Tag: Choose

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Limping Along

Daily Reading

1Kings 18-20

Daily Thought

The prophet Elijah chides the people of Israel, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him” (1Kings 18:21). The people had no answer. Many simply saw no difference. Why could not the Lord be God, and Baal, also? Two paths up the same mountain. Why must I choose? After all, Ahab and Jezebel preferred Baal and they were king and queen of Israel. It might be a sin to worship Baal, but life seemed easier if you go along with the people in charge. Sin always comes with benefits, but it ultimately destroys.

One foggy night at sea the captain of a ship saw what looked like the lights of another ship heading toward him. He signaled the ship, “Change your course ten degrees to the south.” The reply, “No. You change your course ten degrees north.” “I am a captain in this navy,” he insisted, “so you change course ten degrees south.” Answered the light, “I am a seaman first class. Change your course north.” Infuriated, the captain blustered, “I am a battleship. Change your course immediately!” The final response came, “I am a lighthouse. Your call, captain.” 

It was time to decide so Elijah clarified the choices. Two altars, two choices, one altar to Baal, the other to God. Each altar would be prepared for sacrifice with wood but God or Baal must ignite his own altar. 450 prophets placed a bull on the Baal altar and cried out for a flame. From morning until noon they pleaded, but they knew inside they were calling to nobody. For three minutes or three hours or three days they could beg, but nothing comes from nothing and there is no god in Baal. 

Elijah, then, prepared his bull, adding dramatic touches, such as drenching the altar and the wood with water. He spoke to God, but only once, because his God was there. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench (1Kings 18:38).

Your call, Israel.

Daily Prayer

My God, I am glad to boast in You. The Truth You declare, I will speak with confidence. When You say something will happen, I know it is as true as if it had already occurred. What you say will happen, happens. I trust in You and You alone.

I stand by this, that I know the God of Creation, who exercises justice and kindness and righteousness on this earth. That I know Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord. That I know the Truth and the Truth has set me free to live a life of wonder and worship.

Amen

Daily Question

Can people tell who is in charge of your life? How?

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Lady Wisdom

Daily Reading

Proverbs 4-6

Daily Thought

In God’s eyes, and therefore in reality, there are only two ways to live, two paths, one leading to life, the other to death. In Proverbs, the two paths are traveled by two women, each to her own way. One is Wisdom, and she is a lady; “Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life” (Psalm 4:13). The other, not a lady, is “the evil woman, the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Her feet go down to death” (Proverbs 6:24; 5:5). It is we who seek shades of grey between, who want to keep a woman in each hand, but God says choose.

One woman is enticing and easy, “for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil” (Proverbs 5:3). The pleasures are immediate, the dangers delayed, the temptation terrible. “Do not let her capture you with her eyelashes” (Proverbs 6:25). 

In contrast, the lady Wisdom must be pursued. You must want her and work for her; she doesn’t come easy. Proverbs 4:7 makes me laugh, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom”–like comedian Steve Martin explaining how to become a millionaire, “First, get a million dollars.” It means, simply, to become wise you must want to become wise. You must choose to become wise, choose one woman over the other, because you must choose a path, and each woman has her own path. You must be willing to let go of that pleasingly available Wicked Woman of the moment and set your sights down the road.

Daily Prayer

God, forgive me the desires of the moment, of the immediate, of the attractive, of the available. Strengthen and deepen my desires, to love what is eternal and good, what never loses her beauty, what bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, what never ends.

Give me wisdom, Heavenly Father. I seek it and I will work for it. I will dig deep in Your Word and let it dig deep in me. I love the path of wisdom, the path of life, the path that leads to Your Kingdom forever.

Amen

Daily Question

Why doesn’t wisdom come easily?

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No Middle

Daily Reading

Luke 10-11

Daily Thought

These middle chapters of Luke’s Gospel describe the middle of Jesus’s crusade, but it is in the middle where no one is permitted to stand. This is a crusade of the King of kings heralding, “the kingdom of God has come near” (Luke 10:11). Jesus sent his followers, two by two, into the towns ahead of him to announce the coming of the King. If they accept you, they accept me, he tells them, “the one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). There is no place in the middle, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Luke 11:23). 

It is in or out and it is all or nothing. A lawyer asks Jesus how to receive eternal life, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27). That is everything. Even his friend Martha is chastised for serving him as if he were merely an out-of-town guest, instead of worshipping him as the Lord of the heavens and the earth, as her sister does; “Mary has chosen the good” (Luke 10:42). 

It is time to choose, and choose you must. Some chose and sneered, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons” (Luke 11:15), and if they were not so terribly wrong, they would have been terribly right. Jesus is the King of kings, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, or he is a devil pretending. There is no middle.

Daily Prayer

My Lord and God, Beginning and the End, Alpha and Omega, First and Last, You are the Creator of all things, and in You, all things will be fulfilled and brought to completion. You, therefore, demand and deserve my all. I want to give it to You. Help me do it. Remind me when I hold part of myself back, or when I use You for my own benefit. Like Martha, don’t let me get away with treating You as less than You are; don’t let me get so busy doing religion that I forget to worship my Savior.

I choose to follow You fully, letting go of anything else which could steal my heart. 

Amen

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Immediately

Daily Reading

Mark 1-3

Daily Thought

Mark writes a fast-tempoed, action-oriented Gospel of Jesus Christ. In it, everything happens “immediately” (Mark 1:10, 12, 18, 20, 21, 23, 29, 30, 42; and that’s just chapter one). 

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” ~Mark 1:9-11

The pace of Mark’s Gospel creates an urgency, not of action, but of choice. Jesus calls his disciples and says, “‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him” (Mark 1:17-18). Jesus healed many, cast out demons, and preached in the synagogues, and in no time at all, “people were coming to him from every quarter” (Mark 1:45). No good deed goes unpunished, however, and immediately the religious leaders put their own spin on Jesus, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons” (Mark 3:22). They did not like Jesus.

God’s command, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” was a favorite of the Pharisees; “On it you shall not do any work” (Exodus 20:8, 10). The Pharisees listed 39 categories of work, no cooking, no washing, no harvesting, etc.; then added one for Jesus, “No healing.” There were six other days to heal, so Jesus could easily avoid conflict, but Jesus always demands a choice. It was the Sabbath and he immediately found a man with a withered hand. “Come here,” he said, and brought the man in front of the Pharisees. “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” Are you for me or against me? But they were silent (Mark 3:3-4). They made a choice, because silence is choosing. They were against him, and “the Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him” (Mark 3:6).

Jesus begins in Galilee “proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” ~Mark 1:14-15 

Time to choose.

Daily Prayer

God, the desire of my heart is to follow You, to reflect You in all that I do, and to declare You in what I say. I will not be silent, or silenced by others, but I will stand for You and declare the wonders of knowing You and living in Your creation.

Your Law teaches me to love You and care for others. May my actions speak as loud as my words, but may that not stand alone. I serve in Your Name, but no one will know that unless I tell them. Strengthen me, God. Keep my heart soft and gentle, but bold.

Amen