Experiencing God Is Not the Same As Knowing God

Experiencing God

Our generation stresses the experience of God. That is important. But it is possible to experience God without understanding or knowing God.

The ancient Israelites experienced God.

And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: "You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders." (Deuteronomy 29:2-3)

They saw the ten plagues. They saw how God destroyed the Egyptian army. They saw water spring forth out in the desert. They saw food appear from heaven every morning. They saw God as a cloud by day and as a pillar of fire by night. They heard his voice! They experienced much of God and his power.

Yet the Israelites did not comprehend or know God.

But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. (Deuteronomy 29:4)

Moses rightly saw the reason for the Israelites lack of understanding. They had no eyes to see or ears to hear. Their experiences meant nothing because God had not given them a heart to understand.

Jesus

Jesus echoed the same words.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 11:15)

And he said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Mark 4:9)

Jesus preached and taught the crowds. But he rightly understood that the teaching would bear no fruit unless God caused and granted understanding (Mark 4:11-12).

What Do We Do?

What if you examine your heart and realize that you do not truly believe in God? What if you realize that you have only experienced his power without truly comprehending his heart? What if he is not really your Father but just your Creator? Beg God for help! Beg him to help you to believe. God sees your struggle and is eager to help.

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)

What if you read the Bible and it is just a series of boring words chained together that mean nothing to you? Beg God to open your eyes to see and taste beauty in his Word!

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. (Psalm 119:18)

Deuteronomy's Guide to Compassionate Capitalism

Do Not Maximize Profits

Wall Street pushes companies to maximize its profits. Deuteronomy gives a mandate for when and why we should not do that.

When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this. (Deuteronomy 24:19-22)

It is very counter intuitive for a farmer to not gather everything that grows on his farm. Leave some for the poor? How would that apply to us today? Perhaps it means that a percentage of the productive capacity of every company ought to be distributed to the poor.
 
Some Forms of Stealing Is Not Stealing

If a farmer does not gather all that grows on his farm, then how do the poor get to it? Well, the poor have to go and take it. The earlier verses implied it, the following verses make it explicit.

If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain. (Deuteronomy 23:24-25)

Yes, that sounds so weird to let the poor come and take what is yours. But there is a provision to ensure that you're not pillaged. If they use a tool, then they've taken too much. If they use their hands, then you let them have what they want. It would be like a grocery store letting the poor take whatever they can carry in their hands, but not if they use bags. I'm not advocating petty theft. This should only apply for the destitute poor. 99.99% of us are not poor that way.

Fairness to Fight Oppression

Those who have money often oppress those who do not have money. The Bible clearly teaches that those who have money ought not to do that. Don't use money to lord over people. Instead, give people what is due them. This command is unique because it is one of the Jewish laws that applied to both Jews and Gentiles. They understood that this type of fairness ought to be universal.

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin. (Deuteronomy 24:14-15)

This verse isn't advocating that we go away from a monthly payroll system so that we all become day laborers. The point is to pay people regularly so that we do not take advantage of the poor. I take it one step further because I think that paying people regularly to ensure they are not oppressed also implies that doing X to oppress people is bad. Now X can mean many things. In our day and age, most companies follow the law and pay people regularly. But they don't always go above and beyond the law. Sometimes the law allows X, but X actually oppresses the poor. So we should go above and beyond the letter of the law and love others out of oppression.
 
Generous Lending
 
Be generous.

You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. (Deuteronomy 23:19-20)

Some take this to mean that we should never make loans with interest. I don't think so. In another circumstance, Jesus even condemned those who wasted the opportunity to make money by charging interest.

Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest? (Luke 19:23)

So I think the statement to not charge interest should be taken in the context of loving the poor. It makes sense because sometimes people would lend money by taking collateral. That is a form of profit because you can use the collateral for something. In the cases of collateral taking, God commands that we be willing to give up the very collateral we took.

When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 24:10-13)

Imagine if we applied this today. Then we wouldn't have banks that would charge exhorbitant interest to the poor. We wouldn't charge them crazy loans and then take their houses away from them when they can't pay it.
 
And for what purpose? That we may be righteous before God. So, love the poor.

Why PETA Is Right About Animal Cruelty

The Bible Sides with PETA

People who follow the Bible often scoff at animal lovers like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). We also group environmentally friendly tree huggers with them.

