This Is Why We Pray

As I look in the Old Covenant more and more for Papa, who himself has not changed, only the covenant has changed, I less and less see and angry “Sovereign God” always wanting to wreck havoc on his people but a loving Father who truly is responsive to the cries of His beloved.  Again, as a young college age believer described in the post below, I attended a summer Bible study at Third Presbyterian in Richmond hearing a great Scot-preacher teaching on God’s sovereignty from Exodus 32. Here Moses begs God to not destroy Israel for their idolatrous Golden Calf. It says in vs 14 “And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people,” RSV- the only translation I had at the time, no NIV yet. 

"Wow, what power Moses had," I thought, to make God repent! 

But I also had memorized Numbers 23:19 in the RSV

“God is not man, that he should lie,

or a son of man, that he should repent.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it?”

So later I asked a resident scholar at the Christian Study Center in Charlottesville about this seeming contradiction in Scripture. As a holder to inerrancy I believed (and still do) Scripture cannot contradict itself. He replied “it's a hermeneutical issue.” I had to look that word up. I was premed at the time. So I never got an answer until I could read Hebrew and change the translation to “relent” (NIV) from “repent” (RSV).

But today, 40 years later, I see something so different in the heart of God. Back then I knew God as good, sovereign, and in control. His goodness would preclude Him from doing evil or needing to repent. So we can legitimately change the translation of the Hebrew words to brunt the impact of the RSV. But today I don't need to soften these words. I am discovering the God of the Old Covenant to be the same as the God of the New, He is not an angry ogre. He is a loving Dad who wants nothing more than His kids’ hearts, to live in perfect love and devotion with them.

When Moses cried out in Exodus 32 or Amos in 7.3, God did repent of the calamity he was about to bring. Repentance means to change your mind, your direction, your intention. Hearing Moses’ cries, seeing his tears, feeling Moses’ heart all made God’s heart arise and say “NO, I will not destroy the ones I love.” Though they truly deserved it. Though to some degree we all deserve it. 

God responds to our hearts. He’s a good Dad. Perfect in his righteousness, perfect in his justice, perfect in his love. These do not war against each other, one is not greater than the other. Love does not win over righteousness or justice. His righteousness is not exceeded by his love as the old Honeytree song said that I listened to in college. Perfection is completeness and wholeness, intricate and profound, totally and particularly satisfying.

Sovereign God responds! Adonai Yahweh is Spirit. Yahweh Elohim is Love. El Shaddai is Father. Love responds to the object of His love- you and me!

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This is why we pray.

Allen's testimony of Receiving Father's Love shared at "Growing the Church in the Power of the Holy Spirit" Black Mountain, NC, May 2017

Law and Life, the Do's and the Don'ts

Why does the Law bring death though it is good? Isn't this a contradiction? So many today strive to be free from the Law. The Law is best encompassed in the 10 Commandments. 9 of those are “Thou shalt nots”. Why shall we not? Because doing those things hurts our relationship, with God and man, breaking fellowship, ruining love. “Thou shalt not” does not produce life, but it does protect life. When asked what is the sum of the Law, Jesus goes to the next chapter of Deuteronomy and cites Moses (6.5) “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” That is the sum of what we do.

The one commandment of the 10 that is a positive injunction, something we do, is to “honor our father and mother.” Why that? Because in that relationship is the pipeline of experiential love. If we dishonor our parents we, for our part, shut off our hearts to comforting, outflowing love.  Honoring our parents is the “on earth” side keeping our lives receptive to heaven side love. Law is good because it protects what is good.

But prohibitions do not bring life.  Obedience is not merely not doing what is wrong. Biblical Obedience is listening, hearing, responding; residing, remaining, and abiding. We love because God loved us first. We love God because our hearts respond to Him loving us first. “God can only be truly loved in response,” (Steve Hill, Primal Hope, pg 145).

All our religious strivings to obey, i.e. to do the right thing, ultimately defeat us because we cannot give out from the place of emptiness. Obedience flows out of the full well of love. Rivers of living water spring up from the heart that is being nourished and amply supplied. We wrongly think that if we just try harder the next time we will do better. No, the secret is to stop trying, admit our total incapacity and even unwillingness, and say “Father, I need you. Abba, please love me right now. Hold me. Forgive me. Fill me.” And then the burden becomes easy and the yoke becomes light because we are walking together again in unity.

Have you noticed that so much of the Law is prohibition? What thou shalt not do? It's hard to know what to do when all the guidance we get is what we are not to do. When love is our rule, not “Law” as in prohibited activity, but rule is in motivation, we are free. The “Law of the Spirit of Life” sets us free from the Law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). We live “according to” or “down from” or “through” the Spirit. Spirit life here isn't describing signs and wonders and power ministry but love and fruit and relationship. Spirit life pours the love of God into our hearts (Romans 5.5) and the more our hearts receive the freer we become and the more revelation we receive to know what to do and not just what not to do. When we live in love we know.