explicitly religious cards (a distinct minority) focus on the holy family, and you can tell at a glance these folks are different. They seem unruffled and serene. Bright gold halos, like crowns from another world, hover just above their heads. Inside, the cards stress sunny words like love, goodwill, cheer, happiness and warmth. It is a fine thing, I suppose, that we honor a sacred holiday with homey sentiments. And yet when I turn to the gospel accounts of the first Christmas, I hear a very different tone and sense mainly disruption at work” (Yancey, p.29).

I am struck with how right he is. If we were to ask Mary and Joseph about the birth of Jesus, they would probably not remember it as serene, soft, and warm at all. I just reviewed our Christmas card batch so far this year. Most say nothing about Jesus. Many will have a very photogenic family on the front and a sweet sentiment for the holidays. The ones that do picture Jesus are neat and tidy and cute…one with the baby Jesus in a clean, warm cradle with a star shining serenely in the sky and a small lamb lying next to him. I’m sure that before the 25^th we will receive cards with angels surrounding the Christ child in adoration and with three richly dressed wise men bowing at his feet.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the cards and I love our friends who send them. Ultimately, we will all be surrounded by the peace and tranquility depicted on these cards and hopefully that peace rests in our hearts now because of Jesus. But, the point is that the first Christmas probably did not have that ambiance at all. To forget or clean up the Biblical account, in one sense, dulls our recognition of the cost of our salvation from beginning to end. We think of Christ’s suffering at Easter, but his birth and early years were no picnic either.

“Christmas art depicts Jesus’ family as icons stamped in gold foil, with a calm Mary receiving the tidings of the Annunciation as a kind of benediction. But that is not at all how Luke tells the story. Mary was “greatly troubled” and “afraid” at the angel’s appearance, and when the angel pronounced the sublime words about the Son of the Most High whose kingdom will never end, Mary had something far more mundane in mind: ‘But I’m a virgin!’ Matthew tells of Joseph magnanimously agreeing to divorce Mary in private rather than press charges (for adultery), until an angel shows up to correct his perception of betrayal” (Yancey, p.30-31).

To forget how human Mary and Joseph were somehow erodes some of the miracle from Christmas and also lets us forget how reluctant most of God’s heroes have been from the beginning. Moses begged God to send anyone but him to Egypt to free the Hebrews. Jeremiah argued that he was much too young for the job. Gideon claimed that he was a nobody and that no one who even think about following him into battle. Mary and Joseph were not born into powerful families. They were not great leaders in their community. He was a handyman and she was a teenager in a small, backwater town that we would probably have never heard of if Jesus had not grown up there.

From the outset, God’s entrance into the world as a human child created fear, confusion, doubt, gossip, accusations, feelings of betrayal, and estrangement as well as feelings of wonder and hope. It’s not so different today when he intrudes. Think of Muslims today in the Middle East who are experiencing the Man in White coming to them in dreams and visions and then discovering that he is Jesus whom they have been persecuting. Suddenly, their world is turned upside down. The faith that they thought was sure is rocked to its very foundations. Who will they tell? Who will believe them? Perhaps, their very lives are on the line because Jesus has come to them. What will their family say and what about the religious officials?

Mary had to feel much of that. Her fiancé’s first response was that she had been unfaithful. Divorce was the proscribed approach or even stoning if he were to insist on the letter of the Law. Even if he had no doubts about his angelic visit vindicating Mary, many would have believed that they, as an engaged couple, had jumped the gun and made up a preposterous story about an angel and an impregnated virgin. Nothing is said about their immediate families or about a wedding. Most likely it was a hurried, private affair meant in some way to cover up the inexplicable. Undoubtedly, Mary’s girlish dreams of a wonderful Jewish wedding filled with family, dancing, and blessings went unfulfilled. Joseph’s dream of his wedding night with the girl he loved, when their marriage would be consummated, vanished as well. So, let’s add disappointment to the feelings they associated with the upcoming birth of the King of Glory.

The greatest gifts often come with a huge price tag. The gift of Christmas came with a huge price tag not only for the Father, but also for those who God would use to bring his Son into the world and care for him in the days to come. When I reflect on the Lord’s sacrifice and the sacrifices of those God used, I am overwhelmed with a sense of thankfulness – which is the heart of Christmas. Let’s slow down at least enough to be thankful for the amazing gift available to all who will believe. More thoughts coming. Blessings today in Him.

The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Heb. 4:12

What does the scripture mean when it says that the word of God is living and active? What does it mean to say that the word is animated and has life beyond the page? How does it dissect and judge? And is that our experience with reading God’s word?

I like what Bill Johnson has to say about reading and studying the written word. “Our yielded hearts are impressionable as we study the Bible and receive God’s impressions like fingerprints. Within that sort of tender soil, the Lord plants the seeds of his Kingdom perspective. The insights and empowering nature of the Scriptures provide solutions that are applicable to every society and culture…Our study of the Scriptures must take us beyond the historical settings, beyond language studies…, and at times beyond the context and intent of the human authors as to its content. Our reading of the Word must enable us to hear from God afresh…I am not knocking principles. The transformation of individuals, families, cities, and nations depends upon receptivity of Kingdom principles. However, this is not the core of the Christian experience with the Bible. Rather, more often than not, we should read to have a God encounter. The Word of God is living and active. It contains divine energy, always moving and accomplishing his purposes” (Bill Johnson, Walking in the Supernatural, p.161-163; Destiny Image).

Some things appear to be inanimate. Without knowing what you had found, a battery would seem to be inanimate, cold, hard, and good only as a paperweight. But when something connects to it in the right way, tremendous power can be released. Uranium appears to be only a lifeless rock. Yet it emits radiation, an invisible power that has almost unlimited potential (for life or death) for those who know how to tap into the tremendous energy resting in the stone. Gunpowder just lies there like a pile of sand until something releases the inherent power in the powder. The Word of God contains tremendous power for those who have receptive hearts and for those whose faith can tap into the life resting in the word. Like gunpowder, it can simply lie dormant but when a spark is added, explosive things happen. Faith and obedience is that spark.

Most seminaries or classes on how to study the Bible will emphasize context and the original meaning the author gave to his writings. Having established that, it is up to the student to determine some biblical principle that might apply to our current life situations. Determining the principles for Christian living is the thing and the goal of Bible study. I still believe that is the starting place and there is significant value in that. But there is more. With God, there is always more. I believe that Johnson’s assertion that the ultimate goal of Bible study is an encounter with God is a key to spiritual transformation.

God did not just provide Israel with the written word from Sinai. He gave them his presence in the tabernacle so that they might encounter him and his goodness as Moses did on top of the mountain. The written word was given to prepare them for an encounter. Jesus rebuked the Jewish scholars for their approach to the scriptures. “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (Jn.5:39-40). The Pharisees believed that the Torah was a document from which to determine God’s commandments for men and principles for living. That was true, but there was more. Not only did the scriptures tell them how to live but they pointed to a person – Jesus Christ. They never thought to look for the person, only the principles.

More than principles and Bible facts, scripture reveals the heart of God for us and reveals who we are to Him. Knowing those two things, ignites faith and faith releases power. If I were to go back to the book of 1 Corinthians, I could study it through the lens of, “What did Paul say to the church at Corinth that might be applicable to us today?” That would be valuable and give me a great approach to Christian living. But if I studied the letter through the lens of, “What does this letter reveal about the heart of the Father, the love of Jesus Christ toward me, and who I am in the eyes of my Father?” it would be even more transforming. One approach promotes obedience first, while the other promotes relationship first, from which obedience will naturally flow.

As you spend time in the written word, look for the Living Word who came in the flesh and dwelt among us. We all believe that Bible study changes us but I have known many men who could quote extensive sections of scripture but did not seem to have the love of God in them anywhere. The Word is living and active as God lives through his word. Receptive hearts, hunger for his kingdom, or a willingness to risk something for the glory of God is what releases the power because it releases God to touch us in transforming ways. You might want to ask God to arrange an encounter with him as you study, a revelation of who he is and his heart for you, a rhema or fresh word for the day, or a response of obedience that will create an encounter with the Father during the day. Finding him is the thing.

