Sleeping in Church

 

“Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God … If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief.”

—Revelation 3:2, 3

I can remember my father and other farmers who sometimes fell asleep during church services. Most people excused such behavior because these men had arisen at 5:00 a.m. and spent hours milking cows and doing other necessary chores before they rushed in, changed their clothes, and headed out the doors of their homes on the Lord’s Day.

How do you think our God reacts to see His people not only sleeping in church, but unconsciously living each day in a kind of “sleep walk”? What might God have to say to those “sleep walkers”?

The Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and warned seven prominent churches of deadly habits that would keep God from using them. Most of those churches were pretty useless for the purposes He had created them. In the case of the church at Sardis, He stated that they had a wonderful reputation of wakefulness, of life, and of vigor.

However, like the farmers in my illustration, the Sardis Christians had fallen asleep and displayed only dead works. They were seemingly asleep to what God wanted to do with them. They needed a reawakening.

This letter from John should have stirred them back to their call to effectiveness. John urged them to strengthen what remained of their glorious past and to stop slipping ever closer to a deadly permanent sleep.

I like what the Puritan, William Gurnall, wrote about this condition: ¹

The Christian is seldom worsted by his enemy unless he is negligent in his spiritual business and the enemy is upon him before he is thoroughly awake to draw his sword. The saint’s sleeping time is Satan’s tempting time …

Sampson was asleep, and Delilah cut his locks. Saul was asleep, and his spear was taken from his side. Noah was asleep, and his graceless son had opportunity to discover his father’s nakedness. Eutychus was asleep, and he fell from the third loft.

The Christian asleep in security may soon be surprised and lose much of his spiritual strength …

Sleep creeps upon the soul as it does on the body. Take heed that you do not indulge yourself in a lazy distemper, but stir up yourself to action, and stand up.

We get so comfortable that sleep comes easily. Yet, the “thief” is upon us. We need the wakeful, vigilant pose of Christians ready to act on behalf of the Savior in this world. God help us all, as we humbly pray:

Lord, Your church appears asleep, or at best, very drowsy. We have allowed our eyelids to get heavy, rather than standing tall to move at Your command.

Send us watchmen to warn us. Sound “Reveille” and reawaken Your church. Alert us to dangers that have intruded into our bed chambers and wait to kill us in our sleep.

Stir us up. As You awoke our churches in times past, come again and reawaken Your people for Your glory, through the power of Christ our Lord. Amen.

______________________

1 Gurnall, William (author) and Richard Rushing (editor). Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Reading. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 358.

Please note that, in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

The Hide-Out

 

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

—Psalm 91:1 NKJ

As a child I always cast jealous eyes on other children’s playhouses or clubhouses. In fact, I remember my sister and I studying one of the chicken brooder houses on our farm to see if we might “remodel” it. Inside the farmhouse, we often made tents out of laundry racks and blankets. Under the warm light of a flashlight, we tucked ourselves away in our safe fantasy place.

Other secret places captivated me, too. I remember seeing movies of houses with bookcases that turned and revealed either a secret passage or a little room. When I read the autobiography of Corrie TenBoom, The Hiding Place, it was fascinating to read where her family hid the Jews within their small house during World War II. Clever hiding rooms were also built for slaves escaping north before and during the Civil War—all designed to be kept secret, except to those who knew the codes of the Underground Railroad.

But here, in this Scripture verse at the beginning of this blog post, we read that the Most High God has a secret place for those who would go to Him for hiding. And what are these escapees hiding from? We read of snares, deadly pestilences, terrors, arrows, plagues, armies, disasters of all kinds.

No matter what our personal worlds throw against us, those things are on the outside of that secret place in which we can go. Often times, there are others who hide with us against the same outside forces. I envision a light, maybe a lantern, filling the small space with light and warmth, because the Holy Spirit of God provides this place of light for us.

I am comforted by this reminder, and the mental picture of a place that says:

“All is well. Rest. Enjoy the fellowship of this small space until the danger is past. The Most High has provided for you.”

 

 

The Bride Awaits

 

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

—Revelation 19:6-9

Recently, I received a “Thank-You Note” from a young bride, for whose wedding I played the organ. She commented that everyone kept saying what a dramatic entrance she had made at the wedding. Truthfully, I did nothing out of the ordinary for her. I always prepare the “Bridal Processional” with a fanfare and with loud flourishes.

Yet, her “Thank-You Note” has me thinking about the great Wedding Supper of the Lamb mentioned in Revelation 19:6-9, which is the Scripture passage I quoted at the beginning of this blog post.

Many times in Scripture, the Bride is regarded as the Body of Christ—the Church—prepared for her Groom, Christ Himself. Such a fuss over the Bride! It would seem that with Christ as the Groom, the focus should be on Him. Yet here, Scripture tells us that the Bride has made herself ready in fine linen, ¹ bright and clean. Nothing is spoken here about the Groom.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Crown them with Glory and Honor.”

