Neither Jonah nor I had anything to do with our respective botanical delights; he took pleasure in his gourd and I take pleasure in my Maple. Jonah's gourd was raised up quickly and it met a wormy demise. When it withered, he despaired of life because his comfort (derived from the shade-giving plant) was taken away. I mostly just really like our tree. I seldom sit in its shade, but I really love to look at it.
Two years ago, April 7, 2007, our part of the sunny South was hard-hit by a killer-freeze. Within two days our large Japanese Maple's leaves rattled like dry rustlers in a strong wind. It looked like the thing had died. In July it began to fight its way back, but with several very dead limbs. It was pitiful looking. It made me want to cry, but I didn't.
Last year the tree fought through. Springtime arrived and the 50-year-old tree leafed out, still showing much evidence of the previous year's trouble. In later March I had the opportunity of preaching to a Kingsport congregation whose pastor was away for the day. The weather forecast was an ominous one: a hard freeze within a day or two. Two years in a row, it would be. I distinctly remember asking that congregation on Sunday evening, if they had no pressing concerns of their own, to "pray for my tree." The hard freeze didn't happen and the tree seemed to flourish a little through the year. That was an answer to prayer.
Today is April 8, 2009. Sometime toward the end of last week the forecast for our area concerning last night was for another hard freeze, down in the lower twenties. Once more our Maple tree was in full leaf, tender and fragile. When I saw that forecast I began to pray for our tree, asking God to please surprise the meterological prognosticators and be merciful to us in this matter and let the freeze that was predicted pass us by.
Immediately I thought of Jonah and his gourd. I braced myself a little, but continued to pray about my tree. It is God's tree, after all. But I do like it. And then I thought about our ailing economy and the many people in our region whose livlihoods depend on the survival of their trees and vines and the many tender blooms already showing on them. So I began to include these factors in my praying, which had been rather one-tree-oriented for a while.
Last evening around 7:00 PM I checked the weather forecast. My eyes welled up and my heart breathed a smile and a sigh. The feared freeze just might not happen, it said. I just knew that my Lord had heard the prayer of my heart. I was deeply grateful this morning to look out the door when I let the dog out; everything is still green and unburnt by the threatened hard freeze that did not happen.
God is so kind to hear and answer a prayer about something as unnecessary as a Maple tree. I have no doubt that many people (believers and maybe even some unbelievers) were praying about their crops and orchards and gardens. This divine relenting concerning the hard freeze that seemed a sure thing only a couple days ago may seem like a simple coincidence to some. But it was an answer to my prayer! The living God heard my heart and He has encouraged me. It may sound like arrogance, to think that God sees and cares about the likes of me and my feelings about a fragile tree, but He does. I am so thankful this morning.
Every day God is good to us, even on days when our trees and crops freeze and die. But how happy we should be, how full of praise from our hearts, when His tender love for us is put on display by thriving crops and living blossoms that will soon bear fruit, Lord willing.
Had my tree frozen solid and had God not been willing to lift the freeze, would my heart have despaired? I don't know. Maybe for a few minutes I would have reminded myself of distressed Jonah. But I want a hopeful faith like that of Habbakuk:
"Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls — Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills" (3:17-19 NKJV).
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
You Won't Meet God at "The Shack"
A Casual Critique of a Potentially Hazardous Cultural Phenomenon
By Timothy Adkins (March 30, 2009)
Some months ago while wandering through the mall in our hometown, waiting on my daughter (seems I do that quite a lot—I’m sure I’ll miss it one day in the not too distant future), I was browsing the “Inspirational” aisle of a bookstore. I wasn’t looking for anything specific, just passing the time (as there usually isn’t much of value in that section of most bookstores, just so much superficial nonsense). An eager employee seized the opportunity to recommend “The Shack,” a recent title by William Paul Young that has taken some people and even some churches by storm. (As usual, I’m about a year behind the rest of the world.)
The bookstore guy sounded breathless from discovery. “It’s so good!” he said. He then half-apologized for disturbing my meandering and then informed me that anyone he found in that part of the store looking as if they might be open to a recommendation, he told them about “The Shack.” The intonations of his voice were those of a devotee; having been deeply moved, he wanted others to experience what he had.
