Author: Dave M Price

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More Than Justice

Daily Reading

Ezekiel 18-20

Daily Thought

Justice is matter-of-fact, “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4), or if “he is righteous; he shall surely live” (Ezekiel 18:9). Plain and simple, and just. There is a problem with this, though, a problem for us. 

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one. ~Psalm 14:2-3

Do we really want justice? Ezekiel began listing Israel’s sins, “defiles his neighbor’s wife, oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, lends at interest, and takes profit” (Ezekiel 18:11-13). He could keep going, and he could have been listing ours.

God saw Israel’s sin and ruled rightly, “I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them” (Ezekiel 20:8, 13, 21), yet, time and again, God gave mercy, “I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name” (Ezekiel 20:22). When Moses asked God his name, God told him, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). God defines justice but justice does not define God. God is who he is, and while he is just, he is far beyond. When God looks down from heaven and sees our sin, justice is due, but God came down from heaven and, for the sake of his name, brought more than justice, and that is the Gospel, that is Jesus, that is “the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Jean Valjean took shelter in the Bishop’s home. He also took the silver. When he was caught by the Constable, Valjean was returned to the Bishop for justice. “He claimed that you gave the silver to him,” mocked the Constable. “Yes, of course I gave him the silverware,” replied the Bishop. “Thank you for bringing him back. Release him.” Then turning to Valjean, the Bishop handed him more, “You forgot the candlesticks, Jean Valjean. They are worth 2,000 francs. Why did you leave them?”

“You shall know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God.” ~Ezekiel 20:44

The Bishop glared with terrifying love, “Jean Valjean, you no longer belong to evil. With this silver I’ve bought your soul. I’ve ransomed you from fear and hatred. Now I give you back to God.”

Daily Prayer

My Lord, my God, You have shown a love unimaginable. You bought me with Your love, a love that sacrificed what is most precious to You. You made Your Son sin, not sin of His own doing, but my sin and the world’s sin. He bore it all, sin and the just consequence. He died, separated and forsaken by You, because You cannot look upon sin. But sin could not hold Him, and He rose again, the first of more to come, of which I am one, I will be raised again to eternity.

I am Yours, God, bought fully by the blood of Your Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ. I welcome the rain of justice upon me because I have the reign of Jesus over me. I am, therefore, a living sacrifice to You, showing the world Your good, pleasing and perfect will. 

Amen

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Beauty

Daily Reading

Ezekiel 16-17

Daily Thought

A joke: two outlaw gunfighters, Pete and Tom, brothers and bad men, were notorious in the Old West. Tom, alas, was slow on the draw and killed. Pete cautioned the preacher if he did not call Tom a saint at his burial, the preacher would be next in the grave. So, when giving the eulogy, the preacher detailed the bad life Tom had lived, but concluded, “compared to his wicked brother Pete, Tom was a saint.”

“As I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed” (Ezekiel 16:48, 51). According to God, Israel was Pete, Sodom and Samaria were Tom, and Israel made them look good by comparison.

God reminded Israel, you had it good. “You were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen” (Ezekiel 16:13). You were married to the King of kings–“I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God and you became mine” (Ezekiel 16:8), but Israel loved her beauty more than the one who made her beautiful. “You trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his” (Ezekiel 16:15). Our trouble begins when what God thinks of us is not enough and we seek the second opinion of others. Israel sought the company of creation rather than the Creator, and beauty became a whore.

Daily Prayer

My God, may You always receive the glory. In all of creation and in everything I do. Yours is the Name above all names.

What is astounding is I am not only part of Your family, but I am a co-heir with Your Son, Jesus Christ. Not only am I clothed in His righteousness, but I share His eternal treasure. Thank You, Father, because when I make You first, I discover all my dreams and desires are fulfilled. My greatest joy comes in Your glory.

Amen

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Sin

Daily Reading

Ezekiel 13-15

Daily Thought

The Israelites were not happy with God’s prophet speaking judgment, so they employed their own prophets who would eschew judgment and proclaim “‘Peace,’ when there is no peace” (Ezekiel 13:10). We do the same with our words. The Oxford University Press removed “sin” from its latest edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary. “To reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multi-faith society,” explained the publisher. Or because we want to sin without calling it sin.

