Tree of Life Day 33: Hosea 1-3, 6

What do you think is on the heart of God?  His passion.  His heartbeat.

According to the readings to day, it's not so much about the religious functions as it is the relational functions.  Not sacrifice but steadfast love.  Not burnt offerings but knowledge of God.

Steadfast love is the Hebrew word chesed (also spelled hesed, with a hard 'h').  It means the covenant love that God has for His people.  God desires that back.  He loves us.  He wants to be loved back.  Now that isn't in a Sally Fields Oscar speech kind of way.  God's not up there wondering if we like Him, if we really like Him.  His love sets us free to love Him for all eternity.  And that's what's on His heart - that we love Him like He loves us for all eternity.  Relationship.

The knowledge of God is not the knowledge about God.  Don't confuse the two.  Plenty of people know a lot about God without knowing the God they study.  But our God is a God who longs to be known by His people.  He is passionate about revealing Himself and relating to those that belong to Him.

Not religion.  Relationship.

Tree of Life Day 32: Micah 5-7

There's a verse in Micah 7 that I just can't let go of - or it won't let go of me.

"I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against Him..." (v.9)  I get that part.  Boy do I get it.  All to familiar with my sinning against Him.

"...until He pleads my cause and executes judgment for me.  He will bring me out to the light.  I shall look upon His vindication." (again, v.9).

You didn't miss it did you?  Did you see it in there?

I'm the one who is guilty.  But He pleads my case.  He does it.  God pleads my cause and executes judgment for me.  It's the Gospel!  Right there in Micah 7!  I'm guilty but God pleads my case and works justice so that I'm on the right side when it's all said and done.

I get brought into the light.  And God does it.

I look upon His vindication.  How will God vindicate me?  By paying for the sin that I have committed such that I owe Him nothing but everything all in the same moment.

So whether it's for the 1000th time or the 1st time, I can count on a faithful God to forgive my sin and cleanse me from unrighteousness.  Amazing.

Tree of Life Day 31: Amos 4-8

God doesn't want us to go to church.

Can you let that sink in for a minute?  

No.  Seriously.  Quit thinking I'm being funny or provocative and just let it sink in.

"Take away from Me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps [guitars, organs, keyboards, drums - the instrument of your choosing] I will not listen..." (Amos 5.23).

Can you imagine if an angel of the Lord showed up Sunday morning and told all of us to go home because God had this kind of message like that for us?  No singing.  No Powerpoint slides.  No Chris Tomlin songs.  Just go home.

He told the northern kingdom of Israel that because He meant it.  He didn't want them to go to church.  In fact, it was worse than that:  the very instruments of their worship were what offended Him.  They thought they were praising God when they were provoking Him.  So go home!

He wanted them - and He wants us - to BE the church.

"But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5.24).

And there's a big difference.

Tree of Life Day 30: 2 Kings 11-12, 17-19

Can you imagine a day in the future when the President of the United States orders the destruction of the Statue of Liberty?  His justification?  We've become too enamored with the idea of liberty and not the doing of it.

First, what kind of President would that be?

Second, what might the country be going through such that he would need to make that decision?

Third, what would the backlash be?

And that's what happened in 2 Kings 18.  The people had made offerings to the bronze serpent that Moses had made at the command of the Lord to turn back an attack of snakes (Numbers 21).  What had been a symbol of their salvation was now an idol that separated them from God.

And the godly king Hezekiah destroyed it.

Wow.

You'll need 34 minutes...

But it's worth every moment.  Eric Metaxas wrote the Bonhoeffer biography that I posted about a few months ago.  This is a gem.

And it covers exactly what we talked about this past Sunday regarding dead and empty religion.  You want to know what some of those prophets sounded like?  It might have been just like this...

Tree of Life Day 29: 2 Kings 3-6

Well, first of all, let me introduce you to a mistake.  The reading guide is supposed to say, "1 Kings 3-6."  So if you stopped here first, I'd encourage you to read the 1 Kings version rather than the misprinted 2 Kings version.  And if you're looking to blame someone, put it on me.  With all the eyes that looked over that document and sent it off to PDF-land and the iDevice app, the ones that mattered were mine and I missed this typo.  Sorry, folks.

