Who is the Fairest?

 

He must increase, but I must decrease.

—John 3:30

We all can likely recall the wicked queen in the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, when she stands before a magic mirror and asks the question, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” hoping for the answer, “You, O Queen, are fairer than Snow White.”

This kind of jealousy has plagued the human race far before this Snow White story—published by Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm and his brother, Wilhelm Carl Grimm—ever appeared in print. In fact, the first murder in the Bible concerns two brothers vying over which of their sacrifices should receive the most favor from God (please see Genesis 4).

We find this temptation to murder, even if only hidden in the hearts of men and women, throughout history. When Saul served as king of Israel and heard the crowds shouting that “Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands,” Saul set in motion the murderous plots to rid the world of this rival (please see 1 Samuel 18).

In the Christmas story, the Magi had followed the star they had seen in the sky. They had come to Jerusalem seeking the new King of Israel. Thinking that the present king might know the whereabouts of this future ruler, they stopped in the city to visit Herod and ask for a specific route.

I like the way that Angela Hunt, in her The Nativity Story, portrays the encounter between the Magi and the evil King Herod. Of course, we can’t know exactly the conversation and further discussions of the men from the East. But, Hunt’s description gives us a mental picture of the encounters. This comes from the story after their visit to the Christ Child. ¹

Melchior stroked his beard and considered Herod’s marble city. Perhaps God was warning him through the stars, or perhaps this conjunction [of stars] meant nothing. But an uneasiness moved at the core of his being, and he hadn’t liked the look of cunning he’d glimpsed in Herod’s eye.

Last night he’d seen that same look in a dream he had while dozing next to some talkative shepherd… “The one they call Herod the Great has murdered two sons and a wife,” Melchior said, picking up his reins. “I do not think he’d hesitate to kill an innocent child of Bethlehem, do you?”

Neither Gaspar nor Balthazar answered, but neither did they protest when Melchior turned his camel away from Herod’s city. They would take the road from Bethlehem to Jericho, heading east without returning to Jerusalem.

As it turned out, murderous Herod, after learning the biblical prophecy of a child, probably under two years old, had all the babies that age murdered in Bethlehem. Fortunately, as directed by God, Joseph, Mary, and the young child Jesus, had escaped to Egypt.

This sin of murderous jealousy, this wanting to be rid of our enemies, comes at us in so many tempting ways, even some that sound practically reasonable to us in our minds. Why not try to get rid of that school principal who constantly gives us a hard time? Why not get rid of my boss, in order to explain why I should get that achievement award above others? Why not exaggerate the troubles I’ve had from this or that person, so that I can look better in the eyes of my friends?

The Bible also has plenty of men and women who, because of their supernatural life of grace through Christ, have taken the route of humility, obedience, and submission to unfair suffering. John the Baptist, whom Jesus called the greatest man to ever live, came introducing our Lord. John the Baptist lived humbly and prepared the people for the Greater One, Jesus. John the Baptist spoke the words, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

During this Christmas season, let us contrast these two men and their reaction to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords: Herod on one hand—jealous, unhappy, murderous—and John the Baptist on the other hand—humble, obedient and submissive. How would our Lord have us live in our time, so that others see Him above our selfishness?

______________________

1 Hunt, Angela. The Nativity Story. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2006. Pp.177-178.

 

 

A Beautiful Silence

 

“The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”

—Habakkuk 2:20

Silence adorns the Season of Advent. While the world around us goes crazy with shopping and parties, God calls us to wait in quiet for Him.

In the northern climes, nature hides the earth in a blanket of white stillness. No birds call to us from the wooded glens. Even the sleeping animals and foliage wait in quiet. We, who recall the Nativity, wait in silence for the coming celebration of our newborn Savior.

To prepare for this coming—to prepare for the Holy Spirit’s coming at any time—or for the hearing of God’s written Word, we should prepare in silence and wait to recognize the coming of God’s awesome presence. We must practice silence and wait for Him.

Can you imagine the period of silence before God first spoke, when He said, “Let there be light!”? Or, the 400-year period of silence between the last prophecy of the Old Testament from Malachi until the angel spoke to Mary? In Heaven, at the opening of the seventh seal, a half hour of silence preceded the blowing of trumpets and the message of the seven angels. (Revelation 8:1-2)

We need to pause and refresh our poor brains in silence, separating ourselves from the cacophony of our materialistic world by spending time before our God and in His written Word. Many people can find this kind of re-set, walking in the penetrating stillness of nature. Others experience a re-set through the ministry of quiet music. Still others gain a re-set by contemplating great works of art. When we have prepared ourselves for its work in silence, God’s written Word speaks so much more powerfully.

This silent waiting for Christ, this Advent stillness, often results in giving us the most blessedness of the Season. We know from Genesis 3:8-9 that God waited for Adam and Eve in the quietness and beauty of the Garden. Even today, He waits for companionship with us, as well. The Babe of Bethlehem came for this very reason—to restore fellowship between heaven and earth.

This Season of Advent, let’s purposefully appreciate the anticipation and excitement that flows to us because we wait for the Promised One to come with His gifts of joy, hope, light, power, and His divine presence. During this Advent Season, Christ longs to bless us.

 

 

Suddenly Christmas

 

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven— praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

—Luke 2:8-14 NLT

The familiar story of the shepherds on the night of our Savior’s birth never gets old. This band of societal outcasts, watching their smelly sheep on a hillside, reminds us that God came to earth for all people, no matter how rich or poor, no matter their social stratum, no matter … well, anything. The suddenness of the angel’s announcement and the suddenness of the vast host of angels must have totally blinded and stunned these humble men.

The people of that time may have known the prophecy recorded in Malachi 3:1:

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

Even so, they certainly didn’t expect Him to come in this manner and to these men. They had waited some 400 years since this prophecy was given to the people of Israel.

Recorded in Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus left a guide for his disciples pertaining to His second coming, telling them the manner of that coming, but admonishing them to stay vigilant. In Matthew 24:42, 44 Jesus told them:

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come…So you must be ready, because the son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Jesus instructs His followers in Matthew 25 by telling them the parable of “The Wise and Foolish Virgins,” that He, the Bridegroom will come. And, He will come to those alone who stand prepared for Him.

How do we prepare for such a coming? We allow the Holy Spirit to do His work of filling our lives with His light, His love, and by watching expectantly for Him.

In this context, I love the hymn, “Lo! He Comes, with Clouds Descending.” To us who wait for Him—if we remain alive on this earth at the time of His coming—we will see the glory of the Lord, and hear the heavenly choirs praising and singing, hallelujahs to our Everlasting God.

As you take in the music of this glorious hymn, allow the text on the screen to fill you with wonderful anticipation of the next advent of our King of Kings!

 

Revealed

 

And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.

—Isaiah 40:5

The verb “reveal” comes from the Latin word revelar meaning “to unveil.” It also means “to uncover” or “to make something that has been hidden known,” and also “to make a display of something.”

