• The Bible Studies for Life lesson for June 29 focuses on Proverbs 2:1-6; 3:5-7.

Have you heard these pearls of wisdom before? “Mind your own business.” “Good fences make good neighbors.” “A penny saved is a penny earned.” While they may help us with relationships and finances, they are nothing compared to the wisdom our holy God has for those who love him.

The source of wisdom

God knows we need wisdom or he would not have inspired Solomon and others to write the book of wisdom literature we know as Proverbs. The word “wisdom” or some variation of it appears more than 100 times in 31 chapters.

When Solomon became king of Israel, he asked God for two things—a discerning heart and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. He knew without them he was not capable of governing his people. God granted his request and also gave him what he didn’t ask—riches and honor.

Do we know we need wise and discerning hearts to live in this world? Solomon’s opening words to his son reveal the building blocks of wisdom. Proverbs 1:2-7 says discipline, understanding, guidance, knowledge and doing what is right, just and fair shape the life of a wise person. Verse 7 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

We are not inherently wise. We cannot buy wisdom. It doesn’t rub off on us from someone else. We must take action to acquire wisdom. Proverbs 2:6 provides the first step in finding the unlike-any-other wisdom, “For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” Wisdom is God’s gift flowing from knowledge and understanding of him that saves, disciplines, guides and shapes us to be like Christ.

Acquiring wisdom

God gives wisdom. That’s the role he plays. But what is our role in acquiring it? Proverbs 2:1-5 gives practical steps to take. These steps are the application of this lesson.

We must accept and store up the commands of God. First, we have to know what the commands are. Knowledge leads us to understanding, which leads us to the ability to apply that knowledge and understanding through action. Psalm 119:11 paints the picture well, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Let God’s word get into you. Memorize it. Think about it. Let it nourish, refresh, correct and give you life.

To acquire knowledge, you have to want it. A man was walking along a noisy New York City street when he stopped and asked his companion: “Do you hear it? The cricket chirping?” His companion thought he was a bit crazy because all the second man could hear was blaring horns and other street noises. He asked, “How can you hear a cricket with all this noise around you?” His friend replied, “It’s all in what you tune your ear to hear.”

Solomon says we have to turn our ears to wisdom. We live in a noisy world. Every day, we need to tune our ears to listen to God speak and then respond to his promptings.

Call out for insight. Cry aloud for understanding. Search for it as if you are looking for silver (Proverbs 2:3-5), not with a once-in-a-while-if-it-doesn’t-require-much-from-me attitude. In prayer, we position ourselves to call to God and receive what God wants to give us in knowledge and understanding. This results in wisdom.

The role of wisdom

As we learn to know and follow holy God, we receive his wisdom. Proverbs 3:5-6 often is voiced as people’s favorite Bible verses. In these two verses, we see the role of trust in the pursuit of godly wisdom. We put our full weight down on him. We refuse to lean on our own understanding.

To acknowledge God is to ask him to be present in every moment of every day in every circumstance of life and to be aware he is there to help, guide, direct, protect and transform us. We take instruction from him trusting his commands are helpful, not hurtful. They keep us out of trouble and really do offer us a life not filled with defeat, betrayal and failure. We come to understand he means only our good and not our harm.

It really is dangerous for us to think we can be wise apart from God. The enemy blinds us to the truth, twists our thinking, hardens our hearts and leads us to destruction. God’s wisdom gives us life.

George Ray Jr. was my pastor when I was a teen. He challenged us to read one chapter of Proverbs every day for one month. I’m so grateful I took him up on that challenge. In Proverbs, the Bible came alive to me, because the writer was speaking directly to me about how I should and could live as a Christ follower. The experience whetted my appetite for God’s word and began a life-long journey in Scripture. Indeed, it has unfolded my knowledge and understanding of God.

Will you take his challenge? “For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm” (Proverbs 1:32-33).

• The Explore the Bible lesson for June 29 focuses on Ezekiel 28:1-5, 11-19.

One night, on a dark road heading back to college, I fell asleep while someone else took a turn at the wheel. I’d driven the road many times, but the driver had not. When I woke up, I didn’t recognize any landmarks. I asked my friend where we were, and she wasn’t sure. This was long before we carried GPS maps in our cell phones.

We stopped the car until we got our bearings. If we hadn’t, we would have kept driving into the darkness and ended up lost and a long way from home.

As followers of Jesus, our attitudes toward ourselves, others and God are some of the greatest indicators of the direction our lives are headed. If we don’t stop now and then to rethink them, we may find ourselves ending up in places in life nowhere near where we intended when we started our journeys with Jesus.

The danger of self-centeredness

These ancient Scriptures in Ezekiel, filled with mysterious words and metaphors, still bear clear witness about the dangers of allowing our lives to become self-centered. The Apostle Paul, in Philippians 2:5-11, called on followers of Jesus to let his mindset become theirs. We are called to think of our lives as instruments in the hands of God to empower and bless others, not as ends in themselves.

