Bridging the Gaps of Life

 

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.”

—Psalm 68:19

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

—Galatians 6:2

Did you ever stop to think what your life would be like without bridges? People who live near rivers, or even swamp land, would have a nearly impossible time getting to work or reaching common shopping areas without bridges. We can all be grateful for the continual burdens that bridges carry to allow us ease in our daily lives.

Have you ever become a bridge for another person? As such, you became that one’s help in crossing one of life’s gaps, or in traversing a tough spot in life, or in helping someone to move on to the other side of a difficulty.

In considering the subject of bridges, I can’t help but think of the Simon and Garfunkel lyrics from the 1960’s: ¹

When you’re weary, feeling small
When tears are in your eyes, I’ll dry them all (all)
I’m on your side, oh, when times get rough
And friends just can’t be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

Certainly, if people who likely lack an eye to pleasing our Savior can think that way about their friends, how much more should we act as willing bridges for those who need us to help carry them over the gaps to wholeness? After all, we have the example of a God who bears us through this life, and of a Savior who bridged the gap on the cross for our sins.

Sometimes, it even becomes necessary to act as an old-fashioned covered bridge for others: protecting them from the fierce winds of adversity, or from the cruel and bitter sting of sin and shame. Such people need the hospitality and healing of a safe and guarded way to bridge the gap. And, God calls us, from time to time, to offer this solace to His hurting children.

Jesus told us in John 15:13:

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

The next time we drive over an expansive bridge, or stop to view a covered bridge, we should remind ourselves that, just as we sometimes need bridges to arrive at our next destination, so Christ may have need for each one of us to become a bridge to help span the gap for someone else on his or her journey through life!

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1 Simon, Paul. “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.”, ©1969. All Rights Reserved. These lyrics remain the sole property of the copyright owners. Included here under the “Nonprofit Educational Use Provision” of Section 107 of the U. S. Copyright Act of 1976.

 

 

The Bride Awaits

 

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen,1 bright and clean, was given her to wear.” Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

—Revelation 19:6-9

Recently I received a thank-you note from a young bride for whose wedding I played the organ. She commented that everyone kept saying what a dramatic entrance she had made at the wedding. Truthfully, I did nothing out of the ordinary for her. I always prepare the bridal processional with a fanfare and with loud flourishes.

Yet, her note has me thinking about the great Wedding Supper of the Lamb mentioned in Revelation 19:6-9, from which I quoted at the beginning of this blog post.

Many times in Scripture, the Bride is regarded as the Body of Christ—the Church—prepared for her groom, Christ Himself. Such a fuss over the bride! It would seem that with Christ as the groom, the focus should be on Him. Yet here, Scripture says that she has made herself ready in fine linen, bright and clean. Nothing is spoken here about the Groom.

Psalm 45 is a wedding song. In verse 15, the bride is described as wearing gold and embroidered garments. She and her companions are:

“…led in with joy and gladness; they enter the palace of the king.”

The Prophet Isaiah refers to the Bride in Isaiah 62:5:

“As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”

Something of the symbolism of Christ and His church seems to have become lost in modern wedding ceremonies. In fact, like in the wedding ceremony I referred to earlier, there was neither any prayer nor mention of Christ. No wonder this young bride was a bit surprised at her role in the wedding drama.

Oh yes, people spend the money and time to assure that the dreaming young girls expend on that perfect setting, perfect flowers, perfect decorations, perfect food and drink, and perfect bridal dress does still exist. But, the real meaning of such a wedding dress, and all the related wedding accoutrements, seems to have been lost.

Not long ago, I read of the Greek Orthodox wedding tradition that calls for the use of crowns. One of the elements of the service involves the “crowning.” During this portion of the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom receive crowns united by a ribbon. This represents their union in Christ. The priest says aloud, “Crown them with Glory and Honor.”

The crowns also symbolize the heavenly crowns we will receive when we enter paradise. The crowns serve as a reminder that marriage involves “dying to self” in the same way that we die to self so that Christ can live in us.

After the marriage ceremony, the crowns are typically displayed in a glass case mounted above the couple’s bed. This serves as a constant reminder of the holy state of marriage.

The Apostle Paul also speaks of the symbolism found in marriage. In his letter to the Christians gathered at Ephesus, Paul writes in Ephesians 5:25-28:

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.”

Yes, Christ has chosen to put the emphasis on the Bride. He chose her, bought her with His own blood, brought her to a relationship with Himself, and waits to present her to the Heavenly Hosts and all creation.

I wonder what the music will sound like when we are presented to Him in the Heavenly Kingdom? Will it be a dramatic processional? I would imagine it will!

God is preparing to meet us. Have we prepared to meet Him?

______________________

1 Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.

 

 

Outflanking the Enemy

 

	“Endure hardship like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”
	—2 Timothy 2:3

Most Christians don’t often consider the spiritual battle waged against them. Yes, they would say that Satan exists and prompts evil in the world. But, when it comes to understanding the ceaseless battle he wages against their lives, they usually don’t see it.

