Tag Archives: ignorance

IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE

Bible Study, ,

Leviticus 5:17 NLT‬
[17] “Suppose you sin by violating one of the Lord’s commands. Even if you are unaware of what you have done, you are guilty and will be punished for your sin.”

God based His instructions squarely on the truth that all mankind is born with His moral law written into their conscience.

‭Romans 2:14-15 NLT‬
[14] “Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. [15] They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.”

Together with conscience, God has given another equally powerful witness to His divine nature and power which He said, leaves people without excuse. Both Old and New Testaments declare the testimony of creation.

‭Psalms 19:1-4 NLT‬
[1]” The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. [2] Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. [3] They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. [4] Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.”

‭Romans 1:18-20 NLT‬
[18]”But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. [19] They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. [20] For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

There is severe judgment for those who ignore or deny God’s authority and live as though He doesn’t exist. However, He will reveal Himself to everyone who recognises His signature in nature and seeks after Him with an honest and humble heart.

‭Acts of the Apostles 17:22-28 NLT‬
[22] “So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, [23] for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. [24] “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, [25] and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. [26] From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. [27] “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. [28] For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’…
[30] “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. [31] For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”

‭Jeremiah 29:12-13 NLT‬
[12] “In those days when you pray, I will listen. [13] If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.”

God opened His promise to Israel to the whole world through Jesus.

‭Isaiah 55:3-7 NLT‬
[3] “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David. [4] See how I used him to display my power among the peoples. I made him a leader among the nations. [5] You also will command nations you do not know, and peoples unknown to you will come running to obey, because I, the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious.” [6] Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. [7] Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.”

God’s provision for the forgiveness of sin is for the whole world but only for those who acknowledge their sin and turn to the Lord in repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus.

‭1 John 2:1-2 NLT‬
[1]”My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. [2] He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.”

‭Hebrews 11:6 NLT‬
[6] And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”

But…

God’s word is clear. We cannot hide behind the foolish excuse of ignorance. We have the witness of creation and conscience to guide us towards the truth. If we continue in stubborn disobedience, we have only ourselves to blame when we end up in eternal separation from God.

A FEW THOUGHTS ON DISAPPOINTMENT

Christian Life, ,

A FEW THOUGHTS ON DISAPPOINTMENT

We all experience disappointments, big or small, on our journey through life. What is disappointment? Why are we disappointed?

Disappointment is a feeling of being let down or betrayed when our expectations are not met. We continually place expectations on God, people, or circumstances, many of which are unreasonable or of which the other person has no knowledge or is incapable of fulfilling for whatever reason.

The expectations we have of God are usually based on ignorance, or misunderstanding of who He is, or on what His will and purposes are for us. We pray for things we want, or for God to change the circumstances which make us uncomfortable or unhappy. We make demands of Him based on our own will or wishes instead of submitting to His greater wisdom and purposes.

When nothing happens, we are disappointed, and we hold God accountable for not answering us as we expected. We sometimes even lose faith and walk away because He didn’t do anything for us.

On the other hand, when we fail in our walk with the Lord, we are disappointed with ourselves and we impose our disappointment on God as though He doesn’t know us better than we know ourselves. We beat ourselves up for our failure and fall into depression instead of viewing ourselves as God see us.

“13 The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. 14 For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.”

Psalms 103:13-14 NLT

God sees the bigger picture. He is writing our small story into His big story. Where what we want and demand now is determined by our short-sighted selfishness, God is working in all things for our good.

“23 Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him. 24 But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people. 25 No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart.”

John 2:23-25 NLT

How reassuring to know that Jesus does not place any unrealistic expectations on us because He knows us! He is never surprised by our failures or disappointed by our sin. All He asks of us is that we are humble enough to acknowledge and take responsibility for our wrongdoing instead of blaming someone or something other than our own sinful hearts.

