Established in Faith

1 Thessalonians 3:1 - 13 (RSV) ¹Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone,  ²and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the gospel of Christ, to establish you in your faith and to exhort you,  ³that no one be moved by these afflictions. You yourselves know that this is to be our lot.  ⁴For when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction; just as it has come to pass, and as you know.  ⁵For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent that I might know your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and that our labor would be in vain.

⁶But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— ⁷for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith;  ⁸for now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.  ⁹For what thanksgiving can we render to God for you, for all the joy which we feel for your sake before our God,  ¹⁰praying earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?  

¹¹Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you;  ¹²and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men, as we do to you,  ¹³so that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Faith (Pistis)
Persuasion, that is, credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly constancy in such profession; by extension the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself:—assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity. 

“Faith” is a word with one meaning but with various applications. Faith is, at its core, reliance upon Christ for salvation. It is also the quality of the conviction we hold toward God. The purest and simplest form of faith is measured by our confession of Jesus as Savior and our assent to His Lordship of our lives. Yet Paul is looking for something far more complex here when he desires to know about what “is lacking in your faith.” Paul interchanges the word “faith” with the word “heart.” In this context, the two words are synonymous. We might say today that someone does not have their “heart in the game.” This means that they have lost or are weak in their constancy or resolve – their will is broken and weak. 

Paul is interested in their “constancy” or, better, their faithfulness toward our God and Father. His aim is to “establish” their faith. The word means, “to turn” in the right direction. It might have been used by sailors who turn (establish) their vessel so it correctly faces the wind.

God’s Holy Spirit desires to establish our faith or, better, our hearts. He wants to make produce in us two qualities. He wants to increase our love for others and to perfect our personal holiness. Here is the question that begs to be answered today: Do you agree with those two aims? Is your heart well established in the will of God?

God Keeps it Real

Psalm 31:15 through Psalm 31:18 (RSV)

 ¹⁵         My times are in thy hand;

          deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors!

¹⁶       Let thy face shine on thy servant;

          save me in thy steadfast love!

¹⁷       Let me not be put to shame, O LORD,

          for I call on thee;

          let the wicked be put to shame,

          let them go dumbfounded to Sheol.

¹⁸       Let the lying lips be dumb,

          which speak insolently against the righteous

          in pride and contempt. 

I see so much Christian piety that is romanticized. We are often sold a G-Rated faith in an R-Rated world. Lots of religious poems I hear read at the start of various meetings are about pussycats and daffodils – rainbows and golden meadows. I appreciate the charm of these lovely things, but I think we ought to forge a faith that is tough enough to take us through those seasons where the enemies are real and our persecutors appear far stronger than our meager resources can withstand. 

I thank God for the faith expressed in the poems and songs of David. I thank God, further, that we have the ministry of Jesus to balance the fear-based pessimism of the Psalmist. Yet, we must admit that Psalm 22 describes, in stark detail, the suffering of our Lord of the Cross – at the hands of His enemies.

One attribute of God we rarely meditate upon is God the vindicator. Paul rests on such a God in Romans 12, where he says of God, “vengeance is mine, I will repay.” In one place Jesus warns that those who hurt these “little ones” that after “my Father” gets through with them, they would wish they had a millstone tied around their necks and been thrown in the sea. 

When we are wronged, unjustly, it is good to say to ourselves “my times are in Thy hand” and “let Thy face shine on Thy servant.” 

Persecution often does in this life what the last great day will do completely—separate the wheat from the tares.

James Milner (d. 1721) 

Be of good cheer, our God has overcome the world.

Trusting, Trusting, Trusting

Psalm 37:3-6 (NKJV)
³ Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
⁵ Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bringit to pass.
⁶ He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.

There is a shortcut to interpreting the deeper meaning of a Bible passage. I don’t apply it as often as I should, but it never fails to be helpful. It is simply listing the verbs. What are the verbs in this portion of Psalm 37? By the way, if someone quotes a single verse, always finds its full context to see if it is a fair representation of the wider context. We see the words trust, dwell, do good, feed, delight, commit and trust again. Now look at the actions of God in response to the Psalms actions. They are “shall give,” “shall bring to pass” and “shall bring forth.”

We are to trust in the LORD himself. We are not directed to place our confidence in some abstraction but in the personally self revealed God of Abraham. In other places we are asked to trust is the law, God’s promises, etc. But here, we place our trust in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is repeated in the New Testament. Jesus tells us “believe in God, believe also in me.” The Apostles’ teach the same personal trust. “Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.” Jesus exhorts us to “Come unto me, all of you who are about to buckle under the weight of the stress you are carrying around.” (Now that is paraphrase.)