In this Greek Orthodix wedding ceremony, the crowns also symbolize the heavenly crowns we will receive when we enter Paradise. The crowns serve as a reminder that marriage involves “dying to self”—in the same way that we die to self, so that Christ can live fully in us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

______________________

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

 

 

Teamwork

 

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

—Exodus 31:6-11

You’ve probably heard this definition of a camel:

“A camel is a horse built by a committee!”

In some sense, that can aptly describe the way some churches function through their committees. However, from the beginning, God had plans to use many people—with different personalities, different skill sets, different talents and abilities, different perspectives, and different passions—to do His work within His Church. We all have intensely different roles, even as we retain our individuality.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We must ask ourselves these questions:

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

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

______________________

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

2 Ibid. p. 89.

Please note that, in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

Did You See That?

 

“The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.”

—Proverbs 15:3

While driving in traffic, how often have you seen a blatant disregard for the law and for safety? Someone passes another car on the right. A car sails by you doing 80 in a 55 mph zone. A driver makes a left turn, where a sign clearly indicates “NO LEFT TURNS.” My reaction, is probably like yours: “Where are the police when you need them?”

In our Christian spiritual formation, we sometimes forget the “All-Seeing Eye of God”—or, His Omnipresence and His Omniscience. We fail to remember that even our thoughts do not go unnoticed by God. In other words, God’s ability to see and perceive everything that happens to us, or within us, can either bring us great fear or bring us great comfort.

From Psalm 139:4, we learn that before a word is even on our tongues, God knows it completely. That should give us pause every time we speak. In Psalm 139:11-12, we read that we can’t hide from Him. He sees in the darkness as well as in the light. It is crazy for us to think God can’t see us!

At the same time, we can gain comfort from the fact that God sees what others do to us, or say about us. When Jesus first sent His disciples out into the surrounding towns without Him, as recorded in Matthew 10:26, Jesus taught them:

… there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.

And, Jesus was talking about people who would abuse and betray the disciples in their ministry, and other circumstances that Satan might use to discourage them.

God wants us to trust Him that He does see everything. He does hear everything. He does know all about our pain, when others malign us. Psalm 33:13 tells us that:

… from heaven, the Lord looks down and sees all mankind.

In Psalm 33:18, The Psalmist writes:

The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.

In our human faility, we sometimes may lose our patience as we wait on God. But, we need to realize that He will resolve all the issues that trouble us.

When God told Abraham that He was about to destroy Sodom because of their great sin, Abraham believed that Lot and his family would be spared because they were “the righteous” members of that terrible society. Abraham’s rhetorical question in Genesis 18:25 reveals his trust in God’s ability to “get it right”:

Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?

To take a sober look at God’s Omnipresence and His Omniscience means that while we need to keep careful watch on our own behaviors, we also must learn to trust God. For, in His own time, He will take care of all those things we cannot make right by ourselves, things that prompt us to say to Him: “Did you see that?”

 

 

Being, Doing, Having

 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! … God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

—2 Corinthians 5:17, 21

Many years ago, I heard my friend and founder of Celebrate Kids!, Kathy Koch, Ph.D., speak to an audience consisting of the members of a Christian organization. She reminded us that God made us “human beings,” not “human doings.” I liked that comparison very much. So often other people conclude that God will only accept them on the merits of what they do. It’s all too easy for us to slip into that mode of thinking, too.

In the famous Love Chapter of 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul reminds us that even if we give all we possess to the poor and surrender our bodies to flames, without the love that comes from our being in Christ, what we do is vanity—that is, of no import.

Recently, I read a chapter by Dr. John Claypool in which he expressed the cultural pressure of having that bears on us as Christians. He used the ancient story of Hannah from 1 Samuel 1. Like the culture surrounding her, Hannah felt that until she could have a child, her life amounted to nothing. She actually made a bargain with God that if He would give her a child (so she could have one) she would give that child’s whole life back to the Lord. God used this means to raise up the great prophet Samuel.

Dr. Claypool writes: ¹

When the God’s gift of “being” is seen as primal and foundational, then creative “doing” and responsible “having” grow naturally from such a base. But when we turn reality upside down and make “doing” or “having” the basis of “being,” we produce anxiety and distortion of the worst kind. Having to produce or else is frightening!

After considering this, it seems to me that we can fall into the trap of “having” for our fulfillment, nearly as easily as we do into “doing.” Jesus’ story of the rich young ruler from Matthew 19 expresses this truth. Thinking eternal life had to do with “doing,” the rich young ruler asked Jesus what he needed to do. Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give to the poor. Verse 22 states:

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

This rich young man’s “having” and “doing” had gotten in the way of his “being.”

How easily we fall into the same thinking. If I have the right kind of status, or money, or education, or if I do kind deeds and all the “churchy” things required of someone living a holy life, God and my Christian society will accept me. We want to belong, and our society screams at us that these doings are the way of becoming acceptable.

Instead, God wants all our having and doing to spring from our being in Christ. It may seem like a thin line at times, but taking stock of our thought processes, and reviewing why we act as we do, will help us to live out the real truth of who God has made us to be!

