A Little Engineering and a Lot of Prayer

So, I just got back from a field installation job last week. We ended up running into a problem on the first day, and by the third day we had still not fixed it. The entire team was at a loss, and we had tried *everything* we could think of. One guy on our team says “it would take an act of God for this to work now.” So I said, “well, I’ll pray then.” So, I pray. But I’m thinking, how is God going to make this work? If the thing just up and starts working, people will go bananas trying to figure out why, since we’ve already tried *everything*. But, I pray anyways, and if it works, then hey I’ll give the glory to God, and let everyone know he answers prayers.

So, here I am writing this… guess what, this was easy for God! I got up on the last day, after everyone had given up, and rousted some people up to try one more time. Based on some good work by our team, I had one more thing to try. Before I tried it, I checked the network cables which were all locked in place, but on a *whim* I ever so gently pushed them in a ~bit~ more, and BAM the whole thing starts working. The thing I was actually going to try wouldn’t have worked, but those little touches did the trick. And we didn’t have to tear apart the whole system to find the problem, either! It was obvious, AFTER it started working.

But, I figure God allowed us to overlook it, so that my co-worker could ask for an act of God, and I would pray for and receive one, so I could tell him that I did! And now I’m telling you, and giving the glory to God just like I said I would, Hallelujah!

Always Content, but never Complacent

I will always strive to be content, after I have done everything that has been given me to do, and doing always that which is right, and as the Lord liveth, seeking the Lord my God in the name of his son Jesus Christ.

But I will never strive to be complacent, to accept the wrong doing, and injustice around me, and the evil that is beyond me to address. I will never call these things right, though I may be forced to live with them and among them for this short time on this earth.

May I never say "here is the good side of this evil on me, so the evil is not so bad," but rather "even though this evil is bad, God has granted me a goodness in spite of it." That is my prayer.

Acknowledging the Power of Godliness

I started today in Matthew 5:43-45. Jesus sermonizes on Leviticus 19:18, " 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD." The message here was presumably that people had taken the law to mean you only had to be loving to your neighbor, but you could hate your enemy, which Jesus rebuked as being against the spirit of the law.

But, I wanted to go back and look at the original verse. I was again blown away by some of the laws and words from God in Leviticus. There are so many precepts that we use to inform our lives about what is "good" from the Law. Which reminded me of these verses from 2 Timothy 3: " 1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."

The last verse is what keeps catching me, "having a form of godliness but denying its power." Looking through Leviticus 19, there are so many precepts that inform our lives and society today, but we have slowly and inexorably purged the power behind them, and have long since forgotten the imagery, the living metaphor of their meaning, from them. A few examples:

11 " 'Do not steal.
" 'Do not lie.
" 'Do not deceive one another.

12 " 'Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.13 " 'Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him.
" 'Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight.
14 " 'Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the LORD.
15 " 'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
16 " 'Do not go about spreading slander among your people.
" 'Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the LORD.
17 " 'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.
18 " 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

We take so many of these for granted. Well of course we shouldn't curse the deaf! Of course justice should be impartial! But would we really know that, hold to that, if it had not been written down and passed down to us? I think we "deny its power" to say we just would have known this anyways. I think God needed to have the Israelites write these down because it wasn't the norm, it wasn't part of the standard of what was Good in those days. Already in our society we are losing the standard, and yet we have it written in front of us.

Having a Form of Godliness but Denying its Power

So, BibleGateway.com had 2 Timothy 3:16 for today's bible verse, you know, the old favorite "All Scripture is God breathed, etc." But I pulled up the whole chapter and came across this in verses 1 - 9. Pretty hard hitting stuff.

2 Timothy 3:1-9 "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone."

Psalm 37 (King James Version)

Psalm 37

¹Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.

²For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

³Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

⁴Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

⁵Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

⁶And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

⁷Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

⁸Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

⁹For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.

¹⁰For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

¹¹But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

¹²The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.

¹³The LORD shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming.

¹⁴The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.

¹⁵Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.

¹⁶A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.

¹⁷For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous.

¹⁸The LORD knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.

¹⁹They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

²⁰But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.

²¹The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.

²²For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.

²³The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

²⁴Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.

²⁵I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

²⁶He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.

²⁷Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.

²⁸For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.

²⁹The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.

³⁰The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.

³¹The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.

³²The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.

³³The LORD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.

³⁴Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

³⁵I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.

³⁶Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

³⁷Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

³⁸But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.

³⁹But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD: he is their strength in the time of trouble.

⁴⁰And the LORD shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.

King James Version (KJV)

Public Domain

Deuteronomy 13

Here's some very serious stuff. And very different than the "and every man did as he pleased" world of America that I live in today. God was serious about stopping people from encouraging people to leave the fold of His nation Israel. If you wanted to leave, there was nothing stopping you, but you couldn't try to entice others to do so.

If anyone, even your own family tried to get you to worship other Gods, they were to be killed. In the free speech world I live in, this is hard stuff. But it also makes it real. That is, most of philosophy and religion, spoken freely, are just that, words. But words mean things, and words used to lead people away from the Living God are a direct insult to God.

If the nation of Israel was to be the example of God's people on earth, then there was to be absolutely no worship of any other God in that land. And so it is now with our lives as Christians. This is how we are to live our own lives. I think Christ has fulfilled the Law, such that what is "inside" the borders of the nation is now no longer geographic, but within the context of the spirit of each of our Christian lives. We don't put to death other people's voices now, we are to put to death the sinful nature within ourselves.

Heaven and Ephesians I

We often see Heaven, or the Next Age, as some infinite white plain, or a golden city, with God at the center, Christ at his right hand, and everyone seated around singing praise songs forever.

But in Ephesians 1, we see that Christ is given titles greater than any in this age or the next. So, because 'forever' blows our minds, we stop thinking about it as a dynamic place. It will be a new order, not a static setting. People will have roles and responsibilities perhaps, and titles. How else will Christ have title greater than any in the next age?

Not that I understand heaven any bit more than before, but I think I understand more that I really don't understand what it will be like.