God, Taxes, and the Imago Dei

Church and politics are often at odds with one another. Some Christians want to bring godliness to the nation’s rule and some want nothing to do with it at all. God was the one who established municipal order. He taught Moses about civil rule (Ex 18). He set His laws in stone so the people would understand how to live holy lives (Ex 20).  And He decreed offerings and sacrifices to support the community. There were financial civic obligations for every Israelite, just as there are today – AKA taxes. Why am I writing about taxes today? Because Jesus addressed them and so must we. But hang with me because this is about more than a Form 1040.

When Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees about paying taxes to Caesar, He knew that they were trying to trap Him. (Read Matthew 22:15-22.) They – and pretty much all the Jews –resented having to pay taxes to the hated Roman government. And they hated Jesus too. If He were to say paying taxes was right, the Jewish people who loved Him so would change their minds. Jesus called for a denarius coin that was the required tax. He asked, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” (v. 20). They replied, “Caesar’s” (v. 21). To which Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s . . .” In other words, because the coin bore the image of Caesar it should be given to Caesar, it was his rightful due.

But the point of this exchange came next. Jesus then said “. . . and [give] to God what is God’s.” I always thought that this was referring to the “temple tax” – the one-half shekel per year for every Jewish male over 20. But when I slow down and consider the context, I see something different. What bears God’s image? What is God’s that should be given to Him? Man. You and me.

Man was created in God’s image (Gen 1:27) and bears the Imago Dei. The name of our Creator is written in our DNA. We belong to God. We are His “rightful due.” Those who deny this truth will shake their fists at Him and turn away, but some will believe. They will receive the gift of grace through Jesus Christ. And they will honor their Creator.  Beloved, you belong to God. Not just your money or your time, but your life, your heart, your mind, your soul, and your body are all His. Come to the Lord today. You will never fulfill your purpose until you give it all to Him.

Coloring Outside the Lines

At almost four, Joy tends to color all over a picture page. She hasn’t yet learned to stay inside the lines. Our Ladies’ Sunday School class has been working through Genesis and I have been struck with the fact that God doesn’t either. For instance, tradition held that the firstborn son would receive the greater inheritance and blessing from his father. But God placed Isaac over Ishmael (Gen 21:12), Jacob over Esau (25:23), Ephraim over Manasseh (48:19), and Joseph over Reuben (48:22). Warfare requires overpowering armies, but the Lord won the victory against thousands of Midianites with an army of 300 men (Judges 7). He brought down the walls of Jericho with shouts and trumpets (Josh 6) and rescued His people through the knee-knocking courage of a Jewish girl (Esther). Kings are born as royalty but He set a shepherd boy on the throne of Israel (2 Sam 5:3). And while the Jews looked for a mighty warrior to save their nation from Rome, God provided salvation for the whole world through a baby born as a peasant, who died as a criminal among thieves.

So why do I try to tell God how to solve my problems? Why do I think I have to come up with a plan for Him? I have a huge, painful mess in my family and I am powerless to fix it. Every scenario I dream up has gaping flaws. Everything I’ve tried to do to make it better seems to make it worse. And worst of all, God is ignoring every suggestion I offer.

Maybe that’s because He is not limited to what I can envision.  His ways and His power are far beyond the scope of my expectations just as Paul declared, “He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,” (Eph 3:20). Any resolution I can concoct falls short of what He can do. I mean, this is the God who parted a raging sea and walked the Israelites to safety on dry ground (Ex 14:29). This is the God who brought water out of a rock (Ex 17:1-6), made the sun stand still in the sky (Josh 10), and rescued His servants from fire and lions (Daniel) and prison (Acts 12). Surely, He can fight this battle for me. And win.

Perhaps, instead of trying to figure out what God should do on our behalf, you and I should simply keep our eyes fixed on Him and watch what He does. Because His plans are always good, pleasing, and perfect (Rom 12:2, adapted). Beloved, aren’t you glad that God colors outside the lines?

Best Friends

I got another one of those emails from a salesperson who opened the message with a personalized greeting meant to draw me in and make me more favorable to their pitch. But their “personal touch” was a scam. They proved they don’t know anything about me by calling me “Dr. Andrews.” Just because I work at an institute of higher education, doesn’t mean I have a Ph.D. I am, in fact, struggling to finish my master’s. It was not a genuine greeting.

