Obstinate

 

“I gave them this command: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.’ But they did not listen or pay attention; instead they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.”

—Jeremiah 7:23-24.

Blame it on a poor regular classroom teacher, poor class makeup, or even on my inability to teach them in my music class, this group of fourth graders made it impossible for me to deal with them! Even though I happened to love this age group the best, this particular class seemingly refused to allow me to teach them.

I had so many fun teaching games and songs to use with them. I knew that if they had only given me a chance, they would have loved my class and learned a lot about music at the same time. Every singing game that involved holding hands in a circle ended in some kind of tug of war, or in a refusal to participate. Games with a ball ended with someone trying to “get” another classmate.

These children preferred to goof around, waste class time watching each other play foolishly, while generally refusing to enjoy the lessons I had so carefully planned and developed for their best interest. I modified my lessons to do everything I could to turn these students around. And then, they had the audacity to complain that they were bored!

Do we treat our Lord the same way? Do we refuse to accept His plans for us and generally do everything we can to make it impossible for Him to deal with us? Do we miss the good things He wants for us because we think we have better ideas?

Sometimes, we stubbornly hold on to things that do nothing to help us, or give us joy. We fight against those individuals whom God has brought alongside us and given to us for the sake of His good purposes. Then, we wonder why our lives disappoint us, and the Lord seems so far away from us.

If this attitude describes us, we must turn from our selfish, sinful ways, confess our sins, and return to the Lord and His mercy. We need to promptly acknowledge His righteous and loving purposes for us. And, we need to take to heart the message of these verses from Micah 7:18-19:

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

 

 

The Most Exotic Flower

 

“We love because he first loved us.”

—1 John 4:19

An exotic plant takes extra care: avoidance of drafts, careful watering, the right soil, lots of sunlight, and an appropriate climate. No one can just water and forget this kind of flower.

Comparing “love” to an exotic flower, Charles Haddon Spurgeon writes: ¹

Love is an exotic; it is not a plant which will flourish naturally in human soil, it must be watered from above. Love to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it received no nourishment but that which could be drawn from the rock of our hearts it would soon wither … Love must feed on love. The very soul and life of our love to God is His love to us.

We know that love to God and love to each other appears in the greatest commandment, recorded in Matthew 22:37-38:

Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

In the great “Love Chapter”—1 Corinthians 13—we read in verse 13 that:

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The list of the “Fruit of the Spirit” stated in Galatians 5:22-23 begins with the most exotic plant—“Love.”

In and of ourselves, we do not have the proper soil, or the ability to nurture the growth of the flower of love. According to Romans 5:5, we must lean on the Holy Spirit, who sheds abroad His love in our hearts.

Pastor James Cymbala of the Brooklyn Tabernacle recalls an Easter Sunday in which he sat down on the edge of the platform after the evening meeting. He sat there exhausted, as people continued to pray around him. Shortly, a man with shabby clothing and matted hair came toward him. Tired as he was, Pastor Cymbala had no desire to speak with another person that night.

However, he nodded the man forward and spoke to him. This is how he describes the encounter: ²

When he came close, I saw that his two front teeth were missing. But more striking was his odor—the mixture of alcohol, sweat, urine, and garbage took my breath away. I have been around many street people, but this was the strongest stench I have ever encountered. I instinctively had to turn my head sideways to inhale, then look back in his direction while breathing out.

After briefly speaking with the man, David, the pastor prayed, “God, forgive me.” He swallowed hard as God’s love flooded his soul. ³

David sensed the change in me. He moved toward me and fell on my chest, burying his grimy head against my white shirt and tie. Holding him close, I talked to him about Jesus’ love. These weren’t just words; I felt them. I felt love for this pitiful young man. And that smell … I don’t know how to explain it. It had almost made me sick, but now it became the most beautiful fragrance to me.

This man from the stret, David, surrendered his life to Christ that night and got the help he needed. His life changed forever through that encounter. Pastor Cymbala sums this up by writing: ⁴

Carol and I have found that unless God baptizes us with fresh outpourings of love, we would leave New York City yesterday!

Those of us who desire to obey our Savior’s admonitions to love Him and to love others must realize that, like growing an exotic plant, the necessary conditions must come from the true Source of Nourishment: the love of God for us. We cannot hope to accomplish anything unless His loving Spirit in-dwells us and makes God-breathed love possible.

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1 Spurgeon, Charles H., Morning and Evening. McLean, VA: MacDonald Publishing Company, Public Domain. p. 326.

