Biblical Repetition…Meaning You Should Probably Pay Attention to This

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

--Mark 2:17

Why do we constantly make the same mistakes? There are lessons in our lives that we, for some reason, cannot seem to learn. We go down the same paths that we once swore to avoid, whether or not it was in the midst of blatant sin or passive submission. We fail all the time. Everything in history is consistent with this theory. Wars still breakout, economies still go through extreme ups and downs, and ruling empires ALWAYS fall at one point or another (the Romans had the longest reign even to this day!). Our whole worldly make up is constantly failing because of human error. How depressing! We try so hard to prevent and avoid the very things we don’t want to happen, and in that, we FAIL miserably. As Romans 7: 15 states, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” As humans, we are extremely good at putting Band-Aids on problems that need to be cured at the infected source.

We all want to know the solution to world hunger and sustainable living. We want to know how to avoid all suffering, difficulty, sickness, sadness, and hardship, because that is “our” idea of happiness and perfection. We idealize utopian thinking and place perfect political mixes on pedestals for change. We justify pain, suffering, and our actions based off of the worldly knowledge and experiences we have had. We look into our own personal schema to develop opinions and come up with our own diagnosis. And then, after coming up with all these reasons for why life is the way it is, we are still confused. This world and our human thoughts appear to be within a never ending cycle of disappointment.

Repetition in the justification of individual human thought, and we still don’t have answers. We, We, We, We…I, I, I, I…..Me, Me, Me, Me….

But can I mention one thing? What about HIM, HIM, HIM, HIM, HIM, and only HIM?

Over and over again the Bible repeats itself. It uses sayings, parables, words, stories, miracles, themes, concepts and so much more to illustrate repetitive truths. The Bible, is in fact, repetitive. Maybe this is something we need to pay attention to. Maybe this is something we need to not only believe, but act upon.

Unfortunately, because we enjoy making our own decisions and self medicating based on our own personal diagnosis, we often miss out on what God truly intends for us. We isolate ourselves from anyone or anything that can get in there and help cut out the infection. We are stuck in this repetitive worldly behavior because we are scared of going to the infected source and uncovering our wounds. And in a worldly sense, we sadly have a right to “justify” this. I mean, how many people have showed a sibling or a friend a giant bruise and ended up getting poked and punched in the sorest location?! I know I definitely have, many MANY times. I have two little brothers who love to terrorize me! It just goes to show how people, even those who are close to you, often take advantage of vulnerabilities; a repetitive theme in our world.

Because we get taken advantage of, we do not like to become vulnerable. It hurts! So, in a repetitive way, we try to deal with it ourselves and keep people and even God at a distance. We put Band-Aids on our wounds and allow the wounds to fester without proper treatment. Because they were not properly treated, they continue to become more painful and creep into other healthy areas of our body. Cancerous infection begins and spreads, attaching itself to our most vital organs. All of this, because we were scared of going to the Doctor and being placed in a vulnerable state yet again, because vulnerability has led us to pain in the past. Repetition.

But, the difference between THIS world and HIS world, is that the repetitive themes in the Bible point to deliverance and healing in the end, not to destruction and death. He doesn’t poke and prod without reason, and he doesn’t break without mending. Through the repetitive deliverance of our God, the never ending WORLDLY cycle of disappointment is broken. But in order for him to do this in our lives, we have to do something different. We have to take a long awaited trip to the Doctor. We have to focus on His treatments, not ours. We have to uncover our wounds and let him stitch us up. Something we cannot do without his touch.

The ultimate physician is our Heavenly Father. He cuts and breaks, but also patches and mends. He restores our health and then gives us an amazing assortment of soluble vitamins, nutrients that soak into our bloodstream and build and sustain our health. He gives us his word, full of repetition. Once again, he is a repetitive God. When will we decide to let him break the worldly cycles in our lives?

Unconditional Love--Love without Conditions

"Love is either unconditional or it's not love. You might like someone conditional on their personality or behavior or circumstances. But love accepts no boundaries. So never say 'I love you because', for love has no cause, love comes from God"--Anonymous

This made me think. In our society, we often look at people in terms of what they can do for us, how they make us feel, and how they can comfort and affirm us or our situations. We compare people to objects and make judgements by how much pleasure we have when we're around them. We determine their value based on our own opinions and hoard our love in fear of being vulnerable or uncomfortable. WE USE PEOPLE for our own benefit...so we can get all the loving without having to give out any love. Because giving out love is really "tiresome," is not the EASY thing to do, and it has conditions based on our feelings. This is what the world tells you. How many of you can honestly say you haven't loved someone in this way before? Put aside the pride and truthfully evaluate. Can you really truly say all of your love has been unconditional---love lacking conditions?

