Birthday Wishes But No Promises

Suggested Reading: James 5:7-12

At the beginning of the Jim Carrey movie, Liar, Liar, in order to demonstrate how much of a liar Carrey's character is, they show him promise to show up for his son's birthday party and then break that promise. The son didn't believe him when he said he would be there so he made a promise in order to demonstrate that this time he would keep his word. The son didn't believe him but still hoped and had his hopes crushed which, of course, led to the magical birthday wish that prevented Carrey from being able to lie for the rest of the movie. Carrey's promise was the desperate tactic of a man whose word wasn't any good but wanted to be believed. In the end, though, making a promise only made him more pathetic. After all, breaking your word is one thing but breaking a promise is worse, right?

James, the brother of Jesus, addressed this dynamic in James 5:12, saying, 'Now above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. Your “yes” must be “yes,” and your “no” must be “no,” so that you won’t fall under judgment' (HCSB). James' response to the entire issue was to never swear, to never make a promise. In part, this mindset was an extension of the thought from chapter 4 where James warned people not to say definitively what the future held because they couldn't know what God would do. And if you can't know what the future holds, making a promise is essentially setting yourself up to break your word.

Instead of making promises to let people know how serious your are or so that people will know that you mean it this time, speak in such a way that your word is good all the time. Let your "yes" be "yes" and your "no" be "no." Say exactly what you mean and don't oversell yourself. If you might not be able to do something, say that. If something is possible but not certain, say that. If someone asks a favor but you have more important priorities then be honest. Such honesty will strip away the disguises we build, making us more transparent and genuine (maybe even motivating us to change our priorities), and will cause people to believe us, even when we don't make promises.

Don't make promises so that people will believe you really mean it. Speak in such a way that your word is always good and there is no need for promises.

Going Through Spiritual Chemotherapy

Suggested Reading: Job 1-2, 8-9

Over the last few years, a number of people in my life have had to go through chemotherapy. Chemo is a nasty process; it is brutal and painful and, at times, humiliating. Chemo makes you horribly sick. It can cause you to shed your hair and lose weight. For a time, chemo can seem unbearable and make you wonder if the pain is worth it. Chemo is not something anybody ever wants to go through, but people endure it because there is no other way, at present, to get rid of some cancers.

In the book of Job, God brings Job to Satan's attention because Job is a good and righteous person. Satan gets permission to test Job by making him suffer. Job loses his children, his wealth, his health, and even the support of his wife. Job's friends come to comfort him, but quickly begin telling him good sounding lies to try to explain Job's situation, telling Job how to fix his life and make God bless him again. Bildad tells Job, "If you are pure and upright, then [God] will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells" (Job 8:6, NLT). Bildad was telling Job that if he would just start being righteous, his suffering would end. Bildad tells Job, "Look, God does not reject a person of integrity and he will not support evildoers" (Job 8:20), which was true, except that they thought enduring loss and tragedy was a sign of God's rejection. Job and Bildad didn't know that Job was suffering, not because he was a sinner, but because he was righteous. Bildad was sharing truths with cancer cells in them, he was telling Job lies that were almost true. But the real problem was that Job believed these lies! Job responded to Bildad, "Yes, I know what you've said is true, but how can a person be justified before God?" (Job 9:1, NLT). Sometimes, we can get so caught up in answering Job's question, that we miss the fact that Job believed the cancerous truths; Job believed the lies, and Job spent much of the next 30 chapters wanting to make his case to God that he really is righteous, so that his suffering will end.

At least part of the reason that God allowed Job to endure all of this loss and tragedy was that God needed to kill those cancerous lies. God needed to expose the lies that had wormed their way into the truths Job believed - both for Job and for us. So, God brought Job face to face with, both, his own suffering and his own righteousness, until the lie was finally exposed as a lie. It was painful. It was agonizing. And, in the end, God did move on Jobs behalf to restore his home, but Job had learned the truth that a person's righteousness doesn't mean God is going to restore things right now. Too many people believe the lie that, if you are a righteous person, God will restore things right now, that if you live like you are supposed to and have the faith you should have, God will bless every area of your life right now. Too many of us, like Job, believe these cancerous truths, these small lies within a larger truth that require God's own version of chemotherapy to kill.

