And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great. (Job 8:7) Let’s not get confused with the context of this passage. Job’s friend, Bildad, is telling him that Job’s family got what they deserved: divine punishment from God. He accused Job’s children of being secretly bad and therefore paying the price for their imagined evil. I just want to say as an aside that Job’s friend sucked and if you have a friend like this guy, you should de-friend him or her immediately. Now, after he cursed Job and his family in a penultimate hypocrisy, he was proposing that if Job would beg and borrow, that God would change Job’s fate and make things better than before. There are two theological problems with Bildad’s argument: the first being that some people are innocent and deserving of God’s favor; the second is that people would believe that God is swayed by people faking innocence. Neither of these are true. Yes, these are two principle tenets of a standard religion, but what we see in the Bible is that God has another standard and people desperately fall short. Having said all of that, how do we see to it that our future ends up being better than our past? From this entire book of Job the only guarantee seems to be God as judge. Bildad implies that clinging to God and His mercy is the only solution. The equation only works with a mediator. It only works when Jesus stands in for us and when we trust Him for our everything. You see, Jesus takes our insignificant lives and make them worth something more than the fertilizer our body becomes after we die. When Jesus intervenes in our lives, we become more than what we are now. We have a chance at a greater later. What makes somebody great is not our own righteous behavior and action. It’s Jesus who stands in for us before the judge and advocates for our “now” to be only a shadow of things that will define us later. If you forget why you believe in Jesus, or what your faith is doing for you, now you know– it makes your later better than now.

Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies. (Psalm 108:12-13) Valiantly: being marked by bravery or valor; with courage. Just think about what this Psalm, this prayer, really shield for our spiritual lives; that with God, we have the ability to act with courage because He outweighs the fears or doubts in our lives. But have you wondered why trusting God brings us courage whereas trusting people brings us doubt? I mean, you can’t see God, nor can you touch God. However, there is something about Good that brings you confidence when you think about His presence walking with you. Isn’t that the reason why countless sports teams pray to God for victory? Isn’t that why even non believing atheists point up to God in hope of a higher being being there? I don’t know what fears and doubt you have because people have failed you over and over. In fact I can’t even begin to tell you how jaded I am because the shortcomings of people in my life. I can tell you that, just like the writer of this Psalm, you can do good to remind yourself that with God walking with you, or on your side, you can go valiantly into any and every situation that would otherwise cause fear or doubt. I want you to boldly pray, “God help us from trouble, for with you, we shall go valiantly.” Be known for your valiant actions in the spheres of your life and allow God to be the source of that bravery.

The thing about temptation is that loud voices often drive the wheels toward sin. In hindsight I’m sure we regret listening to the loud voices. But on other occasions, I’m sure we ask ourselves what if… That is to say, what if I were builder, braver, more purposeful. But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. ( Luke 23:23-24) Pilate became infamous in history because of one moment he gave into the crowd voices. This one lapse in judgment and will caused him to put the Son if God to death for no reason other than a very loud crowd at his window. But we don’t judge the man for his decision. Afterall, this man didn’t just have a loud crowd at his window, he had a very large and obnoxiously loud crowd that had been agitated into a mob-like riot. Honestly, I’ve probably done a lot worse with a whole lot less voices hollering at me. Don’t even begin to count the number of times you feel into peer pressure– voices; if you’re anything like me, human, you lost count a few years ago and decided some random new year to asp counting as a resolution and it’s the only one you ever kept in your life. See the beauty of this passage is not the condemnation of bad decision making. Rather, the beauty lays in how Good uses the folly of Pilate to bring upon man kind the greatest revolutionary movement it has ever seen– forgiveness of sins. If there are voices prevailing in your life or if voices have prevailed in your life, it’s not beyond redemption. You may have made a bad decision as a result of bad voices prevailing; but that is not the end of the story. There is a greater voice that prevails in the end. Time to listen to the voices declaring who prevails through all our folly, sin, and bad decisions. Listen to the prevalent voice of God in your life.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. (Daniel 4:37) For those of you who are not familiar with how this story begins, let me tell you because only then will you understand why have this conclusion. The king of Babylon had a dream where he lost his mind and started behaving like an animal. Then, after he scoffed the at the dream instead of taking it with any prudence, he lost his mind just as his dream had predicted. For seven years the king lived like an animal– literally eating grass and drinking from ponds and sleeping in the open. Then he comes to his senses and makes the statement above. See the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had was a warning. The warning was: recognize God or risk losing your mind. The king chose to risk. He didn’t think that God would go to great lengths to pursue him. God did. The length of pursuit for your soul was lived out in Jesus. He lived, died and rose from the dead so that he could have your heart and be recognized by you. If you know God is pursuing you because He wants to love on you, would you date be like Nebuchadnezzar and risk your sanity to avoid such a big blessing? I would hope that you wouldn’t. But I know sometimes, we behave like a crazy person and lose our minds just so we could avoid God’s love. Recognize God in your life the easy way: answer when He calls.

