Who is most blessed among women? “The Virgin Mary,” all the good little Christians happily answer. And they’d be right. That phrase from Scripture brings joy and images of the angel Gabriel pronouncing Mary to being highly favored and Mary’s cousin Elizabeth recognizing the mother of her Lord. Was God clueless when He records in Scripture that Mary is “most blessed” knowing full well that phrase was originally applied to Jael, Heber’s wife (Judges 4:15-5:31)? Nope. God knew exactly what He was doing. Maybe it’s because of the Tiny Virtue called Resolve … and what it means in combatting evil.

Many Bible commentators don’t like Jael very much.

They fail to see her resolve. 

Blessed among women and used by God in fulfillment of prophecy gets cast away wholesale because she was a woman, treacherous and vile, a calculating murderer, and assassin.

And to boot, she was called that by another woman Deborah in a song, probably with contemporary lyrics.

The Bible, they say, contains all kinds of words that don’t reflect the heart of God but were just truthful records of what evil people spoke. Deborah, they say, wasn’t like a real prophetess anyway.

And women, well, you know that they’ve always been responsible for the evil in this world ever since Eve seduced Adam.

Y-e-ah…

Maybe the reason that God applied that phrase to Mary through Gabriel and Elizabeth and then Mary echoed it herself in The Magnificat is because Mary understood that she was the vessel through whom God would bring His Son to destroy that which was evil in this world.

She was blessed in this historic moment of conceiving and birthing the Messiah who would be victorious over evil!  Long awaited deliverance, because Satan has desired to take down God’s people ever since Eden. To God and to Mary, Jael wasn’t a woman to be thrown away or thrown in jail. She had resolve—a Tiny Virtue –and was a role model for all who would desire to be exemplary Christians.

Do you think Mary needed the encouragement that women braved things for God going way back? To take a stand against evil and to be used by God to do powerful things to further His Kingdom? Certainly I’m glad that God hasn’t called me to do the tent-peg thing, but one doesn’t have to hold a hammer to show resolve in faith, in obedience, and in doing one’s part to battle evil with the sword of the Spirit.

God values resolve and rewards it in those who fear Him.  

The LORD Almighty has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.’” Isaiah 14:24

Ponder today: How is resolve a virtue when applied toward what is good but terrible when devoted to evil? Does your confidence in discerning what is good contribute to…or diminish your resolve?

Bible character of the day: Jael

Ponder today: the Tiny Virtue of Meekness, touching the heart, infusing the mind, and residing in the will

Bible character of the day: Moses (Exodus 3)

I’ve gotta tell you: I am so thoroughly disgusted with Christians right now. Politics have a nasty way of revealing who doesn’t get Christianity and what it’s really about… at all. And worse, perhaps for Christians is that it’s revealing it…to God…and visible to genuine Christians even if the ones being sifted are blind themselves to very test they’re clearly failing.  How I wish they had discernment! 

Discernment, O Christian, where is it?

We need to be a nation like the men of Issachar (v. 32).

We need discernment.

And to understand the times.

* * *

Christians are being played.  And they’re being sifted.

But I get ahead of myself. The way to avoid being played is discernment: to understand what’s beneath the surface. Discernment isn’t natural, it’s developed as a Tiny Virtue for Exemplary Christians. We develop it through Bible study, through prayer, and yes, by experience. I’ve been forced to develop some discernment over my years answering Bible questions. I’ve learned when I’m being played.

In my early days, I watched as Bible teachers, particularly women, do what I call “the dance” of nervous moral panic at the mere word masturbation. I always considered the question serious for the first inquiry of a person, wanting to assume he/she genuinely wanted to know. By the follow-up, I could tell whether the person was just trying to get me to do “the dance” as if I were some roach sprayed with pesticide or whether they were serious.

Christians paying attention to politics, know this: you’re being played. Unless you begin to show some discernment. Christians are being sifted before God in this election so be wise how you live.  It’s about a whole lot more than just a vote.

Are you being played?  Here are some questions to ask yourself–not about the candidates–but about the sources of your information. Yes, even fellow “Christians,” pastors, seminar speakers, Bible teachers, authors, etc.:

• Do their actions convey grace? Ephesians 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
• Do they demonstrate forgiveness even to their enemies? Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you 45 in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
• Do they judge with the manner of judging by which they will welcome examination? Matthew 7:2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
• Do their words and actions offer life and correction? Do they seek to protect or condemn? John 6:63 “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” 66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
• Do their politics interfere with their impartiality? 1 Peter 1:17 “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear.”   James 2:1 My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism.