The King of Tyre was facing the anger of God, because he had allowed his successes to misdirect his thinking about himself. He looked around at all his accomplishments in life and concluded they were the result of his own power, wisdom and creativity, not the blessing of God. He also had become self-consumed instead of thinking of his blessings as instruments in the hands of God to bless others.

Sinful pride doesn’t always present itself clearly. It can begin as the simple and normal self-assessment that we are of great worth and value—which we are, by the blessing of God. Unchecked and unguided by the Holy Spirit, however, it can grow into evil self-centeredness and self-service. It can grow into the belief we are more valuable than others and others, are here to serve us and not the other way around.

The text in Philippians 2 can help us regain our bearings in our journey to serve Christ. It guides us to examine the ways in which we use our power. We all have some kind of power. We have physical power, spiritual power, financial power, social power and even sexual power. Jesus used his power to bless us. In what ways are we using our power to bless others?

Christ gave us his power on the cross

Christ gave us his power on the cross so we might experience the life God intended us to have. Paul makes it clear it was a choice of Jesus to do so. He could have forsaken his call in order to serve his own desire for self-preservation. Instead, he gave up his right to serve himself so we might have God’s life in us.

If Christ had allowed his pride of being the Son of God to guide his life, his pride would have turned to self-serving greed and thereby denied us any hope. Greed, whatever form it takes, is the ultimate expression of pride. It is where all pride ultimately leads.

In many ways, pride is a form of fear. It is the fear we must take care of ourselves alone, that if we don’t do things our way and for ourselves, we will miss out on the joy of living. True humility is the choice to surrender our fear to God and to humbly allow God to guide us in all of our choices.

Surrender our fears to God

Only by surrendering our fears to God will we be able to find our way again in this life full of dark roads and unfamiliar landmarks. Pride always will lead to a greed that finally consumes us and leaves us destitute. What a terrible epitaph to what could have been an otherwise successful life: “All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever” (Ezekiel 28:19).

Jesus only knew the ultimate blessing of God by surrendering to his Father’s greater purposes. If it were true of Jesus, how can we expect it to be any less true of ourselves?

• The BaptistWay lesson for June 29 focuses on Acts 2:42-47 and Romans 12:3-13.

The church I attended as a teenager was named Fellowship Baptist Church. I have no knowledge behind this choice for its name.

Ironically, I do know it started as a split from another church in town when the pastor had an affair with the secretary. You might say this fellowship found it impossible to continue having fellowship with the congregation from which it severed ties. Interestingly, that did not stop the new church from using the term “fellowship” in its name, nor did it keep it from having numerous fellowship gatherings.

This scenario demonstrates the wide and various ways we use the term “fellowship.” It might refer to a specific church, the relationships of the various people within a church or an action in which the people of a church engage. As a teenager, I assumed the word was synonymous with a social gathering, or as some like to call them, “eat-and-greet” times. To be sure, fellowship is included in these events, but it takes a lot more than some fried chicken or a plate of pimento cheese sandwiches to create authentic fellowship.

Fellowship isn’t an event we attend or a social activity in which we engage. Fellowship refers to the special connection followers of Christ have that enables them to relate to one another uniquely and specifically. We will draw out three aspects of fellowship from this week’s Scripture

Living (Acts 2:42-47)

It’s impossible to read the tone in which the words of any passage of Scripture were written. However, I have read this passage as a sort of matter-of-fact description of how the early church in Acts functioned and related. There is little commentary on what is described. It seems to be written in a way that asks to be read in a straight-laced, descriptive voice. Yet the actions described are far from ordinary.

The common thread that runs through everything mentioned is the fact the people did things together: “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (vv. 46-47). Regardless of what you name a church, call an event or eat at a potluck, you cannot have fellowship the way the Bible describes it when everyone is not together.

Serving (Romans 12:3-8)

This is one of the many places where the Apostle Paul mentions spiritual gifts, and none of them are identical. If you have taken a spiritual gifts inventory, perhaps you received a score based on a list of gifts that may have included preaching, encouragement, hospitality, service, etc. I used to think spiritual gifts were limited to the lists mentioned in Scripture and on these kinds of inventories.

However, I know of at least one spiritual gift in Baptist life we recognize that is not mentioned explicitly in this context in the Bible—music. Can you imagine going to a Baptist service where no one led the music? In my grandmother’s Lutheran congregation, that is how it is done. The organ accompanies with pronounced emphasis when it is time for the congregation to begin singing. Is their way more biblical since “music ministry” is not listed as a spiritual gift? Of course not!

The spiritual gifts mentioned in Scripture are not exhaustive. In verses 6-8, Paul begins using specific gifts in a formula: “if your gift is _______, then ______.” This formula is repeated for several specific gifts, but you can put just about anything in those blanks. Whatever your gift is, use it. Use it with and alongside others seeking to use their gifts as well. That is how you serve in fellowship.

Loving (Romans 12:9-13)

This section begins with the phrase “Love must be sincere” (v. 9). All that follows until verse 13 is a description of what sincere love looks like within Christian fellowship. It’s one thing to voice love for one another, but it is another to live it out.