______________________

1 Claypool, John, Glad Reunion. Waco: Word Books, 1985. p. 73.

Please note that, in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

New Mercies

 

It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

—Lamentations 3:22-23

I have known the verses at the beginning of this blog post nearly all my life. I’ve been reminded of them each time I sing the old hymn with the words: ¹

“Morning by morning new mercies I see.”

Recently, in need of so many things and thinking I knew how things for which I prayed would end, the Lord reminded me of the verse of that hymn. The Lord particularly drew my attention to the word: “new.”

Now I know the opposite of “new” is “old.” But, “new” can also mean “different,” “unique,” even “surprising!” What if we approached each day looking for the “surprising” new mercies of the Lord?

God rarely answers our needs in just the way we think He might. Take the story of the disciples in Luke 5. They had fished all night and caught nothing. In the morning, Jesus told them to let down their nets in deep water. Even though that was the opposite of what knowledgeable fishermen would normally do. Because they obeyed, they had such a great catch of fish that the nets nearly broke. This showed the surprising mercies of Jesus.

Another somewhat similar story at the end of Jesus’ earthly reign, recorded in John 21, had the disciples coming onto the shore after another whole night of catching nothing. This time, Jesus told them to try the opposite side of the boat. The disciples, who knew Jesus very well by now, didn’t respond in mockery, but obeyed. Again, they had a catch they could hardly haul into their boats.

When you look at stories of healing in the Bible, you will see that God healed people with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (2 Kings 4). He applied mud and spittle to a blind man’s eyes (John 9), and sent a possessed man’s demons into a herd of swine (Mark 5). Often our Lord demonstrates His power in “new” and “surprising” ways.

As we look to God for answers to our prayers, we should come expecting “new” mercies—not ways in which God worked once before, or for another person. If we watch, He will show up to do marvelous things for which we can praise, exalt, and stand in awe of Him.

______________________

1 Chisolm, Thomas, Great is Thy Faithfulness. Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing Co., 1923.

Please note that, in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

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 ahead 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 found in the first Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post, where He told is 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—fueled by the ‘oil’ of the Holy Spirit?”

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

 

 

Doing Good

 

You know how … God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

—Acts 10:37-38

Jesus showed His power wherever He went—not for personal aggrandizement, but for the good of everyone He met. We read in the gospels that He never went anywhere but that people with all kinds of problems would come to Him for help.

I find it interesting that the verse at the beginning of this blog post from Acts 10 speaks of power twice. One kind is the power of the devil, and the other that of God. The devil only intends harm with his power. Satan only brings heartbreak and destruction that affects physical, mental, or emotional health. Though we read in Scripture that Satan masquerades as an angel of light (see 2 Corinthians 11:14). Satan cannot be trusted and we should all be wary of Satan’s trickery.

In stark contrast with Satan’s activities, before Jesus left earth for His heavenly home, He told His disciples that this same power from the Holy Spirit that He used in going about doing good would be theirs to use in doing even greater good. In John 14:12, Jesus said:

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

He promised the power of the Holy Spirit to His followers, so that they might tell others about Him and use His means to do good to others. (see Acts 1:8). Clearly, we have been given all we need to continue Jesus’ work in our world.

I know people who travel the world teaching the written Word of God. I know people who befriend friendless people and bless their lives. I know others who constantly seek ways to build people up and supply them with encouragement.

Do you know people of faith who “go around doing good?” Do you see the power of Christ in their works and their words? This same power is available to each one of us, and God expects us, with the unique gifts He has given us, to share His goodness with all people we know for His glory.

What an awesome privilege is ours to go out each day in Christ’s name, and in His power, to obey His last wishes on earth! Let us pray that God will use us in this world, alongside His other children, to bring good to others, and to lift up His name to them.

 

 

Taking Care

 

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

—Matthew 11:28

I played the French horn in college, but the price of a French horn prevented me from having my own instrument. Therefore, in order to play in the orchestra and wind ensembles, I needed to use a school-owned horn. So, my professor assigned me one which played well, though it sported enough dents to reveal that it had been around for a few years.

At my first lesson, the professor said:

“Did you know you could wash this thing in the bathtub?”

He proceeded to tell me how to take it all apart and run water through it in order to get rid of the putrid smell coming from within the French horn. So, I followed his advice, and took it back to my dorm for a serious and thorough “bath.”

Now, the French horn isn’t the only instrument that needs special care. I learned, as a music teacher in the public schools, that oboe reeds crack, dry trumpet valves stick, mouthpieces get stuck in trombones, and flute keypads fall out. All need attention from time to time.

What would happen to the music from these instruments if the players did not maintain them? The music would indeed suffer. A stuck key, or a squealing reed, would obviously influence the sound and the ability of the player to do his or her best job in producing music.

Christians tend to have the same problems as well-used musical instruments. We have a “song to sing,” so to speak, and need to have our spiritual “instruments” in tip-top shape, in order for the “music” to come out. When we live with our bodies tired, or malnourished, or out of shape, we cannot give to God our very best.

