Daily Thought: Indifference

What does the Bible say about indifference to sin?

Of us, the corrupt, in Romans 1: "those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them" (Verse 31).

Only, this sounds like it's more than indifference: It's another reminder that our hearts are an active attack factory on the glory of God. We have "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man" (Verse 23), known God but "did not honor him as God or give thanks to him" (Verse 21), have been "filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice" (Verse 29), and are more than guilty of being "gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless" (Verses 29-31).

So what is this to say? (1) God is passionate about His glory and will not see it stolen. (2) It takes a big God and infinitely-great mercy for a God so offended to forgive such wicked sinners. And He has. Can you say, "how great is our God?" Can you shout, "Amazing Grace?" Amen!

One Hope vs. False Hope - Part 1: "Once This, Then That!"

"Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind."
~Ecclesiastes 1:2-3, 12-13 (ESV)

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I had the privilege to finally graduate college this past Saturday morning (I'm now edumacated!). It's been a long, 6-year road to the coming of this occasion. And while school is a certain blessing, I sure was ready to finish this season of life and move on to the next.

What else is new?

Well, I'm not unique in that aspect--the whole "ready-for-the-next-season" thing. It was quite a challenge to be married, work full-time, do the school gig, and not have the best time-management skills all at the same time). In fact, here are some oft-repeated college phrases heard (and spoken) personally:

• "Ah! I am so ready for this semester to be done!"
• "I am SO ready to be done
• "I can't wait to get out of this place.
• "I just want to work and not worry about school."
• "Once I graduate, then...."

Okay, so I said those more than I heard them. And I heard them often enough to be reminded that we, as weak humans, so often forget where our hope lies. Only when we have our true Hope in the forefront--viewing all of our hardships, prosperity, and challenges alike through the filter of that Hope--can we rejoice in the midst of any given circumstance.

One lesson I sensed the Lord teaching me (especially the second half of the semester) is this: I (we) cannot place our hope in any earthly achievement, milestone, or possession and find it. He made clearer to me the foolishness of how there is "always the next thing," as in: "Once I have this or reach this goal, everything will then be fine!" Then once we get there, there is only the next thing about which we say the same thing.

Here are a few (bad) examples from my own life that show that this spans all of life:

• When I was very young, I couldn't wait to turn 12 and feel like a "big kid."
• When I was 12, I couldn't wait to be a teenager so I could relate to other teens.
• When I was a teen I couldn't wait to graduate highschool and also be able to hang with the college students
• When I started college, eventually I could not wait to leave my community college behind and go to a university.
• When I attended my university I couldn't wait to get out of there and be done.
• Almost all along, I couldn't wait to get married and leave singleness behind.
• When I got engaged, I couldn't wait to have a "real job."

Okay, you get the picture.

What the Lord has been speaking to me is that, "Franz, you can't place your hope in anything but Me and find it. Only the great I AM shall satisfy. Come, my child--I have given you this as another lesson about Me and to draw you to Myself and a deeper understanding of Me."

I soon realized that indeed I had been saying of something so fleeting as graduating college that "once it comes, all will be well." Not that I cared so much for the degree as I did being done with the school lifestyle and moving on to what I thought to be "better, more fruitful things." However, this season of school is exactly what God had for myself and my newly-wed wife. And what I saw once again is that there is no better thing than that which God has given. Or, as my lovely wife often says: "There is no better place to be than in the center of God's will."

"I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away." (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15)

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Challenge and Application Questions

• What things are you tempted to place your hope in other than God?
• What things have you long placed your hope in other than God?
• How has God and how is God helping you turn from idols such as these to Himself--the living, all-satisfy God?

Citations

Image source: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2281/2176836127_b81ed135cd.jpg

The Four Woes of Luke 6 - Woe 1: Against Earthly Riches

"'But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.'"

~Luke 6:24 (ESV)

| Read Part 2>

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Jesus provides us with four merciful "woes" or warnings in Luke chapter 6. And no, they're not dazzled "woahs" as in "Woah, dude!" No, these are merciful warnings as in "Woe to you" from the mouth of Christ Himself. As with all of Scripture, we will do well to heed them and grow in our love for Christ in doing so!

There are many things vying for our attention that claim to be the ultimate comfort, yet they are earthly. Anything other than God that we look to to function as God is a deception and an idol. Only God, the only comfort, can function as God, the only comfort!

The rich are warned with a merciful warning that those who look to what they have now on earth for their comfort, that indeed shall be the end of their comfort. If that is all there is to life, does life not seem meaningless? But there is so much more to it, the glory of God! Eternal satisfaction in Him that ever increases!

Shall we seek after riches on earth? Shall we store up meaningless things? Shall we create idols to "function as God" to satisfy ourselves? Then that shall be our consolation, our comfort, our reward. The fact is that we all do! Our heart is a "factory of idols," as C.J. Mahaney quotes in his excellent and life-changing (I kid you not) message series, The Idol Factory. This series revealed to me the Biblical name of my many sins and the nature of the deception of my heart. I know I can so quickly, if my eyes are not on my Savior, be deceived into thinking satisfaction can be achieved in something other that Christ.

O, may it never be that we live our lives for these things! Christ is the only One needed, Who matters, and Who satisfies with an everlasting satisfaction and an ever-increasing thirst for more of Himself.

O, Fountain of Grace,
Fountain of Mercy, truth, and life,
You are the perfect Prince of Peace
All of my days,
May I always strive for Your name praised,
You are the God over all

Challenge and Application Questions

• What does satisfaction in Christ look like in the life of a Christian and why iks it critical?
• Are you satisfied in Christ? Evaluate your thirst for God.
• What competes most for your satisfaction, energies, your heart, your thoughts, and your devotion other that Christ (like the rich man's devotion to riches)? How will you seek to defeat these idols in your life and fall more in love with Christ?