Certainly, God revealed Himself in a more understandable manner through the coming of the Babe in Bethlehem. Indicative of the blackness of the spiritual world, because of the silence of God’s prophets for 400 years, the nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ came in the dark of night.

According to Luke 2, the shepherds—a rag-tag bunch of smelly animal herders—were the first to hear the announcement of the birth. On a dark hillside, it was revealed to them that a Savior had been born who would save them and save all mankind.

To accompany this revelation, the glory of the Lord came and shone from the heavens, accompanied by an enormous host of angels. God was revealing Himself to the world in a way that He had never done before.

We read in Daniel 2:28 that:

…there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.

Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, God revealed Himself to His people. In a prayer to His Father during Jesus’ final hours before He gave His life to pay the penalty for the sins of the world, Jesus told God that He had brought Him glory by completing His work and by revealing God to those to whom He was given.

The revelation of God’s means of salvation had come to Jesus’ followers through His preaching and teaching ministry, and through the use of the Old Testament Scriptures, many of which He openly displayed as never before.

It certainly stands to reason that the last Book of the Bible—the Book of Revelation—is named for the opening of our eyes to the future. To most of us, the mysteries of God’s plan do not stand out clearly, but are revealed as if behind a veil.

Yet, we have enough light to know that this same Jesus still has more to reveal to His people. We know from God’s written Word that Jesus will come back for His people, and will reveal Himself fully to us in a New Heaven and a New Earth.

During this Season of Advent, let us open our hearts, our minds, and our eyes to see all that our Lord wishes to reveal to us now. May we spend time in His presence, looking at the promises of His written Word and seeking Him.

Let us also pray that He would use us to help reveal His glory to the dark world around us. We can pray this verse from an Advent hymn: ¹

Redeemer, come!
     I open wide my heart to Thee:
     here, Lord, abide!
Let me Thy inner presence feel:
     Thy grace and love in us reveal.

______________________

1 Weissel, Georg. “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates.” Hymn in the Public Domain.

 

 

Prepare

 

“A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord;’”

—Isaiah 40:3

Christmas preparations seem to begin earlier every year. If you’re like me, you would rather have a more leisurely time to get ready than become swept up in a last minute rush. After all, the point of the trappings, gifts, decorations, baking, and carol singing is to create an enjoyable anticipation, right?

We prepare for Christmas by shopping and gift buying, putting up the tree, baking all those special cookies and treats that our families love, and gathering with friends to sing carols. The day itself, for which we have so carefully prepared, comes and goes before we know it. But, the warm glow of the anticipation of it seems to last much longer.

If we think in spiritual terms, the holiday that celebrates the birth of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, also requires a careful preparation. We consider the Season of Advent as that time of anticipation and readiness for both the celebration of Christ’s incarnation and also for His ultimate return. We sing hymns that reflect a poverty of spirit and humble consideration of how desperate we are without the new life that Christ came to give us.

One image that often gives me pause is that of the desert. We prepare for the Lord while we wander “in the desert.” We can think of this in terms of our dry, lifeless hearts coming in expectation to God. We can also reflect on the “desert places” of our circumstances. Perhaps the year has brought distress and sadness through grief, or sickness, or loss. God asks us to make this “desert” a prepared place into which Christ may come to us.

John the Baptist was sent to prepare the people for Jesus’ first coming. John lived in the desert and preached repentance of sins to those who so long had anticipated the coming of the Messiah. The Scriptures tell us in Luke 3:2-3:

… the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah in the desert. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

So, how should we prepare our hearts for Christmas? Contemplation, repentance of sin, viewing our trials as a place for God to come and do new work in us, and considering, with thanksgiving, all He has done in sending Jesus to be our Savior, Lord, and King. In the words of Psalm 50:23:

He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.

As we prepare for the celebration of Christ’s birth and spend time making our homes welcoming places for family and friends, we would do well to remember to do the same in our hearts. Let us truly make a welcoming place in our hearts for our Savior. Let us, indeed, “Prepare the way of the Lord!”

 

 

Creaky Gates

 

“Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me.”

—Psalm 118:19-21

When you come upon a creaky gate, what adjective comes first to mind? To me, I think “neglect.” If a gate makes a sound, it obviously has not been used often and needs lubrication. Or, it needs a new coat of paint and a couple of new hinges.

What if the gates of the Lord’s house make a squeaky sound, are stuck, or are hard to open? Would not a few swings of the gate help? Perhaps the gates need some children running in and out? Or, perhaps the gates need a squirt or two of oil on the hinges?

I really don’t think the mention in Scripture of the gates of the Lord’s house really refers to the gates themselves. Rather, I believe these references point to the practices and use of God’s house by His people.

If we belong to God through Christ, Scripture found in 1 Peter 2:9 declares that we are a royal priesthood. Surely, priests need to frequent the Lord’s house.

The Scripture passage from Psalm 118 at the beginning of this blog post seems to indicate that thanksgiving lubricates those gates. When Christians come together, they should enter God’s house full of thanksgiving and joy. Certainly a robust congregation will demonstrate this gratitude. Psalm 100:4 tells us to:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise…

Hebrews 10:25 gives us a strong admonition:

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Obviously the author of this latter passage of Scripture saw the importance of keeping those gates swinging with our usage.

If the “gates” of your place of worship depended on you for their usage, would they swing easily on their hinges, or creak and fall off? Is it your “habit” to neglect the meeting together of the church? Even those of us who make well-worn tracks into and out of the church building can do so without the joy and purposefulness that God requires.

When Sunday rolls around this week, why not make it your glad intention to enter the gates of the Lord’s house with joy, with thanksgiving, and with encouragement for your brothers and sisters in Christ? Say with the cup-bearer Nehemiah, as found in Nehemiah 10:39:

We will not neglect the house of our God!

 

 

Shoddy Worship

 

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

—Psalm 122:1

In these current days, we can all see how the vast majority of Christian churches are struggling to stay alive. Congregations seem to have dwindling numbers and aging members, faithful but stagnant. Meanwhile, Sunday sports events draw crowds of thousands and enthusiasm never seems to wane. Even children’s sports teams that hold matches on Sunday do better with attendance than many churches.

From some 780 years before Christ, we can identify with the observation of the prophet Amos, as he quotes the people in his generation, found in Amos 8:4-6:

“When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath ended that we may market wheat?”—skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

Does that not sound like the world we live in? If people even occasionally attend worship services on Sundays, they often do so hurriedly, so that they can get back to buying, selling, and attending to matters other than meditation and prayer. Yet, upon a closer examination of the spiritual state of Christians in our society, it appears that shoddy attention to worship results in a lethargy that produces ungodly and sinful work.

May I be so bold as to suggest that what we give ourselves to on the Sabbath—our Sunday—determines the way we manifest Christ’s divine presence in our lives during the rest of the week? Any activity that requires us to forsake the gathering together with our fellow believers distracts and detracts from the effectiveness of our spiritual formation and our spiritual growth.