However, I know that our schedules often become unbalanced, because other’s expectations of us box us into a corner, or family demands make us feel obligated to sacrifice even healthy patterns of living in order to meet those demands. This lack of balance keeps our bodies ill-maintained and unable to do our best for God, for our families, or for our employers.

During the time of creation, God even rested on the seventh day! He was showing us His pattern for living. You all know the third Commandment found in the first half of Exodus 34:21:

Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest.

But do you remember the rest of it from the second half of Exodus 34:21?

Even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

Said another way: “We must rest, even when we are the busiest!”

In our society, we tend either to make too much of our bodies, or too little. A balanced approach to living requires us to maintain good habits for healthy bodies, but to also make time for our spiritual selves as well. That is the other side of the coin.

Where do we see ourselves? Too occupied with our physical needs, or careless and dangerously forgetful of them? We must take a good look, and commit ourselves to the balance required for healthy bodies that can readily serve God when He calls. Like my efforts to care for the French Horn, we must learn to take proper care of ourselves, in order that, with our whole beings, we will remain able to play beautiful music for God.

 

 

Arguments!

 

Molly, my sister, and I fell out, And what do you think it was all about? She loved coffee and I loved tea, And that was the reason we couldn’t agree.

—an old Mother Goose rhyme 1

I had a sister close in age, with whom I had plenty of arguments as a child. And, the reasons for the arguments were usually as silly as the Nursery Rhyme above. Much of that arguing promotes a means for a healthy growing up, as siblings learn to negotiate and live with others.

Within the body of Christ, we have been admonished to treat each other as brothers and sisters, and to live in unity. Many a church fight has occurred because Christian-siblings disagree on truly trivial matters. For example: disagreements over the type and color of the carpeting for the church parlor, or whether to hold a full-size brunch after church, or a light reception.

However, not all arguments between brothers- and sisters-in-Christ result from silly juvenile issues. Some come from disagreements over important doctrinal beliefs, or from sinful power plays. These types of problems need genuine spiritual counsel, repentance, or even separation.

However, when matters really don’t require anything but humble submission to one another, confession of prideful selfishness, or a heart-to-heart talk, God expects us to work it out ourselves.

Even in St. Paul’s day, he knew two church women who had locked horns. He wrote in Philippians 4:2-3:

I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel.

Imagine what such a schism between sisters does to the unity and peace of the church. Can either give effective service to Christ with such a rift between them? In so many places in Scripture, God shows us His high regard for unity in the body, even saying to Titus through Paul, as recorded in Titus 3:10:

Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him.

Wow! Christ wants His church to demonstrate the same unity that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit illustrate for us. Through the display of a unity like this—so dissimilar from the world—people will be drawn into the Kingdom.

God help us to not allow the “little foxes to destroy the vines.” (see Song of Solomon 2:15). For indeed, small things have big effect in the Kingdom of God.

 

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1 Wright, Blanche Fisher, Illustrator. The Real Mother Goose. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Company, 1916— Now in the Public Domain. Though this citation is noted to be in the Public Domain, in the case of anyone claiming Copyright protection of this material, please note that in each case, whenever citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

Hide and Seek

 

“‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord.”

—Jeremiah 29:13-14

The shout rings out across the neighborhood:

“Ready or not, here I come!”

Most anyone who hears those words will remember playing the game “Hide and Seek” as a child. On warm summer evenings, it was fun to play outside where you could find any manner of wonderful places to wiggle into and get out of sight, while the person who was “it” counted to whatever number the group had set.

If you could stump the person looking for you, you felt quite clever. But, if the search went on too long, you could get bored and you began to wish they would hurry up and find you.

God desires to reveal to us His mysterious and wonderous Person by telling us to seek Him. He is not always readily evident. Yet, He wants us to seek Him until we find Him. The more we seek Him, the better we will get to know Him, and the closer we stick to the truth of His written Word, the easier it will become to find Him.

It was no fun as a child to hide and have no one look for you. It was no fun to desire to play the game and have no one want to play the game with you. That never happens in this “seeking God” game of life.

God delights to be found. When we see God in His written Word, when we seek Him in the life of another person, when God answers a prayer for us, or when He brings us a wonderful surprise, we will surely find Him. In every such time of seeking, we know our finding Him could only come from His loving hand. We will surely rejoice, whenever we have found Him.

The Prophet Isaiah writes these words in Isaiah 55:6:

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

God wants us to seek Him. He invites us to do so. He very much wants us to play this amazing “game.” But, we can only find Him when we draw close to Him and search for Him. And, like children, the more we play this special “game,” the more often we will find Him.

Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know You, a heart to seek You, wisdom to find You, conduct pleasing to You, faithful perseverance in waiting for You, and a hope of finally embracing You. 1

—Thomas Aquinas

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1 Aquinas, Thomas. “Prayer for a Holy Life” as cited in Bacon, Hannah, Wendy Dossett, Steve Knowles, Editors. Alternative Salvations. New York: Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2000. P. 435. Please note that, in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

Unusual Kindness

 

Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us because it was raining and cold.