Here’s how Joni Eareckson Tada explains it:

The King’s most trusted officer turns renegade and gathers a powerful army around him to lead a rebellion. Through treachery and deceit, the rebel leader usurps the authority of the King and sets up his own rival government, enslaving the citizens of the kingdom. In order to free the captives, the King sends His own Son into the heart of enemy territory with a battle plan more shocking than anyone could imagine. ¹

Not only does the “rebel leader”—Satan—want to tempt us to sin, he also works hard to defeat us in our Christian walk and in our work on behalf of God’s Kingdom here on earth. Satan endeavors to discourage us and tempt us to turn back. He generally does everything he can to disrupt our lives in any way that he can. When we pray in Jesus’ name against the weapons Satan uses, we can successfully upset his battle plan—we can outflank his attack on us.

Jesus took on this enemy at the cross. As Colossians 2:15 tells us:

“…having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

And with the overcoming power that Jesus gives to us, we can fight against the war that Satan will continue to instigate until Jesus comes back.

God has not left us alone to live defeated lives. Instead, He has armed His people with the weapons we need: prayer and His Word. Here’s how 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 puts it:

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”

When we pray in Jesus’ name, we join with Him in defeating the powers and authorities of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil. He already disarmed them on the cross. But, when we pray, we appropriate that power into our own lives.

When we see evil around us and feel it coming at us from every side, we have Christ and His power as our strong defense. He gives us the opportunity to outflank the enemy and win the skirmishes. And one day, our Captain—Christ Jesus—will return to end the battle completely.

Praise His name!

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1 Tada, Joni Eareckson. Diamonds in the Dust. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing Company, 2010. Devotional for April 9th.

 

 

Teamwork

 

I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you: the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony with the atonement cover on it, and all the other furnishings of the tent—the table and its articles, the pure gold lampstand and all its accessories, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, the basin with its stand— and also the woven garments, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests, and the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them just as I commanded you.

—Exodus 31:6-11

You’ve probably heard this definition of a camel: “A camel is a horse built by a committee!” In some sense, that can aptly describe the way some churches function. However, from the beginning, God had plans to use many people—with different personalities, different skill sets, different talents and abilities, different perspectives, and different passions—to do His work within His Church. We all have intensely different roles, even as we retain our individuality.

In reading the account of the 1936 American Olympic crew team, I came across this quote:¹

Even as rowers must subsume their often fierce sense of independence and self-reliance, at the same time they must hold true to their individuality, their unique capabilities as oarsmen or oarswomen or, for that matter, as human beings.

Just as His chosen people, whom God called together to use their gifts for the building of the Tent of Meeting (the Tabernacle) in the wilderness, He has called us and our fellow church members to work together for the building up of His Kingdom. He must have realized how difficult we would find that intention. The more individual our gifts, the harder time we have in setting aside our selfish impulses and obediently offering those gifts up to Him for the benefit of all.

The Olympic crew learned this as they practiced and rowed together.²

But the demands of rowing are such that every man or woman in a racing shell depends on his or her crewmates to perform almost flawlessly with each and every pull of the oar. The movements of each rower are so intimately intertwined, so precisely synchronized with the movements of all the others, that any one rower’s mistake or subpar performance can throw off the tempo of the stroke, the balance of the boat, and ultimately the success of the whole crew.

In rowing, as well as in giving our service to the church, we soon learn that pride, jealousy, selfishness, self-righteousness, and a host of other negative qualities simply must have no place. To have the success that our Captain desires, we must put aside our selfishness for the greater good—the good of showing forth the glory of God in our teamwork.

This concept in the New Testament uses the illustrations of a building “fit together” and of a body with various functions working together. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, the Apostle Paul writes about this, as follows:

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of languages, and to still another the interpretation of languages. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

We see here that God hasn’t gifted us for our own benefit. He gave gifts to us for the good and benefit of the whole church.

Soon, the impact on our lives of this COVID-19 Pandemic will undoubtedly end. We must ask ourselves these questions:

• Have we prepared ourselves to go back to serve God in our churches with others who might have strong opinions different from ours, with immature believers who have outrageous ideas, and with possibilities galore of misunderstandings and slights?
  
  
• Have we given ourselves so completely to God that we can obediently give our gifts to Him for His disposal?
  
  
• Are we willing, if God so desires, to have Him put us on a shelf for a time, where we will not be able to exercise our best gifts?

Let us prepare ourselves in prayer and in sincere humility solely for the purposes God has planned for us. And, let us open our eyes to see new ways He wishes to use the unique gifts He has given us.

______________________

1 Brown, Daniel James. The Boys in the Boat. New York: Penguin Books, 2013. p. 179.

2 Ibid. p. 89.