August 3rd, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

As I pondered how to summarize an overview of the Israelite’s history as they settled into the land during the time of Joshua and then encountered all kinds of drama through the period of the judges, this verse was echoing in my heart.

Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

Psalm 86:11

An undivided heart. God longs for us to have undivided hearts that are focused only on Him. It is why He began the ten commandments like this:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

Exodus 20:2-3

It is why Moses pleaded with the people in his final address, “Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.“ (Deuteronomy 4:39) Why Joshua cried out these familiar words in his own final address:

“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua 24:14-15

Interestingly, the people responded vigorously to Joshua’s address, claiming that they would never turn their backs on the LORD in favor of the false gods of Canaan.

Sadly, that is exactly what they did.

The book of Judges is a horrifying tale of depravity, starting badly and cycling downward until it leaves us with some of the most disturbing stories in the pages of Scripture. [We took a more in-depth look at Judges here.] Judges 2:19 summarizes the state of the nation succinctly:

But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

Divided hearts. They refused to give up their idolatry, the evil practices they loved, they refused to bow their knee to the God who demanded their whole hearts and souls and lives. Oh, they gave Him a portion of their hearts – after all, He was the one they would cry out to in distress – but not all. Their hearts were divided, and they did not fear God’s name.

So, as I ponder these portions of Scripture, I am left with this staggering reminder of how very quickly our hearts can become divided, how quickly my heart becomes divided. Oh, I want to love and serve God, but am I undivided in my focus? Or have other things – even worthwhile things – crept into my life and heart and divided my affections?

Undivided hearts cause us to fear and love and worship the Lord in all aspects of our lives, mundane or extraordinary. Divided hearts allow idolatry, pride, stubbornness, and rebellion to sneak into our hearts and lives and destroy us. Sometimes we have divided hearts even while loudly proclaiming our single-minded focus on the Lord who rescued and saved us, just as the Israelites did.

We must choose for ourselves this day whom we will serve – who is it going to be? And before we point to the “as for me and my household” plaque on the wall of our living rooms… let us seriously reflect: who are we really serving with our time, energy, emotion, talents, money? Do we have undivided hearts? Do we fear His name?

He is the only one worthy of our undivided focus – give it to Him freely, for it is painful when He must demand the adoration He is due.

We’re continuing our One Summer, One Story series – a fast-paced overview of the “big story” of the Bible! Missed anything? Find all the past posts here. Just a reminder, also, that we have two different “blog ministry projects” going on right now – please consider joining us for Got Milk? and the SOS Project – because although the problems are overwhelming, our God really IS BIGGER!

July 7th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

Image via Wikipedia

For hundreds of years in Egypt, God’s people flourished – and then they were brutally enslaved. God never forgot them. He had not forsaken them. He was waiting – waiting while the family of Jacob, later named Israel, grew to a number great enough to become the nation of people He promised. He waited until the hearts of the Egyptians were bitter and hard against Him and His people. He waited until His glory could be fully revealed as He redeemed His people.

Notice Pharaoh’s response when Moses first takes him God’s command to let His people go.

“Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.” (5:2, NIV)

Pharaoh asked who He was – who is this God who claims He has the authority to take the Israelites out of their enslavement? What kind of God would send a humble, trembling man with a speech impediment in to the most powerful ruler on earth and boldly demand such a thing?

The plagues that follow seem to be God’s glorious and fearsome introduction of Himself to the Egyptians – and even His own people who had lived in Egyptian culture for so long – as the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the one true God who is supreme over all the gods of Egypt. Over and over again God states that the purpose of the plagues is that they will know that He is the LORD.

When God turns the mighty Nile river to blood, it seems to be a direct statement against the Egyptian god Hapi, spirit of the Nile in flood and “giver of life to all men.”

This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.

Exodus 7:17-18

Not only did the Egyptians worship a god of the Nile, one of their gods was the frog-headed goddess, Hekt. Hekt was worshipped as a fertility goddess and credited with a role in the origin of the earth. Interesting that God uses frogs with uncontrollable fertility to plague the Egyptians with the very thing they worshipped.

Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”

“Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.

Moses replied, “It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the LORD our God. The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile.”

Exodus 8:9-11

Another member of Egypt’s large pantheon of gods and goddesses was the sky goddess Nut, mother of the sun-god Ra. She was she was supposed to protect the land from destruction which came down from heaven. Notice what God says to Pharaoh (through Moses) before violently pummeling the land of Egypt with hail:

…this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.

Exodus 9:14

The last plague, the death of the firstborn, was obviously the most painful for the Egyptians. It was not only against the supreme god of Egypt, Pharaoh himself, but also against the future pharaoh, his son, the very next god (Horus) of Egypt.

God is the only true God, the only One worthy of honor and worship, the only true creator of heaven and earth, the only one. These opening chapters of Exodus scream to us – “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.” (Isaiah 42:8)

The gods of Egypt were obvious and tangible – the idols in our own lives are much more subtle. He will not give His glory to another.

We must examine our hearts and ask God to show us anything in our lives that is stealing glory and honor due to Him alone – if we do not surrender it willingly, it may ultimately destroy us. He is the only One.

