The Cure for Loneliness

Hosea means "salvation". Hang on to that because it will be important in a sec. Hosea was instructed by God to marry a harlot. Upfront he was told that she'd be a slut and would cheat on him, leave him, and treat him like a fool. So did Hosea waiver in his commitment to God? Did he waiver in his commitment to his bride? Hosea was a Psalm 1 guy too and he did as he was divinely instructed. But what was it going to be like?

Now put yourself into the story and visualize it. You're marrying a prostitute. Today you could get your TV show for doing that, but this is back in the day when you could kill your bride if the sheets weren't stained to prove she was a virgin. The wedding's over and you're alone with her. She's telling you all those private words that only married partners exchange. But does she really mean them? After all, how many times has she said these words to somebody else? Does she really love you or are you just a client who's paying with a commitment instead of cash? Despite your questions, you still love her. You embrace and kiss her, touching and caressing. As your hands caress your new bride, you realize this same territory's been used and abused by many before you and God's told you many more will use her shortly. As you undress and reveal yourself fully to your bride, you have to wonder how you measure up to all that she's seen before you. Is she attracted to you or going through the motions? Do you feel cheaper because you were pure and virgin before her and she's sold out a long time ago? And all this is your honeymoon, the best that you'll have with her.

This is what I've brought to the table with God. He married me and adopted me into His royal family. He did it knowing that my character was totally against everything He stands for and my actions showed it. He married me knowing that on the same day I accepted Him I 'cheated' on Him many, many times. And daily I still do. Even when I try my best, which is rare, I fall so far short of returning to Him an ounce of what I've been given. My actions cheapen Him. They don't honor Him like He deserves, and I make Him look foolish in my attempts to play the faithful spouse while living my own secret life in my so called dark corners of the world. I'm His Gomer.

God told Hosea to marry a harlot to symbolize how Israel, God's chosen people, had forsaken their marriage to God for the lifestyle of a prostitute. God shaped Hosea into a messenger that personally knew the pain He was experiencing by the rejection of His bride. Hosea was obedient and wemarried Gomer. They had three children and we can learn so much from their story.

First, our actions always bear fruit. In the case of sin, they have consequences. The eternal consequence is death. In marriage, infidelity is the death of the relationship. So as creatures of God, infidelity to Him carries the cost of death. Sin had earthly and immediate consequences too that often lead us down a slippery slope of even more sin, that takes us further away from God and into more loneliness.

Hosea and Gomer's first child was a son named Jezreel, after a city in Israel. Jezreel was a wicked place and place where the Israelites had dishonored God and been unfaithful to Him. The fruit of their sins was war and bloodshed at Jezreel. Like a wandering spouse seeking pleasure, the Israelites that that their adultery would bear no fruit other than pleasure really bore fruit that turned out to be bloody and disgraceful.

God cannot act contrary to His holy nature. His nature is without sin and therefore He cannot tolerate unchecked sin. He promised Isreal, through Hosea, that He would avenge the bloodshed at Jezreel. God's nature is also love. As a God of love, He cannot stand idly by and watch us do things that are spritually destructive. Like it or not, we can be assured that God will intervene in our lives because of His great love for us and to protect His great name which we bear. Sometimes this intervention comes in the way of discipline as Israel was about to find out firsthand.

The couple's second child was a daughter named Lo Ruhamah. Now this story is dead on about loneliness. Sweet little Lo Ruhamah's name translates to "No Mercy". Yikes. Do you see a pattern that would make you feel loneliness? The first child is the embodiment of God's judgment and vengence. The second says a whooping is coming - "No Mercy". God was halting His mercy towards His people and transitioning to discipline. Not good for the home team. God was about to take something away from Israel very precious to them in order to get their hearts to turn back to Him. He was going to all them to be destroyed as a nation.

In my life I've tempted God many times by banking on His merciful character and seeing how far I could push the limits. Painfully He'd allow me to eventually crash into the consequences of my actions and have to come face to face with the fact that I turned my back on Him and invited His judgement. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever rolled the dice to see how far you could stray without getting the heavenly smack down? What does God want to see changed in your life, and if worse came to worse what would He have to take away from you to get you to surrender your will to His?

Now another thing about litte miss "No Mercy" - she was a girl. Long before Hosea was living the dream with Gomer, God promised Abraham that his decendents would be more in number than the sands of the sea and the stars in the skies. But now because of the people's unfaithfulness, they have a daughter. Scripture says in Hos 1:3 that "she bore him a son". But in reference to "No Mercy" it says in 1:6 that "she conceived again and bore a daughter". So it hints that this may not be Hosea's child. Regardless, a daughter means that the fruit of her family will be whatever is drawn into her from the outside, not like a son who is a continuance of his family. In other words, if God were to allow "No Mercy" to be the fate of the whole nation, then the Jewish blood line would stop with her brother. Worse than just stopping, the line would be corrupted by the horrible offspring that comes from their intermarrying and he husband would be force to bear even more consequences for his wife's infidelities.

You see if God's mercy were to stop, we would be unprotected from the reproductive nature of the consequences of our sins. Instead of forgiveness and restoration, we'd be forced to reap what we sowed. It's a horrible cycle that we began with Adam and Eve and we inherited it from our parents. There's no cure from within. Remember sinfulness is a daughter, only able to receive and birth what comes in to her. Our only solution as sinners is to become the bride of Christ, to receive Him, and to bear His fruits. Without Him, we can generate noting of ourselves to save ourselves. (Eph 2:8&9)

Gomer also nursed "No Mercy". The Bible makes a point to point this out. What happens when a mom nurses? She is feeding her daughter some of herself. We have been nursed by sin. David said, "...in sin my mother conceived me...". During nursing, especially with God's mercy removed, the daughter could only receive what her mom was - adulterous, unfaithful, untrustworthy, selfish. "No Mercy"'s life was then a picture of Israel's future without God's mercy and protection - a spinning, escalating cultureof self-indulgence, adultery, adn wothlessness. Our lives are the same apart from Christ, and likewise, the future of Americ rest in this truth as well. Our survival as a nation depends on it.

Something else amazing happens to a woman who is nursing. She is unable to conceive. It's nature's birth control. God had promised Abraham they would grow and prosper as a nation, but now they were frozen in this picture of Gomer and her daughter. They were unable to conceive, to give birth to a way out. Until God's mercy is present in your life, through the acceptance of Christ as lord and savior and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you are unable to conceive any other future except "No Mercy".

Wow, well after Gomer weaned "No Mercy" she conceived and bore another son. His name translated "Not My People". This child reflected the condition of God's people and their lack of relationship with Him. God's people had strayed sooooo far and rejected Him deeply. He couldn't call them His people. Their land was filled with idols and their behavior was an abortion of God's plan for them. Was this the end of the line then? DId God scrap his covenant with Abraham? Were the people doomed?

No. God is faithful even when we are not. (Thank God) Unfortunately, the restoration meant discipline from God, which is painful. In fact it began around 725 BC and the dispersion that resulted from God's discipline has still not 2, 732 years later been fully regathered to their nation. Unbearable. What would your reaction be if your preacher next Sunday passed out a list of all your sins and then spoke about all he was going to do to you to eradicate this sin and resotre the relationship?

This kind of discipline sounds no good at all, but its essential to end the loneliness of separation from God and to survive as Christians. For a better explanation take a minute and read Hebrews 5. The Bible says that those who are undisciplined by God are not real children of His but bastards. Sounds hars, but it's true. Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. I knew a man who used to quote this verse a lot. He'd tell it to his son before he was about to wear him out with a good old fashioned whooping. He'd say "Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines" and then he'd say, "Boy, you're about to get some loving". For the people of Isreal, they were about to get some loving and it utterly rocked their nation apart and has caused grief for generations. But there will come a day when their redemtion is complete and God's promise is completely fulfilled and none of them will trade it for anything.

In Hos 1:10-11 and 2:1 we see that God is good and His mercy endures forever. Psalm 136 tells the story of the Jewish people and all the miracles God performed for them. Every other line says "His mercy endures forever". I choke up every time I read this. In my life, I can write all the things I've done, and immediately afterwards I see where "His mercy endures forever". I'm so grateful for that. I encourage you to take some time and write the major events of your life out, and follow it with "His mercy endures forever". And no matter what part of your story is yet to be unfurled, it will follow with "His mercy endures forever". In Hosea's life, he saw first hand his nation disentegrating. He saw his wife make a whore out of herself. He lived a lonely existence. And yet in his life he heard the voice of God! He heard His plan. Did you catch in Hpos 1:10-11 and 2:1 that all would be restored? Bad Jezreel would be redeemed. The people would be called "My People" and be shown "Mercy". Restoration - what a cure for loneliness.

In Hosea 3:1-5 we see that God tells Hosea to love his wife once more. He's to love her even thoush she's humiliated him, had sex with many other men, bore their children, been sold into slavery. Could you love again after that?

How far can you get from God and still feel like He'll come for you? Man, Satan wants you to believe that you can get away from His love. He'd love for you to feel unworthy and unloveable. God's instructions to Hosea were a picture of what He does to seek us out in our worst conditions. Despite how we've disappointed, how we've sinned, and how we've become captive to our sins.

Hosea bought Gomer back for a huge price. One that took great sacrifice on his part to pay. Can you imagine Hosea standing in the crowd, bidding for his wife in the middle of that crowd, knowing that everyone around him knew that she was a harlot and he was her husband? Can you imagine how Gomer felt as she stood naked and ashamed on the bidding block, then seeing her husband in the crowd bidding to win her back? Can you imagine her shame changing to love and admiration as she sees the face of the one who knows all her sins and bore all the consequences for them raising the bid and digging deep in her pockets, sacrificing everythign to get her back? She saw him determined to make sure that nobody was leaving that day with her but Him. She was meant to be his all along and today was the day that he was sealing that in. Isn't this an awesome picture of how God sacrificed His son to buy us back? His Son put pride aside to redeem us, to make sure that nobody owned our souls but Him. He knew we were meant to be with Him all along and He gave everything to put it back to the way it's supposed to be.

