Naughty or Nice?

 

For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

—Romans 1:17

I imagine you recognize these song lyrics:  ¹

You better watch out, you better not cry,
Better not pout, I’m telling you why:
Santa Claus is comin’ to town.

He’s making a list and checking it twice,
Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice,
Santa Claus is comin’ to town.

He sees you when you’re sleepin’,
He knows when you’re awake,
He knows if you’ve been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake.

With stories like the one in this song, and the use of the well-worn “Elf on the Shelf,” we try to persuade our children to “be good,” so that Santa will bring them the gifts they want for Christmas. While it all seems harmless enough, I wonder if our tales of Santa have somehow crept into our theology of God at Christmas and the rest of the year, as well.

The culture in which we live seems to hold that God, if He is even real, somehow acts toward us as a “Santa.” He knows everything and sees everything about us. He makes judgments as to our fitness for His Kingdom based on some kind of “naughty or nice” quotient.

Now, it should not surprise anyone who truly believes in God that He is omnipresent—always present in all places at all times—and omniscient—possessing a complete knowledge of all things. However, the theological concept of “grace dispensed according to merit” raises a completely different point.

Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it clear that we can do nothing to gain God’s favor:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God—not of works, so that no one can boast.

But what about punishment—the “lump of coal” so to speak? The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:1-2:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

We see that neither our good deeds, nor our transgressions of God’s law, have any effect on our salvation or our place in God’s Kingdom. Jesus, and He alone, took care of that. If we acknowledge His gift of grace through faith, we do not stand condemned. Instead, we have all the gifts that He paid with His lifeblood to give us.

So, let’s rejoice in a perfectly just, all-seeing, Sovereign God, whose gifts come to us without anything we can give to Him. Rather, He freely and lovingly provides us with all things solely through the Gift of that Baby born so long ago. That kind of favor should cause great gratitude to well up within us and result in lives of grace and compassion to others.

Our expectation to see our Savior, bringing incorruptible gifts to us, should energize us to do good deeds far beyond the supposed eyesight of one “Jolly Old Elf”!

______________________

1 Coots, J. Fred, and Haven Gillespie, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. New York: Leo Feist, Inc., 1934. Quotation included for Educational Use only. All rights reserved by the original holder of the copyright.

 

 

And, He Shall Reign Forever

 

“He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

—Isaiah 9:7

The Prophet Isaiah’s word promised a King of Kings and a Lord of Lords—forever! We sing about it, we say we believe it, and yet, we find it so very hard to live in the truth of it!

All of us are born with the compunction to create our own mini-kingdoms—places where we have control of our comforts, conveniences, desires, happiness, schedules, career paths, and more. Just notice how we respond the next time we have to wait in a line of Christmas shoppers! As confounded as we sometimes are about the condition of our world, Psalm 99:1 reminds us of God’s eternal place:

The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake.

Jesus often spoke about His Kingdom, and set patterns for life in His Kingdom that turned on its head the methodologies of the natural world and turned on its head our natural inclinations controlled by our sinful bent. Here’s how author Paul Tripp explains it:

Jesus had to rescue us from our bondage to our little kingdoms of one and usher us into his kingdom of loving authority and forgiving grace. He came to destroy our self-oriented kingdoms and dethrone us as kings over our own lives. In violent grace he works to destroy every last shred of our allegiance to self-rule, and in rescuing grace he lovingly sets up his righteous rule in our hearts. In grace he patiently works with us until we finally understand that truly good rule in our lives is his rule. ¹

I return to Psalm 99:5:

Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.

Here, we can clearly see our place. In modern jargon, “He’s God and I’m not.” Or, in the words of “The Lord’s Prayer”:

Your kingdom come, your will be done. —Matthew 6:10

This Season of Advent, as we hear the beautiful text of Handel’s Messiah, please allow those words to remind us of His place and ours. Let us determine, once again, to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all of our lives, and bow at His footstool in worship.

______________________

1 Tripp, Paul David. Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017. p. 56.

 

 

It Came a Flower Bright

 

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”

—Isaiah 11:1

“I am a rose of Sharon.”

—Song of Songs 2:1

You may recognize the words of this Christmas Carol sung by many people from as far back as the 14th century. The images portrayed in this hymn give us a sense of something unexpected, welcomed in the coldest and darkest time of year.

It came, a Flower bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half-spent was the night. ¹

This beautiful meditation reminds us that in our most sinful and hopeless state, Jesus came to us with salvation. This coming also quietly and largely unexpectedly appeared in the most undesirable of locations, in a most unconventional way: the birth of a Baby to a peasant, unmarried teenage girl, into poverty, and in a stable.

That night still surrounds us. But, we can continue to welcome the Light of the World. Even in our darkest hours, He comes to us with His beauty and shocking favors, through that same Flower of long ago.

Meditate this season on the ways Christ has come to us in the dead and cold of night with His light and His fragrance, as a rose blooming in winter. Read and rejoice in these words:

This Flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us
And lightens every load. ²

______________________

1 German Carol. Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming. Public domain.

2 Ibid. Verse three.

 

 

Dressed for Christmas

 

“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”

—Jude 1:24

How many mothers and grandmothers take pride in dressing their children in matching, festive, adorable Christmas outfits? Most, I would say. They want to show the world, through their holiday greeting cards and long-kept family albums, the pride of their lives: their children.

Never have I seen such pictures of children showing their runny noses, dirty or torn shirts, or their sagging dirty diapers, or with the children squirming and crying for the camera. Even though, from time to time, these same adorable children can look this very un-adorable way, moms always work to put their little ones in the right light for others to see.

Our God does this with us! He brags about us, dresses us in spiritual finery, and speaks of us in glowing terms, even while He knows, all to well, our defects and ugly secrets. Even at creation, we find that God dressed us in the image of His very own spectacular splendor. Psalm&mnbsp;8:5 says of Jesus:

You made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor.

Now that outfit comes complete with a crown! Since we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we, too, become dressed in His glory by our loving Father. Jesus wants us to look perfect, so He provided a way through His death. Colossians 1:22 tells us:

Now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

Jesus presents us to the Father as perfect in Him. Not only did He wash and cleanse us, dress us in His glorious righteousness, but He has seated us for our portrait in the heavenly realms to show off His riches that we now wear! Ephesians 2:6-7 reveals:

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in the kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Our enemy, Satan, may accuse us day and night (Revelation 12:10), but our Savior and God, the Lord Jesus Christ, claims us as His own. Having put our faith in His work, He showcases us like a proud parent and presents us to all of heaven and earth as His beautiful children. May the knowledge of this kind of marvelous grace cause us great joy as we dress for this Christmas season!

 

 

His Wonderful Acts

 

“I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.”