“What’s in a name?” asked Shakespeare’s Juliet, “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” You can smell sin, too, even if you remove its name. It always smells a little cheap, mimicking what is real, but not quite. We call it ambition when it is really greed; we speak of a choice, but it is really a life; we share concerns, but we are really gossiping; we call it holiness, but it is really hypocrisy. “When a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall” (Ezekiel 13:11). Paint over it, rename it, or do not name it at all, we cannot fool God and we do not fool ourselves; but we make ourselves fools, and it destroys who we are.

The true prophet speaks judgment and calls out Israel’s sins by name, not to destroy them, but to restore them, “I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols” (Ezekiel 14:5). God’s Word will restore us, too, should we listen.

Daily Prayer

God, I need You. I try (sometimes) to do what is right, but even then, it’s just okay. Way too often, I don’t even try. I sin, God. I do wrong, and I know it is wrong. No matter how hard I try, I cannot be good enough. Deep down inside, I know what good is. I know You are good, and You made me to be good, but I keep doing things my way instead of Your way. I need a Savior. I need Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

I am going to stop trying to be good on my own, and I am going to call sin sin, and turn away from it. You have offered me Your goodness, Your righteousness, through the life, death, and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ, my God and Savior. I put my life, all of my life, in Your hands. Change me as You will.

Amen

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Who Pays the Debt?

Daily Reading

Ezekiel 9-12

Daily Thought

God had an agreement with Israel, a long-standing covenant that said, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” This is Creator making a commitment to creation. Think about that–the Creator owes nothing to creation; creation owes its all to the Creator, and yet, God kept his word and his people broke theirs repeatedly.

Ezekiel is a tough read; judgment is terrifying and terrible. When God commands his angel, “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion” (Ezekiel 9:5), I shudder. I fancy the God who is gracious and merciful, the patient and long-suffering Father, failing to consider I am the reason he suffers long. I expect patience in others with no thought of lessening their burden.

Israel used God’s mercy and grace to disregard his holiness and justice. They said of each prophecy’s terrible doom, “the vision he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies about the distant future” (Ezekiel 12:27). They are content to live in God’s favor even if their children pay their debt. Now that is truly terrible.

We, rather, have the heart of Jesus before us, who “bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1Peter 2:24). The world lives as if their joy is another’s burden. Christ dies because his burden is our joy.

Daily Prayer

Lord God, You accomplished salvation because You were focused on the joy of eternity. You endured the cross because You loved me. When You call me to love You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, You have already shown a love that strong, that complete, for me.

God, I deserve worse, You gave me Your best. I now desire to live a life completely sacrificed to Your glory. May I never take advantage of Your love. I am grateful for Your mercy and grace, and committed to Your righteousness, Your holiness, Your goodness. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit, that my heart will always belong to You.

Amen

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God Will Be Known

Daily Reading

Ezekiel 5-8

Daily Thought

Through the prophet Ezekiel, God is announcing judgment upon the nation Israel, but it did not have to be that way. Israel had a special place in God’s plan for the world, “This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.” (Ezekiel 5:5). Israel was the nation chosen of God to be what Jesus later described as “the light of the world, a city set on a hill” (Matthew 5:14), a nation displaying the goodness and glory of God to all others. “I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2). With great privilege comes great responsibility, a quote attributed to Voltaire, FDR, and Spiderman, but Jesus said it first, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48). Israel had been given much in order that by her conduct the world would know God.

That was one way, but there is another. To a nation that had spurned God’s blessing comes God’s judgment, “Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting on the mountains. Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations” (Ezekiel 7:7-8). The purpose of God remains the same, however. In chapters six and seven of Ezekiel, God speaks to the purpose of his judgment against Israel, that “they will know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 6:7, 10, 13, 14; 7:4, 9, 27), a theme repeated over sixty times throughout the book of Ezekiel. One way or another, God will be known. One way is better.