The prophet Malachi, the last prophet to write before the birth of Christ, had plenty to say about the way people in his generation approached worship. He admonished them for giving mediocre attention to their offerings before God, insisting that what they gave of themselves was far below the standard of excellence that reverence to God requires. In those long ago days, much like today, even the priests dedicated to serving God violated the covenants of the Lord.

Yet, God promised a messenger—a mouthpiece for the Lord—to purify His servants and to call His people back. God’s standard for worship requires the attention of His people to the purity of His cleansing power. Note the Prophet’s words from Malachi 3:2-4:

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in the days gone by, as in former years.

Perhaps God is preparing His church for His Son’s second coming, as He was preparing the people of Judah in Malachi’s day for the birth of His precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We need an adjustment to our Christian culture that puts first things first, so that not only do we worship our God acceptably on Sundays, but we also give our devotion, our obedience, and our work the other six days to Him, as well. Out of joy and gratitude, we need to consciously and purposefully strive to please Him in every way.

As we consider all that God has done for us and continues to do for us, may we make necessary corrections to our priorities so that we can say:

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

 

 

Clusters of Mercy

 

“Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge.”

—Psalm 57:1

One prayer we can always pray and know God will answer is, “Lord, have mercy.” In reading Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that great preacher of the 1800s, I came across a devotional that opened up the word “mercy” to me. The definition reminds me of my hydrangea bushes.

When you look at the bush from a distance, you see the clusters of flowers that look like pom-poms, but when you take the time to look up close, you see tiny petals that make up the smaller flowers within the larger blooms. According to Spurgeon, God’s mercy resembles the hydrangea. Perhaps we have to come to the place where we see our need for God’s mercy up close before we truly realize the beauty, power, and depth of it.

Spurgeon first reminds us that the mercy of the Lord is a tender mercy coming from the gentle, loving touch of God. It is a great mercy. Like God Himself, His mercy shows His infinite bigness. God’s mercy is undeserved mercy. We have no right to it. This mercy is also rich mercy. It has efficacy for all our wounds.

God’s mercy is manifold mercy. Here we see the cluster of multitude blessings. God’s mercy is abounding mercy. We can never exhaust it. It is unfailing mercy. God always gives it to us and it will never leave us.¹

As Psalm 23:6 tells us:

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow thee all the days of thy life.

Why would we not call for mercy? We can never live beyond the beauty and breadth of it. When we come to the end of our own resources and those of everyone we know, remember that God makes His mercy available to us. And, His mercy will never fail.

______________________

1 Spurgeon, Charles H., Morning and Evening. McLean, VA: MacDonald Publishing Co., Public Domain. p. 588.

 

 

Watch in the Same

 

“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;”

—Colossians 4:2 (KJV)

God has told us to pray. But additionally, Scripture indicates effective praying includes both the anticipation, the expectation, and the perseverance having to do with faith.

Jesus told a parable of a persistent widow coming to a judge for justice, recorded in Luke 18:1-8. He used the story to teach His disciples that they should always pray and not give up. We read instances in Scripture in which people, tired of waiting on God, took matters into their own hands to solve their problems. Disaster often followed such action.

We see others who just gave up asking, thinking God would not grant their requests. While sometimes God does tell us “no,” most often He answers our prayers in His own way and in His own time—which are infinitely better than our own.

We should live like anglers checking their bait, like bakers checking their pies, like lovers standing watch at the door waiting for the other. We should believe with anticipation that the answer will come. We should put our eyes, not on the object of our prayer, but on the One to whom we pray.

I like the way Puritan preacher Richard Sibbes puts it: ¹

Waiting causes us to focus upon [God.] If we are earnest, we will not go away until we speak with him. Faith remains at the door until he comes. All of us fail in this; we do not wait until we obtain. Let us not blame the Savior whose promise is firm without change. If we would learn to wait, we would hear more from him.

We have this promise from Jesus Himself in Matthew 7:8:

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Don’t you suppose Moses’ mother not only had the little boat created for her baby and cast it in the water with faith mixed with hope? Of course, she did. But, she also continued to watch her little treasure—and set her daughter to watching as well—until God answered her prayer and safely returned Moses to her.

Sometimes, we need to employ others in the process of our prayers. We may run out of steam when waiting seems interminable. But, God has graciously given to all of us someone, or a small group, or a church, standing ready to help us pray and watch.

Let us be encouraged today to persevere, to hope, to believe, and to watch for the “God of the Answer.” He has promised to come to us.

______________________

1 From “Works” by Richard Sibbes, as quoted in Rushing, Richard, editor. Voices from the Past. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 330.

 

 

Jigsaw Puzzles

 

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.”

—1 Corinthians 12:12

I like to think of you and me as jigsaw puzzles. We’re made up of many parts that God has placed here. He takes the many parts of us and puts those parts together with the parts of other people to create an even greater, more magnificent puzzle. That greater puzzle becomes the breath-taking reality of His Kingdom, along with the Body of Christ, the Church.

We become small, yet integral, pieces in other people’s puzzles, too. Have you ever considered how God’s magnificent wisdom allows each of us to perfectly fit into the final, truly wonderful picture He is making in this world?

Yes, we can easily see how our parent’s love and care formed a good deal of the puzzle that we have become. Yet, their choice of place to live, the particular year in which we were born, and the friends, colleagues, mentors, teachers, and ministers we have met have helped form us—put together our pieces—in ways we could never have put those pieces together by ourselves.

Trace just one thread of your life back to its origin and see all the people who handled the puzzle pieces for you. How did you get that position? How did you end up in the city, the marriage, the church in which you have found yourself? Who taught you to read? Who introduced you to your chosen profession? Who helped you develop your passion for whatever brings you the most joy?

Psalm 115:1 gives glory to God.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

God’s love saw the final completed puzzle from the very beginning. In fact, God designed it. He saw the finished picture of you, complete and totally unique as a part of His great plan.

Praise Him for the way in which He has placed you in the big-picture puzzle next to others with whom you can share a spot. Thank Him for His wonderful wisdom, far above us all, and for His completed work of art that depends upon and totally involves you and me!

 

 

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 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 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 of God’s good providence over him, he stated that he got:

“lost in wonder, love and praise.”

As for Charles Wesley, in 1747, he borrowed this phrase for use in his well-known hymn, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.” ² Wesley wrote this as a corporate prayer, asking God to work in His Church—the Body of Christ—to make us, His people, like Him in His love. He 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 He 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 that you click on the following links “When All Thy Mercies, O My God” and “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” to read the words to these two hymns. Then, meditate on them, and use them as a means of worship and praise. Lose yourself in the wonder of our gracious and glorious God!

______________________

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

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

 

 

The Player Piano

 

“Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.”

—Psalm 126:5

Before television came to our home, my sister and I entertained ourselves by the hour at an old player piano. This piano had been purchased by my grandfather in 1934 and it came with 85 player rolls for $35.00.

The player piano rolls contained songs from Chopin Polonaises, to Joplin Ragtime, to Gospel hymns, to Sousa marches. My sister would pump the pedals while I “danced” and I would pump the pedals while she “danced.”