—Psalm 77:12

In this season of Thanksgiving, we need to curb our busy rushings to complete our many tasks, even if for only a brief time, and consider the goodness of our Lord. Over and over in the Psalms, we see the admonition to give our praise and thanksgiving to God. In Psalm 111:4 we read:

He has made His wonderful acts to be remembered; The Lord is gracious and merciful and full of loving compassion.

God intends for us to notice and meditate on the wonderful acts He does for us. He wants us to observe them and to purposefully review them. We can blow our minds, so to speak, by recounting the “mercies and providences of God”—as Christians in past centuries referred to them. Seventeenth century Presbyterian minister, John Flavel, wrote the following: ¹

There is not a more pleasant history than our own lives. If you would but sit down and review, from the beginning, what God has been to you, and done for you. Consider the special manifestations and out-breakings of his mercy, faithfulness, and love in the conditions you have passed through. Let your thoughts dive as far as you can to the bottom, to plumb the depths of providence, and admire them, though we can’t touch the bottom.

If you will allow me to do so, I would like to suggest the following Exercise to help us understand how God has worked in our lives:

• Let us sit in a quiet place and center our minds, perhaps by reading a Psalm full of thanksgiving.
  
  
• Then, taking paper and pen, we should go back over our lives—yes, from the very beginning—and write down major mercies and graces that God has given to us.
  
  
• As you work on this Exercise, think of family, education, life experiences, people, church life, health, material goods, talents, and noble work afforded to us.
  
  
• Also, think about our understanding of God and our personal relationship with God Himself.
  
  
• Next, we should review our lists during this week and arrive at Thanksgiving Day with joy and gratitude in our hearts—joy like we’ve never before experienced.
  
  

I sincerely believe that we will encounter so many mercies and graces that God has poured into our lives that we will have trouble putting down our pens. Through this exercise, I believe we will come to understand that God has given His wonderful acts for us see and to remember!

______________________

1 Flavel, John (author) and Richard Rushing, editor. Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Reading, Vol. 2. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2016. p. 272.

 

 

Time to Hurry Home

 

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”

—Proverbs 18:10

I found myself in a suburban Conference Center in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 11, 2001. The news of the attacks shocked me to the core. Insecure and, with my husband in another part of the Conference Center teaching a seminar, I felt very alone. More than anything, I felt it was time to hurry home. On another occasion, as I drove through a blizzard, unable to see either side of the road that I knew was framed with deep ditches, I only wanted one thing: to quickly, but cautiously, press onward until I could see the familiar lights of home.

In thinking about the way we respond when faced with times of danger, or other things unknown, I remembered my experience as an Elementary School music teacher. A little Preschooler in my classroom, insecure and afraid, often cried out and declared through tears: “I wanna go ’ome!”

Spiritually speaking, when we are afraid, lost, lonely, feeling abandoned, or facing danger, where do we first long to go? Job, in Chapter 23 of the Old Testament Book that bears his name, spoke these words:

Oh, if I only knew where I might find him!

For Job, his God represented “home” to him. And, in the loving presence of God, Job knew he would find the place where he could rightly feel at home. As Psalm 91:9 tells us:

If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the Lord, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.

When disaster threatens us, or when times of trial overwhelm us, God wants us to hide in Him and trust Him for our security. On such occasions, it is time for us to hurry home. Famous preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, wrote: ¹

God’s children run home when the storm comes on. It is the heaven-born instinct of a gracious soul to seek shelter from all ills beneath the wings of Jehovah. “He that hath made his refuge God,” might serve as the title of a true believer … Nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator, as when we learn the emptiness of all besides.

______________________

1 Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, Morning and Evening. Mclean, VA: MacDonald Publishing Co., Public Domain. p. 649.

 

 

Perfect Practice Makes a Perfect Performance

 

“Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.”

—1 Timothy 4:7 NIV

You’ve heard the expression, “Practice Makes Perfect.” From painful personal experience, I’ve learned that more accurately, “Perfect Practice Makes Perfect.” In fact, “Perfect Practice Makes a Perfect Performance.”

As a life-long pianist—having studied in my youth for nearly 20 years with professional teachers and having taught piano to young students myself—I know, all too well, the results of imperfect practice. My first teacher—a nurturing, patient woman who forever placed within me a love for playing the piano—did her best to give me a very solid foundation, even though she readily admitted her own inadequacies. However, I developed habits of poor technique that followed me into my college years. For example, my pinkies had to learn to stand up and I had to help them develop strength and usefulness as “leads” in the making of sonorous melodies. My college professor gave me humiliatingly boring exercises to break many of my bad habits. But, oh, the results I achieved!

Christians develop wrong habits too. Many of them come with us from our lives as unbelievers: selfish and even unaware of God’s higher standards. We may not have spread “godless myths and old wives’ tales,” as the people apparently did in Timothy’s churches. But, we may have learned, for example, to run to friends with juicy tidbits of gossip we hear. The Apostle Paul warns the believers in Colossians 3:9:

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

The Apostle clearly realizes that a practice of lying, or stretching the truth, or deceiving another with a skewed report, can be a habit especially hard to break.

I found in playing the piano that often in practice time my mind would go on “automatic pilot.” My mind would not pay attention what I was playing. So, to break old habits and form new ones, we must first engage our focus. Secondly, we must determine to obey God through His written Word. Then, the long slow process of practice will need perseverance and patience.

How long before a new habit takes hold? Note this report from an on-line article by Signe Dean: ¹

… according to a 2009 study, the time it takes to form a habit really isn’t that clear-cut. Researchers from University College London examined the new habits of 96 people over the space of 12 weeks, and found that the average time it takes for a new habit to stick is actually 66 days; furthermore, individual times varied from 18 to a whopping 254 days.

Progress in making a change in our spiritual lives will sometimes go slowly. Mistakes will occur. Yet, to attain a mature Christian life, the practice and re-practice will yield great results. In speaking about Christian maturity, the author of Hebrews writes about the need for believers to grow up from drinking only milk to eating solid food. In Hebrews 5:14, we read:

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

God expects us as mature—or “perfect”—disciples to give up the old ways and practice the holy disciplines and habits that will result in greater glory for Him through our lives.

______________________

1  Dean, Signe. Here’s How Long it Takes to Break a Habit, According to Science. www.sciencealert.com, September 24, 2015.

 

 

Given Into Our Hands

 

“Then the Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ ‘A staff,’ he replied.”

—Exodus 4:2

Sam Kressler played the saw. This older gentleman in my home church—a farmer, a man who loved both God and His church—didn’t have any formal musical training. Nevertheless, Sam Kressler had a handsaw and he had a desire to play music to honor the Lord.

