Like Achan, Like Anger

"But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it...But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan... took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the LORD burned against the people of Israel"
-Joshua 6:18, 7:1

Israel goes into the Promise land and takes down Jericho in the name of the LORD. They are told that after all of it must be given to the LORD, however as you can see this doesn't happen. Achan, takes some stuff for himself. When I was reading this passage I thought it interesting that the disobedience of one happens to bring God's anger upon all.
This made me think, what about us? As the body of Christ are we not to keep in check, are we not to keep each other accountable and if one has fallen and hid it, the whole body suffers. You see to follow Christ, means to give all to Him, to nail all upon the cross. If one thing of the old remains, it begins to fester and spread like a small splinter that grows infected.
So the question now is, are you Achan? are you hindering which should be devoted to God under you "carpet"? If so, brothers and sisters you are doing more harm then you realize, you are not only hindering the spiritual growth of yourself, but you are then stunting the growth of the whole body of Christ

He has gone before me

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           "As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before."
-Joshua 3:3-4

I read this the other day in my devotions. I found it really really interesting. The Israelites found themselves before two barriers, first the Jordon river, a body of water before them and the promised land of God. Secondly a walled city named Jericho stood behind the Jordon river. The Israelites were tired, their leader Moses who had lead them out of Egypt and across the dessert had just recently died. Joshua, who Moses mentored now is called by YHWH God to step up as their leader.
Tired, scared, anxious, unprepared, and uneducated, Joshua thinks, "What am I going to do?!" God says something interesting He says this, "Take the box that my presence dwells upon, tell the men who I have chosen to lead you guys in worship of me to walk with it into the river. But don't go to near it, because if you go a head of it, you wont know where to go. Mainly because you have never been here before, but seeing as I am the Lord God, creator of all I know my way around. So follow me as I lead you guys through this river and this land."
And so Joshua makes it happen. Joshua doesn't think "But it's to hard"... he simply just does it, trusting whole completely in the fact that God has already gone before him and His people. Now is this easy? NOT AT ALL. You see Joshua first has to get up in front of everyone and say "Well we are going to simply walk through the river then see what happens after." What lies ahead of the Israelites is a long, hard, bloody, trusting journey, one that will be difficult, that will be terrifying, will be unknown, will be completely done in trust.
So here's the thing, where are you right now? are you in the sandals of the Israelites? looking at the Jordon river and wall of Jericho saying "Well we are screwed." Are you like Joshua, someone God is calling to step up and do something? Are you listening, trusting in the fact that God has gone before you and is with you? That He has your back? And do you know that although it will be hard, difficult, at some points terrifying, that all of it will be worth it? Because ultimately you will grow deeper, stride longer, and become stronger in Him then you ever did in the past?
Are you an Israelite
? or are you a Joshua? 

Rahab's and YHWH

Joshua 2:9-10 
"and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath." 

Interesting enough sometimes we don't realize the impact we or even God has had on others. You see Rahab here in Joshua 2 was not an Isrealite, really was not even close to one, she was a prostitute in Jericho, a city that just in a couple days would be pieces of rubble. But yet here we see something really cool. 
First she says to the Isrealite spies that she has heard of God's power, and the great things He has done to protect them. She speaks in detail as well, not just "Oh yeah your god protected you". Nope, she gives specific events and situations.  She also does something that peaked my Theology student eye as well, she says "LORD", which in the original text was used as a substitution for the name YHWH. Now YHWH was a holy name, a name said out of honour and respect for God. Why do you think an adulterous, pagan woman would say it that way? well the next part reveals why. 
Rehab then proceeds to claim her belief and trust in the one true God, YHWH. She who is not of the "chosen people" testifies right there and then that God is true and she believes in Him. 
THIS IS MIND BLOWING PEOPLE! 
Now what does the Spirit have for us in this inspired text, if you have ears to hear and eyes to see; 
We may not ever know the people we touch through God's power, we may never see them, talk to them, or recognize them. But right here we see that God can reach anybody, no matter how far, no matter from what background, no matter how lost they may seem. 
So here's the question, who can He reach through you and are you letting Him do so?

Image, Jesus, and New York

"For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." 
-Matthew 25:42-45 

Do any of you follow "Humans of New York" on facebook? I do, I like the different people that he shows and shares. Sometimes I will read it if it looks really interesting, but every once in awhile I am angered by the people who he shares with us. Angered by their hypocrisy, their arrogance their ignorance, their cruelty. Today this was posted;

"People of New York" picture to caption

"I don't have anything personally against homeless people. But I try to avoid getting into conversations with them. Because I may be walking later with one of my influential friends, and the homeless person may come up to me and start acting like we're friends. And how's that going to look? You've got to choose who you're seen with. It's a matter of optics." 

One of the things I really love about Jesus is that 
 He didn't care about His image. Really all He cared about was showing the truth of God to others. Jesus hung out with the socially "unclean" a lot of the time. Not to be "edgy" or for "social justice", Jesus did it to show the people who believed they followed YHWH God that they really were missing the point. That God wished all to hear the truth, that not just the Jews were to be chosen, but rather the Jews were to be the example to the world so they could follow. 
So here's the thing, and I am guilty of it too, the next time you look at some one and think "how's that going to look?" if I go over and talk to them... ask yourself "How's God going to look at me right now?" If you are a follower of Christ you are called to be the witness of Him to this world (2 Cor. 5:20). 
Are you a food feeder? a coat giver? a prison visitor? or are you an image seeker? 
 

