Hosea 14 Prayer

My Father, I confess that going my own way has brought me down. I have suffered the consequences of trying to go my own way without You. So now once again I return to You. Forgive me of my sins and graciously receive me, so that I may offer you a sacrifice of praise.

Government programs can't save me, nor can my own strength or intelligence. Never again will I make a god out of anything or anyone else.

Thank You, Father, for Your love and longsuffering for me. I know that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate me from your love. Thank You for your complete healing of my faithlessness. You, O Lord, are like a refreshing dew from heaven!

Father, deliver me from evil, help me stay away from anything that competes with my devotion to You. You alone are my God. You alone are the One who truly looks after me and cares for me. Your paths, O God, are true and right.

Who a Leader Listens to

A leader must know who to listen to.

When Moses failed to come back down the mountain right away, the people went to Aaron. "Look," they said, "make us some gods who can lead us...." So Aaron said, "Tell your wives and sons and daughters to take off their gold earrings, and then bring them to me." All the people obeyed Aaron and brought him their gold earrings. Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded and tooled it into the shape of a calf. The people exclaimed, "O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt!"

- Exodus 32:1-4, NLT

Aaron had been chosen by God as Israel's High Priest. And yet he totally blew it. He was a leader who led the people the wrong way. His intentions may not have been bad, but he listened to the wrong voices.

As a leader, I have to be careful not to lead God's people to worship anything other than God! Regardless of how much people ask and plead and push--no matter what seemingly great ideas they have, I must not give in. A leader after God's own heart learns to listen to one voice above all the babble of human voices. A leader after God's own heart has spent enough time with God to know and follow his voice and lead others to worship and serve him only.

Some of those human voices will be very strong, and we will be tempted to listen to and follow them. Some will reverberate with reason and a certain power and authority, yet God's still small voice is more powerful to the leader after God's own heart. Some human voices promise popularity, power, position, and even prosperity, but the leader after God's own heart does not give in to them.

What "golden calf" have I made for the people I lead? Numbers? Buildings? Organization? Programs? ? The success of my church or ministry or group? Is it time to stop, ask for God's forgiveness, and turn back toward the one true God?


Oh, Father, you have called me to leadership in your church and I want to follow you because I know your voice! Amid the babble of all the other human voices competing for my attention, I desire to hear your still, small voice loud and clear. As a leader after your own heart, Father, help me to stay true to you and your way so that I may lead people to worship nothing and no one else but you.

Mountain Climbing Dangers, Decisions, and Devotions

I feel a need to comment on my own post from February 24, "Just to Be Close to You." I wrote that devotional based on Exodus 24 where Moses and the Israelite leaders climbed the mountain and worshiped God.

There is a danger here if you read too much into this. Even as I wrote it I tried to be careful not to use language that would sound legalistic, performance-based, or pressure-inducing. Climbing the mountain to be closer to God can sound that way. But that is not the spirit of Exodus 24 or my devotional post.

"And the Lord said to Moses, 'Come up to me on the mountain.'"

- Exodus 24:12

I was reading John Eldridge's February 2010 newsletter the other day in which he discusses the pressure we put on ourselves in our love affair with God. I love his story of a woman whose desire and love for God became duty and pressure. Eldridge goes on to say:

All the things we are called to do – to pray, and sacrifice, and help others – all of it is easy when it comes out of a love for God. But pressure is sneaky; it works its way in here, too, doesn't it? You’re not doing enough. Let us remember then that, “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). You are deeply and profoundly loved. As this seeps in, it releases us from guilt and pressure and frees our hearts to love God in return.

The point of my original post is that we allow things in our lives to keep us at a distance from God: our attitudes, decisions, indifference, etc. But God is always inviting and drawing us closer to him. He loves us, as Gary Thomas recently reminded me in a Focus on the Family newsletter, with an "Anyway Love," not a "Because Love." Yet, we must respond to this love, and that takes action, hard decisions, sacrifice, and surrender. It takes climbing the mountain to be with God. All of that is easy when it comes as a response to God's love for us.

Father, I know you are always inviting me, drawing me, closer into a more intimate relationship with you. And that is my desire. Lord, so take away the the things in my life that are obstacles to me coming closer. Thank you for loving me first, with an unconditional, "anyway" kind of love. My desire is to be in relationship with you, and then, Lord, to be a leader after your own heart so you can use me in your Kingdom mission.

Just to Be Close to You ...

I am often frustrated by the fact that even though I want to be a leader after God's own heart, I can't quite carry it out as I want to. I desire to be closer to him, abiding in a daily, intimate, rich relationship with God, but it seems I can only get so close. It's not God--he has drawn near to me. It has something to do with me.

Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the leaders of Israel went up the mountain. There they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there seemed to be a pavement of brilliant sapphire, as clear as the heavens. And though Israel's leaders saw God, he did not destroy them. In fact, they shared a meal together in God's presence!

- Exodus 24:9-11

Israel's leaders not only saw God, they shared a meal together in his presence! Read Exodus 24:9-18 for all the details of this account. This is a fascinating passage that I think provides some interesting insights into how we come close to God. Basically, four groups of people come into four "levels" of fellowship with God. (1) The Israelite people stood at the base of the mountain and watched.  (2) Moses, Aaron, Aaron's two sons, and 70 of Israel's leaders went up onto the mountain. (3) Moses and Joshua went further up the mountain. (4) Moses went to the top of the mountain and disappeared into the cloud where he spent 40 days and nights with the Lord.