One of the common remarks you’ll hear during the announcement and greeting time at your average church—mine included—is how the church is a friendly and loving group. In many cases, I’m sure this is true. However, I sometimes wonder if this is said because that is the way we think it is supposed to be. No one wants to be honest if their church is anything less than loving and friendly. Yet how many times have you walked into a church that struck you as less than this? Love must be sincere, because sincere love creates sincere fellowship.

Living, serving and loving all are verbs, because fellowship is a verb. It is not a name, a place or an event. It is something you do. How might God be calling you to “do fellowship” in your church body?

Who is This Man? by John Ortberg (Zondervan)

Jesus made all the difference in the world. Christians believe that proposition as a statement of faith, because they personally bear witness to how Jesus changed their lives and how they trust their salvation to him. But John Ortberg approaches his subject from a different angle, examining how the life of Jesus made an indisputable impact on human history.

Ortberg, pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church near San Francisco, transports readers to the first-century Roman Empire to explore how the movement Jesus sparked transformed society. Concepts such as the inherent worth of every person, the virtue of humility, the value of servant leadership and the equality of women had little foothold in Greco-Roman culture until a peasant rabbi from Galilee changed everything.

Jesus turned the world upside-down by entering it humbly, embracing outcasts, confronting religious hypocrites, teaching love for enemies and elevating humanity by allowing himself to be killed in the most degrading manner imaginable. And then, on Sunday morning after his crucifixion and burial, he appeared to his frightened band of followers to tell them: “The cross didn’t stick. Their plan to stop by movement didn’t work. … Now they have you to contend with.”

Ortberg writes in an engaging style that not only draws readers in for an up-close view of the life of Jesus, but also invites them to follow the Leader.

Ken Camp, managing editor

Baptist Standard

Living in Christ’s Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God by Dallas Willard (IVP Books)

Dallas Willard possessed a well-earned reputation as a professor and scholar. However, he probably is best known for his writing, lectures and sermons on Christian spiritual formation. Although not a native Texan, Willard earned a degree from Baylor University.

Gary Moon and John Ortberg prepared Living in Christ’s Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God from a conference held in February 2013, shortly before Willard’s death that May. The book, which includes a discussion guide, begins with a section on “How to Live Well,” with Willard’s encouragement: “Eternal Life Begins Now.” Each chapter offers challenges to the Christian around themes such as discipleship vs. dogma, transformation, the Trinity, the importance of Christian disciplines and blessings.

The philosopher and theologian fills the pages with insights and practical advice for Christians committed to spiritual development, whether ministers or laity. Willard urges the reader to live in Christ’s presence and let him “flow through us.”

The book concludes with Dallas Willard’s final prayer and blessing from the conference: “May you rise above everything in our lives and hold us fast in the grip of adoration of who you are. We will and commit ourselves to what blesses you.”

Kathy Robinson Hillman, first vice president

Baptist General Convention of Texas

Waco

• The Explore the Bible lesson for June 22 focuses on Ezekiel 24:15-27.

Recently, a young mother was grieving aloud to me. Her husband has been diagnosed with an inoperable tumor. Her grief was being compounded by what Christian people presumed to say to her in this time of grief, about how God is in control and God must have a purpose in the suffering of her loved one. Well-intentioned people who presume to speak for God are complicating the grief she is experiencing at the impending loss of her husband.

Tragic loss divides into two parts—what happens and why it happens. We can see what happens, but we should be very cautious about presuming to know why things happen the way they do. We also should be extremely cautious about presuming to speak for God as though we have an inside track on what God is up to and why.

We don’t always know why bad things happen

Bad things happen for all kinds of reasons. We are fallible human beings. There is evil at work. Sometimes, we inflict pain on ourselves. We simply do not always know why bad things happen.

To attempt to comfort people by reassuring them, “God is in control,” runs the risk of asking people to believe God’s control led to their loved one’s suffering. As seen in this passage in Ezekiel, God intends to use the death of Ezekiel’s wife as an instrument to speak to the people of Israel. Still, that leaves no human in the position of speaking for God as though any human knows the mind of God.

God’s ways are mysterious. We trust God is all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful. However, none of those tenets of our faith equates to a suffering-proof life. Our faith in God, more often than not, complicates the mystery of life and rarely solves it.

The New Testament speaks of the “mystery” of the gospel. In this particular case, the “mystery” is not a puzzle to be solved but a reality to be celebrated. We don’t know why tragedy strikes. What we do know is that God is at work in all that happens to reveal God’s redemptive purpose.

God is not in control in the sense that all that happens is the result of the direct action of God. God is in control in the sense that God can and does take all that happens, even the worst, and transforms it into an instrument of redemptive grace (Romans 8).

The story is told of an elderly pastor of a tiny rural congregation. He and his wife had been married for decades. They had been each other’s best friends. She had stood by him and with him in all the challenges ministry brought into their lives.

The bottom is rock solid

One day, the pastor’s wife grew seriously ill and died shortly thereafter. That next Sunday, no one expected the pastor to show up for worship. No one would have blamed him for staying silent for an extended period of grief.