The rolls were cleverly created by machines that would stamp the holes and slits in just such a way as to play the correct notes in the right rhythm. What an ingenious idea to provide for “live” music in every home.

As I think about the way in which God wants our lives to play forth songs for His glory, I think of the confusing array of cuts and holes that He allows our lives to experience. The stamping and punching, in a pattern that only He can read, comes from His wise and overarching wisdom and love.

God wants to bring out the music in us! He punches and slices in just the right places and in just the right time to complete in us the song He is writing. Not one extra hole ruins the sound. Not one slice comes at the wrong time.

God has perfectly engineered the pains, losses, and disappointments to come together so that they make something beautiful. Praise God! He knows just the number of gashes we need to make the music come through to His glory.

In Philippians 1:6, the Apostle Paul told the Christians at Philippi that he wrote to them with joy:

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Though the painful process continues in us, God will achieve the purpose for which He has made and called us—to cause the music of our lives to praise Him!

 

 

A Place at the Table

 

“Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table, and he was crippled in both feet.”

—2 Samuel 9:13

Have you ever arrived late at a large party or reception wondering where you will sit, only to find someone you know waving a hand in your direction and inviting you to a place near them? I admit to having experienced this moment of discomfort, and then immediate relief. What a blessed feeling to know I had a place to “belong.”

In King David’s day, he wanted to remember his good friend Jonathan, who at various times had intervened to save David’s life from Jonathan’s father King Saul. Jonathan, humble and with no designs on a future as king himself, had given his full allegiance as a true friend to David.

Upon his death, and that of Saul, David asked whom he might honor of Saul’s family. When introduced to Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth, David immediately bestowed on him the royal treatment. And, David promised to continue this treatment for the rest of Mephibosheth’s life. David was offering Mephibosheth a place of belonging at the table of the king—a place of great intimacy.

When God looks at us, he sees friends of Jesus. And, because of Jesus—not for who we are or what we might have done—God finds a forever place for us at His table.

Here’s how the authors of one book described this amazing gift: ¹

When we walk into the crowded excitement of the wedding feast of the Lamb, with the sound of a thousand conversations, laughter and music, the clinking of glasses, and one more time our heart leaps with the hope that we might be let into the sacred circle, we will not be disappointed. We’ll be welcomed to the table by our Lover himself. No one will have to scramble to find another chair, to make room for us at the end of the table, or rustle up a place setting. There will be a seat with our name on it, help open at Jesus’ command for us and no other.

No doubt Mephibosheth had physical features like those of his father’s that reminded David every day why this poor, disabled soul sat at his table. It was because of David’s love for Jonathan. And because, through faith, we carry the resemblance of Jesus, God the Father saves us a place at His table.

If we have accepted the covering of our sins through faith in Christ, we can be assured of a forever place there—a place of belonging through no merit of our own. Praise His holy name!

______________________

1 Curtis, Brent and Eldredge, John. The Sacred Romance. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997. Pp. 182-183.

 

 

Gifts to Give

 

“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

—1 Peter 4:10

Benny Jermaine came to my school as a kindergartener. He lived with a foster family in town. This winsome little boy, along with his class of five-year-olds, visited an apple orchard in the fall. The children were given permission to fill their backpacks full of apples. I’ll never forget that day when they all walked out the front door of the school during my bus-duty time, bent over, moaning under the weight of their heavy burdens!

But, Benny didn’t appear “burdened” at all. Instead, with a smile and open pride, he offered his apples to any adult he saw as he walked the long hallway to the front door.

Carrie Lindmore made herself quite a reputation as a third grade trouble-maker in the same school. She, too, lived with a foster family, who found her behaviors quite a burden. Carrie spent many hours in the school office!

I watched her one day as a teacher, who had learned of her birthday, bought cupcakes for her to give to her class. She literally skipped down the hall with “Thank you! Thank you!” and found her fellow classmates in the cafeteria and yelled out, “Guess what! We are going to have a party!” She couldn’t wait to give away her cupcakes to those who knew her rather one-sided reputation.

In ordinary circumstances, both of these children never had enough of this world’s goods, so that they could freely give to others. Once they received a gift, they used those gifts to make others happy.

I think God wants His children—upon whom He lavishes His great favor and His abundant grace—to give away the gifts He gives us. Of course, these gifts could include material goods, hospitality, or any manner of other blessings. However, God has given each of His children at least one spiritual gift—and, sometimes, several spiritual gifts. He has told us the purpose for which He gives these gifts. And, He expects us to give them away.

Now, some Christians may feel their obligation to offer service to others, but find no joy in it. This cannot please our Heavenly Father. Although the passage does speak about financial gifts, I believe 2 Corinthians 9:7 can likewise refer to any gifts, including spiritual ones, when the Apostle Paul states:

God loves a cheerful giver.

Likewise, in Titus 2:14 we read that we are described as:

… people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.

Also, when speaking of spiritual gifts, Paul, in Romans 12:11 exhorts believers to:

… never be lacking in zeal, but to keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

God has never given His people gifts for us to hold onto them, to clutch those gifts close to themselves, to enjoy the gifts, but keep them from others. He graciously and lavishly gives us His gifts, so that we might open our “heavy backpacks” and offer His grace, in all its forms, to anyone we meet along the “hallway” of our lives.

Let us thank God and enjoy the gift-giving!

______________________

Please note: The names of the two children mentioned in this blog post have been changed to protect the identity of the real individuals involved.

 

 

All Authority

 

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

—Matthew 28:18

Within our school system, she had authority. “She” was the Assistant Superintendent and she served at our elementary school as principal for a year during the search for a new principal.

We enjoyed having her as much as she seemed to relish being with us. And, if we needed something—a new piece of equipment or a change in schedule, or a quick response to a question—all we needed to do was prove our need to her and she made it happen! Under her authority, we knew we had special favor. But, this Assistant Superintendant had an authority over her, who had an authority over him, who had authority over them, and so on.

What would you say about someone who declared that He had authority over everything? Well, Jesus made just such a claim. And, He proved it to those who watched Him and followed Him. If Jesus spoke peace to a storm, it happened. If He touched a sick man for healing, it happened. If demons tormented a little boy and Jesus cast them out, they were gone!

According to Scripture, Jesus wants all of us who claim His name to know “His incomparably great power to us who believe.” Here’s what the Apostle Paul said about that powerful authority, as recorded in Ephesians 1:19-21:

That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

The Koine Greek word for the English word authority,—exousia—means “privilege, force, capacity, competence, freedom, liberty, jurisdiction, right, or strength.” God gives that same kind of authority to us, in Christ, when we come into the covenant of His love.

How do we use that authority? By praying in Jesus’ name and claiming His “all authority.” Such responsibility should give us great care when we pray and keep us from asking Him for wrong things. When we come to God in prayer and ask that He help us, we can be assured that, in accordance to His word and nature, we will ask Him for only those things which we believe He would will to happen.

Even in Gethsemane, Jesus prayed for God’s will, as recorded in Mark 14:36:

“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Jesus rested securely in God’s will and under God’s authority. Let us pray, therefore, and live as those who have the authority of Christ in our lives, so that we can go out as His ambassadors to a world dying in sin that needs the Savior.

