False love destroys

And you, O desolate one,

what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,

that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,

that you enlarge your eyes with paint?

In vain you beautify yourself.

Your lovers despise you;

they seek your life.

Jeremiah 4:30

Craving what all worldlings seek:

acclaim, pleasures,

power, treasures

But these will always reek:

selfishness, need,

ignorance, greed

It is a vain attempt.

And God will not relent.

His justice will burn

as from Him we turn.

“Your lovers despise you!”

As judgment falls on you.

Seeking instead God’s kingdom:

truth, righteousness,

submission, holiness

There is a real freedom:

love, service,

provision, obedience

It is abundant living

that Jesus is giving.

Eternal life now known;

Grace to us always shown.

“Jesus, Lover of my soul!”

Hidden in You, all joy I know.

they are no gods

Has a nation changed its gods,

even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory

for that which does not profit.

Jeremiah 2:11

There is more than disappointment in God’s voice as He walks through His care of Israel through Jeremiah’s prophecy. This is a mix of many emotions. This is God with a broken heart. This is God angry at being deserted and disobeyed. This is a holy God offended by sin. This is a loving God hurt at rejection of His perfect love. This is a providing God Who will no longer stand being taken advantage of and taken for granted. This is a glorious, worship deserving God Who has been replaced by worthless idols. He will not stand for any of this from Israel. The time had come for all of this to change. Through Jeremiah His prophet, God announces what He will do to deal with the desertion, disrespect, and dereliction of duty.

All this is easy to blame on Israel’s blindness. I mean idols? When you have a unique relationship with the only God? Really? It seems so clear to modern minds. But I can have my false gods too. And they are equally unprofitable. True confession: I have struggled with various idolatries over the years. Here are a few I have found utterly worthless:

• Comfort. This is the lie of the “hard work yields a happy, restful retirement” mantra of our culture. I have chased entertainments, vacations, experiences, and hobbies to source my comfort. I have trusted them sometimes more than God. They fall short. They are not God.
• Approval. The praise of man is only partially fulfilling. It is better to praise God. Fickle human praise does not fulfill. Darling one day… Dog the next. I’ve seen how unreliable pleasing people can be.
• Stuff. Materialism looks promising… Until maintenance controls you with its relentless unsustainability! God however gives good gifts and supplies my need. Worshiping things is completely unfulfilling.

So Lord, You have taught me to seek only You. That which is no god does not profit. I heed Your words! Amen.

What I need to be: a reflection for the coming year

I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints…

Philemon 4-5

Lord,

My prayer this morning is informed by the testimony of Philemon. Oh how I long for others to know in me the reputation that Paul found in Philemon. I want to be a cause for thanksgiving. I desire to be used by You, among Your church, and in the world, in such a way that there is not a negative thought of me in the hearts of those who know me. I am far still from the character of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is still but a vine in me. But oh how I want two very profound one syllable words to be what people get from knowing me. I want to always be a man of love and a man of faith. I want to be known as a man whose love and faith is rooted in Jesus and displayed to His people.

Lord, I confess I get in the way of this reputation. Help me to lay aside selfish concerns, past hurts, and my pride. Help me Jesus, in Your healing and redeeming work in me, to love you well. I believe only in that way can I truly love others as I should, as the love of Christ compels me.

Lord, I also confess my plans and my doubts riddle my faith, making it harder to simply lean into You like I should. Forgive my stubborn need for control. You are my Lord. Your Spirit is my guide. Your Word lights my way. I believe You! I also believe You call me to trust others that You bring to speak wisdom to me. Help me, I pray, to trust in You and to trust Your people when You use them to make me more like Jesus.

My love and faith toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints must be exhibited from a heart God is transforming. Keep me focused! A fresh year is soon upon me… Love and faith in my Lord and toward His church is my hopeful goal! Amen

the King in your midst

The LORD has taken away the judgments against you;

he has cleared away your enemies.

The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;

you shall never again fear evil.

Zephaniah 3:15

The God Who judges is also the God Who forgives and restores. Despite all the stern language of wrath in the prophecies of Zephaniah, despite the exile of the Jews and the destruction of Jerusalem, God promises to bring back a people who will worship Him wholeheartedly. He will restore a cleansed and repentant people who will once again live under His rule, love His law, thrive under His blessing, and enjoy freedom from fear.

And how will this happen? The Lord will do it. It is God Who takes away His judgment (now accomplished by Christ). It is God Who clears away all Israel’s historic enemies (a promise as yet unfulfilled). God promises to directly rule in Jerusalem as King. That is yet to be realized in the return of Jesus. But God never lies. And this is why I still cling to an interpretive stance (ridiculed as it often is and sometimes rightly so for its extremes) that there are yet promises that Jesus will keep as King of Israel. Yes, the Jews must trust the gospel. They must see Jesus as Savior and Lord by virtue of His life, death, and resurrection. But God will not let His Word return to Him without accomplishing His purpose. It is for that reason that as I celebrate the first advent of Jesus in a manger, I also anticipate His coming advent as Messiah!