Using someone’s name implies some kind of connection, a level of personal knowledge -whether casual or intimate. One of the first things we do when meeting someone new is to share our name. It is like opening the door to our home. But we don’t let everyone inside. Some people don’t get past the doorway, some step into the front hall, and others are welcomed to the kitchen – the heart of the house. I’m a pretty transparent person. Still some people may know my name but they don’t know me. My closest friends gather around the kitchen table over a cup of coffee (or tea).

When Moses met with God on Mount Sinai, he pleaded with the Lord to accompany him and the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land. God replied, “I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you and I know you by name” (Ex 33:17). He wasn’t just talking about the name Moses was given at birth. The original Hebrew means “I know you because you are mine.”  Back up a few verses: “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (v. 11). Do you understand what that means? God claimed Moses as His friend. He knew him.

Not only did He know Moses, but He also revealed Himself to him. Moses asked God to show him His glory. And He did – as much as He could without killing him.  He “came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed His name, the Lord” (Ex. 34:5). Did you catch the last part? “He proclaimed His name, the Lord.” He knew Moses. Now Moses knew Him.

Nobody knows you better than God knows you. And nobody loves you more than God loves you. He said, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine” (Is 43:1). God has claimed you, Beloved. You are His friend. His child. His own.

Waiting on God

Psalm 106 is a “Salvation History Psalm” – a retelling of God rescuing His people from slavery in Egypt.  You know the story: God brought the Israelites out of bondage and led them to the edge of the Red Sea – impassable waters in front of them and their enemy close on their heels.  He made a way through the sea and when the last Israelite foot cleared the dry sea bed, He closed in the walls of water on Pharoah and His army.  The Scripture says, “Then [the Israelites] believed His promises and sang His praise” (v. 12).  Wouldn’t you?  If God had done a miraculous thing for you, wouldn’t you believe?  Wouldn’t you sing a chorus of, “You’re a good, good, Father!”?

But wait. The next verse says: “But they soon forgot what He had done and did not wait for His plan to unfold” (v. 13).  And they grumbled. On the heels of the Red Sea miracle. Remember the celebration in verse 12? Check out verses 24-25: “They did not believe His promise. They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the Lord.” Makes me want to shake my head.  They failed to trust God – the same God who had rescued them in dramatic fashion just a few weeks before.

But, let’s be honest here, don’t you and I do the same thing?  God works powerfully on our behalf and we celebrate and sing His praises and the next time we face a challenge, we worry.  We forget what God did and focus on the new hardship as if God used it all up on the first one.  Or maybe that’s just me. 

I wrote in the margin: “Lord, I want to always believe Your promises and sing Your praises while I am still waiting.”  I am there right now – waiting. And trusting.  And reminding myself of His powerful acts of the past, how he made a way where I couldn’t see a way. How He softened hard hearts. How he rescued someone I love. And I know He will do it again. So I’m gonna sing His praises now, during the crisis, not just after. 

Have you forgotten His goodness to you?  The God who was faithful yesterday will not be unfaithful today. He is the same good Father who carried you through the last storm – and He will not abandon you now.  Beloved, come sit here with me, and let’s praise the Lord while we wait.

I AM the Bread of Life

The Lord impressed on my heart today to study the “I AM” statements of Jesus in the gospel of John, and you’re coming along with me. For the next several weeks we’ll have “I AM Fridays.”

In chapter 6, Jesus had just performed miracles: healing the sick and feeding five thousand people from five loaves and two fish. (I’ve cut out at least a thousand construction paper loaves and fishes for kids’ Bible story time.) He was doing His best to withdraw from the crowds, even walking across a stormy lake, but they followed Him, demanding more – more miracles and more bread. The people insisted that Moses “gave them bread from heaven to eat” (Jn 6:31; Ex 16:4), speaking of the manna. But Jesus corrected them; Moses didn’t provide the bread, God did and now God was giving them something better than bread for a day. He said, “The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (v. 33). All the people heard was “bread for life” and they ran with it. “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread” (v. 34). (Reminds me of the woman at the well from chapter 4). What they missed was that the bread from God was not a loaf, but a person.

Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry . . .” (v. 35). He reiterated it by saying, “I am the bread that came down from heaven” (v. 41). And if they missed it He said it again, “I am the bread of life” (v. 48). Not the manna. Him. The bread the Israelites ate couldn’t keep them alive for more than a few days. Then He made a statement that shocked the people: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (v. 51). Eat His flesh? Feed on Him? What in the world? And that’s the point. What Jesus offers is not of this world – it is from heaven.

Life, not bread, is the point of this passage. Jesus said, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you” (v. 27). Beloved do you want to eat for a day or for eternity? Feast on the Bread of Life and you’ll be satisfied forever.

I Want to See You, Lord

I sang with the congregation: “Open the eyes of our heart, Lord; open the eyes of our heart, we want to see You; we want to see You.” In the breath between the first and second stanzas, I sensed God say, “Do you, really? Then why are your eyes closed?”

“Well, I’m offering this to You as my own prayer.”

“Then open your eyes.”

In that brief moment, I was impressed with the thought that the church asks God to give us a vision of Himself, but we close our eyes so that we cannot see.

As I am writing this, God has directed me to Isaiah’s encounter with the Lord. The prophet wrote, “I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Is 6:1). He was surrounded by seraphs, unlike anything man had ever seen. Now that’s a vision!

Isaiah’s response to the awesome vision of God was conviction, repentance, and surrender to the Lord’s call. But there’s another time when God revealed Himself to men. In Exodus 24, after Moses received the Law, God issued an extraordinary invitation: “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel” (Ex 24:1). And they did. “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel . . . they saw God, and they ate and drank” (v. 9, 11). They. Saw. God. How did it affect them? A few chapters over we have these same elders urging Aaron to make an idol for the people to worship. And he did. In Leviticus 10, Nadab and Abihu are put to death by God for disobeying Him.

The seraphs in Isaiah’s vision declared, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory” (v. 3). Do you see it? “The whole earth is full of His glory.” John Calvin, the 16^th-century theologian said, “There is not an atom of the universe in which you cannot see some brilliant spark, at least, of His glory.” Now, I’m not preaching a naturalistic theology. We worship the Creator, not the creation. But we can see Him everywhere – if we open our eyes.

Jeremiah 29:13 says “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you . . .” Do you want to see God? Are your eyes open? Are you looking for Him? And when you see Him, Beloved, what will you do?

Somebody is Listening

I am wearing an old green t-shirt this morning that Joy always liked. It reminds me of the days when she was learning colors and she would always point out that “Nana’s shirt is green.” She was so proud of herself for it, and of course, so was I. God has been nudging me about the example I am before her. For instance, the image that accompanies this devotional. Before covid, I taught a weekly Bible study for the women on the campus where I work. My daughter-in-law would come and of course, Joy came with us. She was just starting to cruise and would move from person to person around the chairs that kept her corralled. She stopped at my knee that morning and was listening intently to me teach.  Her mommy snapped the picture and it serves as a constant reminder that she always is watching me and learning from me – whether I am intentionally teaching her or not. That’s a huge responsibility, one I don’t take lightly.

The Lord pressed that point home to the Israelites when Moses taught them God’s Law and how important their daily lives were. He told them: “The [these words] to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deut 11:19). In other words, in everything you do all throughout your day, be a walking, talking, living, breathing testimony to the Lord God.

What happens when we don’t? When the Jews returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity and resettled the city, Nehemiah discovered that “half of their children spoke . . . the languages of other people and did not know how to speak the language of Judah” (Neh 13:24). Sound familiar? And I’m not talking about linguistics – I’m talking about the language of truth, righteousness, and holiness. The language of God. The children didn’t know the language of Judah because the generations before them fell into speaking the languages around them so that they might fit in. Again – sound familiar?

This is not just a parenting/grandparenting message. The same applies to the church’s influence – or lack thereof – on the culture. We cannot represent Christ to the world if we sound just like them. Everything about us should speak Jesus. Because, like Joy, someone is watching and listening – whether you realize it or not. Beloved, what are they seeing and hearing in you?

Do It Again, Lord

God, I need a miracle.

I need You to part the sea again (Ex. 14:21).

I need You to bring water from a rock again (Ex. 17:5-7).

I need You to bring down the walls again (Jos. 6:20).

I need You to make the sun stand still again (Jos. 10:13).

I need You to take down the giant again (1 Sam. 48-49).

