Proverbs 16:1-9

Few days ago I got into a situation when I was confronted by a sin. It was about 1 am and I've decided to pray and ask the LORD to lead me through His word to find out what to do now. Among other places He led me to Proverbs 10, especially verses 1-9:

The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the Lord weighs the spirit.

Commit your work to the Lord,
and your plans will be established.

The Lord has made everything for its purpose,
even the wicked for the day of trouble.

Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord;
be assured, he will not go unpunished.

By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil.

When a man's ways please the Lord,
he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Better is a little with righteousness
than great revenues with injustice.

The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.

And just as I reflect on them now - few days later - I see what amazing verses God led me into. Solomon starts here by stating that And just as I reflect on them now - few days later - I am able to see what amazing verses God led me into.

Solomon starts here by making clear that God is sovereign over everything - even the very words that come out of our mouth. When we talk to people about what they think we should do in this or that and they say something that we don’t really like we tend to say: Meh, they don’t know what they’re saying. Like when parents say to their daughter that she can’t date a guy yet because she’s too young. The girl and boy might think the parents have no idea what they’re saying – but truth is: God knows what He’s saying and He’s speaking through the parents. That’s the fact we need to grab in our hearts. God does speak. Primarily through His word but as well through other people. The close ones especially.

Then Solomon makes a clear distinction between the way we look at other people (and ourselves too) and the way God does. We like to justify everything we do. Want to break a rule or two? You know really well you should not. But then you start making arguments, making a case why it’s not that bad after all to break that rule. We try to make our ways look pure in our own eyes but we forget that God is not looking at us through our pair of eyes but that He’s got His own. And by those eyes He sees way more then we ever will be able to. He doesn’t just see our ways (that everybody can see) but He does something that only He can do. He weighs the spirit. God doesn’t just look at the outcome (as the contemporary society suggests…only what you make counts…do the most and the best). God cares about way more important things then that. He cares about our heart – the spirit. What were our motives, where was our heart. And because of that God’s judgment is going to be just. Just the same way when David prays to the LORD. He says: For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17). He’s saying that God doesn’t care about the outcome as much as He does about the change in people’s hearts. That what matters to God the most – our hearts!

We like to do things our own way. Even though to do it the way somebody else says would save us half the time we need – we would do it our own way anyway. Why? Because it’s our way. But Solomon confronts us here with an idea to give (literally put into the hands) our work to the LORD. Why? Because when you give something to somebody (your plans, dreams, hopes, even your future) you must trust that person. The reason why we’re to commit everything we do to God is to show in whom we trust. If we are to ask the question that the psalmist asked: From where does my help come? (Psalm 121:1) what would our answer be? Would be the same as is his? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:2) He is able to say that only because he trusts Him completely. And the best way how we can show our trust is by trusting completely with everything.

When times are hard and things don’t seem to go the way they should we start thinking that something must have gone wrong. That either we have failed or God has failed in His promises. How can a not nice think to be from God if He’s that good as the Word describes Him? Well, seems that Solomon did not see this as a problem in his life. I’m sure that he had endured some suffering. For example when he was suppose to take over the kingdom – his brother Adonijah wanted to be the king of Israel. And so he had to kind of „fight for“ his throne. I’m sure that just one of many (after all, it was probably very easy for others to be jealous of his wisdom and wealth). So it’s kind of weird to hear Solomon saying that the LORD made the wicked ones as well as all the rest. He is aware that all of us (humans) just as the rest of the creation were created by God and for God. Including the „bad ones” – even though all of us are bad. Because the LORD has made everything for its purpose and I can tell you for sure that what He has created in the end will fill the purpose it was created for. When things go wrong and it seems everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong – friends, it does not mean that God is not in control. He is always in control. Even when it seems to us that He’s not.

In order for the judgment to be just, the Judge must be just. That’s what Solomon is trying to tell us in the next verse where he says that those, that are arrogant in heart will not go unpunished. Solomon is pointing here to the nature and character of God. God hates evil. Just the same way Paul says what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? (2 Corinthians 6:14-16). I know that he speaks here about relationships between believers and unbelievers but I believe this is the same case for God. It is God who represents the righteousness, light, Christ and believer that Paul mentions. So Paul and Solomon say together that God hates evil. It’s His nature – something that has never changed and never will. But Solomon is not saying here that God merely hates evil and doesn’t do anything about it. He says that evil will not go unpunished – that God will repay and we can be assured about it! That gives us lots of peace when we are wronged and nobody cares. Because you know what? God cares. And if God does, does it matter so much then that some other people don’t? Because God said that vengeance is mine; I will repay (Hebrews 10:30). Even when we are wronged we can be satisfied because we have the assurance that God is just and His judgment is just as well.