Be blessed as you search for the Living Word in the written word today.

In our final look at Gideon, we will gain some insight into how and why God works in certain ways. Remember, Israel had drifted into years of rebellion and idolatry. The oppression they experienced at the hands of Midian was a corrective measure sent by the Lord to call them back into relationship with him.

In Judges 7, we find that Gideon had mustered 32,000 men for the battle against Midian, who still greatly outnumbered them. God then began a sifting process to reduce Gideon’s ranks. He first had Gideon announce that anyone who was afraid should leave. Twenty-two thousand promptly left. God then had Gideon take his men to a spring to drink. Three hundred squatted down, filled their hands with water, and lifted the water to their mouths. The remainder simply got on their knees, put their faces to the water, and lapped it up like dogs. God had Gideon dismiss all those who had lapped up the water so that only the three hundred remained.

God clearly states why he reduced the numbers. “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands, in order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her” (Jud. 7:2). We leave God when we feel we have no need of him. Self-sufficiency is the seedbed of rebellion against God. It’s not that men don’t want to worship, because after leaving God Israel would always chase idols. It’s just that men want to worship a god that will feed their fleshly desires and not call them to holiness. They want a god that will give them wealth, power, fame, sex…you know, rock-star stuff. Or they want gods that they can control through witchcraft and sorcery. Again…they seek the things that will make them self-sufficient. Satan still whispers, “You will be like God.”

God’s strategy was to put Israel in a situation where victory and survival could only come through the Lord. When three hundred face tens of thousands, there is no room for self-sufficiency. He also wants to reveal those who have faith. The three hundred who remained with Gideon were brave, but not suicidal. To stay, they must have had faith in the God of Israel.

God works in our lives to remove our idols, erase our self-sufficiency, and reveal any faith that is left in us after we have drifted away. Our drift from God is not always so apparent. We may still be going through the motions of faith but our hearts may be feeling very self-sufficient and may be looking away from God to other things that we believe will give us what we need to be happy. We may not even be aware of our condition.

God directed the three hundred to carry trumpets and torches hidden under clay jars to the enemy camp around midnight. After surrounding the camp, they blew the trumpets, broke the jars, and revealed the torches while shouting, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” The Midianites panicked and in the confusion of darkness attacked and killed one another. The survivors fled into the night. No general on earth would have laid out that strategy as a battle plan, but God works in unusual ways in impossible situations so that he gets the glory.

God is not an egotistical tyrant who demands worship because it makes him feel powerful. God knows who he is. He seeks glory because it is in our best interest to see his glory. His glory draws us to him. Facing an impossible situation and then seeing his hand in the situation in unexpected ways diminishes our self-sufficient attitudes and rekindles our faith. God is love and, therefore, always acts in our best interest. God rarely puts us in bad places. We typically get there by our own choices or the choices of someone to whom we are attached. But God will use those bad places to call us back so that we might make life-giving course corrections for our lives.

We always want deliverance to come by the express lane. But Midian had been severely oppressing Israel for seven years. Sometimes we need to taste the fruit of our self-sufficiency long enough that it becomes so bitter that we won’t ever return to it. Sometimes, God is multi-tasking and working on others while he works on our hearts. It takes time to get all the pieces just where you want them on the chessboard. But the good news is that God is always calling us back, adjusting our focus, and redirecting our steps…even when we have not noticed how far our hearts have drifted from him.

When we find ourselves in impossible situations, we need to check the spiritual condition of our hearts first. Have we been turning our hearts away from God or has our faith been cooling? Sometimes, our spiritual condition is not in a bad place, but God is simply calling us to a higher place. In those moments, we must begin to look for the hand and purposes of God. He is very intentional. No experience is wasted if we cooperate. God is rarely angry but is simply disciplining us as a good Father or stretching us as a great coach. Either way, don’t resist but look for his glory and let his glory draw you to him.

The great thing about cessationist thinking (God doesn’t operate in miracles any more) is that you never have to wonder if God has just spoken to you or pray your heart out for a miracle. If you do believe that God still intervenes in your life in direct ways, then you will wonder, at times, if you just heard the voice of God or another voice.

