When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. For the Lord you God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath. Deuteronomy 4:30-31

The mercy of God is his greatest attribute. Our greatest fear when we sin is that God will act as so many people do, clucking the tongue and saying, “You expect me to forgive after you did that?” But the reality is that God really and truly does promise forgiveness of all our sins, if we will only turn to him for mercy.

People are made in the image of God, to be sure. But people are fallen too. Our failure to be merciful is not a sign that God is like us, it is a sign of how far we have fallen away from the God of mercy. So don’t let the rejection of people in the past make you fearful of seeking God’s mercy. Ask for mercy and he will surely give it.

If he can forgive those who crucified him, he can forgive any other sin for which we ask pardon and he can give us the grace to forgive those who have had no mercy on us.

Praise the Lord. . . Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. . .lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, . . . Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. Psalm 148

The difference between lightning, hail, snow, clouds and stormy winds on the one hand, and us on the other, is that these things have no choice about obeying God’s commands. But we do have a choice. They are, so to speak, purely earthly. When God says “Burn” to carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in the presence of sufficient heat, there just has to be flame. The atoms have no choice but to do what they are created to do. But when God tries to spark the flame of the Holy Spirit in the human heart, we have the option of saying yes or no. It is our dignity to say yes, it is our fault if we say no.

Today, say yes to God with all your heart and fulfill his command by your willing cooperation with his grace.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Psalm 23: 5

One wag has suggested a sort of “negative evangelism” campaign with a bumper sticker that reads: “Satan Hates You and Has a Terrible Plan for Your Life”. It’s a whimsical idea and one that is not entirely without foundation in Scripture. For the fact is, we do have an Enemy in the fallen angel who is Satan. And, as unpleasant as it sounds, it doesn’t matter if we disbelieve in him, he still believes in us and hates us because he hates God.

In the unthinkable choice made before all worlds to make himself and not God the center of his existence, Satan rejected once and for all not only God but all that God loves. Satan, being infinitely less than God, can never defeat God. But, in a parody of divine charity, he can stoop to the smallest viciousness just as God stoops to do the smallest kindness.

And so, from the very start, Satan has sought to destroy that creature made in the image of God for the same reason any cruel man would kill the son or daughter of his enemy, because they are dearer to the enemy than his own life. And so, Satan tempted our first parents to reject God and embrace death. But God became man and embraced death himself, destroying it from the inside out.
And now, with every communion he prepares a banquet before us in the presence of our Enemy. In every baptism and confession of His name, he anoints our head with oil. That is why St. Paul tells us that “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.”

The Enemy of God has succeeded only in putting himself outside in the dark looking in through the kitchen window. Even his schemes have only made sure that God has died for our sins and established the eternal marriage supper of the Lamb.

Psalm 47:7 For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. (KJV)
Psalm 49:7 None of them by any means can redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. (KJV)
John 8:36 “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (KJV)

What we have today is a culture that is attempting to heal itself rather than seeking God’s healing. The results speak for themselves. This does not exclude necessary support, counseling and therapy, but at some point we must (sooner rather than later, I believe) avail ourselves of God’s divine healing power. That doesn’t mean waiting around for a lightning strike type of miracle, but to use the miracle of God’s Word and direction to begin the process of healing and sane living. It really isn’t magic, but a practical method of improving your life, my life, and the lives of those around us by imitating Jesus Christ’s behavior.

As Arno Froese says in his book, How Democracy will Elect the Antichrist, “Psychology Repairs – Jesus Renews” …the chapter entitled Self Love: Babylon says, “It is no longer acceptable in the religious world to teach that a man is corrupt, lost, unable to help himself, and on his way to eternal damnation. That idea is contrary to what the world teaches and also professing Christianity at large. In fact, today’s society is being taught to over-emphasize man’s nobility, to think positive, and to do everything in his power to build up a person’s self-esteem. According [to numerous reports] self-love is the very reason for criminal behavior.”

Out of this self-love comes the sin of justification and rationalization. Obviously, being rational and just are not sinful activities, but what we are able to convince ourselves, and others of, is sinful because of the far reaching results of such thinking. If you justify stealing from your company because you spent your money unwisely or rationalize cheating on your taxes because you’ve convinced yourself that the government is stealing anyway, does it absolve you of the consequences? And, if we can justify one sin, then it will be easier to rationalize greater and greater sin. Once the foundation is laid the stacking of bricks upon it is an easy task.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Isaiah 5:21

A greedy man stirs up dissension, but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper. Proverbs 28:25

He said to them, “You are the ones who justify your selves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly prized among men is detestable to God.” Luke: 16:15

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. 2 Peter 2:1

Since Lucifer fell, and for as long as man has had the benefit of choice, there have been gods and demons vying for our worship. I suggest that any alternatives to God through Jesus Christ are spin offs of the theological misstep taken by Eve (and affirmed by Adam) in the Garden of Eden. Our gift of choice gave rise to gods and goddesses of all shapes, sizes and levels of influence.