"Father, thank you for loving me so much that you bought me back from the loneliness of my sin and shame; for staying with me knowing that I'll run again; and for planning to take me back before I've taken the first step to run away. Thank you for chosing love for me over your right to destroy me. You amaze me beyond words. "

Alone or Lonely

Six billion people walk our planet and yet more people complain of loneliness than just about any other social ill. How is that and why are Christians as affected by it as everyone else? This week we'll look at what it means to be alone. Is it possible to be alone and not lonely? Let's take a look at Hosea and Gomer. One was alone and not lonely, the other was surrounded by lovers and miserable. Let's see why...

Imagaine being with the love of your life. You've finally found that secure, awesome story book you've been searching for. This is the person you know God wants you to spend the rest of your life with...and that's awesome with you because that's exactly what you were hoping for. You've made plans together. The wedding date is set. Invitations are sent. Gifts are trickling in. Your checking accounts are merged. All aspects of your life are now intertwined. Your existence is the other person. All you do or plan to do in life involves this love of yours. Everything you've ever hoped for is finally happening. The dream is becoming reality...

...till it starts becoming the nightmare. God tells you that this love of yours is to be a slut. Yep, a slut. Cheating on you. She's to humiliate you. She'll have no secrets about it either. Who she sleeps with today is tonight's gossip at the dinner table. Wherever you go, people see you as the slut's husband. Some people mock you for marrying her and putting up with it. Others feel sorry for you like you were too stupid to pick a faithful woman or too poor of a person to make a woman want to stay with just you. You repel people because your situation makes them so unfortable. So in the middle of the most crowded street, you know you're alone.

But are you lonely? After all God told you this was going to happen and if God does something it's always for our good. Would you feel alone knowing God's plan was unfolding? Well the "Alone but not Lonely" guy is Hosea and the "Definitely Not Alone, but Lonely" gal is his wife Gomer. Let's take a look at Hosea chapters 1-3 to see how to beat this battle of loneliness.

I think it all boils down to this: Away from God = Loneliness. Whenever I've felt lonely in my life, it was at times that I'd strayed and wandered, when I wasn't spending time with God and wasn't listening or obeying. And the times that I felt God's presence the closest were times that I was isolated, but I was close to Him and felt a myriad of emotions and none of them had an ounce of loneliness in it. That's it. James 4:8 says "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." You can't go wrong with that. Hosea 1-3 shows how Hosea was abandoned by his wife but was inside God's plan, and Hosea was victorious while the nation around him turned into ruins. Gomer on the other hand was in the arms of a lover every night, sometimes probably many times a day, yet her life was falling apart. It's all about the relationship with God. So are you alone or lonely?

Manesseh and Ephraim

Ever watch that TV show "The Wonder Years"? It's a show set in the 1960's where young Kevin Arnold lives his teenage life under the narration of an older and of course wiser Kevin Arnold talking about what the experiences meant to him and all he learned from it. From teenage crushes to fights with his brother, the wisdom of life oozed from older Kevin in every cheesy episode. Often I wish I could look at the here and now with through the eyes of the older and hopefully wiser me that's down the road. Right now we're in the wonder years of life where God is actively working, preparing and perfecting us for the eternity to come where we'll look back with wonder on all He's done.

In all areas of life, what we do now clearly sets the stage for what we'll experience later. Scripture bluntly teaches that "What a man sows, that he will also reap". In this our second week of studying how to live the Forward life in our families, we have to examine what we are sewing now that will manifest itself in our families later. Let's do this by examining Joseph to see how his choices bore fruit in his family later.

Goofy analogy time: Marriage is like an airplane. Whatever luggage you carried into the airport is going on the plane with you. Marriages dissolve everyday because one or both in the couple thought that something carried into the airport wouldn't show up on the airplane. Bad habits, character traits, and priorities all hop right into the overhead bins. Wives all over the world hope that today is the day their sports addicted husband finally turns off the TV, looks at his adoring bride and says "Honey, let's talk". Meanwhile, men worldwide wait for their controlling women to suddenly have an epiphany, turn to their husbands and address him with the respect and honor he's been craving since their first date. There's nothing magical about the wedding ceremony that strips away one's habits, traits, and personalities. What you and I decide today gets packed in the suitcase and rears its head again in the lives of our marriage and parenting.

And what do families today struggle with today? They struggle with trustworthiness, temptation, and fidelity. I think nearly all of the problems a couple faces can be categorized into one of those three. Joseph dealt with all three and over came all three of them with flying colors. Let's take a closer look at how he did what he did and how we can apply it to our marriages.

First, Joseph was trustworthy. Genesis 39:2-6 states just how much Joseph was trusted. Potiphar purchased Joseph to be a slave. Now let's take a commercial break. I don't know about you, but if my brothers tried to kill me, some dudes purchased me to sell as a slave, and then I was turned into a slave, I'd be really tempted to start taking matters into my own hands and escape. The minute no one was looking I'd bail. But we know Joseph lived like he knew God had a plan for him. He didn't panic, didn't take charge and didn't try to escape. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Instead of doing things the way most of us would handle them, Joseph gave his boss his best. Like Daniel, Joseph was a Psalm 1 kind of guy. In Gen 39:2 we see that God prospered him for being a Psalm 1 guy. Joseph was a tree planted by rivers of water. And like we explained in earlier posts, Joseph reflected that "life existed" where he was, and that was about to be very important to the Egyptians.

So how do we prepare for marriage like Joseph? What do we pack?

The first "suitcase" we need to pack and take to the airport is trustworthiness.

Trustworthiness is a prized commodity these days. Employers pay huge money for employees with a proven track record of loyalty. In today's economy employees jump ship whenever anything doesn't go their way. In marriages people convince themselves that "I deserve better" and bail all the time. Still millions more live a deceitful life in the shadows bad mouthing their employer and cheating on their spouses. People are untrustworthy all the time and they steal from their employer. Being lazy on the job is stealing. Taking office supplies, using company property for personal use, gossiping about other employees, distracting other employees, and just plain goofing off is all robbing your employer of what you were hire to be trustworthy accomplishing. People will smile at their boss while typing a scathing email about them at the same time. Same goes for marriages. Find someone trustworthy and you've found a treasure.

Joseph was trustworthy before he became a slave. His father trusted him. In fact, his brothers tried to kill him when Israel had sent Joseph out to check on his brothers to see if they were where they were supposed to be.

You can't be trustworthy unless you first recognize that someone has authority over you and that you are accountable to someone. Joseph recognized his earthly and heavenly Father's authority over him. He also recognized Potiphar's authority over him. Since Joseph was a slave against his will, he was trustworthy to Potiphar largely because he was accountable to God for his actions. It was for this that God prospered him.

Joseph was so trusted that Potiphar was only aware of the food on his plate. All of his other affairs he relinquished to Joseph. Once again Joseph reflects Christ. We are to cast all of our cares on Him because He cares for us. And thus his first suitcase is packed full of trustworthiness.

How do you pack a suitcase full of trustworthiness? By being trustworthy now. We reap what we sow says the Bible. The Bible says to have friends we must be friendly and a friend loves at all times. So like Joseph we've got to live like we know God has a plan and show ourselves to be trustworthy with even the most trivial of commitments.

The next suitcase Joseph needs to pack is robustness. Dictionary.com defines robust as:
1. strong and healthy; hardy; vigorous: a robust young man; a robust faith; a robust mind.
2. strongly or stoutly built: his robust frame. Right on. You and I need to be strong, healthy, and vigorous and we need to be strongly built to withstand the storms of life. Remember the parable of the two houses? The house that survived was planted on a robust foundation - the rock. If we want our families to survive and thrive we need to be robust.

How was Joseph robust? He proved his strength and hardy faith by continually resisting temptation. We know that his brothers hated him. Perhaps part of the reason is because Joseph was so resilient. Joseph was too busy being faithful to be hanging out with the gang goofing off. And those habits paid off when he was working for Potiphar.

Remember in Psalm 1 that we are not to sit in the seat of the scornful? Often crisis and bring us to our rear ends and suck the fight out of us and convince us to just pop a squat and complain. Crisis can tempt us with a sense of entitlement. Jesus was so tempted when he was in the desert. Satan tried to sucker Jesus into a sense of entitlement where Jesus would have used his Holy appointment for unholy purposes. Crisis can also bring out the scorn in us by making us want to play the role of the victim. The book of Job paints a pretty thorough picture of one acting like he's been picked on by God. Finally crisis can tempt us into living like cowards in fear. Peter repeatedly let fear motivate his actions and not the focus on God's plan for him. Fear drove him to look away from Jesus and sink when walking on the water. Fear drove Peter to deny Christ three times. Fear put the disciple in hiding after the crucifixion.

Amazingly Joseph didn't allow the crisis of his upside down world to make him succumb to temptation. The more powerful Joseph became the great access temptation had to him. Yet when Mrs. Potiphar put the moves on Joseph, he had the strength - the robustness - to run away from her. Joseph was "strongly built". His character was so strong that he had the wisdom to know where to draw the line between being subject to authority and to resist temptation. He worked for the Egyptians yet chose immediately to disobey when Potiphar's wife told Joseph to "Lie with me".

