“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:16
“Why are those kids singing about beer?” I asked as I walked past the T.V. My husband was watching a movie and a children’s chorus was singing a song – all I caught were the words “Dilly, dilly.” I’ll bet, like me, your mind jumped to a popular beer commercial set in the medieval period where the king and his court toast their favorite brew with a robust, “Dilly, dilly!” The phrase is actually from a children’s nursery rhyme that dates back at least to the 1600’s, called “Lavender Blue,” It has been recorded by multiple artists, including Burl Ives and even David Bowie, but to my 2018 mind “Dilly, dilly” brings up the image of beer and Camelot.
By now you’re wondering why a Christian writer is blogging about beer and nursery rhymes. Because it points out the importance of context as it relates to understanding the Bible. When you and I read the Bible we often apply 21st century context to the ancient words of God, and in doing so miss the intended meaning and principle. We must be careful to read and study the Bible with the original context in mind. Just as “Dilly, dilly” reminds us of a beer commercial today rather than a child’s nursery rhyme, the Scriptures are often misapplied with a modern, cultural twist. If you want to have a deeper understanding of God’s Word you need to understand the original context of God’s words and apply their timeless principles to your life today. The Scriptures may have been written thousands of years ago, but the truths they contain are as fresh and current today as the day they were inscribed on ancient scrolls.
Beloved it is time for the people of God to go deep into the Word of God and live out the truths of God in a world that desperately needs God. What did God say to you today through His Word?
My friend had been trying for 20 minutes to explain why she did something she knew God would not approve of. She wanted to put this thing behind her, but she kept going back to it. “I guess I’m just weak,” she sighed. “In my heart I want to do better, isn’t that good enough?” “After all,” she said with a shrug, “God knows my heart.”
I threw out one of those breath-prayers, took her by the hand and said, “Yes sweet friend, God knows your heart – that’s why He sent you a Savior.”
God does know our hearts. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts” (Luke 16:15). God knows that in its natural state “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). He knows that our hearts are very human and prone to mislead us by our own desires (James 1:14). The only hope for the human heart is a divine Savior. Jesus. He knows your heart and mine and He came to redeem our hearts through His death on the cross. Will you always get it right then? I’m living proof that the answer is “No,” but a heart that has been rescued by Jesus is a heart that can be renewed and restored.
Beloved, God knows your heart – does your heart know Him?
What person in the Bible – besides Jesus (because we all want to be like Jesus) – do you most want to emulate? There are several I can name, for various reasons. I’ve always wanted to be like Dorcas (which is my given first name) – her story is in Acts 9:36-42. She was a woman who was devoted to ministry among the poor in Joppa. It was said of her, she was “full of good works and charitable deeds which she did.” I am full of good ideas, which I often fail to do. I want to be like Dorcas – a doer, not just a dreamer. When God called me into ministry the priest Ezra became my role-model. The Scriptures say that “the gracious hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord and to teach its decrees and laws in Israel” (Ezra 7:9-10). From his example I have devoted myself to study the Word, live the Word and teach the Word. I also admire Mary’s complete surrender to the will of God – I long for that kind of heart. I want to be bold like Paul, humble like Moses, and fearless like Deborah who declared, “March on, my soul; be strong!” (Judges 5:21) as she (yes a woman!) led Israel into battle. I want to worship like David, live blamelessly like Noah, and without compromise like Daniel.
But as I was reading the Genesis account of “the begats” – the generations of Adam’s descendants I found the person I most want to be like – Enoch. While I love the great stories of David and Daniel and Dorcas and Ezra – the simple description of Enoch’s life is the one that I want most to copy: “Enoch walked with God.” There are no great feats listed, no battles fought, no mighty victories. He walked with God – period. We do get a clue in Hebrews 11 where we find that as he walked he “pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5b). What was his secret for pleasing God? It’s right in the next verse, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Faith pleases God and Enoch clearly had faith. So what is faith? Faith is believing that God exists – that He is who He says He is. But the demons believe that God exists (James 2:19), so there must be something more. Faith is also believing that He rewards those who seek after him earnestly. How do we seek God earnestly? Jeremiah 29:13 declares “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. Enoch walked through life seeking the face and presence of God with his whole heart. That means he constantly thought about God, talked with God, and believed God to be faithful and true. And Enoch’s faith was rewarded. What is the reward? Jeremiah 29:14 says, “I will be found by you.” Enoch found God – he didn’t die, but was taken from this earth and into the very presence of God.
