Here's how The Message translates Jeremiah 3:23: "All that popular religion was a cheap lie, duped crowds buying up the latest in gods."

People often criticize translations like The Message Bible. I suppose paraphrasing scripture doesn't sit well for some. But I appreciate the attempt to connect our modern understandings to ancient hearts and struggles. What we discover is that we're not all that different. People are people and people will be people.

The NRSV translates the same verse like this: "Truly the hills are a delusion." And the NKJV says, "Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills." Would you have picked up on the idea of popular religion from those readings? Without further study, I wouldn't have.

So, what is the point of the text? The people, seemingly, recognized they had turned from God's way. They understood what God wanted from them and even for them. But they sought another way of being. It felt better to pursue idol worship and practice of the hills. That is, people would set up worship in literal high places. Mind you, most of these places had nothing to do with the worship of God. The people realized, then, their religious pursuits amounted to nothing. Nothing faithful, that is.

Today, you and I don't have those kinds of high hills. Oh, but we have high hills, don't we? Today's popular religion is full of them. 

These are the personal and communal pursuits that don't bring us to closer communion with God. They have the opposite effect. Whether we actually realize or seek to justify our high hills, they will prove to be empty promises.

Thankfully, there is a faithful promise within the people's recognition of who they have been. It's the same promise you and I can count on as well. The Lord says through Jeremiah, "Return, O faithless children, I will heal your faithlessness." Or as The Message says, "Come back, wandering children! I can heal your wanderlust!"

Stay blessed...john

There's kingdom work. And there's church work. When those two combine, faithful and fruitful ministry grows. To be sure, though, you can have one without the other.

Everyone knows the modern church is experiencing a dilemma. Communities around our local churches have changed in ways we didn't prepare for. At speeds we tried to ignore. The larger culture has moved away from the church at its center. That has impacted church attendance, church programming and everything else in between.

Often, we talk about these changes and dilemmas in terms of loss. Indeed, time and circumstances have changed much in our lives, personal and communal. And that can hurt.

That's a reason to appreciate scripture's notion of pruning. Maybe we aren't losing as much as God is pruning away. When God prunes, it's for our growth.

So, now, as God's church, we find ourselves wondering what to do next. One thing we must be certain to do is learn to distinguish what is kingdom work and what is mere church work.

A common pitfall of modern church leadership has been the focus on preserving the church institution. When we plan, we want to know, Will this help our church? Will our church benefit from this? Little else seems to matter. By ourselves, we probably can't help but think that way. But with the Spirit's help, we can see more faithfully.

All that to say, if your first focus is kingdom work, church work finds its right place. If your first focus is church work, church work takes over. Kingdom work often suffers, if it's not altogether ignored.

Simon, the former magician baptized in Acts 8, saw the power of God "through the laying on of the apostles' hands" (Acts 8:18). He asked to receive "this power." Not the power of what God was doing, but the power to be able to do what the apostles were doing. Read that story again through the lens of kingdom work and church work. It often feels like what we often do today falls in line with what Simon was trying to do.

Stay blessed...john

"Good eye!"

That's the encouragement echoed countless times around Little League ballparks. You hear it when a batter doesn't swing at a bad pitch. Never mind that, often, they don't swing because they're nervous or scared. But the idea is your good eye kept you from swinging at a bad ball. You still have a chance to make a good play.

I have no idea what kind of athlete Jesus was. But he had something to say about having a good eye.

"If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is unhealthy, your body is full of darkness" (Luke 11:34). This wasn't a random bit of spiritual wisdom. The Lord directed it to a growing crowd filled with a generation he called "evil."

Why?

When he healed a mute person, some people responded with amazement. Others, though, said he was the possessed person. And they demanded another sign from heaven (11:15-16). Jesus told them something greater than what happened in Nineveh with Jonah was happening right before them. But their unhealthy eye kept them from seeing it.

So, how is your eye?

Are you less amazed at God's power than you once were? Does the love of God seem less exciting or illuminating? If you find yourself "going through the motions" of faith, that might be a sign to pray for a good eye.

John Piper once said, "There are many bright things in the world that keep us from seeing the true light of Christ—just like city lights keep you from seeing the stars." A good eye, then, means we have seen what God has done in Jesus. We see what God is doing in Jesus.

As you pray, ask God to show you the true light and truth of Christ. Pray with wonder and joy at the work of God. You're still at bat.

Stay blessed...john

Psalm 106 offers a national confession of sin. "Both we and our ancestors have sinned" (106:6). Reaching through his peoples' history, the psalmist acknowledges what we read in scripture. Israel is full of contradiction. Saved by God only to turn from God. For about thirty verses, the psalmist recounts various episodes of this. It's a reminder that Israel's faithful memory was always short.

The psalmist also includes God's faithfulness in this confession. Even though the nation proved unfaithful, "for their sake he remembered his covenant (100:45). God will always show compassion.

What is missing, though, is a telling of the psalmist's sin. Yes, he includes himself and the people he knows now among those who have sinned. But he only reminds us of Israel's past sin. He never fills us in on how he and his people have sinned today.

Or has he?

We don't need his record of wrongs laid out before us to know they're probably in line with what we read in the Bible. In so many ways, no matter what our sins are (yes, ours), they're nothing new. Certainly not to God.

We should include our sin and confession because like the psalmist and his people and like his ancestors, our faithful memory is poor. Yours. Mine. And ours. Most of us, I imagine, would say we are trying to do and be better. Praise God! But don't you think that was true of others before us, too? Of course.

So, as we read how the people of God failed God, we aren't only learning something about them. We are acknowledging something about ourselves, too.

When you read how the Israelites sinned against God, you can see how what you are (or aren't) and what you do (or don't do) is nothing new to God. God's people today share the same struggles with faith and obedience as all God's people have.

The good news? God will always show compassion.

Stay blessed...john