I need You to keep the oil flowing again (2 Ki. 4:1-7).

I need You to make the ax head float again (2 Ki. 6:1-7).

I need You to move the shadow back again (2 Ki. 20:10).

I need You to stand in the fire again (Dan. 3:25).

I need You to shut the mouths of lions again (Dan. 6:22).

I need You to calm the storm again (Matt. 8:23-27).

I need You to heal and raise the dead again (Mk. 5:21-43).

I need You to feed the multitudes again (Matt. 14:13-21; 15: 29-39).

I need You to walk on the water again (Matt. 14:22-33).

I need You to take out the demon again (Mk 1:21-26).

I need You to open blind eyes again (Matt 20:29-34).

I need You to turn water into wine again (Jn 2:1-11).

I need You to turn little into much again (Jn. 6:5-13).

I need You to make the lame not just walk, but jump again (Acts 3:1-10).

I need You to set the prisoner free again (Acts 12: 1-17).

I’m not asking for much Lord. Just a miracle. You did it before. I need you to do it again.

Hebrews: Yes, God

My granddaughter loves to do “hidden picture” puzzles. These are scenes with small things drawn to make them blend into the other elements of the picture, essentially hiding them in plain sight. For instance, a banana becomes the bill of a cap or a ruler sits among the rails of a fence. She’s gotten quite good at finding the prize amid all the rest of the picture.

The passage we’re considering today in Hebrews is like that. “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.” Amen. (Heb 13: 20-21).  There are some deep doctrinal truths here: God is the source of peace and He imparted that peace to us through Jesus Christ, His Son, who signed the eternal covenant with His blood and sealed it with His resurrection. He has taken up His position as our great Shepherd as we – His sheep – follow Him. You could fill countless theology books with just verse 20. But for the purpose of our study, we’re going to set the descriptive text aside to get to the point. We’re not changing the Scripture, we’re just zeroing in on the hidden nugget. “May God . . . equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him . . .” There it is! A prayer that God will equip us to do His will and work in us the things that please Him.

This verse echoes Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth: “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Cor 9:8). This is a promise that if God calls you to it He will equip you for it. When God called him to rescue the Israelites, Moses pointed out his stuttering problem (Ex 4:10). And God said, “I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (v. 12). And He did. And God was pleased with Moses and called him His friend (Ex 33:11).

Yes, the calling is bigger than you but you have the promise of God – the God who brings peace through Jesus Christ – that He will help you do it. Say “Yes” to God’s call Beloved and discover what He will do through and in you.

God of the Impossible

“This is impossible. It’s hopeless – this will never change.”

Those are the words that have been running through my mind lately over a very difficult situation. I keep putting it in God’s hands, but something happened recently that weighs heavy on my heart – and my mind. And that’s where the problem lies. In my mind. All those defeating thoughts bubble up in my head like water boiling on the fire. When these thoughts start, I can feel my anxiety rise. And the enemy loves it. He pours more gas on the flames until I am in a pit of anxiety and despair.

But the Spirit brought a Word to mind: “Whatever is true . . . think about such things” (see Philippians 4:8). Then He whispered to me, “What is true here?” I realized what He was up to. He was trying to turn my thoughts away from the burden I feel and toward the burden-bearer.  He was soaking the dry ground of my mind with the Living Water of His Word.

What is true is that “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). The Spirit took me on a mental Bible study, calling to mind the many times God worked out the impossible. Like giving a 90+-year-old couple a baby (Abraham and Sarah). Or parting the waters to let two million people cross over on dry land (The Hebrew nation crossing the Red Sea). Or bringing down a massive stone wall with shouts of praise (Joshua and the battle of Jerico). Or causing the sun to stand still in the sky to give His warriors victory (Josua and the battle at Gibeon). How about a shepherd boy bringing down a giant with a slingshot (David and Goliath)?  Can a virgin give birth? She can if God is behind it (Mary’s immaculate conception).  Think about demons being driven out, paralyzed men walking, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, and the mute speaking. Or mothers being given back their dead children, sick people made well, thousands fed from a little boy’s lunch, and water turned into wine.  

Then He asked me, “Now Child, is your situation more impossible than these?” No, it isn’t. And neither is yours Beloved. I don’t know what burdens your heart today, but I know that you and I have a God who specializes in overcoming the impossible. And that’s the truth.