There is a place in Luke where Jesus tells his disciples what they must do when a brother sins against them.

Luke 17:4:

“if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent’,’ you must forgive him.”

Most of us believe this, but get a lump in our gut when we think about what that situation might actually look like. How do you forgive someone who continues to wrong you? It’s hard to do. Most of us give people three or four chances before we give up.

But the disciples heard this, recognized how difficult it was and responded to Jesus’ command. It’s telling, isn’t it?

“Increase our faith!”

William Jenkyn shares the simplest cure for pride:

“Our father was Adam, our grandfather dust, our great-grandfather, nothing.”

How easy is it to think only in the realm of humanity. Comparing ourselves and our work only to other people. The hierarchy of skills and accomplishments becomes potent. But step back only for a moment and look at the bigger picture and all the levels drop to zero.

We remember that we’re descendants of dust and that it’s only by God’s design and grace that we weren’t born squirrels or raccoons. Huge potential is at the end of our fingertips, but in the same way dust doesn’t accomplish anything itself—neither do we.

The final verse of the Bible’s longest chapter, Psalm 119, is one that ever honest Christian must find a potent connection to.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
   for I do not forget your commandments.

Even in our worst follies, failures and wanderings, Jesus is not too far away to retrieve us. Nor has he ceased to be our shepherd.

Furthermore, when a true Christian has begun to wander, the Lord’s commandments don’t. They continue to press on the believer’s heart and the Holy Spirit from within must be repeating this prayer on our behalf. “Lord, seek your servant!”

Even in sin, Jesus is the encouragement of life.

My favorite part of the Old Testament is definitely the stories of Elijah and Elisha. I suppose because they’re some of the most potent places we see God’s power moving directly through a person. Plus, they’re just plain cool… maybe even bad-ass. (Though I’m not sure that’s the best reason to appreciate it).

Reading in 1st Kings about Elijah this morning, I came upon the story of Elijah’s God-off with prophets of Baal. The story where the prophets of Baal and Elijah each build an alter and slaughter a bull on it, then ask their respective God to consume the offering with fire. The God who responds is the true God.

Of course the prophets of Baal chant and dance around and mutilate themselves and nothing happens. Meanwhile Elijah goes out of his way to make it impossible for the offering to burn by dumping water all over it and building a trench to catch the water. Still, God consumes the whole alter and all the water with fire and the people watching are stunned and fall down declaring the Lord is the true God.

Right before all this though Elijah provokes the other prophets and people with these words. 1 Kings 18:21:

"How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." And the people did not answer him a word.

I think these words are haunting. Although almost no one, especially Christians, are torn between the Lord and some definite false deity, nearly everyone offers at least a portion of their worship to something other than God. Money, power, love, family, success, even ministry.

Elijah’s words are potent to us who are Christians. “Well which is it, is your _____________ (fill in the blank; money, power, success, etc.) the God you will serve, or is it the Lord God in heaven?”

Because as Jesus said, you cannot serve two masters. Yet we continue to try and split our attention. We will probably struggle with that till the day we die. But as Elijah proved to the prophets of Baal, even the most rigorous tests of God’s power prove that God is the Lord of all and always prevails.

If we want to really enjoy him and live our fullest in him, we have to choose and live that choice.

Psalm 119:71:

It is good for me that I was afflicted,
   that I might learn your statutes.

The Psalmist expresses the very attitude toward our condition that we all ought to have.

I think most would agree, with a sober assessment, that the times in our lives that are truly free of difficulty, pain and failure are the minority. Instead, those times make up most of what we experience and stand to make the others that much sweeter. If we didn’t know a better way, most would live with regrets and disappointments.

But, like the Psalmist says, “It is good for me that I was afflicted.” It’s in those times that we do our greatest growing—learning to trust God’s word and decisions in our lives.

Psalm 119:55-56 (ESV):

I remember your name in the night, O LORD,
   and keep your law.
This blessing has fallen to me,
   that I have kept your precepts.

This is an interesting translation of this scripture. No other version that I read used that word “blessing” in verse 56. Whether the translation is the best, I don’t know. But I think the sentiment is apt nonetheless.

To obey God is a blessing from God which stands in a bizarre tension with our own human responsibility for our actions.

But whether direct or indirect in influence, all good things come from God—with all the evil that my hands have the potential to perform, it is God that keeps me from the worst of it.

I’ve just begun reading Tim Keller’s new book Counterfeit Gods. Literally, the second page of the introduction and I’m already floored with introspection and personal reassessment.

I will share a brief excerpt from Keller’s introduction, though I’m sure there will be quite the slew of quotations in the forthcoming weeks as I creep through the book.

Keller writes:

“There is a difference between sorrow and despair. Sorrow is pain for which there are sources of consolation. Sorrow comes from losing one good thing among others, so that, if you experience a career reversal, you can find comfort in your family to get you through it. Despair, however, is inconsolable, because  it comes from losing an ultimate thing. When you lose the ultimate source of your meaning or hope, there are no alternative sources to turn to. It breaks your spirit.”

This resonated with me in some ambiguous way. See, for me, I often struggle with emotions that are difficult to describe in any other way that despair.  The trouble is, I’m uncertain what was “lost” that was so deeply important that it continually produces this posture in my spirit.

Keller continues in his introduction to convincingly explain that we experience despair when we have some ‘counterfeit god’ as a foundation for our hope and joy.

If then, I believe myself to be experiencing despair, it would it would follow that perhaps I have set up something less than God as a god. This is deeply troubling, yet simultaneously telling and stimulating. I can only pray that as I explore this these ideas that the Spirit would speak and reveal truth.

I have only read the introduction, but I already feel like this is a book that many of us should be reading. It’s very reasonably priced. You can buy it here.