Hebrews 11 – the hall of faith – is filled with men and women who did many things in the name of the Lord, but they are all commended for one thing above all others: their faith. Name after name is preceded by the words: “by faith.” Abel, our friend Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and on and on. They worshipped, built, led, sacrificed and remained true, but they are remarkable for the faith, not their acts. Faith motivates God’s people into action, whether it is great exploits or simple gestures – but it is not our deeds that please God, it is our heart that believes and seeks after Him.
I want to do great things for God. I want to study and teach His Word, I want to write to encourage others. I want to share Jesus with women. But more than all these, I want to walk before God in faith, just as Enoch did. I want to please Him and seek Him with wholehearted devotion. I want to meditate on His Name and His character. I want to talk with Him friend-to-friend and draw near enough to hear His faintest whisper. I want to walk through life with God – side-by-side and heart-to heart – all the way into His presence.
Looking back over the past year, there are many lessons I’ve learned. I’ve learned anew God’s faithfulness to care for His children, and I’ve gotten a tiny glimpse into His enormous heart of love with my first grandchild. I’ve learned that Jesus wants me to know Him, not just know about Him, and He wants me to teach the Bible, not just someone’s opinion of the Bible. But I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is how Jesus expects the church – make that how He expects me – to respond to the “least and the lost.”
What do good church folk do when someone comes in who is rough around the edges, who doesn’t dress in the acceptable modest style, who uses the language of the streets instead of the language of the sacred? Do we (and I’m including myself here) offer a handshake followed by a liberal application of hand sanitizer? Do we walk away shaking our heads at the way they’re dressed? Do we cringe at the things they say in our small group? Do we make it clear they they don’t fit in? Jesus had a word for the religious leaders of His day that we as a church need to take to heart. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces . . . you will not let those enter who are trying to” (Matthew 23:13).
Look at the Christmas story one more time. God sent His son to be born to a poor teenage girl and to be raised by a common laborer father. The fact that they were poor is confirmed in the consecration offering they gave of a pair of birds (Luke 2:24). He trained in the woodworking trade of his father Joseph. The glorious birth announcement was given, not to the religious elite nor to the king, but to lowly shepherds doing the most menial work of all. Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry He was found among the lepers, the lame, the blind, women with scandalous lives, men who cheated their neighbors, the demon-possessed, and the outcasts. His closest friends and followers were tax collectors and fishermen, not students from the best Jewish schools. When he was in the company of religious folk, He didn’t rub elbows – He often rubbed them the wrong way and the sparks would fly. He saved His most severe rebukes for them, calling them hypocrites, blind guides, snakes, and a “brood of vipers,” but gently told the ones outside the religious establishment, “Go, and sin no more.” He blessed, He touched, He noticed, and He welcomed. I believe He expects no less from those who claim to be His Body. I think Jesus wants us to put away our hand sanitizer and our ideas of who belongs in the church and to simply be a refuge of welcome. I think people need to feel accepted before they will accept the Gospel. Then I think we need to love them as we disciple them to follow Christ. Is it easy? No. It requires effort and patience and a humble, obedient spirit, but so did dying on the cross.
I want to hang on to all the lessons God taught me in the past year, but the one I want to hold the tightest is this one: Jesus doesn’t turn anyone away (John 6:37). The truth is when He found me I was one of the least and the lost, and He welcomed me with arms stretched the width of the cross. May my heart and my arms be open wide to whomever Jesus sends to me this year.
Holy Father, this year, let me be a caring shepherd to lost sheep, a warm embrace to a hurting heart, and a conduit of Your love to the one on the outside looking in.
Deeper Roots 