Ecclesiastes 12:10

  It seems every election we go through is billed “as the most important ever” and “will change the future of the world as we know it”.  But if you look throughout history, you will see leaders come and go, powers rise and fall, and what we think of as important, stable, and unchangeable really isn’t.   In Daniel 4 we read of a leader that was warned about his hubris. Though he was on top of the world, it did not mean he was going to stay there. Warned in a vision, he was told to realize, “ That the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, And bestows it on whom He wishes And sets over it the lowliest of men."(vs19).   It might need to be a lesson we need to learn as well.  As much as we think we know who will or won’t be in charge in the coming years, we need to consider that the one that places all those in power is in Heaven. As Nebuchadnezzar concludes about God, “ All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to...

  Some people are hard to sort into any box. Hero? Villian? Victim? Vile? Maybe one of the hardest in the Bible is Queen Vashti.   We read about her in the book of Esther. She is the queen that Esther replaces. So, what did she do so terrible as to get replaced?   In the first chapter of Esther, we read that the King is having a party. It was a lavish affair, there was plenty of wine and everybody was free to indulge all they wanted (1:8) Queen Vashti was having her own feast alongside. As the party goes on for seven days, the King orders Vashti to come and show herself off to the guests. She was apparently quite the looker. But she refuses.   And there is the rub.   Was Vashti standing up for herself by refusing to be ogled by a bunch of drunk officials? Was she a rebellious wife refusing to submit to her husband and king? Was she a bastion of modesty? Was she a spoiled brat who put her own party over the needs of her people?   I’m not sure we know. The ki...

We often think of power as a way to do something. But power can also be about not doing something.     Think about a dam. It holds back a massive weight of water. That requires an amount of power to contain all that potential energy. It is easy to see the power in a rocket blasting off but less so in a coiled spring.    In the Bible, two different Greek words are used when talking about forms of power. Dunamis represents the power to do something. It’s often associated with miraculous things. It references wealth or an army, something you have to get a job done.     Another term is Exousia . It is the power to hold something in check. It’s often associated with authority or government.  It is the power of choice, what you can do or not do.     I wonder if we do the same thing with these concepts as we do with physical examples. We don't often think of having power in not doing something, but the truth is that kind of power...

    In the world, if you are trying to broker a deal you always want to do so from a position of power. You want them to know you will walk away, they need you more than you need them, you are in control so it is in their best interest to do what you say. It is a good way to get all you want.  But it is a terrible way to approach God.   First of all, we will never be able to match the power of God. He will always be in more control than we are. Yet we try it nonetheless. We bargain. Offer to stop doing something we shouldn’t be doing or start doing something we should. We bully. If you really loved me, if you are really there God you will do what I ask. We deal. If you will just give this to me, I give you something of value.  But does God need what we have? No, all things are already his. Should our love and obedience be terms? No, they are things we already owe him. Trying to leverage this way is an exercise in futility   We must consider t...

  In scriptures, the closest human thing we have to the immovable object was Samson. In battle after battle, nothing could stop him. Not a lion [i] .  Not thirty men [ii] . Not a thousand men [iii] No matter what man came after him, Samson could take them all. But a woman, well that was a different story.   Samson had always had trouble letting the lust of his eyes make his decisions, (Judges 14:1-3; 16:1-3) and it happened again with Delilah. He fell for a woman that cared more for money than for him. So time and time again she attempted to seduce the secret of his strength from him. And he would give her a story. Then lo and behold, his enemies would attack him that exact same way.   You would think he would be smart enough to figure out what was going on and leave her. Maybe he was. Maybe he just didn't care. He was strong enough to get out of whatever trouble would come.   But the day finally came that broke him. It wa...

     Have you ever heard of synergy?  It is a term that comes from the Greek language that combines the words energy and partnership.  It is used several times in the New testament to describe people working together in the Gospel (Philippians 2:25, Philippians 4:3, Philemon 1:24, Romans 16:3, 9, 21, Colossians 4:11) or thing workings together (James 2:22, Romans 8:28)       The idea is that we can do more together than we can do alone. The work of two is multiplied rather than combined. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 describes this effect, “ Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him--a threefold cord is not quickly broken .” ...

  Even after we have read a passage of scripture hundreds of times, it still can have something new to teach us . For example, I recently heard a lesson discussing Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We read in Mark 11:2-3 that before it happened Jesus told his disciples, “ Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat ; untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' you say, 'The Lord has need of it'; and immediately he will send it back here. "     All my life I had been so focused on Jesus' foreknowledge of this event, I missed a significant detail. The colt that Jesus was to ride in on had never been ridden . Yet the record doesn’t indicate Jesus had any problems. Most people would be in a world of trouble if they tried to ride a donkey that had never been ridden . Then again Jesus wasn’t most people. His power is once again on dis...