But there's still a great story in 2 Kings 4.  Elisha prays for the Shunnamite's son and raises him from the dead.  And how exactly did he do that?

He put his mouth on his mouth, his hands on his hands, and his eyes on his eyes.  Sounds a little gross.  Certainly uncomfortable for those of us with the typical 36 inches of personal space in the western world.

But sometimes that's exactly what we need.  We need someone to get so close that they can breathe life into us when we're dying or dead.  We need someone that up in our business so that when death-bringing sin is destroying us, they're life from Jesus can breathe life into what might seem like a hopeless cycle of addiction or destruction in what remains of our lives.

Or...

You might be that person for someone else.

Sermon Notes from 3.4.12

Here are the sermon notes from today's sermon in the Tree of Life series.  You can find these notes in PDF and the sermon audio at sermons.heritagepark.org.  You can also download the audio on iTunes via our podcast.

Tree of Life

Part 5 – The Slow Death of a Nation

Micah 6.6-8

Four Currents

• Rejection of Yahweh for other gods
• Tolerance of wickedness
• Greed leads to oppression of the weak
• External religion instead of internal transformation

What is Happening?

• Solomon becomes king, exercises wisdom, builds the temple, and practices idolatry.
• The Kingdom of Israel fractures into two:  Israel and Judah. 
• Many kings come and go in both kingdoms, some good and others evil.
• The northern kingdom of Israel is conquered in 722 B.C. by the Assyrians.
• Throughout, God ensures a witness and a remnant.

What does it Mean?

God is faithful to a faithless people.

• Our call is to faithfulness.
• To do the right thing.
• To love people well. 
• To honor God.

Tree of Life Day 27: 2 Samuel 11-15

Today's story is the story of the fracture of David's household because of David's sin.  It's depressing to read, honestly.  Maybe because if you are reading this, you probably know people (like I do) that have similar decline or destruction in their lives.

But what jumped out at me in today's reading was Nathan being sent by the Lord to David to confront him.  Not only was it incredibly wise in the manner by which Nathan confronted the King, but simply the fact that God sent him.

Confrontation is a strange kind of mercy, but it is mercy.

God refused to allow David to remain in his sin.  He refused to let the distance grow between them.  He refused to let David be hollowed out by unconfessed sin.  God wanted to restore the relationship.

So He sent a confronter.

Mercy.

It's the same kind of mercy when we're under conviction by the Holy Spirit.  God doesn't want our bones to waste away with our sin (Ps. 32).  He sends the Spirit to convict and bring us back into a restored relationship to Him.  It doesn't feel good.  It means we owe up to mistakes and admit faults.  But it's mercy.

Tree of Life Day 26: 1 Samuel 15-17

Leadership sometimes means doing what's right and not what's popular.

Saul didn't kill the Amalekite king Agag as God had ordered because he was afraid of the people in his army, who just so happened to want the best of the livestock too.  Ulterior motives not withstanding, Saul didn't do what the Lord had commanded him to do.  He was swayed by opinion polls and nationwide surveys.  Some pundit on some cable channel convinced the listeners that this was the better way, and they, in turn, convinced Saul - or at least made him a coward.

The best possible situation is when the right thing is also the popular thing.  The next possible situation is when you can convince people that the right thing is the right thing and it becomes the popular thing.

But sometimes it means doing the right thing no matter who says what or who stands opposite or the consequences that may come.

Tree of Life Day 25: 1 Samuel 8-10

Sometimes we don't know what we're asking for when we pray.  I don't think that should hinder our honesty or thwart our boldness.  But maybe it should slow the pace by which we ask.  Boldness before the throne of God doesn't have to equal impetuousness.  Honesty before the Lord doesn't necessarily mean blurting out whatever comes to mind.

"We want a King."  That had implications and consequences.

"I want a __________."

"God, you need to _________."

Prayer is certainly a balancing act between the invitation to boldness by God our Father and remembering that I'm being bold before the King of the Universe.  It's not either-or but both-and.

How does that change your prayer life today?