Do we have "high places"?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Micah 1:1-16

TO CHEW ON: "For behold the Lord is coming out of His place;
He will come down
And tread on the high places of the earth." - Micah 1:3

"Prophecies of Christ make Micah's book glow with hope and encouragement," says Willard Elijahson in my Bible's introduction to Micah (New Spirit-Filled Bible, p. 1202). It's a great book to read as we look forward to the season of Advent that begins in a few weeks' time.

Micah, the man, prophesied alongside Isaiah. Historians date his writings between 704-696 B.C. during the reigns of kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. His message is directed to inhabitants of Samaria and Jerusalem.

He begins his message by announcing the coming of the Lord. We get the picture of someone coming from elsewhere: "...the Lord is coming out of His place; He will come down..." - Micah 1:3.

The place God chooses to visit is noteworthy—the "high places of the earth." Though we might read this as elevated land masses (mountain peaks perhaps, which would give a good view of all the surrounding area) the people of that time would probably have understood high places to mean elevated pagan altars. God was coming to check out their disloyalty—the places they compromised, flirted with, and gave in to idols. Awkward! Embarrassing! Incriminating!

The picture of God coming down to check out the high places of Judah prompts me to ask, what if I applied this image to my society, my life? What would God find?

Dennis McCallum in his book Unlocking the Mysteries of Satan explains how, at the fall, Satan took charge of the world system or kosmos. He says:

"Perhaps the definitive passage on kosmos is 1 John 2:15-17.

'Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.'

Accordingly the kosmos is primarily a system of values. The lust of the flesh refers to living for ungodly pleasure. The lust of the eyes refers to owning beautiful things or gaining control over beautiful people. The boastful pride of life refers to the way humans try to establish identity and importance by competing with each other for attention, power, and admiration" (Kindle Location, 871).

McCallum goes on to suggest that the church and we as individual Christians have gone easy on many of these attitudinal sins:

"Many Christians think of 'worldly' things as gross sins like wanton sex, for example .... Many of the same Christians, however, would never recognize the world-system when looking at the Harvard University green or the Sears Tower. A glossy magazine advertisement showing a family luxuriating in a hot tub in Tahiti or a shiny new SUV would not ring the kosmos bell in their minds" - KL 887.

Are we in these ways building our own high places? As I imagine God coming to me, I ask, what high places is He finding in my life? Is He finding some in yours?

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to see my attitudes from Your point of view. Show me where I have bought into the world system and perspective. Amen.

MORE: Throwing down 'high place' attitudes

"Instead of arguing with Satan, Christians must learn to share the Word of God with him, like Jesus did. To match up with someone this smart, we need the help of someone even smarter, and God is infinitely smarter than Satan" - McCallum, K.L. 767.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

How does the world feel about you?

Jesus converses with the doctors
of the law - Alexandre Bida

TODAY'S SPECIAL: John 7:1-24

TO CHEW ON: "The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil."  John 7:7

Though there have been times when Christians were in sync with their larger society, such times seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Even in my lifetime there has been a cooling toward Christians and Christianity due, partly at least, to the reason Jesus was hated by His neighbours--because he had the audacity to "testify of it that its works are evil." In other words, Jesus believed there was an objective standard of right and wrong and called evil, evil. The message of our prevailing culture is that everything is relative.

Jesus' words here tell us this reaction from the world ("hate") shouldn't surprise us. In fact, maybe we should be more surprised that we are as well accepted as we are.

So, how would a Jesus-type reaction look in our times? It's easy to imagine a holier-than-thou Christianity that puts people off with sanctimonious attitudes and words. None of us wants to be that person.

Perhaps 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 gives us a clue as to how we could live winsome, appealing lives, while being that influence for good:

"Now thanks be to God who ... through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life."

The image of our lives being perfume is a lovely one. Of course that perfume needs to be diffused and  words will probably be a part of that diffusing. And so even here we see that though some will like the 'smell' of those words and the life that backs them up,  others won't. And so, no matter how appealing the image, the hate element raises its head again. For how would we expect someone to react to the smell of death but to hate it?

I ask myself, am I willing to be hated for my loyalty to Christ? Are you?

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, may my loyalty to You be unwavering. Please show me where I am compromising that loyalty because I want to be liked. Help me to stand with You when unpopular, evil-condemning words need to be spoken. Amen.

MORE:  Compromise?

 "When Christians compromise with the kosmos, they may continue to attend church and even pray and read their Bibles. The problem is that the things of God occupy a section of their lives, while the main thrust of their affections is devoted to the world-system. Jesus' warning that 'no one can serve to masters' is illustrated on every side by Christians in the West today" - Dennis McCallum, Unlocking the Mysteries of Satan, Kindle Location 908 (emphasis added).

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See His glory!

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 97:1-12

TO CHEW ON: "His lightnings light the world;
The earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax
at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
The heavens declare His righteousness
And all the peoples see His glory." - Psalm 97:4-6

Today's description of God's awesomeness as He sets foot on planet Earth scarcely fits with the quiet events of the first Christmas that were witnessed by a few shepherds, a few astrologers, maybe the innkeeper's wife (if we believe the Christmas plays!). So why this reading about God coming with brilliance and terror? Didn't our reading guide writer make a mistake in assigning Psalm 97 for Christmas day?

On further thought, the words of this psalm in the context of Christmas do this celebration a great favour.  For though Jesus' coming was humble and quiet, it was destined to rock the planet too.  Dennis McCallum in his book Unlocking the Mysteries of Satan says:

"Although God apparently has been passive in the face Satan's evil actions, he hasn't really been. We can rest assured that he saw the whole thing coming. Before he ever created Satan or humans God knew about their future rebellion, and he formed a colossal, startling plan that suddenly and shockingly burst onto the world....

To the casual reader, it may seem like the biblical story meanders; that God was reacting to events that came up, trying this, trying that, being let down by people, blessing, judging, and eventually, after exhausting other options, sending Jesus. But this is not the case. Right from the beginning, God hinted that his plan was afoot" (Genesis 3:15) - Kindle location 96.

The Christmas chapter of God's plan is only one link—but a most vital one—in a chain of events that will culminate in God someday coming as conqueror to an awestruck, trembling world, as pictured in our reading.

We need to ask ourselves, whose side are we on in this epic clash? The choices are simple:

"You who love the Lord hate evil!

He preserves the souls of His saints

He  delivers them out of the hand of the wicked" - Psalm 97:10.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for Your overarching plan to defeat Satan, and for Jesus coming as part of that plan! Help me to live my life loving You and hating evil. Amen.

MORE: And the Glory of the Lord - from Handel's Messiah (London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus version)

Today the church celebrates that Feast of Christmas. The liturgy for Christmas Day begins with this collect:

O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

  

Wishing a blessed Christmas to all who read here!