Ten Shekels and a Shirt (or Have Idol, will Travel)

There’s a story in Judges 17 and 18 that doesn’t get many sermons preached about it. After all, it is a little strange. In fact, the last five chapters of Judges are pretty weird. Try reading them sometime when you want some, uh… interesting stories. (Just a warning, these passages contain some of the more, shall we say, “disturbing” accounts in the scripture.)

It was the story in chapters 17 and 18 that really caught my attention though. It’s a little long, so hold on. It begins, as all good stories do, with a boy who stole from his mother… ya, a great opening, I know. His name was Micah, and he took eleven-hundred shekels of silver from his mother (that’s about 28 pounds). When he heard her put a curse on it, he decided to return it. To which she said, “Wow! You’re such a great son! I’m going to make this silver into an idol and give it back to you so that God will be happy with you!” I know, sounds like a great family, right?

Oh, but it gets better. A wandering priest shows up. No, this isn’t a bar joke. Micah figures, “hey, I’ve got an idol; if I get this Levite to be a priest for me, God will have to like me!” So he offers the Levite a new suit, food and lodging, and 4 ounces of silver a year to hang around and be his good luck charm.

Well, the Levite agreed. And he was happy to stick around doing his thing for a while. But then a clan of Danites pass through on their way to battle. They see Micah’s house with the idol and the priest and they think, “Here’s what we need right here. If we want to stay safe in battle, we need a little of the supernatural. This couldn’t hurt.”

So, they offer to let the Levite be their priest. He gladly accepts the promotion of serving 600 men instead of just one. Then they steal Micah’s idols and set out on their own. Naturally, Micah is upset so he goes after them. They tell him to back off and shut his mouth or they’ll get mad and kill him.

Anyway, Micah goes home with nothing, and the Danites wipe out a city, settle down there, and keep worshiping the idol that made the whole thing possible.

Whew! Finally got through that. Here’s the point. First of all, don’t steal from your mother. But mainly, this is what I would say: everyone in this story missed the point. They saw God as something they could manipulate into blessing them. They were just trying to get something from Him. And the Levite, worst of all, used his position as priest to move himself up the social ladder.

The point is simple: don’t try to use God for what you can get from Him. The end of all being is not the happiness of man but the glory of God. We were made to glorify Him, not indulge ourselves. This weird story is just another example of how messed up we are. So, don’t build an idol and constrain God to blessing you how you want, don’t go around looking for some way to get yourself ten shekels and a shirt, and don’t think that simply following religious practices will guarantee your success. God is not a means to an end. He is the goal. He is the prize. Having Him is enough.

Greater Things

Oh, what a year can do! It was a mere 365 days ago that I was in Cleveland, doing mission work, happy but struggling. It was then that we sang Chris Tomlin’s “God of this City,” boldly proclaiming “There is no one like our God! Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done…”

But what was to come would shake my world.

It was one year ago today that I wrote in my journal, asking God to keep me awake at night and fill me with passion for a cause. The only problem was that I was giving up the gifts He had given me for what I thought I needed.

Well, He found a way to keep me awake at night.

It was two days later that Amanda broke up with me. Many of you may not know, but we were dating pretty seriously, and the break up came as quite a shock. That day changed the course of all I had planned in my life. But God was working for Greater Things.

A few days later, I wrote in my journal that this was the hardest thing I had ever been through. But I also wrote that I knew it was, thus, the greatest opportunity for growth. And it was.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m gloating, but God has done so many amazing things since that day. There truly were greater things to come for me. He has blessed me with great friends and family; He has given me the opportunity to serve Him in a way I never thought I would a year ago; He has blessed me with an amazing girlfriend who is better than I could hope for; and, most importantly, He has given me a better understanding of His Life and His Purpose for mine.