Right away Joseph knew where his loyalties were and was faithful, trustworthy, and robust. To whom was Joseph faithful? First he told the woman about how much he was trusted by her husband, but made it clear to whom he was accountable in Gen 39:9. "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" Joseph's priorities were straight. The chain of command in his life was clear. And he was robust in obeying and resisting temptation.

It couldn't have been easy. Potiphar was "the man". He was captain of Pharaoh's guard and his officer. He was at the top of the ladder and food chain. He could have the pick of the litter and I'm sure his wife was a smoking hottie. These guys got what they wanted after all. And day after day Joseph carried out his duties and the Bible says that Potiphar's wife longed for Joseph and she tried day after day to get him to sleep with her. But Joseph was resilient to the point of fleeing naked when she grabbed his robe. Though his robe wasn't packed in the suitcase, his second suitcase was full of robustness.

So hasn't Joseph reached his baggage limit yet? He's got one more suitcase to go. The final one we all need is fidelity. Fidelity is faithfulness to the original. In marriage, fidelity is being true to your wife - your original lover. In recording, fidelity is a measure of the degree of accuracy in how well the duplicate matches the original. In patriotism, fidelity is an allegiance to your country. Joseph's final suitcase was stuffed to the brim with fidelity.

In Scripture, for whom are we practicing fidelity? Christ of course. Truth itself is defined as "fidelity to the original". That's so cool because Christ said He is Truth. He's the original and that's consistent throughout Scripture. John 1:1 says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Christ, the Word that put on flesh and dwelt among us is the original, the first and last, the alpha and omega. He's worthy of our unwavering loyalty.

Joseph gave his unwavering loyalty. He gave it in his family life with his siblings. He gave it in his slavery. He gave it in the face of temptation and in the loneliness of prison. No matter how bad it got or how far away from God's plan it seemed, Joseph stayed faithful to the original. How faithful was he? Let's take a look.

To recap quickly to keep this all in perspective, Joseph was hated by his brothers, thrown into a well, stripped of his father's gift, sold to be a slave twice, and now he's been imprisoned under false pretenses. He's not in an American prison with cable TV, a law library and a GED program either. He's in an Egyptian dungeon. Not cool.

Yet Joseph took it all so well and remained trustworthy, robust, and full of fidelity. So much so that the captain of the prison guard turned the joint over to Joseph to run. Here's Joseph in this miserable predicament and you've got to wonder how much time he spent thinking back to his childhood and recalling the dream he had. That dream...poor guy. What if he'd never told his brothers and father about it? That whole chain of events wouldn't have been an avalanche around him, spiraling downward and landing him in this Egyptian prison. In prison, all signs around him point that his dream is way off track and just isn't gonna happen.

To add insult to injury, two of the prisoners Joseph was responsible for had dreams that really troubled them. And how did Joseph respond to them and to God? Joseph was....(pause for effect)...faithful to the original! He instantly directed them to God the Author of prophetic dreams. Two significant things happened in Joseph's response upon hearing about the dream problem.

First Joseph directed them to God. With his own dreams not even close to fulfillment, Joseph hadn't lost faith or fidelity. He was totally bold in directing the men to forward their concern about their dreams to God. This means Joseph had no fear about God's faithfulness to fulfill His promise, otherwise he wouldn't have put his reputation on the line with them by telling them to trust God with their dreams. What a faithful guy.

I've had one moment in life like this and I'll never forget it. In an earlier post I talked about being consumed by a problem. It was destroying me physically, mentally, and emotionally. Yet spiritually after hitting rock bottom my strength began to grow. I prayed hours every day just for solace, passing out from exhausting and fatigue from hunger. One such night I fell asleep on the couch and I was awakened to what sounded like something crashing onto the roof of our tiny 900 square foot house. It was one of those noises that take you from a deep sleep to wide awake in an instant. And in that instant I heard the calmest most assuring voice say "Don't worry. It will be over by Sunday." Saturday night this personal hell ended just as God had told me it would.

When a dream or message comes like that to you from your loving Father, it gives you the strength to hold on, to press on, to not let go. Joseph held on through thick and thin. People around him knew he was faithful and that's why they trusted him. That's why the Cup Bearer and Baker trusted him with their dreams too. In crisis people seek guys like Joseph out.

Second Joseph said "tell them to me please". This says to me that Joseph never stopped being close to God. It's one thing to tell someone you'll pray for them. It's a whole new level of boldness to say that you can tell them the meaning of their dreams. Yet without hesitation, Joseph did just that.

Joseph thinks he might have a ticket out of jail now. He got a promise from the Cup Bearer for help in getting out. But once again Joseph's life takes another lick. Joseph spent two more years in prison. Then Joseph was summoned to talk to Pharaoh about his dreams. In all Joseph was asked to give the Lord's interpretation for four dreams. Joseph was faithful to God every time. A man whose own special dream was seemingly further from fulfillment than when he first had it, was consistent through the years. Anger, resentment, and bitterness never crept into his heart. Joseph's final bag was packed.

With his bags packed, Joseph was ready to watch God work. Joseph acted wisely as God's plan unfolded. He acknowledged God as the source of his abilities and Joseph acted in full obedience to God's plan while faithfully carrying out his responsibilities in it. Joseph set the example for nations to follow. His obedience preserved Jew and Gentile alike through the worst famine the world had known to that point. The Egyptian gratitude for Joseph set the stage for the Israelites to flourish in Egypt and grow into a mighty nation. The practice of saving 20% of your food was carried on for generations. Joseph's actions transformed an unrepentant family into a reconciled repentant one. Joseph was a world changer.

And what did Joseph's bags do for him once he got on the airplane of marriage? It's a beautiful thing. Joseph married and started unpacking his luggage. Do you think this is where the terrible childhood haunts his marriage? Is where the abuse he endured from his brothers makes itself known? Not a chance. Joseph's trustworthiness, robustness, and fidelity to God bore fruit. His first son was named Manesseh and his second son was Ephraim and they sum up the story of Joseph perfectly. Joseph was a Psalm 1 guy because his life reflected Christ. And what does Christ bring into your life, no matter how bad it was? Manesseh and Ephraim - "Forget the Past" and "Double Fruitfulness".

Family Feud

Remember that show Family Feud? Richard Dawson used to host it and two families would battle it out, trying to answer questions about what people surveyed answered to questions. It seemed like on every episode, three of the five family members "got it" and gave decent answers to the questions. But there was always one who was waaaaay out there. I mean the question would be "Name something you wet before you use it", and most people will say something like "toothbrush" or "comb". But the clueless one would say something like "bird". Then they'd get to the final round and be asked several questions in 30 seconds and still would answer crazy. "Name a color" and they'd answer "bird". Richard Dawson would always crack up at these crazy responses that people gave under the pressures of being on TV. Well today we're looking at the life of Joseph and how his family handled the feud between Joseph's brothers and their father. More than any institution in America today, the family is broken, even in so called Christian homes and hopefully today's lesson prepares you to deal with the challenges of family life in America today.

The story of Joseph is pretty common. Cool coat, funny dream, jealous brothers, deep hole, skinny cows, and family reunion. But there's so much more to the story. Just like in all of the Old Testament, we can see Christ within the account. Just like Christ, Joseph had a divine destiny, was the most loved of his father, rejected by his own, innocent but punished, his actions completed the plan to save the people from something they could not have saved themselves from. And that's how we are to move Forward in our families - by reflecting Christ in them. Anything short of that is missing the point.

So how do we reflect Christ is our family? First we are to live like we know that God has a plan for us. In Gen 37 Joseph lived as one who knew God had plans for him. Joseph relied only on the love of his father. Shouldn't we do that too? He knew his brothers hated him, but out of respect for his father he lived peaceably with them. Joseph told his brothers about his dream. He wasn't afraid - God had plans for him. He wasn't cocky - it was God's idea after all. He wasn't fakely humble - God had a personal plan for him. Joseph reflect Christ in his family by living as one with a divine destiny, living with purpose and a focus beyond the petty arguments of the here and now.

Joseph's family was chewed up from the floor up. Jacob, Joseph's dad, literally means "deceitful". A fitting name considering how he took advantage of his brother Esau to get his birthright and how he deceived his own father to get the firstborn's blessing. Jacob wanted to marry Rachel but got a dose of his own deceitfulness when Rachel's dad tricked him into marrying Leah. Not only did he have two wives, but they were sisters. He loved Rachel and as for Leah.....ahhh, not so much. Sounds like a Lifetime movie. Jacob had four sons with Leah and so the sister demands kids or death. But she can't conceive and makes the wild decision to give her maid to her husband to sleep with. So then Leah got jealous and gave her maid to Jacob. Then he Now for the sons. So we have four moms, two of whom are sisters. Zowie. That's too many chiefs for me. Do you think there were some jealousy and hyper sensitivities in that family? Then there were the sons. They hated Joseph and set him up to die, lied to their Dad, and Simeon and Levi went on a killing spree.

Why so dysfunctional? Jacob wasn't living like God had a plan for them. God had promised Jacob that He'd honor the promise through him that was made to his father and grandfather. If Jacob had lived the plan, he wouldn't have needed the maidservants as a way to help God's plan get started. After all, Jesus was from the lineage of Judah, the child of Jacob's first wife. But Jacob, like so many of us, felt like he had to act and like Adam, heeded ungodly counsel.

Why is the story of Joseph so powerful? Because I think we can all see elements of our own families in it. And if we want to overcome and move Forward in our family life, including our future families, we need to know how to act like Joseph and persevere in tough times. According to Scripture, there's no indication that Joseph knew of the crises that were about to befall him. Yet when they came, he never asked why God wasn't being faithful, why he'd been forsaken, or how evil man had screwed his life up. He kept on keeping on. Even when many opportunities existed for him to escape, he stayed where he was planted. He was a finisher and it set the stage for him to be the glue that would ultimately save his family and many others.

