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)

Condemnation of the Heart

1 John 3:19-24

 

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us. RSV

 

Before the scientific understanding of the circulatory system, surely there was an intuitive connection between blood and the beating of the heart. One could feel a beating in one’s chest and note that when we are frightened or emotionally excited or physically stressed the intensity of that sensation increased. When someone was to do something important, he might have felt a pounding in his chest. Therefore, the connection between an important act and commitment to that action was linked to the condition of the heart. Is your heart in it?

Have you ever felt a “sinking feeling” in your chest on the occasion of feeling ashamed or embarrassed? I suppose this is what is meant when the writer says, “our heart condemns us.”

If I was brave, which I am not, I would share with you several examples where I felt this sinking feeling. You will have to provide your own examples from your own life’s experiences. Two insights are gained from the passage we cite. One is that our hearts (this sinking feeling) is not a sure indicator. Second, we can experience the opposite of this shame, which is confidence, by believing in Jesus and loving one another.

Today, do you require a restoration of confidence? If so, visit your hearts, honestly seek the Lord in prayer and confess the Gospel anew. “Lord, I know you love me and that you have provided mercy for all my sins through the perfect and complete work of your Son on my behalf. Lord I do desire to love those you have placed in my life. Restore to me the joy of my salvation.”

Confidence in the natural world is self-reliance, in the spiritual world it is God-reliance. Oswald Chambers (1874–1917

God wants us to be victors, not victims; to grow, not grovel; to soar, not sink; to overcome, not to be overwhelmed. William Arthur Ward (1812–1882)

 

If your security is based on something that can be taken away from you—you will constantly be on a false edge of security. Tim Hansel

Our confidence in Christ does not make us lazy, negligent, or careless, but, on the contrary, it awakens us, urges us on, and makes us active in living righteous lives and doing good. There is no self-confidence to compare with this. Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531)

Young Love

Jer 2:2
I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. RSV

There is a wonderful line of dialogue in some movie I once saw. I think it was two men speaking. One was older and other younger. Neither one was a kid. The topic was the younger man’s relationship with his wife. “I just don’t love her anymore.” “Did you ever love her?” “O, yes, very much!” “Then remember back until you can find the place where the love died. That is where you start again.”

The Roman Catholics have a notion they call “mortal sin.” It is a sin that kills innocence – it kills Divine Grace. It stops the process of sanctification. It creates in us an aversion to God. While I cannot follow our Catholic brothers and sister when they claim that our sin reverses or negates Divine grace, I can certainly affirm that sin will create in us an aversion to God. We begin to avoid God. We might even create silly and pretentious ways to “manage God.”

Un-confessed sin strains love. This is true with a human/human relationship and a human/Divine relationship. When a husband fails to “come clean” with his wife on some small deceit or transgression, then there is a small estrangement between them. These small sins add up and estrangement grows to the point where love suffers fatally. The love just dies.

It is the act of remembering that restores lost love. Consider the Lord’s Supper. We are called to “Do this, remembering me.” The grace of the Lord’s Table lies in the reconciliation that happens when sin meets the full truth of Jesus Christ. Salvation comes from the two great aspects of Divine Holiness. First is the purity of God, which shines on our impurity and reveals our sin. Second is the deepest purity of God, which displays and demonstrates Divine love and mercy. It is here, that sins are forgiven and love restored.

 

Never once is God said to be reconciled to man; it is always man who is reconciled to God.

William Barclay (1907–1978)

 

To reconcile man with man and not with God is to reconcile no one at all.

Thomas Merton (1915–1968)

Alas! if my best Friend, who laid down his life for me, were to remember all the instances in which I have neglected him, and to plead them against me in judgment, where should I hide my guilty head in the day of recompense? I will pray, therefore, for blessings on my friends, even though they cease to be so, and upon my enemies, though they continue such.

William Cowper (1731–1800)

Forgiveness is not that stripe which says, “I will forgive, but not forget.” It is not to bury the hatchet with the handle sticking out of the ground, so you can grasp it the minute you want it.

Dwight Lyman Moody (1837–1899)

 If God forgives us, we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than him.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)

Old Leaven

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (RSV) <sup>6Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I have enjoyed baking bread. I received a "bread machine" as a gift one Christmas. It was convenient, but the product was not as good as handmade and it defeated my reason for making bread is the first place; which was the doing of it. Frankly, sometimes I needed to knead. In making bread, with machine or by hand, one knows to avoiding killing the yeast. Salt, a biblical symbol for cleansing, and yeast, a biblical symbol for sin, does not mix.

Yeast is an excellent symbol for sin. It affects the entire "lump." The lump is the symbol for the community of faith, the Church. Salt, the working of holiness, kills the yeast of sin. It is helpful for us to consider the interaction between the affects of sin and the work of holiness in our lives and in our churches.

The reason for casting out the leaven of sin is not to secure our redemption. Redemption is fully accomplished by Christ, our paschal lamb, who dies for all our sins and, thereby, saves us from Hell and death and makes us completely fit for Heaven and for new life.