However, when the hour of worship drew near, people were shocked to look up and see the elderly pastor making his way to the pulpit. As he stood in the pulpit, he was silent for a long moment before saying a word. When he did speak, his sermon was very brief.

“Dear people, this past week, I touched bottom. I am here to report to you that the bottom is rock solid.” That was it, the total extent of his sermon.

The pastor didn’t try to explain the mystery of his wife’s death or how God was in control. He simply went to church to report that, in the worst moment of his life, God had taken control of the worst and transformed it into a witness of God’s undying faithfulness, love and presence.

Ezekiel suffered one of the worst losses any human can know. He chose to use that event in this life as a means of communicating the greater purpose of God’s redemption for all mankind.

• The Bible Studies for Life lesson for June 22 focuses on 1 John 1:5-2:2.

There is tremendous power in forgiveness. It withholds from offenders what they deserve. This is called mercy. It offers offenders something they don’t deserve. This is called grace. It sets the one who forgives free from holding grudges and being captive to the past.

How can I make these assertions? The power of forgiveness is something I have experienced personally. God has forgiven me of my sin. I have learned to forgive those who have hurt and betrayed me. Forgiveness is sweet and freeing.

Acknowledge your need for forgiveness

Every person who has lived or will live needs forgiveness. We are broken people who need to be forgiven and to offer forgiveness. The Apostle John wrote about the power of God’s forgiveness.

God is holy. His forgiveness is a holy forgiveness, unlike any other. We are forgiven because Jesus paid the price for our sin. Today, as in the first century, there are many false teachers who take the gospel and twist its message. One reason John wrote this epistle was to refute the false messages of Gnosticism of his day.

God is spirit, which the Gnostics believed was good. Jesus came to earth as a man. Gnostics believed the body or matter was evil. They asserted a good God could not come in bodily form. For Gnostics, salvation was achieved by special knowledge, not by faith in Christ. Today, we need to know and understand the same truth John taught.

John begins his first epistle with the testimony of having seen, heard and touched the One who died so sin could be forgiven. But not just forgiven. John says we can have fellowship with God. Beginning in 1 John 1:5, the apostle shows how this fellowship is possible.

Walk in the light

As an eyewitness, John stated God was light, and there was no darkness in him. It is not possible for evil to dwell in holy God. We cannot walk in darkness—sin—and claim to have fellowship with God. The only way to have true fellowship with God and other believers is to walk in the light of God.

Fellowship carries the connotation of association, community, communion and intimacy. It is not for casual acquaintance, but for relationships with depth, meaning and importance. This kind of fellowship is possible because of the blood of Christ, who purifies us from our sin (1 John 1:7).

Confession is necessary for God’s forgiveness. One of the most beautiful pictures of confession is found in the exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman recorded in John 4:4-25. Read through the passage, but rest on verses 17-18. In his conversation with the woman, Jesus asks about her husband. She “confesses” or admits she doesn’t have one.

Instead of Jesus blasting her for her immoral behavior, he agrees with her and simply says, “You are right when you say that you have no husband. … What you have just said is quite true.”

God already knows our sin. He is waiting for us to recognize it in our lives so we can agree with him that we need forgiveness. Listen to 1 John 1:8, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” We deceive ourselves; however, God is not deceived. “If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 John 1:10).

Sandwiched between verse 8 and 10 is life-giving verse 9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Our unlike-any-other, never failing God will forgive us and take away all sin. He makes us pure and clean.

Rely on the work of our advocate

One of the great mysteries of the Christian life is how we can be forgiven and yet struggle with sin. With great tenderness and love, John tells his readers if they sin, they have an advocate before the Father. His name is Jesus, and he alone is worthy to plead our cause before the Father. He is the Righteous One.

God’s just nature requires a sacrifice for sin. The sinless Lamb of God is the means of appeasing the wrath of God. He is the atoning sacrifice. And not just for the sins of those who first heard John’s words “but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

Jesus is our advocate. He comes to our aid, standing by our side and pleads for us before God. Does that knowledge humble you? What depth of love Christ has for us. What lengths he has gone to so we can have fellowship with God.

Paul writes in Ephesians 3:18 about being able to grasp how wide, long, high and deep the love of Christ is. I don’t know who said it, but I have written in the margin of my Bible these words, “God’s love is wide—for all mankind; long—lasts forever; high—puts us in the heavenly places; deep—to reach people dead in sin.”

Dare to be forgiven

How can sinful man refuse the forgiveness of God? When we refuse to acknowledge our sin, we feel we have no need of forgiveness. Challenge yourself and others to share this good news with people who may have never heard this life-giving message. Ask them to dare to be forgiven.

• The BaptistWay lesson for June 22 focuses on 2 Chronicles 20:1-4, 13-15; Matthew 6:16-18; Acts 13:1-3.

Fasting is one of those practices seldom mentioned in Baptist life. Perhaps it has something to do with our propensity to eat. The first time I remember a fast mentioned at church was one spring when revival services were approaching. Our pastor called a church-wide fast. We were encouraged to pray—at home, at church—and to fast in some way. We were given the option of not eating for a whole day, of skipping one meal for several days or fasting from food we really enjoyed. The goal was to concentrate on connecting with God more intensely than usual.