“8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

1 John 1:8-9 NLT

What about our disappointment with people? We often place unreasonable expectations on a friend or family member, based on our standards, that they are not aware of or incapable of fulfilling. We judge him/her when he/she doesn’t come up to scratch. We feel let down. We might even cut off our association with that person or become depressed because he/she has failed us.

Doesn’t our attitude often arise from the deep-seated, inborn feeling that we are better than the other person? Of course, we would never do to him/her what he/she has done to us!

We fail to recognise or acknowledge that we are just as capable of sin as the other person, given the circumstances. Only by God’s grace can we resist our fleshly temptations in favour of doing the right thing, no matter the cost.

When we humbly recognise our own frailty, we will be more willing to give the one who “failed” us the benefit of the doubt. Our disappointment will give way to understanding and the willingness to forgive rather than to judge.

Sometimes, our circumstances are so stressful that we cry out to the Lord in despair, expecting an instant response, only to wait in vain for deliverance. We weep and wail in anguish, but God seems silent and inactive. Like Job, we plead for answers but no answer comes.

Something happened in the lives of Martha and Mary, Jesus’ dear friends, that illustrate Jesus’ seeming indifference and the disappointment they felt that led to unnecessary pain and grief.

Let‘s look at the background to the story. Martha, Mary and Lazarus lived together in Bethany, a village near Jerusalem. Jesus often seemed to use their home as a place of refuge. They were His good friends and when Lazarus fell ill, it was only natural that the sisters would call Him.

I often wonder where Lazarus fitted into this friendship. On Jesus’ earlier visits to the sisters’ home, he is never mentioned. Did he have reservations about Jesus? Did he resist Jesus’ teaching and side with the religious leaders?

John records that Jesus loved Lazarus. Was it one-sided? Of course, Jesus loved him regardless of his response. Was he not part of a family very special to the Lord?

It seems that Jesus directed this whole incident towards revealing Himself to all three members of this family that would secure their faith in Him once and for all. Why did He deliberately ignore their cry for help when Lazarus lay dying?

To have gone running back to heal Lazarus would have been a notable miracle for them but not any different or bigger than the many miracles He had done for sick people.

When Jesus and His disciples finally reached Bethany, it was too late. By this time, Lazarus’ body was already decomposing in the tomb. The sisters reacted differently to this disastrous disappointment in Jesus.

“20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house.”

John 11:20

Martha, the practical one, met Jesus on His way in and reproached Him for His tardiness. She was not yet ready to trust Him enough to see the bigger picture beyond the present circumstances.

“21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

John 11:20-21 NLT

Martha’s confidence in Jesus was limited to what she knew of Him rather than in what He was in His fullness as the Son of God.

Jesus was quick to rebuke her for questioning His action. He hinted at His desire to reveal to this family a far greater truth about both the Father and Himself than they could ever imagine.

“4 But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.”

John 11:4 NLT

I think Martha, at this point, was repeating her belief in a theological fact included in her religious system, but not in a powerful conviction, written on her heart, that gave her hope.

“23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

John 11:23-24 NLT

Jesus, always alert to opportunities to reveal who He was – the Son of God, used this situation to drive home the glory of the Father, revealed in the Son, who had power over death itself. His own resurrection, foretold before it happened, would guarantee the resurrection of all those who believe in Him.

Jesus’ declaration, “I am the resurrection and the life,” brought from Martha the confession,

27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.”

John 11:27 NLT

… but did she really know what she was saying?

What about Mary?

Jesus was fully aware that Mary was avoiding Him. She refused to go out to meet Him until He called her. Her grief and disillusionment were so deep that she didn’t want to see Him.

Her words to Him, though exactly the same as Martha’s rebuke, were heavy with anger and anguish. Her faith in Him had been shattered and her hope destroyed. She lashed out at Jesus with all the emotion she could muster. Everything she thought she knew about Him was gone, wrecked by His seeming indifference.

Jesus wept, not at Lazarus’ death, but because of Mary’s failure to trust Him. Didn’t she understand that He had something far greater to reveal than His power to heal the sick? He came to make the true Father known, not the rigid, disciplinarian God Israel believed in.