Yet, cast out sin we must. The tools for doing this are sincerity and truth. The forces against this work of holiness consist of malice and evil.

Today, gently look at the sin in your heart. Be as loving with yourself and others as Christ was toward those sinners he met along the way. At one point, it is written, he looked at a sinner and "loved him." Then he tells him exactly how he is to repent. Christ’s salvation is never a license to sin. It is, if the truth were known, a license not to sin. It is a liberty from the bondage of sin.

　

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for, you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new.
John Donne (1572–1631)
　
No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969)</sup>

Living with a Whole Heart

1 Chronicles 28:9 (NIV) ⁹“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

If you watch children play, you can see signs of character at a very early age. While my daughters were in their early formative years, that is, from one to four years, I would watched them solve problems. Unless the problem was entirely too difficult or the circumstance unsafe, I wouldn’t interfere. If the goal was important enough, they would find a way to achieve it. Often they gave up or turned to someone for help. Even asking for help is better than just giving up.

We enrolled them in gymnastics and they had a great coach. We watch as little girls strived to excel. They would try, fail, and try again to master a difficult task. The students either decided to pursue gymnastics with “wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind” or they lost interest and quit.

I belong to billiards team sponsored by the America Poolplayers Association. Some teams are more cohesive than others. I have belonged to my current team for more than eight years. We usually ended up on or near the top of our division and have wonder several city wide tournaments.  Out of nine players, there are about four or five who have stayed the course for five years or more. Watching these players play for several years has taught me much about “wholehearted devotion.” There is on those teams displayed that same “wholehearted devotion” to excellence that I witnessed in my team mates and from many others display great strength of character. To try with all your might to do a thing is always inspiring.

David wants his son to become such a person. While we are not all meant to be pool players, we are each meant to follow God in Jesus Christ. To be a child of God is so easy – it requires only the surrender of our selves to God and accept by faith the finished work of Christ on the cross, who died for our sins. We sing, “Jesus paid it all,” because he did. Yet to become a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ requires “wholehearted devotion and a willing mind.”

God wishes each of us to work as hard as we can, holding nothing back but giving ourselves to the utmost, and when we can do no more, that is the moment when the hand of divine providence is stretched out to us and takes over.

Don Orione (1872–1940)

If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say: “Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968)

 

Tomorrow ?

Acts 9:13 (NKJV)
¹³ Then Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.

 

“Okay, let’s assume . . . .” What follows is usually a dangerous line of reasoning. Do you ever check your track record regarding assumptions? Another piece of slippery ice is any statement beginning with the words, “I had assumed you . . .” Rarely do we know and understand even our closest friends and family well enough to accurately guess their motives or even their wishes.

 “Wow, if I had known you would react this way, I would never had done that. I thought you would like it.” I think it is far better to ask, than to guess what another person might desire. Ananias had formed his opinion of Saul of Tarsus (Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles) Based solely on his reputation. While it was true that Saul had brought great harm to the believers in Jerusalem, it was even true that his intention was to persecute Ananias’ congregation, Ananias was wrong in his assessment of Paul.

We shouldn’t be too hard of Ananias, had you ask Paul, even then, he would have admitted to his cruel intentions. But that assumption and assessment was based on outdated information. While cruelty was in the heart of Paul just days before Ananias’ words to the Son of God, now Paul was being changed by the inward working out of God’s secret plan. Paul was, in Paul’s words penned decades later, “A new creation in Christ Jesus.”

Jesus warns us to make no judgments before “it’s time.” Fact is, before the next stage of God’s perfect plan is revealed, any assumptions at all would be foolish.

 

I sit here in my new study wondering if I have a future ministry ahead of me or if God is finished with me. Sure, I can find some kind of activity to do in the name of Jesus but will I ever be the pastor of another Church? Will I ever preach and teach regularly? I am tempted to say that I am a man without prosprects. It is far more accurate to say that I am a man who can see no known prospects.

 

One of my favorite phrases in the Bible is one I will use out of its context and apply to life in general: Paul says, concern the afterlife, “It does not yet appear what we shall be.” This can be applied to life in general. Only God can know the future as clearly as he knows the past.

Right now, I am standing by, awaiting the next stage of my ministry. The greatest threat to the peace of Christ is a flood of false assumptions. My frail mind is the headwaters of such foolishness.

What are your prospects? Where does your hope reside today? We can only live each day as it is presented to us by God’s providence. We must trust the promise that “hope does not disappoint.”

 

There is not a heart but has its moments of longing, yearning for something better; nobler; holier than it knows now. Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887)

 

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows but only empties today of its strength. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892

 

Anxiety is the natural result when our hopes are centered in anything short of God and his will for us. Billy Graham (1918– )

 

Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father; who cares for you today, will take care of you tomorrow, and every day. Either he will shield you from suffering or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Saint Francis of Sales (1567–1622)

 

God never built a Christian strong enough to carry today’s duties and tomorrow’s anxieties piled on top of them. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler (1822–1909)