I don’t recall actually taking part in the fast. As a teenager, I had trouble understanding its desired outcome. I understood we were not supposed to be fasting for the sake of it. I was aware this was an exercise to help us focus more intensely on our prayer lives. However, I did not understand what this increased activity in prayer was supposed to achieve. Perhaps it was poorly communicated, or perhaps I was paying attention haphazardly. Whatever the case, this perceived lack of purpose on my part resulted in a failure to fast. Rather than being turned off by this discipline, I suspect the reason most Baptists do not practice fasting is simply because they do not understand why they should.

In Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster notes, “Throughout the Scripture, fasting refers to abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. … Biblical fasting always centers on spiritual purposes.” The spiritual purpose my pastor asked us to pray for was revival. This does not mean fasting is a way to control God or a guarantee he will answer in a certain way. It simply is a human attempt to connect with a divine activity. As we look at the three Scripture passages in our lesson this week, we see three aspects of fasting for spiritual purposes.

Seeking guidance

When Jehoshaphat was faced with multiple armies threatening to destroy him and God’s people, 2 Chronicles 20:3 states, “Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.” These are the types of big, life-altering situations in which fasting should be utilized. When we do this, a couple of things must be guarded against: Assuming there always is a definite answer to all of our quandaries and projecting the answer we want onto God.

Fasting for guidance should not be treated like a “Magic 8 Ball,” but as a special attempt to seek God’s specific will or desire in a certain situation. As a result, we also must be willing to accept that our fasting may not result in a specific answer or in the specific answer we want. When we are bold enough to fast and seek guidance from the Lord, we must prepare our hearts for all kinds of answers.

Reward

The strongest case for fasting can be found by looking at the words of Jesus. Foster notes Jesus’ “teaching on fasting is directly in the context of his teaching on giving and praying. It is as if there is an almost unconscious assumption that giving, praying and fasting are all part Christian devotion. We have no more reason to exclude fasting from the teaching than we do giving or praying.”

In this teaching in Matthew 6:16-18 that Foster references, Jesus begins verse 16 with the words “when you fast,” not “if you fast.” This, in and of itself, is reason enough to consider engaging in this discipline. However, as Jesus further instructs his disciples to practice this in secret (unlike the “hypocrites”), he assures them they will be rewarded. Just as before, there is a great caution against viewing fasting in this light. Jesus is not urging his disciples to practice fasting to get a reward; rather, he is letting them know their sacrifice will not go unnoticed.

Discernment

One night, a conversation about spiritual gifts cropped up in our small group. One of the people said she had the gift of discernment. This caused others to admit this was something they lacked. Discernment is indeed included as a spiritual gift in the Bible. You likely have met folks who seem to have a higher gift of discernment than others. However, that does not mean no one else can discern the Spirit of God. Fasting is one way people who may not feel particularly gifted in this area can open themselves up to sharing in this ability.

In Acts 13:1-3, Christians in the church at Antioch apparently were fasting together to discern how the Holy Spirit was going to continue to spread the gospel through them. Their answer came in the act of sending Paul and Barnabas out on a missionary journey.

Whatever your previous experiences with fasting might be, remember Jesus said, “when you fast,” not “if you fast.” I challenge you to consider engaging in this discipline as the Spirit leads.

• The Explore the Bible lesson for June 15 focuses on Ezekiel 18:1-4, 21-23, 25-27, 30-32.

The smart phone I carry with me has an app for a compass. On more than one occasion, that app proved valuable. Even though my car has a GPS system and can lead me wherever I want to go, there are times when I need to know which direction I’m headed in order to keep my bearing.

One reason we should worship God, privately and in community with others, is because it helps us maintain our moral compass. We are so overloaded with information from so many sources. Virtually all of it, even the simplest advertisements, carries moral information suggesting how we should live. Ours is increasingly a pluralistic culture.

It seems the only wrong is to say something is wrong. The cultural norm now is to not have a norm; ours is a “live-and-let-live” culture. If we don’t have an internal guidance system that helps us keep our moral bearing, we easily can find ourselves spiritually adrift.

Help to maintain our moral compass

The passages in this week’s lesson are meant to help us maintain our moral compass. They begin by telling us, quite simply, there is a right and a wrong way to live. The difference between right and wrong finds its source in the holiness of God. To venture in a direction that is a departure from holiness is to sin.

Some sin comes naturally, subtly. Other sin involves a conscious choice to go our own way. Either way, sin is separation from God, and separation from God is separation from life and therefore death.

The first words of the prophet Ezekiel in this lesson compel us to take responsibility for our sin. We cannot honestly say of our sin that someone else made us do it or we simply were born that way.

We sometimes think of repentance as quitting a bad habit. In time, repentance may lead to the cessation of sinful habits but not until it has caused us to rethink how sinfully we think about ourselves and our place in this world, all based on how God has informed us, through God’s word and the community of faith in which we worship.

Yet, despite our sin, God already has provided for our forgiveness. It’s an amazing to ponder. God, in Christ, made our forgiveness possible millennia before we were born to commit our first sin.