 

 

That Which Remains

 

“Simon, Simon, look out! Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen the brothers.”

—Luke 22:31-32

Every summer on my family farm, my father and his helpers used the old, rattle-trap, noisy threshing machine on the latest crop of oats. Like harvesting wheat, the machine would beat the grain until the seeds were separated from the straw and chaff. The straw ended up as bedding for cattle, the seeds became feed for them, and the chaff, well, it just blew away. The value lies in that which remains.

While watching this process, we dared not get too close. Every time we did, the chaff would find its way into every crevice of clothing, between our bare toes, and even up our noses. Chaff—what a dirty and useless material it is. We cleaned and cleaned it from our bodies.

In Bible times, as we read about in Ruth 3:3, men would use sledges, heavy wooden platforms weighted down with stones and fitted underneath with anything sharp. These sledges, pulled by teams of animals, would ride over the crop of wheat on a threshing floor. The farmers would “winnow” the loose plants with a winnowing rake and the chaff would blow away.

The agrarian culture of Bible times provided plenty of illustrations for the writers of Scripture to use in teaching God’s truths. The Psalmist, in Psalm 1:4, likens the chaff to the wicked people who walked away from God’s truth:

They are like chaff that the wind blows away.

But, why did Jesus allow Peter in the passage from the Gospel of Luke at the beginning of this blog post to go through the sifting process with Satan in charge? Certainly Jesus didn’t place Peter in the same camp as the “wicked.” What was Satan’s purpose here? I am convinced that Satan wanted to destroy Peter, the future leader of the Christian church. But, God had a different plan.

I like the way that Beth Moore explains it: ¹

Satan’s goal in sifting is to make us a mockery by showing us to be all chaff and no wheat. Christ, on the other hand, permits us to be sifted to shake out the real from the unreal, the trash from the true. The wheat that proves usable is authentic grain from which Christ can make bread.

In preparation for powerful ministry, we often find that God puts His choicest servants through the hardest of circumstances. They learn what God considers “chaff” in their lives and then submit to the painful and brutal threshing process.

If God seems to be beating the “chaff” out of you these days, rejoice that He has called you to suffer for His sake. Trust Him to bring about His purposes in your life, so that you may become “nourishing bread” for others. Remember, the value lies in that which remains.

______________________

1 Moore, Beth, Portraits of Devotion. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2014. P. 264.

 

 

Spiritual Sinkholes

 

“Therefore let any one who thinks he stands—who feels sure that he has a steadfast mind and is standing firm—take heed lest he fall [into sin].”

—1 Corinthians 10:12 Amp.

If you were driving along and came to the sinkhole shown in the photo above, would you try to drive around it? If you were planning to build a house, would you set your sights on the lot adjacent to such a sinkhole? Of course you wouldn’t. No reasonable person would do either.

Yet, we all sometimes dare walk by and peer into a pit like this and suddenly get drawn into it. Sin entices us when we least expect it and we fall into a pit of sin.

For example, we all have “besetting” sins that we get used to having in our lives. Some of us live close to a sinkhole called “Worry.” We find it so easy to step over the side and fall into this sinkhole. Others of us nurse “Grudges.” We stand too near the rim and suddenly have to catch ourselves—on the way down! Some of us get too close to the edge of a pit called “Self-pity.” Before we know it, we’re at the bottom of this sinkhole with no apparent way out.

How do we make it a practice to stay out of the neighborhood where sinkholes dominate the landscape? Some days we’d much rather build our house right there on the perimeter of a sinkhole of sin and enjoy our misery. Do you ever feel that way?

In her book, Jesus Calling, Sarah Young writes about this problem area. She explains the importance of this crisis of daily living. ¹

Be on guard against the pit… When you are weary or unwell, this demonic trap is the greatest danger you face. Don’t even go near the edge of the pit. Its edges crumble easily, and before you know it, you are on the way down. It is ever so much harder to get out of the pit than to keep a safe distance from it.

Sarah Young suggests that Christians with this problem—the enticement of the pit—should occupy themselves with praising and thanking God for His blessings. She also speaks of living close to God in order to put a distance between us and the pit. Her suggestions are both wonderful ideas.

Scripture itself, in the same passage as the verse at the beginning of this blog post, tells us that we have help available if we want it. The Apostle Paul writes these words in 1 Corinthians 10:13:

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

I hope that you will join me as we work together at staying away from spiritual sink holes. Comfortable though it may be to peer into them, whenever we put ourselves into that kind of temptation, we cannot please our heavenly Father. He has definitely given us help to overcome the sinkholes of besetting sins that tempt us.

______________________

1 Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008. Devotional for February 23rd.

 

 

A Renovation Project

 

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

—2 Corinthians 3:18

No one was surprised that my elementary school, the oldest in town, needed renovation. No other option existed. We had to go through this process over the course of a school year and two summers. What a mess this made of our schedules, our classrooms, our special events, and our programs.

One winter’s day before Christmas, we even had to take the entire student population on a “field trip,” visiting other buildings in town for special programs. The students came to school in the morning, were sent onto another bus with their fellow class members for the “field trip,” and at the end of the day came back to school, where they then got on their regular buses for the trip home.

During this time of renovation, we tolerated a long year of sacrifices. But, once renovations were finally completed, the building became the boast of the town. We had new windows, new heating and air conditioning, a new roof, new carpeting, new counters, a new fire alarm system, and even new furniture. The changes ensured more comfort, safety, and productivity. We had a like-new, attractive place to teach and learn. As another September came around, once the renovations were completed, what a fun school year opening it was!

At some point in our lives, we may find that the Lord wants to take us through a renovation process. We should likely be prepared for a messy job. We’ll probably find things in “closets” that we had forgotten we had stored there, and see “dust” that embarrasses us. We may find that our lives will get disrupted and become uncomfortable. No longer will God accept the old sins we’ve lived with for so long.

The Lord needs us for more productive, and even more attractive, work for His Kingdom. Maybe He wants new “windows” from which we can view the world more like He does. God wants to clean up our inner persons and rebuild us to serve His purposes in the world. In response to God’s renovation plan, we need to trust ourselves into the wise and loving hands of the Master Builder. He does everything well! As a result of His work on us, we will experience a new usefulness and a new joy.

When God was about to begin a major renovation on their hearts and on their culture, God gave the Prophet Isaiah words that he might tell the City of Jerusalem. Please read these words from Isaiah 54:11-12:

O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.

Oh what a beautiful prospect for a ruined and torn down city. A renovation project indeed! God always sees the renovation project to the final completion of its glorious end. We can surely count on Him.

 

 

Out of Ashes

 

“[The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord] has anointed me… to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

—Isaiah 61:3

Sometimes it feels like all we have left to give the Lord are ashes. That which we had—that which seemed to be the best offering we could produce—has been burned and now gone. All we have to offer our God is brokenness and the burned up remains of a well-intentioned life.