What does Solomon mean, when he says: By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for… does he mean that if we love and are faithful that God will forgive us our sins? Or that He would not take them that seriously? Or what is Solomon trying to say here? In 2 Kings 20 we read that the king „Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death“ and the LORD sent prophet Isaiah to tell the king: „This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.“. Then an interesting thing happens. We read: „Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.“. And what was God’s respond to that? „Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.‘“ I was overwhelmed when I first read this. God made a plan – Hezekiah was going to die. But Hezekiah prayed and God answered his prayer. That doesn’t surprise me that much since James states clearly that you do not have, because you do not ask (James 4:2). But what surprises me the most is the case Hezekiah makes for God why He should grant Him life. He says: Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes. Basically the reason why God should let him live is because Hezekiah was faithful and wholehearted to the LORD. And God grants him his request. So, when Solomon said that By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for… he didn't say that by doing good we’re going to be forgiven. He actually says the same thing that the writer of Hebrews says: For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints (Hebrews 6:10). All that Solomon and author of Hebrews are saying is that God is not just only in His judgment but as well in His rewards.

...by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil. What does is really mean to fear the LORD? That's a question I asked myself so many times. Are we supposed to be scared of Him? If so, isn’t it then impossible to see Him as loving Father? How can you fear the one that loves you and you should love too? It is possible to fear the LORD and love the LORD at the same time! Because what I believe that to fear the LORD means is that we’re suppose to respect Him. Just the same way when an employee is called to see his boss. He knows that the boss is not going to kill him or hurt him (he might fire him though but the employee is not threatened in any other way). The way he fears him is a different way that we fear a murderer. It’s the respect kind of fear. When we respect and honor somebody we have this kind of „fear”. And I believe that’s the way we should treat God. Yes, He is our loving Father BUT we must respect Him, honor Him and in that way – fear Him. And does Solomon mean by saying that this fear turns one away from evil? Imagine it this way. Suppose you’re about to commit a sin. You are aware of the fact that you’re about to do is against God’s law. You ignore this and you’re on your way to sin. But then, out of blue, this thought of God comes to your mind. The thought of Him, His greatness and love. All those thoughts of His love being expressed on the cross for you. You realize that what you’re doing is disrespectful and dishonoring toward God. And THAT makes you to turn away from your sinful way. The fact of who God is and what He has done for you.

Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:1 Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. So one of our main tasks is to please God. And here, in Proverbs, we see that when our ways are pleasing to God, He is so faithful that even our enemies are no longer our enemies. But how do we know whether what we do is pleasing to Him? Well, we please Him when we work in accordance with His will. And for that we need to seek His will through His Word and prayer. We need to ask Him to reveal us His will and to lead us in our lives. Paul says in Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Then the Bible clearly says that the will of God is that we would give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18) – that is to be always satisfied in God – even when we go through suffering and hardships. We are to be satisfied in Him in all times!

Imagine this; you work on some important project really hard and in the end it will work out really well. You get paid well for your work, maybe you even get promoted, and people respect you for that. It would be all awesome and great unless you were not cheating. The truth is that you’re just another copycat that stole the ideas from others and proclaim them to be yours. But don’t worry…nobody knows and there’s almost no chance of anybody ever finding out. You’re safe. Nobody knows, not even your spouse. Just you and you alone. But are you happy? Cause no matter how well you try to cover your „little secret“ it bites you alive from the inside. And you may wish you’ve never done so. And you can actually think: Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. There are good reasons why to be righteous even when nobody’s looking. You know, God is always looking and He’s not going to pardon you just because you were not satisfied with little. And what I can say from my experience is when God gives you little and you take more than you ought to He’s going to cut it back to the point where you were suppose to be. And that is going to be hard. It’s always harder to go down, then to go up. So I tell you my friends, be satisfied in little and He will give you in great.

And toward the end of this passage Solomon goes back to the point where he came from. That our God is sovereign, mighty and powerful God. Into such depths that God is in control even of our hearts. Yes, we may plan to do such and such, but it’s the Lord who establishes the steps. We are totally dependent on Him. We can’t even make our plans to come true unless He permits them!

It’s God – the LORD who runs this universe and it’s the best time for us to realize it. To honor Him as He demands. To worship Him and admit that it’s all about Him and not us. We even sing in worship songs: It’s all about…it's not about me. or Not to us but to your name be the glory… Do we really mean the words we sing? I hope that this article helped you to understand and see the greatness of our God a little bit more.