Carefully consider with me the profound phrase “feed on His faithfulness.” In Hebrew poetry there is often parallel phrases. The writer repeats the same meaning using slightly different words. Here is it is “delight yourself in the Lord.” The promise that God shall give you the desires of your heart is prefaced on the state of your heart. The state of your heart should be trust, righteousness, and delight. We are to, also, submit to the Lord’s ways. If your ways comport with God’s ways, then, naturally, God will bless your ways.

Here the theme is a man, David, who is doing the right things and getting his butt kicked for it. In the reading the entire Psalm and the Psalms around it, it is clear that David is losing sleep over the conditions of his life. This Psalm is for the people but it is first for David’s own soul. In verse 24 we get the background of the Psalm. “Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord will uphold him with his hand.”

Our responsibility in prayer is to trust God and earnestly desire to please him. It is to do the right thing, that is, the righteous thing. If the evildoer prays for protection from the evildoer, then God can only guard him and others from the consequences of own his or her evil.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

Courage, brother! do not stumble,

Though thy path be dark as night;

There’s a star to guide the humble,

Trust in God and do the right.

Norman Macleod (1812–1872)

God knows, not I, the reason why

His winds of storm drive through my door;

I am content to live or die

Just knowing this, nor knowing more.

My Father’s hand appointing me

My days and ways, so I am free.

Margaret Sangster (1838–1912)

Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber,

Holy angels guard thy bed.

Heavenly blessings without number

Gently falling on thy head.

Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Nevertheless I Live

Psalm 50:16-17 (NKJV)

¹⁶ But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to declare My statutes, Or take My covenant in your mouth, ¹⁷ Seeing you hate instruction And cast My words behind you?

I was reading Richard Baxter’s book, “The Reformed Pastor” where he speaks of temptation. He begins with a discussion of the unconverted preacher. At length he describes such a preacher as one who, while preaching heaven, is bound for hell. Being the Narcissist that I am, I began to wonder if this isn’t me. I allowed this mental self-abuse to travel to its reasonable end. The unconverted have no sense of the voice of God the Holy Spirit. I am not deaf to the voice of the Spirit, so I am converted or transformed by the power of the Gospel. I heard and I believed. My life was from that point changed. Still, I am daily influenced by sinful impulses.

I have found it odd that ever since my sins were grace-covered I am more keenly aware of my sinfulness. One would think that the life of Grace would make temptation to sin as little more than background noise. Paul calls himself “wretched” and “chief among sinners.” Is Paul then among the “the wicked” God’s word speaks of the Psalm 50? No, because the truly lost “hate instruction” and cast God’s words behind them. I don’t hate instruction; I simply find it impossible to follow perfectly and consistently.

The early (200s) Church Father Origen treats temptation as a struggle between two “minds” – one is spiritual and the other carnal. In the process of being “conformed to the image and likeness of Christ” we are always subjected to a war between our Christ nature and our Adamic (fallen) nature. Calvin calls these two processes as the mortification (killing) of flesh and vivification (making alive) of the spirit. Luther differs from Calvin, Baxter, and Origen in that he does seem to believe the flesh can be defeated or even curtailed. For Luther, not only is the flesh weak it is unconquerable. Luther was so cautious about “works righteousness” that he seems to overstate his case regarding spiritual or moral progress that can be made in this life.

The position held by the Puritan, Richard Baxter, stands utterly opposite of Luther’s. He sees our lack of moral and spiritual progress as a sign that we may not be converted (saved). Origen and Calvin are most gentle in their view of human potential. I think these two are closer to Paul’s teaching, in Holy Scripture, than Baxter or Luther.

 

The pastoral insight I gain from recogning this war within is that I am not surprised when you act like a sinner. Just as I long for forgiveness and understand, I also am willing to extend it to others.

Galatians 5:17 (NKJV)
¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Romans 8:9 (NKJV)
⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Chapter 4 - On Human Temptations by St. Origen

We have accordingly to ascertain what is this very will (intermediate) between flesh and spirit, besides that will which is said to belong to the flesh or the spirit. For it is held as certain, that everything which is said to be a work of the spirit is (a product of) the will of the spirit, and everything that is called a work of the flesh (proceeds from) the will of the flesh.

 
Galatians 2:20 (KJV)
²⁰ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Good Friday is Far Better than We can Imagine

John 10:14 - 18 (RSV) ¹⁴I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me,  ¹⁵as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.  ¹⁶And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.  ¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.  ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father.” 