—Acts 28:1-2

A person doesn’t forget an unusual kindness done for him or her. The missionary Paul, on his way to prison in Rome, spent three months of his journey on the island of Malta because the ship that was taking him to Rome shipwrecked there. Paul either journaled about, or merely remembered, the extraordinary way the strangers on that island greeted this dirty, water-logged group of men. Oh, the kindness!

When Corrie ten Boom recalled the days after her release from the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp ¹ at the end of World War II, she specifically remembered the nurse who led her down gleaming corridors into a room with a steaming bathtub. She stated that nothing ever felt as good as that bath. She also commented on the bed with sheets and how she could not get enough of running her hands over them, as they soothed her swollen feet. Oh, the kindness!

A missionary, Gracia Burnham, had much the same reaction after spending a year running, hiding, sleeping on the ground, and watching her husband die in the wet jungles of the Philippines. ² In her vivid remembrance, she too recalled the spotless sheets and the comfortable mattress. She compared them to the terrifying nights she had spent in the open. Oh, the kindness!

When we imagine this kind of treatment by strangers, especially for those who have lived through horrific circumstances, we realize that the Gift of Kindness comes as a remnant of the image of God in human form. Jesus, too—God incarnate—shows us kindness. His kindness is always beyond our need. His kindness is always beyond our deserving. His kindness always changes us.

Romans 2:4 asks:

Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Imagine the Apostle Paul, or Corrie ten Boom, or Gracia Burnham turning down the kindness shown to them! God’s purposes through His kindness lead us to repentance for our “old rags.” God’s kindness offers us fresh, new garments in which He invites us to live. Isaiah 61:3 expresses His kindness this way:

… to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Yes! It is so very true that, in His loving kindness, God has a “garment of praise” for us in exchange for the garment of a faint spirit—that is, a spirit of despair. Oh, the kindness!

First of all then, let us praise God for His kindnesses to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. These gifts of kindnesses to us should be remembered and told, when we share our stories with others. Secondly, we need to recall the kindnesses that others have shown us—the kindnesses that have led to effect good outcomes in our lives. Thirdly, as carriers of His image, let us show the same kind of transforming kindnesses to others around us.

Let us continually ask ourselves: “This day, to whom is God asking us to bless with unusual kindness?”

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1 Ten Boom, Corrie with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. The Hiding Place. Old Tappan NJ: Revell Company, 1971. p. 228.

2 Burnham, Gracia with Dean Merrill. In the Presence of My Enemies. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Book Publishers, Inc., 2010. Amazon Kindle location: 4309.

Please note that, in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

Scraps and Second Chances

 

This is what the Lord says, “If you repent, I will restore you, that you may serve me.”

—Jeremiah 15:19

I love the way old things can become new and useful again—like scrap quilts, for example. I admire the artistry and creativity put into sewing a beautiful quilt out of scraps of material that individually are hardly large enough to be used for anything else.

Suddenly the old collection of dress fabrics, or Father’s ties, or Mother’s aprons takes on a whole new life and usefulness, with years more of service. You might say that those scraps have become redeemed from the stash.

Think of God as our Redeemer, our Savior, the One who makes new that which was old. In Jeremiah 31:31, He promised a new covenant with the House of Israel. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul reminds us that:

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

Likewise, God has promised a New Heaven and a New Earth, saying in Revelation 21:5:

I am making everything new.

Throughout the Bible, we read stories of saints who have become redeemed from their past sins to serve God again.

• Think of Moses, whom God called at age 80 to lead God’s people through the wilderness and who had murdered a fellow Israelite (see Exodus 2-3).
  
  
• Or, think of David, the promised king guilty of adultery and murder, whom God cleansed of his sin and continued to use as king (see 2 Samuel 11-12).
  
  
• Or, consider Jonah, whom God called on a special errand to Nineveh and who rebelliously took off in the opposite direction, yet received a second call (see Jonah 1).
  
  
• Or, think of Peter, the leader of the New Testament Church and one of the Twelve, who denied the Lord Jesus, not once but three times, but whom Jesus reinstated after considering Peter’s repentant heart (see John 21:15-19).
  
  

We each may know people in our own lives to whom God has given a second chance. Most often, these people—knowing the mercy and forgiveness of God—go on to serve Him with even more vigor than before. They have a testimony of God’s redeeming grace. They have experienced His ability to rescue, repair, renew, and repurpose.

Perhaps you, too, have offended against God’s holy will, have disobeyed, or have disregarded Him. He waits to redeem your life and restore you, as well. Please take note of Psalm 103:1-5:

Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems you life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

 

 

Slaying the Dragon

 

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

—James 4:7

David and Karen Mains, in their marvelous children’s book, Tales of the Kingdom, ¹ tell a story of Amanda, a princess, who despite warnings, takes home a dragon egg, hatches it, and makes a pet of the baby dragon. At first she enjoys playing with the little guy and does everything she can to domesticate it. But, before she realizes it, the dragon has grown to maturity and has become much too formidable for her to control. She has to kill it to save her own life.

