Faithful in Little . . .

Isn't that beautiful! We are so blessed by the rain and the ponds that are finally full and holding water. We have gotten over 30" this winter so far, which is huge for us! I thank God for the rain we have so badly needed, and, like a friend recently wrote, ask Him to fill us all with His living water—to pour out His Spirit like He has the rain!

Some news, and a thought to share.

News: There is a bill coming up in Texas that would abolish abortion. I'd encourage you to be in prayer about it, and to share it with any family or friends who live in Texas who could spread the word and support it. I am waiting to write more about it until I get an answer back from the author regarding one concern I had in the wording of part of it, but the fact that a legislator is willing to sponsor a bill that doesn't simply legislate degrees of abortion (hence, still grant abortion some legitimacy) but actually abolishes abortion is huge. Please be praying and spreading the word. It is HB 948 if you want to look it up. It might be the springboard that leads to a challenge and overthrow of the unconstitutional Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

The following are some thoughts on something I read this morning in the Bible:

On Sunday mornings I have been teaching a series on how we got to where we are in our faith—our inherited history, how the Bible came to be, etc. We are looking at how we arrived to stand on the faith statements and doctrines we stand on, etc. I have been recently looking at David and how God said David was a man after His own heart, willing to do all that God willed. We've been looking at what in David's heart made God say that about him. Some of the cores are his obedience and his faith and his "high view" of God that trusts God and God's sovereignty and leaves in God's hands the things that are Gods. We have been blessed to see how God looks to a man's heart and not the outward appearances.

In Men's Group we've been talking about the talents, about being faithful in what God has trusted us with, about what our lives reflect about our true priorities and the weight we place on things earthly versus things eternal, etc. We only get one crack at this life. Are we numbering our days and living it fully for Him, investing in His Kingdom and modeling to our wives and children and co-workers and neighbors His values and priorities?

This morning in my Bible reading I came across Jesus' words in Luke 16:10 where He says, "One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much." This really struck me, and it struck me that it again (like with David, and like with how the Master only held the servants accountable for the heart of what they did with the talents He gave them) shows that God is looking past our outward appearances and deeds into the very core of our hearts.

It is similar to Jesus equating being angry at someone to murder, and looking in lust to adultery. He is saying the "rule" is really about the heart—and though you follow the "letter of the Law" you are still guilty of the "spirit of the Law" (the real intent of the Law) in your heart, where it matters. If you've been faithful in a little your heart says you are faithful. It isn't about the amount, but the faithfulness. If your heart is faithful to do the right in just the small things, it will be also in the big. Likewise, if your heart is to be unfaithful and not do the right in the little things, then it will be in the larger as well, because the unfaithfulness in the little is really reflecting your heart, which steers all.

Last night at Youth Group I shared with the youth how at West Point they'd say that your true character is revealed not in what you do when people are watching, but what you do when nobody is watching—when nobody will be praising you, or correcting you, or making you. When nobody is watching, when you are totally free to do just what you want, then your heart will be revealed. Are you faithful in the little? That heart will be faithful in the lot.

Things that are big to us are not to God. He spreads the stars our and puts them all in place. We tend to rank "things" and "sins," etc. God looks past all the "works" and into the heart. They say that the same sun that melts wax hardens clay. The same heart that is faithful in little (and when nobody is watching) is the same heart that is faithful in lot. And the same heart that is not faithful in the little (and when nobody is watching) will not be faithful in the lot.

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalms 139:23-24)

I Was

"I was." No, that isn't a misquote of the famous God "I Am" words. I'm talking about me. I'll explain the train of thought that took me to this post . . .

In my reading through the Bible I just finished Jeremiah and began Lamentations. I see so strongly the effect on a nation of turning from God, and the effect when God turns from a nation. I found myself in an internal back and forth that is too familiar to me, "God, have mercy on our nation. But if He does, then everyone will continue in their arrogant and successful life just as they are and will never come to Him. They need to be woken up. But, even 9/11 didn't do that. It only lasted for a bit." On and on that dialogue goes in me, back and forth. If God blesses this nation then everyone continues on just as they are, arrogantly assuming they or a nation are the source of their blessing. But even a true disaster only seems to send people running to God for a short time, until their lives are "blessed" again. I know, in my heart, that what our nation needs is for individuals in it to encounter the Holy Spirit and turn to Jesus. We will only truly change as a nation when the individuals in us change.