What cancerous lies have you allowed yourself to believe, lies that are mostly true but with just a lethal bit of falsehood added in? If you want to avoid going through spiritual chemotherapy, study God's Word diligently so that the lies come to light on their own. Maybe you can catch the lies early, before they have a chance to spread.

Asking for Trust While Lying Through Your Teeth

Suggested Reading: Matthew 28:1-15

One of the frustrations of the political season is that, unless you completely tune out all forms of media, you have to listen daily to public figures asking for our trust while lying to our faces. From every side during the political season we are lied to and winked at because people are more interested in winning and advancing their own ideas than they are invested in the truth. We're told one candidate didn't really help create jobs (just don't look at the first several years of his tenure, shh). We're told one candidate hated a particular group of people (just don't look at who he actually appointed, ok). We're told one candidate's "scandals" are all phony because there's no proof (just ignore the massive piles of evidence because they were collected by people from a different party).  We're given so many half-truths and outright lies, so much propaganda and spin, so many scare tactics and straw men, that it is hard not to become very angry all the time if you really pay attention. After all, the goal in politics is getting your candidate elected and advancing your political ideology. It's about winning, not the truth.

This tendency to sacrifice the truth for one's own gain is neither new nor confined to politics. We even see an example of it in Matthew 28. The Jewish ruling council had condemned Jesus for blasphemy and convinced Pilate to crucify him, even having an official seal placed on the tomb in which Jesus was buried. But when the soldiers guarding the tomb reported that Jesus had risen from the dead, complete with an earthquake and angel appearances, the priests and elders gave the soldiers a large sum of money and told them, “Say this, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole Him while we were sleeping.’ If this reaches the governor’s ears, we will deal with him and keep you out of trouble” (Matthew 28:12-14, HCSB).

At this point, the priests and elders should have been jumping for joy. Jesus really was the Messiah! God had answered the prayers of his people and sent a savior! They should have been running to Jesus and falling down before him begging for forgiveness. But instead, they disregarded the truth because it didn't fit their agenda and meant they had been on the wrong side. Sadly, they demonstrated that they were more interested in winning, in maintaining their superiority, than in the truth.

But before we start judging the priests and elders, we should take a hard, long look at ourselves. How often do we ignore certain facts because we don't know how to counter them and still be right? How often do we pretend scripture doesn't address a particular activity or attitude because we enjoy it too much or because quitting would be difficult and inconvenient? How often do we only pass on a portion of the truth because the whole truth would makes us look bad or expose our errors?

When we find ourselves engaging in these kinds of activities, we prove ourselves to be more invested in an idea, in winning, or in keeping what we have, than in the truth. As a result, we begin living a lie, knowing that we're wrong, knowing that we simply won't admit it. In the end, living a lie sears our consciences until we no longer care. And that should scare us.

Don't put your ideas, ideologies, politics or position above the truth. If we've been on the wrong side of an issue, it is better to swallow our pride and switch sides than to live a lie.

The Green Goblins of Willful Ignorance

Suggested Reading: Acts 4:5-18

In the Tobey Maguire Spiderman trilogy, Spiderman's best friend, Harry, was also the son of the first Spiderman villain, the Green Goblin. When the Goblin managed to kill himself in an attempt to get rid of Spiderman, Harry blamed Spiderman for the death. Even when Spidey shared the truth with his friend, Harry refused to let it affect his view of things. Not until Mary Jane, a girl both men loved, found herself in danger did Harry decide to accept the truth and fight at Spiderman's side to save Mary Jane.  One of the tragedies of the trilogy is the time that was wasted and the friendship that was ruined because one of its central characters refused to allow the truth to affect him.

