Changed Judgements

Eze 5:6  And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, 
and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have 
refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. 

We had been in town for just a few months. A large tent had been set up on the field 
next to the fairgrounds and we were holding a 'tent meeting', letting the community 
get an opportunity to come by and experience what our new church was about. It 
turned out to be quite affective as several people that might have never set foot inside 
a church happened by and ended up having a life changing encounter with God. 
From those few weeks of meetings we were able to initiate relationships that would 
last through the next several years of establishing a church that would make a 
significant impact upon our small community. 

It was during those meetings that I remember a specific interaction between my 
Father and me that helped define wickedness and how it relates to a directive. I was 
still quite young, the summer before my second grade, and I had been told, for my 
own safety and the ease of mind for my parents, to remain inside of the the tent area. 
This was something that went directly against what my great sense of adventure and 
fun might deem appropriate, and I took it upon myself to test this guideline by 
venturing with new found friends into darkness beyond the approved boundaries of 
the tent's light. I believe it was really quite fun as I ran around the field surrounding 
the tent, savoring my independence from those restrictions and the opportunity to 
just run and play. What I was doing in itself might not have been all that bad. It 
wasn't like I was involved in some kind of evil and destructive activity like 
vandalizing cars or smoking. There was a potential harm to myself, however, that 
went beyond my ability to comprehend or foresee. Whether or not there was a 
justifiable reason for what I had been told, however, was not what made my decision 
to do otherwise right or wrong. I remember specifically that, before my Dad said 
anything to me about it, I knew in my own heart I had violated not just something 
that in itself was wrong; I had violated the will of my father. I had taken the very 
thing he had put into place for my protection and care, and turned it into a means of 
transgression and embrace of wickedness. The significant punishment that took 
place later on that night was something that my little heart needed and expected. 
Dad could have just let it go and understood my need for friendships, but by 
following through with the necessary consequence of my rebellion, he actually freed 
my conscience from guilt and established security in our relationship. I knew by this 
experience that his word meant something, and it was my responsibility to make it a 
good something or a bad something based upon my obedience to it. I would give Dad 
many more opportunities to further establish this understanding, but with each 
opportunity I began to develop a real sense of punishment expectancy based upon 
my own attitudes and errant decisions. This helped me see that wickedness has more 
to do with a violation of relationship than a possibly justifiable rebellion against an 
unreasonable law. By merely giving in to what I was told, there was a resulting peace 
and enjoyment of relationship that was worth every resistance to the urge of doing 
what my own will might tell me to do. In my moments of sin, giving in to do opposite 
of what I had been told, wickedness was formed, not over the act itself, but over my 
rejection of the one who had instructed me otherwise. 

There is a way of holiness and righteousness that has a real purpose in producing an 
enjoyable, safe and productive life. Our Father knows exactly what this way is and 
has provided many directions to keep us on this way. Each one of His directions has 
a potential of producing this holiness and righteousness. We, however, can either 
yield to them and their positive end, or we can take the very things that He has 
established for our good, and turn them into wickedness in the rejection of His place 
in our life. It will ever be important to let our actions produce life (the wages of sin is 
death), but what makes those actions other than wicked will have more to do with 
embrace of the One who guides us in them than their movements alone.  

Dad helped me see my responsibility in establishing the holy or wicked nature of a 
directive. I am so very grateful that in my learning of his lessons I've gained an 
irreplaceable relationship that has been worth any endurance of punishment. My 
opportunities to let his directives be chances for relationship enhancement have 
become very few and far between, but I have a never ending daily supply of 
opportunities to take the words my heavenly Father speaks and either turn them into 
wickedness for me in their rejection, or allow them to be a source of fulfilling life in 
their compliant embrace. 


1/18/07