Return to Me

Have you been on an unfamiliar freeway, missed your turn-off, and had to go 3 miles before exiting and returning? It might have made your trip easier if it were like Disneyland’s Autopia where cars travel on a guide track that doesn’t allow any wrong turns!  After writing yesterday’s post on the divine prohibition against making “right or left turns,” I wanted to make sure you know about God's 'return policy.'

God is not about prohibitions and heartless commandments. His path is meant for our good, immediately and ultimately. It gives Him pleasure when we choose His straight path. But the highway to holiness doesn’t have guide rails. We have choices. In the Bible, ‘turning to the right or to the left’ always implies man’s unfaithfulness (Deut. 2:27; 5:32; Josh. 1:7; 1 Kings 22:2). But don’t worry; God waits for us to ‘straighten up’ before He graciously steps in to ‘straighten us out!’

“The Lord waits for you to come to Him so He can show you His love and compassion. He will be gracious if you ask for help. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries. So whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the [straight] way, walk in it. Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved’” (Is. 30:18, 21, 15, edited). Like the prodigal’s loving father, He patiently waits for us to come back.  He has a very generous return policy!

'Doing' Church Adam Sandler-Style

Because I read a lot about the American Church, I know I'm not the only one concerned about the direction our "seeker-friendly" worship services are going.  It seems we are trying so hard not to seem "peculiar" that we have forgotten we are indeed called to be a "peculiar people" (1 Pet 2:9).

In our local assembly last Sunday, two associate pastors decided to commemorate Father’s Day by having a contest of all men (not just fathers) to see who was the manliest. They had all the men stand up, and then asked a series of very silly questions. If you couldn’t answer the question affirmatively, you would have to sit down. The last man standing was the manliest. What were these silly questions? “Have you ever killed your own dinner?” “Have you ever removed your body hair with duct tape?” and “Can you burp the alphabet?” were just a few.  The latter seemed to me to be more appropriate for an Adam Sandler movie than a worship service. Just when I thought the silliness would never end, they did another round to find the most sensitive man, and those questions just as silly. ‘What a shame,’ I thought. Instead of honoring godly fathers, they joked away the time with crude stereotypes of masculinity. Anyone who likes Adam Sandler films, known for their juvenile humor, would have loved it.

Is there any objective criteria for what is appropriate for a worship service? Consider this: “There must be no filthiness or silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but… fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise” (Eph 5:4; Philip 4:8).

You May be Left-Handed, but You Better Be Right-Footed!

When I was a teen-ager, I had to go to an orthodontist to get my teeth straightened. Of Greek origin, the word ‘ortho’ means “straight,” or “right.” There was something wrong with my teeth—the braces made them “right.” Orthopedic shoes are made for people who may have something wrong with their feet; the shoes make their feet “right.”

The old English word “upright” is the Greek word “orthopodeo” combining the words “straight” or “right” with the word “foot.” The Bible commands us to be upright, which means, quite literally, “right-footed.” While the word “upright” is used only once in the New Testament (Gal. 2:14), it is used many times in the Old. God commends Job as a perfect and upright man: he was rightly related to God. Significantly, after King David took a wrong moral turn in his life, he asked God to “renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10). Solomon uses the word for a person on a journey: “if you acknowledge the Lord in all your ways, the Lord will make your path straight [right] (Prov. 3:6). In other words, you won’t get lost—you will always be going the right way.

So, if you want to follow Jesus, you must be ‘right-footed.’ And if you are consistently right-footed, God will even turn your right foot into a “hinds” foot. (The hind is a female deer that is able to move easily across rocky terrain without losing its footing.) “He makes my feet like hinds' feet, and sets me upon my high places” (Ps. 18:33). Don’t you wish being upright was as easy as wearing orthopedic shoes!? You may be tired of tripping over your left feet, but God is more than able to keep you from stumbling (Jude 24 NLT) and lead you on the right path (Ps. 16:11).