2 Corinthians  5:21 (RSV) ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

1 Peter 3:18 (RSV) ¹⁸For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit;  

The words “vicarious” and “substitutionary” describe the traditional understanding of Jesus’ death. The word “vicarious” is more commonly used in daily parlance. When we read a good novel, we might feel what a character feels, we might share in their love life, their heroic escapades, and even their pain and shame. We live vicariously through them. This is purely psychological. We may read an account of some character falling off a building. We may feel their fright as they plummet to the ground, and experience the shock of impact, but we are not injured by their fall. The experience is merely vicarious. 

While a vicarious experience is subjective, to become a substitute for another is objective. For the liberal, they would say that “it was as though Jesus became sin for us.” That is subjective or imaginary. To say, “He was made to be sin” is real life and an objective reality. Jesus died a real death so that your sins are placed on him. This is clearly what the Scriptures teach.

 

In combat, a soldier might jump on a hand grenade so that his body takes the full explosion to save his comrades. This is a substitutionary sacrifice. To make it come closer to matching Jesus’ death, it would be necessary for the soldier to leave a safe place, that is, to choose death when he could have lived. Another example is a mother sacrificing her life during childbirth, so her newborn could live. As profoundly inspiring as such human sacrifice is, its benefit is temporal and limited. When Jesus died for the sins of the Elect, he died “once for all.” His blood was shed, as our creed says, “for us and for our salvation.” 

Beyond the glorious substitution, there is also an act of creature / Creator reconciliation. When Jesus suffers and dies “for us and our salvation” he does so as an eternal transaction between the Second Person of the Trinity and the First Person of the Trinity. Jesus satisfies the Covenant of Redemption, he thereby gives birth to the Covenant of Grace. The Covenant is between the Father and the Son, the second is between God and the Elect.

 

Men may flee from the sunlight to dark and musty caves of the earth, but they cannot put out the sun. So men may in any dispensation despise the grace of God, but they cannot extinguish it. A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) 

God giveth his wrath by weight, but his mercy without measure. Sir Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) 

God of all mercy is a God unjust. Edward Young (1683–1765)

 

God did not abolish the fact of evil; he transformed it. He did not stop the Crucifixion; he rose from the dead. Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957)

He treasures up his bright designs, And works his sovereign will. William Cowper (1731–1800)

 

Maundy, Maundy, So Good to Me

John 13:31 - 35 (RSV)

³¹When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; ³²if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. ³³Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ ³⁴A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

The Greek word for “commandment” is   en-tol-ay'   the Latin word is mandatum, the Middle English Maundy. Today is Maundy Thursday. It is always the Thursday just before Good Friday. It is on this night that Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples. In the first three Gospel accounts, this is the night he celebrates the Passover meal. John does not as clearly link the Passover to this occasion. That does not means that he means to say that the Passover did not happen but he, for some reason, speak of it as an event about to happen.  

John speaks of the supper. It is clearly the Lord’s Supper. It is on that night that Jesus models humility as a mandatory quality for Christian fellowship. He takes off his cloths – at least down to his underwear. He wraps a towel around his waste or places it on his thighs and he sits before every disciple and washes there feet. He commands (entolay) that they submit to this service and he commands that they perform this same service for one another.  

We are not simply to love one another. That is an abstraction. We are to love one another the way Jesus loved his disciples. That is a concrete reality. The quality of love we should have for one another is the washing of feet. This, naturally, is the quality of humble service. 

Love is the giving of charity. Love is charitable acts. It takes a lifetime to learn this quality. The lessons are hard and progress is measured by slow improvement and even by more failures than victories.

 

Charity is never lost. It may meet with ingratitude, or be of no service to those on whom it was bestowed, yet it ever does a work of beauty and grace upon the heart of the giver.

Conyers Middleton (1683–1750) 

Charity is the scope of all God’s commands.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) 

Never to judge rashly; never to interpret the actions of others in an ill-sense, but to compassionate their infirmities, bear their burdens, excuse their weaknesses, and make up for their defects—to hate their imperfections, but love themselves, this is the true spirit of charity.

Nicholas Caussin (1583–1651) 

“Whatsoever” is not necessarily active work. It may be waiting (whether half an hour or half a lifetime), learning, suffering, sitting still. But shall we be less ready for these if any of them are his appointments for today?

Frances Ridley Havergal (1836–1879) 

Before the judgment seat of Christ my service will not be judged by how much I have done but by how much of me there is in it. No man gives at all until he has given all. No man gives anything acceptable to God until he has first given himself in love and sacrifice.

A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)

 

Where Are You Weakest

Our Lord’s Last Wednesday

We learn that Jesus stayed in the home of a man named Simon, who is or was a leper. Since lepers would not have hosted guests in their home, it is most likely that Simon was once a leper but is now healed of his disease.  What would it be like to host Jesus in our home? No doubt, Simon loved and respected Jesus, especially if Jesus was his healer.

