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Instructions for Choosing Leaders

10/29/2014

Here in the United States we approach a mid-term election which, although it will not elect a president, will doubtless affect the country in many ways. It may be instructive at such a time as this to consider the biblical instructions for choosing a leader found in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. Even in a land where separation of Church and State is strongly upheld, the principles underlying these instructions still make sense:

Vs. 15A: “be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses.” Today’s voting process might seem to negate this aspect entirely, but it serves as a reminder to every Bible-believing individual to not forget the responsibility of prayer – and participation - in elections.

Vs. 15B: “He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite.” Although this might be thought to mirror the “native born” requirement for the US President, the principle is broader and clearly indicates the importance of upholding the values and concerns of our own culture.

Vs. 16: “The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people ... to get more of them ...” Although speaking of horses, the principle is clearly one of not accruing power for oneself, and not using the office of leader in order to further one's own interests.

Vs. 17A: “He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.” This is a principle reminding us that leaders should not allow themselves to be distracted by concentration on their own pleasures, as well as the importance of personal moral responsibility.

Vs. 17B: “He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.” Accrual of personal wealth must not be involved in the conduct of leadership.

Vs. 18-19: When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, … It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees.” By far the longest instruction, modern day leaders need to know the law of the land and need to understand the concepts of moral law which should underlie it.

Vs. 20: “and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left...” This principle stresses the vital importance that leaders not only do not see themselves as above the law, but also that their directives do not favor their own agendas, their party or administration.

The instructions given for choosing rulers in Deuteronomy may seem antiquated and irrelevant to many, but their principles can all be easily applied today. Most of these principles have been flagrantly ignored or pushed aside by many leaders throughout political history, and the people who have suffered as a result have always been the people being ruled or led. Perhaps it will always be that way in this present world, but keeping in mind the value of these principles certainly cannot hurt in choosing our leaders – and in conducting our own lives also.

Let Your - Smile - So Shine!

10/26/2014

“When I smiled at them, they scarcely believed it; the light of my face was precious to them” (Job 29:24).

You probably know that studies have found that smiling is good for you. Carefully controlled psychological experiments have proven that we are happy because we smile just as much as we smile because we are happy. Smiling – even forced smiling – has been found to relieve stress, and a 2010 study published in Psychological Science even showed that smile intensity in photographs predicted longevity.

But did you know that at least one study has found that the single most effective thing a person can usually do to enhance his or her relationships with other people is … to smile more often? So in the title to this post I do not mean to be flippant in paraphrasing the biblical injunction “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16, KJV). Letting our “light” shine is clearly more than just smiling, it involves our “good works” – the whole range of our behavior and interactions with others – yet if smiling is such an important component of our relationships with others, shouldn’t we indeed smile more often?

We may not be able to find biblical verses saying “Jesus smiled,” but in his classic work The Humor of Christ, Elton Trueblood lists thirty passages showing the humor of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels. There are many other examples in the Bible of things being said with evident humor that suggest smiles were often present on the faces of God’s servants (for example, 1 Kings 18:27); and verses like “Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy” (Psalm 126:2) had to involve smiling.

The point is, walking in God’s ways should produce smiles at least a portion of the time. This is particularly true because feelings of care and affection are frequently accompanied by smiles – if we are concerned and caring for others we will naturally smile even, sometimes, despite our own circumstances. In fact, just as experiments have found we can make ourselves happy by smiling, we can also make others happy by smiling at them. So there are at least two good reasons to be smiling, but it is something many Christians don’t do as often as we might expect. A surprising number of sincere believers live under a cloud of seriousness – at its worst it can be an expression of focusing on spiritual problems rather than the answers, though more often it’s just that we forget what an impact a smile can have.

So keep this in mind when you greet the world. As they say, if you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours. It’s not meant as pop-psychology advice to make you feel better, it’s meant as a small reminder that smiling is a part of letting our light shine. It certainly isn’t the most important part, but it may be the first thing that people notice about us and – as Job mentions in the scripture quoted above – it may be one of the things they firmly remember.

Do You Need Rapid Responses?

10/22/2014

Emergency services personnel are judged by how quickly they respond to emergencies, Presidents are judged on how quickly they respond to crises, companies are judged on how quickly they respond to customer service requests, and kids are often judged by their peers on how quickly they respond to computer game prompts. In the age of now, speed is king in many areas of life, and rapid responses are desired everywhere.