Gideon faced that same dilemma. Suddenly, out of nowhere he had experienced an angelic visitation and had begun to hear from the Lord directly. Apparently, this was somewhat new to our reluctant hero and he had some concerns. His strategy was to ask for signs of confirmation that he was hearing from the Lord and not from a weird well of subconscious fantasies. In the 6^th chapter of Judges we read, “Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised – look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only in the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand as you said. And that is what happened’” (Jud.6:36-37). Interestingly, after God provided that sign for Gideon, Gideon asked him to reverse the process the next morning just for good measure.

Although this sounds like a real lack of faith, God did not rebuke him for being so careful. After all, the fleece thing could have just been a weird meteorological phenomenon. Gideon demonstrates an important principle in knowing God’s will for your life. Sometimes, what we believe we are hearing God tell us needs to be confirmed before we move ahead. There are several examples in scripture of men asking for clarification and confirmation when a dream, a word from God, or a prophetic word pointed them in a radically new direction for their life.

Gideon had already asked for the sign that the words the angel had spoken to him were from God. The angel touched the offering that Gideon had placed on a stone and it burst into flames as the angel disappeared.   You might think that this display was confirmation enough, but Gideon still doubted his own capacity to hear God clearly and wanted to make sure he was not being deceived by the enemy. God didn’t seem to be offended by his request for confirmations. After all, God had instructed him to “go in the strength that he had.” He was going… but carefully.

In 1 Samuel 14, we see another example of a fleece or a confirmation. In this example, Jonathan got the notion that he and his armor bearer were to assault a Philistine garrison by themselves. Jonathan said, “Come, lets go over to the outpost of these uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps, the Lord will act in our behalf.” For confirmation, Jonathan put out a fleece. “We will cross over toward the men and let them see us. If they say to us, ‘Wait there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are. But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.” The sign was given and God gave the entire garrison into the hands of Jonathan and his armor bearer.

In the old tabernacle, there was something called the Urim and Thummim that were maintained by the priests. No one knows exactly what they were, but God communicated through them and godly leaders would often go to priest and ask for confirmation about whether they should go into battle or not against a neighboring tribe. The priest would consult the Lord through these objects and give the leader confirmation as to whether his prompting to go into battle was from the Lord or not.

In the New Testament, God also confirmed his word with signs. In Acts 10, we are told how God extended the first formal invitation to enter the Kingdom of God to Gentiles. Remember that the church was opened first only to Jews. It was considered “unlawful” for Jews to fellowship with Gentiles. One day, Peter was praying at noontime. As he prayed, he fell into a trance in which he saw a sheet full of unclean animals being lowered from heaven with the command for him to kill and eat some of the animals. Peter, being kosher, refused to do so. In his vision, the sheet was lowered three times and he was told not to call anything impure that God had declared to be clean. As Peter awoke from the vision, three “unclean men” (Gentiles) were asking for him. Their presence confirmed the dream and the understanding that God had opened the kingdom up to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews.

There are many other examples of signs confirming the word of God that had come to someone in an unexpected way. The fleece was not the last time Gideon received a sign. As God brought him to the day of battle against Midian, he told Gideon that if he were still afraid, he could sneak into the enemy camp that night for another sign of confirmation that God was going to use him to deliver Israel from their oppressors. Gideon took God up on the invitation, sneaked into the camp, and heard two soldiers talking about a dream, which they interpreted as confirmation of their defeat at the hands of Gideon (Jud.7:13-15). That confirmation gave Gideon the faith to lead Israel into battle in a most unlikely way.

I don’t think we need to seek confirmation on everything we are hearing from the Lord –especially when it clearly lines up with scripture. But on life-altering decisions – marriage, a move to a mission field, a significant career change, adoptions, a church, etc. – asking for confirmation of your direction through signs that confirm what you believe you are hearing from the Lord is a biblical principle you may want to employ. Blessings today in all you do.

