When Knowing God Becomes a Bad Thing

Now, before anybody gets to stirred up about the title, let me give this disclaimer: I believe that there is nothing greater, more satisfying, or more rewarding then seeking a lived out, working, moving, changing, Holy-Spirit-birthed knowledge of the King of the Universe. BUT, I believe the Bible warns us that there is indeed a point in time where our knowledge of God actually becomes a bad thing - if you can, take some time to read Luke 19:11-27.

Read it? Awesome. If you've read anything else I've written, my first blog - "Use It or Lose It" - used the last two verses (Lk. 19:26-27) to talk about the importance of having an active faith and obeying, not just hearing and learning, the word of God. Well, not to be too redundant, but this little blog is over a similar subject, but one that has become increasingly dear to my heart.

The story is pretty simple: a man has three servants. He goes off to a distant land in order to be crowned king, and gives each of his servants some money. One servant earns an extra ten minas, one an extra five, and one doesn't invest at all and only gives back what the king had given him. This makes the king pretty angry, so he take away the mina that servant had and gives it to the obedient servant with ten dinas. The first two servants got the reward of becoming rulers over cities in the king's empire, but this last servant was put to shame and not given anything.

So what does it mean? Well, the King is Jesus, and we're the servants. The amount of money we invest is how well we use what the Lord has given us on this earth - do we invest it? Take risks? Steps of faith? Dare we take the chance to lose the life that the Lord has given us in order to gain even more? Or will we hide our lives and live selfishly? Safe? Wisely? Not really. "For whosoever shall seek to save his life will lose it."

But what I find most interesting about this entire passage is the response of the foolish servant, look at verses 20-23:
"The another servant came and said, 'Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap waht you did not sow.'
His master replied, 'I will judge by your own words you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out wat I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn't you put money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?'"

Whoa! Look at what the servant says: "Because you are..." The servant attemted to excuse his laziness and disobedience by saying he KNEW the King. How often do we, as servants of the King, do this today? We claim that we know God and who He is, the "God of the Word."

We say that God is a God of promises.
So why don't we live like He'll keep them?
We say God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So why don't we trust Him.
We agree that without faith it is impossible to please God.
So why don't we base our lives around faith?
We say that there is none righteous but our Lord.
So why do we try to achieve perfection on our own?
We say that He is strong though we are weak.
So why do we rely so heavily upon our own means?

Can't we see? A knowledge of God becomes a bad thing when we know it, but don't believe it. We take the name of our Lord in vain when we claim to be his bride, yet profane his truth with our own ideas of how life should be lived. The Bible says that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man - so why don't we stop relying on what we can "figure out" about the Lord, and start just trusting in what he says? When we get into heaven and see Jesus face-to-face, he will ask us something like, "What did you do with the life I gave you?" How will you respond?

Like servants one and two: "Jesus, here are thousands or hundreds or tens of other souls that I witnessed to, here is a life obedience and faith. I suffered and struggled, I had little upon the earth, but I trusted you, and you always provided. Because of you, my life has become a walking testimony, and now there are many more souls in your kingdom."

Or like servant three: "Well, Lord, I knew you were a God of the harvest. So I kept my soul safe and locked away, so it couldn't be corrupted or stolen or lost. I knew you valued my life to die for it, so I decided I would live it to the fullest and stay safe!"


Which servan really knows the heart of the King? Truly, "The heart is decietful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?" Who would want to?! This day, let us lay aside what we think we know, and start focusing on where are hearts are with the Lord, where our lives actually line up with what we say we believe - with what we think we believe. Like the old song goes:

Trust and obey
For there is no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey

Amen.

Simple Truths: Darkness Brings Forth Light

"For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness." Psalms 18:28

For a short season of my life, this verse became one of my favorites. I recently read a poem from an Indian martyr that said this:

Truly, living with God is glorious
The darker the night - the closer the dawn
The darker the clouds, the more plentiful the life-giving rains
The narrower the way, the more of God's unlimited help
The greater the troubles, the more the comfort from God
Though the waves get higher, this can never disturb the calms of the depths
Though the storm is violent, it cannot displace the mountain
Those who trust in the Lord are like mountains that cannot be shaken
The person who lives in the shadow of the Almighty will never be disturbed by the heat.

How true that really is! From the beginning of time, one of the beautiful patterns that God has set in place that we, his children, can take hope in is that darkness gives birth to light.