Marek

Youth conference 2009

As you may know (if you’ve been reading by blog for a while) God has been using conferences in my life as milestones. Pointing me toward His plans for me. And those were painful milestones almost every time. Although it was painful it shaped me into a servant I am now (now I don’t mean that I’m some kind of good example of a servant but I’ve made a progress). But now I was like: What do You want to do this time? I mean, I already am going through one of the hardest stuff in my Christian life. Do You really think I can take more? But I realized that I might me wrong. That God doesn’t necessary have to use conferences to shape me through pain but that He can actually use conferences to restore me – to heal me. And I think that that’s exactly what He’s doing in these days. I see how the prayer of David that I’ve been praying over and over for several last days is being answered. I’ve been praying:

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me... Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
(Psalm 51:10.12)

Life Without Joy

Is it even possible? To live a life without the presence of joy? Can our lives be ever joyless? Well, that’s what I’ve been thinking about lately. As I wrote in my previous post, there’s something going on in my life that I was not able to name. I didn’t even know what was it. Now I do. And it makes a lot bigger difference. Let me explain…


In order to figure out what went wrong I needed to know when it went wrong. When did I stop feel joy in my life? I found out that it’s been two months since the joy in my life started decreasing. What went wrong though? I was thinking…have I done anything that I need to repent of and that’s the reason why I’m cut off from it? I’ve searched my mind, my heart and my soul before God and I didn’t find any sin I would not repent of. Let me tell you how it feels like. You know, the way I feel in these past weeks is that I don’t rejoice. Paul says in first Thessalonians 5:16: Rejoice always; but I was not able to rejoice at all cause there was no joy that I would feel. So what was I suppose to do? I am suppose to rejoice always and yet, I am not able to.


I looked inside of my heart and asked the question: Do I still want to serve? Do I still love God? Those are really scary questions to ask. And you know what I saw? I saw a fire in my heart, a passion to serve…but the fire did not give any heat. There was a fire (willingness to serve) though I didn’t feel the heat of the flames. I had strong desires to serve just any way I could. I wanted to serve the Lord. But emotionally, I didn’t have anything from it. My life was with feelings but without emotions. Last Friday I walked the dog and I was thinking and I said to myself: Marek, you should be crying out for help. The tears should be running down your face. Because it is miserable with you. But you know what? I wanted to cry. But I couldn’t. There weren’t emotions for me to cry. And that made me even more scared. After the walk I went to the Building because we were having our last Friday there. As I was walking on the bridge suddenly something broke within me. And that made me to put my face in my hands and bow my head on the handrail and I started to cry out load. It wasn’t just tears running down. If you walked by me you would hear me there. There ware people walking beside me but I didn’t care. I was crying there and I knew that only Jesus can help me now. I cried: Lord, please help me. I need You. I can’t take this any longer. I need Your help. Then I stood up and kept on walking toward the Building with the tears on my cheeks.


Then I came to the Building and I said to Miriam that I must talk to her today. Later she was in the office and I told her what’s going on with me and that I don’t know whether I make the camps if God won’t move something inside of me. She smiled at me and said: Welcome in the ministry and you’re being in the middle of a spiritual warfare. I was like: What? We talked for quite a while and then we prayed. I must tell that it was a great help to me. To talk to somebody and to have somebody to pray for me. But knowing my enemy didn’t make it any easier. But at least now I know who I am fighting with.


Friends, I’ll be honest. It’s not good at all. On Sunday we’re starting English camps and it’s going to be hard. And I don’t mean it now that it’s going to be hard to do the camps but it’s going to be hard for me to put my heart into it. You know why? Cause I don’t feel anything but sorrow. And I need God to fill my heart with His love and joy. And not just fill it up I want Him to give me so much joy and love that my soul would overflow and could give away to those I minister to.


Please pray, if you can…

Marek

Grace (once again)

John says at the beginning of his gospel that Jesus (the Word) is grace and truth. And that from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace and through Jesus Christ came grace and truth.
(John 14-17)

Why does John start like this? Why does he use the word 'grace' so much and so often? Why is it so important for us to understand the grace? Those all are good questions to ask and even better to answer. But for now I want to talk about grace from a different perspective. From my own...

For the past six weeks I've been feeling really weird. I've been feeling like the joy has been sucked out of my ministry and my life. For some reason it's different. But I believe the Lord has a plan and I pray He would restore what's missing. But what has not changed is God Himself and His grace for us.

