Give Credit where Credit is Due: Ezekiel 36

Today I was sitting in the Tent of Meeting (a week long event at NWC where there is a tent set up and people go in and read out loud through the Bible in order) and I was in there during Ezekiel chapter 36, and it was a great reminder of God's initiative regarding our sanctification and righteousness. There is no way I am going to be able to do this passage justice in a simple blog post, but it was good for me to hear today, and I want to share that with you all.

if you don't have a Bible handy, here is a link to the passage.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel%2036:22-38&version=ESV

This passage is filled with God saying "I will... I will... I will...", and that is what hit me today. It seems like we are always striving to do better. When we are not falling into sin, we are trying to be righteous and trying to love God, but often times I believe we overlook something that God is clearly presenting here. That would be that we are unable to make ourselves repentant, and righteous. Especially verses 26 and 27 God is stating that unless He enables and empowers us, our heart will remain hard and we will not be caused to walk in His statutes.

Often times we take responsibility for our own maturity and spiritual devotion, but this passage makes me ask if we have any right to claim such a task and minimize God's grace. Now, I am not saying that it doesn't take effort and we don't have to work for it*. I am saying though that we need to give credit where credit is due. We should be grateful to God for any growth we ever see in ourselves because it is only by His replacing "stone hearts" with ones of "flesh" that we can come to see truth and be obedient to Him which will bring blessing**.

This doesn't mean we don't work and strive to aim towards growth(1 Cor 9:24-27; 1 Cor 3:7), but it does mean that we are not responsible for any growth that we are given. This is why the Ezekiel passage stuck out to me today. In my dealing with transition, future and growth it is easy for the perspective to come into my head that "I'm glad I have worked to become who I am, and I better keep working hard for my improvement." This is a horribly arrogant thing to do, and it robs God of great praise that is to Him alone due. It is a great pitfall for pride and sin and must cautiously be avoided. That is what Ezekiel reminded me of, that any good in me is due only to God's grace, and any future growth I will have has the same source. So I encourage you all whenever you see anything good or righteous in your live, that you do not fail to note that it has come only as a blessing from God, "for the sake of [His] holy name."

"Then they will know that I am the LORD." ~ Ezekiel 36:38

5/1/10

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

*Consider Joshua 1:3 in comparison with Joshua 1:6 and the seeming contrast of "I have given to you" and "you will cause this people to inherit." If I ever get around to writing about the name of the blog (Joshua's Promise) this will be one of the entries in that post series.

**Consider Joshua 1:8 and see previous comment about explaining the blog's name.

Acting in Confidence of God's faithfulness (Joshua 11:1-9)

Acting in Confidence of God's faithfulness

Joshua 11:1-9

In my personal studies I have been going through the book of Joshua, and yesterday I was going through the first couple parts of chapter 11, specifically verses 1-9. Once again, when a king heard of the victories of Israel (this time it was Jabin, King of Hazor) he sent to the kings of Madon, Shimron, and Achshaph, along with kings from the north hill country, the Arabah, the lowland, some from Naph-Dor, the Cannanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, a and the Hivites in Mizpah. -- (Verses 1-5)

All these peoples gathered together at the waters of Merom to unite against Israel. There were over 14 people groups, kings, or kingdoms all against Israel at once. This group was described as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Not only that, but they were well equipped for war with "very many horses and Chariots"(Josh 11:4). Against the face of such a huge enemy God says to Joshua that he is not to be afraid and that the next day God would give them victory, all those people would be killed, their horses would be hamstrung and their chariots burned. -- (Verses 6-9)

Now, I'm not sure about you, but I think it would be a nerve racking experience to be the leader of a nation that was about to go up over 14 nations some (probably most if not all) of which were "greater and more powerful" than Israel (Deut. 4:38; 7:17; 9:1; 11:23). Despite how dreadful such a situation would be, God tells Joshua to "not be afraid of them" (Josh 11:6). That seems like a big order (especially because it is in regards to an emotion, or is it? What is fear? what is God commanding here?), but God gives reasons to support such courage. This reason is actually God Himself and has nothing to do with Israel (Deut. 7:16-23; Joshua 1:9). As I've seen again and again, Joshua is showing us that God is faithful, and His reason for Joshua (and by extent Israel) to not have fear is that He is faithful and able to do what He has promised. In short, they should not fear because they can trust God to do what He has promised.