 Simon planned a fine meal for Jesus and his disciples. It was during this event that a woman came in and knelt down at the feet of Jesus. Holding an alabaster flask containing expensive ointment, she begins to bath our Lord’s feet with the ointment. This act shocked many who saw it. Fragrances were made using a laborious process that required an abundance of costly materials to gain a small about of perfume. To so lavishly anoint a man’s feet with such an expensive material seemed an improper, even wasteful, use of this rare commodity. 

We know that Judas was the treasurer for the disciples. He must have been a man gifted in administration. He was obsessed with money. He was a thief. This was his weakness. Why would such a man decide to become a disciple of Jesus? What attracted him to Jesus? We can’t answer this question with any certainty, but the fact that Jesus allowed this man to remain in his company says something about the permissive will of God. God permits destructive persons to belong to the Church and even to become leaders in the Church. 

Judas, perhaps because of his weakness and his hypocrisy, became the prime target of the Devil. The writers say with haunting simplicity that Satan entered Judas that evening as Judas saw the woman worshiping Jesus with such extravagance. The story of his meeting with the priests and the Temple guards sounds so orderly and business-like. The two items on their agenda were (1) to quietly arrest and (2) kill Jesus. Judas was there when they developed this plan and was instrumental in leading them to Jesus at a time when he is mostly to be alone. 

Jesus knows about this plan and it must have broken his heart. If Satan is looking for a weakness in you, what would it be?

 

 

His Last Day as a Street Preacher

Tuesday of the Last Week

 Jesus, again, wakes up in the Jerusalem suburb of Bethany. After a short walk, he is at the Temple mount once again. This was Jesus’ last working day. This day ends his public ministry. After today, there will be no more preaching to the crowds, nor healing the sick, nor publicly debating the religious leaders. This last day presents the nastiest conversations with his detractors. It is clear that the Sanhedrin arranged for their best debaters to be where Jesus was teaching. There goal was to demonstrate how foolish our Lord’s teachings were and to trap him into saying something so wrong they could arrest him.

One question they introduce dealt with the controversy of paying taxes to Rome. If Jesus is to be a revolutionary leader and crowded the new King, surely he would support a tax revolt. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Jesus asks for a Roman coin. On it was an image of the bust of Caesar. Jesus looks at it and says in effect, “Since his image appears on it, I think this coin must belong to Caesar, give it back to him.” This might have brought smiles to the faces of those who supported Jesus and to all who were irritated by the smug Scribes.

Then the Sadducees took center stage. They had their own disputes with the Pharisees and the Scribes over the resurrection of the body. The Sadducees believed that when you die, it’s over; you’re just gone. Since they thought the resurrection was absurd they tried to show it as such through using an argument about marriage and the afterlife. They told Jesus as ridiculous story about a bride and seven brothers. The woman was widowed by all seven. Each brother married her after the death of another brother. They asked Jesus, “Whose bride will she be in the afterlife?” Jesus addresses the false assumption behind their question. They assume wrongly that there is marriage in heaven. Then Jesus addresses their basic error, which was the fact of the resurrection itself. He tells them they are in error because they are ignorant of the Scriptures and fail to understand the power of God. Is it any wonder why they hated him?

There must have been a lull in the debate because another Scribe asked Jesus which of the Commandment is the single foundational Commandment on which the other nine must rest. This question was hotly debated among the Pharisees. Jesus departs from the Ten Commandments to speak of the necessity to love God (first tablet) and to love others (second tablet). The obedience to the law of God rests on our capacity to love God. This was a strange answer, but one that this Scribe understood to be a true and wise answer.

Jesus turns the tables on them and begins to ask them hard questions. Was John the Baptist sent by God or merely appointed by the popular voice of the people? If they said, “By God,” then Jesus would asked them, “Why didn’t follow him?” If they said, “By a popular voice,” then the crowds would have been stirred up because they understood John the Baptist to be a prophet of God. They squirm a little and say, “We don’t know.” Then he asked him about the Son of David. This goes right to the heart of his claims to be the Son of God, the Messiah. If the Messiah is David’s Son, why does David call him “My Lord”?

His day was filled with trouble and debate. It is a sweet relief that our Lord leaves the hostility of the temple courts to a place that was quieter but still on the Temple grounds, “The Court of Women.” There he sits and watches the people bring their offerings. He notes a poor woman who gave all she had, just two small coins. This must have given Jesus reasons to hope. Two signs finalize the day. One is the Gentile world is reaching out to him, then there was the tree he cursed the day before – it had lost its leaves and was withering.

 

So ends his last day at work. His popular ministry is over. Now he turns to his disciples and to cross.

 

Jesus' Last Monday

Matthew 21:18-19 (NKJV)
¹⁸ Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.
¹⁹ And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again." Immediately the fig tree withered away.