In a Christian Life Commission seminar, Pastor George Mason reminded us God’s forgiveness of us is “not the result of human repentance and confession that might allow us to be right with God and with one another. It is the beginning. … ‘While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,’ Paul says. Not, once we prove ourselves sorry enough for our sins and provide enough restitution to our victims” will God then forgive us.

Repentance is not perfect moral reform

Repentance is not perfect moral reform. Repentance is the moral choice to stop not believing in the forgiveness of God.

In my earliest years of preaching, I spent a lot of time trying to call people to repentance defined as shaping up, as moral self-reformation. I did this by coaxing or commanding or even shaming them into living better, like there was no unswept dirt under my sofa.

John the Baptist called on people to “‘bear fruit in keeping with repentance’” (John 3:8). It’s important to listen carefully to what he was saying. He was calling on the people to let their lives produce evidence of a repentance that already had occurred, of hearts turning back to God’s forgiveness instead of away from it.

When Jesus first started preaching, he said, “‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matthew 4:17). In Christ, God now was revealing more fully God’s love for mankind. “Stop leaning on your ability to make things right with God and trust what God has done to make them right” was the message of Jesus.

Can you imagine John 3:16 reading this way? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him and first shaped up would not perish but have everlasting life.”

Let go and let God

We only perish when we wander alone into the desert of spiritual self-preservation. Life is what happens when we let go and let God. Repentance is the moral choice to let what God has done in Christ be good enough.

Repentance is a relationship. We’ll never be consciously aware of all of our sins. Only God knows all. Repentance is more of an attitude toward God, a way of living in constant awareness of God’s presence.

• The Bible Studies for Life lesson for June 15 focuses on Ezekiel 18:21-24, 30-32.

The speed limit in Texas varies depending on the part of the state in which you are driving. We all know that to drive the speed limit can endanger your health because so many tend to exceed the posted limit. Someone said, “If you don’t speed, you will get run over.”

What do you want to happen to the one who is going in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed endangering those around him? If you are like me, you are wondering where the state patrol is so the guy can be stopped and brought to justice.

However, when I am slightly exceeding the speed limit and see those red lights flashing in the rear view mirror, I hope the officer who stops me will have mercy and let me off with a warning.

What’s the difference? Human nature is such that we all want to get off easy ourselves but may demand a different display of justice for others. God is not like us. God is just in all his dealings. He is holy, which means his just acts are clothed in holiness. His justice is unlike any other because of who he is.

Just toward all

Ezekiel lived during a dark period in Israel’s history. He prophesied in late 500s B.C. when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. The people were carried into exile, including Ezekiel. This should have been no surprise to the people, because more than one prophet told them God was going to judge his people for their sinful ways. Death and destruction were coming if they did not repent.

God was clear in what he expected from his people. In the Mosaic covenant of Exodus 19:5-6, God said: “’Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’”

The Israelites were to be a people who stood out from the nations around them. They were to worship God alone and treat their families and neighbors in ways that honored God and were distinctly different from the kingdoms of pagan kings. But time and time again, the Israelites turned away from God.

Hundreds of years later, God spoke these words through the prophet Ezekiel: “And you will know that I am the Lord, for you have not followed my decrees or kept my laws but have conformed to the standards of the nations around you” (Ezekiel 11:12). It is almost as if God is saying: “I am a just God. I cannot ignore your sin any more than I can ignore the sin of the nations around you. You will know that I am the Lord as I deal with your sin.”

Sins of the wicked and the righteous

Ezekiel 18:21-24 examines the sins of the wicked and the righteous. The wicked were those who were hostile to God. They neither cared for nor obeyed the laws and decrees of God. Perhaps they worshipped at the altars of many different gods, oppressed the poor and committed immoral acts.

God says if this one who has rejected God turns away from the sins he has committed, keeps God’s laws, and does what is right and just, he will live (v. 21). God will not remember his sins or hold them against the man (v. 22). He doesn’t take pleasure in the death of those who have rejected him (v. 23).

But what about the righteous man who has kept God’s law and lived a moral life? How does God judge this one who turns away from doing what is right and just? Will his prior righteous acts keep him from death? Ezekiel 18:24b reveals the answer: “None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness, he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die.”

Both the “wicked” and the “righteous” earn death because of their sin. God is just in declaring all guilty because all have sinned (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:23). This is hard for some to accept. We like to put sin in categories like “little white lie” kind of sins versus “major sins” like murder, stealing and more. God doesn’t look at sin in this way because he is just.

Repent and live

The Israelites felt God was unjust. How could God treat them the same way he was treating the wicked around them? Somehow they expected special treatment in their sin because they were “righteous.”

God, as Sovereign Lord, will judge each one according to his or her ways (Ezekiel 18:30). Sin is the downfall for every man, woman, boy and girl. God instructs us to repent, have a change of mind that results in a change of action. “Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 18:31).

We each have a choice to make. Continue in our sin and die. Repent of our sin and live. In different ways, people ask how a loving God can send people to death. God is not only loving, but also just. He does not compromise on what we earn for our sin. But no one has to die. Here’s the answer: “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!” (Ezekiel 18:32).