We do so because we properly understand that human beings are unique in all of creation. Human beings are the only creatures created in the image of God. We are the ones given the mandate to rule, manage, and govern over all of creation. We are the masters of this earth -- not chickens or oak trees.

Yet, the Bible is concerned with how humans treat animals and trees. Surprisingly, we find provisions against animal cruelty in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. These two books come with ample instructions on how to slaughter and kill animals as part of the religious sacrificial system. Yet even in these two books, God made provisions against animal cruelty.

God Cares

God cares enough about the emotional bond of a mother animal and her young to regulate when one can kill a mother or her young.

When an ox or sheep or goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as a food offering to the LORD. But you shall not kill an ox or a sheep and her young in one day. (Leviticus 22:27-28)

God cares enough about the cruelty of eating a young animal that was cooked with its mother's milk.

You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. (Deuteronomy 14:21)

God cares about sustainable eating.

If you come across a bird's nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long. (Deuteronomy 22:6-7)

God cares about sustainable tree chopping.

When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls. (Deuteronomy 20:19-20)

Loving PETA Like Loving Abba

So don't scoff at PETA. Love them because the people who make up PETA are created in the image of God. Love them because you are called to love God.

We ought to agree with PETA and treat animals ethically because the Bible tells us to. So agree with them, but, ask them how we ought to judge treatment as ethical or unethical? What is the standard?

I remember that PETA got very upset with how chickens and ducks are hung in Chinatown.



Well, Chinese people have been hanging chickens and ducks this way for thousands of years. That doesn't make it ethical for Westerners, but from the perspective of the Chinese, it is an ethical way of treating animals.

Leviticus and Deuteronomy implore me to treat animals ethically. That is why I agree with PETA in that we ought to treat animals ethically. But what rationale can PETA give for agreeing with itself?

PETA is called PETA because it stands for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals." It is not called PCTA because it does not stand for "People for the Cultural Treatment of Animals." If it was simply cultural, then the Chinese should be able to hang their ducks however they want.

PETA is not in the business of imposing cultural preferences. It is in the business of imposing its vision of ethical and moral behavior on everyone else through legisation. But wait, should we even legislate morality? Isn't that very faux pas in our day and age? What right does PETA have to impose its moral values on everyone?

We're All Animals

Besides, we're just animals. At least that is what I was taught in school.

In the oceans, sharks kill tunas. They do it very unethically. They bite into them and chew them up while they are still alive.



Lions do the same to zebras.



If we're just animals, then we ought to be able to eat our food however we want to. But we're not just animals. We're human beings created in the image of God. PETA members are human beings created in the image of God. We ought to behave ethically both in how we eat our food and in how we treat PETA.

God the Father Cursed God the Son to Redeem Man from Adam's Curse

Cursed by God

God the Father cursed Jesus, God the Son, by hanging him on the cross.

And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. (Deuteronomy 21:22-23)

Willed and Destined

The Father willed Jesus to be cursed.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief. (Isaiah 53:7-10)

The Father destined Jesus to be cursed.

Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know -- this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. (Acts 2:22-23)

"Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed" -- for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. (Acts 4:25-28)

The Father destined Jesus to be cursed before the creation of the world.

Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. (Revelation 13:7-8)

Jesus Agreed

Jesus died because he wanted to.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. (John 10:18)

Jesus died when he wanted to.

We are Cursed

Adam was cursed. The curse involved economic hardship and ultimately -- death.

And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Genesis 3:17-19)

We are all cursed because we are all descendants of Adam.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man... (Romans 5:12)

We are all cursed because we are all law breakers.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." (Galatians 3:10)

Redeemed from the Curse

The cross was a symbol of the cursed man on the tree. The early church interpreted Jesus' death on the cross in light of Deuteronomy 21.

The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. (Acts 5:30)

And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. (Acts 10:39)

And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. (Acts 13:29)

Jesus was cursed in our place so that we may be saved through faith in Jesus.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" -- so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:13-14)

The Curse Brought Death and the Death of Christ Ends Death

Adam's curse resulted in death for him and for us all.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Genesis 3:19)

Our own sins compounded with the Adam's sin doubly judge us and result in our death.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

For the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)

Death is all around us. The entire world order is subject to death and futility. But one day that will change! All of creation waits for that day!

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:20-21)

Jesus put on our curse on the cross and triumphed over the penalty of sin by rising again from the dead so that those who are united with him will rise from the dead like him.

