Author: Steven R. Bruck
Being in Control Doesn’t Mean You’re Controlling Everything
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How often do we proclaim that God is in control?
How many times (you don’t really have to count) does the Bible tell us that God is in control?
Yet, it seems that too many times we see things happening in the world that would indicate God is not in control. We see good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good ones. We see mass murders, crimes go unpunished, people in positions of authority abuse that authority and no one does anything about it.
The writer of the Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) asked about these things as well, and his conclusion was that nothing really matters- all our efforts are as useless as chasing the wind. His final statement is that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
With all due respect to the writer of Kohelet, I have the answer to why it seems God is not in control:
Being in Control Doesn’t Mean You’re Controlling Everything
I was in the business world for some 40 plus years and most of that time was in control of something: my own office, a department, a number of different departments, and anywhere from 12 to over 350 people at one time or another. And what I learned from that is when you are the one in charge, to develop your people and give them the skills and understanding that they need to improve themselves, you sometimes have to leave them in control and let them screw up on their own.
Of course, you don’t let them screw up anything really important, or anything that would cause harm to themselves or others, but just let them have their way with the little things and give them the chance to swim, or sink.
And always be there to fish them out if they need you to.
With God and humanity, it is the same. God is in control of everything- there is nothing he cannot do or make happen. But just because he can make anything happen doesn’t mean he will make anything happen. He will often leave us to our own devices to allow us to learn the important lessons we need to learn.
What are those lessons? Well, for one, we need to learn to depend on God and not on our own strength. What better way to do that then leave us alone to totally mess things up to the point where we have to call on him for help?
Another lesson we need to learn is patience, as in waiting on God for justice. What better way to do that than to allow evil to propagate and let us see it happen?
I like to say, “Proverbs 20:22 tells us, ‘Do not say, “I’ll pay you back for this wrong!” Wait for the LORD, and he will avenge you.‘, and sometimes God actually let’s us see that happen.”
One of the most important lessons we need to learn is about forgiveness. How can we learn that unless someone hurts us?
God is unquestionably able to control everything that happens everywhere, but he doesn’t. He controls everything by not controlling everything and allowing us to control those things that will lead us to better understand God, his ways and our role in his plan of salvation.
Don’t let yourself be fooled by those that argue because of all the evil and wrong done in the world God doesn’t exist because if he did, he would not allow it. They just don’t understand how it works. They are trying to box God into their own understanding and desires and that will never work. God is so far above us that we cannot even imagine or ever understand his ways, and we shouldn’t be able to.
I once read that a God who can be understood by the mind of Man is not worthy of the worship of Man. I totally agree.
I am not all that upset when I see the evil that is being done in the world, but it is not because I like or condone it. Just like you, I would love to see evil excised from our lives but it ain’t gonna happen until God is ready to take out his righteous vengeance on the nations. My response to evil is not apathy, but trusting confidence that God will render justice when he is ready, and that his justice will be perfect.
I know that God will let me control whatever things he puts in my power to control, and as long as I try to let God lead me I know he is there waiting to catch me if (and when) I mess up.
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The Finite Can Never Understand the Infinite
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Can you imagine what 1,000,000 candles would look like if they were all lined up in a row?
Can you picture in your mind what 1,000,000 dollar bills would look like if they were stacked one on the other?
I can’t. My mind, although it is often in a state of flux, is still pretty sharp and yet I cannot picture what one million anything looks like. I cannot “see” it or imagine what it is.
This is the problem we have when we try to imagine or understand the awesomeness of God. He is so far out of our range of understanding, so distant from the furthest edge of the Bell Curve of our knowledge that we can never even come close to knowing what he knows. Or understanding why he does what he does. Or even understanding the things he tells us about.
In Judaism we have three types of laws:
- Mishpatim– these are the laws we can understand that are mostly “civil” laws, such as do not kill or do not commit adultery;
- Edot– these are ceremonial laws regarding the rites and practices such as rules for Shabbat and the sacrificial system; and
- Chukim– these are laws God gave to us that seemingly have no rationale at all. For instance, changing the sacramental bread every week or not wearing clothes of different cloths.
Human nature almost demands that we know the “why” of something. When someone asks us to do something, how many times is our first response, “Why?” This is no different with God because I hear and read, over and over…and over…so many people “explaining” why the Kosher laws are better for us or why we need to wear Tzitzit.
The answer I give is this,” Because God said so.”
That is all the answer we need, and the easiest answer to understand. I will go even further than this and say that if this answer isn’t enough for you, then you need to start asking yourself what your faith is based on? If we say we have faith, but can’t accept God’s commandments without understanding the reason why we should, then we aren’t faithful at all. How can I say that? Easy!- if you cannot accept what God says without knowing the reason why, it is because you do not trust that God knows what he is talking about. That is an a priori truth, as far as I am concerned.
When we trust someone we do what he or she suggests, especially when we are unsure of what we are doing. We seek out confirmation that we are doing the “right” thing in the “right” way. I saw this when I was a Salesman: so many people needed to see articles from Consumer Reports or Better Business Bureau ratings or letters from customers justifying using my company because we did such a great job. Did they really think I would show them complaint letters? And I realized that these people had no faith in their own decision-making ability but total faith in other people’s ability to decide. In a similar way, so many congregations are constantly preached to about God’s love and compassion and forgiveness, all of which are good things, but when these are the only things that are talked about, the congregation is not given the chance to trust God as they should. Talking only about love and forgiveness is like third party confirmation- the people hear all about what they want to hear but they don’t learn what they need to know. And what they need to know is that God is there even when troubles are all around them. The leaders of God’s people must be trusted, and that trust must be turned to God.
We can (and should) question our human leadership, and we can ask God why (he can handle that), but we must not ask God to prove why what he says is something we should do. That is disrespectful and demonstrates lack of faith. Yes- ask God why things happen; Yes- ask God why whatever you are going through is happening to you; Yes- ask God why he is allowing something to happen. You can always ask God why he wants you to do something but you should never ask God to prove to you why you should do it.
Can you see the subtle but very important difference here? It is OK to ask God to explain something to you but it is not OK to demand he prove what he says to be something you agree you should do. When God says do not eat pork, there are those who can explain why pork is unsafe using health studies about pork and Trichinosis, and others will use that to explain why we don’t need to obey that law anymore because of the USDA. In both cases, what we are doing, really, is trying to understand the “why” of Gods’ law so that we can justify obeying it.
My point is that the moment we try to understand something in order to justify it we are showing distrust in God. There is absolutely no reason why we need to understand any of God’s laws- NO reason! He is God, and that is all the justification “why” anyone needs; anything more than that and you are being faithless, obstinate, stiff-necked and rebellious.
So do yourself a favor- just forget trying to understand why when it comes to God and his commandments. It’s a useless and impossible thing to do because the finite (us) can never understand the infinite (God.)
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Passover Message 2018
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Chag Sameach!! Pesach Tov! Shabbat Shalom!
These are the greetings we will be giving to each other this evening because Passover (Pesach) starts at sundown, and this year (2018) so does Shabbat. Our preparations are twice as important today: not only do we prepare for Shabbat but we also prepare for Pesach.
For those people who keep their home Kosher according to Talmudic (also called Rabbinic) tradition, the plates might be the special, once-a-year Pesach servings. The house will not just be cleaned of dirt and dust, but also everything with any form of leavening in it. The Orthodox will even have the Rabbi confirm this and give them a certificate to state their house is “clean.” The removed foods will be given to the (Gentile) poor.
The Seder plate will be set: we will need chicken (the traditional meat for the Seder since we cannot sacrifice a lamb), a roasted egg, charoset (an apple, walnut, honey and wine mixture), matzo (lotsa matzo!), wine that has been approved as Kosher for Pesach, horse radish, parsley and salt-water. A lamb shank bone is also needed. All of these food items are part of the Seder, which we celebrate with the reading of the Haggadah. That is the Passover story, taken from Exodus 12, and as we read from the Haggadah we sample the foods and remember the bitterness of their slavery as we taste of their bitter tears when we dip the parsley in the salt water and eat it. In the middle of the story, just after they’ plagues are recited, we eat the Passover meal. After dinner the children look for the Afikomen (a hidden piece of matzo) so that we can then have desert and complete the reading of the Haggadah.
All told, it is more than a meal- it is an experience.
Over the past twenty years or so Donna and I have shared our Seder with different friends each year, trying to invite those friends who have never experienced a Seder. We use a Messianic Haggadah so that our Gentile friends can see where Yeshua (Jesus) fits into the Seder. It is surprising (I should say, disappointing) that so many of our Gentile friends have no idea that this Seder was what they know as the Last Supper. Their Christian training has done nothing to help them understand their connection to Judaism.
I want to leave you with this interesting thought: did you know that even though Yeshua is called the Passover Lamb because he died for our sins, the real Passover lamb was NOT a sin sacrifice? It was a peace offering, also called a Thanksgiving sacrifice. However, the Yom Kippur sacrifice (which was a goat, not a lamb) is a sin sacrifice. So Yeshua really was a Yom Kippur sacrifice but he performed that function on Passover. Do you know why?
I don’t! But…I do know that because we are cleansed of our sin by Yeshua’s sacrifice we can then come into the presence of God. What Yeshua did was actually perform two sacrificial functions at one time: he made it possible for us to be cleansed of sin which allows us to come into the presence of God and share our thanksgiving meal with him.
If you are having a Seder tonight then may God’s blessing be on you and all with you.
If you are enjoying an Easter ham this Sunday, well…I wish God’s blessings on you if your heart is for Messiah and God, but please consider this: you will be eating something that the person you are celebrating would find to be an abomination on his table.
I will end today’s message with the phrase that concludes every Seder:
לשנה הבאה ב’רושל’ם
(Lashanah haba’ah bi Yerushalayim)
Next year in Jerusalem!
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Ain’t Nothing Free
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I am a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (retired) with a specialization in Security. I also have a CompTIA Security Plus certification.
Why am I mentioning this? Because despite all that I know about Internet security and cyber crime, I myself have (embarrassingly enough) recently fallen victim to an Internet scam.
