When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.
Proverbs 19:3

It amazes me every day people that blame God for their trouble.  Couple things in this verse stand out to me.

Man’s folly: This is man’s doing, his sin, his efforts, his action, not God’s.

Man’s way: This is not the way of the righteous and it is NOT God’s way, this is man causing trouble for man’s plans.

Man’s ruin:  ”Give um enough rope they will hang themselves” was the advice I got as a young man from a wise pastor.  The sad part is that this takes time, when we see the problem we want to address it (and often should).  When the other person is bent on their own self will rather than God’s… sometimes they have to come to ruin before they can see the problem. (Often we find ourselves trying to protect the people affected as the train wreck of a person’s ways lead them to ruin.  )

Man’s heart rages:   the Hebrew root behind this rage is foaming or burning.  When we set our will against God’s it is like we are a rabid dog foaming at the mouth lashing out no our pain and fever biting everything around us … even the hands that fed us, clothed us, took care of us.  (Hosea 11:3-4) Lashing out at God.  What despair must we sink to in our own sin.

There is danger when we set our ways above God’s ways and when the “world” we create comes crashing down around us we tend to lash out at the Salvation that was offered to us.  To deny God the proper place of authority in our lives…

This is what Jesus said when he rebuked peter:

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Matthew 16:23-24

Man’s folly came because he set his heart against God in the first place.  Another lesson in this is that this happens to Christians as well as UnChristians.

We are often very quick as Christians to see error in the lives. doctrines and worship of those around us.  Much easier to see sin in others, not so easy to see in our own lives.  We must be on guard to “deny” our selves and take up the cross of Christ, following HIS ways rather than our own.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9

Proverbs 9:7-10
Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Have you ever notice how sometimes reproof of un-confessed sin in our lives turns us into scoffers? Christians have great truth and wisdom at our disposal, we may be even living gloriously in that truth and then the reproof comes. Our first reaction is one of self defense, our second self preservation.

Then comes the fear of the Lord. The wisdom of whatever it took to bring our attention to the sin.

Psalms 1:1-2
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

To protect us from the scoffer’s self-abuse, we need to focus our delights on the law, expose the sin in our lives and go to God for confession and repentance.  To often we sit now aware of our sin either in the denial stage (my wife likes to point that one out to me) or we try and rationalize it away.

“My sin is okay because ….”

We must be on guard against such fleshly mindset.  It doesn’t matter what grade we measure our sin against, any measurement other than the comparison to the sinless Christ and we are robbing God of Glory and ourselves of victory.  Yet here we sit having our own pity party thinking “this is just not fair” and we are sinning even more.

Christian:  What will you do with your sin?  Will you become a scoffer and walk, stand then finally sit with the scornful?   Get up off your ash heap and get back to the work of the Gospel that the Holy Spirit called you to.

UnChristian: Are you in denial of your sin?  Have you lived the perfect life pleasing to God that you are worthy or “holy enough?”   All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  (Romans 3:23) and it is that recognition of our sin that should spur us to seek God’s face.

Ps. 37:28
For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not His saints; they are preserved forever. . .”

The Lyrics of Skillet’s song “Forgiven” pulled me in to a frame of worship, the chorus … wow.  “Alone in Your embrace”:

FORGIVEN
[V1]
Forgive me now cause I Have been unfaithful
Don’t ask me why cause I don’t know
So many times I’ve tried But was unable
But this heart belongs to you alone

Chorus
Now I’m in our secret place
Alone in your embrace
Where all my wrongs have been erased
You have forgiven

All the promises and lies
All the times I compromise
All the times you were denied
You have forgiven

[V2]
Forgive me I’m ashamed
I’ve loved another
I can’t explain cause I don’t know
No one can take your place
And there is no other
Forever yours and yours alone

Bridge
Take me to our secret place
(We’ll leave the world away)
I get down on my knees
Feel your love wash over me
There will never be another
You’re the only one forever
And you know I’m yours alone

I stand in awe of the Glory of God.

I wiped the tears from my eyes watching the end of am Episode of  Extreme Makeover Home Edition with Ty and the gang.  I didn’t get the see the beginning  of the show with the reason the family was in such desparet position.  I sat to eat a bite and tuned in to the program.