Dorothy Anderson, a single woman in a church at which I was once a member as an adult, nurtured fabulous flower gardens. She gave her flowers a great deal of attention. She carefully and lovingly decorated the Communion Table in the church sanctuary with her blooms every week, without fail.

Catherine Winkworth, a Nineteenth Century English woman, had a particular interest in German chorales. As a personal devotional exercise, she began translating German hymns and German chorales into English. By the time she had finished her passionate labor, she had found and translated 400 hymns, including the following well-known hymns, which we cherish in our congregational singing today:

• “If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee”
  
  
• “Jesus, Priceless Treasure”
  
  
• “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”
  
  
• “Now Thank We All Our God,”
  
  

The Old Testament Scripture records that Moses only had a staff to offer to the Lord. Oh, but how God used that staff of this famous patriarch! With that staff and with direction of the Lord, Moses brought about the plagues on the Egyptians, parted the Red Sea, brought water from the rock in the wilderness, and defeated the Amalekites.

Similarly, young David had a slingshot and five smooth stones. Yet God used those implements to defeat a giant—Goliath—and his mighty army.

Considering how God has used what He has provided in each of these instances, I am prompted to ask this question:

“What has God put into our hands?”

God has given each one of us something that He wants us to use for His glory. And, God will surely use the gifts He has given us, if He also has our willing hearts. We must never think that anything God has given us is too small, or too insignificant, for Him to use for His glory.

As we give ourselves to God today, let nothing seem out of reach for His mighty use. We will be surprised what He draws on for His purposes.

 

 

A Place of Abundance

 

Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah [meaning: “bitterness”]. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

—Exodus 15:22-27

The whole tribe of Israel, approximately two million people strong, had left Egypt by the miraculous hand of God. They had seen God defeat their Egyptian captors who had pursued them to the Red Sea, where God parted the waters for the Israelites and drowned their enemies with those same waters.

If you read Exodus 15, you see there the victorious song they sang, led by Moses and Miriam. They had bright hopes and a marvelous future in the Promised Land ahead of them. Yet, in verse 22, the story changes when God shows His people that He intends to test them before giving them this promise.

They finally found water after three days of thirsty travel. But, at Marah they could not drink because of the bitterness. That which should have refreshed them, would only have poisoned them. God directed Moses to find a log of wood he could throw into the water to make it sweet so that they could drink. God “healed” the water.

After they had taken a drink, God shared with them His intention to test them in the wilderness. He also made a pact with them that He would “heal” them of all the diseases of Egypt if they would pay attention and obey His commands. Once He promised them this, they moved on and He brought them to an oasis in Elim of rich, verdant, lavish palm trees and springs of water.

This story reminds me of friends who have lived in the “wilderness” of their lives far longer than they could have ever imagined. The “water” they have had to drink tastes bitter and putrid. This story from Exodus reminds me to pray that God would send “healing” to these bitter waters while He assigns them to dwell in Marah, so that they witness God’s sustaining presence.

Of course, while they may have imagined that Marah was God’s place of blessing for them, they haven’t even begun to imagine that He has an Elim for them down the road. This better destination is described in Exodus 15:27:

Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

This was not only a place to drink, it was a place to stay for a while. This was a place of God’s provision for His chosen people. This was a place where they would find true respite from the difficulties of life against which they had previously struggled.

When we pray for those who may be traveling in the “wilderness”—even our own selves—we need to pray that God will give sustenance in Marah with His healing of life’s waters, but ultimately that He will lead them and us to Elim, a place that holds the abundance of His blessing—a place where they and we can at last find camping ground!

 

 

Looking Back from Here

 

“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

—Matthew 25:23

Do you remember this advertising slogan: “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!”? Even if you’re a non-smoker like I am, if you grew up in the 1960’s and 70’s, you will likely remember this catchy slogan for Virginia Slims cigarettes—an all too clever marketing campaign targeted at women. This age of the female gender gaining equality with men, women’s rights, and the sexual revolution brought with it these symbols of what the world regarded as “elegant” or “sophisticated.” Any “modern” woman aspired to look like the cultural images portrayed in such advertising.

This phrase came to mind one summer when I spent an evening with my high school graduating class. Such an event is a rather “normalizing” occasion, in which all present meld again into just “Ann, the girl whose father died when we were in the third grade,” or “Jim, the farm boy with red hair and freckles.” It seems almost impossible to put into dinner conversation a full explanation of how far we’ve come as adults along the road of life since those long-ago days in high school.

As follower of Jesus, we can see how far we’ve come in a much more beneficial way by examining our Christian personal spiritual growth. We look back at commitments we made to Christ as teenagers and the “young love” we experienced toward Him then, as compared to the mature walk of faith we strive for now. Or, we look back to see how drastically different we lived without Christ in our youth to our days of walking with Him faithfully now.

If you journal your faith life, you can benefit from looking back into your old volumes and see how far you’ve come. God wants us to grow. He wants mature servants. He works His grace in us, in all its various forms, and wants us to join Him in working that grace out in our lives.

I am reminded of the “Parable of the Talents” that tells how a wealthy landowner called in his servants and entrusted his property to them in the form of talents. He expected them to invest and grow the trust He had given them. He rewarded those who put the talents to work, and threw the servants out as “worthless” who only buried their talent. This Parable reminds us that at the end of our lives, Jesus wants to speak to us the words from Matthew 25:23:

“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

Sophistication—an elegant look, or a culturally acceptable persona—do not come close by comparison to a life lived in obedience to God. But, if we’ve walked faithfully with Christ, with a smile and with a heart of gratitude, we can still say “You’ve come a long way, Baby!”

 

 

Stagnant Cisterns

 

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

—Jeremiah 2:13

“Me do it!” We hear this exclamation from the mouths of “Terrible Twos”—those very young children who want to show their independence of others. Unfortunately, the trend continues well into adulthood. We find we would rather do it ourselves than accept God’s provisions for us. The men of Babel revealed this sinful inclination to self-sufficiency when they said in Genesis 11:4:

“Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Sometimes, men and women of sincere faith—like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration—feel they can “help God” by doing something meaningful for Him. Notice what Peter said in Luke 9:33:

“Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

Why do we offer up these “stagnant waters” from our own “cisterns” and forsake the fresh springs of Living Water that God offers? Not only did God speak to Jeremiah about this kind of sparkling, clean water, but when speaking to the Samaritan woman, Jesus called Himself the “Water of Life.” Jesus said in John 4:13:

“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Jesus not only wants us to quench our spiritual thirst by receiving the Living Water, He wants that water to flow from our lives to others. When speaking at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, Jesus told the crowd in John 7:37-38:

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

Anything we offer to others, or to God, from our own reservoirs will only leave them running for a mouthwash! When we give the Water of Life—our Lord Jesus Christ—through the power of the Holy Spirit, we arouse their appetites, quench their thirst, and stir to life those who live in the land of death.