It started with someone’s Face Book account being hacked and they did not know it. I was contacted by the “bad guys” using this trusted friends Face Book Messenger service, and told that she had won a giveaway and I was also on the list. She sent me the link to the Face Book page (which was expertly spoofed) where I was fooled into believing I had won one of those many “Like this page and enter a contest” events. There were many signs along the way that now using 20-20 hindsight I can see were obvious. The problem was I was initially taken in because I really believed the contact was from my friend. At that point even though the signs were there, I couldn’t recognize them because my eyes were too filled with dollar signs.
And, honestly, I am not greedy or money-driven. I did not lose that much money, and I thank God that I finally caught on. I reported this to an Internet Crime site and when the bad guys tried to get me for more money, I wrote back that I was contacting the authorities and told them, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
I don’t feel humiliated- I feel humbled. Next time someone tells me about being scammed, I will certainly be more compassionate and understanding about it.
I share this with you all not only as a warning that anyone, and I mean ANYONE, can be taken by a well set up scam, but also to show there is also a spiritual lesson in this for us all. That lesson is this:
When someone promises you something for nothing, you will be the one giving something and ending up with nothing.
The enemy of God will promise us worldly goods: money, power, friendship, whatever it is that we want. The promise will be that we won’t have to do anything to receive this, except maybe worship him (or her?) or something that takes us away from Godly worship. That’s the hook, and if you take it you might end up, like I did, finding yourself too deep in to get out without losing something. In the case of Satan, what you might lose is your eternal soul. Much worse than losing some lousy lucre that won’t have any permanent effect.
So what is the answer to maintaining your security? Just that- maintain your security. If someone tells you something that sounds too good to be true, don’t accept it. It may be true, but verify it and do so using a totally different method. For example, if you receive an email or IM from a trusted friend with good news about a product or context, do not reply. Call them on the phone and verify that they sent it to you. And even then, don’t trust it- they may have been taken, too.
The Golden Rule of Cyber Security is this: you NEVER have to buy something to receive a free giveaway. If you are told you have won a contest but you need to send a retainer or purchase a gift card, whatever… don’t do it. It is a scam.
The Golden Rule of Soul Security is this: If it sounds like something the world would want, don’t accept it. You can be sure that whatever is important and valuable to the world is not valuable to God. Remember what Yeshua told us about how God feeds the birds and dresses the poppies in the field- if you are promised something of worldly value for nothing, you don’t really need it.
Such as a chip that will let you buy things faster and easier.
So stay alert, watch out for evil from everyone, and keep that armor of God on you (Galatians 6:14) all the time. I dropped my armor for a moment, and it cost me a couple of hundred dollars. A costly lesson, but a good one.
Please learn from me and not from your own experience.
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Apathy or Patience?
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In many of my messages I mention that I do not read the newspapers or listen to the news on TV. Nor do I pay much attention to who is in Washington or what they are doing.
Consequently, I have sometimes been accused of being apathetic. Frankly, if someone thinks I don’t care…they are right: I don’t care what they think.
I do care about what is happening in the world, and there are times I could just SCREAM!! at the many people who follow the crowd running from one extreme to another, like a pendulum that is swinging from one apogee to another.
And when I see this happening, as with the recent gun control issues and the constant badgering of the Presidents (both present and past), I think of the many verses in the bible that tell us how we must wait on the Lord. You may ask, “Wait for what?” and my answer would be….justice. I don’t believe we will receive an answer to the problems we face, but eventually, in God’s good time, there will be justice served on the ones who are the cause of the problems.
When David’s own son rebelled against him, David accepted the situation and waiting for God to make the decision about what would happen. Let’s look at some of the things David said during this terrible time in his life:
2 Samuel 15:25, when they were taking the Ark with the king as he fled Yerushalayim: “Then the king said to Tzadok, “Take the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the Lord’s eyes, he will bring me back and let me see it and his dwelling place again. But if he says, ‘I am not pleased with you,’ then I am ready; let him do to me whatever seems good to him.”
2 Samuel 16:11-12, when David was being cursed at by a member of Shaul’s family: “Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look upon my misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of his curse today.”
I could list many, many examples here of the bible telling us to wait upon the Lord, which is the same as saying have hope that God will make everything right (in the end.) So I ask you: am I really apathetic because I do not care that much who is in charge or what the maddened crowds are screaming about, or am I patiently waiting for God to act as he sees fit?
My answer to you is that I am trusting in God to make things right in the end. I don’t care that much for the news, which is always sad, designed to evoke emotions of fright and concern, and is untrustworthy. I don’t care who the President is, why or how he or she got there, and what they want to do. The United States government is not a race horse, and the worst thing that any President has done is to leave behind the programs he wanted to get done for the next President to sort out.
No…I am not apathetic, I am faithful. Faithfully waiting on the Lord to make things right; faithfully hoping in God that I will be rescued from the tsouris we are all experiencing in the world, and faithfully looking forward to the day when I will be in his presence.
I respect those who are advocates and trying to make a change for the better, and do not deny their tremendous value in our society.
I just ain’t one of ’em.