As I was thinking about our nation and its current condition I felt the familiar anger rise up. And then, suddenly, it hit me in a very powerful way. I was everything I am angered about in our nation today! I was intellectually proud, and I felt I was the one who could plot my life and make it a success. I was pro people being able to do what they wanted and not having other people tell them what to do—I remember arguing round and round with Mary Ann that prostitution should be legal because it was "their choice." I was pro abortion—not seeing a baby in the womb, but seeing only a women's body and others trying to tell her what to do with it (my perception). I thought I was a moral relativist, believing what was right for some was right for them, but it didn't mean it was right for others—that there was no absolute right and wrong across cultures. (In fact, a professor at West Point confronted me on my stand and it was a wake up moment for me. I write a lot about moral relativism in this blog, but I specifically mention that incident with my professor here, here, and here.) I mocked the Bible, God, and Christians (I flung profanity at a God I claimed I didn't believe in), and I believed in evolution and an old earth. On and on I could go, but I think the point is made. Everything that angers me today . . . I was.

And, as I look back, I realize that no law in the world could have changed me. In fact it would have angered me even more to have someone "shove" their beliefs onto my life in law (I am not arguing that laws shouldn't exist that reflect God's heart, just saying how it wouldn't have changed my heart, even if it forced my compliance). While laws have value—they regulate a society, they protect unborn and other defenseless, they model a moral code to youth—ultimately I don't believe they change a heart, and that is the only thing that changed me. God having mercy on me, an arrogant and blasphemous atheist, put Mary Ann and others into my life and the Holy Spirit drew me to Him and He changed me, from the inside. And that is, I believe, the only hope for our nation in the end—a personal encounter with Jesus by the ones who make up this nation. And then allowing Him to change our hearts into alignment with His. (Even God's Law wasn't an end in itself, it was a tutor or schoolmaster to reveal sin and point us to Jesus.)

I recognize that even among Christians not all agree on everything, but without that at least as a starting point I don't think a change is possible for us. He makes us new creations. He writes His law on our hearts. He teaches us truth. And that brings up then the question, what is my role in drawing people in this nation to Jesus, the ultimate changer of hearts? Because until He came into my heart and changed me, everything that bothers and grieves me today in others in this nation . . . I was.

Absolute Truth

I know that I have shared about an experience I had with a philosophy professor at West Point before, but it was brought back to my mind this weekend when Mary Ann and I were asked to share our testimony at another church. As we talked about it, and shared, I was struck that possibly my first real wake up to the fact that there might be absolute truth that was not dependent on my attitude toward it came in the halls of West Point . . .

I was concentrating in Philosophy, had no good thoughts or affection or belief toward God, and enjoyed tremendously studying the different philosophers, ideas about life, etc. I had dabbled in New Age in the past, and found intellectual discussions of different theories, ideas, etc., to be challenging and fun, but there was no urgency to them or any really conviction that any one might be right. It was fun, a game, a challenge to debate and see who was "smarter" or quicker. I loved it.

I remember, distinctly, studying moral relativism in one of my classes (which basically says that different morals and ethics are right for different people and cultures) and thinking, "That sounds fair/good/right." It made sense, each group or people should develop what was right for them, and that made it right for them . . . hence "right."

I shared my "conversion" to moral relativism with one of my professor and I will never forget the pit in my stomach when he, in all sincerity, talked to me in the hallway and said, basically, "Erick, if I truly believed you were a moral relativist I would do everything I could to get you removed from the academy." I was stunned. This wasn't a game, and it wasn't just about having fun debating ideas and philosophies. This guy was talking about something so real as being kicked out of the academy! Of having to go home to all my family and friends having been kicked out of West Point!

It was a true revelatory moment (though my surrender to Jesus was still years away) in which, maybe for the first time, I was confronted with the fact that there might not be "many truths" that were each right for those living them, but that there might be some truth that was absolute, and did not depend on my opinion or acceptance of it. Absolute truth . . . what a concept! This man was so convinced of the danger of a morally relativistic approach in the hands of someone who would be wielding power that he was prepared to put himself on the line and try and have me removed from West Point.

I have since found out that this man is a Christian, and I have since realized how right and "true" he was (and is). There are absolute truths and rights and wrongs—and truth defined by those in power, or the masses, is a "truly" scary concept . . . one that can justify about any horror or atrocity or abuse of power. Yet, in this day and age, how rare to find someone who is willing to put all they are on the line to stand up for truth, for a truth that is not relative, but that is true regardless of whether the whole world . . . or no one . . . believes it.

There is absolute truth, and we will all answer to it . . . and at that moment when we do our "opinions," or lack of opinions, will mean nothing. All that will matter is whether or not we embraced the truth. This applies to eternity—and to issues in life. It is not relative. There is no one good but God alone. All that matters is whether we embrace Him and His ways or not. All our best defenses, or procrastinations, or accomplishments will mean nothing if we aren't on the "right" side of truth. Call it intolerant. Call it unloving. Call it what you will. It doesn't change the fact that God is true, and His ways are right, and anything else is not. The most loving thing we can do is to stand for that fact, as servants of others, in love and humility and self sacrificing, no matter what it costs us, and in every area (Heaven, Hell, salvation, Scripture interpretation, lifestyle choices, habits, right, wrong, etc). We are dealing with far more than a few years here on earth. We are dealing with forever.