I had heard about the book before. After that day several people, one and then another, asked if I had read it. I was told that churches were buying cases to give out. Startled to see a copy on a relative’s end-table, I noticed one of the blurbs from the front cover: a reviewer suggesting that “The Shack” could do for our generation what “The Pilgrim’s Progress” did for Bunyan’s. Appreciating the value of allegory to communicate spiritual truths, I thought, “Hmm.” But then I dismissed the matter again for another couple of weeks.
Friends mentioned it again, saying (although neither had read it, nor did they intend to) the book was dangerous and harmful to souls according to some voices they highly regarded. The very next day I dropped in at our town’s Library when someone from the circulation desk was putting out a copy of “The Shack.” I thought I would look at it. I decided to read it with as much openness as possible, determined to give the writer every benefit of the doubt. So I began; within a few days I finished. Along the way I scribbled notes and page numbers, hoping the content would improve and my concerns would be resolved as the book resolved some of the issues it raised. It only grew worse.
Having now read “The Shack,” I feel sure that its charm will fizzle, but not until many more books are sold, a movie is made, and a bunch of money along with it. Some will talk about it from now on, as if it dropped out of the sky on angel-wings. It didn’t. One thing is clear—those who applaud “The Shack” either do not understand the gospel or do not believe it. The book takes about eighty pages to introduce “God” and then proceeds to define Deity in terms completely at variance with the message of the Bible. There is some attempt to explain God, the Trinity. The result is a mangled mess, with some truths intermingled with much error.
The book is written as a sort of ‘true fiction’ (fiction as a vehicle for a true message). It is written in a mostly accessible style. The content unfolds along an emotional storyline, so readers become concerned about the characters involved in an unfolding tragedy that is the canvas for the book’s God-encounter. Certainly, allegory may be used to communicate good, even great things, as in Bunyan’s classic work about a sinner’s journey from utter lostness and condemnation to his ultimate entrance into the very presence of God, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But such is not the case with “The Shack.”
Regardless of its popularity, readable style, and captivating plot, “The Shack” simply lacks theological soundness. If only it were about fishing for lake trout or some other harmless thing. The sort of biblical integrity necessary to make it an enduring work is absent. Having read it for myself, I am saddened that many people will swallow, whole, the unsound message of “The Shack.” Instead of helping people find God, “The Shack” will ultimately promote idolatry. Instead of coming to know the true and living God as He declares Himself in Christ, Shack readers will re-imagine God as they wish Him/Her to be—outright idolatry.
“The Shack” is a collection of monumental doctrinal problems (if the Bible is our standard for true doctrine). Shack’s God is a Papa, is a Mama, is a big, lovable, snuggly Softie, as warm as marshmallow roasted over glowing campfire; the divine “It” morphs into whatever He/She needs to become so as to accommodate the person being dealt with—after all, Shack’s God is all about us. Absolute holiness and other divine attributes are studiously downplayed and the Bible doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone is entirely absent. Shack’s Jesus is a greasy-fingered, likable fellow who had to live by faith during His days on earth, a grievous perversion of the Kenosis (See Philippians 2:7)! Shack’s Holy Spirit is an ethereal, delicate, semi-humanized vapor of a personality with a Far-Eastern (Hindu), feminine flavor.
Shack’s Trinity is not biblically recognizable, with the eternal Persons of Deity subsisting without any authority within the Divine Self (See 1 Corinthians 11:3). An original circle of relationship, without need or purpose for authority, defines Shack’s God. Further, the Bible’s doctrine of election is caricatured as God choosing which of His children He will send to hell.
A glaring heresy staining “The Shack,” making it more fit for the fireplace than the bookshelf, is its unbiblical teaching of universal reconciliation. Shack’s Jesus scoffs at the idea that people need to become Christians in order to enter a right relationship with God. All people are already reconciled to Shack’s God through Shack’s Jesus, whatever their religious ideas might be—so true faith in the actual Son of God proclaimed in the biblical gospel is completely unnecessary. While not all have yet found the way to “relationship,” the implication is that, since all are already reconciled, all will eventually come to “relationship” because they are already, in fact, God’s children. In “The Shack,” God the Creator morphs into God the Father/God the Mother/God the Whatever, without any necessity for sinners to exercise faith in God the Son through the regenerating power of God the Spirit.
Shack’s God is always pleased with people because, being omniscient and knowing the fallibilities of mankind, He/She has no expectations of people and places no demands on their lives—the law of God (say, the Ten Commandments) amounts to rules designed by people to control other people. As to sovereignty, Shack’s God does not purpose the bad things that happen, but makes the best use of whatever does happen.