Bringing this back full circle, my Christian friends:  I am worried for you.  I don’t want for you to be falling away from Christ in favor of a candidate.  Or even against one.  The god of this age is blinding people and getting them to do “the dance”.   Do you seriously believe the very things Satan has been promoting in our culture for decades are suddenly reprehensible to our adversary?  He’s deceiving you.  Please, consider carefully what you’re taking in and whether you’re being taken.  In Tribulation 2016, you’re being tested and it’s far more important than just an election.

Ponder today: how you will fare…in God’s sight…as He sifts you without favoritism for the actions you commit, the words you have spoken, and your willingness to lead others to the source of Life or condemn those who need Him.  Do you know discernment?

Matthew 11: 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ‘But wisdom is proved right by her actions.” 20 Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.

Bible characters of the day: the men of Issachar

It takes guts to stand up to powerful people and the institutions they operate. It requires boldness. But most people don’t want to face the criticism they’ll receive for resisting the powerful. If you’ve never tried to stand up to a powerful force for evil and taken a beating for it, boldness might seem like a foreign concept, but it’s actually a tiny virtue.  It’s a missing virtue.  We need more people–not fewer people–to stand against evil.  If not Christians, then who?

We’ve been looking at Tiny Virtues for Exemplary Christian Living and the character virtues like boldness are what I’ve called “cluster virtues” because they’re closely related to others, they touch our hearts and minds, contribute to our character, but they reside in the will. Boldness willingly lays one’s life on the line for a cause greater than oneself.  That’s why Christians ought to be the boldest among us.

Boldness was a concept Stephen knew something about. His own character was in order and recognized as such (Acts 6:5-8). That’s not what made him bold, though. What made him bold was the message he brought (Acts 7). He brought the truth.

The truth is that great leaders like Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron were deeply flawed men. They lied, they bragged, they killed, and they did the people’s bidding instead of God’s… yet, God used them to bring a pattern of the Messiah to come. Stephen pointed out that truth and proclaimed boldly that people have long rejected and persecuted men whom God was using, the capstone being the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you ever been bold?  If not, why not?

Ponder today: “When GOD wants to do an impossible task He takes an impossible man and crushes him.” (Alan Redpath).  How does this apply to men in a way it did not apply to Jesus?

Bible character of the day: Stephen

There’s a common tale about pit bulls, that they have special jaws that grab and lock their prey. In truth their jaws are not different in structure at all from any other dog. It’s the pit bull’s personality where the grab and lock occurs. It’s a hard-wired tenacity that is part of the breed.

Tenacity may not be hard-wired in Christians, but it is a Tiny Virtue when tenacity meets up with mettle—that moral courage–of someone who grips God and will not let go.

Tenacity alone is not virtuous at all. Directed toward the immoral, it becomes the purest of evil. Directed toward self, it becomes stubbornness. The only way it’s virtuous is when it involves gripping God and His truth….and refusing to let go. Even when the path forward seems impossible.

Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew what it was like to grip God with tenacity and never let go.

Daniel 3: 16 “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

In spite of the punishments of a fiery furnace (Daniel 3:1-30) or the mouth of the lion for Daniel (Daniel 6:5-27), there was a tenacity of faith in God.

Ponder today: Is tenacity something you have as part of your Christian personality or do you need to develop some more?

 But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded. (2 Chronicles 15:7)

Bible characters of the day: Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach,and Abednego

Nobody likes a quitter. How often do we hear stuff like that? Perseverance is more than just not quitting. It’s more than just enduring something which can be sedentary and require no effort of the will. There’s an unmistakable action associated with perseverance. It’s a choice of the will to keep on, keepin’ on…even when it doesn’t appear to be doing any good. Pressing on. Pressing into.

Perseverance is a Tiny Virtue for Exemplary Christian Living because it’s often far easier to just throw up one’s hands and say,

“Well, it must not be God’s will because it’s not happening.”

I was having a conversation last week with a pastor about how much self-promotion one should really engage in … if one is to act Christianly. I’ve been pressing on for over a decade on something and it gets pretty discouraging, frankly.

I ask myself many questions to try to understand the difference between perseverance and never giving up, especially when it’s time to move on:

• What is my responsibility for making opportunities happen versus responding by faith to ones He brings?
• At what point do we continue to knock and fight and press because it brings glory to God?
• Or conversely, at what point do we submit to end our stubborn efforts because God is moving us on and wants us to give it up already?

The truth is I still don’t have the answers. Maybe God doesn’t want me to have answers but to develop perseverance in seeking Him.

Jesus tells a great parable about this in Luke 18:1-8:

1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!'” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Do you see the connection between perseverance and faith? Between seeking and receiving answers to prayer?

Luke 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Ponder today: how do I display my faith through perseverance?