We can find various stories about the lives of people who thought their world had ended, but then went on to do amazing things despite the burned out remnants of something seemingly lost.

Consider Beethoven, a man with the keenest sense of hearing, who composed exquisite music, but suffered complete deafness when he had so many songs yet to give the world. Despite the extreme loss, he composed the most well known and loved symphony, his Ninth, while totally deaf.

Think of Joni Earecksen Tada, a young girl with a promising knack for painting, who loved sitting next to her artist father with her crayons and imagination, dreaming of producing wonderful pictures. Then, she experienced a horrible diving accident, spent months in the hospital, and ended up a quadriplegic. She could have never known what God saw in her future, of the magnificent works of art created by colored pencils held between her teeth.

To Joni, and many others with severe limitations, these verses from 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 must ring very true:

“But he [God] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Maybe something you depended on to give you the means to serve God has been taken from you. Maybe the dreams you had have vanished like smoke. Even so, be aware that God’s plan never gets thwarted. He wants to give you beauty for ashes, and hope where you have despair. He is always able to produce in you something of His design.

Stay faithful, and you will soon see the beauty from God develop in ways you never imagined!

 

 

Nothing Left

 

“And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.”

—Mark 5:25-26

These two sentences say it all. She was “subject to bleeding”—that was her condition. She “suffered a great deal”—that was her disposition. She “grew worse”—that was the conclusion of the matter.

Chronic pain, or illness, financial ruin, long-term job loss, unrelenting grief—all these leave the person carrying the burden with both a weakness and helplessness that are often too heavy to bear. Millions of hours of tests, of doctor’s appointments, of careful home care, of searching employment lists, of hopeful highs leading to devastating lows—these all become a part of the long-term sufferer’s daily walk.

The primary ordeal makes life hard enough. But, the added secondary effects weigh down with such pressure, making the burden even more dreadful. This woman “spent all she had.” Also, in those times, another person having contact with such a woman would become considered ceremonially unclean. So, she had to live like an outcast. In addition, she would have been childless and spurned even more by society.

I can imagine that, as with most of us, when a trial begins in our lives, we gather our strength and even sense God’s hand on us. But, as time goes on, the fear and dread and hopelessness become heavier and heavier because we have “spent all” we had of our emotional bank account, as well as of our physical energy. We begin to wonder if God really cares at all about us.

What do we do in these kind of circumstances? We do exactly what this woman did. We desperately come to Jesus, and boldly beg His mercy, realizing that He is our only hope.

If we come to Jesus—and we may have to come again and again for new outpourings of His grace—we will hear Jesus speak to us according to His will. In the case of this woman, we find, recorded in Mark 5:34, that Jesus not only told her to go in peace, but that she was healed from her suffering.

Does that mean Jesus will heal all of our physical and emotional problems? Will He restore our loss of employment and bring us financial prosperity? Not necessarily. But, we can have the strength to carry the burden, knowing that God owns us as daughters and sons and has plenty of His peace to give us, as well.

Isaiah 42:3 shows us the character of God who sees our weakness and our needs:

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

Yes! He has stores of grace to lovingly give us when we have nothing left! We can absolutely count on His overwhelming love and care for us.

 

 

Occupational Privilege

 

“Others went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, his wonderful deeds in the deep.”

—Psalm 107:23-24

The word “privilege” has taken on a negative connotation in recent days. But, privilege does not really connote something that’s negative. For example, what parts of your job give you a sense of privilege—a sense that you have insights into matters that others who do not perform the tasks of your job may not have?

Maybe you hadn’t considered that before. But, in the passage of Scripture at the beginning of this blog post, we read about sea-faring merchants who saw things the average person would never have the opportunity to observe about God. Does the work you do afford you special ways of seeing God that others, who do not undertake the tasks you perform in your job, will never know?

Let’s say you stay home to raise children. Almost no one ever sees all of your hard work and sacrifice, expecially your patience and devotion to those little ones. Yet, you have the privilege of catching the first word from a baby’s mouth, or to observe a funny never-to-be-repeated expression that passed so quickly you couldn’t even get your cell phone camera out fast enough to capture it. You may hear your child’s first prayer, or notice the pure joy on the little face over some new discovery.

Let’s say you own a thrift store and sort through pounds and pounds of other people’s junky leftovers. You alone discover the old cabinet for which you’ve been looking for a very long time that will work so nicely as a baby’s changing table. Or, perhaps you will have the opportunity to witness how something a struggling person finds in your store will fill a great need they couldn’t afford to satisfy in any other way.

In my occupation, as a church organist, accompanist, and as a public school music teacher, I have often had the distinct privilege of experiencing God’s awesome blessing. I’ve seen the presence of the Holy Spirit move a congregation through a particular hymn, or other selection of music, that I accompanied. I’ve experienced the moment, after hours of practicing, where the right interpretation of a musical piece comes together and brings with it the power to move hearts and minds.

I’ve seen an angry, moody child, who came to my music class with a pout and refused to participate, later leave my class with a skip in his step and a smile on his face. I’ve heard glorious sounds from children in choir rehearsals that no one else would ever hear in a performance.

As His dearly loved children, God makes sure He shows up and reveals Himself in our day-to-day experiences. Sadly, because of our preoccupation with the distrations around us, too often we miss seeing unique experiences. Or, when we do see them, we fail to understand and acknowledge that our God is the author of such blessings.

Today, no matter what your work, through those things God brings to pass along your very special pathway, take notice of all the ways in which you see God’s blessings—ways that, because of the privilege of your unique setting, you see in a different way than any other person.

 

 

Here Comes the Bride

 

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, bright and clean,    was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) 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. I did nothing out of the ordinary for her, because I always prepare the bridal processional with a fanfare and loud flourishes.

Her note has me thinking about the great Wedding of the Lamb, as desribed in the Scripture passage from Revelation 19:6-9 at the beginning of this blog post.

Many times in Scripture, the bride is regarded as 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 states that the bride has made herself ready in fine linen, bright and clean. In this passage, nothing is spoken of 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.”

Isaiah refers to the bride in Isaiah 62:5:

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

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

Oh yes, the money, time, and daydreaming that young girls invest on thinking about, choosing, and purchasing that perfect dress still exists. But, the real meaning of such a dress—taken from Scripture—has seemingly been lost.

Having seen firsthand the Greek Orthodox tradition of crowns in their wedding ceremony, I recently did some research about this particular part of the ceremony. One of the elements of the service involves “crowning,” in which the bride and groom receive crowns united by ribbon, representing their union in Christ.

The priest says: “Crown them with Glory and Honor.” This tradition of crowns serves as a reminder to the bride and groom that marriage involves “dying of self” in the same way that we die to self so that Christ can live in us. After the marriage ceremony, the newly married couple typically displays their crowns in a case above the bed, in order to serve as a constant reminder of the holy state of marriage.

The Apostle Paul also speaks of this symbolism in his letter found 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, as recorded in Revelation 19:6-9, in speaking to the Apostle John, who records what is revealed to him, Christ has chosen to put the emphasis on the bride—those whom God has called to Himself as “Christ’s-ones.” Christ chose this bride, bought her with His own precious 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 dramatic? I would imagine it will!

