We’re coming to the conclusion soon of the Tiny Virtues series and today we’ll look at the virtue of intercession. There’s a difference between intercession and advocacy as it is currently presented in our culture. It’s not community activism or promotion of a social cause.

Rather, there is an element of tact and diplomacy evident in genuine biblical intercession and advocacy.

Intercession is when a powerful one upholds a powerless individual in the cause of righteousness.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Two biblical examples also stand out to me: (1) the way Paul went to bat for Onesimus, the runaway slave in Philemon and (2) the way Joseph of Arimathea asked permission for the deceased body of Jesus. Both are examples of leadership, diplomacy, self-sacrifice, genuine righteousness, and tact. All these ideas are clustered together in the virtue of intercession.

It’s often said that character is seen best in how we treat those who can do nothing for us. It’s easy to treat people well when there’s a quid pro quo, a payback. But when someone can do absolutely nothing for you, but needs your help, what do you do?

The Exemplary Christian goes to bat for him or her…just like Paul did. Just like Joseph did.

This story of Joseph of Arimathea is told in all 4 Gospels….for a reason. Luke 23:50 Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, 51 who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. 52 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. 53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.

His is not a story of piling on with the rest of the Council. His is a story of diplomacy and intercession.

Ponder today: the last time you went to bat for someone who could not help himself. How can you tell when those around you are hurting? Do you judge them?  Do you expect a payback?  Whose heart can you refresh by intercession?

Bible characters of the day: Paul and Joseph of Arimathea

No one can argue with selfless charity. It’s a Tiny Virtue that blesses everyone.

Thank God that somewhere in the final days of the election season where everyone seems to be at odds with everyone else, a beautiful “cluster virtue” residing in the will that we can all agree upon still exists: the generous, selfless, charitable attitude toward those less fortunate.

2 Corinthians 8: 7 But just as you excel in everything– in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us–see that you also excel in this grace of giving…9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

I could go on at length, but I know some people may be tired of hearing about virtues and really want to get back to political infighting and character assassination, so I’ll keep it brief.

There was a woman named Tabitha who was also known as Dorcas (Acts 9:36-42). She’s listed as a disciple and did beautiful acts of charity for others. She died and the story unfolds: Acts 9:39 All the widows stood around Peter, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

Tabitha (Dorcas), known for her charity, is one of the few people brought back to life from the dead recorded in our New Testament.

What story would she have told us about the life after death and what she saw? What she learned about her life? What she learned about the value of charity?

I wonder if God raised her back to life…intentionally (of course!) in order to show us that acts of charity have an impact upon others we may not see during our lifetimes. Acts of charity are extraordinarily life-giving for the days of our lives and have a reward far beyond the time when our souls break free from the steely bonds of this tender earth.

Ponder today: the eternal reward of charity and the joy one knows this side of heaven for doing them.

Bible character of the day: Tabitha

I am angry.  I’ll admit it.  But not at what most women are outraged over.  I’m angry that people-men and women alike-both in the Church and outside the Church have totally lost sight of the point of Christianity and the eternal beauty of grace.

Re: Done!

Today we see the consequences of a generation’s belief in moral relativism. Where what’s true for you and what’s true for me are two different things. Utter nonsense.

John 16:7 “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

Never before in my adult life have I witnessed so many people attempting to excuse away truth and instead making it on an equal footing to gossip.

Confession: I used to watch FOX news during the news hour in an attempt to learn what was going on in the world. Well, until recently frustration with moral relativism prompted me to write to Bret Baier as feedback saying.

I think Fox News has lost its market niche. I can’t watch Electoral College maps that are mere speculation, pundits who are no different than CNN, and topics that are NOT news … Fox has lost all credibility in the news hour. You’ve changed and I can’t watch anymore. Wish you’d bring back the real news.

His reply? “We are covering both sides on my show– always have… we spent A LOT of time on the wikileaks story.. it was our lead. I cover the good – the bad and the ugly on all sides..   I don’t understand why you don’t understand that.”

My reply? “Sorry. I didn’t watch tonight … Just fed up. My objection is primarily to the lack of what USED to pass for news …Fair and balanced, yes, for GOSSIP. What I miss is NEWS.”

Yeah, Bret, I don’t understand because I’m a moron. Or maybe I can take a step back and see the difference between truth and gossip. Where have you been, Bret ol’buddy?

John 18:37 “Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Moral relativism is rearing its ugly head. After a generation of teaching people that there is no truth, all the little Americans chant in unison those famous words of Pontius Pilate, John 18:38 “What is truth?” followed by some words from Don Henley “Give us dirty laundry, Kick ’em when they’re up, Kick ’em when they’re down”

John 18:38b With this Pilate went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” 40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!”

Truth didn’t matter then and it doesn’t matter to WAY too many Americans now. Let me go on record as saying

I will stand by TRUTH wherever it may be found. What about you?

Why would God value orderliness? Because He’s the author of order and established it over chaos. That’s why in our current climate of rapid information and total mishmash of truth and lies, I really appreciate Luke’s having laid out his Gospel and the book of Acts as an “orderly account.” And not just that, but waiting until he had “carefully investigated everything from the beginning.”

Luke 1:3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Oh the heartache we would save ourselves if we just simply investigated before jumping to conclusions without orderliness! It’s a Tiny Virtue for Exemplary Christians. If only we’d value it as we should.  Sensationalism sells. Orderliness saves…because it’s rooted in the Gospel and it comes from God.

Jesus is the Way.  He came at just the right time (Galatians 4:4-5).  Orderly.  Just as we would expect because God Himself is a God of orderliness.

The Apostle Paul taught about this:

Worship should be orderly. 1 Corinthians 14:40 But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

Our lives likewise should be orderly. Colossians 2:5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

Transitions are orderly. The Apostle John wrote the words of Christ Himself: Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Ponder today: Do you value orderliness or do impulse and chaos dominate your thinking?

Bible characters of the day: Luke, Paul, John, and Jesus

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