Monday of Holy Week 

The day before, Jesus entered the outskirts of David’s City in view of a spontaneous celebration. The crowds cheered the conquering King – the Blessed One who entered Jerusalem coming the very name of the Lord.  

Now it is Monday morning. I wonder if Jesus was a morning person. I imagine in awoke quietly and began his spiritual exercises. I think he began everyday in communion with his Father. This was his final Monday morning as a human person who was still untouched by death. While he came to atone for the sins of fallen humanity, he also came to announce the beginning of a new age, an era of gathering his church and preparing Her for an eternal existence in the New Jerusalem.  

This day, he was still in the Old Fallen Jerusalem. This was a city of high hopes but disappointing outcomes. The prophets called the people back to God - time and time again, for centuries. Yet, the people killed the prophets. In one sense, Jesus would fair no better. He too would die at the hands of the people he came to save.

This Monday was his day of judgment on the city. The day begins with hunger. Jesus has an unfulfilled desire. The day begins with a scene of street art. It was a drama about unrequited love and a loving for a restoration that did not come to pass. The people were as fruitless as this tree. There were leaves on it, which promised a sweet treat but no buds appeared beneath the leaves. 

This is how many Church are. You see great surface glory but no fruit on its glorious branches. It is the great bait and switch. Hungry sinners will sit in our pews longing for a food that they do not even know exists. The hunger for salvation is a restlessness without a clear aim. The purpose of the Church is to supply the clarity. “This, O Sinner, is what you are longing for. This is your Savior.” When a Church or Christian disciples fails to point Sinners to their Savior, they are like a fig tree with only the semblance or shadow of fruit but not the substance.

 

On this day, Jesus also trashes the temple courts for making God’s house into a den of thieves. When a congregation takes up an offering but fails to present the Gospel, that church becomes a fraud.

Ask yourself if the church you attend aims at feeding the spiritually hungering or does it merely look good.

 

“Where is the church at 11:25 on Monday morning?” The church then is in the dentist’s office, in the automobile sales room and repair shop, and out in the truck. It is in the hospital, in the classroom, and in the home. It is in the offices, insurance, law, real estate, whatever it is. That is where the church is, wherever God’s people are. They are doing what they ought to be doing. They are honoring God, not just while they worship in a building but out there. Arthur H. DeKruyter (1926– ) 

A Christian church is a body or collection of persons, voluntarily associated together, professing to believe what Christ teaches, to do what Christ enjoins, to imitate his example, cherish his spirit, and make known his gospel to others. R. E. Sample 

A church that is soundly rooted cannot be destroyed, but nothing can save a church whose root is dried up. No stimulation, no advertising campaigns, no gifts of money and no beautiful edifice can bring back life to the rootless tree. A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) 

As long as you notice, and have to count the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)

A Joint-Heir Who is Worthy of Title

Romans 2:1-10 (NKJV)
¹ Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. ² But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. ³ And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? ⁵ But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, ⁶ who "will render to each one according to his deeds": ⁷ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸ but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness--indignation and wrath, ⁹ tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; ¹⁰ but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York City, recently died. He would see folks on the streets or cafes, folks he was addressing in public gatherings or even folks who visited him in his office. His greeting was the same in every circumstance: “How’m I doin?” Most would give him a cluster of compliments. His popularity rarely fell before 70% until he finally lost a campaign for Governor by three percentage points which made him vulnerable in the democratic primary.

This is a question that ought to be on the lips and in the forefront of every Christian’s mind when we come before God. What do you think God would say to such a question? How do you think you are doing in your Christian Life? When God sees us with regards to our status as His adopted child, He counts us as a “fellow heir with Christ Jesus.” We are fully members of the His family. This is a status that transcends our behavior and our wicked thought-life. Our standing in the family of God rests solely on the finished work of Jesus Christ, who is the surety payment for the New and Everlasting Covenant sealed in His blood. This is the economy of Grace. 

There is yet another economy. It is the process of glorification. All our thoughts and behaviors that are not like those in Jesus must be treated with Divine hostility. If we presume on the economy of Divine mercy to excuse our wicked behavior before our righteous Father, we miss the opportunity to enjoy the fullness of our Sonship (Daughtership). Every time we sin, we live beneath our royal status and become mere commoners. It is as though, we live in a state of forgetfulness. We cannot remember that we were born again into a life that presses ever forward from one state of glory to every higher states of glory. It is only then that we will enjoy the peace of God “who works (in us) what is good.”