 

 

Flying Buttresses from God

 

“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

—Galatians 6:2

In a time of collapse, we would do well to have someone on whom to lean. We see this principle at work in the flying buttresses of Gothic Cathedrals. According to Wikipedia:

“… the purpose of any buttress is to resist the lateral forces pushing a wall outwards…” which occurs with the load of heavy stone and glass in the walls of the largest buildings. “Another application of the flying buttress is to prop up a leaning wall in danger of collapse.”

The Apostle Paul was such a “flying buttress,” providing support to the early churches, which he and other apostles founded in the first century. He not only traveled to stay with these young congregations, in order to encourage and help them, but he wrote long letters of instruction to them, so that they would not fail.

In helping to carry the load of these new churches, the Apostle Paul experienced endangering situations, such as shipwrecks, starvation, health problems, beatings, imprisonments, riots, and sleepless nights. In order for his ministry to continue, he knew that, for himslef and his ministry, he needed the buttressing of fellow servants of Christ. He relied on Titus and Timothy, John Mark, and Luke, as well as lesser-known men, such as Tychicus, Epaphroditus, and women, such as Nympha and Priscilla.

The Apostle Paul speaks of the Church as the “Body of Christ,” in which each member belongs to each other member, in order to complete the whole. He admonished the Church in 1 Thessalonians 5:11:

Therefore encourage one another, and build each other up.

This theme occurs often in Paul’s writings. He knew how hard life can become and what spiritual warfare these young Christians would face.

In our present age, we may have days when we don’t feel we can go a step further. Weariness, sickness, emotional pain—along with a too-long waiting for God to answer our prayers—can beat upon us like heavy wind and rain beats on a cathedral in a violent storm. In prayer, we must ask God to supply the buttressing support for us, so that we can keep from collapsing.

God has already prepared a group of fellow Christians to buttress us during our difficult days. When the time of hardship ends, we should seek to have the same grateful spirit that Paul did, when he wrote to Philemon in verse 7:

Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

 

 

The Nobles of Tekoa

 

“The next section [of the wall] was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors. ”

—Nehemiah 3:5

What an exciting time it must have been in the days of Nehemiah. God had moved this man to travel back to his homeland and begin the process of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. He had never seen Jerusalem. But, he had heard of the destruction of this city and its walls. The news of this disaster moved Nehemiah to seek permission from King Artaxerxes, his master, to return and give aid to the fallen city.

Nehemiah motivated cooperation and a collegial work ethic among the people. Chapter three of the Book of Nehemiah lists the names of all those who helped on each section of the great wall. Goldsmiths, joined by perfumers, priests, merchants, and temple servants—and even a few women—got busy and zealously worked on the repairs.

However, this curious verse five from the third chapter tells us that the nobles of Tekoa refused to work alongside their fellow Jewish brothers. Fortunately, not all men in positions of importance acted that way. As we read through the chapter, we see that a number of rulers, men of authority, enjoyed the camaraderie, and did what they could to join the work.

Amy Carmichael, referring to this story writes: ¹

In the list of honorable names in chapter 3, there is a little sentence that I am sure the men in question would like to take out of the Bible. But they cannot. They are for ever held up to derision and shame. They lost their chance, the great chance of their lives; it never came again… How glad all the other builders must have been when the wall was joined together; each set of people had done their bit faithfully… And how astonished they would be to hear that their names were written in a Book that would be treasured to the end of time.

Do we have our own nobles of Tekoa? I don’t think we would need to look too far to see people with this attitude in our churches today.

I once heard a woman say, “Oh, I direct choirs, I don’t sing in them!” I also knew a woman who held the position of the children’s ministry team director, who enjoyed chairing meetings, but never actually got to know any of the children of the church.

When we look at Jesus, we see the way that He lived, walking and helping those in need, always serving others. We read His words in Matthew 20:26-28:

Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

When God calls us to serve, He builds us into a team of His people. While we work in whatever capacity He calls us, He makes sure that we, like the builders in the days of Nehemiah, rejoice to see the work completed and to hear His words to us, “Well done!”

______________________

1 Carmichael, Amy, Thou Givest…They Gather. Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade for Dohnavur Fellowship, 1958. p. 132.

 

 

Music in a Hammer

 

“Because you are my help I sing in the shadow of your wings.”

—Psalm 63:7

Maybe you remember the childhood rhyme:

There’s music in a hammer;
There’s music in a nail.
There’s music in a kitty-cat
When you step upon her tail!

How often do we feel struck by a hammer in our lives? What kind of music do we make at such times? Over and over in Scripture, we are reminded that—like our Savior suffered—we will suffer for His sake and for His purposes in our lives.

In Acts 14:22 we read what the early Apostles told their followers:

We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.

To be clear, that does not mean that our salvation comes to us because of our own patient endurance. No, our salvation comes to us as a precious gift from God, as we acknowledge our belief in God’s atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, on the cross.

When we enter Heaven at last, all serious Christ-followers will be survivors of many trials, tests, and struggles. It’s all part of the sanctification process God guides us through on our way toward spiritual maturity. The product of our surrender to the “hammer” of God’s work comes alive in the “song” we sing while we suffer.

The story of Paul and Silas, recorded in Acts 16, tells of their beating, flogging, and imprisonment. We read these words in Acts 16:25:

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.

They rejoiced in God’s will, not knowing whether they would live or die.

From the pen of a Puritan writer we read: ¹

The greatest temptation out of hell is to live without trials. A pool of standing water will turn stagnant …Grace withers without adversity. You can’t sneak quietly into heaven without a cross. Crosses form us into his image. They cut away the pieces of our corruption. Lord cut, carve, wound; Lord do anything to perfect your image in us and make us fit for glory.

But, what of the hammer? Isaiah 44:12 tells us:

The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm.

Our God plays the blacksmith to forge us into His shape. Jeremiah 23:9 states:

“Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

Sometimes God’s hammer comes to us through the striking truth of His Word.

Has God ever convicted you of sin so sharply and painfully that you could not rest in your spirit until you confessed and made that right? God still uses the hammer on His people with the hopeful result that, when we arrive to meet Him, we can say with the Puritan: ²

O what I owe to the file, hammer, and furnace!

And not only does He desire us to suffer for His sake, but to sing under the weight of the trials that He might be glorified in us!

______________________

1 From “The Loveliness of Christ” by Samuel Rutherford, as quoted in Rushing, Richard, editor. Voices from the Past. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 261. 2 Ibid.

 

 

Don't Gulp Your Food!

 

“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

—Psalm 119:103

I can still hear my father’s admonition at the dinner table: “Chew your food!” I suppose I might have felt the urgent need to finish the meal in order to get back to playing with my sister, or riding my bike, or any dozens of other favorite pastimes I enjoyed as a child. But, gulping down my food was simply not acceptable.