 

Logs, Specks, Hypocrits, and the LGBT

 ^"Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." Mathew 7:3-5 

So this morning I was scrolling down my facebook wall and I come across an article posted by one of my friends that says "9 Companies you should avoid if you support Gay Rights". And I thought to myself "wow that's kind of rude", now before you get all flustered and smash you finger down on your mouse our pad button in anger... hear me out, if you have ears to hear and eyes to see! 
Truly I tell you friends, that am I the only one that sees something wrong with this? That the very community that preaches to us that we should love them, that we should accept them, that we should not condemn them for their marriages, their parades, they life choice... is doing those very things to others who don't? Truthfully I find it kind of funny. 
Now am I  homophobic for say this, technically no, I have no hatred or fear towards others who choose that life style. I just find it kind of hypocritical that those who choose this life style find that they have the right to point fingers at my life choices as a Christian when in reality I have looked at them with open arms. 
Now for my brothers and sisters in Christ let me explain what I mean by that. You see am I saying that I condone Homosexual relationships, or that choice in lifestyle. No I am not, in my Christian world view I believe that it is a sin before YHWH God, however I also believe that lying, stealing, lust, gossip, sleeping in on Sundays, drinking, and running red lights are too before YHWH God. So what I mean by "I have looked at them with open arms" is this, that rather then both them and us pointing fingers at each other, we as followers of Christ should first like Jesus said "Take the log out of our own eye" we should realize that we are as guilty as they are before our creator and king. Then we should come along side them and reveal this truth to them. Just like we come along the addict who cries for help, or the man who is so deep in his lustful sin he doesn't know what to do. 
I am tired of the hypocrisy on both sides, the LGBT community hating on us, yet preaching for us to be loving and accepting, and then my brothers and sisters in Christ hating on the LGBT community for their life choice, and preaching that God forgives all. 
Who are we to judge who is worse, and who is better? Jesus came as a spiritual doctor (Mark 2:17), to heal the sick, and show the healthy how to do so as well. We are God's patients, and His nurses, rather then pointing a finger realize that we are in the same boat as they are, so lets all work together to like Paul says "put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." 

Who + Where + What = Christ?

Today I read this:
"For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough." 

Who are you? What are you? Where are you? 
The other day I walked into a room where a couple of people (Who were followers of Christ) playing a certain game that involves certain topics and themes that are not very appropriate. As soon as I saw this I turned around an left. However after sitting for a while wrestling with God (as so many of us do so many times) I let the Spirit win and walked back to the room. 
I interrupted their game telling them that what I was about to say was something that they could take or leave but I know needed to be said. In summary I asked them to ask themselves "in what way does this honour Christ, bringing about the furthering of His kingdom" 
You see we live in a world that has no line, no white or black, we live in a world that tells us if we do live in a white or black we are wrong, we are judgmental, bigoted, hateful, homophobic, and bible thumpers. And unfortunately Christians are starting to believe this and make their lifestyle gray as well. Saying "oh but it is just fun, its not harming anyone. I'll just sit here, I wont say anything"... 
May I be so bold to say that if you call yourself a Christian you unfortunately have verbally agreed to live a life that has blacks and whites but no greys. Now I don't mean we should be legalistic, Jesus called the religious leaders out on doing that, but rather we should ask ourselves in all things we do "How is this honouring Christ, is it honouring Christ". 
You see Paul says here in this passage that if we let things slide we begin to just let everything in. David in 2 Samuel 11 didn't wake up that morning saying "hey I am going to have sex out of marriage with a married woman then kill her husband to cover it up today" (spoilers Uriah dies, so does Davids first son from Bethsheba...). NO! David woke up that morning saying "Hey I don't want to go to battle, I am going to nap instead", he let it slide, he made his faith that was black and white become gray. 
Scripture calls us in Hebrews 12:2 to "set our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith", when Peter walks on water in Matthew 14 he does it by setting his eyes on Jesus, the moment he takes them off Him he sinks... what happened their in the physical is what happens to us in the spiritual. 
So who are you? where are you? what are you? and is Christ glorified by it!?

Who is God? A reflection on Psalm 46

Psalm 46:10 says
"Be still and know that I am God"

One of my biggest pet-peeves and especially as a Theology major and student at University is when people pick and choose verses. And this is why, because truthfully I believe these kind of verse are chosen and stuck on shirts, mugs, wall decals, fb walls, twitter tweets, etc, to inspire you to further your reading, to turn to the scripture and read it all. But that's not what it becomes, it becomes a "nice" mug to stick in your cupboard, a t-shirt to through in your closet, or a post to get scrolled past.
The Spirit is inspiring the Psalmist in Psalm 46 to say something, when I hear or see or read this verse I am compelled to see the rest of the chapter. I ask myself, "Why does the Psalmist want me to be still and know God in this specific writing? why here, when then, why now?"
Look at the Pslam, it is about how YHWH God is a refuge (vs.1), how He is present (vs.1), a mountain mover (vs.2), a king (vs.4), a helper (vs.5), He is always present (vs.7), a fortress (vs.7&11), and warrior (vs.8&9). After all this the Spirit then says "Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in all the earth! The LORD (YHWH) of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress"
So I challenge you to do this, we are called to this. To stop and reflect on who God is, who He is in our issues, our struggles, our problems, our anxiety, our worries, our good times, our exciting times, our scary times, our stressful times, our disappointing times, our sad times, our depressing times. And who is He? YHWH, refuge, present, mountain mover, king, helper, fortress, and warrior. Be still and know who I am!