2 Cymbala, Jim. Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997. pp. 141-144.

3 Ibid

4 Ibid

 

 

Tethered

 

…there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

—2 Corinthians 12:7-9

As a toddler, my younger sister liked to put stones from our driveway in her mouth. To avoid this danger, my mother used a tether on my sister and tied her to the laundry pole in the backyard, while Mom hung the wash on the line to dry. Unpleasant for a time, this method of guarding my sister’s behavior proved extremely helpful in preventing the “stone eating.”

Have you ever felt tethered to something that kept you from the freedom you would like? Certainly, God can use the tethering cord for a short time. But, what about those times when He tethers us for a very long term?

Perhaps you feel tethered to a financial problem, a debt that won’t go away, or a life of poverty. Maybe you have a chronic physical problem that severely limits your activities, even those you would like to accomplish for the Kingdom of God. Or, maybe you feel tethered to a boss who, regardless of your prayers and hard work, fails to commend you for your faithful performance, or to pay you what you are worth.

The Apostle Paul, in the passage at the beginning of this blog post, recounted a physical problem with which God had tethered him. He had begged God to take it away. But instead, God, in His overarching love and wisdom, denied Paul’s request. When we ponder this kind of experience in our own lives, we all ask: “Why?”

Yet, Paul knew why God had given him this weakness. Prior to this, Paul had experienced the privilege of a divine revelation. In order to keep him from conceit, God made him humble through this “thorn” of physical limitation—perhaps something that disfigured his appearance, or hampered his clear vision.

As I considered Paul’s situation, I realized that my mother had tied my sister to the laundry pole for the sake of my sister’s protection—nothing else. We must consider that perhaps our long-term trial has come from God for just such a purpose. What sin might He have kept us from through the trial we continue to experience? What accident or wrong choice from which has He shielded us because of the “thorn” we bear?

Then again, perhaps God saw how self-reliant we had become, how easily we go about our own agenda, how much we had come to lean on our own feeble ability and power, rather than solely depending on His enormous ability and overwhelming power.

Perhaps, God wants us all to realize that, like Paul, we need His strength instead of our own. Paul reports this declaration from God, as recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:9:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Another reason for God to tether us comes from the reality that He has other people whom He wants to bless through us. Sometimes, to reveal His grace, people need to see the way in which He does the impossible for us. Even Lazarus’ death, recorded in John 11, came about because Jesus wanted to glorify God the Father through Lazarus’ resurrection.

We may never know the reason for the bothersome, painful, joy-sucking “tether” we wear. But, we can get ever-closer to trusting our wise and loving God with the decision He has made to tether us. Let us pray to have the grace, strength, and dedication to Him and to His Kingdom that will result in giving Him the glory that He is most certainly due! Amen.

 

 

Lost in Wonder

 

“One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works.”

—Psalm 145:4-5

My old copy of Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines the word “wonder” as “rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience.”

Children seem to catch the wonder of a moment more quickly than adults, probably because, to a child, everything presents itself as something new. However, if we take the time, adults can experience wonder, too.

Charles Wesley, the author of more than 6,000 hymns, occasionally would “borrow” phrases from the hymns of others. One such phrase he used, originated from the hymn, “When All Thy Mercies, O My God,” written by Joseph Addison in 1712.¹

In this hymn, Joseph Addison looked back over his life and surveyed the way God had cared for and guided him from infancy through youth, in hidden dangers, sickness, sorrows, and “every period of my life.” As he considered all the times and ways that God’s good providence had washed over him, Addison stated that, he got:

… lost in wonder, love and praise.

As for Charles Wesley, he used this phrase in his well-known hymn, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” written in 1747.² Wesley wrote this as a corporate prayer, asking God to work in His church to make us, His people, like Him—filled with His love. Wesley asks for Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father Himself to invade the hearts and minds of God’s people with His awesome character. We find the “borrowed” phrase at the very end of the hymn, where Wesley concludes:

… Till we cast our crowns before Thee, lost in wonder, love and praise.

Taken together, we see that God fills our earthly life with the wonders of His grace. And yet, we look forward to even greater wonders when “in heaven we take our place.” What a wonderful meditation from two godly men of the 18th century.

Let me suggest you find the words to these two hymns, meditate on them, and use them as a means of worship and praise. Lose yourself in the wonder of our gracious and glorious God!

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1 Addison, Joseph. “When All Thy Mercies, O My God.” Public Domain.

2 Wesley, Charles. “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.” Public Domain.