Bible “characters” of the day: the widow and the unjust judge

Among the Tiny Virtues for Exemplary Christian Living, we now transition from the heart virtues, the mind virtues and ones in our character to those residing in the human will. These are what I think of as cluster virtues because they touch our hearts and minds, contribute to our character, but they reside in the will. Therefore they have different expressions inward and outward. We will begin our look with fearlessness with the inward expression being courage.

 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.

(Deuteronomy 31:6)

Joshua knew more than a little about courage (Exodus 17:9-15). It was one of his defining virtues and yet, he still needed to be reminded to be courageous. Why is that?

What about courage is so elusive?

Courage is an act of the will to stand on an uncertain battlefield … to fight an insidious enemy who often we cannot even see … and to rely upon our God who can only be known by faith to be our protection and to guarantee the outcome.  And to trust that the outcome will be God’s will for our good and His glory even when it may not look like that to us.  It’s faith in action.

Ponder today: what you’re facing that requires courage and if nothing, why not?

Bible character of the day: Joshua

Here’s a  Tiny Virtue for Exemplary Christian Living that you may not have considered: Reserve. In a microwave culture where we want everything instantly, consume things immediately, but tire of them just as quickly, the idea of reserve (until later) is a foreign concept.

But even those who have mastered the art of saving, there’s an equal danger of hoarding. Not using things out of fear there will be a need somewhere down the road. So some people will stockpile a stash for when they will need it.  SELF magazine online responds to that tendency with an article to help people discern the 6 warning signs of hoarding disorder, the “difference between having a disorder and just really, really liking your stuff.”

Reserve—in a biblical sense—is the antidote to both instant consumption and hoarding.  The “sinful woman” had reserve down to an art form.

Matthew 26: 6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. 8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” 10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.

Do you see how she both reserved for the future and reserved for using well?

The disciples were indignant because they only saw reserve as investment, a means of financial gain to control for distribution. Jesus saw her reserve as saving this precious perfume for a far more special purpose: anointing the Savior. Jesus makes it clear that her reserve was beautiful… and a virtue worth remembering.

Ponder today: what are you holding onto…and why?

Bible character of the day: the sinful woman

Can you think of someone in your life who you can always count on? Reliability is one of the more beautiful virtues among the Tiny Virtues for Exemplary Christian Living. Reliability is a lovely anchor for the soul. Like solid ground and rest for the weary and worn traveler.

Some of you may be thinking, “Haven’t you already done this virtue?” You know, loyalty.

I submit to you that what loyalty is among the heart virtues, reliability is among the character virtues.

Reliability ministers to others’ needs as an expression of one’s heart.

The Apostle Paul writes,

2 Timothy 4:6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day– and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 9 Do your best to come to me quickly, 10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 12 I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments. 14 Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. 15 You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message. 16 At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 17 But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth.

“Only Luke is with me.” Let that sink in.

Reliability.

“At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me.”  (Huh?)

Here is the Apostle Paul toward the end of his earthly life. The going got tough and people were abandoning him right and left. Worse, they were doing him harm on their way out. People were opposing him at every turn. Paul was in the midst of the end and he knew it. What he didn’t know…was the future…that he’d be a hero to many Christians in the centuries to come, indeed their favorite apostle. Right now, he’s facing the end. “Only Luke is with me,” he writes.

Scripture doesn’t say if Luke was elsewhere, afraid of persecution, not invited/allowed, or unable to attend Paul’s first defense, but he’s clearly there at the end. Two things about reliability: (1) there are special people in this world who stick with you no matter what happens and (2) even when you’ve been deserted by everyone else, as a Christian, the Lord stands at your side (v.17) and gives you strength.

Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. (Hosea 6:3)

Ponder today: Many of us will never know what it’s like to be abandoned. Nevertheless, may we always appreciate those who stand by our side and acknowledge our Savior who never leaves us nor forsakes us.

Bible character of the day: Luke

Discipline is another character virtue, tiny in its visibility, powerful in its results. Have you ever stopped to think about the connection between faith and discipline? About discipline in a holistic sense?  The centurion did.

Matthew 8: 5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” 7 Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.” 8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.

A well-disciplined life displays an understanding of authority, wisdom, and follow-through. The centurion recognized the authority of Jesus to heal and wisely drew a parallel between Jesus’ authority in the spiritual realm and his own command of those serving under his authority.  Running the race of faith requires a holistic approach to discipline.

The Apostle Paul phrases it this way, 1 Corinthians 9: 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

Ponder today: how to run with purpose in every step by excelling in the holistic virtue of discipline… of mind, heart, body, and will.

Bible character of the day: the centurion