To preserve the notion of infinite Goodness, infinite knowledge and infinite power are removed from consideration. Shack’s God is Self-limiting, which is necessary to preserve the writer’s concept of human free will; he realizes that if God were infinitely infinite and unlimitedly so, His ultimate will would fully comprehend all things, good and bad, as part of His eternal decree. And we simply can’t have that, can we?
Is it any wonder that celebrities and cultural icons would love “The Shack?” It is New-Agey-Religion with God, Jesus, and the Spirit—without the seeming narrowness often associated with biblical Christianity. Narrowness like: “…there is one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,” and “…No one comes to the Father except through Me (Jesus),” and “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Why let the Bible get in the way of a good time?
Any person with the slightest interest in the truth of the gospel or in the well-being of his own soul (or anyone else’s) should not waste time on “The Shack.” If you do read it, know what you’re getting into. It offers a lightweight (often blasphemous) take on God, making little of sin, and redefining the gospel as much as it redefines God. It denies every person’s need for salvation through faith in Jesus; in fact, salvation is re-conceptualized in this book as something other than a sinner being rescued from the condemnation, penalty, and power of his sin by the grace of God in Christ. The church of Jesus Christ (See Matthew 16:13-18) is seen as more of a problem than a blessing.
Shack’s God is no more God than my little strawberry blonde dog is God. Like the Baals, Dagon, Aaron’s Golden Calf, Pleasure, Accomplishment, beloved Bank Accounts, and other Earthly Delusions, Shack’s God is an imaginary, manageable god-concept molded by each individual. To receive and believe the message of “The Shack” is to embrace a false conception of God and to worship an idol, not the true and living God who has revealed Himself, His will, and His message of salvation in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, as set forth in the Scriptures and preached to mankind in the gospel. –TSA
By Timothy Adkins (March 30, 2009)
Some months ago while wandering through the mall in our hometown, waiting on my daughter (seems I do that quite a lot—I’m sure I’ll miss it one day in the not too distant future), I was browsing the “Inspirational” aisle of a bookstore. I wasn’t looking for anything specific, just passing the time (as there usually isn’t much of value in that section of most bookstores, just so much superficial nonsense). An eager employee seized the opportunity to recommend “The Shack,” a recent title by William Paul Young that has taken some people and even some churches by storm. (As usual, I’m about a year behind the rest of the world.)
The bookstore guy sounded breathless from discovery. “It’s so good!” he said. He then half-apologized for disturbing my meandering and then informed me that anyone he found in that part of the store looking as if they might be open to a recommendation, he told them about “The Shack.” The intonations of his voice were those of a devotee; having been deeply moved, he wanted others to experience what he had.
I had heard about the book before. After that day several people, one and then another, asked if I had read it. I was told that churches were buying cases to give out. Startled to see a copy on a relative’s end-table, I noticed one of the blurbs from the front cover: a reviewer suggesting that “The Shack” could do for our generation what “The Pilgrim’s Progress” did for Bunyan’s. Appreciating the value of allegory to communicate spiritual truths, I thought, “Hmm.” But then I dismissed the matter again for another couple of weeks.
Friends mentioned it again, saying (although neither had read it, nor did they intend to) the book was dangerous and harmful to souls according to some voices they highly regarded. The very next day I dropped in at our town’s Library when someone from the circulation desk was putting out a copy of “The Shack.” I thought I would look at it. I decided to read it with as much openness as possible, determined to give the writer every benefit of the doubt. So I began; within a few days I finished. Along the way I scribbled notes and page numbers, hoping the content would improve and my concerns would be resolved as the book resolved some of the issues it raised. It only grew worse.
Having now read “The Shack,” I feel sure that its charm will fizzle, but not until many more books are sold, a movie is made, and a bunch of money along with it. Some will talk about it from now on, as if it dropped out of the sky on angel-wings. It didn’t. One thing is clear—those who applaud “The Shack” either do not understand the gospel or do not believe it. The book takes about eighty pages to introduce “God” and then proceeds to define Deity in terms completely at variance with the message of the Bible. There is some attempt to explain God, the Trinity. The result is a mangled mess, with some truths intermingled with much error.
The book is written as a sort of ‘true fiction’ (fiction as a vehicle for a true message). It is written in a mostly accessible style. The content unfolds along an emotional storyline, so readers become concerned about the characters involved in an unfolding tragedy that is the canvas for the book’s God-encounter. Certainly, allegory may be used to communicate good, even great things, as in Bunyan’s classic work about a sinner’s journey from utter lostness and condemnation to his ultimate entrance into the very presence of God, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But such is not the case with “The Shack.”
