Tag Archives: God’s Ways

God’s Ways or Cultural Norms?

Living in the Spirit

September 4, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Psalm 119:33-40

Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes,
   and I will observe it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may keep your law
   and observe it with my whole heart.
Lead me in the path of your commandments,
   for I delight in it.
Turn my heart to your decrees,
   and not to selfish gain.
Turn my eyes from looking at vanities;
   give me life in your ways.
Confirm to your servant your promise,
   which is for those who fear you.
Turn away the disgrace that I dread,
   for your ordinances are good.
See, I have longed for your precepts;
   in your righteousness give me life.

The Psalm above describes our encounters with God, the teacher, who guides us through our spiritual and ethical development, enabling us to discern what is just and righteous and what is not. Our first encounters with God are usually filtered through human teachers. Few people report burning bush or road to Damascus experiences. Parents and any other type of teacher understand that they have an awesome responsibility to train up a child in the right way and when old, they will not stray. (Proverbs 22:6)

We all carry some of the wisdom or folly from our ancestors. We all pass either, or more likely both to the next generations. Thus, continuously evaluating our understandings of what is just and what is right is necessary. We must seek a clearer understanding of cultural norms that drive justice today.

The idea of race as a defining trait of humans did not exist before the 16h century. Yet by 1619, slaves were being imported to and sold in the colonies that became the United States. Race was being used to de-humanize people to sustain a better economic outcome for the colonizers. The practice was adopted as a religious tenet without regard to scripture, which clearly indicated that all people were made in the image of God. The whole scientific finding of race has since been debunked, but we continue to scar our world with its design.

Prayer: God of Justice, Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Backstories

Epiphany
February 15, 2017

Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:33-40

Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes,
   and I will observe it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may keep your law
   and observe it with my whole heart.
Lead me in the path of your commandments,
   for I delight in it.
Turn my heart to your decrees,
   and not to selfish gain. –Psalm 119:33-36

What is the backstory behind the Lord’s statutes? Every law has a backstory. Laws about murder weave through every culture throughout history. Others may reflect the selfish desire of a powerful politician—remember the bridge to nowhere*? The Lord’s laws are not arbitrary checklists of things to do to get into heaven. They do not exist to define the limits of our behavior, so we can invest our time trying to get around them for selfish motivations.

The Lord’s laws reflect God’s desire for us to experience life to the fullest in the confidence of God’s loving guidance. The laws laid out in the Bible reflect backstories of the times and places according to their origins in oral and written history. Some ancient backstories are as relevant today as they were in the beginning as some things in the human condition seem to remain constants. Others speak to truths, like eating healthily, about which behavior changes with advancements in knowledge about food storage or its impact on our bodies. We must be diligent as we seek to live our lives within God’s vision to study the backstories.

We also must be diligent not to rewire God’s statutes to meet our selfish gains.

Prayer: Lord, help us to Do our best to present ourselves to you as one approved by you, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth**. Amen.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravina_Island_Bridge
Derived from 2 Timothy 2:15

All scriptures are quoted from the new Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

God’s Way

Epiphany
February 13, 2017

Scripture Reading: Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18

You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.

 You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.

 You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling-block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. –Leviticus 19:2b, 9-13

The Hebrew word for holy or sacred as translated in Leviticus 19:2 means separate from human infirmity, impurity, and sin.* It is of God and set apart from what might be considered normal human responses to life situations. Our scripture today outlines examples of such behavior. Leaving some grain in the fields for the poor to eat hearkens to the story of Ruth who was gathering such grain in Boaz’s field when she caught his eye, and he ordered his workers to be generous with what was left.

One of the challenges of being holy is not becoming holier than thou. By trying to live in a manner set forth by a higher power, it is too easy to equate being holy with being better than those who do not practice the holy ways. God’s recommended way corresponds to the way best suited for our well-being since God designed and created us. Being holy makes us whole not better than someone else.

We must find the root purpose in the stories of God’s ways described in the Bible and apply them to current practices. If one tried to glean grain in a field today with a scythe, he or she might be run over by a combine. We continue to feed the hungry while trying to maintain their dignity. Stealing, cheating, and lying are still in vogue today. I guess some things never change. It seems we do not take them as seriously as God does. It’s a human thing I guess.

Prayer: Lord, make us whole and humble in all aspects of our lives. Amen.

*Strong’s Concordance see at http://biblehub.com/hebrew/6918.htm

All scriptures quoted are from the new Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

The Lord’s Side

floodLiving in the Spirit
September 23, 2015

Scripture Reading: Psalm 124

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side   —let Israel now say—
if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
when our enemies attacked us,
then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
then over us would have gone
the raging waters….

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth. –Psalm 124:1-5, 8

President Lincoln made a significant remark to a clergyman in the early days of the War.

 “Let us have faith, Mr. President,” said the minister, “that the Lord is on our side in this great struggle.”

 Mr. Lincoln quietly answered: “I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord’s side.”*

Our Psalm today is written in retrospect after an apparently calamitous flood had struck the land. We do need to thank God for God’s loving presence in all aspects of our lives. I fear though we are too often in these days hearing of loss of property, loss of both wildlife and domestic animals and deaths of humans due to what are termed “natural” disasters. What we may have failed to comprehend is the part we may have played in such events and the part that still awaits us to prevent them from happening. We are having a swarm of earthquakes related to wastewater drilling associated with the drilling of oil wells here in Oklahoma. For years we denied the connection. We are just now accepting the science that has been there all along.

What would have prevented the Civil War? How would our world be different today had our ancestors figured out preventing that war before it was too late? Do we not learn from our previous disasters?

What are we leaving for our descendants to clean up after we are gone because we chose to take the expedient way rather than God’s way? God gave us this great earth to supply are needs with the understanding that we must treat it responsibility. Just as God created all the peoples of the earth who share in common the work of God’s hands.

Prayer: Lord, cleanse us of the enmities that divide us and help us comprehend more particularly your ways and make them our own. Amen.

*http://www.aboutabrahamlincoln.com/anecdotes/anecdotes__on_the.html

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.