Let us forever take a sledgehammer to our old cisterns and fill them with cement. Then daily, let us drink deeply from the Spring of Living Waters, so that we might have something of great value to share with others.

 

 

Our Suitable Portion

 

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

—Psalm 73:26

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.”

—Lamentations 3:24

I may lose, and lose, and lose: people, place, position, possessions, but not my portion. We tend to take our comfort, our joy, our stability, our sense of well-being, and our balance from these things.

Back in 1967, a study called the Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory identified the top ten stressors they found. The list included:

• death of spouse
  
  
• death of close relative
  
  
• injury or illness
  
  
• being fired from job
  
  
• retirement.
  
  
• marriage
  
  
• separation
  
  
• marriage reconciliation
  
  
• divorce
  
  
• jail
  
  

Personally, I would add: “moving to a new city.” And, from the experience of many Christians, I would add: “strife within the church.”

The human race has never been without stress. Can you imagine how stressed Adam and Eve must have been when God expelled them from the Garden of Eden, their home, into a “big, bad world” they had never known? A world now filled with sin, pain, and death. Stress and loss pretty much sum up the human condition under the rule of sin that permeates every molecule of our existence on this earth.

The Psalm that inspired Martin Luther to write the hymn—“A Mighty Fortress is Our God”—speaks the following from Psalm 46:1-3:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Sometimes we feel like the “earth is giving way.” Everything we have relied upon, or that has helped our sense of stability, can be taken from us. Why does God allow this to happen? I would suggest that God uses such losses to drive us to Him alone. He wants to be the sole portion on which we feed, that which gives us nourishment and gives us delight.

In the 17th century, the Puritan author, Thomas Brooks, wrote: ¹

Our God is a suitable portion. No object is as suitable to the heart as he is. He is a portion that is exactly suited to the condition of the soul in its desires, needs, wants, longings and prayers.

Think about how awesome the banquet of God’s love and provision are to us. He who fed the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years on manna can feed us with everything we need. Yes, the manna gave these people a temporary provision while they waited to taste the full bounty of the Promised Land. But, God gave them all that they really needed, as recorded in Exodus 16:12:

You will be filled with bread.

The Apostle Paul writes of contentment in Philippians 4:12b:

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

From the lessons of these examples, we see our need to learn contentment and to rejoice in the portion God gives us. Whether our portion today is a wafer of manna, or a feast of the finest foods, let us praise God that He is our portion and He is enough.

______________________

1 Thomas Brooks, Works, 11:27-28 as quoted in Voices from the Past, edited by Richard Rushing.

 

 

Hope in Your Tank

 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

—Romans 15:13

We all need a “fill-up” with hope from time to time. The “Enemy of Despair and Hopelessness” can bring us down and ruin any day, relationship, job, church, or project. Hope keeps us going. Hope fuels our way, even through difficult times.

Joni Eareckson Tada writes: ¹

It’s amazing how far we can go on a little bit of hope. Hope means “I know I can make it!”

We have a God of hope, according to the Scripture verse at the beginning of this blog post. We must trust God to keep us going, to assure us of both His presence and His good plan. In Lamentations 3:18, Jeremiah confesses:

My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.

Notice the past-tense of the verb in this sentence. Fortunately, just three verses later, Jeremiah declares:

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness … The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him.

When we hope for things from God, He doesn’t always come through in exactly the way that we might desire. But, when we hope in God, He always appears, in order to lift us up. When Jeremiah looked at his circumstances, he saw nothing promising. Yet, when he looked at his God, he could rejoice.

Take a long look at our God. He has the answers we need and He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. Let’s ask Him to refuel our drooping spirits. Then, we can rejoice with the hymn writer: ²

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, His covenant, His blood
support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.

______________________

1 Tada, Joni Eareckson. Pearls of Great Price. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, ©2006, Devotional for September 30th. 2 Mote, Edward, My Hope is Built on Nothing Less. Public Domain.

 

 

Get Over Yourself

 

“Humble yourselves therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”

—1 Peter 5:6

Picture two brothers, ages five and seven, fascinated enough to come up to the front of the church every Sunday during the Postlude to watch me play the organ. As the organ music filled the sanctuary, they liked the action of the pistons, the movement of my fingers, and especially the movement of my feet.

One Sunday, the older brother posed the question: “Do you ever make mistakes?”

Considering that his question provided me with the opportunity to offer a teachable moment, I replied: “Sure I do. From time to time I make mistakes.”

To which he responded: “I thought so!”

I’ve thought about that encounter quite a number of times over the years, as I tried to camouflage an errant note or two while I played. Most of us have plenty of opportunities for God to humble us. Whether it’s a piece of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of our shoe, a wardrobe malfunction, or a “tied tongue” when speaking in public, we know how it feels to experience humiliation. Sometimes we even know why God has brought us down with an embarrassing event.

When we think too highly of ourselves, our Lord says to us in Isaiah 42:8:

“I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another.”

In so many words, God is saying: “Get over yourself!”

When we compare ourselves to others and boast, even to ourselves, about our imagined superiority, God, in His love and discipline, will allow us to suffer humiliation to remind us that we possess nothing He did not give us, even our well-honed skills. Again, in Isaiah 66:2, our Lord says:

“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

God wants us to become humble servants—grateful for all we are and have—not self-assured, boasting performers, who feel superior to those around us. When we, in pride, carry out our work—or even our service to Him—we steal His glory. When we bow before Him in humility and thanksgiving, we lift Him up and reveal His glory! We need to get over ourselves, but never place ourselves over Him!

 

 

Afterwards

 

“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

—Hebrews 12:11 NKJV

No one wants to wait until “afterwards.” When we go through trials of all kinds, we want God to remove the pain and give us the results He has designed for us as quickly as possible. Yet, no one would expect a surgeon to allow a person to get up during a surgical procedure and immediately enjoy the results of that surgery. Likewise, a child must take the sting of the antiseptic before he or she can experience the healing from a cut or scrape.

We have ample illustrations of this point in the lives of biblical characters.

• In the case of poor Jonah, who ended up in the belly of a great fish because of his disobedience even after he confessed his sin and repented, he had to go through the process of being vomited out upon the beach! Only then could he properly respond obediently to God’s call.
  
  
• In John 11, Lazarus experienced death and decay in the grave. His family had to go through the grieving associated with his death. Only after this trial did Jesus come and speak those words to his dead friend in the tomb: “Lazarus, come forth!”
  
  
• As recorded in 1 Kings 19, Elijah went through a terrible windstorm, an earthquake, and a fire before he heard the gentle whisper of God. Only after these catastrophes could he hear the words of direction and relief for which he had waited from his Lord.
  