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:4-5)

Christians wait to be clothed with new bodies that will never be corrupted by cancer, greed, or lust.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. (Romans 8:22-24)

So what can we do but celebrate and praise God for the death of death in the death of Christ?

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

Let us put our hope in Jesus, who was cursed in our place!

So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. (John 7:30)

God Sometimes Saves Trees but Kills Babies and Puppies

Babies and Puppies

The Bible always changes the way I view the world. I realize I come to God's Word with so many preconceived notions that he has to constantly shatter. He did that for me today in my reading of Deuteronomy.

Moses gives a set of commands on how to wage war against far away cities. First, offer terms of peace. If they accept, enslave them. If they don't accept, kill every male. But take every woman, female child, and animal to enjoy as a spoil of war. This didn't really shock me. I knew about this.

When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. And when the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. (Deuteronomy 20:1-14)

Those rules only applied to far away cities. For cities that are part of the land that God gave them as an inheritance, God had a different set of rules. There should be no offer for terms of peace. Everything dies: male, female, adult, child, human or animal.

But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded. (Deuteronomy 20:15-17)

Trees

But not everything dies. God specifically makes a provision to save trees that bear fruit.

When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls. (Deuteronomy 20:19-20)

God makes a provision for saving trees that bear fruit! But trees that do not bear fruit could be used to build weapons that kill babies and puppies. Every human and every animal had to be put to destruction.

Why?

Why would God spare far away women and female children, and nearby trees, but command the destruction of everything else?

But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 20:15-18)

The reason God commaned the destruction of men, women, children, and animals was to ensure that the Israelites would not be led astray to sin. Now, I can see how the men and even the women could lead the Israelites astray. But think about it, how could young children or animals lead them astray? How could an ox or a dog or a donkey or a 2 year old teach a grown up to worship a foreign God?

I am not one to contradict God. So there must be a way in which an ox or a dog or a donkey or a 2 year old can lead us astray to worship foreign Gods.

I have an older brother. When I was five years old, I remember seeing my dad discipline him for disobedience. I hid in the kitchen and watched my dad spank my brother in the living room. It put so much fear in me that I was and still am today a very obedient child to my parents. I remember thinking to myself, "Brother, just listen to them and obey them!"

I think God commanded the Israelites to destroy babies and animals so that the Israelites, and us, would understand how holy God is and how much God hates sin. If I were an Israelite at that time, the very thought of knowing that disobedience to God leads to complete destruction would make me pause before I would think about worshiping a different God. Holding my newborn child would be a constant reminder of the punishment of sin.

So, out of love for the Israelites, God needed them to see his hatred for sin. The local people groups served as an example of that. If you sin, you will die like them. How did they die? Horribly. How much did they die? Completely.

Is that not the purpose of knowing the horrors of hell? To remind us of God's holiness and hatred for sin? And to remind us of his grace toward us who are called to believe (Romans 9:22-24)?

Litmus Tests for Prophets and What They Mean for Your Heart

There are two ways I've seen modern folks acting as prophets of God. The first are the ones who proclaim future events that God has uniquely spoken to them about. The second are the ones who interpret the Scriptures and proclaim what is written in them.

There are litmus tests to ensure the validity of both types of prophets.

Does It Come True

If a prophet declares the future and the future is not as the prophet predicted, then the prophet is found to be a false prophet.

And if you say in your heart, "How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?" -- when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:21-22)

The death penalty was the punishment due to those who prophesied falsely. I think there would be far fewer modern prophets of the sort who can predict the future if we took the punishment seriously.

But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. (Deuteronomy 18:20)

Even If It Comes True

Accuracy of a prophecy is not the only litmus test. It only gets you past the first round. The more important test is if what the prophet declares correlates with the Scriptures.

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, "Let us go after other gods," which you have not known, "and let us serve them," you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. (Deuteronomy 13:1-3)

So even if a prophet declares things that come to pass, do not listen to them if the prophet asks you to worship another god. Now, if a prophet is sly, he will not ask you to worship a demon, because everyone knows that demons ought not to be worshiped. The false prophet will do his best to give you a form of Christianity that is not Christianity. He would do his best to give you Jesus -- but not Jesus as he claimed to be. He may present you Jesus as the highest angel, or as a good moral teacher, but not as the always divine Son of God of the Trinity.

Even If It Correlates with the Scriptures

We must be careful even of prophets that accurately declare the future and faithfullly proclaim the Word of God. Paul gives us one more test.