Who around you needs to hear this message? Whether it is you or someone else, don’t delay. Choose life today.

• The BaptistWay lesson for June 15 focuses on Proverbs 3:5-6; Galatians 2:15-21; Ephesians 2:8-10.

Lots of claims are made about faith. Televangelists claim faith can make your rich. Faith healers claim faith can make you whole. Of course, most good Baptists do not buy into these claims without practicing some discernment. Still, I’ve heard churches claim faith helped them build a new building, increase their attendance and win souls for Christ. While I have no doubt faith can lead into these types of things, we are wrong to assume they directly result from faith. The unspoken equation we often buy into is the amount of faith we have is proportionately equal to the success we experience.

In his book Small Faith, Great God, N.T. Wright debunks that equation with these words: “Faith is not the mysterious ability to sail through life with a secret key that unlocks all the doors. Faith is the willingness to think and act on the basis of what we know of God (which may be very little) and to trust him that he will not let us down.” We often speak of “having enough faith” to take on a certain challenge, to donate a portion of our income or to persevere through trials. If we are not careful, we give the impression that faith grants us a certain measure of control over this life. Again, Wright asserts: “People who live by faith may not know where they are going. They do nonetheless have certainty—certainty in the God who called them and leads them.”

Faith trusts

That’s why—first and foremost—faith is something that trusts: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6). Three-quarters of this familiar proverb is spent instructing what faith is to be placed in—God. “Trust in God with everything,” it says. This is followed by one small, often misunderstood statement: “he will make your paths straight.”

That doesn’t mean he will make your paths easy, or even successful. A straight path is a metaphor the Bible uses to speak of a life pleasing and upright in God’s sight. We don’t please God by our lives; we put all our faith in him, and he makes our lives pleasing.

If you’ve ever been to church camp, perhaps you’ve done the “trust fall,” where one person stands on an elevated stump, holds his arms to his chest and falls straight back in the interlocked arms of friends. The only thing the person falling does is fall. It’s not up to him to make sure everything goes well. It’s simply up to him to trust it will.

Faith lives

Another misconception about faith lies in the passive way it often is expressed. It’s common for surveys to ask about someone’s “faith” with the expectation they will respond with a certain religion. We categorize our faith with concrete things we believe as a Christians and Baptists. That’s well and good, as long as we realize our faith is more than a noun. Our faith should be a verb.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul says: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loves me and gave himself for me.” Just because our faith is not in what we’ve done, that does not mean our faith does not do anything.

Saint Augustine is attributed as saying: “Pray as though everything depends on God. Work as though everything depends on you.” Perhaps, as fallen creatures, that is the most concrete way to understand how faith lives in us when we have “been crucified with Christ.”

We see faith living through people when they do things people without faith would not do.

Faith saves

Of course, it would be incomplete not to mention the saving nature of faith. In Ephesians 2:8-9, Paul says, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” In Faith Matters: What it Really Means to Believe, Paul Sands notes: “Martin Luther discovered the gospel of grace in the 15th century, and his famous breakthrough helped to inaugurate the Reformation. For years, Luther’s fear of God’s wrath had fueled an obsessive piety that allowed him no rest. He did not find peace until he realized that salvation is a sheer gift that cannot be earned by good works. Writing years later of how this insight transformed his life, Luther said, ‘I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.’”

This is the kind of freedom that saving faith brings. In many ways, it is what enables us to be open to the other aspects of faith that have been mentioned. When the burden of saving ourselves is lifted, we are freed to live and trust through faith instead of our own works.

Are you living by faith today?

• The Bible Studies for Life lesson for June 8 focuses on 1 John 4:7-12.

My first language is English. Although I know a few words from several different languages and am trying to learn Spanish, I am proficient only in my heart language. This can make it a great challenge to communicate with the many groups with whom I work across Texas.

I have found, however, those who belong to Christ have something stronger and deeper than mere words that enables us to communicate across many barriers. It is the love of God.

The source of love

In 1980, Johnny Lee made popular the song, Lookin’ For Love. The gist of the song is about a guy spending his whole life looking for love and “playing a fool’s game” for “traces” of what he was dreaming of. Eventually, he found the girl in the right way. His search ended.

This song aptly describes every human being on the planet. We look in all the wrong places for love. The Apostle John says, “Loves comes from God” (1 John 4:7). Love comes from God because “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Holy God is distinct and stands apart. His love is holy love. It is unlike any other. It is unfailing. Psalm 130:7 reads, “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.” The psalmist declared in Psalm 13:5, “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.”

The gift of love

God doesn’t just talk about love. We see it in action. Savor this picture from John 1:14 in The Message, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.”

Why did Jesus come into this world? Our sin had separated us from God. 1 John 4:10 rightly says, “Not that we loved God, but that he loved us.” God’s holiness demands punishment for our sin. Out of his love for those he created, God sent his Son to be our atoning sacrifice (1 John 4:10). The Father poured the wrath we deserved on his Son. We earn death because of our sin (Romans 6:23). The sin of all mankind couldn’t kill Jesus. He defeated it when he rose from the dead and lives today seated at the right hand of the Father.

