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Partial Obedience, Partial Repentance, Partial Belief

In recent days,* I have been struck again by the partial repentance of the kings of Israel and the partial repentance of the kings of Judah. Here are two examples from many. Israel: “Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit” (2 Kings 10:31). The last sentence was said of every king of Israel. Judah: “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not as his father David had done. In everything he followed the example of his father Joash. The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there” (2 Kings 14:3-4). This last sentence was said of Amaziah and his son, his grandson, and his great-grandson. Amaziah was one of the good kings of Judah. Hezekiah, his great-great-grandson, turned things around: “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. He r...
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Your Dwelling Place

“How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Psalm 84:1-2). “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:1-2). “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6). “No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun...
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What God Says about Idolatry

I have been overwhelmed this last year* with God’s expressions of His view of idolatry: Disobedient: “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me” (Deut. 5:7-9). Stupid: “But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them” (Psalm 115:4-8). Demonic: “Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but...
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Doers of the Word

  This post was written by Matt Meyer, CCM board member and director emeritus. “Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law plead against them” (Proverbs 28:4). After a number of weeks of coming for counseling, a young Chinese woman recently* called on God to forgive her sins. For several weeks before that, she was sure that God was real and good and that she was a sinner, but she was having a hard time connecting her sin with the death of Christ on the cross. When she was asked to describe what she meant by “being a sinner,” it was clear that her focus was horizontal instead of vertical. She thought she was sinning against her husband, her family, and herself. When she finally understood that our sin (or lawlessness as John describes it) is first against God, the lights came on. “I’ve broken God’s laws,” she repeated numerous times as the realization finally hit home. Do we have the same sense that we are breaking God’s laws when we avoid Bible passag...
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A Holy Estate

“‘Haven’t you read,’ he replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator “made them male and female,” and said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate’” (Matthew 19:4-6). The marriage service says that marriage is a “holy estate.” Christian marriage is more than physical, economic cohabitating and child-bearing and rearing. It is a spiritual fellowship; it is an earthly picture of Christ and His body, the Church.   “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with wa...
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There Is No Other

“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). You would think this should not be a difficult piece of advice to follow. The voice of God thundered from Sinai in the second command: “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:4-6). Within the month, the people of Israel were busily building an idol, a golden calf. It did not last long. Rachel, Jacob’s wife, stole her father’s household gods. All of the sons of Jacob had idols. “So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.’ … So...
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The Greatest Gift

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2). God commands us to obey Him. If we do not keep His commands, He has the ability to forgive us. It is either obey or confess, and He has made provision for both. Christmas is coming up soon. We can think of it as a time of giving or as a time of getting. The basic expression of love is giving . The basic expression of selfishness is getting . If you think of everyone according to God’s commands, we are to love the Father, we are to love our neighbors, we are to love the brothers, we are to love our enemies—and the conclusion is that we are to give to these people we love. We are to give for whatever is the highest good of the person we are giving to. We are not to give in order to get; we give because t...
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