When we encounter Gideon in the sixth chapter of Judges, he is hiding his meager harvest from the Midianites. He seems almost timid as an angel of the Lord begins a discussion with him and refers to him as mighty warrior. I’m fairly certain that Gideon had no military background and certainly would have not been thought of as a mighty warrior by anyone – especially himself. And yet, God sees us primarily as who we are going to be, rather than who we are today. The angel was making a prophetic declaration over Gideon, calling out God’s plan for this man by calling him a mighty warrior. We also would do well to call out goodness and greatness in one another instead of pointing out all the flaws and failings that we see. We can do so because we know that the Spirit of God is within every believer and it is his plan to make each of us both good and great in his Son.

The second thing the angel said to him was to “go in the strength that he had” and deliver Israel from the hands of Midian. The Lord new Gideon’s resources and capacity better than Gideon did. He will never send us to do what we have no capacity to do because he has already designed us for that very thing (Ps.139:13-16). We may be unaware of our ability but God is not. The Lord promised that he would resource Gideon for the mission by saying “Am I not sending you?” If the Lord assigns us, he will also resource us to complete the assignment. In the Lord, we are never on our own when we are walking in his will.

But, let’s be honest. Most of us don’t feel that way when we face a crisis, a hardship, or a challenge. Most of us feel just as Gideon felt when he responded, “How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family” (Jud.6:15). The Lord replied, “I will be with you and you will strike down all the Midianites together.” Remember that Gideon was not sure that the man speaking to him was an angel. He, perhaps, sensed that the man was a prophet speaking on behalf of the Lord, but it was a strange conversation all the same. At that point, Gideon asked a very honest thing – “give me a sign so that I can know it is really you (the Lord) talking to me.”

I think that he was not only being honest but also wise. God was asking him to step out into a life-changing assignment – even a life threatening assignment. In all likelihood, he had never heard from the Lord before, or at least rarely, so he was asking for confirmation. Asking for confirmation, is not doubting God, but is recognition that the voice we are hearing may not be from him or that our discernment may be faulty. It is one way to test the spirits (1 Jn.4:1). So, Gideon asked for a sign. The angel wasn’t offended. He told Gideon to place a young goat and some unleavened bread on a rock as an offering to the Lord. The angel then touched it with the tip of his staff and it was consumed by fire just as the angel disappeared.

Gideon’s response was a normal response in the face of a supernatural experience. He was afraid and thought that he might die because he had seen the angel of the Lord face to face. But the Lord spoke to him and told him not to be afraid. He first heard the voice of God through an angel and then directly so that he could begin to recognize and trust the voice. We have to go through a similar process. We will often hear from the Lord through another person first – a word of knowledge, a prophetic word, a teaching that we know was from the Lord just for us, etc. Eventually we will begin to hear his voice internally. We have to hear from the Lord often enough that we recognize his voice as sheep recognizing the voice of the shepherd. Then we can respond with confidence that the Lord has shared his heart or wisdom with us.

That same evening, while the voice of the Lord was still fresh in Gideon’s mind, the Lord told Gideon to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and to cut down his Asherah pole and then to offer a proper sacrifice to God on an altar Gideon built using the wood from the Asherah pole for fire. The text says, “So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and of the men of his town, he did it at night…” (Jud.6:27). Fear comes up three times in the story of Gideon so we know he was not a fearless, faith-filled warrior but a common man trying to serve God. Yet, in the face of fear he moved ahead in obedience.

There will be times that our flesh will be afraid but our spirit will move ahead in faith, choosing to trust God rather than to obey our emotions. Feeling fear does not disqualify us if we do not give into the fear. God also gives us time to grow in faith, which will proportionately diminish our fears. God did not rebuke Gideon for destroying his father’s idols at night. It was a next step in being used in even greater ways by the Lord. Our faith is also a series of next steps. If it fails, shake it off and move ahead. Ask for boldness as the first century church often did in their prayers. Determine not to give into fear next time.

We simply need to understand that fear comes in many ways and will probably always be with us. The fear of man, the fear of rejection, the fear of disappointment, the fear of failure, etc. will raise up its head against us. It resides in the flesh but it is also a spirit. We will have to learn to ignore the feeling, rebuke the spirit, and move ahead in obedience. In the process, God will be with us and will remind us, as he did Gideon, “Do not be afraid.”