When we only think about our side of the love equation, we label the other person and put them within our box of "conditions." We pick and choose who it's easiest to love, and then we justify our actions based on our feelings. We think we know the entirety of them, and then stop getting to know them because we "know" it all. We settle in error. Oh, well "if she says that or if he does that then yikes! It's too difficult... It makes me uncomfortable. Love should never be uncomfortable!  OH MY."

Well you want to talk about love being uncomfortable, ask Jesus how he felt when he was being nailed to the cross. After being denied, over and over again by His disciples and an ignorant world, he cried out "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:24). Despite excruciating pain and less than desirable circumstances, HE still loved. He pleaded for us in the most uncomfortable situation you could ever imagine. His blood was literally shed for our lack of faith. Do you think this was an easy "love" thing to do?

Based on the life of Jesus, why would we ever think that love would be easy, comfortable, or conditional?  His love was NEVER conditional, so why should ours be? Right there, this argument proves that love is not about what the other person can do for you. It is your choice, your actions, your words....and it has no conditions. Unfortunately, the English language only has one word for love. A word that has been distorted and misused within the context of irrational feelings and desires. Divorce and adultery is so common in our society because people innately believe in hedonism. "Pleasure never pushes or prods....and if it does then I am going to get rid of whatever is causing discomfort!"  This makes me sick. People, the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence, it's greener where you water it. And plants don't magically pop up overnight. It takes time, dedication, and light to fight for life.  It takes radiant truth to foster growth in anything.

Loving someone is not an easy thing to do. It takes a selfless attitude and commitment. But that commitment is not conditional either...you shouldn't be picking and choosing who is worthy of your love. Not a single person is worthy of God's love, but he freely gives it to us because HE loves us. He loves us despite what we do for him....What would this world be like if we loved everyone like this? If we put aside our selfish feelings and emotions but were truly empathetic? "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn" (Romans 12:15). This is love, your actions being consistent with your words in ALL circumstances. Not just the easy ones.

Let us be pretenders no more!

Getting Stuck in the Spiritual Warfare Battle---Ick!

The book of Job is a story about suffering, trust, endurance, honesty, and deliverance. The book tells the story of a Job, a man who loses his wealth, family, health, and friends, everything that this world considers to be valuable. However, Job was a man of great character. The Lord describes him as "There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil" (Job 1:8b). Job was human and obviously had his own flaws, but he was a man who was "blameless" and "upright" in all he did. He was focused on TRUTH and living for God despite his circumstances. Even in the midst of some of the most intense worldly pains, Job refused to curse God despite his wife's words and accusations from his friends. He believed that everything should be accepted from God, whether it was "good or trouble." Job's heart was in a humble place. He was extremely courageous in such an intense whirlwind of pain and suffering. He had a supernatural strength.

However, everything that Job went through made no logical sense. This had nothing to do with the good or bad he had done, or how God viewed or blessed him in the past. He was chosen to endure some of the unfair battles of spiritual warfare. At the very beginning of chapter one, Satan appears after "roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it" (Job 1:7b). He was up to no good, looking for someone to devour. Job appeared to be the perfect candidate because of his upright status. Satan wanted to shame God's belief that Job was a good man. He wanted to attack Job on the most intense levels to prove his weaknesses. So God, within his own control, allowed Satan to test Job.

Despite everything that Job went through (his flocks being murdered, his family being crushed by their home, his body being covered from head to toe with painful sores), he still praised God. God was still glorified, something Satan was trying to take away from him. Although Job was honest about his feelings of anguish, anger, and sadness, he never once cursed God for allowing these things to happen to him. He accepted his lot. Can you say that you would have this attitude given the circumstances? This is not normal, and not of this world. This is why Satan, the “prince of this world,” can never defeat the power of God. Once again, Job had supernatural strength.

When we are being tested, it is not always because God desires us to go through pain and suffering. Literally, we get stuck in the middle of age old spiritual warfare. God will allow Satan to push us to our limits, but he will NEVER allow Satan to take his glory and defeat us. It reminds me of one of my favorite verses, "in all these things we are MORE than conquerors through him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). More than conquerors, how awesome is that? We are powerful creatures through HIM who loved us. Our God is not a wimpy God, and because he gives us his strength, we are not wimpy either. We were made in his image, capable of fighting the good fight and enduring hardship and suffering beyond what our human minds can comprehend.

At the end of the story, despite what appeared to be never ending pain and sorrow, Job was blessed two-fold. Because of his dedication and trust in the Lord, he was delivered out of his troubles and given back everything he had once had and more. God wants to bless and deliver us, especially after extreme spiritual warfare battles. As a close friend told me recently, “he doesn’t give you hamburger after giving you steak.” In the end, the eternal prize is what we strive for. The suffering is worth it, even if it’s not fair.