So it seems to Joseph's brothers and father that Joseph is a done deal and he's dead. Jacob mourned terribly for Joseph. The Bible says he mourned for a long time and swore to go to his grave mourning for him, and the others were unable to comfort him. Some love they had for dear old dad to see him mourning that badly and never confessed to cheer him up. If they had confessed, it could have cost them dearly - their father's love, the attention they were finally getting with Joseph gone, their inheritance, their father's blessing. So they were selfish and pretended to comfort dad all the while concealing the truth. If we want to reflect Christ in our families, we have to acknowledge sin, at the cost of ourselves, and be crucified to ourselves for the sake of others. But this dysfunctional family didn't know how to do that yet. God was still working on them. In fact, take a minute and compare Jacob's grieving to that of David in 2 Samuel 12:14-23.

So without repentance the feud continues. The stage is set for the sins of the father to be visited on the children of the third and fourth generation. We'll look in the next post at how Joseph lives boldly, contrary to his family, and the results he gets for it.

Staying on the Job

From the last post you can see that Daniel was definitely qualified for the job. But how would he perform under the pressures of working for such a violent boss? Did he have what it took to stay the course? And do we have what it takes to stay the course?

A few months ago Ben Lenz was doing a series on commitment. To illustrate the point about little we value commitment these days, Ben asked every at Crossing to stand and remain standing as he called out the number of jobs they've had. We were to stay standing till he called out a number that exceed the number of jobs we've had. Well the last person (who was in his twenties) sat down at 24. He'd had 24 jobs in his short life time. Amazing.

What testimony do we give our friends, boss, and fellow employees when we change jobs as often as we do socks? What does our level of on the job commitment say about the God who is supposed to drive our actions? Does our God bail when the tasks are boring, unrewarding, mundane? Did Christ ever do anything that was beneath Him? Did he follow every offer of better pay, benefits, hours, or job title? Did you know that Christ had only one job - he was a carpenter. He was a faithful employee. Man, I bet His work was exquisite. Imagine being the craftsman down the street who had to compete with that. Yikes.

God wants us to be good employees. One of the hardest tasks facing employers today is longevity of employees. Guys keep jumping ship at every change in market conditions and employers are doing everything they can to keep their best ones. My close friend Miguel was a phenomenal friend and right hand man on the job. He was the First Sergeant in Fox Troop, 1/16 Cavalry Troop. I was the commander. Though I out ranked him by position and title, he was senior to me in both knowledge and experience. Yet he was incredibly faithful to me. If I said it, he echoed it. If I said do it, he got it done - on time, on budget, high quality. Not once, not most of the time, but every time. He never back stabbed - though he could have. He never complained - though he'd been justified. He was faithful. Here's the kicker - he did all this knowing that he wasn't competing for promotion because he was retiring from the Army. He gave more in his last few months before retirement than some gave in their best months. Do you think it surprised me to know he was a believer? Not at all. For his faithfulness at work, we became friends after the Army, and years later stay in touch, praying for the other's family. Now he works for a defense contractor. And you guessed it...they love him. Why? Because he was a Daniel type of employee.

Daniel was consistent too. It took three years of training to get the chance just to interview for the position of service to the king. Daniel could have taken the attitude that he wouldn't give his best to an unsaved, ungodly boss. He didn't. Daniel's consistency in training and more importantly attitude got him the king's blessing. King Nebby found Daniel and the boys to be ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who worked for him. And Daniel chapter 1 ends with "Thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus."

Daniel's consistency carried him through three years of training. It carried him through the turbulent reign of Nebuchadnezzar. He was consistent through the reign of Nebby's son Belshazzar, King Darius, and into the reign of King Cyrus. And what was the payoff? For Daniel, he lived an amazing life. But it goes far far beyond that. Daniel got to see his terrible boss declare the majesty of the one true God. He saw God's power demonstrated again when God snuffed out King Belshazzar's arrogant rule. Daniel experienced divine rescue from the lion's den at Darius' hand and saw Darius declare that Daniel's God ruled and that all men should tremble and fear before Daniel's God.

Am I having that kind of impact on my employer? Are you? That's what God wants. His desire is that none would perish but that all would come to repentance. Daniel was a Psalm 1 guy, knowing what true success meant. Daniel 6 ends by declaring Daniel a Psalm 1 guy - "So this Daniel prospered..." Time for us to do the same.

Qualifications for the Job

We've spent two weeks of the Forward Bible Study class learning about how God wants us to live boldly and who we are in Him. This week's focus is on how to live "Forward" at work. Regardless of where you work, there will be times when your work and faith will collide. What we do now will determine how we'll respond when the collision happens. As we learned last week in Psalm 139, God saw our substance (our character) before we were even born and He fashioned our days for us before even the first one of them began. We know that God has placed hedges around us to protect and grow us through a host of experiences. We also saw that God is active in our lives, personally active, from conception to the grave. All aspects of our character - whether derived from our nature or nurture are His handiwork. He's examined us and loves us despite the influences of sin upon us.

All that sounds great. I love it. On Sunday it warms my heart and spurs my soul. Then Monday comes and it's off to work again. Is it just as true on Monday as it is on Sunday in my life? That's the real test of the Forward life. How do we express our faith in Him for Him in the Monday morning world? For most of us, that means expressing Him at work. Let's look at Daniel, a man who definitely showed us many examples of how to live for Him at work.

If, as we've learned so far, that life isn't about us, then it's just as true that our jobs can't be just about us. Our purpose in work is not be a business man who's a believer, but to be a reflection of how God operates in the business world. So whatever job you do can't define you. Our role is to reflect the nature of Christ in our workplace. How did Daniel do it?

In Daniel chapter 1, we see that the kingdom of Judah was captured by Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar. We know that Nebuchadnezzar (let's call him Nebby for short since I'm a terrible typist) wasn't a follow of the Lord. In fact he permitted the raiding of the Temple and had the sacred relics brought for worship for their gods. Next old Nebby asked asked one of his chiefs to select some of the best men Israel had to offer for service to the king. Based on Dan 1:4 it sounds like Nebby's plan was to indoctrinate these hand picked men into his way of doing things in the hopes of passing the Chaldean culture onto the captured Israelites. So far he sounds like a great boss.

Daniel was one of these hand selected young men. The king appointed over Daniel a master who would be responsible for their training and development for service. Right away Daniel's faith comes into collision with his job. The king thought it would be good for his servants to have a slice of the good life. To enjoy the best education, the best wine, and the best food. Normally such a gesture is made to gain the trust of a perceived enemy. But regardless of Nebby's reason, it conflicted with the Jewish laws of diet.

Daniel spoke up. OK, let's set the stage since all the know the story. We know Daniel spoke up. We know they went on the Daniel Diet of veggies and water. We know it worked. Yippie for Daniel. But there's more to it. This boss of Daniel is the king. Not just any king, but ruler of the known world at this point. The same guy who just starved out your fellow countrymen until they were too weak to resist his armies. The same guy who raided the Most High God's temple and stole the holy things from it. This guy booted Daniel from his homeland. So would most of us have the courage to sound off about what was on the menu? But Daniel was a Forward thinker. He know his decisions now would affect things later and he wanted them to be Godly decisions. He was a Psalm 1 guy and knew the cost of heeding ungodly counsel. So he spoke up about the menu.

Daniel has a down right evil boss with lost men working in the positions of authority. But Daniel was firm about the little things. He was exhibiting in his work the things of his faith that made him strong. And he wasn't a jerk about it either. Often Christians complain about being "persecuted" at work. What a joke. Most of us don't even have the faintest idea of what real persecution is. What some call being persecuted is really just them being ostracized for being a jerk at work about their faith. I've heard stories about people being "persecuted" for reading their Bibles during the work day. Really? Your boss isn't paying you to read your Bible. He's paying you to work. Work is time to live out what's in the Bible. Imagine Bret Favre pulling out the play book to read on the field in the middle of the game. Too late guy, those millions you're getting are for putting it into practice. Same for us as Christians. People who are lost don't give a hoot how many passages we can quote, how many Christian CDs we have, the Bible on our desk, or how many ministries we're involved in if we're a lousy employee. You want to reflect Christ at work? Then be a faithful top-notch employee who gets the job done without complaining, without excess supervision or follow-up, without cheating or hurting the customer or other employees. Be on time with a positive attitude. Do quality work. Don't make your boss fix your mistakes. Give your boss more than he's paying you for. Go above and beyond. Be a blessing to your boss. Pray for him, the company, the other employees and your customers. When we reflect Him at work like that, maybe then people might get curious about knowing how we came to be that kind of person.

Daniel was that kind of employee. In fact Dan 1:9 says God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. This word for favor is the same that was used to describe Joseph when he worked for the Egyptians. God wants us to be good employees.

When you work for lost people, expect them to do things lost people do. In Daniel's case, his trainer wasn't too crazy about the Daniel Diet. In fact he was more concerned about his boss' affinity for killing people if Daniel's idea failed. Did Daniel preach at him for a lack of faith? No. Daniel expected his boss to behave like a lost person does. 1 Cor 1:18 says that the "message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing" and Daniel knew that to reach him, he had to meet him on his level. So Daniel proposed a 10 day test. This wasn't a compromise from Daniel, but it was Daniel meeting the other man at his level with his fears and concerns and practically showing him God's truth in a way that would strip away those fears.