And the past week.....when I look back I see myself ignoring Him. Making myself deaf toward Him. Running away and talking to myself: Marek, you need some rest. Don't read...don't listen...don't think...don't pray...just rest. And I agreed on it. But He wasn't that way toward me. He had compassion over me. And the best way how He could show me my ignorance was to show me Himself. Instead of pouring out His just wrath on me He was even more gracious.

On Friday I was in Žilina. Many things happened that day. Things that exceeded my expectations. Things I would not even imagine. God was so gracious to me. I could have seen His grace on every little thing that day. At the end of the day, just before I went to sleep like at 1 am, I fell on my knees overwhelmed by seeing His grace and my unworthiness in the picture of the day. And friends, seeing this being on my knees in that room that night, was the best way to turn me around. Oh how I pray that God would show us His grace every day more and more. And that we would be changed more and more into His likeness through the grace that came through Jesus Christ into our lives. Let us receive grace upon grace!

My school...

In couple of days it’s gonna be over. And I probably won’t be that sad and heart-broken. But I got to say that it was an interesting school year. At the beginning of the school year, back in September, I asked myself a question: What my priorities are going to be for this school year? I’ve decided that my Top Priority would be my ministry. That that would be the most important thing I would do throughout the year. The one I would care about the most. But then I asked what about the school? Well, how to say it…I almost removed that one from my list. I’ve realized that I don’t really want to do computers and informatics anymore. That I can’t imagine myself doing this kind of stuff as my job. That I feel to be led somewhere else then the chair and laptop. I said to God: Look, I really want to do ministry for you and I’m willing to pour myself into it as much as you want me to. But you know, there’s school. I’ll need a help with that…

You all probably know how hard it is to study something you…well, hate. Not easy. Throughout the past 10 months I’ve been involved in many various things that consumed almost all of my free time (I’m not complaining here – I chose it and I love to serve:). But it was interesting to see what the Lord was doing with my study. In a week I’m going to receive my report card for this year. I think that I can say that I spent all together 25 hours on studying for my class for the whole year (what actually means that I didn’t study almost at all)! But the result I got is more then overwhelming to me. I have together 11 classes. These are my grades:

A – nine times
B – twice
C, D, F – none

The last time it happened that I had no C at the card was when I was in 5th grade (8 yrs ago). I asked God to help me with my Slovak class where we study literature. Friends, I’ve got B! The last time I had B was in 6th grade. Ever since I was trying to make it to be B again, but never really happened. I stop trying to have no Cs but I have it now.

I’m not trying to look smart here (cause I personally don’t think I’m smart – I know smart people and I’m not one of them:). What I’m trying to show here is God. His faithfulness is way greater then we think or can even imagine. I told him: Lord, I want to serve you. But I need your help at school. And what has happened? More then I asked for. I never asked him to give me the best report card I have ever received. And I still can’t get over this experience. It’s really overwhelming to me because God showed me what to be faithful really means. It’s more then we often think. God was faithful to me beyond what I thought that to be faithful is.

Psalm 31:5
Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, FAITHFUL God.

Psalm 46:10

“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”

What do you think about this?

Some time ago when I was talking to a friend of mine this thought came to my mind and I'd like to know what do you think about it. Do you agree or disagree? And why?

The emptiness inside of you cannot be filled unless you are aware of its presence. And the best way to show this emptiness is to fill it up.

I know that at first glance you may see it illogical. If the emptiness cannot be filled without you knowing about it, how can the best way to show it be filling it up (but you still can't do that without knowing about it)? Let me explain what I mean by the statement above. Bible teaches that we all fall short of the glory of God (R 3:23). We fell into sin and became spiritually empty. There is (or was) emptiness inside of each one of us. This emptiness can be filled only by Jesus and His sacrificial love for us. If you are Jesus' your emptiness has been filled with love and joy for now you are a child of God. But if you are not living with Jesus in your life - you remain empty. And you are not able to fill your emptiness on your own. There's nothing that would be great enough to fill us up but Jesus. And not that we're not able to fill ourselves up - we don't even know that we need to be filled up! We are so blind in our sins that we don't even know we need help. And that's why there's the second sentence in the statement, mainly: the best way to show this emptiness is to fill it up. As we read the first sentence we see it's illogical for us to be able to fill this emptiness up. That's why we need somebody else to do it. Somebody who is not blind. Somebody who knows the truth - somebody who is the Truth - Jesus Christ. He is the only one who is able to fill the emptiness that is inside of us completely. The only one who can satisfy us entirely. When we receive Him into our lives He starts slowly filling us up with His love. And He is not done when we're full of His love. He keeps on filling and what happens is that we start to overflow. And we can be used as instruments of God's love and grace to others. And why does Jesus overfill us with His love? Because He loves us so much...