Don't Shoot Ourselves in the Foot

_
Psalm 81 ended with a lament of God, regarding the rich blessings that He has prepared for Israel,

"...you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." (Psalm 81:16)

but sadly was not given because Israel "shot themselves in the foot".

Listen to the sadness in God when He proclaimed:

"..if you would but listen to me, O Israel!" (Psalm 81:8, 13)

Obviously Israel did not heed, and the rest...is history.


Psalm 78 clearly described what Israel did to "shoot themselves in the foot", and in doing so, disqualify themselves from the richness of God's blessings.

"a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
whose spirits were not faithful to him." (v8)

"they did not keep God's covenant
and refused to live by his law.
They forgot what he had done,
the wonders he had shown them." (v10-11)

But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
They willfully put God to the test
by demanding the food they craved. (v17-18)

for they did not believe in God
or trust in his deliverance. (v22)

In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
in spite of his wonders, they did not believe. (v32)

But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
lying to him with their tongues;
their hearts were not loyal to him,
they were not faithful to his covenant. (v36-37)

But they put God to the test
and rebelled against the Most High;
they did not keep his statutes.
Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless,
as unreliable as a faulty bow. (v56-57)

Stiff-necked, stubborn, disloyal, unfaithful, disobedient;
quick to forget God's blessings, His miracles and goodness.
Rebellious, wilful, quick to put God to the test.
No fear of the Lord in their hearts.
Disbelief, unbelief in God's provision and deliverance.
Desires material pleasures above the Presence of God.
Untruthful in heart and deed. Flatterers.
Unreliable.

It is the same today. God wants to bless us.

"For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor;
No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless." (Psalm 84:11)

Problem is always that our walk is far from blameless, because we keep repeating the mistakes and the sins committed by the Israelites.

But it need not be.

The choice is ours.
_

Lest We Forget...

King of my life, I crown Thee now,
Thine shall the glory be;
Lest I forget Thy thorn crowned brow,
Lead me to Calvary.

Lest I forget Gethsemane,
Lest I forget Thine agony;
Lest I forget Thy love for me,
Lead me to Calvary.

Show me the tomb where Thou wast laid,
Tenderly mourned and wept;
Angels in robes of light arrayed
Guarded Thee whilst Thou slept.

Lest I forget Gethsemane,
Lest I forget Thine agony;
Lest I forget Thy love for me,
Lead me to Calvary.

Let me like Mary, through the gloom,
Come with a gift to Thee;
Show to me now the empty tomb,
Lead me to Calvary.

Lest I forget Gethsemane,
Lest I forget Thine agony;
Lest I forget Thy love for me,
Lead me to Calvary.

May I be willing, Lord, to bear
Daily my cross for Thee;
Even Thy cup of grief to share,
Thou hast borne all for me.

Lest I forget Gethsemane,
Lest I forget Thine agony;
Lest I forget Thy love for me,
Lead me to Calvary.
_

Exploiting God

_

I believe it is in our fallen nature to desire to exploit; to maximize our gains, while aiming to minimize the effort and resources that we need to put in to achieve those aims.

We see it most clearly in the business world. Employers demand “best in market” performance from their staff. Anything less is unacceptable. Just meeting targets is deemed a failure. “Exceeding expectations” is the new acceptable norm.

Yet when it comes to rewarding their staff for their “best in market performance”, few employers will venture to pay “best in market” salaries to their staff. Instead, they try to “benchmark” to the industry, so that salaries always stay near the mean of (usually below) the industry standards, in the name of staying “competitive”.
But everyone knows the real reason:

Get the most from your employees….while giving back the minimum -

Exploitation.

Employees of course are not without blame in this area. All workers want high salaries and bonuses, as well as quick promotions. Yet not all are willing to put in the hard work to achieve the performance to warrant them. Many want the “short-cut” to success. Get the promotions and high pay in the shortest time. Find ways to put in the least effort, and yet give the impression to bosses that they have achieved the most. Never mind that you are not adding real value to the organisation.

Get the most from your employer….while giving back the minimum -

Exploitation.

I think many of us also carry this mentality into our relationship with God. We want the best out of our faith: assurance of salvation, forgiveness of sin, spiritual and material blessings galore, so that we can live the “good life” while on earth (which unfortunately also includes gratifying our desires, sometimes sinful ones), and at the same time assured of our eternal destiny.