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. (2 Timothy 3:1-9)

If a prophet's life does not correlate with love and godliness, then everything else is worthless. Beware of them.

False Prophets Test Us

You may be thinking that God is asking us to test prophets, but in reality, he is testing us. The manner in which we wean out false prophets from true prophets speaks volumes about the conditions of our hearts.

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, "Let us go after other gods," which you have not known, "and let us serve them," you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 13:1-3)

If we don't care if a prophet can predict the future, then we don't really care about God's power. If we only care if a prophet can predict the future, then we really only care about demonstrations of power. We are nothing more than wonder seekers.

If we don't care if a prophet's words correlate with the Scriptures, then we don't really care about truth. If we only care if a prophet's words correlate with the Scriptures, then we really only care about truth as irrelevant facts. We are nothing more than dead scholars and trivia junkies.

If we don't care if a prophet's life is filled with holiness, then we don't really care about God's nature. If we only care if a prophet appears holy, then we really only care about appearances. We are nothing more than ascetic kill joys.

We must apply and live out all three tests. Together, they guard our hearts. Ultimately, how we deal with false prophets shows whether we truly love God or not. We are the ones being tested. So apply all three tests to pass your test.

The Most Dangerous Temptation for Politicians, Celebrities, Good Looking People, Jocks, Pastors, and Bosses

The Most Dangerous Temptation

We all suffer many forms of temptations, but I think one is especially tempting.

For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (1 Corinthians 4:7)

We have a tendency to believe that the good differences we have compared to other people are our achievement. Think about it. If you're shorter than someone else, you blame God. If you're taller than someone else, you think you're awesome. We all struggle with some form of this type of puffing up of ourselves because we do not believe that what we have is a gift from God apart  from any merit.

Know the Law

This temptation is especially true for those who have power. And who has more power than a sovereign king of a country? If the highest law of the United States of America is the Constitution. The highest law of ancient Israel was Deuteronomy. And through Israel's "Constitution", God made a provision, or process, for how Israel could institute its own king.

And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)

The process of instituting a new king was created to ensure that the new king was righteous and would fear God. The king had to copy all of Deuteronomy, by hand. The hope was that knowledge of the law would humble the king.

You see, anyone who has power, has the tendency to be corrupted  by the power and assume that he is above others who do not have power. That is why politicians, celebrities, good looking people, jocks, pastors, and  bosses have a tendency to abuse power because we assume that the power given to us is our own and not ultimately from God.

Live Below Your Means

I've always been taught, as a good fiscal conservative, to be a good financial steward by living within your means. But I think the biblical principle goes beyond living within your means to living below your means for the purpose of humility so that we are not puffed up against others.

Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, "You shall never return that way again." And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. (Deuteronomy 17:16-17)

You can substitute horses for cars, mansions, and iPads. They mean any type of material object that can be used to turn our hearts away from God.

Before you laugh and think that having many wives does not apply to us modern folks -- just think of Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton, Anthony Wiener, Rush Limbaugh, Tedd Haggard, and Larry Ellison. The more power we have, the more likely we are to stumble.

The means of fighting that temptation is by living below our means. The "Chan" referenced in the following paragraph is Francis Chan, not me.

The answer to that question brought about change in Chan's life, both personally and professionally. Personally, Chan and his then family of four moved out of their 2000-square-foot house to a 1000-square-foot house. "It was just me, but I couldn’t reconcile how I could live in such a nice house while others were starving," Chan recalls. Since then, the Chan family has added to their number. As Lisa's parents arrived at retirement, the Chans felt it was appropriate to provide a place for them. So they bought a 1200-square-foot house with a bit more property to build an addition. They’ve welcomed two more children into their family and taken in a few more people. "In total, we’ll have 10 of us in the house which will ironically be about 2000 square feet."

Should we judge someone by the size of their house? May be, may be not. RC Sproul lives in a huge mansion. Is it just smear? May be, may be not.

Jonathan Edwards was kicked out of his own church over issues related to money. The general judgement of the Church, 300 years later, is that he was wrongly accused.

I bring the lives of Francis Chan, RC Sproul, and Jonathan Edwards to show that there is much range in how to apply these verses. Yet, nonetheless, we must not let this range be an excuse for us to not meditate on how God wants us to apply these verses. They were written for a reason. We must apply them. They were written to give us boundaries in living so that we would fear God and not puff up ourselves against other people.