Now, as we continue to trust God and believe His promises, He may cause bigger and bigger acts of His power to be displayed. Look quickly what has happened here in Joshua so far:

1. Israel trusted God to bring them through the Jordan and He did, God is faithful. (Joshua 3-4)

2.Israel trusted God to deliver Jericho and He did, God is faithful. (Joshua 6)

3. Israel failed to trust God (by the disobedience of Achan) and their trusting their own war power and not God (Joshua 7:2-3), thus they suffered defeat at Ai, God is faithful (Joshua 7)

4. Israel repented and trusted God to deliver Ai. He did, God is faithful (Joshua 8)

5. Israel trusted God against the army of the 5 kings, and He gave them victory. God is faithful. (Joshua 10:1-28)

6. Israel trusted God through a series of city sieges, and He gave them victory. God is faithful. (Joshua 10:29-43)

7. Now Israel is put up against over 14 other kingdoms and God gives them victory. God is faithful. (Joshua 11)

Truly God has been fighting for Israel! In all this the idea is repeated: Do not fear God because God is faithful, and Trust God because He is trustworthy. All this power and promise fulfillment should bring us back to Joshua chapter 1 where God first Charges Joshua to be "Strong and Courageous" because God is with them (Joshua 1:6,7,9). This display of promise fulfillment, power and victory should remind us that the success or failure of any and everything we do is controlled by God and He will bring about what He will. Our job is doing what we are called and commanded to do with confidence.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." -- Joshua 1:9 (ESV)

4/24/10

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

"Doing Justice" to Scripture Presentation

When we are given the responsibility of presenting Scripture, with what thoughts and attitudes should we approach this task?

When we present, we often prepare with the intent of not messing up or missing lines in the presentation. I wonder if this is enough though. Should we not aim to "do justice" to the passage rather than to just not mess up? By that I mean aiming to not make a mistake is by all means part of it, but that is only the first stage. That can be done easily by using virtually exclusively rote memory of words and gestures.

I'm yet to know what it is exactly, but there seems to be a change that happens when someone has 'gotten personal' with a text. I have used the term to "memorized intimately" before to refer when we include our voice, actions, thoughts, and emotions in our Scripture memorization and presentation, but rarely to I see it presented where the presenter is the person in the Scripture. When that happens, the presentation seems to come across with a new level of 'power'.

That power is first and foremost because it is God's word that we are proclaiming, but such a presentation seems to make Scripture feel more real and enables us to closer relate to it. I wonder how we can learn to approach our task in this manner more often and train others to do likewise...

When taking on my responsibilities with what is now called Ezra's Creed (a Bible ministry on NWC's campus) Mark B. gave me a line of advice which I believe he received from Dr. Ardel C.. This advice was also a statement of caution speaking to the importance and demand that such a task calls. This has has remained on my mind for the last two years as a guide to most of what I have put my hands to in this ministry. The line was: "If you are going to do it, do it well."

That is what I am talking about here, not just to memorize and recite Scripture, but to do it well so that it comes alive to people. The first time I saw this happen was in 2008 when during a Word of Witness chapel on the life of David, Steve J. presented David's Psalm of repentance (Psalm 51). I wish I could link you to a video of it, but that was before we were recording them. I know though that I was not the only person who had tears in there eyes by the end of the passage.

Even though Steve was on stage with an auditorium full of students, nobody saw Steve, we all saw David. I think that is what part of it is, coming so close to the text that you can speak as if you were the one who first spoke the words of the text. You don't just show what emotions they may have had you have the emotions they had. I pray that through this ministry, more people will watch Scripture come to life and move into their lives. That is what it is about.

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

If you are interested in more information on Scripture presentation and memorization, please look around at Josiah's Gift's web page. They are a ministry that is passionate about getting people into the Word of God and presenting the Word of God as the Word of God.

Their website: http://josiahsgift.wordpress.com/