“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” ~Matthew 5:16

Daily Prayer

My God, Maker of the heavens and the earth, Creator of all things, Owner of cattle on a thousand hills. Not a thousand cows, a thousand hills of cows. While I clutch the world’s trinkets, You offer Your treasures. The choice should really not be that difficult.

The greatest of all treasures, my God, is knowing You. May I cast aside all that entangles me, no matter how much it delights, if it stands in the way of knowing You. You, God, are my treasure.

Amen

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A Good Man

Daily Reading

Ezekiel 1-4

Daily Thought

To follow Jesus is a personal faith, but not a private faith. It is meant to be public. 

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples! ~Psalm 105:1

The entertainer Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) does not believe he needs saving. He is an atheist; he believes there is no God. He believes there is no everlasting life. A man approached Penn Jillette with a gift, a Gideon’s Bible. The man believed Penn Jillette needs saving. I know what Penn Jillette thinks about the Bible. I know what he thinks about God. I know what he thinks about heaven and hell and salvation. I thought I knew what he would think about this man. “He was a very very very good man,” said Jillette. I was wrong. Penn Jillette respected this man who shared his faith. “I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize,” reasoned Jillette. “How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them about it?” Good question. Whether or not Penn Jillette welcomed the word, he knew that a prophet had come close. He called him a good man.

The job of prophet is to tell the truth of God to the people, “and whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (Ezekiel 2:5).

Daily Prayer

Everlasting God, out of love You created us. You created us in Your image and You created us good. I can only imagine what it was like to know You at creation, no sin, no separation, no need of a Savior. Adam and Eve could see You clearly and worship You fully.

Then they sinned and now I sin and I am separated and I truly need a Savior, and you delivered One. You gave Your Son and brought me back close to You with the certainty of eternity in Your presence. You sent Your Son for me, and He came. You now send me to others. I will go and I will tell the truth.

Amen

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Turning Back

Daily Reading

Lamentations 3:37-5:22

Daily Thought

God used Babylon as his hammer of judgment against Israel, but that does not mean the mallet was swung by God’s hand. God lifted his hand of protection and Babylon was eager and willing to crush Judah. Jeremiah describes this as “greater than the punishment of Sodom” (Lamentations 4:6). Sodom saw the fist of God, “then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven” (Genesis 19:24). Judah saw God’s back. God turned away from Judah, and that is worse. It was the back of God Jesus saw when, carrying the sins of the world on the cross, he cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). There is no greater hell.

God destroyed Sodom. Judah, he planned to save, and salvation requires a deeper pain. Judah must repent. To repent means to change direction, and change is resisted until the pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of turning around. Parents have tools of discipline: spanking, grounding, lectures (I preferred a spanking to my dad’s lectures, quicker and less painful). But, of last resort, they let go. The father gave the prodigal son his inheritance and turned away. He left his son to himself.

Judah cried out, “Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days?” (Lamentations 5:20). They were afraid God’s back meant he no longer cared. They were wrong, he cared more, enough to let his child go, to place Judah on the painful path toward repentance.

“I called on your name, O Lord,
from the depths of the pit;
you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
your ear to my cry for help!’
You came near when I called on you;
you said, ‘Do not fear!’
You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life” (Lamentations 3:55-58). 

Daily Prayer

Mighty God, I look to You each morning and anticipate the day, and each evening I give thanks. You are always there, always sovereign, always involved, always in love. It took me awhile to learn this; I thought my way better, and You let me wander, but You were always there to hear my call. Thank You for walking slow enough for me to catch up.

I love being part of Your good news, God. Thank You for salvation, for hearing my cry, for giving me life and life’s purpose. I still try to grab the controls. Don’t let me! Your way is much better.

Amen

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The Desert of Despair

Daily Reading

Lamentations 1:1-3:36

Daily Thought

“And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything” (Luke 15:16). The younger son in Jesus’s story of the prodigal has entered the depth of despair, when the world has nothing left to offer. He had taken his father’s inheritance and boasted, “I will do it my way.” There is an irony that the most requested song at funerals is Frank Sinatra’s, “My Way.” It is still a funeral, the world has nothing left to offer. But this was not his funeral, and the younger son had time yet to remember. “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!” (Luke 15:17). 