The most often quoted verse from Scripture is John 3:16. Don’t let its familiarity rob you of the depth of its message. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The unconditional, unlike-any-other-kind of love went into action when God gave his singularly one-of-a-kind son to die in my place, in your place. The gift was not coerced from the heart of the Giver. The one who chooses to receive the gift does not earn it nor deserve it. It is freely given from a loving God.

Have you received the gift God is offering you? If not, today is the day to agree with God that you have sinned against him. Put your faith in Christ and ask him to forgive you and make you new from the inside out.

If you have already made that decision, who in your sphere of influence needs to hear this message of love? Everyone is looking for love. Some people simply are looking in the wrong place. Share God’s love with someone today.

The response to love

God’s love in his followers reaches full expression when we love one another. In 1 John 4:7 and again in verse 11, John admonishes his readers to love one another. The Greek word for love in these two verses is the same word used for God loving us.

God loves us unconditionally, and we are to love one another the same way. These verses became incredibly real to me when one of my students in East Asia came to know Christ.

This young man was very intense in learning English. He put that same intensity to reading Scripture and following Christ. Even as he wanted to be obedient to Scripture, he also expected other Christians to do the same.

One night, the student asked another Christian to help him with an English project. For whatever reason, the friend wouldn’t help him. My student was bewildered and hurt.

Three days later, the student arrived for our weekly time of Bible study. He announced he didn’t want to study the Bible anymore because it was false. Imagine my surprise. I had no idea what had happened, but whatever it was had shaken his young faith.

Through the power and grace of God’s Spirit the story was finally pieced together. The young man had been reading these verses from 1 John 4. “Love one another.” He really expected Christians to follow that teaching. Who else do you know who expects the same? The situation was resolved through prayer and obedience to another verse of scripture about forgiveness. But I never will forget that lesson.

People are watching us to see how we treat one another. Do they recognize the love of God in us? “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

• The Explore the Bible lesson for June 8 focuses on Ezekiel 1:1-3; 1:28-2:5; 6:7-10.

We all have memories of love lost. We all know the pain of rejection by someone to whom we had given our heart. There is nothing more painful than having trusted someone with whole-hearted devotion only to have that devotion spurned.

When I was in college, I dated and fell madly in love with a young woman. After a while, I was certain this was the girl I would marry. We even began shopping for wedding rings. Then, she decided she didn’t want to continue the relationship. For months afterward, I suffered loss of appetite, sleeplessness and humiliation. Finally, after enough time passed, I realized I would live again.

Idolatry in proper contect

It wasn’t until years later someone helped put that experience in proper context for me. A false god, he said, is anyone or anything to which we assign the power to declare our worth to us other than our Creator God.

It’s easy to be astonished by those who openly worship idols of any kind. Religions, foreign or domestic, that teach people to bow down to man-made objects of worship don’t make sense to Christians. Reading mysterious and mystical scriptures like Ezekiel can be confusing because the words and ideas are so foreign to our way of thinking.

However, although removed from us by continents, cultures and millennia, the ancient words of the prophet still ring true in our day and time. It may be difficult for us to understand the prophet’s visions, but his teachings are clear enough.

Idolatry is a sin that threatens the soul. It’s a sin as common in our day as it was in Ezekiel’s, although it may have taken on different forms.

Call to repentance

Prophets rarely are popular whenever they appear. Prophets shine the light on sin; they call attention to our pretense of worship of God voided by our genuine worship of lesser gods. They call us to repentance that demands an admission of personal fault and responsibility.

We tend to want to keep the prophets closed up in the Bible. We don’t want them confronting our day-to-day sin. Yet, the role of the prophet is to point us back to our only true hope, the love and life that flow from God and God alone.

Before repentance from idolatry issues in behavioral reform, it involves our personal acceptance of responsibility for seeking hope and life in a source other than God. Therein lays the core issue.

We worship material things or personal relationships because they appear to meet a need in our lives. We gain some sense of worth from them. They make us feel better or bring us some sense of identity in our social standing we’d otherwise do without.

The problem with idols is either some earthly force can destroy them or they can reject us, turn and walk away. In the end, as important as material possessions may be or as valuable as any human can be to us, they lack one significant thing.

Idols are powerless

They have no power to ultimately give us life and hope, which come only from the One who created us and loved us enough to send his Son to die for us. God calls us from idolatry back to himself because of his great love for us.

Almost certainly, when the prodigal son returned home, his father was overwhelmed with joy and threw a party because his son had been wandering in a land where he would die, physically and spiritually. When the son came home, he also came back to love and life, which is all the father wanted for the son in the first place. Sometimes, our heavenly Father allows us our idols just so we’ll learn the same lesson, painful and costly as it may be.

In the end, we are no greater than what or whom we choose to worship, that to which we give the ultimate devotion of our heart. God calls us to repent of idolatry so we might become all we were created to be, children of the Holy, eternal God of all creation.