They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean. (Ezekiel 44:23) Now that we’ve arrived into the world of relativity, its more important than ever to distinguish between the holy and the common in our lives. The reason being that when the lines between holy and common begin to blur, nothing, and I mean nothing, carries the significant importance required to matter in people’s lives. As a result of this, one cannot debase or decry outrageous social injustice, failures of morality, and unabashed refusal of accountability in people. In this passage God charges the priesthood to teach His people and to show His people the difference. Now, according to the Bible, all followers of Christ are part of the royal priesthood and therefore this charge from God is to us. We are charged to show people and teach people between holy and common. Likewise, we are to show and teach people between clean and unclean. It is a pretty steep charge. In fact, it is a charge that demands that we live as exemplars to know knowing what is holy and not and distinguishing from clean and unclean and making that a part of our life every single day. Its so easy for us to get wrapped up, lost and befuddled by relativity that we don’t live what we say we teach. We treat the common things in life as holy and conversely, we treat the holy things in life as they are just mere banality in the peripheral of our lives. Perhaps this week, we need to really reflect on what we distinguished and treated as holy; and whether those things considered holy in our lives just common? Lets reevaluate the holy in our lives and show others how to do the same.

The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. (Psalm 145:20) From this Psalm, there are a few ideas that we should string together in faith and place into action for our lives. First, there is a correlation between loving God and being righteous (that is not wicked). Second, if you love God, He will perserve your life. Thirdly, if you don’t love God, you must be wicked and therefore will be destroyed. Conversely, the questions that are begged as a result of these conclusions are: how do you love God? Secondly, why is Good looking to destroy the wicked if being wicked is a matter of loving God? Why doesn’t He try to woo the wicked into loving Him? I will address all three conclusions and questions now. If loving God distinguishes you from the “wicked” that the Psalmist writes about, then we should do our best to love God. To love God is to make Him everything your heart, mind and soul focuses on. That is to say that a person who loves God always considers God, and thinks about God, and am mindful of Him. Therefore, a person who loves God is always looking to receive from God what God gives and does in his or her life. A person who loves God will reflect upon these things and appreciate God for loving them. A person who is wicked, on the other hand, will not. The reason God destroys the wicked is because in God’s objective judgment, He cannot stand the wicked. The only logical conclusion is that the wicked be judged and the judgment results in destruction. This gets deeper, but that is as far as I want to go for our study today. What I want to impress upon all of us is that we are acting wickedly when we fail to recognize God for His worth in our lives because by failing to recognize God, we are essentially making ourselves gods. No, we are not the masters of the universe, nor are we even remotely in control of life as we know it. So we should recognize God and not be as wicked to think that we are above Him. In conclusion, if and when we love God. Notice that the passage doesn’t say when we are perfect. Nor does the passage say when we keep all the commandments. It says, when we love God, that is when God preserves us. The key here is that the prerequisite for being sustained by God in our very unfair lives, is to love God. In loving God, He will make sure we are preserved. Let’s pray for our brothers and sisters suffering the tragedy at the Navy Yard in DC. Remember their families. Ask that God preserves them with His love.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! (Psalm 111:10) The fear of the Lord doesn’t mean we should be afraid of God. Allow me to clarify: we don’t need to be afraid of an attack by God. A lot of people come to our faith fearing that if rules aren’t followed, that they should begin to tremble. It is from this fear that we stand before God trying to be justified, but that just isn’t it. It’s not what God wants. Nor is it great to live in perpetual fear. So what can the Bible mean when it says that we should “fear the Lord”? Two things come to mind: first, a reverence toward God that is not to be taken for granted; and secondly, an earnestness for God that desires to do exactly what God desires. This is worship. This is wisdom. This is the place where all of us find new beginnings. This is the authentic relationship with an everlasting presence that never goes away or gases to black. Fear of the Lord is something we practice, meaning it’s something we get better at. We grow in it and therefore grow in wisdom. It’s not a one and done deal, it is a perpetual growth that should not be stopped. We never grow too old or too wise for it. If you want to be wise beyond contempt we need to practice the fear of God. We need to worship Him like we He deserves and is worthy of. May your fear in God, not of God, begin the process of wisdom in your life today.