 

Everything that is born of God is no shadowy work. God will not bring forth a dead fruit, a lifeless and powerless work, but a living, new man must be born from the living God. Johann Arndt (1555–1621) 

In the natural world it is impossible to be made all over again, but in the spiritual world it is exactly what Jesus Christ makes possible. Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) 

There are two spirits abroad in the earth: the spirit that works in the children of disobedience and the Spirit of God. These two can never be reconciled in time or in eternity. The spirit that dwells in the once-born is forever opposed to the Spirit that inhabits the heart of the twice-born. A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) 

Your whole nature must be re-born, your passions, and your affections, and your aims, and your conscience, and your will must all be bathed in a new element and reconsecrated to your Maker and, the last not the least, your intellect. Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801–1890)

 

Why Grumble?

Numbers 12:13-15 (NKJV)
¹³ So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "Please heal her, O God, I pray!"

¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, "If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received again." ¹⁵ So Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days, and the people did not journey till Miriam was brought in again.

In chapters eleven and twelve of the Book of Numbers two events are depicted. The first is a complaint by the people concerning the quality of food that God provided them in the wilderness; the second is a complaint by Aaron and Miriam (Moses’ siblings) concerning their place in the community. They wanted to prophesy the same way Moses did. They had, in fact, received the word of God by way of visions and dreams. In contrast, Moses heard God directly.  

In the first case, God gives the people what they ask for, but he also punishes them for complaining. The people grew weary of Manna, they creatively prepared it in every variety they could but still it tasted the same. They wanted meat. God provides them with “quail” that would have been migrating from Africa. As they flew over the sea, God caused a wind to blow them over the Wilderness. The people gathered them as they hovered near the ground. As soon as they were eating the meat, God strikes them with a great plague.  

Why does God give the people what they demanded, in great abundance then strike them with an epidemic? He does this while the meat “is still in their teeth.” 

 

When Miriam and Aaron demand to hear God directly, as their brother did, God strikes Miriam with leprosy for seven days. 

Through all this, Moses remains genuine and humble. Moses show compassion for the people and pleads for mercy. God rewards Moses and ministers to him. God sees that the burden is too heavy for Moses, so he provides him with a cadre of sub-commanders.  

Here is my question. Has God changed how he deals with His people, the Church? God still delivers a people from the corruption of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Those, whom God delivers, still complain and demand more from God than God is prepared to give them. There are still leaders who want to have spiritual gifts God has given to others. There are many proud teachers and preachers who act like, as Luther once said, “Swallowed the Holy Spirit, feathers and all.” There are still many of us who are disappointed with the place where God has placed us and the gifts God has given us. 

Is the wrath of God still kindled today against the discontent and the proud? How is it manifested?  

Disappointments that come not by our own fault, they are the trials or corrections of heaven; and it is our own fault if they prove not to our advantage. William Penn (1644–1718) 

Have some of your carefully created castles been washed away? Mine have. Several times along my life’s journey, I had nowhere to turn except into my heavenly Father’s arms. There I remained quiet, soaking up his love for as long as I needed. Then I saw his hand begin a new creation for my life, a new direction, a new service for him and his kingdom. Waves need not always destroy. We must allow our heavenly Father to use them to redirect our lives. Jean Otto 

If you expect perfection from people, your whole life is a series of disappointments, grumblings, and complaints. If, on the contrary, you pitch your expectations low, taking folks as the inefficient creatures which they are, you are frequently surprised by having them perform better than you had hoped. Bruce Fairfield Barton (1886–1967)

Lieing about Lies

John 8:44 (NKJV)
⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

The old political joke answers the question, “How can you tell when a politician is lying? The answer is, “When his (her) lips are moving.” Sometimes the word “politician” is replaced with “lawyer.” They do not fairly depict all persons in these professions, but there is enough truth there to make the depiction believable.

Oliver North lied under oath regarding the connections between drug trafficking and the source of money used to purchase weapons for Nicaraguan rebels. Records released after they left office revealed that every President wantonly deceived his colleagues, the press, and the populous at large.

As a matter of public record President Clinton practiced deceit when he emphatically denied having “sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky. “ He later justified himself by explaining that he never performed a sexual act on Miss Lewinsky, who was twenty-two years old at the time she was, on nine occasions, giving sexual pleasure to the President of the United States. This is itself a deception. Here is what he said to a Synod Grand Jury, under oath.

Well, if you look at everything from a hyperfactual standpoint, it might appear as if I had sexual relations with Miss Lewinsky. But what about the non-facts? There are a finite number of facts, but an infinite number of non-facts. If you want to understand reality as a whole, you can’t simply stick to the facts. And when I said I did not have sexual relations with Miss Lewinsky, I meant from the perspective of reality as a whole, and not just the facts.

Here is the most telling part of the public’s response to Mr. Clinton’s words: many believed his explanation; many believed his conduct was a private act and he had the right to lie about it to protect his privacy. Many selectively chose a set of facts to believe and another set of facts to ignore.