Some forty years later, I heard a pastor, on the verge of retirement, talking about the ways he needed to intensify the taste of God’s written Word as he got older. He shared the premise that when our taste buds are young, we have a much more discriminating pallet even for mild flavors. He likened that to a child’s ability to remember new facts, new songs, new poetry, and new verses of Scripture with much more ease than an older person is able to do so.

When this pastor was young, he told us, he enjoyed just about any flavor of jelly on his toast. But, when he got older, he needed stronger, more intense flavors to satisfy his taste. He said that, as an older Christian, in order to remember Scripture passages like he did as a child, he needed more intense practices in his devotional life.

This pastor particularly enjoyed memorizing Scripture. He urged his congregation to learn to appreciate God’s written Word by intensifying their enjoyment of it through this practice of memorization. Memorizing passages from the Bible does indeed help cement the words of truth in one’s mind and heart.

Not only do we need more intense means to learn and remember Scripture as older adults, but we also need the practice of savoring what we read. Gulping down large portions of Bible books may bring some degree of growth. But, I believe that slowing down, savoring, and delighting in what we read intensifies our experience like nothing else can do.

How can we enjoy the Scriptures in this way? Certainly, we can memorize portions of it. We can also write verses in our prayer journals that God points out to us. We can paraphrase portions of Scripture that God is using to teach us. We can find hymns that capture the idea of certain Scripture readings. We can meditate over the images we read about.

All of these practices should have the effect of helping us say with the Psalmist in Psalm 34:8:

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Let us determine to learn to enjoy feeding on Scripture one bite at a time. And remember: “Don’t gulp your food!”

 

 

Wandering

 

Some wandered in the desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.

—Psalm 107:4-7

One day, I had business in a familiar city not far from the surrounding farmlands of my hometown. I had traveled this way many times. Each time I came this way I noted a sign along the roadside that directed people to a local golf club. My curiosity and my sense of adventure, small though it is, led me to believe that I knew where following that sign would lead me. I expected that, in addition to driving past the advertised golf club, the road would also lead me in the direction toward home.

As I drove, I came to a fork in the road and the road signs, faded and askew, pointed in various conflicting directions. I followed the direction of the sign that pointed to the golf club, even though I felt it likely directed me the wrong way.

As I drove along, just as I had suspected, I realized the road I had chosen was taking me in the wrong direction. But, I had now driven so far that I didn’t want to turn around and go back.

The road grew narrower and became paved with dirt. I drove through woods on either side and up steep hills and down into valleys, feeling as much panic as I had ever known driving somewhere. This desolate road finally wound past one farm, and I came to a familiar sounding road.

So, I turned to follow this new road. When I came to a stop sign a few miles later, I was less than two miles from my childhood home. I also discovered that I was much nearer to my destination than I would have been had I followed the road I had originally expected to take.

Speaking metaphorically, sometimes our “internal GPS” leads us through the “fog of life”—so thick that we cannot see ahead—even to the point where we begin to believe that we have strayed way off the path. We feel alone and baffled as to what to do to get “home” again.

In our stupidity and our tendency to wander away from the proper path, many times the Scriptures reminds us that we resemble sheep. Sometimes our Good Shepherd allows us a time of vague and mystifying travel that leads us to think He has allowed us to get lost. In response, we do our best to listen for His voice, to lean on Him when we can’t see the way, and to keep going forward by faith.

Yes, we can get off on the wrong path because we haven’t stayed close to the Shepherd. But, in such a case, though we can feel lost, we know that if we return to God and stay close to Him, He will eventually direct us to where we had hoped to arrive all along.

God patiently waits for us to show our trust in Him. In the times of confusion, He looks for our faithfulness. And, He waits to bring us out of our time of questioning and into the destination where His guidance will lead us.

Oh, Lord, our Heavenly Shepherd, direct us along the dark path on which we find ourselves. Though we cannot see ahead, and the way looks foreboding, speak to us with Your assurance that You will guide us and stay with us until You bring us to the place where you want us to settle—a place we can call “home”!

Lead us, teach us, and make Your way known, as we look back over the path we’ve come by the leading of Your divine presence. We pray with thanksgiving in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

 

Dealing with Issues

 

And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

—Mark 5:25-28, 34 KJV

In our current culture, we use the word, “issues” in an entirely different manner than it was used historically. To us it means “negative circumstances or questions.” In the passage above, the word referred to a “discharge from the body.”

Nevertheless, I see a very real parallel between this Biblical story and current usage. We certainly deal with “issues” in our lives. Some wear us down, as the discharge of blood did this woman. Some make us physically sick, financially vulnerable, heart-wounded, grief-stricken, scared, lonely, hopeless, etc.

With what “issues” are we dealing with today? Have we strained to reach out to Christ, who has power over all the woes of our lives and can help us make sense, or at least cope with all that happens?

The use of the word, “spent” in this story also speaks to me. The woman had spent all she had. And, even the doctors had come to the end of their solutions. As an old hymn states:¹

When we have exhausted
   our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed
   ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end
   of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Discovered!

 

Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.”

—2 Kings 22:8

Have you ever discovered something you thought had been lost forever? I’m not talking about leaving your glasses on the top of your head, or forgetting where you last laid down your car keys—although that can cause panic for a short while! No, I’m talking about discovering something neither you, nor anyone you know, has seen for a very long time—something that finding it has life changing results.

In the story of young King Josiah—as recorded in 2 Kings 22-23—he decided to remodel the old Temple in Jerusalem, the symbol of the great Jewish heritage with all its history. In order to accomplish this work, King Josiah needed to learn how large the funds for such a task had grown under Hilkiah the high priest at the temple.

Josiah sent his secretary, Shaphan, to the high priest to get the report on the finances. While in his presence, the high priest showed Shaphan something the high priest had discovered while making his account of the collections. This priest showed to Shaphan some scrolls containing the Book of the Law that God had given to Moses centuries before.

Shaphan took the scrolls to King Josiah and read them. At hearing the words, the King tore his robes and wept. His words recorded in 2 Kings 22:13 reveal what he said:

“Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”

However, in spite of the guilt the people owned because of their many years of unfaithfulness, the Lord had mercy on Josiah and caused him to avoid seeing judgment brought to his people.

In a public meeting, King Josiah read this Book of the Law to the people and renewed the Covenant in the presence of the Lord. All the people pledged themselves, as well. To seal their commitment, the King ordered every statue, high place, shrine, and altar to false gods, mediums, and spiritists removed. The King also renewed the celebration of the Passover. No celebration like this had happened in hundreds of years.

What would happen in America, if the general population rediscovered the written Word of God? Would we weep and wail, spend days in fasting and prayer, renew baptismal vows, marriage vows, and remove anything from our public squares that smacked of obedience to the false gods of our own culture?

As God’s people, let us take up this Word from God found in the example of King Josiah. Let us renew our own commitment to God and His written Word as our rule in life and as the power of God for salvation to all people. Then, let us pray that God will help men, women, boys, and girls in our society rediscover the sacred writings that belong to them. Let us pray that they will read God’s written Word and, as a result, bow before the God who sent both the Living Word and that written Word, in order to bring salvation to this desperately needy world.