Faith Venture

The political, social, moral and spiritual climate is in decline. There is divisive political intrigue. Enemies surround the country. Different factions within the country support different allies for protection. Leaders, as well as most people, observe religious rites of the country’s God, but they really worship other gods.

At that time, men received a message from God. Speak my Word to the people and to the leaders, God said. But the leaders didn’t believe these men. They thought that they were just mentally unbalanced critics. Let’s either ignore them or kill them, they thought.

Although this almost describes the current state of affairs in the United States (and many other countries), this was Israel in the 8th Century BC. It had been under the protection of Assyria. But Assyria began to look weakened. Some in the country sought alliances with other countries. None sought reliance on their national God–Yahweh.

I’ve been reading the “minor” prophets recently. Imagine being one of these men. I just finished Amos and will be teaching on him later today. He was a farmer. He had flocks and fig trees. Israel’s king–Jeroboam II–had led the country for 40 years in peace and prosperity. But the wealthy class, ever insecure in their wealth, had a new leader who wished to replace Jeroboam. Amos came and spoke against both.

Talk about living in faith amidst fear. First, Amos ticked off both major political forces as well as the wealthy class. Not the sort of people to have as enemies. Then he explained God’s word that if they all didn’t change their ways that the country would be invaded, cities destroyed, people either killed or shipped off into slavery. And Amos would be one of those people!

Amos, like his contemporary prophets such as Hosea, lived in faith. He trusted God to see him through adversity. The people, well, they were living in fear. They had too much to lose, it seems. So they sought external protection. We know the end of the story–it didn’t work.

When you see that sort of faith, you wonder how you measure up. It doesn’t mean to be merely a critic. Anyone can do that–and they do. But living this way means living God’s Word and explaining it to others. Faith is an action verb, not adherence to a creed.

Lent is an excellent time to take 5minutes to 30 minutes every morning and reflect on whether your actions reflect a living in faith or living in fear. You can decide to walk with and trust in God.

“Oh, that’s the Law!” I have been teaching people how to become soccer referees for 20 years. Part of the course is instruction in the Laws of the Game (of soccer). Every year there is at least one dad (almost always a male) who utters that line. He’d been shouting at referees for years and only now discovered he was wrong.

Yesterday I talked a little about self-righteousness. I was puzzled for years by the phenomenon that people can hold firm opinions about things even when faced with incontrovertible evidence that they are mistaken. (People includes me, of course.)

After a few years of study, I learned that the human brain is capable of believing anything it’s told. You and I have built-in wiring that allows us to be deceived. Self-help gurus use that biological fact as advice for self-improvement. For example, they’ll advise you to tell yourself over and over phrases such as “I am a winner” or “I am strong and confident” in order to get your brain to believe it.

Then I learned that there are two systems in your body that work together. The “electrical” system in your brain and the “chemical” system that originates in your gut. If you associate a thought in your brain with a strong feeling from your gut an opinion is formed.

Proposition A says that the thought may not be true, but proposition B says that you will go to your grave (maybe) holding the opinion that it is.

Sometimes you are presented information such that you can grow in wisdom and understanding and move past those opinions that hold you back. But first you have to understand yourself. Then you have to be willing to let loose of old beliefs and accept new teaching.

There are fundamentals that I’ll probably never leave behind because they are based on experience. I believe in God because I’ve experienced God. And further study of Scripture and the writings of spiritual masters of the past several thousand years tell me that the experience is congruent with experiences of many other people. That’s how you test experience.

But every day my eyes are opened to new understanding of God and His message. My job is to be open to new revelations from God through whomever He might send my way–either through personal interaction or through reading. My job is to continue to learn and to share what I learn.

I pray that this attitude keeps me from self-righteousness and makes me a better witness. As you look into your heart and soul this Lenten season, you might check on the state of your self-righteousness and whether you need to chuck some useless weight overboard.

God told the Jewish people through Hosea that they were like the morning dew that evaporates in the midday sun. But later He said he would be like the dew and in the next phrase talks about growing beautiful lilies.

I’ve been teaching in Hosea. Prophets are tough to teach because 90 percent of their topic is “doom and gloom.” Well, it’s really more of an “if you keep doing this, then that bad thing will happen.” Then the prophet proceeds to document the wrong doing.

But if you read the poetry, it’s beautiful. God uses so many great metaphors–even Hosea’s life was a metaphor.

When God is indicting the nations, He uses terms to show how they are not steadfast in relationship with Him. But in the final chapter of Hosea, it’s sort of like a Baptist “altar call” inviting the people into relation. And if they would return to their relationship, He would nourish them like the heavy dew nourishes the flowers.

We know the end of the first part of the message. The people did not listen. Israel was conquered by the Assyrians, Judah later by the Babylonians. And the Jewish people did not have a state again until 1947. But somehow, I don’t think it’s the same. I don’t hear them talking about being God’s light to the world–something that was written about the beginnings of the nation.

Instead we know the end of the second part of the story. Israel did not become God’s light to the world and establishing a right relationship with God through laws didn’t work. So then came Jesus to bring a second covenant. Open explicitly to the entire world. Salvation through grace, not laws.

To live in grace means to be constantly nourished by God. Like the morning dew, I like to begin my mornings getting some nourishment from God. Maybe by reading and contemplating the Bible. Maybe by reading the works of great spiritual writers. Sometimes just meditating in peace with God.

Do you get your morning nourishment? It sets the tone for the day.