But is that what the Christian life is all about? What about nurturing our relationship with our Heavenly Father, so that we grow to desire Him more than any other thing on earth? What about a lifetime of faithful service in His Kingdom, to serve and to make His Name known? What about a life of obedience and sacrifice, so that the Name of Jesus will be glorified?

My guess is that many of us are not so “hot” for the latter. Why? Because that requires hard work, discipline, sacrifice and obedience from us.

So we want the best from God…while hoping to give back to Him as little as possible -

Exploitation.

I believe God has our lousy attitude in mind when He wrote Galatians 6:7-9.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Who are we deceiving? Do we seriously think God will let us get away with our attempts to exploit Him?

Or perhaps we think that since we already know Him, He will close an eye and go easy on us? Consider 1 Corinthians 10:1-10 and think again:

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.
Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry." We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

Think again.

_

Cost of Upholding Principles

_
This period of fasting from TV and computer games frees up time for me to pursue a childhood hobby that I have dropped for years - reading comics!

My favourite? Marvel Comics' Ultimate X-men and DC's Batman; because the underlying themes mirror real life. I like it when I can identify with the characters, especially with their struggles to uphold the right principles and values in the midst of the ugliness of human behaviour which is so prevalent in the world.

One of the common themes is choice: that there are a choice in how we respond to the injustice, pain and persecution that the world throws at you. In X-men, this is repesented by opposing camps lead by Magneto and Prof. Xavior. The former, after being put through the Nazi Holocaust and decades of persecution and rejection by fellow men for being different, decided that enough is enough. He will respond by leading his mutant troops to conquer mankind, destroying millions if necessary. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Prof X, on the other hand, endures the same treatment from his fellow men. Suspicion, rejection, persecution. He probably has the same "right" as Magneto to retaliate against those who persecute him and his X-men. But he chose not to. Instead, he trains his students to use their mutant powers to protect mankind regardless of the cost, believing always that it is the right thing to do, and that working towards reconciliation with mankind is the only way. Violence against those who persecute you should never be an option.

Protect those who hate you, be prepared to lay down your life for those who persecute you. Sounds familiar? (see Rom 12:17, 1 Pet 3:9)

The moral high ground, living by lofty principles. No one really denies their value, or the fact that they are the ideals that man should strive towards. The problem is always that in the face of the ugliness of reality, will people still hold on to those principles and ideals, especially when it comes at a high cost to oneself?

I thought this was so clearly illustrated in the Batman comics. Police Commisioner Jim Gordon, with the help of Batman, have the unenviable task of maintaining law and order in dark Gotham City....manifested by murderous maniacs like the Joker, Mr Freeze, Two-Face among others.

Criminals who, for all the deaths they cause and the atrocities that they commit, will always escape the death sentence, because legally they are considered "mentally unsound". Even when caught and pronounced guilty, the only thing that the law can do is to lock them up in Arkham Asylum.

Unfortunately, they have broken out and escaped so many times... to go back to their atrocities. It would be so tempting for Jim and Batman to rationalise that in these cases, "for the greater good of mankind", it is alright to take the law into their own hands and kill these evil men the next time they have the chance. After all, think of the lives that they will save. Aren't they doing everyone a favour?

But our heroes know that the law and their principles need to be upheld. If they rationalise that they can take the law into their own hands by playing judge and jury, they will not be any different from the criminals that they try to apprehend.

And the price they paid to uphold those principles

(1) The Joker escaped and killed Jim Gordon's wife.
(2) The Joker brutally killed Batman's partner - the 2nd Robin (Jason Todd)
(3) The Joker again shot and paralysed Batgirl - Barbara Gordon, who is also Jim Gordon's daughter.

Yet our heroes presevered and pressed on, in many instances tempted, but always reminding themselvees not to do things that they will regret.

"Raise them to our level, don't sink to theirs."

Sure. these are but fiction. But I believe I do learn some biblical principles from them. I keep asking myself, if my world were to come crashing down around me today, will I continue to hold on to my Christian values? Or will I succumb to the pressures and revert back to the ways of the world. Will I repay evil for evil, especially in dealing with people who hurt me and who hate me?

The more I reflect on this, the more convinced I am of how far I am from truly having God's heart and God's character. I need to be reminded from His Word:

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matt 5:13-16)

In other words, raise them to our level...don't sink to theirs._
_