IN our next blog, we will look at Gideon and the fleece.

The Book of Judges is a cyclical drama of Israel’s faithfulness and rebellion toward God that occurred after the death of Joshua. Israel would push through a few decades of faithfulness to Jehovah, enjoying the blessings attached to that faithfulness, and then would depart from his ways. Eventually, after a long season of idolatry and sin, God would bring judgment on them in the form of oppression from neighboring tribes until they repented. When their hearts and eyes returned to the Lord, he would forgive them, raise up a man or woman (called judges) to lead them against their enemies, and free them from their oppressors again. This cycle occurs over and over again in the book of Judges. One of the individuals he raised up was Gideon. I want to spend a few blogs finding some insights from his very unique story that we might apply to our own lives.

His story begins with these lines, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites”… Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. When the Israelites cried to the Lord because of Midian…The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” “But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his mighty wonders that our fathers told us about” (Jud.6:1-13)?

I like Gideon. He was not politically correct. At the moment he voiced that question, he was not yet aware that the man he was speaking to was an angel. The man was a stranger to Gideon and gave an unusual greeting – The Lord is with you mighty warrior! Gideon wasn’t sure who the man was but he gave a very honest response which amounted to, “If the Lord is with me, why am I hiding in this winepress trying to keep from starving and where are all the big miracles I’ve been praying for and hear about in synagogue?” It’s very possible that there have been times in your life when you were thinking essentially the same thing.

Gideon could have covered his thoughts and said something “spiritual” like, “Yes. God is good and his love endures forever. I know he is with us in ways we just can’t see.” All of that statement would have been true, but it would not have been an honest response from his heart at the moment. God loves honest conversation. He knows what is in your heart, so there is very little reason to give the “Sunday School response” instead of acknowledging what you are struggling with.

I believe Gideon had been struggling with the very thing he expressed. Where are you God? Don’t you still love your people? I know we have been out of line and deserve what’s happening, but I don’t know how much longer we can even survive as a nation. Couldn’t you just show us the same mercy you showed our fathers, even when they had been rebellious, and do something miraculous for us? We need a break and I know that would turn our hearts back to you…but all I’m hearing is crickets!”

For me, the question is why did God choose Gideon to raise up as a leader over unfaithful Israel? I know he often chooses the most unlikely so that he gets the glory, but he also looks at the hearts of men and I think he saw something in Gideon’s heart he could work with. I believe the first thing he saw was a man without pretense. He had honest questions and he asked them. He didn’t pretend to have great faith when his faith was starting to crumble. He didn’t throw out a biblical answer in an effort to cover up his doubt. Confession is good for the soul. God can work with that.

I think we often deny our own doubts – to ourselves and to the Lord – in an effort to avoid the truth that we are struggling with our faith, our concept of God, or our own sense of unworthiness and the creeping fear that God only answers prayers on the basis of our spiritual performance – which has been really lousy of late. Until we acknowledge our own thoughts, we cannot answer them with the Word or request a gift of faith from the Spirit. Sometimes our effort to have perfect faith, by denying our doubts, undermines our ability to have an honest conversation with the Lord or a faithful brother so that our thoughts might be clarified and a word of faith given to us so that we might resolve, rather than deny, our doubts.

Gideon just puts it our there. “If God is with us, why are things so bad?” The angel responds in a very interesting way. “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” In essence, the angel says that God is still in the miracle business and that Gideon is going to be his miracle. Sometimes, God is going to answer our prayers through us when we have been looking elsewhere for the answers. God is a “multitasker.” As he answers our prayers he also wants to accomplish something within us.

Many times we just want to be rescued but God is going to give us strength to fight our way out of something so that faith and character are developed in the process. He told Gideon to go in the strength that he had and that God would make up for whatever he lacked when the moment came. He will do the same for us when the time comes but often we must act on his directions rather than doing our own thing or simply waiting for him to solve the problem. Instead of crying, “Where are you?”, “we may need to cry, “What is my next step, Lord?”

God is not looking for perfect people or even perfect faith. He is looking for honest people with a willing heart and just enough faith to take the next step. Gideon will model that for us over the next few blogs.