Secret sins are like that. We try to housebreak them and keep them under our control. Our secret fantasies, the so-called minor offenses we hide and whitewash, never stay the same. Like the baby dragon, they grow too large for us. The gossip we share with just one friend becomes too easy to share with many more. The anger we allow to spill out in occasional verbal outbursts at others soon becomes a way of life.

Recently I read this quotation from J. C. Ryle in the book, Diamonds in the Dust ² by Joni Eareckson Tada:

We are too apt to forget that temptation to sin will rarely present itself in its true colors. Never when we are tempted will we hear sin say to us, “I am your deadly enemy … I want to ruin your life.” That’s not how it works. Sin, instead, comes to us like Judas with a kiss. It comes to us like Joab with outstretched hands and flattering words. Sin, in its beginnings, seems harmless enough—like David walking idly on his palace roof which happened to overlook the bedroom of a woman. You and I may give wickedness smooth-sounding names, but we cannot alter its nature and character in the sight of God.

We need to remember that the adult dragon of our deadly secret sins has a burning breath and a dangerous tail. When we first entertain the idea of letting it near us, or even domesticating it for our pleasure, we need to slam the door on it and flee. We can never hope to serve God effectively with known sins in our lives. The longer we let them grow, the more attached we become to them, and the harder it gets to slay them.

Please pray with me:

Oh, God, please give us Your Holy Spirit’s power to recognize the first sign of a deadly secret sin and flee from it. Help us stay close to You, hour by hour, so that we can be protected by Your loving arms, and so we can have the power You give to resist the devil. We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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1 Mains, David and Karen. Tales of the Kingdom (Kingdom Tales, Book 1). Elgin, IL: David C. Cook Publishing Company, 1983. Chapter 10.

2 Tada, Joni Eareckson. Diamonds in the Dust. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993. Devotional for June 8th.

Please note that, in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

Sharing the Keys

 

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

—Matthew 16:19

“You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.”

—John 14:14

Do you remember, perhaps many years ago when you had just earned your driver’s license, how very grown up you felt? You likely felt carefree and in charge. Whenever your dad or mom handed you the keys to the family car, you knew you were trusted with great responsibility. You knew that you now must be especially careful because of the tremendous confidence your parent had placed in you.

To those us whom God has called to Himself and redeemed through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, God has handed us the “keys” to His Kingdom. One of those keys He has given us is His precious Name, that He has given us to use in prayer.

I like what Andrew Murray wrote in his little book, With Christ in the School of Prayer: ¹

What is a person’s name? That word or expression in which the person is called up or represented to us. When I mention or hear a name, it calls up before me the whole man, what I know of him, and also the impression he has made on me. The name of a king includes his honor, his power, his kingdom. His name is the symbol of his power. And so each name of God embodies and represents some part of the glory of the Unseen One … Jesus solemnly gives to all His disciples a general and unlimited power of the free use of His Name at all times for all they desire. He could not do this if He did not know that He could trust us with His interests, that His honor would be safe in our hands. The free use of the name of another is always the token of great confidence or close union.

When I took my father’s car out for a drive, or to attend a meeting, I knew that nearly everyone in our small town knew to whom that car belonged. Would I want people to see me driving recklessly, or parking in a no-parking zone, or parking in front of an establishment my father himself wouldn’t frequent? Of course not!

Again, here’s Andrew Murray: ²

When the Lord Jesus went to heaven, He left His work, the management of His Kingdom on earth, in the hands of His servants. He could not do otherwise than also give them His Name to draw all the supplies they needed for the due conduct of His business … The use of the Name always supposes the surrender of our interests to Him whom we represent.

If my father needed a part for a broken piece of farm equipment, since I was his oldest child, he would often ask me to go to town for that part. Since we lived several miles from town, it would have been useless for him to have asked me to get that part for him and not allow me the use of his car. Likewise, Jesus gives us His work to do in the world. When He ascended to heaven, He equipped us with His Holy Spirit and the power of prayer, using His Name, so that we could do His work.

Once my father asked me to go on an errand, I never decided to take his car and, rather than doing that errand, chose instead to hang out with my friends. No! I knew the purpose for which I had been given the keys. Likewise, we should clearly know the purposes for which God has given us His precious Name. We need to stay in constant touch with our Father and, relying on the leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit, ascertain truthfully His will through our study of His written Word and through our prayers. The more we understand God’s purposes, the more readily we will pray for that which He wills.

Let us intentionally remember the responsibility of “the keys” to His Kingdom that God has given us. And, let us take that memory to heart every time we go to God in prayer. As we pray, we should ask ourselves:

• Am I praying for that which my Father would have me pray?
  
  
• Do I represent my Father in this prayer?
  
  
• As led by the Holy Spirit, have I determined that what I am asking matches His divine will in this particular situation?
  
  

As God’s grown up children, we need to understand the grave nature of prayer. And, we must use that power to do His work in the world to the glory of His matchless Name.

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1 Murray, Andrew. With Christ in the School of Prayer. Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming Revell Co., 1953. Pp. 133-134.