For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. (Ecclesiastes 5:20) When you initially read this verse, or even this passage in the Bible, you might get the sense that life is unfair and is really hopeless. In fact, if you don’t feel like life is unfair and incredibly hopeless after living it for a few years, then you are one of the lucky few that lived a blessed life. Most likely, you may have come to a point where you believe that the only thing going for you in this life is the hope that you will find something to be distracted by. Now what if I told you the reason this verse is in the Bible is because people find themselves contextualizing all their experiences and their hardships in the wrong way. What I mean is that through our lives we begin to get the feeling that life is against us and we become stick in thoughts and things that have long passed us by and now no longer matter to anybody but us. That is to say that we have a serious problem on harping on things and thoughts that occurred in the past which keeps us from seeing and experiencing the present we have before us. It is such a shame. However, no matter how hopeless your life may acutually be, God wants to give us a joy that overwhelms all other experiences and scars that we want to harp on. In fact, there is a singular joy God offers to us. When we have this joy, nothing else matters. We would trade away all our possessions and memories for this joy. To the Christian that joy is faith in Jesus as lord and savior and it is Jesus who occupies or mind and hearts above everything else. He gives us a perspective superceding everything. This is amazing grace. This is the power to overcome. This is love. Be occupied by joy in the face of living life. Life with God, a true journey with Him, no matter the difficulty, is so much more than memories of a life without Him.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5) The word, “abide” means to accept or to act in accordance with. So when Jesus says that when we “abide” in Him, or accept Him or act in accordance with Him, then he is essentially saying that we need to expect more from our life at the point of acceptance or act of accordance. But when you think about the word “abide” and look at it a bit more closely, you find that “accepting” is a lot different than “acting in accordance with.” I want to explore that idea today because in this simple statement Jesus is pushing us toward a decision, and furthermore a commitment. When we “abide” in Jesus, to “accept” Him into our lives, we are making a choice to be in a relationship with Him. When we make that decision to be in a relationship with Him, we find ourselves in the midst of grace that puts our life ready for fruit. In the case of “fruit” you can interpret that as anything positive in your life. While Jesus may probably have been referring to spiritual fruit, I want to say that fruit in general is spiritual, from God. Being able and ready for fruit in our lives by the way of accepting Jesus into our lives, is just the beginning. Being able to bear fruit is not the same as bearing “much” fruit. We all know that. Therefore, accepting is just a part of abiding. The second part in abiding is the “acting in accordance with.” This is the part where all of us struggle. It’s a struggle to be enduring in a relationship with Jesus. I mean, he is God, after all. So here, we are being asked to act in accordance with Jesus. But the only way to act in accordance with Him is to be one with Him, or else how can you know what it means to be acting in accordance with Him? Check out a quiet time from last week to learn more (Speaking for God). However, in general, to act in accordance with God is to get to know Him for who He is. We do that by constantly going back to reach out and for Him because He is reaching back out to us. We need to be praying to Him because He is listening; we need to be reading His Word because He is speaking to us now, and so on and so forth. In Jesus’ analogy he shows us what an ideal relationship with Jesus would be like– branches to a vine. In that scenario, you find that the branches grow out from the vine and without the vine there is no life to flow through to the branches. We need to accept Jesus, like the branch accepts the vine as its source of life and we need to continue to act in accordance with Jesus as the branches only live as part of the vine. Today, make it an occasion to abide in Jesus and see that your life was never more fruitful apart from Him.

Have you ever wondered how we could be sure that the idea or utterance in our hearts are coming from God or from our own volition? If you have, then keep reading below. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. (John 7:18 ESV) Jesus is confronted by a crowd in Judea during the Festival of Booths. It is clear from the text that the crowd had been questioning whether this person that they’ve come to know as Jesus from Nazareth was really speaking for God, as a prophet would; or if he was just another rebel rouser. They wanted to write him off. They wanted to write him off because Jesus wouldn’t give them the pleasure of defending his authority or purpose. In fact, Jesus says that anybody who wants to do God’s will would know whether or not it is God’s will. This statement entraps them because it is something they never thought about. It’s like having a chicken and an egg and they both came first! Now, this also poses a dilemma for us in that we have a hard time discerning God’s will and our will. I do this professionally, and even then there’s a lot of grey and not enough definitive “yes” and “no.” Jesus gives us a really good benchmark to measure whether or not we are speaking for God or speaking for ourselves. That’s verse eighteen. If we speak or if we vision and the intent is our glory with veins and streams of going to God, then it’s not of God. However, if our intent is glory to God and glory to God only, regardless of who and what else gets any residual glory, then that’s God. In the perfect world, we would shoot that residual glory back to God as a thanksgiving offering of praise, but that’s another story for another day. When God does things through you, because you’re intent and sole focus is to glorify God, then you will find authority to say and do things with the power of God pushing through you. I want to caveat this by saying that when we speak for God or if we allow God to speak through us, we do so measuring our intent and purpose with “right judgment” and not the appearances of judgment. Let’s try to change where our authority comes from and start speaking for God in our lives.