  
• Job experienced unbelievable loss, lived through pain, grief, the misunderstanding of his friends, and his own crisis of faith. Yet, when God finally did speak to Job and bring his trials to an end, Job replied, as recorded in Job 42:5:
  

  My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.

While going through the deadly, mysterious, confusing storms of life, we simply don’t feel blessed. Afterward, if we persevere in faith and obedience, we can say with the Psalmist, as recorded in Psalm 94:12-13:

Blessed is the man you discipline, O Lord, the man you teach from your law; you grant him relief from days of trouble.

If the trial we experience seems more than we can bear, and if we see no good coming from it—even while we are still in the dark—we must decide before God to trust Him to help us through the trial and bring about the desired harvest in our lives. There will be an “afterwards.” And, it will be joyous, peaceful, and filled with God’s light.

 

 

God's Flying Buttresses

 

“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 served as such a 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 carrying the load of these new churches, the Apostle Paul experienced endangering situations, such as ship wrecks, starvation, physical problems, beatings, imprisonments, riots, and sleepless nights. In order for his ministry to continue, he knew that he needed the “buttressing” of fellow servants of Christ to keep his ministry stable and upright. He relied on Titus and Timothy, John Mark, and Luke, as well as such lesser-known men, such as Tychicus, Epaphroditus, and the help of women, such as Nympha and Priscilla.

The Apostle Paul speaks of the Church of Christ 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, as well as with a too-long waiting for God, can beat upon us like heavy rain beats on a cathedral in a violent storm. In prayer, we can ask God to supply the support we need to keep from collapsing. He has already prepared a group of Christians to buttress us up during our difficult days. When the time of hardship ends, may we have the same grateful spirit as 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.

 

 

They Hung-Up Their Harps

 

“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps.”

—Psalm 137:1-2

We don’t know who from the Babylonian captivity of Jerusalem wrote the words in the Scripture passage above. The Bible tells us that the walls of Jerusalem had been torn down, the Temple burned, and all the articles of worship used there were carried away to Babylon. We also know that this enemy abducted the chief priest and others who worked in the Temple.

All of the people mourned at the loss of their homeland and the loss of their beloved Temple. But, no one mourned as much as those who had regularly prepared for the rituals of worship in the Temple and who had daily served and led in the worship of Jehovah, the One True God.

In the passage of Scripture above, we can clearly hear the heartbreak that they felt. From their land of captivity in Bablylon, they had lost all they had known and loved, including their music that led them in worship. Their hearts simply could no longer sing the songs they once knew, so in great sadness, they hung up their harps.

What did the Babylonians require of these Jewish exiles, who probably served as slaves in whatever capacity the enemy could conjure up? And, how could the Jewish exiles possibly respond to the taunts of their captives, while they labored under these wicked taskmasters? It was a simple fact that the exiles could no longer worship freely, nor could they experience the joy in worship that they had once known so well in Jerusalem.

Tell me, dear ones, at least for a season has the Lord asked you to “hang up your harp”? Has a twist of fate taken your familiar and gifted service to God from you? Have the people you once joyfully served moved on without you? Has your family forced you out of the nest? Have they given your beloved job to someone younger? Have you had to trade your familiar home with its cozy kitchen for retirement living?

Has God asked you, by this unwanted development in your life, to serve Him in another role—one for which you feel totally unprepared or ill-equipped? It is an all-too-common fact that sometimes God takes us away from the familiar so that we might learn a hard, but necessary, lesson from Him.

Consider Moses, who grew up in the palace in Egypt, but later was forced to flee at the age of forty into the desert to tend sheep for yet another forty years. We know that eventually God called Moses out of the desert and back to Egypt to negotiate with the king for the release of the entire nation of God’s chosen people. Looking back from a new perspective, we can clearly see that God had a reason for taking Moses’ “harp” from him.

We learn in Psalm 126 that the Jewish people taken captive into Babylon did indeed return to Jerusalem after seventy years. Once back in their homeland, God again filled their mouths with songs of worship. Psalm 126:1-2 tells us:

“When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.”

Once again, God made use of the harps that for seventy years had hung on those poplars. As we consider this incident recorded in Scripture, we can come to realize that God also may allow us to once again take up our own “harps.” Or, He may teach us how to play and sing using a different “instrument.”

Whatever He chooses to do, we know that God does all things well. Though we may not sing the same songs of joy we once did, God will surely give us the grace to once again make music through our lives. We simply need to allow Him to make the choice!

 

 

Reflection

 

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

—John 8:12

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

—Matthew 5:14-16

Have you ever considered how differently the brightness of the moon affects what we can see at night? Driving seems so much easier. And, the distance we can see is so much farther. Nights with a full moon allow us to see so much more than we can see when the moonlight is absent or diminished.

Scientists tell us that the phases of the moon, and the amount of light we observe from the moon, results from how much of the moon’s surface faces the sun and reflects the sun’s radiance. The moon produces no light of its own. It serves only to reflect the glory of the sun.

When we meditate on Jesus’ words in the first Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post, where He told us that He is the Light of the World, we must realize that Jesus has given us the same designation that Creator God gave to the moon. As His devoted followers, Jesus expects us to understand that we give divine light to those around us only to the extent that we reflect Him. The more “face time” we have with Him, the more fully we will reflect His powerful light.

In the second Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post, where Jesus said that we are lights of the world, He used the illustration of a lamp. Even if we shine as lamps in this dark world, we must have oil, or power, from some source other than ourselves. The image of oil in the Bible often refers to the power of the Holy Spirit.

We cannot expect to give off the Light of Christ in this world unless we reflect Him, just as the moon reflects the sun, nor can we shine as lamps without the oil of the Holy Spirit. The divine light must come from outside our own selves.

This question, then, is worth asking ourselves:

“Is the ‘light’ I give off coming from the dimly lit bulb of my own selfish glory, or do I truly reflect the glory of my blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the glory of God, my Father in Heaven?”

How we answer that important question makes a difference. And, that difference is like night and day!

 

 

Dead Branch or Budding Endorsement?

 

“He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.”

—Psalm 1:3

In this season of political endorsements, I enjoyed reading the way in which God, in front of the Israelite nation, set up Aaron as His endorsed leader from the tribe of Levi. The story, recorded in Numbers 17, occurs just after the nation complained against Aaron and Moses as their leaders. A group of men had become insolent and had risen up to take the leadership and the priesthood away from these two whom God had chosen.

You may remember the story in which God allowed the ground to swallow these imposters, as a testimony to His anger against their sinful rebellion. However, this didn’t end the rebellion, and God sent a plague that killed 14,700 to show His power. And, even though Aaron stood between God and the rest of the Israelites and stopped the plague, interceding for them, they continued to grumble about his leadership.

