by R. Herbert | Jul 31, 2014 | Growth
As the twelve tribes of ancient Israel neared the land they had been promised, two and a half tribes – Gad, Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh – looked at the land where they were on the eastern side of the Jordan River and compared it to the wilderness they had come through (Numbers 32).
Viewed from their new standpoint on the edge of the Promised Land, the eastern side of the Jordan looked good. Perhaps it wasn’t exactly flowing in milk and honey, but it certainly seemed better than the desert through which they had come. Moses tried to dissuade the two and a half tribes, but they insisted that it was what they wanted, so he allowed them to stay on the “outside” of the Promised Land, except for fulfilling their responsibility to help the other tribes in the conquest.
So under Joshua’s leadership, the men of the “Transjordan” tribes had to leave their wives and families and go with the other tribes to fight the inhabitants of Canaan (Joshua 1:12-16). When the dust settled, the men of the two and a half tribes were able to return to their homes, but they had seen first-hand the choice areas they could have inherited had they not chosen second best. Ironically, they still had to fight even though they had relinquished any part of the “first place” prize. But worse than that, the second place area they accepted was not as well protected, and was on the border of several of Israel’s enemies, the Ammonites, Edomites and Moabites. Their prize just wasn’t as good as it could have been.
In what areas of our lives do we accept “second place” without pushing for the best prize? In school or college we can accept less than what we could accomplish in assignments or grades if we just pushed a little harder. As young adults we may accept second best if we marry the first person who comes along. As spouses and parents we take second in one of life’s most important areas if we stop trying to develop our relationships with our mates and children. And as older people we take second best if we presume we are past doing anything much productive with our lives. We can be unconsciously accepting second best in any area of our physical lives if we accept what is “OK” but not great.
Just as importantly, in our relationship with God, do we settle for second place in being content with where we feel we are in our development at any particular point, just keeping up a comfortable routine? Or do we keep looking for ways we can keep growing, helping, pushing to accomplish more of what really matters?
Every runner knows that as a race progresses, if you stop pushing harder, you start falling back. Perhaps that analogy is worth keeping in mind. In the ancient Olympics and other athletic games and contests, there were no “second place winners” – only the first place finisher for each event was considered a victor. The names of those achieving second and third place were not even recorded. This is why the apostle Paul wrote: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24). We should run our Christian lives as though there were only a first place prize; we should live as though we will not settle for less. Like the ancient two and a half tribes of Israel, we will still have to keep fighting even if we do settle for less. So if we are going to have to run anyway for second place, why not run that bit harder, as Paul urges us, for first? And remember, in the Christian race we are really only competing against ourselves. So why settle for second place when everyone can win?
by R. Herbert | Jul 9, 2014 | Growth, Warriors of the Way
There is a very cynical saying that you can get through life with just two things – a good memory and a good lawyer. The fallacy of that saying is evident in every life made miserable by divorce, lost friendship and broken business arrangements – to name only three examples – where both a good memory and a good lawyer were involved.
The truth is, although there is a place for right legal counsel and representation, it doesn’t always work – and a “legal” opinion can sometimes hurt you. This applies on the personal psychological level, also. Everyone grows up with what we might call an “inner lawyer” – and it’s a defense attorney. We all have such a lawyer – an unscrupulous one – deep within ourselves, no matter how good our overall intentions may be. You may not remember hiring the lawyer within you, or paying him or her, but that “lawyer” is certainly there and is always on call at a moment’s notice.
Remember the last time you made a dumb mistake and when you were challenged by someone about it, you had an almost instant answer or excuse? That was your inner lawyer talking. Remember the last time you debated whether you should do something that wasn’t really right, but you came up with some pretty good reasons why you should do it anyway? That may well have been counsel from your inner lawyer.
Our human nature just naturally learns to defend itself in some of the ways a lawyer might defend us. Human nature will tell itself it’s not to blame for something, or even blame a situation on others. It will tell us that a thought, word or deed is not that bad – especially if it is OK in the letter of the law – because no one can keep the law perfectly, right? (You may have noticed that inner lawyers can quote scripture.) But just as the Gospel of Luke tells us: “… the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves …” (Luke 7:30 ESV), although our inner lawyer’s arguments may sound good, they really are at odds with what God is trying to accomplish in and for us.
Unfortunately, as a result, we will never grow spiritually or find real transformation as a Christian as long as we retain that inner lawyer. Psychologists may call what we are talking about “self-justification,” but it helps to think of the process as an inner lawyer because this makes it easier to spot the manner in which it works. Whenever possible we need to take time to think before we let that inner lawyer speak – and what’s more, when the inner lawyer does start to wrongfully justify us, we need to be willing to fire him or her on the spot. It’s a kind of representation we really don’t need and are better off without. This is easier said than done, because we can fire the inner lawyer today and still have him or her show up again tomorrow – or even later today. It may take time to make this a habit, but if we want to really make progress in our Christian lives, to misquote Shakespeare, perhaps the first thing we need to do is fire all our inner lawyers.
by R. Herbert | Mar 7, 2014 | Character, Growth
“Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.” – Cavett Robert “How’s the resolution doing – you know, the one you made in January?” That’s a question many of us might cringe at, but it’s good to remind ourselves of Cavett Robert’s old truism. The character we build in following through on resolutions is often just as important as the resolution itself.
The Bible shows that God’s servants often made resolutions, and in each case these resolutions were faithfully carried out. Notice just two examples from the Old Testament and New Testament, Daniel and Paul: “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine…” (Daniel 1:8); “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
In fact, the Bible shows that God Himself makes resolutions. Notice in the Book of Zechariah, where God says: “So I have resolved again in these days to do what is good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah…” (
Zechariah 8:15 HCSB). Not only does God make resolutions that we can all be thankful He keeps, but also He reminds us of the responsibility to make and keep good resolutions:
“ ‘If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me’” (Malachi 2:2).