That doesn’t mean the hurt wasn’t hard, or that it was wasn’t lasting. Even as long after the break up as January, I was still writing about it in my journal, though it was more of a side note. It was then that I said, “I really haven’t felt like myself since Amanda broke up with me, but I believe I am becoming myself.”

My life looks infinitely different than I expected it to a year ago. But one thing I have learned through all the change and pain and misdirection: there is no one like our God, and greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done. I’m excited to see how God will blow my plans out of the water in the next year.

Don't Drink the Kool-Aid

In my family we have a running joke about noisy kids. We laugh about getting them to go to sleep by giving them “purple Kool-Aid” which, of course, is actually Nyquil. Now, before any of you go calling family services, we don’t actually carry out this practice; it is strictly a joke.

There is, however, a more sinister nature to everyone’s favorite fruit-flavored drink. We’ve all heard of cults that use the drink to deliver drugs to their members, either to make them easier to manipulate or as a means of mass suicide. By now, most rational adults know that if you are at a large compound in the middle of the New Mexico desert and the leader claims that UFOs are riding a comet to take us home to Jesus, you shouldn’t drink the Kool-Aid.

So, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Whew, crisis averted.

But what about all the other poisons we drink in? And no, I’m not talking about the nationwide plot to put nicotine in Coca-Cola to make it more addicting. I’m not even preaching against the dangers of alcohol.

No, the poison I’m talking about is all the things we drink from the cult of culture. Things like, “You are all that matters.” “Follow your heart.” “You can be whatever you want; just put your mind to it.” “The government can fix your problems.” “Science can fix your problems.” “Religion can fix your problems.” There are countless others, and I could go on listing them for pages. However, it is much easier to simply tell you the truth.

The truth is: If you want any hope or any fulfillment, God is the only place. We look so often to what the world has to offer; but at best it is water that will cause us to thirst again and at worst it is poison that puts us under their control and kills us.

Jesus said He is the living water that would satisfy us so we will never thirst again. He poured Himself out. Be satisfied in Him. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.

Bats Frighten Me...

I think I may spend too much time being entertained. I like reading, watching television, and indulging in a good movie. Every once in a while, however, they are actually worth my time. Sometimes, something from a movie will strike a chord that resounds in the essence of my being. That is what defines a good movie for me. It may be cheaply made with poor acting and no special effects, but if its message can awaken a glimpse of the eternal, it has been well worth it. One such movie came out a few years ago, though it also had the benefit of exceptional acting and a large budget. That movie was Batman Begins.

The movie was absolutely brilliant. Its theme, plot, and tone were amazing; and there are many things I could point out from its storyline. However, I will concentrate on only one small portion: my favorite line in the movie. The character of Bruce Wayne is beginning his transformation into Batman when Alfred asks him, “Why bats, Master Wayne?” Bruce coolly responds, “Well, Alfred, bats frighten me; and it’s time my enemies shared in my dread.”

The thought of shaping your life around the very thing you fear the most was something that stuck in my mind. I have often thought that the thing we fear most is often the very thing that could be our greatest weapon. I can see this in my own life and where God has called me.

God has, for some reason, seen fit to call me as a preacher, a task that I never thought I could do. I preached my first sermon when I was seventeen, and it scared me to death; public speaking was, perhaps, my greatest fear. I am still nervous every time I get in front of people, but by God’s grace I am strengthened in faith to give glory to Him. As I am continuing in obedience to God’s call, I see more and more how little my fears really mean. And now I see that Satan will often assault us with fear to keep us from doing the very thing that is the greatest threat to him. So, by that reasoning, the things that God calls us to that we fear most are the things that do the greatest damage to Satan because they are the things that will most glorify God.

So, why preaching? First, because God called me to do it. Second, because it frightens me, and it is time for Satan to share my dread. And by God’s strength, though I am still frightened when I have to preach, the devil is far more frightened when I preach.

So, what frightens you? And how will you use it to strike fear into your Enemy?