2 Ibid.

Please note that, in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

Wrestling

 

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

—Luke 18:1

I know very little about the sport of wrestling. I do know, however, that wrestlers must struggle from the beginning to the end of their match. In another sport, such as when a basketball team has 30 points more than their opponent, wrestlers can’t ever say: “OK. I’m ahead now, so the rest should be easy.” Until the very end of the match, wrestling requires persistence, perseverance, use of every muscle, and the application of every tactic that a wrestler knows.

In Genesis 32:24-32 we read the story of Jacob, terrified of the danger that lay ahead, for its effect on him and his family. First, Jacob prayed and asked God to protect him and his family. Then, he strategized a way to approach his estranged brother, Esau, with humility, represented by various gifts borne by Jacob’s servants.

The text then tells us that having sent his servants and family on ahead, Jacob remained where he was, waiting on an answer to his prayer. The answer came in the middle of the night. Suddenly, Jacob found himself wrestling with a man that he later learned was actually an angel of God. They wrestled all night in answer to Jacob’s prayer. In fact, even after daybreak came and the angel suggested they end the struggle, Jacob said to him: “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Jacob wouldn’t stop until his adversary both blessed him and dislocated Jacob’s hip. Jacob strained every muscle until he received the blessing for which he had prayed.

In a New Testament passage found in Luke 18:1-8, Jesus took up a similar theme. He told the parable of a woman who kept coming to a judge who could care less about her case. She bothered him and struggled against his apathy until he gave in and gave her the justice for which she was asking.

The accounts of these kinds of prayers strengthen our faith and encourages us that in our persistence we, too, will receive victory from God in response to our prayers. God, unlike the apathetic judge, is not unjust, nor bothered by our persistence in coming to Him in prayer. But, sometimes, God withholds His blessing until we learn to how to wrestle with all that constrains us.

Andrew Murray, in his book, With Christ in the School of Prayer, dedicates a chapter to this parable of the Persistent Widow. He writes the following: ¹

The husbandman does indeed long for his harvest, but knows that it must have its full time of sunshine and rain, and has long patience … And it is the Father, in whose hands are the times and seasons, who alone knows the moment when the soul or the Church is ripened to that fulness of faith in which it can really take and keep the blessing. As a father who longs to have his only child home from school, and yet waits patiently till the time of training is completed, so it is with God and His children.

When we compare this kind of waiting to wrestling, we begin to see how we need the exercise of the struggle, the straining of every spiritual muscle, and the perseverance of all our human modalities—heart, soul, mind, and strength—to win the victory.

When we pray, we often must wait for an answer much longer than we at first expected. But, in response, we must take Jesus’s admonition to “pray and not give up!” If we do, He will come and will come “quickly” in accordance with His perfect will for us.

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1 Murray, Andrew. With Christ in the School of Prayer, Old Tappan N.J.: Fleming Revell Company, 1953. Pp.88-89. Please note that in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

Living on Popcorn

 

The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you [and even show you] great and mighty things, [things which have been confined and hidden], which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish.”

—Jeremiah 33:3 AMP

As a teen, I remember hearing lessons and sermons in which teachers or pastors referred to short prayers of the “God, please help me now!” variety as “popcorn prayers.” They encouraged our spiritual formation by teaching us that God loves and cares for us, and that in His omniscience—His ever-abiding presence—He listens to every prayer we pray. When we get into confusing or difficult circumstances, we should, first of all, go to Him.

I send up “popcorn prayers” all the time. But, I know from my longtime experience that I can’t base my life on those quick requests for help. Instead, I need to seek out the God of heaven and earth in His holiness and power on those daily occasions when I sit down with Him for a “full meal” of His written Word and, in my inner being, listen to discern His explanation for what I am reading.

Please let me illustrate by relating this account from the first chapter of Nehemiah:

Nehemiah, one of the exiles who lived in Persia, had risen in importance within the government to the place where he served King Artaxerxes as his cupbearer. The king trusted Nehemiah with his very life. In turn, Nehemiah knew that the king expected him to come in good spirits and a friendly heart in order to deliver poison-free refreshment.

One day the king questioned Nehemiah because he looked sad. Now, if we go back in time a bit, we learn that Nehemiah had heard from a fellow Jew, who had traveled to Jerusalem, that the walls of the city had been ruined and torn down.

As a result of hearing this bad news, God gave Nehemiah such a burden for this former vital city of the Jewish nation—a city that Nehemiah had never seen, but a city that was the seat of his ancestry—that Nehemiah wept over this news. Then, Nehemiah fasted and prayed for four months about a solution.

We get a glimpse of the kind of prayer that Nehemiah prayed from reading one of those prayers in this passage of Scripture. Nehemiah worshiped God as the covenant God, reminding Him of the sins of His people, and also reminding Him of the promises given to Moses. By the time Nehemiah finished this prayer, he felt he had heard God calling him to go and serve in Jerusalem.

These events had taken place immediately before this encounter over the wine with Artaxerxes—the very day when Nehemiah went to the king with a sad face, causing the king to ask Nehemiah about his countenance. Perhaps the king thought Nehemiah had tasted something that wouldn’t have been healthy for the king! But no, the conversations went like this, as recorded in Nehemiah 1:2-5. The king said to Nehemiah:

“This must be sadness of heart!”