Within 30 minutes I was fully engaged watching as the story revealed itself in front of me on TV, the family had lost their dad, he had been “a man of character and faith” and a leader for his family He evidently was a pastor of some sort.  Ty and the gang made great efforts to reach out to “faith and religion” but never really presented the Glory of God in what they are doing.

The cast of characters is fairly known, the TV show puts great emphasis on helping people in need and enlisting the community to do the same.  Great cost and great effort go into producing a “reality” tv show.  Even if that reality is not as common as it should be.

I sat with tears in my eyes as I watched the widow and her children explore the house, I was waiting for them to expose the chapel that they had built in the home. A specific place.  Full of specific memories for the family.  Full of friends.  Full of love.

Even the unregenerate know how to reach out in love.  How much more does our Father God know how to reach out to His children?

Time and time again, the faces come across the TV show of people desperate for help.  Ty knows how to reach out to them in earthly terms.  The writers, directors and producers carefully craft lines and situations to meet their standards.  They are sent thousands of letters, videos, emails and hear many stories of people in need across the US.  The heart break just as they can only help one.

It is great to think about how much more God blessed us (grace, faith, mercy) and how much more He will bless us beyond anything we can comprehend here.

(Part 2:  a different reaction)

We rush to help with a physical need… why don’t we react in the same way to the spiritual need?

Matthew 5:4
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted

Do we grieve for the spiritual condition of people we see all around us?  Should we grieve for sinners?  Should we grieve for our sins?  Do we mourn the lostness of  those around us?  Do we share a burden for sinners?

Matthew Henry’s Commentary has this to say:

Those that mourn are happy. That godly sorrow which worketh true repentance, watchfulness, a humble mind, and continual dependence for acceptance on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, with constant seeking the Holy Spirit, to cleanse away the remaining evil, seems here to be intended. Heaven is the joy of our Lord; a mountain of joy, to which our way is through a vale of tears. Such mourners shall be comforted by their God.

Oh that we would embrace the mourner’s position before our God, our family, our church and our nation.  That the sight of sin, of our sin would grip us in such a way that we cry out to God for mercy.

2 Corinthians 7:10-11
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!

Our sin is no casual thing that offends our Holy God.  Our sin, though forgiven, is still part of the life that we are to be dead to, and yet… and yet I find myself fighting the same battles day after day.  I find myself struggling just to keep the intentions that I made the day before.  We must ask, we must cry out, we must wait, for mercy.

Matthew 5:4
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted

Are you able to mourn?  Are you willing to mourn?  Where is our indignation, our fear, our longing, our zeal…

Note: Lifeway helped with this episode and there is a massive back story and future story to all this as well. http://www.bpnews.net/printerfriendly.asp?ID=22832

Oh be careful little eyes what you see!

A few weeks ago I was helping my Son in preparation for a school project looking for pictures of the African Caped Porcupine.  A few searches on Google with my son and I was quickly adjusting the family safe settings on my Google search.  Quickly I realized that my son had seen more than he needed to already.

After that night I modified my network settings with a program on our PC’s called OpenDNS.  A Quick install and I put the restriction at a moderate level and pornography and adult content filters at max.  I am on the internet constantly, a lot of us are.  The continued influx of porn and dirty garbage that floods my office every day just in managing a company’s email servers…. I considered myself callous.  Not to the fact that porn wrecks a lot of marriages, but to the fact that I am inundated to the point  I am not bothered by it any more.  Not good.

Now at least a bulk of the images were being blocked, even on the emails that made it through my filters.  Nice.   I was working on a customer’s website and he complained to me that he was getting a lot of the same spam I battle with every day.   I talked about OpenDNS, my new toy, but in that discussion I realized that SPAM Assasin could be turned up higher and even made to delete more of the garbage that made it through our email and new DNS filters.

What relief!  Just like the old illustration of a frog being boiled alive in the pot, I hadn’t noticed, I had grown tough to the world’s constant attacks on my senses. How often we become complacent with our position in this world.  We are here to CHANGE the world, not to let the world pull us back!

Romans 21:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect

Ephesians 4:22, 23 put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,

Our minds can be corrupted and deceived because the flesh is weak.  We are encouraged as Christians to renew our mind and put off the deceitful things the world throws at us.  One of those things is the false assumption that we are callous to sin.  If we are we have bigger problems.

Ephesians 4: 17-32 — “The New Life”