Manipulating the Plot

In literature there is a thing known as plot manipulation. This is a method some bad writers will use to resolve conflict in their plots. They build the tension, working toward the climax, and just when it seems that there is no hope for the hero…bam! The gun jams, the villain trips, a random passerby sees what is happening, something falls from the sky, lightning strikes. You get the idea. In short, some force outside the story steps in to mix things up.

In literature this is a bad thing; it shows a lack of creativity. But in the scripture, this is one of the greatest themes of God’s grace. Ephesians chapter two is a prime example. Paul begins the chapter by depicting our lives before Christ. He describes how we were dead in trespasses, living like the devil, following our lusts, and the children of wrath. Then comes verse four, and the two words that will change everything…

“But God…”

Bam! The outside Force has stepped in. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…”

Our story was hopeless. But God intervened in a way that no one could have predicted. And it is the most amazing thing we could have imagined. In the story of our lives, there was no hope of a happy ending. So this is one case of plot manipulation that we should embrace with hearts full of gratitude.

Render Unto God

When I was younger we once went on a vacation out West. I may have forgotten a lot about it, but I do remember one thing. I remember setting pennies on a railroad track and waiting for the train to come by and smash them. I still have those pennies and I take them out to look at them sometimes. The thing about them is that they are no longer usable as money, even though you can still tell that they were once pennies. On some of them you can even still make out the profile of Abe Lincoln, stretched and distorted as it may be.

Many of you will probably wonder how I made the connection, but this reminds of a verse in the Gospel of Luke. In chapter 20 some of the religious leaders sought to catch Jesus in a trap. Once again, they thought they had Him pinned. They asked Him whether or not they should pay taxes to Caesar. If He said “no” they had Him for rebelling against the government. If He said “yes” then most of His followers would abandon Him because they hated the Romans and their oppressive rule.

Jesus did not answer right away; He simply asked for a coin. He held it up and asked, “Whose image is this?” Of course the people knew that the image on the coin was Caesar. Jesus answered them, “Render, then, unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”

What I love about Christ’s answer was that He did not only spoil the trap that was set for Him but He also spoke a powerful message. Though we may be twisted and smashed, just like those pennies I mentioned, we still bear the image of God. Yes, we have been distorted by sin, but His fingerprints are still evident on our souls. Perhaps we are a little hard to recognize, and perhaps we cannot be fully used as we once could; but He would still have us. And, though we rightfully belong to Him, we would try to hold ourselves back from His possession. Jesus clearly commanded, “Render unto God the things that are God’s. Give Him what bears His image. Offer yourself to Him. Render unto God the very essence of your being.”

The Devil's Nightmare

Satan awoke in a sweat one night
His spirit quivering, dumb with fright
A dream it was that had so vexed him
Its grim, dark fear greatly perplexed him
He called his advisor to ease his head
The advisor sat next to the devil’s bed
And he consoled the Accuser with the words he said

“Fear not, my lord, it was but a dream;
Things are not so bad as they would seem.
Yes, the Church remains alive.
But, lest it change, it shall not thrive.
They hide their flaws, they don’t confess,
They cover up their rotten mess.
They sit in pews on Sunday morning,
But that is all they care for learning.
They see suffering but will not stop it;
They’re too concerned with the building’s carpet.
They are content with one another,
So they welcome to themselves no others.
They quarrel over petty trifles.
They seek decisions, not disciples.
The world is dying outside their walls,
And they are building ‘fellowship halls.’
So sleep in peace, my lord, I say.
Our cause will live another day.
The Church is not a fearful thing,
But only slightly troubling.”

So the fallen angel’s mind was eased
And, in fact, he now was rather pleased
He slept sound again within the hour
Dreaming of whom he may devour
So all was well in Hades’ deep
The devil got a good night’s sleep
And that, o Church, should make you weep


P.S. If you enjoyed this poem, you should check out the rest of my poetry at http://soaringflames.blogspot.com/