So … what in our culture passes for a false religion? Of course there are the cults led by Jim Jones, Sun Myung Moon and David Koresh, but those are the obvious. What about partisan politics that suggests we are not a true believers unless we align with the most moral party? What about cults of personality that, like those surrounding John Lennon and the Beatles, create a massive following and make pronouncements about their popularity being greater than Jesus Christ? What about those who don’t say it, but operate as though it were also true about them? What names would come to mind? What about the mainstream media and state government effort to establish homosexuality as a normal behavior by maintaining that same sex marriages are acceptable and that straight folks can’t be fashion experts? And, yes are we not “clever in our own eyes.”

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. James 4: 4 – 6

John the Baptist would never get hired today. No church would touch him. He was a public relations disaster. He “wore clothes made from camel’s hair, had a leather belt around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey” (Mark 1:6). Who would want to look at a guy like that every Sunday?
His message was as rough as his dress: a no-nonsense, bare-fisted challenge to repent and be baptized because God was on his way.
John the Baptist set himself apart for one task, to be a voice of Christ. Everything about John centered on his purpose. His dress. His diet. His actions. His demands.
You don’t have to be like the world to have an impact on the world. You don’t have to be like the crowd to change the crowd. You don’t have to lower yourself down to their level to lift them up to your level. Holiness doesn’t seek to be odd. Holiness seeks to be like God.

In a 1987 commencement address at Duke University, Ted Koppel, the news anchor for ABC’s Nightline said, “We have reconstructed the Tower of Babel and it is a television antenna, a thousand voices producing a daily parody of democracy in which everyone’s opinion is afforded equal weight regardless of substance or merit. Indeed, it can even be argued that opinions of real weight tend to sink with barely a trace in television’s ocean of banalities.”

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15: 4 – 5

God wants to be as close to us as a branch is to a vine. One is an extension of the other. It’s impossible to tell where one starts and the other ends. The branch isn’t connected only at the moment of bearing fruit. The gardener doesn’t keep the branches in a box and then, on the day he wants grapes, glue them to the vine. No, the branch constantly draws nutrition from the vine. . . .

God also uses the temple to depict the intimacy he desires. “Do you not know,” Paul writes, “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Cor. 6:19) Think with me about the temple for a moment. . . . God didn’t come and go, appear and disappear. He was and is a permanent presence, always available.

What incredibly good news for us! We are NEVER away from God!

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing. Joel 2: 12 – 14

How far do you want God to go in getting your attention? If God has to choose between your eternal safety and your earthly comfort, which do you hope he chooses?
What if he moved you to another land? (As he did Abraham.) What if he called you out of retirement? (Remember Moses?) How about the voice of an angel or the bowel of a fish? (A la Gideon and Jonah.) How about a promotion like Daniel’s or a demotion like Samson’s?
God does what it takes to get our attention. Isn’t that the message of the Bible? The relentless pursuit of God. God on the hunt. God in the search. Peeking under the bed for hiding kids, stirring the bushes for lost sheep.

( From ‘A Gentle Thunder’ by Max Lucado )

Has God been allowing America to get a wake-up call? Has he gotten our attention? Has he gotten your attention?

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” John 1: 35 – 36

John the Baptist stood at the turn of the ages. So it is not surprising that he would say something that forces us to look both backward, into the remote past, and forward to the climax of history. In calling Jesus the “Lamb of God” he did both these things. For that title, more than any other, evokes the primordial memory of Abraham’s obedience, of the sacrifices of Moses and of the coming renewal of the whole world. Abraham, commanded to offer his “only son” Isaac in sacrifice, obeyed God with the confidence that “God himself” would provide the true Sacrifice. Isaac was spared by God but Abraham’s faith was rewarded when God himself did what he had asked of Abraham: he offered his only Son. Likewise, Moses was commanded to offer a spotless lamb in sacrifice for Passover. Christ, our true Passover, offered himself as both priest and victim. And now at each Sunday service, the Church celebrates, as we worship the Lamb of God in union with all the citizens of heaven in the book of Revelation who sing forever, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!” Today take some time to behold the Lamb of God, present with us in holy communion, which is our participation in the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Eph. 6: 13

The devil, being fundamentally uncreative, can make nothing. He can only exploit weaknesses. His first strategy is to look for where we may be hurt or blinded, and hit us there as hard as he can. If we are well defended, his next strategy is to sucker us into emphasizing some things at the expense of others.
And so, he goads us to emphasize truth over love or love over truth, faith over obedience, or truth over hope or some other imbalance. The goal here is to get us to neglect some piece of our armor. We may have the breastplate of righteousness in place, but not the belt of truth around our waist; or holding the shield of faith, but not the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. If he can snooker us into taking less than the whole armor of God, he’s got us where he wants us.

Today, take the whole armor that God wants to give you, not just the bits you prefer. He will protect you from the wiles of the enemy.