*Information about Egyptian gods was taken from The Plagues and the Exodus by Dr. David Livingston.

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May 3rd, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

Image via Wikipedia

I live with a 3 and 5 year old. Sometimes I wonder how many times a day do I hear them call, “Mom!”

Sometimes it is endearing, but often…

• It is simply a verbalized whine – “moooo-oooommmmmm” I want a snack/ I’m thirsty/ she hit me/ I’m bored/ I can’t find my toy…
• It is spoken as a command or to infer guilt- “Mom, you didn’t give us a snack.” Sure enough, I didn’t.
• It is not even used in reference to me- “Mom! Mom!” I respond and then hear, “no, not you! We’re playing house.”
• It is simply a place-filler, something to say when you don’t really have anything else to say

As you other moms of young children can relate to… it gets old. Some days I want to change my name! “‘Mom‘ doesn’t live here any more – if you would like my attention you must refer to me as ‘your royal highness.‘”

A while back I began to think of how this relates to the 10 commandments, specifically the third.

“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God…”

Exodus 20:7

In our culture we have wandered far from a good understanding of what it means to fear God and hold His name in high regard. It’s fascinating to me that this command is listed with such a high priority… and yet we really don’t often think deeply about what it really means.

I’m guessing that the majority of my readers aren’t often swearing and blatantly misusing the name of God – and if you are, you know that it’s wrong. But, what about the subtle ways that we misuse His name… the ways we might even promote in Christian culture? How often do we misuse His holy name in overly familiar ways… ways that I relate to even in how my children use my title as their mother?

I often hear/read Christians using God’s name lightly. I’ve seen the name and titles of our holy God used as punch lines in children’s knock-knock jokes. I’ve heard God’s name sung in silly, disrespectful ways – children delight in the songs not because they are worshipping God, but because the songs are fun – and they would enjoy them just as much if nonsense words were inserted instead of God’s holy name. I’ve heard adult Christians joke lightly about answering questions in church, throwing out the name of Jesus in a mocking sing-song tone as they imitate children. How often do we pray and insert God’s name here and there as a bit of a space-filler out of habit, not really considering what it means to speak the name of the Creator of the universe and the Savior of our souls?

Hearing my children incessantly use the word “mom” is so frustrating to me – I feel disregarded, sometimes disrespected, often irritated. If that is how I feel about my title “mom,” thinking of how we often trample God’s name through the mud makes me want to weep. As we begin this month considering our speech, this seems to be the best place to start. It is foundational. It is huge. It is a small spark of a word that reflects huge issues going on internally. My friends, God’s name is not a punch line. It is not something to throw around to demand or whine or mock. We must not misuse the name of the Lord our God.

Do you revere His name, regard it as holy, and speak it with the reverence He is due? Are we teaching our children to regard the name of God as holy?

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November 11th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

On Friday and Monday we worked our way through the first half of Revelation 9, the “first woe,” which is also the fifth trumpet judgment. Today, let us take a look at the second woe, the sixth trumpet judgment.

The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.

The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

Revelation 9:13-19, NIV

Just as the description of the creatures in the first woe indicated that these were demonic hordes, not actual locusts, this second woe also involves demonic forces. The “four angels” are clearly not holy angels – they are fallen angels, which we typically refer to as demons. Holy angels are fully in submission to God and would not need to be bound, as they obey His commands completely.

Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.
Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will.

Psalm 103:20-21

I have often heard people speculate about where a force of 200 million soldiers could come from. However, the descriptions of the horses and riders, in addition to the fact that this massive army is being led by demonic generals, make a good argument for this army being a supernatural one rather than a human force.

The result of their attack is stunning – one-third of mankind is wiped out.

As we continue on through Revelation it is so easy to become bogged down, discouraged, overwhelmed at the waves of severe judgments. Where is the hope in this?

Today as we consider the darkness of hundreds of millions of demonic soldiers inflicting suffering and death on humanity, lift your eyes with me to who is in control. God is the one who bound these four demonic leaders until just the right time – the text says explicitly that they “had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year.” God is the one who commanded that they be released with the purpose of inflicting judgment.

Surely these demons think that they are serving Satan. They think that they are doing his bidding. But it is still God who is supremely in control.

Yesterday was one of those days when I was a bit overwhelmed by the darkness around us. Amazon was at the center of quite the controversy yesterday for selling a kindle edition of a guide for pedophiles on their site. Due to the nature of my husband’s job, we are probably more aware and cautious of the constant dangers around our children than the average American family. We had some heavy discussion when he arrived home about the depravity of mankind – I wonder how bad things were before the flood, how ugly daily life was in Sodom… how much worse it will get before God’s judgment will come with finality.

Passages like this one in Revelation are reassuring to me, even in their heaviness. They remind me that no matter how deep and prevalent the darkness, God is still on the throne. Even as human and supernatural forces wage war against Him and His people, He alone is sovereign over the affairs of this world.

Be still and wait for Him – we serve a just and righteous God.

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.
For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.

A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.
But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.

Psalm 37:7-11