Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Making the Tabernacle and Living our Lives



Admittedly, the sections of the Bible which describe how the tabernacle are to be built can feel a little bit boring. I hope it’s not a sin to admit that! However, as I prayed about the Bible passage I read this morning as part of a reading plan, the Lord opened my eyes to see some lessons.

Concerning the tabernacle, God tells Moses and the Israelites:

You must make it according to all that I show you (Exod. 25:9 CSB)

God had detailed plans for the tabernacle, and God also has detailed plans for how we should live our lives. Just as God wanted the tabernacle to be built according to His plans and wisdom and not our own ideas, He wants us to live our lives according to His direction.  That’s why an important part of the Great Commission is:

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
(Matt. 28:20 NIV)

God wants me to think like He thinks, to value what He values, to hate what He hates, and to love as Christ loved. God wants my life to be built after the pattern of the life of Christ:

Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ. (1 Cor. 11:1 CSB)

Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. (Eph. 5:1 CSB)

The tabernacle was beautiful. It was made with gold, silver, and precious fabrics all skillfully shaped according to God’s plan. A life which imitates Christ will likewise be valuable and beautiful in God’s eyes.

The tabernacle was designed as a place for God’s presence to be experienced. As we conform our lives to God’s plan, we will experience God’s presence and others will also experience God working and shining through us.

Like our lives, the tabernacle was cleansed with blood. The tabernacle was cleansed with the blood of animals as a symbol, but our lives are cleansed with the blood of Christ. The tabernacle was a place of mercy, grace, and forgiveness of sins. Likewise, God forgives us and spreads His grace through us to others.

The tabernacle was built with the freely given gifts of God’s people:

"Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give”. (Exod. 25:2 NIV)

As God moves our hearts to give our time, energy, money, and abilities to serve Him, He will use our gifts to build our lives into beautiful places of His mercy where people experience Him.

May we build our lives according to all that God shows us.



Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Do Not Follow the Crowd in Doing Wrong




Sometimes when I’m reading the Bible, a verse will grab my attention. That happened when I read Exodus 23:2a this morning:

NIV Exodus 23:2a "Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.

I got to thinking about examples throughout the Bible where people either courageously stood apart or else gave in to the pressure and influence of the crowd. I also thought about the different ways in which this principle applies to us today.

Biblical Examples of Courageously Standing Apart from the Crowd

1. Noah

Sometimes we feel like we have it tough because often those who are deeply committed to following Jesus are a minority where we live and work. But think about Noah. The Bible describes Noah’s world like this:

NIV Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

It appears that Noah and his family were the only righteous people who trusted God in the whole world at that time. Praise God that Noah and his family did not go along with the crowd. This story also reminds us that in the long run, it’s always much better to follow God than to follow the crowd.

2.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

Talk about pressure to join the crowd! Trumpets are blaring, the king’s threat is looming, and everyone else is bowing down in front of the giant, intimidating ninety foot gold stature. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to go along with crowd or bow to the pressure (see Daniel 3). They are thrown into a fiery furnace, but God protects them.

3. Micaiah vs. 400 False Prophets

Four hundred prophets were all prophesying that the kings of Israel and Judah should go to war against Ramoth Gilead. But the King of Judah insisted that Micaiah, a true prophet of the LORD, also be consulted.  There’s more than a little pressure for Micaiah to go along with the crowd:

NIV 1 Kings 22:13 The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, "Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably."

Micaiah actually initially gives in to this pressure. But when the king commands him to tell the truth, Micaiah prophecies defeat for Israel and Judah if they attack. You would think that the King would thank Micaiah for being honest. Instead, the king has Micaiah thrown into prison and given only bread and water. But Micaiah’s prophecy proves true and the words of the crowd of false prophets lead to disaster.

Even Courageous, Godly People Can Give into Group Pressure from Time to Time

Peter had shown incredible courage after being jailed and beaten for the cause of Christ. He refused to give in to threats and he kept boldly declaring the Good News about Jesus. But a little later, Peter (also called Cephas) temporarily gave in to group pressure:

NIV Galatians 2:11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

This example shows how even people who are strong and courageous for Christ must always be on guard against the subtle dangers of going along with the crowd.

Applications for Our Lives

There must be hundreds of ways in which this simple command applies to our lives:

NIV Exodus 23:2a Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.

Some types of following the crowd in doing wrong are obvious. Examples would include doing drugs or getting drunk. Other examples are more subtle. Like how we spend our money and use our time. Or the types of things we choose to watch and listen to. Then there are the priorities and values we can absorb from the world around us.

There are certain moral values taught by the Bible which are very unpopular today. May God give us strength to value and guard virginity before marriage and faithfulness within marriage. May we never give in to the pressure to celebrate homosexual sins. May we continue to stand for the right to life for the unborn. These values are not popular with “the crowd” these days.

Another application is not compromising on Biblical truths we see which may be unpopular or even unacceptable in some churches, Christian institutions, and groups. Sometimes through Bible study and learning from other Christians we will come to see that the Bible teaches something which is different from what many of our peers believe. There will be pressure to close our eyes to these inconvenient truths which could cost us in a number of ways.