Daniel said please. Daniel offered a Godly course of action to meet his ungodly boss' need. Daniel wasn't afraid of accountability. Daniel recognized the man's authority over him. He didn't call him stupid, incompetent, didn't turn the other employees against him. The result was better than even Daniel expected. Because Daniel was a faithful employee and believer, his boss allowed Daniel to obey his diet. God rewarded Daniel and his friends with knowledge, skill in all literature, and wisdom. To Daniel he gave understanding in all visions and dreams.

What was so special about the things God gave Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego? They were all things that the king (their boss) wanted them to know so they'd be fit to serve him. (Dan 1:4) The king's qualifications for the job were wisdom, knowledge, language and literature. God wants us to be qualified employees. "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

Identity Theft - Prized Possession

When something's valued, it's protected. We watch our kids and never take our eyes off them. Our important papers are locked away. You keep your keys and money on you all the time. You lock your car when you park it. We protect computers with passwords. We raise up barriers around the things in our lives that we want to protect. We hedge them in just like the Father does for us in Psalm 139 verse 5. Scripture says we're hedged behind and before. It makes me imagine farms in Europe back in the early days. Estates would be protected with enormous hedgerows. They'd let small game in but would keep other predators out. It channeled people to where you wanted them to go. It protected privacy. And they did all this without making their wealthy owners on the inside feel imprisoned by their own doings.

Christ treats us as valuable. He gave us this kind of liberty. Scripture says the Lord has placed His hand upon us within the hedged space of our lives. We're free to move under the watchful hand of God. We're protected. We're safe. What He's built around us let's in exactly what He wants and filters out what He doesn't. So I can know that if it crosses my path, I can handle it because He permitted it. When I'm tempted, frustrated, defeated, sad, prosperous, or any other vulnerable time I can rest in knowing that I'm sheltered by His love and care. What's in my path is only there by His permission. Scripture promises us that we won't be tempted beyond what we can bear and not only protected but liberated. We're free from the law of sin and death. We're free to make choices, not enslaved to sin. We're free to be intimate with the Father, not banished for sin and guilt.

But what about when we fail? What about when we don't listen and do our own thing? What if we really screw up and have sex outside God's plan? What if I get involved with substance abuse? What if my words turn to fear or hate or greed? What if I don't measure up? Satan wants you to believe that once you screw up you're done. Oh there are little things that you can do, but as far as great things for Him - you're done. It was enough to drive Judas to suicide. Thankfully it's not about us. It's about His greatness. Verses 7-12 elaborate on the inescapability of His presence. His presence is love since He is love. So whether I am in the glories of heaven or the pit of the grave, the depths of the ocean, the darkness or the light, His love is solid even when my location in reference to Him is not. There's no place too far away from His love. Sound familiar? Romans 8 says we can live forward, boldly because "we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels or principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

My first assignment inthe Army was to a unit just a few miles off of the border of North and South Korea. My church threw a going away party for me before I left and the interim pastor asked everyone to pray for and lay hands on me for my protection. I was nervous about flying 18 hours around the world to a foreign land. The pastor prayed for God to make His presence known when I got there and for comfort and bravery. After the long flight over, we arrived in Korea late in the evening and were promptly escorted to a hotel for the night. Early the next morning I got up and went to have some breakfast. I bowed my head and prayed for a second and when I opened my eyes, a Major was sitting across the table from me. He said "I was across the room doing my quiet time and I felt the Lord telling me I needed to come over and talk to you." Wow - I was in the country about 7 hours and this had already happened. I had the opportunity of interacting with the Major for many hours travelling to our assignment and through that experience I quickly learned that there was no escaping God's presence and power. I knew I could be bold and at ease and didn't worry about what was going to happen while I was there for the the next year because God was in control.

I imagine Jonah inside the belly of the fish soul searching and the words of verse 9 giving him peace and comfort "and if I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me and Your right hand shall hold me." Do you think he was saying to himself "These words were written for me!"? The same is true for us. They were written for you for Him. It's not about us. It's about His nature and so we should embrace Him and yield to His divine leadership in our lives no matter where it takes us. So get up, be bold, take chances, dust yourself off when you fail. Your Father values you enormously and has plans for you.

Identity Theft - Fully Insured

Now they sell insurance for identity theft, as if it's some sort of consolation for losing your identity. I guess the idea is that you can have a few bucks back if your sense of self gets stolen. Nice consolation.

Well in Christ we're fully covered from identity theft because He lovingly took the time to break down for us what it means to be me. Thanks to Him I can know what my true capabilities are and what my limitations are. I can find out what my source of energy and hope is and recharge when drained, conquer when challenged, and die content and victoriously.

Psalm 139:1-6 lays it out for us. It begins "O Lord, You have searched me and known me". Who knows us? God does. How? He took the time to search us and get to know us. Isn't He busy creating a new galaxy? Or answering a mother's prayer? Or welcoming someone to their eternal home? Did you get what God did? He personally searched me and you. Not a casual glance either...this word implies an intimate examination, like you would do for something precious and valuable. Value. Precious. God didn't send an angel to do this. He didn't send a mighty wind to shake our true character out. He did it personally. Thanks, Lord.

Isn't it amazing that God didn't get to know us last? I mean if everyone knew me....REALLY knew me, they wouldn't want anything to do with me. Yet that's the first thing God does in this chapter is to REALLY get to know us....and He stays. What a beautiful, secure thing. It totally debunks Satan's lies that we have to present a certain persona and appearance or we're not worthy of getting to know.

In verses 2-3, Scripture tells us how God knows our sitting down and our rising up, He's acquainted with everywhere we go to and fro, and He knows all our ways. It paints a picture. He knows our down and up (sitting & rising), and our left and right (He knows our paths). And He knows all the directions in between those cardinal points. It paints a picture of being completely known, in every dimension, in every level. He knows our thoughts...before we do. Since He knows our thoughts, He also knows the words we'll speak before we do.

What's the "so what" factor of all that? Being known that well, that thoroughly and still being loved speaks volumes about who God is. Isn't that what we're all about - to reflect Him? Right on. I can be known, as I am, without trying to hide in the garden under some leaf. I can present warts and all to Him and then let Him pour out his glory on me in the form of grace and mercy. It's empowering. When I screw up. He already knew before I did. And stayed ready to offer Himself for me.

Why else is it important? If God did not know us this intimately, then how could He have placed ALL of man's sin on His son one time to pay for all of us past, present, and future? He knew what our sins would be in ancient times long before our births. And created us anyway. He knew we'd reject Him many times before accepting Him, yet sent His son anyway. He knew that under grace I'd still sin and stray, and offers more grace. He knows us completely. He's all-knowing. He's supernatural - operating outside the constraints of time. Since this is true God was able to "lay on Him the iniquity of us all" even those not yet born at the time of Christ's death. Of course Satan doesn't want you to know this.

In verse 4 it says "behold, O Lord, you know it altogether". This name for God refers to the unchanging nature of God. Cool. He knows me completely and still doesn't change His attitude towards me. Satan wants me to think I'm unlovable and unworthy when I fail. He loses again.

How can Christ, the Word made flesh, be the perfect Savior without knowing me altogether? Thankfully He does. In fact, "The Word of God is powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart"(Heb 4:12) And we have no say in how well He knows us. "And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

Can we see Christ in Psalm 139? Absolutely. This intimate knowledge of me that reveals my every flaw makes me disqualified for relationship with my Holy Lord. I'm stuck forever without a way to access Him. The law makes me unable to get to the Holy of Holies. I can't access the High Priest. I'm stuck and damned. But the Father took this intimate knowledge of me and examined me, saw my need in eternity past, and planned for my rescue and redemption. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest that cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore boldly approach the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."(Heb 4:14-16) No wonder the first section of Psalm 139 ends with "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it."

Father, thank You for taking the time to know me and for personally examining me and studying me. Thank You for loving me enough to send Christ to pay my penalty and for doing that despite seeing all my flaws and sins ahead of doing that. Thank You for being an unknowable God, too infinite and majestic for me to figure out, explain coherently, and sum up in a few paragraphs. You are too wonderful for me. I love You. Amen

Identity Theft - Truth and the Counterfeit

Someone's tried to steal your identity! Can you believe it? You've heard of identity theft and what happens when you leave your credit card statement lying around for anyone to swipe.

Have you seen those credit card commercials where it shows the victim of identity theft talking about all the things they bought but the voice isn't theirs? The voice is always some wildly mismatched voiceover of some thief who stole the real owner's identity and is using their card to go on a spending a spree. Unfortunately it happens all the time.

Well you and I are victims of attempted identity theft too, just another sort of theft and the consequences are a lot more costly than the commercial's.

We continue our study of Psalm 1 and Forward by taking it a little deeper and examining who the Bible really says we are and how that compares to what you and I are bombarded with every day. Remember in Psalm 1:2 how it says the blessed man is one who delights in God's law and mediates in it? Remember how we also talked about how the definition of truth was "fidelity to the original"? This lesson is all about how truth applies to who we are in God's eyes and how we need to meditate and delight in what God thinks about us to overcome the message of the world. By sticking to the Truth, we can find out our true capabilities, our true limitations, and eliminate needless fears and concerns and move "Forward" in our pursuit of living boldly for Christ.

Do you know how agents who work for the Secret Service counterfeit division are trained to spot counterfeit currency? Believe it or not, they never study the fakes. They spend their time studying, meditating, on the real deal. They spend so much time and effort getting to know every nuance of the original, that when presented with a fake, it jumps right out to them. That's a good spiritual lesson to learn too. Let's devote ourselves to studying the original, meditating on it, and delighting in it that the Deceiver won't stand a chance because his plans will be so easily spotted.

So what are the fake messages the Deceiver is pouring into your life? Let's look at evolution first. Over the decades the Deceiver has poured lies into the world to make man believe he is little more than the next step on the evolutionary ladder with his closest cousin being the apes. Innocent enough many believe. Really? Can you believe that you are an accidental development from a primordial soup of creatures and think that you have real value? For the evolutionist to state that species evolve from one another and thier origins are not divine, is to rob creation of its verify identity - image bearers of the glory of the Creator. Not so subtle after all. Is it then any wonder that once the evolution fable was accepted instead of the truth that the abortion issue would so easily arise. It's a lot easier to kill an accidental offspring of an ape's cousin than to murder the hand-crafted reflection of God Himself. If we can boil man's existence down to something manageable in a petri dish, than there's no need to worry too much about the morality of what we're doing to a bunch of cells in a dish. This same extrapolation can be made of the debate over homosexuality and gay marriage. If man is not a product of his Creator, than it would be possible for homosexuality to be genetic and to void the laws of God. If we're not subject to the anything other than our species, then it's easy to see why gay marriage seems like a viable option. Once we begin listening to the absurdities of the Deceiver, we get all kinds of crazy ideas like harvesting stem cells from embryos created solely for their stem cells, or so called mercy killings, that marriage isn't sacred, cloning ourselves so we'll have spare parts later when we need them, it's ok to abuse our bodies and minds with substance, and on and on. Dangerous.

On a personal level, there are still more lies we'll believe. I have to behave a certain way to be liked, I'm only as good as what I do for a living, I have to meet certain measurements to be beautiftul, When I'm bad God no longer likes me. Pastor Bill Lenz used the analogy last week about a $20 bill that was yelled at, crumbled up, stepped on and stomped on, and told it was worthless. When it was picked up and unfolded, it was still what it's creator said it was - a $20 bill. The problem with many of us is that we often spend ourselves short of what our Creator designed us to be. Remember the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin? You probably don't because it came and went in one year in 1979. Why didn't it stick around? Nobody liked it because it looked too much like a quarter and everyone kept confusing it with one. You and I have "One Dollar" stamped across us, but as Tony Evans said when I first heard this analogy, "we spend like chump change".

It is this deception about self that made Eve think she wouldn't really die if she ate of the forbidden fruit. It made Adam think his sin could be covered with leaves. It made Moses think he couldn't do what God wanted because he wasn't a good speaker. It made 10 of the 12 spies checking out the Promised Land believe their ability to conquer was tied to their physical size. It made Peter believe that he was incapable of denying Christ. It made the rich young ruler go away sad when Jesus told him to sell all he had and give to the poor. He thought success was tied to financial gain. The Deceiver wants us to get hung up in the natural world and its limitations. Satan hopes we never come to realize who we really are by God's design, because when we do there is nothing we can't do through Christ who strengthens us.

Even seen those circus elephants that just kind of stand around and never take off? Amazing isn't it? Those enormous beasts could trample cars and people and just about anything they wanted to, yet they stand around docile. Why? When they are young and tiny they are shackled with huge chains anchored deep into the ground. They are so heavy the young elephant has to exert enormous energy just to move inches. Little by little this huge chain is replaced by smaller and smaller restraints, until...you guessed it...all that holds them there is a tiny rope. The elephants are conditioned to think they can't move, can't get away. They are shackled by their own deception. What lies and deceptions has Satan tried to shackle you with? What enormous efforts have you abandoned because you think that you can't?

Well, the reality is that there is one truth - Jesus Christ. He was there in the beginning and involved in our creation in a personal way, and He speaks a message directly to you and I today that can propel us forward. Let's dive into Psalm 139 and find out what the Creator really has to say about us....and get our identity back!

That Kind of Tree

The central focus of the "Forward" Bible study is worshipping God by living boldly for Him. Psalm 1:1-2 tells us how to do that plainly and simply. Are you ready to look at what happens in your life when you live it out.

Psalm 1:3 says that the blessed man who follows verse one and two will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.

Well you've had a few goals in life, but I bet none involved turning into a tree. At first glance it sounds down right boring and plain. But at a deeper look reveals much, much, much more.

In the middle east, a tree is a prized possession. Water is scarce, the soil is rough, and a tree is treasured. When Jonah was wrestling with God over Ninevah, God sent a tree for him. A tree means "life exists here". That alone is pretty convicting. Does my life consistently say "Life exists here"? Trees indicate the presence of water, a place for rest, potential for food and shelter, and a known point from which to navigate. Travelling across the desert a tree in the distance means hope and relief.

The significance of the tree resounds throughout all of the Bible from beginning to end. In the beginning, the first thing God caused to grow was the tree. In His garden He placed the Tree of Life and promptly evicted man from the garden before he could partake of its fruit. What was once planted for us, was now off limits till Christ redeems nature itself. In fact this same tree is seen again in Revelation 2:7 when Christ tells us how to be able to eat of the fruit of the tree of life in the future. Is it any wonder then that Christ died upon a tree for us?

The blessed man is like a tree because in today's world a tree is a survivor. A tree overcomes. First it overcomes because it is planted by rivers of water. The blood of a tree is water. Without it dies. With it, it can withstand nearly anything. Why must a tree be planted by rivers of water? It needs continual feeding. You and I can't survive as spiritual people with the occasional rain shower or flash flood of water. We are designed to be plugged in to the Source of Life - the Creator. We can't dabble in Christianity. We can't be Easter or Christmas Christians. We have to be plugged in.

Christ is our source of that living water. In John 4 Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well and begins telling her about Himself. He tells her she needs living water by explaining to her that whoever drinks the well water will get thirsty again, but whoever consumes Christ will never have spiritual thirst again. The water that Christ gives will be in the believer a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

When we are like the tree plugged into rivers of water, we have the indwelling Christ continually renewing us with His living water. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:16 "Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day". If you slice a tree open you can see its rings and the thickness of each ring tells whether the year was famine or properity. What do your rings say about you and how plugged into the river of life you are? Is this time a time of plenty or drought?

A tree planted by rivers of water brings forth fruit in its season. John the Baptist warned that every tree that doesn't bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. We said earlier that a tree was precious because those things needed to make it grow were precious - water, good soil. Water can't be wasted on a tree bearing bad fruit. Did you catch that John the Baptist didn't warn about unfruitful trees? We all bear fruit. The Word makes it clear what the fruits of the Spirit are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

Fruit is born in season says the Psalm. The seasons of our lives will squeeze out the fruit of what's going on inside of us. Christ within yields Godly fruit. Without Christ the pressures of life squeeze out the worst of desparate humanity - fear, selfishness, greed, lust, hate. I spent a year in Korea. It's called a hardship tour because you can't bring family and the living conditions are poor. With the hardships of the tour and the absence of family and accountability, many Soldiers resort to alcohol, prostitution and other indulgences to pass the time and null the pain of being alone in a dangerous part of the world. We used to talk about Korea being a magnigying glass - whatever you were before you came to Korea, the experience made you more of that. If you were a strong person, Korea gave you the chance to prove it and endure. If you were weak, it could destroy you. Such is true about the spiritual realm. When trials come, the fruits are the magnifying glass of what's within you...more precisely who's within you.

The blessed man has leaves that don't wither. When you're plugged into the living waters of Christ, can the heat of Satan's blows wilt you? Absolutely not. When others see you going through trials and pains, Christ within allows you to glow and reflect Him, not wilt and dry up and appear as defeated. When seasons come that are tough. Your outward appearance reflects His inner strength.

And whatever you do shall prosper. Really? Yup. If God's within, His fruit comes out. Does it come out for nothing to fall on the ground and rot. Nope. Isaiah 55:11 says, "So shall my Word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

Where do people go wrong on this whole prospering thing? The tree exists to bear fruit, provide shade, be pleasing to its Creator. It can't wander from its purpose in anyway and still prosper. Yet there are doctrines that wrongly say that you can have anything, riches, wealth, power, fame, prestige, healing, and more and claim verses like this as their base. I don't get it. We exist for God's purpose and glory. We must yield to that and when we do, He works in and through us, and that is prosperity. When the Spirit's at work in and through us, guess who isn't? Satan. And me for that matter. And that's victorious living. I am to be a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is my reasonable act of worship. Anything else is settling for medicrity and that's just not OK.

My Dad loves the story of three trees that were growing up on a mountain. Each would tell the other about what they wanted to be when they grew up. The first tree wanted to be made into a king's palace. The second tree wanted to be mighty sailing ship. The third tree just wanted to grow taller and taller and point to God. The day came when the first tree was to be cut down. He groaned in anticipation of his dreams of success coming true. "Now I get to become a palace for the king" the tree exclaimed, only to weep in disappointment as his only life was poured out to be made into a feeding trough for animals. It wasn't until the newborn King was laid in him that he realized his life was no waste at all, but that he'd been made a home for the King of Kings. The second tree was soon cut down as well and similarly anticipated sailing the oceans, carrying warriors to conquer lands for the king. Only to be dashed into despair as he became a stinky fishing boat reaking of sour water and spoiled fish. It wasn't until the Savior spoke from Him and slept on him and conquered the ranging sea did he realize his passenger was the King. Finally, and my Dad always tears up at this point, the third tree wept as he saw the woodcutters approaching to cut him down. "NO!! I just want to stay here and point people to God. Can't you understand that?" To no avail he was cut down and turned into a cross where his sorrow became nearly unbearable as he thought he went from glorifying God one day to a future of executing criminals and bearing their bloody corpses. Then he felt heavy as he realized the sin of the whole world was placed upon the man nailed to him and that on his cross was the King of Kings who took away the sins of the world and that the cross will forever point the way to God.

