February 12, 2025
It was a common phrase, often repeated to our eight children as we were raising them. “We don’t say ‘stupid’ in our house,” we would repeat to any child who might have used that word of another. We felt it was a term that could sink deep into the soul of a child, making them think their intellect was deficient. Such idle words can shape a child’s future and can be used by the deceiver of their souls. Just not a good word.
But there it was this morning as I opened my Bible.
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but one who hates correction is stupid.” (Proverbs 12:1)
Being the pastor/student that I am, I looked it up in its original Hebrew language. It means … “stupid.” Like a senseless beast. Brutish.
THE BEAUTY OF REPENTANCE
All morning, I had been studying the nature of true repentance for a prayer assignment I had been given (to lead people into prayers of repentance). We misunderstand repentance. We think it is the heavy hand of a harsh, unloving God to punish us. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Repentance comes from God’s gracious intervention. The One who made us in His image wants to bring us back into His glory. He who has pursued us, inviting us into His presence, wants to help us see all that is aborting our relationship with Him and others. He is out to grow us back into the likeness of His Son, our Elder Brother. (What could be better?) When He shows us anything in us which doesn’t resemble Jesus, He is trusting that we will agree and respond. And He gives us grace to cooperate with Him. It’s what a perfect Father does.
Repentance is a humble agreement with God’s righteous evaluations and is one of the habits of a Presence-centered life. “O, Father, I see. I thought (this) was the right thought, word, action, but I see now how wrong that was. How harmful. How sinful. I gladly agree with Your evaluation and by Your grace and enabling will turn from that path. Cleanse me, gracious Lord, and lead me in the right path.”
The quickest, lifelong repenter is the wisest one … the one who experiences more of God’s presence and is restored most quickly back to the Manufacturer’s original specifications.
David modeled this lifestyle for us. It was not sinless perfection that made him a man after God’s heart, but deep repentance. He prayed humble, honest prayers, asking God’s help in coming to genuine repentance.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there be any hurtful (wicked) way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. (Psalm 139:23-24)
Repentance helps us. Repentance heals us. Repentance restores us and refreshes us. And these are all the outcomes a loving Father desires for His children.
The man who refuses and resists God’s gracious calls is like a mindless animal. A lemming that runs to the sea. A lamb that mindlessly walks off a cliff. A bull in a china closet.
And that’s just … well … stupid.
February 10, 2025
But there are moments when we need just the direct facts. This is especially true with the good news about Christ. For there are few who know the real facts, and it is on these facts that our faith must rest.
February 06, 2025
When God begins working in our hearts, we often think it is just on our end. But God is not limited by time, geography, or power. He is working all the time in multiple places.
February 05, 2025
Many people struggle with the assurance of their salvation, which is one reason an entire book of the Bible (1 John) is devoted to this theme. Here is John’s statement about why the Holy Spirit wrote 1 John through him.
