Author: Dave Dishman (Page 180 of 480)

As they sat despondent and miserable in a far off land, suffering due to their own poor judgment, the Lord delivered a remarkable promise to the Jewish exiles in Babylon:

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

The Lord also promised to prosper them, to answer their prayers, and to eventually return them to Jerusalem. But regardless of where they lived or what masters forced them to labor, God stood ready to be found.

The Jewish people lost their hold on the promised land due to their rejection of the Lord. Yet God provided a way back, which involved a wholehearted turn of contrition and repentance. Jesus voiced the same idea to the scribes when he said love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

It’s amazing that God can actually be found, discovered by mere mortals, blameworthy creatures like you and me. However, the route involves devotion, constancy and adherence to his ways. Dabbling with God as I enjoy the fruits of this world fails the all of your heart test.

Yet the promise of such a worthy quest remains. I pursue all sorts of treasure and riches and fame. But to find God? Nothing matches that potential discovery that comes only through relentless, wholehearted seeking.

Jeremiah 29 & Luke 10 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Warren

I’ve not engaged in a serious conversation centering on the wrath of God for years, and hardly ever hear a comment on the topic. To be frank, most of us don’t believe in such an antiquated perspective. We hold to a tottering god of good will and benefit of the doubt. More akin to Santa Claus than Thor.

However, the Bible goes after my snuggly belief in a teddy bear god:

It is you alone who are to be feared. Who can stand before you when you are angry? From heaven you pronounced judgment, and the land feared and was quiet—when you, God, rose up to judge, to save all the afflicted of the land. Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise, and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.

God’s extreme anger works to restrain evil, and remarkably brings praise from those who survive his wrath. CS Lewis’s thoughts seem appropriate here: God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

We live in a deaf world. Deaf to the quiet evidence of God all around us. Deafened by the shouting of social media and advertising and philosophies elevating self to divine status. God uses his kindness and grace to get our attention, but let’s not be surprised by the megaphone of his wrath.

We ignore this aspect of God’s character to our detriment. Should we fear the Lord our judge? Of course—terrifyingly so. Can we rest in his goodness? Of course—more than we fathom.

That’s the mystifying beauty of his nature, and we fail to appreciate one without the other.

Psalm 76 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Joanne Francis

Some ways of life prove themselves again and again, revealing an underlying universal reality.

Paul wrote a reminder to the Corinthian church, encouraging them to continue to give to those in need. He penned this timeless truth:

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

Few philosophies work out better for those who practice them than generousity. This is not just a Judeo-Christian truth, but everyone who practices generosity, regardless of creed or religion or the lack thereof, benefits from the practice.

The reverse is also true, the miserly of resources and love inevitably dies alone, in spirit and often without anyone near who cares for them. Years of selfishness dries up good will, a withering drought of the soul.

Give of your labor, your influence, your finances and your expertise. Do so willingly if at all possible, or just by faith, knowing that feelings will follow. Because the more you sow, the more you reap, and that’s a truth you can count on.

2 Corinthians 9 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Dương Trí

One bumper sticker piece of advice I hear bantered about is to follow your heart. Which I assume means follow my whims, my desires, my wants wherever they lead. Fulfill myself and I’ll achieve happiness.

But the scriptures rebuff this sentiment. Jeremiah wrote: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

So…what do I follow? My heart that I know so well, representing my deepest desires and hopes, that apparently carries a seed of duplicity unknown even to me? Or maybe there’s another way?

A few lines before Jeremiah indeed laid out a heart cure: Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

My heart is prone to wander. After all these years of life I know that for sure. I counter the deceit, the straying off after the frivolous, by anchoring my heart in the Lord and sending down roots.

Jeremiah 17 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Zach Reiner