At this time, God told Moses to have the leaders of the twelve tribes come to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and bring with them their staves or rods, the symbol of the authority of their governmental leadership. We read in Numbers 17:5 that God said:

“The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling.”

The next day, when Moses entered the Tent, he found Aaron’s staff not only sprouted, but budded and blossomed, producing almonds! From that day on, God asked Moses to keep that rod before the Testimony as a remembrance of God’s decree and endorsement of Aaron as leader!

Isaiah predicts another time, yet to come, when God will endorse His people before the world. Here’s what He promises in Isaiah 60:21:

“Then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever. They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.”

I like that! Not for the aggrandizement of these chosen ones, but for the display of God’s splendor.

And, in our world today, how does God endorse us? We know that, by ourselves, we display nothing but the image of a dry stick. However, with the life Jesus gives us through His atonement, we can bud with His “sap” running through our veins. I compare this to the sermon Jesus gave in John 15 about the Vine and the Branches. The only way the branches can provide fruit, is when they continue to exist, attached to the Living Vine.

We are nothing but dry branches without Him. John 15:5 makes it clear with these words of Jesus:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

God wants to endorse us by displaying His splendor through us, by living His life through us, and by making our lives spiritual food for others. May we know that kind of usefulness to bring Him glory!

 

 

Going Overboard

 

“Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea.”

—John 21:7b

I love impetuous Peter. He couldn’t hold back his enthusiasm or his love for the Lord Jesus. Familiar around boats all his life, twice we read in the Gospels that he jumped overboard into the water.

The most familiar story we remember comes from Matthew 14:22-32. This passage tells the story of the storm on the Sea of Galilee, or Lake of Gennesaret, in which the disciples feared for their lives. Jesus came to them on the water, and Peter jumped out of the boat and walked on top of the water to meet Him. Here Peter exhibited enough faith to take a few steps toward Jesus before he had to call out for rescue.

A lot of time and experience had passed between that event and the one in which Peter again jumped out of the fishing boat to greet his Lord. Jesus had gone through the torturous death on the cross and come out of the grave alive. The disciples had seen Him a few times before He came to them on this morning after they had fished all night. Yet, Peter had haunting memories of his three denials of his Lord (recorded in John 18) and couldn’t let this moment pass to show his love and even shame over what he had done.

I like Peter. He always seemed to show his love to Jesus in obnoxious ways. He would say things and do things that appeared unorthodox and perhaps silly. No one could keep him and his wild passions for Christ from going overboard. In more ways than two!

Peter had zeal. We don’t often use that word anymore. But, it fits the description of this powerful disciple. God likes zealous people. In Numbers 25:10-13, God rewarded Phinehas for his courage in defending the honor of his God and his zeal. In John 2:17, the disciples watched Jesus overthrow the tables of the wicked in the temple and commented on His zeal for God.

In Romans 12:11, we read instructions to those who know Christ:

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

We should ask ourselves:

• Can people see in us a definition of zeal for God, for Christ’s name, for His church?
  
  
• Do we dare go overboard for Him, even though others might scoff at us?
  
  
• Do we love God with an eagerness that glorifies His greatness and causes those who don’t know Him to take notice?
  
  
• Does our fervor encourage others to display the same fervency?
  
  
• Does it keep us going even when all seems bleak?
  
  

Let us pray with the hymn writer who asks God for “one holy passion filling all my frame.” ¹ His love for us went overboard when God sent His only Son to us, and then allowed His death on the cross to pay for our guilt. He deserves nothing less than our passion for Him!

______________________

1 Croly, George. “Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart.” Public Domain.

 

 

Moreover

 

So God said to him [Solomon], “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor— so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.”

—1 Kings 3:11-13

Solomon began his reign as king with a humble heart. He was seemingly aware of his own frailty and the enormity of the position which his father, David, had left him.

The Lord had appeared to Solomon in a dream and told him to ask for whatever he wanted from God. This sounds so much like the “genie in the bottle” theme of three wishes. But, it’s not. God seriously wanted Solomon to take on this new task of king with all the resources that he needed. And, in order to rule well, Solomon asked for a discerning and wise heart. The Scripture says that this pleased God. So, God fulfilled His promise and gave Solomon the discernment and wisdom for which he had asked.

Then, right in the middle of God’s response to Solomon’s request, we see the word, Moreover. Far beyond what Solomon had asked, God added riches and honor to the gifts He gave Solomon that day. Now Solomon would be able to showcase the glory and splendor of his God to the whole world.

You see, God gives abundance to His children, to those He knows have the right heart attitude and will use the gifts He gives them for His glory. So, it is no surprise that when Solomon chose to ask for qualities that would help him rule justly, God gave Him those qualities and also showered Solomon with even more.

But, what about us? Should we expect the same abundant gifts that God gave Solomon? Not necessarily, but we can expect Him to give us an abundance of His grace, which comes in a multitude of ways to His dearly loved children. In Jesus’ teaching about Himself as the Good Shepherd, He states in John 10:10:

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full [abundantly].

Much like the plain and simple water that Jesus turned into a splendid and special wine during the wedding at Cana, God intends to turn the ordinary things for which we ask Him into blessings we can give back to Him and manifest His glory. He will always be known as the God of Moreover—the God of abundance and lavish blessing.

Let’s look at our lives and our prayers through the eyes of Solomon and through the eyes of those people attending the wedding at Cana. What “above and beyond” blessings has God given to us on top of those things for which we have asked? Then, let’s praise Him and glorify Him through all He has given to us!

 

 

Not My Boss!

 

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.”

—1 Peter 5:8

I heard them arguing. This five-year-old and his three-year-old sister had a dust up about something. Giving it all she had, she stretched her little chest out and faced him with the words: “You’re not the boss of me!”

Sometimes we grown-up Christians forget the authority with which God has equipped us in this world—where Satan roams about seeking to devour us. God, by His Holy Spirit, has given us His power through which we can resist evil and stand against the foe.

William Gurnall, the 17th Century theologian, wrote an entire book about the verses in Ephesians 6, which goes into great detail how we should prepare to engage our enemy. Of the phrase in Ephesians 6:10—“in his mighty power”—Gurnall writes:

The apostle’s drift is so to encourage the Christian to make use of God’s almighty power, as freely as if it were his own, whenever assaulted by Satan in any kind. ¹

1 John 4:4 reminds us of this power to which we have free access:

Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

We have no power in ourselves to withstand the awful violence and deceit of the Enemy. So, God gives us the Holy Spirit, and all the mighty power that belongs to Him. Thus we, through faith, have the power of almighty God on our side. When we step out in faith, accept the pieces of armor God provides us, and pray for His power to fill us, we have an authority few of us may realize.