In Acts chapter four we find another instance of this self-destructive human behavior. Jesus has already risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, and the disciples have begun teaching, preaching and healing in his name. As they are going into the temple one day, Peter and John heal a lame man and the entire city is thrown into a tumult. The high priests have Peter and John arrested and brought before them, in part because they are known as associates of Jesus, whom they condemned to execution. While deliberating how to handle Peter and John for healing a man in the name of the risen Jesus, they make an extraordinary statement. "What should we do with these men? We can't deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in the name of Jesus." (Acts 4:16, NLT).

The council acknowledges that a miracle has been done. In the verses preceding, they do not contradict Peter and John when they claim Jesus has risen from the dead. But the council doesn't allow the truth of the events to affect their view of things. Previously, they believed that no one could do miracles unless God was with that person, but when Jesus and his disciples came along, preaching something they didn't like, they chose to change their definition of the miraculous rather than admit they were wrong about Jesus.

We are often guilty of this same behavior. When the facts don't fit our own view of the world, we choose to ignore or reinterpret the facts in order to preserve our own opinions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the political realm. Whether Democrat or Republican, conservative or progressive, moderate or independent, it is often very easy to ignore or disbelieve the facts that don't promote our own worldview. And we don't confine our hypocrisy to politics. We play the same game when we stake our reputation on a misinformed opinion and choose to double-down rather than admit our error. We make wild accusations based on feelings or rumors and then refuse to apologize when presented with the truth. We cling to a poorly formed doctrine and claim the Bible passage which contradicts our opinion must not really mean what it says.  But as followers of the One who called himself the Way, the Truth and the Life, we must care more for abiding in the truth than for the being seen as right.

When the facts don't fit with our opinion, we must change our opinion. We can't afford to trade the truth for a lie just to save our pride.

When You Feel Like You're Under Attack

Someone I love is under attack by an enemy. I hate using that label, but when your actions place another person in a harmful position just to improve your own position, I don't know what else to call it. This "enemy" may be acting unintentionally out of ignorance and stupidity or it may be a very misguided attempt to cover his their shortcomings. I don't know. It really doesn't matter. Because when you are the person on the receiving end of mistreatment, when people are spewing lies about you, whether they ignorantly believe them or not, it hurts. If you are in that position this morning, I would like to pass on two things. First, ground yourself in the truth of who you are and what you have done and never back down from the truth. You are not causing problems if you stick to the truth -- you are exposing them. Second, I would encourage you to pray the following psalm and turn your enemy over to God. I'll let the psalm itself close out today's devo.

Psalm 59

God Our Stronghold

For the choir director:“Do Not Destroy.” A Davidic Miktam. When Saul sent agents to watch the house and kill him.

Deliver me from my enemies, my God;

protect me from those who rise up against me.

Deliver me from those who practice sin,

and save me from men of bloodshed.

Lord, look! They set an ambush for me.

Powerful men attack me,

but not because of any sin or rebellion of mine.

For no fault of mine,

they run and take up a position.

Awake to help me, and take notice.

Lord God of Hosts, You are the God of Israel,

rise up to punish all the nations;

do not show grace to any wicked traitors. Selah

They return at evening, snarling like dogs

and prowling around the city.

Look, they spew from their mouths —

sharp words from their lips.

“For who,” they say, “will hear?”

But You laugh at them, Lord;

You ridicule all the nations.

I will keep watch for You, my strength,

because God is my stronghold.

My faithful God will come to meet me;

God will let me look down on my adversaries.

Do not kill them; otherwise, my people will forget.

By Your power, make them homeless wanderers

and bring them down,

Lord, our shield.

For the sin of their mouths and the words of their lips,

let them be caught in their pride.

They utter curses and lies.

Consume them in rage;

consume them until they are gone.

Then people will know throughout the earth

that God rules over Jacob. Selah

And they return at evening, snarling like dogs

and prowling around the city.

They scavenge for food;

they growl if they are not satisfied.

But I will sing of Your strength

and will joyfully proclaim

Your faithful love in the morning.

For You have been a stronghold for me,

a refuge in my day of trouble.

To You, my strength, I sing praises,

because God is my stronghold —

my faithful God.

(HCSB)