I love that story. In the story of the crucifying of Christ, there's an interesting nugget hidden within. The soldiers at the foot of the cross say in Scripture that they saw the earthquake. Saw an earthquake? The Christ on the tree could not be shaken. I want to be that kind of tree.

Should be like Christ, but I'm More Like David

Everything learned from Psalm 1:1 makes perfect sense, especially considering that David was a lying, manipulative, murdering, adulterer. But this was written before all of that, in his wordly innocence. But David's not the real author , it's God-breathed Scripture and as such was perfectly fitting for David the man who put it on paper.

I often make the mistake of reading Psalms as a book of poetry, but they are prophetic as well. To miss their prophetic meaning would be to miss their relevance to your life entirely. If I missed what the Psalms are saying to me personally then I might as well be reading a book of poems by Robert Frost.

Psalms says to me personally that a blessed life comes frist from avoiding wrong counsel, conduct, and communications. Pslams begins by telling me the key to a blessed life. Isn't it amazing that that the longest book of the Holy Scriptures begins with how we can be blessed? Psalms 1 is prophetic in summarizing all of human history and man's all - relate with God and be blessed beyond description. It's beautiful. This book doesn't begin with God's greatness, His judgment, our failures. They begin with "blessed". God was divinely unselfish when he breathed this divine work to David. Perhaps for David, God was foreshadowing how David would sacrifice the blessedness of his kingdom for the a torrid affiar. David walked in unwise counsel by taking deliberate steps to arrange his rendezvous with his lover. He stood in the path of sinners by drawing in others to help him carry out the affair. After all do you think it possible for a king to do anything unnoticed?

David's first mistake was to send his armies out to do battle and then electing to stay home, in the rear with the gear as we say in the Army. In those days every king, even the bad ones commanded their troops in battle from the battlefield. In fact, Saul, David's predecessor was famous for the thousand's he'd killed. for David to remain away from the battlefield was unconscienable. Psalm 1:1 says not to stand in path of sinners. Can one like David remove himself from accountability, be one of only a handful of fighting age men remaining, and not be tempted? 2 Samuel 11:1 practically mocks David for staying behind by saying "...at the time when kings go out to battle...but David remained at Jerusalem." No wonder his temptation hit him in the very next verse while David was on his roof and just happened to see a gorgeous woman bathing. Though Scripture doesn't say specifically, you have to wonder that this wasn't Bathsheba's first bath, nor was this probably David's first trip up to check out the view from the roof. 2 Sam 11:1 says it was spring time. I wonder if David had seen Bathsheba (or other women) the previous summer or fall, then waited till spring to arrange it where he could be on the roof alone. Now on the roof (his path) scanning around, he finds what he was looking for. He then grabs others to help bring her to him.

David knew in advance that she was married. David's advisors knew she was married, yet went and got her anyway. Sometimes the ungodly counsel we obey is the counsel that overides that which was nver spoken. Eve just told Adam to eat. She didn't tell him about that little conversation she had with the talking snake. Would have been important to me, don't you think? Of course Adam knew not to eat, but he chose instead to heed the ungodly counsel of his wife. If only Eve had spoken up. If only David's advisor's had spoken up.

David's sin began before he slept with another man's wife. It even began before he plotted to have her brought to his home. Nor did it begin when he lusted after her on his roof. It began when he arose out of his comfy bed in his comfy house while his men were on the battlefield. Had he been where he was supposed to be, where it was his duty to be, he'd been incapable of performing that series of kingdom altering events.

Had he just followed the directions of Psalm 1:2 he'd been protected. Psalm 1:2 says that the blessed man has his delight in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night.

Since David wasn't on the field of battle with his men, what was his action saying to God? To find out, let's look at an almost exact example.

After the Israelites were freed and it was time for them to go in and capture the land God prepared for them, the people got cozy and comfortable with the status quo. Well we know what happened. Moses sent 12 spies to check it out and only two came back saying it could be captured. The Bible says this aroused the anger of God and resulted in 40 years of aimless wandering until all the generation except for Caleb and Joshua had died.

Well the time again came for them to seize what God had prepared for them and this time two of the twelve tribes wanted to stay on the east side of the Jordan river while the armies of the other 10 tribes readied for war. What was Moses' response about staying in the rear during the battle? "Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?" (Num 32:6)

Moses knew the dangers of this unwillingness to wholly follow God. Moses called them a brood of sinful men that were about to increase still more teh fierce anger of God.

Chosing not to follow God is not just a lack of faith, nor is it mere cowardice. It's a slap in the face to God. It's spiritual conceit. It's saying "I've seen You orchestrate the thousands of events that have led to theis moment. I've clearly heard you say this is Your best plan for me, but I don't want it. Following You isn't worth leaving my scornful seat to grab what you've prepared for me.' No wonder God gets angry when we do that. The effects are a spritual double whammy too - we miss God's incredible blessing and then incur His anger on top of it. That's what David's decision to stay comfy did to him too. Only God knows who David would have married or what Israel could have been like had it not recevied the wrath of God on it.

The son David and Bathsheba bore was sentenced to die because of their sin. In fact, Scripture is huge about names and their significance and the meaning ascribed to one's name. What was David and Bathsheba's child's name? We don't know. Scripture doesn't even say. David missed the blessing entirely. Then God brought punishment by starting a bloody rift within his family and brought adultery into his family.

How did all this happen? By not delighting in the Law of the Lord and meditating in it day and night. Instead of starting his day with prayer and worship, David went on the roof to satisfy his eys. We can't avoud even as Psalm 1:1 says if we're not delighting in God's perfect law. The mind and soul always dwell on something and Scripture makes it clear that "As a man thinks, so is he."

So how do we delight in the law of the Lord? Psalm 119 is all about the excellence of God's Word and Law. The first action in it for us to do is to praise God. Shortly after that is memorizing Scripture; not rote memorization but hiding it in your heart. One of the most productive times of spiritual growth in my life was my most challenging. I was consumed by the problem at hand. It was eating me up. I couldn't sleep. Didn't want to eat. I was wasting away. I had to do something to distract my mind and began dedicating time to hiding God's Word in my heart by memorizing a verse here and there, until I had pages and pages of Scripture memorized. The ancient words began echo in my mind all the time. Instead of my problem floating up to my conscience, it was God's promises. I began to see life through the lense of these Scriptures and life began changing. I was soon able to advise people in similar circumstances using the counsel of these memorized words that aided me through my problem. It was a joy to meditate in His Word day and night because it transformed me through the renewing of my mind.

To meditate on God's Word you ponder it by talking about it to yourself. We can't naturally delight in God's Word. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to delight in it and understand it. When I tead the Bible and I'm just scanning words, absorning nothing, mind wandering, living unchanged, it's those times that I just pick up the Bible and read. I should always ask God to help me. Psalm 119:18 is a great verse to pray, "Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your Law." By delighting in His Law and asking for divine help, we can fulfill Psalm 1:1. Psalm 119:24 says that when we delight in His Word, it becomes our counselors, replacing the ungodly counsel of verse one.

Delighting in God's Word brings indescribable peace and contentment. For every event of life and every emotion there is Scriptural guidance. There is no topic for which the Word is silent. Though we will all experience pain and suffering, we will never be forsaken from God's love. Need a boost? Go to the Word. Need assurance? Consult your Maker. Feel alone and desparate? Delight in His Word and in His love.

One of the most stirring examples of one delighting in God's love is the song "The Love of God". The story says the poem was discovered upon it's author's death. He was confined to an insane asylum and had inscribed these words on the wall of his personal prison. Here's how he delighted in God's love:

"Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade.
To write the love of God above would drain the oceans dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure,
How measureless and strong.
It shall endure forevermore
The Saints' and angels' song."

This man knew how to delight in God's Word!!

So there it is - how to be a blessed man. Basic and simple. Many books for sale about self help are titled "9 Secrets to Happiness" or "12 Steps to Whatever You Want". Christ's way is perfect. He is the way, the truth, and the life. One Savior. One way. Christ says "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle, and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

God of the Guilty

Since we're covering the basics, let's start with the fundamentals of faith - God loves you immeasurably, we've betrayed God through sinfulness, restoration can only come through His Son Jesus Christ, life becomes purposeful and fulfilling when it is lived through faith in Christ.
Any life not grounded in these principles is doomed to an eternity in Hell at worst and only periods of deceptive happiness at its best.

True happiness - blessedness - comes only through the Father. In fact the Father sent Jesus to us for that very reason. Jesus made it clear by saying "I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly." So how do we have the blessed life? Let's look at Psalm 1 and the context under which it was written.

David, a man whom the Bible describes as after God's own heart, authored most of Psalms chapters 1 - 41. Yet though Psalms is one of the most treasured books of the Bible, there is a dark side to David. David's adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and the murder he plotted to attempt to legitimize it are well known. However there was a time in David's life before all that happened, a time when David wasn't yet openly condemned and his kingdom cursed. A time before his son was sentenced to death for his sin and his kingdom sentenced to ruin. Can you relate?

Many people today live life in failure, totally despondent. Still huge numbers of others live life in the margins, never venturing out to try anything bold for Christ because of their feelings of unworthiness. Most of these people trace this feeling back to a single event in life or a single period where they really blew it, and feel like life after that can only be OK at best. These poor people see life through their despondent lenses; looking at the news, witnessing terror, watching TV in their godless homes where their relationship with the spouse beside them falls apart, while godless children fray their last nerve. They see their problems, their addictions, and their woes as unsolveable quagmires and resign themselves to mediocre existences believing at least subconsciously that this is the best life has to offer. But for you, for me, and for them, there was a time when it just wasn't like that.