The next time we engage in a battle over temptation, or experience the subtle attempts of the evil one to take us down emotionally, physically, or spiritually, we must puff our chests out and say with the authority we have been given in Christ: “Satan, you’re not the boss of me!”

______________________

1  Gurnall, William, The Christian in Complete Armour. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1979 (reprinted). p. 25.

 

 

Adding Alleluias

 

“Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.”

—Psalm 34:3

If I asked you what contribution Charles Wesley made to Christian history, most of you would know he wrote hundreds of our beloved hymns. If I asked you the same question about Martin Madan, you probably would have no idea. But, if I asked you to sing the words to Christ the Lord is Risen Today, written by Charles Wesley, you would add the words he didn’t put in himself. The “Alleluias” were added later by Martin Madan.

Martin Madan added “Alleluias” to other hymns of Charles Wesley’s, through whom he came to the saving knowledge of Christ. Yet, virtually unknown today, Madan influenced others for Christ, and even became a preacher of the Gospel. Still, his most remembered legacy comes in this simple addition to Wesley’s hymns. ¹

This made me wonder. Do we add “Alleluias” to other people’s praises? Do we enhance the praise and testimony of others? Do we, together with them, exalt God’s name, as the Scripture verse at the beginning of this blog post suggests?

Surely, when God’s people meet and exalt Him, He sends His Holy Spirit to enliven, empower, and encourage them. We read in Acts 2:1 that:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Three times in the first two chapters of this Book of Acts, in giving the story of the first Church, the author uses the word “together”:

1. At first, they met together for prayer. (Acts 1:14).
   
   
2. In Acts 2:1, the Holy Spirit came to them when they met together.
   
   
3. In Acts 2:44 and 46, we read how they met together, as God formed through them His early Church.
   
   

It’s apparent that God brings His power to bear on believers when together they meet and praise Him. We may not all have a gift for writing hymns, or preaching, or praying aloud. But, we can all add “Alleluias.” The power of the combination of our praise exalts our God and brings others to the wonder of His presence with us. Alleluia to His name!

______________________

1 Information for the opening of this blog post was gleaned from the following book: Brown, Robert K. and Mark R. Norton. The One Year Book of Hymns. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1995. pp. May 25, May 27, August 8.

 

 

Move Ahead

 

The Lord said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance.”

—Deuteronomy 1:6

I am “risk averse”:

• As a pianist and organist, I always look at printed music, even though I have a particular piece completely memorized.
  
  
• I try to stay out of crowds, afraid of the danger that may lurk there.
  
  
• I avoid certain sections of highway during snowstorms, lest I become involved in an accident.
  
  
• I like to plan ahead. And many times, I have opted to stay put rather than move ahead.

The Israelites showed this same kind of aversion to risk. Or, let’s be honest, they displayed a decided lack of faith during the time they wandered in the wilderness. They had certainly seen God perform amazing miracles for them in their escape from Egypt. God had certainly supplied their needs and protected them. Still, they persisted, with heavy cement-laden feet, to resist forward movement in their lives, individually and as a nation.

When God calls us to take a risk, our arguments usually begin with a long list of “what ifs”:

• What if we come up against things we’ve never seen before—men that look like giants, violent land owners, walled cities we may have to conquer?
  
  
• What if we die of plague, starvation, wild beasts, or warring enemies?
  
  
• What if we run out of food or water?
  
  
• What if we take a wrong turn and lose our way?
  
  
• What if …

In the first two chapters of the Book of Deuteronomy, God reminded the Israelites of His faithfulness. And, He also reminded them of their lack of faith. He had prepared really big things for them in the days ahead and He needed them to get moving.

Twice we read that God said: “You have stayed here long enough.” He reminded them that He had watched over them and provided for them for forty years. Later, He egged them on to move and take possession of the land He had promised to them since the days of Abraham.

I like the second verse of the hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” ¹

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy, and shall break
with blessing on your head.

When God prompts us to move on—to venture out and trust Him—we must move forward in faith, fully relying on His provision and protection. If we turn a deaf ear to God’s call to move onward and insist on standing still, mired in the fast-drying cement of our current situation, we stand the greater risk of getting stuck where nothing will move us.

______________________

1 Cowper, William. God Moves in a Mysterious Way. Verse Two. Public Domain.

 

 

Fervor

 

“Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant.”

—Romans 12:11 MSG

I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to iron clothes before the availability of electricity. Not only were there no “easy-care” fabrics, there wasn’t even a way to maintain a constantly heated iron to use for the entire task. Most women used a series of irons, heated one at a time on the wood stove nearby. They had tricks to use for doing the job with a super-heated iron and other tricks to use as the temperature of the iron cooled.

This reminds me of something that the Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Roman Christians in the early church. Romans 12:11 from the New International Version states it this way:

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, “fervor” amounts to “warm, steady intensity of feeling or expression.”

I think the key word here is “steady.” Certainly the invention of electricity makes the steady heat of a clothes iron possible. Although we sometimes have an awareness of when the electric current reheats our iron, we do not have to do anything to make it happen.

Where does the “fervor” come from for a “steady warmth” of service to God? Like the old-fashioned iron, we must go to the source of the “spiritual heat” and spend sufficient quality time with our Lord, whose Holy Spirit burns within us. To maintain that steady warmth of fervent passion throughout the day, we must stay “plugged into” Him and draw on His power, moment by moment.

It may seem corny to state it, but it’s true: “Seven days without prayer make one weak.” Even one day without an infusing of God’s miraculous power, puts us in jeopardy of making crucial mistakes, of sinning against our Lord, or of losing our focus and our fervor in living for Him and for serving Him.

Remember the symbolism of the Day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2? Tongues of fire landed on the heads of each of Jesus’ disciples. This symbol of the Holy Spirit’s power reminds us of the “holy fire” that God wants to ignite within each of us: for power, for light, and for a passion to do His work in this world. Let us pray daily for that “fire” to fervently burn within us, so that we might become a steady usefulness for our Savior.

 

 

Used Tea Bags and Used Pencil Stubs

 

“Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect or flaw in it, for that would be detestable to him.”

—Deuteronomy 17:1

When I was a child, I remember a missionary speaker at my church who told of receiving “care packages” from the States. Inside one box he discovered that the people had sent boxes of used tea bags and used pencil stubs. Imagine receiving that kind of gift sent to you in Jesus’ name to help the people to whom you were trying to minister to and expose to the Gospel! Why, it’s “sloppy mediocrity” at best.

The prophet Malachi was burdened for God’s people about just this kind of “sloppy mediocrity,” selfishness, and heartless worship. Apparently God’s people were giving sacrifices to Him consisting of spoiled food and diseased animals. God rebuked them in Malachi 1:14:

“Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.”