Prayer and Pleading....

So to add onto yesterdays post, there is more to the scripture in Exodus 32 than the two verses I picked out. We left off where God was angry and wanted to destroy evil and make a great nation out of the good. Moses was not too stoked on any destruction however, and pleaded to God to avoid destruction of the sinful people. "O Lord," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?" (Verse 11). Moses is appealing to God's magnificent strength and power in prayer. He is asking God to re-consider his actions based on the fact that God was the one who wanted to bring them out of Egypt.

To continue, "Why should the Egyptians say, "It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth?" (Verse 12). Moses is asking God, pleading with him, to continue on the path of revealing his glory. He is asking God to protect his name and have mercy on his people. He is saying, "God, you have already done so many great things here with promises for the future, will you prevail in showing your promises are true to this sinful nation?" These people don't know better. They want to see God's glory and God wants to be asked for his glory to be revealed.

Over and over again in the Old and New Testaments, the idea of "pleading" a case and bringing arguments to the table are reinforced. The Lord even says, "Come now and let us REASON together" (Isaiah 1:18). God wants a relationship with you. He wants you to plead with him in prayer and use what you know about his character to contend your case. However, to be able to reason with someone, often trust has to be a factor. Doesn't it make sense that God would only take your argument seriously if he had a personal relationship with you? Moses was extremely close to the Lord...although he was sometimes hesitant of his ability to do everything God asked of him and even sometimes "whined" a bit. However, he still took many leaps of faith and followed instructions.

Moses asked God to remember his promises with Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Promises to bless a nation and make their descendents as "numerous as the stars in the sky." Moses is asking God to follow through on his covenant with the people. He is asking God to do what he instructs others to do, follow through with their oaths. In an interesting way, Moses is asking God to be the positive example.

Because of Moses's strong argument, which appealed to Gods power, reputation, character, and promises, God did not act on his plan for destruction. As it says, "Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened" (verse 14). God has heart, and he wants us to fight for what we know is right. He wants to be in continual dialogue with us, and loves to see compassion spring forth from our actions and words. However, to do any of this and to get God's attention in the area of reason, we have to be in relationship with him. We have to not only believe in him, but KNOW him. There is a difference between trusting an acquaintance and trusting a lifelong friend. Which one would you listen to first?

Stiff-Necked People: God's Definition of Stubborness

When Moses returned from Mt. Sinai with the tablets, he came upon a nation that lost faith in what God had done based on their current circumstances. The Israelites were worshiping idols and offering burnt sacrifices to a Golden Calf, a man made god. Even after God parted the Red Sea, saved the Hebrews from the Egyptians, performed several unexplainable miracles, the people still had little faith. They tried to live life their own way. In Exodus 32: 9-10, God says to Moses “I have seen these people, and they are stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation."

Stiff-Necked people? What does this mean? Well, think about it terms of human anatomy. When your neck is stiff, it makes it difficult to move, turn your head from side to side, and even affects your posture. If you cannot freely move, you are held in bondage by something. If you cannot turn your head from side to side, you have tunnel vision and cannot accurately evaluate your environment. And if you don't have good posture, then you are hunched over and not "standing" up straight. The point is, God is trying to describe how stiff-necked people are focused on living life their own way, despite what God has already done to show them his glory. This angers him, when people try to rely on their own human strength and stubbornness in this life.

The solution is being free from the bondage of a "stiff-neck," moving your head from side to side so you can see the magnitude of everything around you, and standing up-right in the ways of the Lord. We keep ourselves in the stubborn, stiff-necked ways of thinking when we do not allow God to freely move, shape, and impact us. Think about those words: MOVE, SHAPE, IMPACT. Those are not stiff words, they represent change of some sort. Therefore, why would God ever want us to stay focused on our stiff-necked ways?

So because these people are stubborn, God says "leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." God doesn't say you change this person or you will make them into a great nation....but he says LEAVE ME ALONE to make the change. God does this by himself. Nobody has the power to change someone else, only God can do the changing. People can be used as vessels to spark change, but God is the one who shapes the heart. To do that, he must first destroy what is not good. He will take your stiff neck to the chiropractor. He will break, kill, and eliminate all that is not pleasing to him. But then, out of that death, there will be deliverance. He will make us into a "great nation."

The premise behind all this is that God is the one who gets the credit. He will move us, change us, destroy us, and bring new life to us. Would you like to wake up every morning with a stiff neck? Ouch. The longer we stay stiff-necked, the more painful the process. God will never disappoint. We may get to the point where death is the only option...the death of bad habits, bad relationships, bad thoughts....but in this there will be new life. God's love is not a pampering love, it's a perfecting love. Isn't this awesome?