I have known liars in my life. It is my opinion that every statement, anyone speaks, has an element of deception. They differ only by degree and intent. Most lies are unconscious. By this I mean, we deceive others in order to make ourselves look better than we actually are. For example, the other day, my wife asked me what I had been doing that day. (I'm retired, while she is still working.)  I wanted her to think that my time was spent productively, so I listed three or four tasks I had completed. I did not disclose that those activities took about ten percent of my total day. Ninety percent of my day was spent on non-productive activities. By withholding this fact, I intended to leave her with the false impression that those three or four productive tasks consumed 90% of my time. This was a lie I spoke so casually, it hardly registered as deception.

How many of our relationships are spent following the father of this world and not our Heavenly Father. One is the embodiment of deception, while the other cannot lie and can only express what is true?

Then there are those who practice deceit with a “high hand” or “willfully, with malice and forethought.” There are some folks I know who would rather lie even the truth is non-threatening to them.

 

The proper response to this devotional is to seek the truth carefully and speak it boldly - but wisely and with innocence.

A half-truth is a dangerous thing, especially if you have got hold of the wrong half. Myron F. Boyd

A man can’t always be defending the truth; there must be a time to feed on it. C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)

About money and sex, it is impossible to be truthful ever. One’s ego is too involved. Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)

For the truth-teller and truth-seeker, indeed, the whole world has very little liking. He is always unpopular, and not infrequently his unpopularity is so excessive that it endangers his life. Run your eye back over the list of martyrs, lay and clerical; nine-tenths of them stood accused of nothing worse than honest efforts to find out and announce the truth. H. L. Mencken (1880–1956)

Want-a Yoke Up?

 

2 Corinthians 6:14 - 18 (RSV)

¹⁴Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?  ¹⁵What accord has Christ with Belial?^£ Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?  ¹⁶What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,     

“I will live in them and move among them,

     and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
¹⁷    Therefore come out from them,

     and be separate from them, says the Lord,

     and touch nothing unclean;

     then I will welcome you,

¹⁸    and I will be a father to you,

     and you shall be my sons and daughters,

     says the Lord Almighty.”

A yoke is an apparatus attaching two work animals together. If two animals combine their strength, the result is potentially an increase in “horsepower” or “oxen-power.” This, naturally, assumes several factors. It assumes that both animals are healthy. Suppose one horse was weakened by sickness or injury. The healthy animal was not only having to pull the other’s share of the load, but might have to pull against the resistance of the weaker partner. The yoking of animals would approve efficiency only if both were equally disciplined and trained. If one animal constantly pulls in the wrong direction, while the other pulls true, then they are pulling against one another. If they were “unevenly yoked” it would be better to unyoke the sick or undisciplined animal. 

Applying the precept of matched yokes to our Christian life . The first is relatively simply, the second will give you heartburn and a headache right quick!  Now, if someone would ask a Christian business man or woman to invest in a venture which distributes pornographic material or something that is clearly fraudulent, then the answer would be simple. You would apply the prohibition against being unevenly yoked with unbelievers. 

Where the application of this principle becomes difficult is when a yoked (covenantal) relationship changes or was gone into ignorantly. The person, whom you thought was a faithful believer, seems to have been a phony. He or she is starting to say and do things that are against the teaching of Christ. You are reluctant to break fellowship because of all the passages regarding unity and fidelity to covenantal relationships. You recall the high value our Lord places of unity – His prayer to His Father was for the Church to “become perfectly one.”  

I have never been more tempted to break fellowship with the Presbyterian Church (USA) than I am at this stage in my career. I am confident that our leadership at the presbytery, synod and General Assembly levels is pulling in a different direction. In some ways, I have already broken the yoke; little by little I trust the directions (programs and written resources) of our denomination less and less. Pitifully, I have secretly (and wickedly) hoped that the sick horse I am yoke to will die or run away. Naturally, as a follower of Jesus, I also pray that the sick horse yoked to me will be healed and enjoy the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

 

Faithfulness in little things is a big thing. Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) 

If we are correct and right in our Christian life at every point, but refuse to stand for the truth at a particular point where the battle rages—then we are traitors to Christ. Martin Luther (1483–1546) 

Is your place a small place? Tend it with care!—He set you there. Is your place a large place? Guard it with care!—He set you there. Whate’er your place, it is Not yours alone, but his Who set you there. John Oxenham (1861–1941) 

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity. George Washington (1732–1799)

Wash Me With Your Light

1 John 1:5-7

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. NIV

 

Surely you have seen the commercial for a foot pad that is perfectly white when applied, then, overnight turns black. This product cost between thirteen and twenty dollars a month. I gather many have been sold. The pads contain mostly vinegar along with some minerals. Most knowledgeable folks see this as an absurdity and a scam designed primarily to separate you. not from your dirt but, from your money.