In our day, we may not present defiled animals or spoiled food to God. But, many of us are quite content to give Him that which has cost us little or nothing. In speaking to a mom of a chorister in my former church children’s choir about her child’s erratic attendance, she responded to me with: “It’s only church, for heaven’s sake!”

Make no mistake about it, God wants our very best when we give Him our worship. He wants our sincere excellence. This doesn’t always necessarily mean “perfection.” But, it does mean a heartfelt giving of the very best that we have to give in every situation in which we strive to please God.

Surely when we give offerings to those less fortunate, we can give gifts our own children would enjoy. When we bring food for the pantry ministry to the poor, we can buy the same brands we would buy for ourselves. Whenever we give, let us strive to please God. We should do our very best to follow the admonition of the Apostle Paul, writing in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7, when Paul reminds us of what God desires from His people:

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

 

 

Accept the Remedy

 

“These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

—John 5:39-40

Neither a child spitting out his or her medicine, nor an old man refusing “any more pills,” do themselves any favors when it comes to their healing. When a remedy exists, it is wise to take advantage of it.

Even in Jesus’ time, He met people who didn’t appear to really want a remedy for their woes. In John 5:1-15, we read the story of Jesus meeting a man at the Pool of Bethesda who had been unable to walk for 38 years. The man was full of excuses why he had not been healed in all that time, even when a common remedy was available. Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?” To prove the man’s faith, Jesus told him to stand and walk. At once, through God’s power, the man stood and walked.

Many people, in the death grip of sin, have heard the “cure” for their lost condition. But, they have refused the remedy that Jesus offers to them. The remedy comes through the simple, yet difficult, submission to the truth of the Gospel: confession of sin, repentance (turning from sin), and acknowledging that God has graciously given them the free gift, through Christ’s death for them on the cross, as the payment they could never make for themselves to a righteous God.

If your conscience has burdened you because of your refusal of the “cure” for your condition, recognize this voice as Jesus stepping up to you, as He did to this man at Bethesda and saying: “Do you want to get well?” Then, when He says to you: “Get up, walk with me, and accept my healing!” you will experience your cleansing from sin and peace with God—in effect, a new life. Then, you too will have learned that when a remedy exists, it is wise to take advantage of it.

 

 

Squeezing Out the Sweet Juice

 

“But his [the blessed man’s] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

—Psalm 1:2

Experts say that squeezing two to four oranges yields about eight ounces of juice. Nothing can beat genuine freshly-squeezed orange juice for flavor and sweetness. Yet, most of us would rather buy the “made from concentrate” brands in the supermarket. Why is that? Well, I suppose because of the time and mess involved. At least that’s my excuse.

And, why don’t Christians enjoy the sweet fellowship with God in Jesus Christ more? Probably for a similar reason. It takes time to squeeze out the best flavors from His written Word. Nothing substitutes for meditation on the written Word of God and the truly “sweet truths” we learn through it.

In Scripture, we read that David—named the “man after God’s own heart”—loved meditation. Vividly we see, in Psalm 19, that David meditated on the wonders of the sky, and the wonders of the laws of God. After considering, He prayed, as recorded in verse 14:

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

The 17th century Puritan minister, David Clarkson, wrote about the advancement of faith through meditation. He stated that God develops faith in us when we focus our thoughts on His express promises, on Scriptural assertions, on God’s acts through and on behalf of His people, on God’s work through the prayers of His people, and on God’s commandments. Clarkson writes: ¹

Gather the promises and meditate on them. They are meat in this wilderness. Often be mining their treasures. Do not allow these pearls to lie neglected in the field. Treasure them up. Fill your memories with them. A promise treasured will afford comfort in our callings, dungeons, and banishments. Meditate frequently and seriously on them.

Occasionally, we should try paring down our Scripture reading to just a few verses and spend time meditating word by word. Specifically:

• Pen in hand, expand our thoughts about God and record our thoughts on paper.
  
  
• Write a prayer using the words of the verses we have just read.
  
  
• Remember a hymn that connects to the concepts on which we have just meditated.
  
  
• Consider other Scripture passages that bring out the same truths about God, and compare and contrast them.

In other words, squeeze out those “sweet juices.” If we do this, we will develop a connoisseur’s taste and build our faith in the process!

______________________

1  Clarkson, David, quoted in Voices. Richard Rushing, editor. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 174.

 

 

Stepford Christians

 

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

—2 Corinthians 11:13-15

The 1975 movie, The Stepford Wives, has remained in my memory: not only as a very bizarre story, but as an example of how very like the “Men’s Association” our enemy—the prince of this world, Satan—operates.

The story takes place in the affluent, idyllic town of Stepford, Connecticut. A new resident, Joanna, notices how strange all the women seem to appear. They are fawning wives, mindless, and perfect in every way. What she doesn’t realize is that one-by-one, the husbands of the “Men’s Association,” who make it their mission to completely control their wives, have actually murdered their wives and replaced them with perfectly engineered robots. These robots look identical to the wives. And, the robot wifes have absolutely no flaws whatsoever.

These formerly very successful, caring, and professional women, now transformed into robots, think only of pleasing their husbands in every way. Since they are not real, they have given up any resemblance to the actual personhood of each wife they have replaced.

Joanna watched as one of her more “normal” neighbors seemed to go through this metamorphosis. For one thing, her tennis court in the back yard was dug up and replaced with a putting green for her husband. Only when Joanna’s own family becomes victims of the “Men’s Association” does she try to escape in order to protect her own life.

We would all love to be the perfect model of a Christian, not only pleasing to God, but especially pleasing to each other. We study the right “moves” of those Christians that we admire and try very hard to imitate them. We learn to play the game of “church” and strive to never allow our own sinful natures to become too visible. Over time, we come to realize that to openly acknowledge sin, to repent, to ask for genuine forgiveness just takes too much humility. To do that, we would have to admit that we cannot live the Christian life in our own strength.

While it may seem somewhat honorable to overlook the faults in others, to look for the best in each other, and to see our churches as perfect examples of lived-out Christianity, we should never tolerate covering up sin and hiding horrific wrong-doing. Christ did not die for people who pretend to be without fault. He died for sinners and welcomes anyone who truly comes to Him in honest confession.

Like Joanna, the world watches us. Anything in us or in our churches that smacks of being phony is clearly evident to them. Why would they want to join a group of seemingly “perfect” people anyway, especially when they know the sinfulness of their own hearts?

We glorify God the most when we rely on Him for His grace to live our lives according to His desires and when we willingly acknowledge and repent of our sins. We need to embrace the intention to do away with the plastic complexion, the nylon hair, and the mindless play-act!