The Father Jesus came to reveal would never ignore the cry of His child. However, if He seemed indifferent, it was His plan to do something far greater than His child expected.

Finally, when Mary saw the whole picture, her anger and bitterness turned to worship. In the next chapter, we see Mary at Jesus’ feet and Lazarus in Jesus’ company, reclining at the banquet table with Him.

Did Lazarus’ death experience at last convince him that Jesus was who He said He was, the Son of God? Gone were his reservations, gone his antagonism and opposition. What had his experience with death taught him? Did he have a glimpse of hell, or perhaps feel the hot breath of the flames?

Did Lazarus need an experience as extreme as death to convince him that Jesus spoke the truth about Himself and His Father?

Had Mary only realised that Jesus had a much bigger and better plan than she could ever imagine, she would not have wasted her emotional energy on grief and disappointment. If she had trusted Him and waited until He came, and seen what He could do, she would have brought Him joy instead of tears.

What lessons can we draw from this story about the way to handle our disappointments?

1. Disappointment will always be a part of life. However, our perspective will either produce emotional distress or grow a greater trust in the love of the Father.

If we consider God’s failure to meet our expectations when and how we demand, we will question His love for us, or even back down on our commitment to Him as Lord.

If we are convinced that God is in charge of our circumstances, we will be willing to submit to His timing and agenda. When bad things happen, we will wait for the final outcome instead of losing faith in Him.

“14 So he will do to me whatever he has planned. He controls my destiny.”

Job 23:14 NLT

2. If we think that people who let us down are the cause of our disappointment, we will always be at the mercy of fallible human beings.

If we recognise that we are as capable of failing them as they failed us, instead of judging, we will forgive out of compassion and understanding.

3. Disappointment can be a great test of the measure of our faith in God. Are we trusting Him only for what He can do for us, or is our faith in who He is, regardless of the outcome of our prayers.

If we are willing to wait for the outcome of our trial instead of insisting on an instant resolution, based on our conviction that God is working in all things for our good, we will save ourselves from a great deal of unnecessary emotional pain. Our confidence in God will lift us above the turmoil of circumstances into the pure atmosphere of peace no matter what we encounter on our journey through life.

“6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7 NLT

SENSUALITY AND GREED

Bible Study, ,

SENSUALITY AND GREED

So I tell you this, and insist on I in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed (Eph. 4: 17-19).

Paul used two words to sum up the lifestyle of the pagan Gentiles – sensuality and greed. The same description is applicable and apt for the godless world in which we live today. The human heart has not changed. Every generation, from the fall of Adam, lives for sin and self. Every society under the sun is in chaos and disarray for the same reasons – sensuality and greed.

As the unique and supreme creation of God (not some superior ape that has evolved from our monkey “cousins”) made in His image to reflect His glory, God has given us one overriding instruction which encapsulates everything we are to be.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deut. 6:5).

However, another master claims our allegiance. Satan tricked the first pair into believing his word over the word of their Creator and introduced them to a new trend – disobedience and rebellion in the place of loving obedience and submission to their Maker. They became lovers of self, not lovers of God. Sensual pleasures and greedy selfishness now dominates the human race.

By the way, I was amused to read, in a glossy woman’s magazine, the latest diagnosis for marital disharmony which used to be the outcome of selfishness. It is now called “post-romantic stress disorder”! Trust the psychiatrists to come up with a neat way for people to dodge responsibility and for them to make money. Just imagine how much more cash will flow into their coffers while they “counsel” their clients about their post-romantic stress disorder. How much better to teach them to grow up and stop living for themselves at the expense of their spouses!

Of course, like a leopard, we cannot change our “spots”. Only the Holy Spirit can transform our hearts through the forgiveness and new life Jesus came to give us. Ezekiel prophesied that God would do a miracle in the hearts of His people to transform them from stony-hearted, selfish and disobedient idolaters to loving and submissive children of God.