While this statement may sound negative out of context, God simply points out that we need to be firm in our resolve to do what we need to do. He knows that when we do not, we lose His blessings and, as a loving parent, He warns us against that outcome. That is why God’s word frequently stresses the need to give our full resolve to doing what we come to understand we need to do. That guidance can energize and inspire us to follow through.
While some minor physical resolutions may not have widespread effect in our lives, our major resolutions can have major effects on us, our marriages, our families and our relationship with God. So let’s remember the resolutions we do make and maintain them. The fact is, the more we follow through with our resolutions, the easier it will become to keep them.
God is certainly aware of what we resolve to do in regard to the way of life that He reveals to us, and He will help us follow through if we are serious and ask for His help. That is why the Psalmist could write, as confidently as he did: “I am resolved to obey Your statutes to the very end” (Psalm 119:112 HCSB).
by R. Herbert | Feb 27, 2014 | Growth
Many electronics and small home appliances that are returned to their manufacturers due to problems are worked with, tested, dusted off and sent back out for sale as “factory refurbished.”
Perhaps they are a reasonable deal, but I have always had a deep distrust of such “refurbished” items. Damaged or defective outer parts might be fixed, but what about the interior – the running of some of these items? It seems to me that a refurbished item just isn’t as trustworthy as one made new and made right.
Apparently, God follows that same line of reasoning with us. After all, I suppose it would be possible for a spiritually “malfunctioning” individual to be repaired, then sent back out into the world again, but God’s word seems to indicate that’s not a good idea. Jesus spoke a parable specifically relating to the wisdom of going with a new product:
“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins” (Mark 2:21-22).
God did not issue a refurbished or revised edition of His Covenant, but introduced a totally new one (Hebrews 8:13). In a similar manner, the One who originally formed the human mind prefers to renew our outlook completely rather than just to affect an attitude “adjustment” or “refurbishment” (Ephesians 4:23). He prefers totally remade characters, too: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). In fact, he calls us to “… put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
Ultimately, we are told, God will establish new heavens and a new earth (Revelation 21:1-2), so it seems clear that He really prefers the new to the refurbished in every case. In fact, He says: “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5).
If the One who has called us will remake everything in His quest for the renewed and perfected, shouldn’t we look at our own lives that way? God clearly does not call us to be refurbished – with just the outer visible problems fixed – but with no real remaking of the inner person we are. So it’s a question we can ask ourselves as we go further into this new year: Are we content with just being refurbished each day, or are we striving to be truly made new?
by R. Herbert | Dec 22, 2013 | Bible Study, Growth
I owe the origin of this thought to Philip Shields who recently wrote “Learning is for Transformation – not just Information.” It’s an important idea in Christianity, and sometimes we need to remember this basic concept. The thought grew in my mind after recently visiting a Christian website where dozens of well-researched and well-meaning articles pondered scores of technical points and minutiae of the Scriptures. I came away impressed and better educated, yet feeling that in no way had I grown. If anything, had I been sidetracked? So Philip’s recent article “
WHY Do We Study the Word of God?” resonated with me, and we reproduce a slightly condensed version of it on our site this week as the second article in our series on Bible study.
As Philip writes, the apostle Peter stressed that we should grow in grace
and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18), and the two go hand in hand – or should do. Focusing on growing in grace alone can be problematic in many ways. We can end up limiting ourselves and even hurting others through misunderstandings and lack of real knowledge. On the other hand, developing only the cerebral aspects of our religion and filling only our “encyclopedia” cells can be even more limiting and ultimately damaging to Christian growth.
We do need to grow in both knowledge and grace, information and transformation. Just knowing is never enough – facts should lead to change or they are little more than Bible trivia. Paul shows this goal clearly: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is …” (Romans 12:2). Notice that the goal is to be
transformed by the
renewing (not just the filling) of our minds. The changes accomplished are more important than the memorized facts.
Simply put, we need information and we need transformation; but if we err to one side of the road, it’s better if our wheels are more solidly on the transformation side of the highway.
by R. Herbert | Dec 17, 2013 | Discipleship, Growth
The recent hoopla over comet Ison, which many astronomers thought might become the comet of the century, died quickly with the comet’s ignominious end, or as one astronomer quipped – as “the particles formerly known as comet Ison.”
The hoopla reminded me, however, of a comet I saw in my teens. It was an incredible sight as an object no larger than a speck in astronomical terms glowed as a beautiful lamp in the darkness around it.
Since seeing that comet, the cosmic travelers have always fascinated me, not least in the way in which they shine. Nothing more than small lumps of and ice and other frozen matter, comets orbit around the sun, of course, and are relatively invisible till they come close to the solar orb.
Once comets come close enough to the sun, however, the power of the solar wind begins to give them the visible lamp-like tails which stream out behind each comet’s body and glow by reflected light. The closer they get to the sun, the brighter they shine.
For the Christian, the comet is an obvious metaphor – an analogy for a truth we all know but need to remember. Although we may be spiritually insignificant of ourselves, the closer we move to the One who is the center of our spiritual orbit, the closer we come to the One who scripture calls the “Rising Sun” and the “Day Star” (Luke 1:78, 2 Peter 1:19), the more we become visible as a light in the darkness which may surround us.
If, physically, even a “failed” comet such as Ison can attract as much attention as it did, perhaps we can see the spiritual potential in moving ever closer to the One who, through His power working in us, can make us a light in the dark.
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