Unfortunately, fast reflexes and rapid responses are not always good things. They may look cool in action movies, but when it comes to character and personality traits in everyday life, rapid responses are often counterproductive and harmful. That’s something that is stressed time and again in the Book of Proverbs – the Bible’s book of distilled wisdom for everyday living. Notice these few examples from some different areas of life:

Proverbs 18:13 To answer before listening – that is folly and shame.
Proverbs 19:2b ... one who acts hastily sins. (HCSB)
Proverbs 21:5 The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.
Proverbs 25:8 Don’t take a matter to court hastily. (HCSB)
Proverbs 29:20 Do you see someone who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool...

It can be a valuable study to look through the verses mentioning “haste” and “hurry” in Proverbs, but it’s not just that biblical book that decries hasty thoughts, words and deeds. Notice what the apostle James says in the New Testament: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19-20 ).

Why is this – why does the Bible so often condemn rapid response behavior? The answer is simply because our first reactions are almost always our most human ones – the ones based in our own human nature; and as a result, our rapid responses can sometimes be rabid responses (Jeremiah 17:9, Matthew 15:19).

The right response often needs time for us to get over our primary emotional reaction – time to get our brain in gear and to remember the principles we have learned of God’s way of life. It’s only then, after we have taken the seconds, minutes or even hours we may need to arrive at an appropriate response, that we can be confident that our reaction is the right one – and in most of our interactions with others, a right response is better than a rapid response every time.

So take heart – even if you don’t have the super-fast response times of an action hero or a game console warrior – you may be better off with slower responses! In fact, it can often be a good decision to leave rapid responses to the professionals who need them in their work. In our own personal lives we need right responses so much more!

Me, My Selfie and I

10/19/2014

No matter what the news headlines and what is happening in the world at any given time, the most frequently uploaded type of content on the world’s social media is the “selfie” photo and information about the person and what he or she is doing at the present moment.

Now, the fact that most of us might want to record special occasions or stay in contact with loved ones might well account for a good number of selfie postings, but that’s only a part of it. Selfie production has become an obsession for many. We have become the “Me, my Selfie and I” generation – a selfie-absorbed generation.

But the problem with so much of the social media content we are producing – the artfully posed selfies, the tweets of facts such as “I just had my third cup of coffee today”– is not the delusion that other people really care or find this so interesting, but the fact that we are placing so much importance on what happens to us. It can be selfie-centered to a sad degree. You don’t need a degree in psychology to figure out that the more we feed the self, the less likely it is that the self will engage in unselfie-sh behavior.

Selfie-fixation is certainly the opposite of an outgoing and other-oriented attitude. As Christians we know that even Jesus himself said: “I can of mine own self do nothing … I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30 KJV), and we know that the will of God is that we focus our lives not on ourselves, but on God and others (Matthew 22:37-39). Focusing on others is hard to do when so much of our time is spent focusing our cameras and our thoughts on ourselves.

So am I saying we should never take selfies and try to selfie-righteously discourage others from doing so? No, of course not. But I am saying that we can at least use the selfie-fixation in the world around us as a reminder of what our lives should be about. If every time we see someone taking a selfie, or we see a selfie on our computer screen, we take a second to think “what can I do today for someone other than myself?" we may keep ourselves very busy, but we may move a little closer to perfecting the increasingly rare, and increasingly important, art of the “unselfie.”

What Pleases God?

10/15/2014

In Ephesians 5:10 Paul wrote “… try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord,” and it is a clear indicator that we are making progress in the Christian life if we feel the desire to do exactly this.

But what is pleasing to God? Is it just becoming saved, or are we given more specific instructions? If the answer were obvious, Paul would not say “try to discern what is pleasing to God.” So we must search to find the answer.

The Bible actually lists a good number of things that God finds pleasing, and this is an extremely worthwhile topic for a careful study by searching “pleasing” in a Bible concordance or, more easily and effectively, by searching “please + God” on the BibleGateway.com site – which covers many translations and allows much more flexible searching. Doing such a study turns up many results, and in a new article "What Pleases God" uploaded today, we look at just some of the more important answers to the question of what is pleasing in God’s sight. You can read the article here.

Have you Checked?

10/15/2014

If you haven't checked our sister site, LivingWithFaith.org, recently you will find that there is more new material there. As is the case with this site, blog posts and/or other material is uploaded at least once a week and usually more often.