Not much has changed over thousands of years. Some of God's followers are not yet ready to enter God's awesome presence. They stand at the base of the mountain (or sit in the auditorium) and watch, but they do witness how God is working in the lives of his leaders (v. 17). Some are ready to climb the mountain and be in God's personal presence, but they remain there. A few are prepared to go even higher to be even closer to God. And then there are a very few people (Moseses) who are called into and respond to an intimate communion with the Lord.

I'd like to think I'm a Moses (or at least a Joshua)--that I've gotten away from the crowds to hike up the proverbial mountain to spend time with God, but I'm probably more like the 70, who could only go so far. I want to be more intimate with God, but my attitudes, lifestyle, decisions, level of faith, indifference, etc., keep me from getting any closer than I am right now.

The Good News: God is always inviting us to come closer (Rev. 3:20) to commune with him. But first, he calls us to be diligent and turn (repent) from our indifference (Rev. 3:19). Someday we will dwell with God in his presence forever (Rev. 21:3). In the meantime, we can be in fellowship with God, gathering in his presence, power, and purposes here on earth.

You are an awesome, holy, all-powerful God, and yet you invite me into your presence. I want to see you and know you and walk today in communion with you, but at the same time, I recognize your holiness and power. I don't deserve on my own merit to be in fellowship with you, but because you are so rich in mercy, you have invited me in. Thank you, Father, for your invitation to come nearer to you. Help me push away all the keeps me distant from you.

The Jesus of the Old Testament Too

I came across a couple verses buried in the middle of a bunch of Old Testament laws this morning that broadened my understanding of Jesus. It's quite remarkable:

"See, I am sending my angel before you to lead you safely to the land I have prepared for you. Pay attention to him, and obey all of his instructions.... He is my representative—he bears my name."

- Exodus 23:20-21, NLT

I checked my commentaries to see who this angel is, and nearly all agree it is the Son of God, Christ Jesus. In 1 Cor. 10:1-11, Paul himself commentates on this passage to help believers learn from Israel's history, and he points directly to Jesus as the one who led them.

I've known that the Second Person of the Godhead, the Son of God, appeared in bodily form in different places and times in the Old Testament, but I guess I haven't given it much thought before. I guess I have generally confined my understanding of Jesus to the New Testament, born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, etc. But the Son of the Most High God is much more than that! He has always existed (see John 1:1-4). In him all the fullness of God lives in bodily form (Col. 2:9). And he did not just sit around heaven for thousands of years waiting to be born of Mary!

Jesus is and has always been the Good Shepherd, who leads his people to the land prepared for us. He has always been active in this pursuit! (Read also John 10 and John 14.) He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life even in Old Testament times!

Jesus is and always has been God's representative, bearing his name. Jesus told his disciples over and over again that he was in the Father and the Father was in him (John 14:10). Jesus' name is powerful (John 14:14) because he bears the name of the Father. Jesus made it clear that he was sent by the Father and did nothing except what the Father instructed him to do (John 5:19; 6:38; 7:16; 8:28; etc.).

I praise you today, Lord Jesus, as the Leader of my life. You are safely leading me through the wilderness of this life to eternal life and to an abundant life during the journey. You are the Way ... and that's nothing new! Thank you for revealing to me today a new side of you, so that I may better know your voice and follow you as you lead me.

What if God Showed Up in Our Meeting?

"Wouldn't it be great if God would just show up physically in our meeting? It would be awesome if he would show himself or if we could literally hear his spoken voice!"

"But be careful! You did not see the Lord's form on the day he spoke to you from the fire at Mount Sinai. So do not corrupt yourselves by making a physical image in any form."

- Deuteronomy 4:15-16

I was struck by a couple verses this morning as I read Exodus 20 during my quiet time. When God appeared to the Israelites, he did not show himself in any physical form. If he had, the people would have idolized the form itself. In verse 23, God reminded them (again) to not make or worship any kind of idol.

God reveals himself today in many ways: through nature, the Bible, miracles, gifted spokesmen for him, etc., and people have idolized all of these. That's why Jesus said we are to worship God is spirit and truth (John 4:23). "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).

"False gods are always gods one can see (and touch)."

- Christian philosopher Jacques Ellul

 
In Exodus 20:24-25, God commanded that the altars made for sacrifices be made simply and naturally, out of the raw materials God had provided for them. Otherwise, the altars themselves would become idols, and man's work would be more important than giving worship to God.

When Jesus built his church, it was a simple, organic movement that needed no buildings. It was built upon the Rock (himself) and lots of uncut stones (that's us!). During those days, the church grew like never again. The Temple was destroyed in those days when God's church was growing.

The people of Jesus' day still confusedly confined worship to a certain special location (John 4:20). But the Father seeks those who worship him in spirit and truth, and that happens anywhere even two or three come together in Jesus' name (Matt. 18:20).

Leading from the heart means leading people to the presence, power, and purposes of Christ in your midst ... wherever you happen to gather.

Father, today help me to be careful not to idolize the buildings we meet in or the work that goes into them. Help me to worship you in spirit and in truth. To recognize your presence, power, and plans for me wherever I am.  You want my heart ... in complete surrender and worship to you.