For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws (Ez. 36: 24-27).

God fulfilled this promise through His Son. According to Paul,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here (2 Cor. 5: 17).

Since God has done the miracle of transformation, our responsibility is to put it into practice in our everyday lives. New hearts produce new attitudes and new behaviour. Jesus said that it is the fruit that reveals the nature of the root. If we are still living like we did before we began to follow Jesus, satisfying our sensual appetites and living only to provide for ourselves, a question hangs over the reality of our profession. Here is the test:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation – but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if, by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God (Rom. 8: 12-14).

If we do not produce the proof of a new heart, our profession means nothing. Paul urged his Ephesian readers to respond in faith to the transformation God had accomplished through the power of the gospel at work in them. According to him, they were no longer classified as “Gentiles” because together with the title came the expectation that they would behave like Gentiles, living sensual and greedy lives.

They had become part of a new culture and an alternative society, living under the title of “children of God”. They had stepped over from the realm of “lovers of self” to “lovers of God”, a love which replaced all other loves and changed their hearts from greed to generosity, from selfishness to selfless service because they were followers of Jesus and reflectors of His nature.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

God of the Living

Christian Life, , ,

GOD OF THE LIVING

“‘Even Moses exclaimed about resurrection at the burning bush, saying, ‘God: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob!’ God isn’t the God of dead men but of the living. To Him all are alive.’

“Some of the religion scholars said, ‘Teacher, that’s a great answer!’ For a while, anyway, no one dared put questions to Him.” Luke 20:37-40 (The Message).

Hidden truths! Did anyone notice that the truth about resurrection is hidden in that short and seemingly insignificant statement – “God of Abraham”?

Every Jewish boy would have known that because his text book from birth was the Torah, the five books of Moses. He would have heard the Shema – “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one,” (Deuteronomy 6:4) – every time he suckled at his mother’s breast. By the age of six he would have memorised the book of Leviticus and by twelve, the whole Torah. In the Torah are the seeds of every major doctrine in the Bible, including the truth about the resurrection.

God created time and lives in a realm which is not subject to time. Unlike Him, human beings are not eternal. Our existence begins at a point in time but, from that point, we never cease to exist.

Because of Adam’s choice, we are subject to death, but death is not the end. It is the transition from time to eternity, from the realm of the physical to the realm of God where we shed all the imperfections of our fallen humanity and stand before God in the perfection of Jesus which He gave to us because of His death on the cross.

Because Jesus came from that realm, He could speak of as fact, that which we receive by faith, that God is the God of the living because Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still alive in His presence.

Had the Sadducees paid a little more attention to the Torah, they would not have made fools of themselves by posing a question to Jesus that revealed their ignorance.

In His reply, Jesus shows us how we can find the answer too many of the questions that puzzle us about our faith. There is a principle of Biblical interpretation that will help us, called the Law of First Mention. The first time something is mentioned in the Bible is the key to understanding what it means in the rest of the Bible.

There is an example of this principle that will help us to understand God’s original intent about prayer. The first mention of prayer is found in Genesis 4:26: “At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord.” In the original Paleo (picture) Hebrew, the word for “call” meant “to turn the head to face the One who can bear the burden.”

That’s it! We have made prayer into something quite complicated whereas the Bible presents prayer as the simple act of changing our awareness! When Adam and Eve chose to ignore God’s command, they lost their God-awareness and became self-aware, (“’…I was afraid because I was naked, and so I hid.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked?'” – Genesis 3:10b-11a), a preoccupation that has never changed

To change our awareness means to recognise and acknowledge God in the centre of whatever our concern is. We don’t have to bring God into our situations – He’s already there! When we change our awareness, we move from worry and panic to peace because He is there, He is good and He is in charge.

Jesus was saying, in essence, ‘Go back to the beginning where God has revealed His original intent. That’s where you’ll find His answers to your questions.’