Recent blog posts you might enjoy on LivingWithFaith.org include: "James the Son of Zebedee." "What Faith Is Not," "The Mother's Name," "It's Not about Feelings," and "Missing Small Miracles as We Look for Large Ones." In addition, there are also recent book reviews, quotations and articles.

Meanwhile, on this site, we have new material on the Quotations and Tactical Living pages – with lots more to come!

It's How We End Up that Counts: Manasseh

10/12/2014

Third in the "Lessons from the Kings" Series

According to the biblical record, many of the rulers of ancient Judah and Israel were exceedingly bad. If we ask “How bad did they get?” the answer might well be “Manasseh.” Manasseh was certainly one of Judah’s worst rulers, yet the end of his story is a surprising and inspiring one.

Manasseh was the son of the good king Hezekiah with whom he seems to have co-ruled in the last years of his father’s life. He became sole king around 687 BC and reigned for a total of 55 years (2 Kings 21:1; 2 Chronicles 33:1). His reign was soon after the conquering of the northern tribes by Assyria in 720 BC, and during his time Judah itself was constantly under the shadow of possible Assyrian invasion.

Despite the good influence of his father, Manasseh annulled the religious reforms made by Hezekiah and re-instituted the worship of pagan gods and idols. 2 Kings 21 outlines the extent of his apostasy, telling us that “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal ... He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them … In the two courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts” (2 Kings 21:2-5).

As if introducing pagan idols and altars into the temple of God were not bad enough, we are told: “He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists” (2 Kings 20:6). The Book of Kings also suggests he may have executed prophets of God and supporters of his father's reforms, for much “innocent blood” was shed by him in Jerusalem (2 Kings 21:16 and see Jeremiah 15:4).

Yet we are given some fascinating further information in the Book of Chronicles which tells us, not surprisingly, that the anger of God was roused against Manasseh and that God caused the king to be led away in chains by the King of Assyria. Only then did Manasseh apparently realize his folly: “In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God” (2 Chronicles 33:11-13). After his return to Jerusalem, Manasseh cleansed the temple, did away with idols, and re-instituted the worship of God (2 Chronicles 33:14-16). Despite his earlier evil, Manasseh turned his life around, and his story gives us a flesh and blood example of what the prophet Ezekiel tells us:

“... if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right … None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him…” (Ezekiel 18:21-23).

In these words Ezekiel paints a clear picture of how, if we turn our lives around, what matters is how we end up – a fact by which the repentant Manasseh, formerly one of Judah’s most reprehensible kings, was greatly blessed.

An Eternal Foreclosure Recovery Plan

10/9/2014

A great many unfortunate people have been affected by foreclosure on their homes in recent years as a result of the worldwide economic down- turn. Millions of people have been forced out of their houses in this situation – from tiny homes to great mansions – and moving beyond foreclosure is not easy. The process of recovery can be grueling and take years.

The first recorded home foreclosure may have occurred far earlier than you suspect. That first foreclosure was not due to failure to pay a high interest loan, however – or any kind of loan, in fact. The third chapter of Genesis describes the foreclosure in detail and shows that the first homeowners/tenants were evicted not for failure to pay, but as the price they paid for disregarding God’s clear tenancy instructions (Genesis 3:22-24).

Heartbreaking as modern home foreclosure may be, it is nowhere near as tragic as that first foreclosure in which the human family not only lost its “perfect home,” but also its relationship with the One who was the perfect builder and loan officer combined. Many homeowner and renter contracts are extremely complex, but according to the Garden of Eden story the first couple had a very straightforward contract which they understood fully: “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die’” (Genesis 3:2-3). The last few words quoted there show that foreclosure on their home was only the first – and not the worst – part of the penalty the first homeowners faced.

Fortunately for the human family, God realized that this chain of events would occur – that spiritual foreclosure was likely to happen – and as a result He set in motion a plan for recovery. We all know the basis of the plan: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). But that is really just the first part of the plan. Jesus himself spoke of the second step for foreclosure recovery in a new home: “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places … If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3 HCSB). But we have to develop a new relationship with God in order to move past the old, voided, home contract and take advantage of the new one. Put simply, God wants totally remade tenants, remade homeowners for the new home He offers to those who want an eternally secure home with no foreclosure possible.

Physical home foreclosure can be a matter of great anguish, but whether we experience it physically or not, it can illustrate an important lesson about human life. We should be lastingly thankful for the ultimate foreclosure recovery plan that God has instituted for all who return to Him to claim it.