This is Jeremiah’s lamentation, “my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. My endurance has perished” (Lamentations 3:17-18). This is the plight of Israel, the opportunity to turn their whining and wailing from “Why should this happen to me” to “Why should not this happen to me?”

“The Lord is in the right,
for I have rebelled against his word.” ~Lamentations 1:18

And now there is hope.

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope. ~Lamentations 3:19-21

Hope is the flower that blooms in the desert of despair. The younger son turned his back to the world and returned to his father, and “the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:22-24).

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, You are good, and You are good to me, more than I deserve. But you are also fair and just. When I neglect Your Word, when I stray from Your leading, I get lost and I find trouble. I can’t blame You for that; it is the consequence of my desires. 

What amazes me is when You come searching for me when I’m the one who got myself lost. You lead me back to Your path, and welcome me back as if I had never strayed. I know what I deserve, and it’s not Your love and grace. Thank You for not giving me what I deserve, and giving me what I don’t. Your mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness.

Amen

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Baseball Cards

Daily Reading

Jeremiah 51-52

Daily Thought

Boys collect baseball cards, but when we were boys, we didn’t know any better. We liked the clicking sound baseball cards made when you clothespinned them to the spokes on your bicycle. It didn’t matter what card; Mickey Mantle made the same noise as Yogi Berra. We did not know that a 1914 Babe Ruth would sell for $717,000, or a 1952 Mickey Mantle for $2,880,000, or a 1909 Honus Wagner for $3,120,000. 

“Every man is stupid and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
for his images are false,
and there is no breath in them.
They are worthless, a work of delusion.” ~Jeremiah 51:17-18

Prophets are seldom subtle. There is one God, proclaims Jeremiah, and “it is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens” (Jeremiah 51:15). It is the fool who bows before objects of wood and stone, cardboard and clay, who values things more than the Creator of everything. 

We pinned baseball cards to our wheels because we did not know people would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a 2”x3” piece of cardboard. And we were the foolish ones?

Daily Prayer

Most Wonderful God, I worship You. The galaxies, the stars, the moon and sun, planet earth, oceans, animals, and me. You created it all, simply by Your Word. You spoke and it was, and it was good.

There are times, God, when I value things too much, when creation steals more of my attention than the Creator. Lord, may I never lose sight of You, Your glory, Your wisdom. May I always be foolish enough to disdain the wisdom and the wealth of this world, and find my full value in You.

Amen

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God Is God

Daily Reading

Jeremiah 49-50

Daily Thought

God is God. That seems obvious, yet humankind continually acts as if it has a say in the matter. Edom believed her wisdom sufficient, Damascus its fame, and the possessions of Keder and Hazor gave them a false security. These nations built idols reflecting their passions and desires, trusting in things they hold rather than the One who holds them, rejecting the God who can and will determine their future. Each stood against God and, like Ammon, “trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come against me?’” (Jeremiah 49:4). God will answer. Nation upon nation swaggered against the might of God and met his sword. At the end, even great Babylon fell, “for it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols” (Jeremiah 50:38).

God’s prophets tell of his judgment against the nations, “‘For I have sworn by myself,’ declares the Lord, ‘that Bozrah shall become a horror, a taunt, a waste, and a curse, and all her cities shall be perpetual wastes’” (Jeremiah 49:13). If we cringe at its fierceness, it has done its job. It is not God’s duty to accommodate our sensitivities, as if God should “play nice.” God’s justice reflects the truth of “in the beginning, God created” (Genesis 1:1) and “behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). We have made it bad, then wonder at God when he picks up his sword. He is making it good again.

Daily Prayer

My heavenly Father, You deal with nations that, I admit, act the way I act. When things go well, I neglect You; when poorly, I complain. Sometimes, God, I am tempted to trust in things I can hold. I should rather trust in the One who holds me. Too often, You are the last to whom I turn. If You had not made Yourself known to me, I would have ignored You. Thank You for Your love and grace, which compels.  me to Your holiness, the more because I do not deserve it.

You are God, that is the most wise thing I can say. Everything else comes after that. May my devotion reflect that truth and be displayed in everything I do.

Amen