Recently, I've been reading through the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and it has been amazing to see the way that God has brought light out of their darkness - even just in the smallest of ways. Abraham lost faith in God quite a few times (ex. Gen. 12; Gen 20); his wife, Sarah, laughed when she was told she would have a baby in her old age; yet God provided and Abraham and Sarah had a son. Isaac went through a literal darkness - blindness - and was deceived by his younger son for his blessing; but Isaac's family did not fall apart, and God built an inheritance through  Jacob to become Israel. And Jacob, quite frankly, was a mess. He lied, was lied to, had multiple wives that fought with one another for favor in his eyes, constantly relied in his own strength instead of God's promises, disobeyed the voice of the Lord about going to Bethel, watched his daughter get raped in the land of his disobedience and his sons commit murder - and eventually, with all his favoritism, disobedience, and trust in his own strength - he almost lost his youngest, most precious, son - Joseph. Yet somehow, through all of this.. well.. crap... God sustained Jacob and turned him into a great nation.

God turns darkness into light. Cloudy seasons into understanding. Stormy times into peaceful victories. The days of Jewish captivity resulted in the birth of the world's Messiah. The death on the cross turned into resurrection unto eternal life. There is a promise that these last, dark days will someday turn into the millennial kingdom and eventually the New Jerusalem. Truly, I have only begun to understand the smallest parts of God's promises towards me, but I know this for sure: God has turned darkness into light in multiple occasions.

This is no deep truth; nor is it a lesson you have probably not heard before. But read through the Bible, and look at all the ways God turns darkness into light - starting in Genesis one with creation - and be encouraged that God's plan for you is ultimately one that breaks forth into understanding and blessing! If you find yourself in a season of confusion right now, a season of doubt, or a season of war - know this simple truth: that God will enlighten our darkness!

"For who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God?" Psalms 18:31

The Greatest Goodbye

Many times in life, I best cope with things by writing songs about what I'm going through. This last weekend, I put my girlfriend on a plane to go to her home back in Texas. She's lived there for about a year-and-a-half now, but that doesn't make our goodbyes any easier. We usually see each other two or three times each year - a total of about 20 days. It gets hard at times. Furthermore, she doesn't really enjoy it down there. She has friends and family, whom she loves; but the rich culture of where she lives and the typical complacency of the Christians there makes it a hard place for her to be. As if saying goodbye wasn't hard enough, I have to send her to place where God is growing her by fire. But as I was walking away this time, God began to put a song in my heart. I've found that as hard as pain can be, it always helps me to better understand God's heart and to bring me closer to Him. In this case, I wrote a song about what it must have been like for God to say "goodbye" to Jesus when Christ came to earth. Theologically, the song is probably not very correct. But it's one of those things that's interesting to think about and consider - what was it like for God to say goodbye?

How did manage, Lord, to watch Your Son go?

Into a world that You knew was not His home?

Did you turn Your back when He died because of pain?

And when you cried – was that the thunder and the rain?

How did it feel to watch him walk down from his throne,

Knowing that he’d face death and Hell alone?

What was it like when you kissed the Son goodbye?

Did you fight to let go when you hugged him, did you cry?

Could you hold back your tears when you looked him in the eyes,

And said, “Go, my Son, redeem them all and die?”

For surely, there was never such a sorrowful farewell

Met with joyous singing – as your son went to fight Hell

Even though You knew that it would turn out right

Heavenly Father, what was it like to say goodbye?

And when you sent him to his death

Tell me, did you hold regrets?

Did you tell yourself you shouldn’t have let him go?

And when the Father and the Son

Oh the Godhead, three in one

Was separated – did you shake the world in sorrow?

What was it like when you kissed the Son goodbye?

Did you fight to let go when you hugged him, did you cry?

Could you hold back your tears when you looked him in the eyes,

And said, “Go, my Son, redeem them all and die?”

For surely, there was never such a sorrowful farewell

Met with joyous singing – as your son went to fight Hell

Even though You knew that it would turn out right

Heavenly Father, what was it like to say goodbye?

But through fire and through pain

The world would never be the same

The separation that You faced made the redeemed

And tell me, how did You feel

When Christ ascended out of Hell

And with a shout, You crowned Him as the King?

And what was it like, to be united with Him in victory?

Did You hug Him tight and cry with joy in Glory?

Could you hold back your tears, when you looked him in the eyes,

And said, “Well done, my son, you’ve spread eternal life?”

For truly, there has never been such a joyous hello

Than the day Your Son ascended to his throne

And all the time, God, you knew it would turn out right

And Lord You knew, it was worth it to say goodbye

As I consider the goodbye that Christ faced and had in front of him - I look towards the joyous ending of the story. Whether or not I have a joyous "reuniting" on this earth - I know that God will use it for the best, for His glory, to bring about His kingdom. I don't always get how, but I know He's in control. So Lord, here's my sorrow and my grief, turn them into mourning and dancing - only in Your timing. May Your will be done.