“On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo…” (CSB – Read the chapter)
When a people is picking up the pieces again after suffering through a season of tragedy, what do they need? That is a question astute observers of culture in Jerusalem late in the 5th century B.C. would have been asking. Interestingly, it is a question that astute observers of culture are asking nowadays as well. As an answer to that question, God sent the Israelites the prophet Zechariah. Now, his words were for them, not us. But perhaps there is still a thing or two we could learn for our own lives. Let’s take a look.
“Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
When I was growing up, I collected useless trivia and ironic sayings. For instance, did you know there are 119 ridges on the edge of a quarter. There will probably never be an occasion you’ll need that particular bit of information, but you probably won’t forget it either. Funny how that works. Do you know what’s also funny? In English we drive on parkways and park on driveways. There are all kinds of paradoxes like that if you pay very close attention to the world around you. Do you know what probably generates more apparent paradoxes than anything else? The Christian faith. Let me explain.
“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Do you have a vision from God? Have you received one? How are you doing with this? God gives us a vision of the work He has for us to do as we seek Him in the routine, day-to-day of our lives. This vision will likely be a function of our passions, interests, abilities, and experiences. It will involve God placing us at the intersection of the world’s need and our passion. He will call us through this vision to the advancement of His kingdom. Read the rest…
“Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
How often does a path into temptation and sin begin with our eyes? The other night we had to run some errands together as a family. As a part of the errand, we gave our boys the chance to spend some birthday money they had been saving up for a while. They knew ahead of time that this was going to happen.
We started the evening at Cracker Barrel for dinner. As we were getting ready to leave, one of them asked if he could buy something from the store there because he had seen something he “really” wanted. When this request was turned down, he started to press a bit harder to get what he wanted. I told him no a second time and observed that he was suffering from “I-see-I-want-itis.”
It’s pretty easy to recognize when little kids have this. They walk into the store and almost immediately start asking for everything. Can I have this? Can I have that? What about that? Oh! this is the thing I’ve always wanted! It’s a pain in the neck to start with, but it also represents a longer-term effort on our part to teach them self-discipline. We know that buying something just because we’ve seen it and had that little flash of desire flare up is almost never wise.
Or do we? You see, the root of “I-see-I-want-itis” is a much larger tendency to let our eyes lead us into sin. And as adults, we are still very much afflicted by it. I don’t know about you, but I experience it in the small when I go to the grocery store without a list (and sometimes even with a list!). We see commercials and are affected just like kids are. The items are different, but the heart is the same. We see television shows or movies and want what those people have relationally. We want what they have economically. We want what they have physically. We let our eyes pass to even less worthwhile things and the descent happens all the more rapidly.
We see, we want, and we pursue it to get that itch scratched. And it feels good because scratching an itch always feels good. But, scratching an itch can become a habit. We can fall into the pattern of scratching every single itch we get. Then we scratch more because it keeps feeling good. Eventually, though, we get a sore. Sores get infected. Infections can kill us if left unchecked.
Just like the psalmist asked for here, we need to learn the discipline of turning our eyes away from worthless things. We can’t go through life with blinders on, but we can learn to assess value quickly and turn away from things that are worthless. We can turn instead to the ways of the Lord. We can turn to His Word and let that be our guide into the ways and patterns that bring life.
The truth about all people is that we tend to let whatever it is that most fills our field of vision determine the direction and quality of our lives. Let us make sure that our field is not filled with things that are worthless, but things that are of eternal value. That is where we will find life.
The Nexus 