May God give us the courage of Noah, the moral strength of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and the faith of Micaiah. May we fear God and not man. May we keep our eyes on our Lord Jesus and not on the crowd. May the Lord keep us from following the crowd in doing wrong.




Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .

Saturday, January 27, 2018

The Many Ways We Mess Up Putting Matthew 18:15-17 into Practice



It’s amazing how much wisdom Jesus can pack into a few words. One example is the directions He gives us in Matthew 18:15-17:

Matthew 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother.
 16 But if he won't listen, take one or two more with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established.
 17 If he pays no attention to them, tell the church. But if he doesn't pay attention even to the church, let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you.

In just a few sentences, Jesus teaches us what to do when people sin against us. He gives us a method of conflict resolution. This method applies to a wide range of personal conflicts in many settings. The method involves taking 4 steps in order. If resolution is reached during one of the steps, the process ends. The four steps are:

1. A private meeting just between you and the other person.
2. A small group meeting with the two of you and one or two other people.
3. Informing the church. This step usually will begin by asking for help from leaders in the church.
4. Breaking off normal fellowship and relationship with the person in error who refuses to listen.

It sounds simple until you try to actually walk through these steps with real people in painful, complex situations. Then you quickly learn how many different ways we can mess up four simple steps. I’ve seen these mistakes, and I’ve made many of them myself.

Common Conflict Resolution Errors:

1. We immediately jump to the last step without first going through the other three steps.

This is probably the most common error. Someone offends us in some way. We then effectively cut off our relationship with them. We avoid them and we avoid talking with them. We are treating them “like an unbeliever and a tax collector”, but we haven’t done the hard work Jesus commands us to do in steps 1, 2, and 3. This harms unity in the body of Christ.

2. We involve too many people too soon.

A quick look at the steps reveals a basic principle. We should try to resolve a conflict by involving as few people as possible. When someone hurts us, we may feel tempted to talk to many people other than the person who hurt us. We may do this on the phone, via social media, or when we meet people at church or Walmart. We become gossips.  We seek to get other people on our side and to get them to be “against” the person we are in conflict with. We do all this without first meeting with the person in private and then meeting in a small group.

3. We start the steps, but we give up on the process before we finish the steps.

Restoring and maintaining peace and unity in the family of God often takes a lot of work. The Bible repeatedly urges us to “make every effort” to maintain peace. But we often get frustrated after attempting one or two of the steps and then give up.





4.  We do the steps, but not with the right attitudes.

A key passage about maintaining unity in the body of Christ is found in Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4:2-3 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Here we see four attitudes which are essential when seeking to maintain or restore unity: (1) humility, (2) gentleness, (3) patience, and (4) love that motivates us to put up with one another. Even if we follow the steps which Christ gave us, we can undermine the effectiveness of the process if we are proud or harsh or impatient or unloving.

5. We are quick to speak and slow to listen.

James, inspired by the Holy Spirit, urges us to be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19 NIV). In the midst of a conflict we often are the opposite. We are quick to speak. We want our side of the story to be heard first and to be heard most. We want to make our case. We might cut the other person off repeatedly. Even if we let them talk, we might be so angry that we don’t really hear what they are saying. We want to control the conversation. This is one reason that if a private meeting does not resolve the conflict, meeting with one or two other mature Christians can help a lot. They can help each party to slow down and listen.

6.  If a conflict gets to the fourth step, some churches are unwilling or poorly prepared to carry out church discipline.

Conflicts between Christians should rarely get to the third and fourth steps, which require the involvement of the church. But it’s important that churches be willing and prepared to be involved when necessary. And as painful as it is, it is important to be willing to carry out church discipline when it is called for. Churches may feel like they are keeping peace and unity by not carrying out church discipline. But by not following the instructions of Jesus they end up creating a setting where sins and conflicts can fester for years and erode the effectiveness of ministry.

And many more . . .

Besides the above six ways that we mess up the peacemaking process which Jesus taught us there are many more ways it can go wrong. Sometimes a person is unwilling to forgive. Other times the one who sinned will wrongly think that forgiveness always means an instant and complete restoration of trust with no consequences. Sometimes there is not true repentance. Some people are not willing to allow love to cover a multitude of sins. They make molehills into mountains. They are too confrontational. Other people lack courage. They fear any confrontation. They allow another’s sin to continue to seriously harm people. Some people like to talk way too much. Others clam up and won’t say a thing even when they should. Some are too judgmental, while others lack discernment.

It’s hard work, but it’s worth it!

Is there any hope of getting peacemaking right? Yes! It’s not easy. It takes hard work and a lot of patience. Any Christian can and should attempt the first step of a private meeting (there are a few cases, like sexual abuse, when a private meeting between the sinner and the one sinned against is not appropriate). From the second step on, mature, godly, Holy Spirit filled Christians should be sought out to help with the process.

I’ve seen the peacemaking process work and produce wonderful fruit. Peacemaking is essential to unity in any ministry or church. Unity is essential to teamwork where members with different gifts serve together. Holy Spirit empowered teamwork leads to the growth of individual Christians as well as the growth of the Church. So, yes, peacemaking is hard, often messy, work. But the results are worth it!


“Blessed are the peacemakers . . .” – Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:9).





Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .