When Road Rage Gets Convicting

I ride a Harley Davidson. Last Saturday I was riding with my ten year old daughter on the back and a guy cut me off. He pulled right out in front of me, and if not for some fancy-shmancy driving on my part, my daughter and I would have plowed into him.

I laid on my horn. My motorcycle horn is really loud.

He returned my gesture with one of his own, using only a lone, middle finger. Then he yelled at us and either said, "Vacuum!" or something else... my lip reading isn't what it used to be.

I was angry. I yelled something back like, "Pull over and say that to my face!" Lucky for me, he sped off. My daughter then said, "Daddy, why did you say that?"

Ouch.

A while back I shared with our church some insight I had learned about a super puzzling passage in the Bible. It's one that I had never really understood, until viewing it through a Jewish context and Hebraic perspective. I'm finding that this is the case for much of what I don't understand in the Bible.

Romans 12:20 states, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

In this little letter, Paul talks about how to deal with our enemies and those who have wronged us. He says many wise things about dealing with others in this passage. I needed to read it again this week... in it's context:

Romans 12:17-21
"Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

As we read this, one sentence totally sticks out to me that doesn't make sense - that one about heaping burning coals on an enemy's head. I have always wondered what Paul meant by this. I mean, smack dab in the middle of him telling us how we're not supposed to take revenge and how we're supposed to be super nice to everybody... he drops this flaming bomb "you'll heap burning coals on his head". Wow... that seems aggressive. In the past I've read this and thought to myself: "Okay Michael, just be nice to the jerks that are mean to you, and man you'll really get them because it'll be like burning coals on top of their heads. God will get 'em for me! God is going to make them burn!" That doesn't sound too loving of God... or of me, does it?

It helps to know that Paul is actually quoting Proverbs 25:21-22: "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you." Understanding this proverb will unlock Paul's words as well.

That saying is in the middle of several proverbs that use physical images to describe emotional reactions. Right before it is the passage, "Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day, or one that pours vinegar on a wound, is one who sings songs to a heavy heart" (Proverbs 25:20). The physical picture of discomfort illustrates that trying to make a person in mourning happy just bums them out even more. Likewise, the passage about coals is about the emotional discomfort an enemy will feel when you waken his conscience about his conduct toward you.

Here's another fascinating reference to burning coals: Isaiah 6:5-7 "Then I said, 'Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.' Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs. And he touched my mouth with it and said, 'Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.'"

Last weekend we sang a song at Desperation Church that speaks of this event in Isaiah 6. The words are: "The angel came and touched the coal to my lips. Now my guilt is gone, and my sins have been forgiven!" Whenever we sing that song, I wonder if everyone in the room has any clue how powerful what they are singing really is?

On the annual Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) coals of fire were carried by the high priest into the Most Holy Place (according to Leviticus 16:12), where sacrifice was made to atone for his own sin and that of the people. So the coals speak of cleansing and of transforming someone full of sin into someone forgiven of their sin.

A burning coal to the lips would normally have tortured a person. Instead, Isaiah being cut to the core over his sinfulness, allowed that coal to sanctify and transform him. Likewise, the coals of your kindness heaped on the head of those who are mean to you have the ability to transform them and melt their sinful heart.

So Paul uses this picture of putting coals on a person's head, which initially sounds like a picture of causing burning pain, but it really is not. Instead, it seems to be a picture of stirring up the coals of a fire to rouse it back to life again. It is a picture of stirring within a person a response of remorse, when they see your kindness in the face of their meanness. This must also be the sense of Paul's message - we cause our enemies to be remorseful for their actions toward us, and in doing so we overcome evil by doing good.

I hate that I get so upset about stuff.
I hate that, all too often, my first response is not "overcoming evil by doing good".

May I, like Paul admonished, be a man that never returns evil for evil, but seeks the coal to heap on the heads of my enemies in order to melt away their meanness - by truly loving them with all that I have... and all that I am. And when that, inevitably, is super-hard to do - May I, like Isaiah, seek the coal to cleanse me personally of my own sin, in order to truly be transformed into what Father God is wanting me to be.

Hello My Baby...

During my lunch break today I sat in my office and recalled a favorite childhood memory. It's an old cartoon that I absolutely loved! I searched and found it (man, I love youtube sometimes). I want to share it with you. I triple-dog-dare ya to take 6 minutes from your busy life, watch this cartoon, and be a kid again.

After watching it, answer this for me: Why does the following cartoon make me smile? Is it the perversity of it? Is it that I relate? If so, what is it that I relate to?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGE8wVTvHF0&feature=related

R.S.V.P.

"You've been especially and specifically chosen to come and test-drive our car," the invitation read in my mailbox. But when I saw that it was addressed to "Occupant," I wondered how specifically chosen I really was. Many invitations are humorous. Some are dubious. But some are actually pretty awesome. The Bible has a bunch of invitations like that - that have meant a great deal to me over the years...

Exodus 32:26a
"then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!"...

Isaiah 55:1
"Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost."

Matthew 11:28
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."

John 7:37-38
"Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'"

Revelation 22:17
"The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost."

See what I mean, there are some pretty cool invitations in the Bible. Maybe none as powerful and meaningful as the one I read this morning during my Desperation Journal time:

Isaiah 1:18
"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord, 'Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool."

Isaiah was writing to people who were totally abandoning their former religious beliefs (apostasy). They were rebelling against the Lord and not interested in obeying Him. Yet, instead of giving a word of annihilation, the Lord, in His matchless grace and mercy, offers a word of invitation. To people who were, at best, apathetic toward Him, the Lord says, "Come on... let's reason together. Think with Me. Consider with Me."

And that's the message for me today too. "Come now, Michael, let's reason together." Sin is sick. It's not bad because it's forbidden by God. Rather sin is forbidden by God because it's bad. He knows it destroys, erodes, ruins, and harms. So He invites us to come to Him and learn why it is unreasonable for us to continue in sin any longer.

I presently know people who were at one time 'radical' for God, but are now in rebellion. All of a sudden, they seem to be apathetic towards God. They skip church, they're involved in things that previously they would have NEVER been involved in. For some reason, sin has become MORE attractive to them than God and living for His Kingdom. Oh, how I wish they could sit for a moment with the Lord... and consider... reason... learn... why it is unreasonable for them to continue in sin any longer.

Here's some things I think they'd have to consider(For sake of time, I won't type out the Bible verses, but trust me, they're worth checking out):

First, sin is like a disgusting disease that pollutes the entire body. (Isaiah 1:5-6). The Book of Romans further describes how sin takes over every part of our being and influences us negatively. A person might look healthy on the outside, but if he is knowingly walking in sin, his very nature is being eroded and destroyed. That is why it's only reasonable for us to consider our sin and repent from it.

Second, sin is a binding cord that holds man in its power (Proverbs 5:22). "I'm free," the sinner insists. "It doesn't matter what I do." And yet when he finds himself addicted, infected with disease, or haunted by guilt; when his family, integrity, and personality are destroyed, he realizes that he is anything but free - that he is bound by the cord of sin.

Third, sin is a destroyer of rest, a disturber of peace. (Psalm 38:3). Sin robs us of the rest, peace, and tranquility we long for and which we once enjoyed. That's why our Father says, "Because I want you to have peace and I want you to be at rest, I want you to stay away from sin.

Fourth, sin is like a foggy cloud that hides the face of God from us. (Isaiah 59:2). Just like when the clouds are in the sky and we can't see the sun, when people say, "Where is God? I can't feel Him. I can't sense Him. Where is He?" very frequently, it's usually due to sin that has come between them and the Son, muting His voice or obscuring His face from them.

Fifth, sin is a clever detective that will find us out (Numbers 32:23). Not only does sin suck us in, but it makes our sin known. There really are no secret sins. We might think we get away with sin for awhile, but according to the Word, we can be sure that sin is a clever detective that will suck us in and then seek us out.

Finally, sin is a thief. It actually robs of blessings and it strips and starves the soul (Jeremiah 5:24-25). God wants to rain blessings upon us and give tremendous harvests to us. It is only our sin that prevents the rain of blessings and abundant harvest that God desires for us to have.

You see,... sin stinks. It holds back God's blessings from our lives, obscures God's vision from our eyes, sneaks up on us and then makes itself known to all people. It erodes, corrupts, and torments. But God says that even though our sins be as bright as crimson and as visible as scarlet, even though they can be seen for miles away, we are invited to come to Him and let Him deal with them.

"No matter how glaring and bright your sin might be, I can make it white as snow," our Father in heaven says to us. I think maybe that I've heard that so many times that it has lost a bit of its meaning to me.

In London many years ago, a minister and his young son were standing in their window, looking down at the street as a parade passed by. In this parade, along with the clown and marching bands, British soldiers marched in their red coats.
"Look at those soldiers, Daddy!" the little boy said. "Look how white their coats are!"
"Their coats are red, son," the minister said.
"No, Daddy, they're white," the little boy insisted.
And when the minister stooped down to his son's vantage point, he saw that his son was looking through a pane of stained glass that bordered the window. Seen through the red glass, the red coats appeared to be white.
Suddenly a light went on in the minister's head. "That's it!" he thought. "Though my sins are scarlet, the Father looks at them through the filter of the blood of His Son and sees me white and pure and clean."

Though my own sins are as scarlet - glaring and ugly - I choose to heed the invitation of my Father who says, "Come, let us reason together. Stay away from sin in the future and confess the sin of your past. Realize it can be white as snow because of the blood of My Son."

Today, I am encouraged to take the Lord up on His invitation. If you've actually read this far, then I hope you are encouraged too. Come to Him. Reason with Him. Repent of any sin the Holy Spirit is bringing to your mind right now. It might be something obvious or something subtle, but you know it's a cord that is beginning to wrap itself tightly around you, a worm eating away inside of you, a detective beginning to follow you, a cloud obscuring God's glory from you, a thief robbing the harvest from you.

"Come," Jesus says. "Come now."