Nehemiah explains: I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, “May the king live forever!” Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

The king said to me, “What is it you want?”

Then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city of Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.

As you read this account, did you see it? Nehemiah prayed a “popcorn prayer”! But, we must remember that this prayer came after four months of long, thoughtful, submissive, listening prayer. Of course, God heard and answered Nehemiah’s prayer.

I suggest that “popcorn prayers” shouldn’t make up the totality of our prayer life. We need to have them handy in the moment we come up against a problem. But, only after we have built a relationship and a life of long, extended prayers with our Heavenly Father.

God longs for us to come in quietness to commune with Him. Yes, He listens to all our prayers. But, God also waits for us to come to the place where we have time to listen to Him. At such a time He will tell us great and mighty things which we do not know. We may need them from time to time. But, we can’t live on “popcorn prayers.”

 

 

Tapping Into Power

 

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

—Ephesians 3:20-21

Have you ever tried to use an electric tool or an electric appliance and found that it wouldn’t work? After checking it over and finding nothing awry, did you then notice that you forgot to plug it into the electrical outlet on the wall?

How often have you wondered why you had so little compassion, patience, peace, joy, forgiveness, and so forth, for the people in your life? Have you come to realize that your lack of these important qualities probably has something to do with the fact that you haven’t been “plugged in” to the fullness of the Holy Spirit? In our human nature, at times we can express those good human traits. But, they hold little power unless fed by that divine Power that accomplishes divine works.

To take the illustration further, we could also compare our powerlessness to the battery running low because we haven’t connected it to the battery charger. Without coming to the Source of our real Power at the beginning of our day, we will not have the divine ability to live in the way we want to for our Lord.

Jesus referred to this connectedness in His vine and branches illustration in John 15. In that passage of Scripture, Jesus was expressing that if His disciples, as the branches, were to bear fruit, they needed to “remain attached” to Him, the Vine.

When we pray, we plug into the Source and can rest in the knowledge that we will be able to do great things by His power. Puritan preacher, George Swinnock, put it this way: ¹

Every saint is God’s temple and may pray anywhere. Every house is a house of prayer. Prayer is pouring out the soul to God in the name of Christ, crying, “Abba, Father!” A prayer in a moment can fly to the highest heavens. It is a sweet savor to God, a terror to the devil, and a shelter to a Christian. Bernard calls it the conqueror of him who is invincible, and Luther says that it is omnipotent. By prayer fire has been quenched, water divided, the mouths of lions stopped, iron gates opened, the windows of heaven opened, the course of nature overturned, diseases removed, health restored, sin subdued, grace bestowed, kingdoms supported, enemies scattered, the blind restored, and devils cast out. Prayer is the midwife to bring mercies to the believer that were conceived in the womb of promise.

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1 From “Works” by George Swinnock, as quoted in Rushing, Richard, editor. Voices from the Past. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 315. Please note that in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

Distilled

 

“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.”

—Malachi 3:2

Definition of to “distill”: to purify or refine (a liquid) by vaporizing it, then condensing it by cooling the vapor, and collecting the resulting liquid: to extract the essential meaning or most important aspects of it.

It occurs to me that God is in the business of making things, situations, even people, “distilled.” He looks for a final product that He has boiled down, made sweet, and fashioned as useful. He wants to bring out the essence of His work in and through us. This process, stated in religious language, is called “sanctification.” It begins the moment we acknowledge that God has called us to Himself and redeemed us through Christ’s sacrifice. This process of sanctification only ends when our earthly life is over and we graduate to spend eternity in heaven.

As a teacher, I practiced the distilling process every time I presented a lesson to my students. I certainly never taught my second graders about thirds and fifths, and chord progressions—lessons I learned in college music theory class. I distilled what I knew down to “so-mi” patterns and “so-do” endings for them to use in their reading of simple songs.

Along the pathway of sanctification, God brings us through a rigorous distilling process. He guides us through fiery trials that help us see Him and His will more clearly. Each trial distills us, in order that we may live purer lives, and so that we may discard the foolish things we so long thought were important. The contaminants and impurities have to go, to allow us to become more like our Savior.

When we arrive at old age, God expects that we will pass the knowledge of His goodness and power on to the next generation. Psalm 71, a prayer from the heart of an older person, recalls youth and a lifelong knowledge of God’s ways.

• The Psalmist asks God for His ability to: “declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.”
  
  
• The Psalmist recalls the trials: “Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again.”
  
  
• The Psalmist promises to: “shout for joy” and to: “tell of [God’s] righteous acts all day long.”
  
  

When we reach a certain age, we have a lot to distill from the experiences of our lives. We should consider daily, the lessons we have learned through God’s distillation process. We should take note of what the fire has boiled away and what He has for us to share with others about His goodness to us.

We might find that keeping a journal would help us to recall God’s work in us, the Scripture passages that He has taught us through personal experience, the prayers He has answered and through which He has shown us His love and mercy.

Each day, we should ask ourselves: “What distilled product has God brought forth from me?”