A Mirror You Can Trust

10/5/2014

When explorers Lewis and Clark conducted their historic mission through the American West, they took with them many small mirrors which they traded and gave as gifts to the native Americans they met. One native warrior later described these mirrors as “things like solid water,” and the Indians considered them quite wonderful as they gave much better reflections than looking into water could do.

Today people everywhere take mirrors for granted, but not every mirror gives an accurate reflection. Even apart from the type of distorting mirror that is used in carnivals, there is actually quite a range of reflection accuracy in normal commercial mirrors – as you can often see by comparing several together.

Nevertheless, despite imperfections they may have, we all need mirrors occasionally to check on ourselves as we go through life. Sometimes we need a spiritual mirror too, and there the level of reflection accuracy becomes much more important, of course. But when it comes to taking a look at our own characters and spiritual condition, it’s amazing how often many people will settle for mirrors which can’t really be trusted to give an accurate reflection. We all fall prey to this to some extent. When we ourselves attempt to judge how we are doing spiritually, we run the risk of getting an inaccurate reflection as Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us, because “The heart is deceitful above all things…” and it’s that human “heart” or mind that twists things so constantly that we simply can’t trust its judgment. Even if we turn to friends and fellow believers to get input on issues regarding our character and behavior, the “reflection” we get from them may be distorted by friendship, too.

The truth is there is only one spiritual mirror we can trust and that is the one God provides us in His word. It’s a particularly effective “mirror” because it works two ways. First, the word of God doesn’t pull any punches. We can always trust it to “tell it like it is” because its reflection goes much deeper than our surface selves: “For the word of God is... sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates … the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). That’s a non-distorting reflection we can trust one hundred percent. It might be discouraging at times to see a true reflection of our inner nature, but there is another, more positive way the word of God acts as a mirror for us which does change the reflection to our advantage. The more we look into the mirror of the word, the more we clearly see the nature of Christ himself – an image to which we are striving to conform as Paul tells us: “We … beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image ...” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

So God provides a mirror that we can trust when it comes to seeing things we need to change and fix – and also provides us with a mirror that gives us a clear image to aim for as we change. It’s really not that complicated: a reflection of what we need to avoid and one of what we need to be. The only caution is that we mustn’t forget to regularly check the mirror we are given and to act on its reflection, as the apostle James wrote: “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do” (James 1:22-25). That’s a mirror we can trust – all we have to do is use it regularly.

Were the First Christians Communists?

10/2/2014

Scripture in Focus: Acts 4:32–35

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had… And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need” (Acts 4:32–35).

Many have used these verses in Acts to try to prove that the early Christians followed a form of communism, but a careful reading of what the Bible says here shows that nothing could be further from the truth. We should note immediately that this seems to have been a temporary situation while the fledgling church was becoming established and before any formal mechanisms for helping the poor within the church were in place. Many of those who had come to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Pentecost (Acts 2) and had been converted now were staying there and had as yet no means of support. So many shared what they had at that time. But we should also remember that once this temporary situation passed, there is no evidence that the early church continued in exactly the way described here.

Unlike communism as it is known in the modern world, the State was not in any way involved in this sharing; the Christians did not all share their property as a result of some decree or decision – rather “from time to time” people would decide to give, and only those people gave who wanted to. There was also no requirement to share, as Peter himself clearly tells us in the story of Ananias and Sapphira: “Ananias.…why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the [sale of your] lands? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? …You did not lie to men but to God!” (Acts 5:3–4). Finally, we should notice that the early Christians’ goods were not equally divided among everyone, but were “distributed to anyone who had need” (Acts 4:35).

This is all very different from modern era communism in which the State forcibly redistributes all wealth – theoretically sharing it equally between everyone in the society. There is also a clear difference in attitude. As has been jokingly said, though not without some truth, communism operates on a principle of “What’s yours is mine,” whereas the early Christians operated with the attitude of “What’s mine is yours.”

We should also remember that there is no room for communism in the teachings of Jesus. Although he recommended a certain rich young ruler sell all he had and give to the poor (not distribute it among Jesus and his followers), this appears to have been an individual test. We see that Jesus had Judas look after his funds and these were used as were needed and, on occasion, some funds were given to the poor (John 13:29) rather than anything that was received being automatically equally distributed. Communism is, in fact, diametrically opposed to a great many of the teachings of Jesus, as we can see in the parable of the “talents” (Matthew 25:24–30) and the parable of the “minas” (Luke 19:12-27) where the servants are unequally rewarded, and elsewhere.

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