I’m completely unsure as to whether the current war in Israel has scriptural prophecy associated with it. I know it is NOT to be proof-texted by biblical citation. I am not compelled to do so. I do know that historically Gaza represents Philistine enemies of Israel. And even in my current reading of Zephaniah, I see that the prophet foretold of Gaza (and all Philistine oppression of Israel) to be made desolate and uninhabited (Zephaniah 2:4). Maybe that could happen now. Perhaps not. It seems to me that it would only occur as a prerequisite to Jesus doing this physically restorative work mentioned in Zephaniah 3:15 to rule as King. And that seems to be still on the horizon. I’ll never geek out on biblical prophecy concerning Israel. I want to understand it, but it is complex. Instead, I will always marvel at how it all points to Jesus, King of Kings, Messiah, and Lord of Lords!

hidden on THE DAY in Christ

Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land,

who do his just commands;

seek righteousness; seek humility;

perhaps you may be hidden

on the day of the anger of the LORD.

Zephaniah 2:3

There is a call to repentance made in this stern passage about the day of God’s wrath yet to fall on planet earth. Both the Old and New Testaments are very clear on this fact: God has prepared a day when He will, in righteous anger, judge all the peoples of the earth. No nation is beyond His ability to bring them to nothing before Him. No person will escape His scrutiny. It will be a global event judging the entire world. It will also be a personal judgment unique for each individual. God will pour His wrath on a rebellious planet. God will indeed be merciful to those who are truly seeking Him. This is an unpopular doctrine today, but scripture is clear: to reject the Day of the Lord is to reject God.

This verse sets the criteria for what will help a person thrive and survive on that day of God’s fierce anger. There are four things mentioned here that lead to survival and they are all provided for in Jesus by trusting the gospel:

1) Seek the Lord. Those who honestly want to know God… who believe Him, who trust Him, who cry out to Him, and who want to know His ways will be heard by Him. God comes to those who truly seek Him and then reveals further what they need to be saved.

2) Obey the Word of God. God will spare those who “do his just commands”. They respect and obey scripture. They know the Bible as God’s Word and His truth and they commit to following it as best they can in their day-to-day choices.

3) Seek righteousness. Survivors want to do what is right. God’s holiness motivates them. They find out how to do so by following what God says in His Word and obeying it. They trust the God Who supplies the ability to be forgiven and made holy in Christ.

4) Seek humility. This characteristic is mentioned twice in this verse. Those who reject the exaltation of self, who abhor the sinful arrogance of human pride, will find mercy from God and grace to live in dependence upon all God gives. Humility orders a person under the Lordship of Christ, the King of Kings.

By the way, all four of these characteristics are perfectly found only in Jesus. We MUST believe Him, find salvation in Him, submit to His rule, and be delivered by faith in the gospel in order to confidently be hidden in Christ during that day of God’s wrath. He is our Deliverer. Jesus already took our judgment on the cross. Faith in Him saves us in the Day of the Lord.

Sweep Away

“I will utterly sweep away everything

from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.

Zephaniah 1:2

Things seem outrageously

bad today;

God has promised He will utterly

sweep it all away.

A day of justice ultimately

will fall;

God will finally, eventually

end it all.

A divine broom furiously

will sweep

the debris of sin judiciously

cleansed deep.

A hand of judgment powerfully

will not relent

and all humankind will meekly

keep silent!

Everything will be purged, righteously

swept through;

As fires burn, the heavens and earth freshly

made new.

On that day, Jesus victoriously —

broom in hand

wields sword and scepter simultaneously

over all the land.

Come now Lord Jesus quickly

to reign!

Over us, judge and cleanse completely

all our sin and pain.

Old creation groans, weary and deathly,

longing for this day

when Jesus, You deliver us completely —

sweep the old stuff away!

working spiritually

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Colossians 3:23-24

These words were originally written to encourage slaves who had converted to Christianity. They may have toiled under Christian masters. They may have had unbelieving masters. Paul instructs them in either situation to consider that earthly slavery is not their true condition. He urges them to take a higher view of their lives, and in so doing, calls us to consider the same.

Paul’s advice to slaves is to “work heartily”. The phrase can be literally translated as “work from your soul”, or in better vernacular to “work spiritually”. Their work was not mere physical labor or menial management. Instead, slaves were to do spiritual work, with a focus of offering their labor to Christ, not men. Slaves were to look for the “well done” of Jesus and not people. They were to be rewarded by serving Christ as their Master and not to get hung up on pleasing human masters.

It is popular to attempt to translate Paul’s advice to slaves into modern principles of employment for Christian employees in the marketplace. I find that offensive for a couple reasons. First, it trivializes the dehumanization that is institutional slavery, and though Roman slavery was not as brutal as American racial slavery, it was still awful. Secondly, it minimizes the reality of vocational calling and unique giftednese if I think of myself as a “slave” to my job. Instead, I choose to just embrace Paul’s advice to slaves as good insight into every believer’s motivation. We should do all for Christ’s kingdom anyway. Paul considered himself a slave of Christ (Titus 1:1). Christians call Jesus Lord and Master, a slave’s address to a superior authority. Mentally, we should serve because we have no other occupation or choice in the matter. We are slaves of Jesus. We too must serve “the Lord Christ”.

And so I labor in the kingdom, which I will do however I am called to do so, until God takes me home. I will adopt a motivation to work “with soul”, in a spiritual way, with God-focused motivations. My goal is not human recognition, the employee of the year reward, MVP status, or applause from others as I take the stage. Rather, I have one “well done” in mind as I toil behind the scenes, with humility, content to let others be served and to serve my Savior. I will only hope to possibly hear “well done” when one day I will bow before my only Master and Lord: Jesus!