They claim to “Assist your body in the removal of heavy metals, metabolic wastes, toxins, microscopic parasites, mucous, chemicals, cellulite and much more.”

Is it possible that deep down we all long to be made pure?

In our bodies, God created an organ to purify our blood. Our bodies are constantly processing the poisons or toxins we ingest or breathe in or absorb through our skin.

Our minds entertain toxic thoughts of anger, lust, covetousness, cowardice, and out-right rebellion. Some of our past moral choices have left us feeling shame and guilt.

There is no pad that will remove sin from our souls. There is, we read above, the purifying application of God’s light. How does this light work? It shines on our souls, our mind, and our spirits to reveals all the impurity that accumulates. Then, because of the finished work of Christ who dies to take away our sins and to restore us to a state of friendship with God, this light purifies us from “all sin.”

Today, walk in that light. This light is truth. Confess the truth about your sin. No excuses. No cover ups. You should voice simple declarative statements about your sin. You might want to read the commandments of God first. Ask yourself

Do I have false gods in my life? Do I choose to worship these false gods on Sunday mornings? Do I apply the name of God for any reason other than praising Him? Do I fail to keep a Sabbath day for God? Do I honor those in rightful positions of authority? Do I value life and preserve it? Do I practice sexual purity? Do I respect the property owned by others? Do I guard my tongue against speaking falsely about others? Am I content with and thankful for what I have in my life, my spouse, my possessions or do I lust for what others have?

How Strong Are You?

Matt 12:18-21

 

18 "Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,

my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.

I will put my Spirit upon him,

and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

19 He will not wrangle or cry aloud,

nor will any one hear his voice in the streets;

20 he will not break a bruised reed

or quench a smoldering wick,

till he brings justice to victory;

21 and in his name will the Gentiles hope."

RSV

 

How strong are you? If you were to measure your strength you might set up for yourself a set of trials. You could see how much you could lift with your arms or how fast you move from one place to another. You might measure your lung capacity by completely exhaling into a device. How much can you lift with your legs? How far can you run until you are utterly exhausted and winded? What is your grip strength? How many decibels of sound can you produce with your voice? Can you take a hard strike to your jaw without passing out? What about a blow to your abdomen? This is all physical strength. 

What about emotional strength? Can you endure an insult or verbal attack? Can you smile in the face of public scorn? What would it take for you to lose your composure? Can you control your anger? Can you keep the tears back in the face of sadness or hurtful words? What about shame and embarrassment? What about fear of public humiliation? 

Can you affect others with your physical and emotional strength? Can you crush someone’s jawbone with the force of your fist? Can you speak harshly to cause emotional injury? Conversely, can your body yield comfort to another, can your voice restore peace in the mind of a troubled friend? Can you hold up those who stumble? 

Consider the power of Jesus? “Through him creation was made.” It is the power of Jesus that holds the Universe together. (See Colossians 1:17) Yet, this powerful being will not break a bruised reed or extinguish a smoldering wick. When you measure your strength, you discover your weakness. Physically, our weakness begins when our capacity is exceeded. Some can bench press 400 lbs but they can’t lift 401lbs. At that level, they are weak. Emotionally our capacity is more difficult to measure, but, it too, has its limits. When that point is exceeded, we are weak. 

Jesus comes to us with great gentleness. We are “weak but he strong.”  

In our rough-and-rugged individualism, we think of gentleness as weakness, being soft, and virtually spineless. Not so! . . . Gentleness includes such enviable qualities as having strength under control, being calm and peaceful when surrounded by a heated atmosphere, emitting a soothing effect on those who may be angry or otherwise beside themselves, and possessing tact and gracious courtesy that causes others to retain their self-esteem and dignity. . . . Instead of losing, the gentle gain. Instead of being ripped off and taken advantage of, they come out ahead!

Charles R. Swindoll (1934– )

 

Lord

I crawled

across the barrenness

to you

with my empty cup

uncertain

in asking

any small drop

of refreshment.

If only

I had known you

better

I’d have come

running

with a bucket.

Nancy Spiegelberg

 

Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.

Eugene Gladstone O’Neill (1888–1953)

 

All we want in Christ, we shall find in Christ. If we want little, we shall find little. If we want much, we shall find much; but if, in utter helplessness, we cast our all on Christ, he will be to us the whole treasury of God.

Henry Benjamin Whipple (1822–1901)

 

By his first work he gave me to myself; and by the next he gave himself to me. And when he gave himself, he gave me back myself that I had lost.

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)