What event or period in your life can you trace this back to? What robbed you of your blessedness? What forbidden fruit cast you out of your Eden? Why do you feel God hasn't stepped in to help?

Here's something awesome about God's plan for you and me: John 1:1 says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Then in verse 14 it says that "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us". See most people view Christ as God's reaction to man's sin, but the Word - the complete Word, existed from the beginning. The arrival of Christ was the Father's plan from the beginning. Christ was the Father's proaction. It took man's sin in the garden for the revelation of Christ's full glory to be revealed. No lifeguard can ever become a famous lifeguard until he's saved someone from drowning. Similarly, the full glory of Christ could never be realized until He fulfilled His divine role as Savior. So does your sin confine you to a life of mediocrity or in the light of Holy Scripture does it create the opportunity for you to personally experience the full glory of Christ? Awesome!

So Psalm 1 contains the keys to the blessed life - avoiding evil influences and abiding in God constantly. You can't do one and not the other - they're mutually dependent. Satan thought he could do one w/o the other and the result was catastrophe on a scale the physical and spiritual world haven't seen since.

In verse 1 we are advised to avoid evil in its three forms. First we are to be happy by not walking in the counsel of the ungodly. All of us are bombarded daily with advice and advisors. Spiritual blessedness depends on only following God's advise. Sin, on the contrary, is a decision not to follow God's advice. All decisions are made from an internal struggle between the advantages and disadvantages of the choice we're considering. So when we walk in the counsel of the ungodly, we are exhibiting the ultimate lack of faith. All sin boils down to a lack of faith. Walking in ungodly counsel is a physical act that says, "God, I don't believe You and what you say about this." It's defiance and selfishness, and eternally dangerous.

Satan's choice, which he made for himself alone, changed the course of eternity forever. Six billion people walk the planet today under the influence of that supremely defiant act. Who does your choice to heed ungodly counsel affect? How many children are the result of heeding ungodly counsel? How many addicted souls became so from the choice to heed the advice of the ungodly? How many careers destroyed, homes wrecked, and churches split from heeding ungodly counsel? You can never say your choices affect no one but you. In fact, walking in ungodly counsel creates a path.

As a child I'd often visit the farm of my Great Aunt Gracie. Behind her barn was a downhill slope leading to my favorite hang out in the world - the creek. The cows on her farm weren't the brightest animals around but they did know how to walk. The knew food was at the barn on top of the hill and that water and pasture were at the bottom. Since cows aren't smart, you're really hosed if you're one of the dumb cows. At that point you're stuck following the "smart" cow in front of you. Every cattle farmer knows what I'm talking about and can visualize the paths that form on the farm from this daily feed and water cycle taking place. Sure enough on Aunt Gracie's farm was a singular path, worn to the bare dirt, just wide enough for one cow at a time, leading from the barn down to the pasture. Where has your following taken you? What paths have your decisions to heed Godly or ungodly counsel built for you? How do you get off of them?
The paths in our life clearly point to where we seek our contentment and happiness. Where do yours point? To the Bible on your nightstand, or to the bottle in the fridge, or a pointless relationship on the net? To the arms of your spouse or the comfort of a stranger? To a life walking in God's Word or a life of deception and mediocrity built upon a path of one compromise after another? The paths in our life can be found in the lingering words of our conversations, our checkbook ledger, our internet history, and the TV shows we watch. The trails we leave in life show where we place our faith. The Bible says we're blessed when our paths aren't the paths of sinners. So to begin being blessed, look down at your feet and see where you've let them take you.

Eve, in the garden, elected to walk in ungodly counsel. Her feet then took her to her husband who listened to her ungodly counsel, which caused their collective feet to go hide from God. Those two, Adam and Eve, in an instant, went from perfect people in a perfect universe to the pavers of the path leading to eternal death in a contaminated universe. The effect of their footsteps? A path of sin that caused their son to murder his brother. See, Cain followed the smart cow in front of him on the path laid out for him. Generation after generation lives out this cycle, prisoner to the high cost of acting on ungodly counsel. God warned when He gave the ten commandments that He was a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the father on the children of the third and fourth generations. What are your struggles? Alcohol? Gossip? Being critical? Divorce, homosexuality, work-a-holic? Ask your parents and you will probably see the paths of your struggles run through their lives as well. Need more proof? Look at Soloman, David's son. He took his father's adultery to a whole new level with over a thousand women. Look at Simon Peter who was scared and denied Christ. Who laid that path of fear for him? Jesus told him who when He addressed Simon as "son of Jonah", the one too scared to go where God had told him to go. Our iniquities are passed from generation to genaration until God, through Christ breaks that cycle by adopting us into His family.

One choice made wrong makes me and you a sinner. We've seen how one sin ripples through life like wildfire. Just one sin changed heaven and the hosts of angels. Just one sin changed man's lineage forever. Sadly, this doesn't surprise or even move most of us. In fact most of us are far beyond the one sin and more like the next part of Psalm 1:1 - we stand in the path of sinners. How sad! I know the effects of my bad choices, yet instead of seeing their painful effects and running from them, I did something much worse. I stood in the path.

Does an alcoholic get cured by standing in a bar or the assembly line at the brewery? Or can a gambler get cured by standing in a row of slot machines humming their tunes as they steal people's money? Of course not, yet we stand anyway.

Take a minute. That's all you need because you know (if you'll admit it), and look where you're standing. Does it match your biggest struggles? When we stand in the path of sinners we see, hear, think about, are greated by, and advised by other sinners. Every possible input into our lives is from sinners. Does it then surprise us that the fruits of that is more sin and failure?

What do your surroundings reveal about you? Who are you seeing and hearing from? What kind of counsel are they giving you?

A funny thing happens when you stand somewhere. You become part of the scenery there. Instead of being a rock that got thrown into a lake, you've been there long enough to become part of the lake floor. Why is our world so messed up? Because too many people have stood in the path of sinners and changed the landscape of our Father's world. Why is pornography rampant? Because people like us have stood in the path and made it part of everyday life...turning what once would be scandolous into simply what girls wear to school everyday. Why are teens confused about their sexuality? Becuase people like us have gone before them laying a path that makes premarital sex seem safe to travel, giving every TV show a token gay character that's attractive, disease free and charmingly unaffected by his / her choices. Why does half of all marriages end in divorce? Because the path of sin into our homes is littered with all the tools that make it so easy to happen. We pipe in garbage on TV, spend time in places to be tempted, don't filter our internet access, have no outside accountability, yet think ours will be the immune relationship to temptation.

When we park a car in the liquor store parking lot, our car makes the lot that much fuller and that much more inviting for the next car to pull in to. There are things the Bible permits us to partake of but we are to be wise in deciding if our permissions to indulge is worth the cost. Want to see our world change? Want to change your world? Then get off that path of sinners and make it a lonely road. Be a light on hill instead of another face in the crowd.

Notice that the Bible says "Blessed is the man who (doesn't)...stand in the path of sinners". It could have said "paths of sinners", but sin leads in one direction to only one destination - hell. In fact, much of Proverbs is about Soloman warning his son to avoid the ungodly counsel of adulterous women, sternly warning them to not stray into her paths because her house is the way to hell.

Every sinful choice is immediately followed by another opportunity - the opportunity to stop, repent and change, or the opportunity to continue to sin. No one can stand forever. They either walk away or pop a squat and sit right there where they've gotten comfortable. When you sit, you've made a commitment to inaction, a commitment to join the rank and file of the spiritual losers. Misery loves company and the decision to stay in your rut breeds contemptment and bitterness, as you view from your seated position the rest of the world passing you by.

This seated position is the final part of Psalm 1:1. We are told not to sit in the seat of the scornful. Who are the scornful? They are the contemptuous, disdainful, disrespectful, and mocking. Who woldn't be miserable in company like this? If you want blessedness, the Bible says to change the company you keep.

Too often we expect the other person to change. I think the most frustrated people I've ever met are those who are stuck waiting on someone else to change. We are powerless to change someone else. Only God can do that and only He is the one worthy to do it. But we can choose with whom we associate. Just as you can't stand forever in a path without becoming part of the scenery, neither can you sit and be unaffected.

All sin is disbelief in what God says. So sitting in a postion of mockery towards God is a recipe for disaster. By whom are you sitting? What mocking words are your collective voices and lives saying? Sitting in a seat of scorn is an act of judgment, looking down on those who are doing anything but sitting with you. If you weren't affected by walking under ungodly counsel or standing in the path of sinners, then you're in real danger of being in a judgmental seat, thinking you have it all figured out...or at least more figured out than those you know. Our scornful words of judgment push people away, make it harder for them to escape their path, and do nothing to get us up and moving again in the direction God wants us to go.

One of the funniest sayings I ever heard was "You should avoid using cliches like the plague". Well Psalm 1:1 lists all the things we really should avoid like the plague. Unfortunately, this is where most people stop. They just want to know the "rules" and then be left alone to follow them. Outsiders avoid church like the plague because they see how consumed we are with our arbitrary rules, like good baptists don't dance, and then they never hear the wonderful forgiving words of Christ.

It's time to admit, like David, we're guilty. God wouldn't have began His most inspirational book with it's first verse about what to avoid if we were mostly innocent folk. God is God of the guilty and until we own that, we're missing out on the blessed life.

Is following God all about obeying rules? Absolutely not. Every event and chapter in the Old Testament reflect their Author, the Christ, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. God spends time telling us explicitly about the rules, using them as a mirror to help us understand how desperately we need His Son. Psalm 1:1 merely sets the stage to help us grasp the central, resounding theme of all the Old Testament - what comes next! Christ came next and that opened the door to the blessed life.