Regardless of its popularity, readable style, and captivating plot, “The Shack” simply lacks theological soundness. If only it were about fishing for lake trout or some other harmless thing. The sort of biblical integrity necessary to make it an enduring work is absent. Having read it for myself, I am saddened that many people will swallow, whole, the unsound message of “The Shack.” Instead of helping people find God, “The Shack” will ultimately promote idolatry. Instead of coming to know the true and living God as He declares Himself in Christ, Shack readers will re-imagine God as they wish Him/Her to be—outright idolatry.
“The Shack” is a collection of monumental doctrinal problems (if the Bible is our standard for true doctrine). Shack’s God is a Papa, is a Mama, is a big, lovable, snuggly Softie, as warm as marshmallow roasted over glowing campfire; the divine “It” morphs into whatever He/She needs to become so as to accommodate the person being dealt with—after all, Shack’s God is all about us. Absolute holiness and other divine attributes are studiously downplayed and the Bible doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone is entirely absent. Shack’s Jesus is a greasy-fingered, likable fellow who had to live by faith during His days on earth, a grievous perversion of the Kenosis (See Philippians 2:7)! Shack’s Holy Spirit is an ethereal, delicate, semi-humanized vapor of a personality with a Far-Eastern (Hindu), feminine flavor.
Shack’s Trinity is not biblically recognizable, with the eternal Persons of Deity subsisting without any authority within the Divine Self (See 1 Corinthians 11:3). An original circle of relationship, without need or purpose for authority, defines Shack’s God. Further, the Bible’s doctrine of election is caricatured as God choosing which of His children He will send to hell.
A glaring heresy staining “The Shack,” making it more fit for the fireplace than the bookshelf, is its unbiblical teaching of universal reconciliation. Shack’s Jesus scoffs at the idea that people need to become Christians in order to enter a right relationship with God. All people are already reconciled to Shack’s God through Shack’s Jesus, whatever their religious ideas might be—so true faith in the actual Son of God proclaimed in the biblical gospel is completely unnecessary. While not all have yet found the way to “relationship,” the implication is that, since all are already reconciled, all will eventually come to “relationship” because they are already, in fact, God’s children. In “The Shack,” God the Creator morphs into God the Father/God the Mother/God the Whatever, without any necessity for sinners to exercise faith in God the Son through the regenerating power of God the Spirit.
Shack’s God is always pleased with people because, being omniscient and knowing the fallibilities of mankind, He/She has no expectations of people and places no demands on their lives—the law of God (say, the Ten Commandments) amounts to rules designed by people to control other people. As to sovereignty, Shack’s God does not purpose the bad things that happen, but makes the best use of whatever does happen.
To preserve the notion of infinite Goodness, infinite knowledge and infinite power are removed from consideration. Shack’s God is Self-limiting, which is necessary to preserve the writer’s concept of human free will; he realizes that if God were infinitely infinite and unlimitedly so, His ultimate will would fully comprehend all things, good and bad, as part of His eternal decree. And we simply can’t have that, can we?
Is it any wonder that celebrities and cultural icons would love “The Shack?” It is New-Agey-Religion with God, Jesus, and the Spirit—without the seeming narrowness often associated with biblical Christianity. Narrowness like: “…there is one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,” and “…No one comes to the Father except through Me (Jesus),” and “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Why let the Bible get in the way of a good time?
Any person with the slightest interest in the truth of the gospel or in the well-being of his own soul (or anyone else’s) should not waste time on “The Shack.” If you do read it, know what you’re getting into. It offers a lightweight (often blasphemous) take on God, making little of sin, and redefining the gospel as much as it redefines God. It denies every person’s need for salvation through faith in Jesus; in fact, salvation is re-conceptualized in this book as something other than a sinner being rescued from the condemnation, penalty, and power of his sin by the grace of God in Christ. The church of Jesus Christ (See Matthew 16:13-18) is seen as more of a problem than a blessing.
Shack’s God is no more God than my little strawberry blonde dog is God. Like the Baals, Dagon, Aaron’s Golden Calf, Pleasure, Accomplishment, beloved Bank Accounts, and other Earthly Delusions, Shack’s God is an imaginary, manageable god-concept molded by each individual. To receive and believe the message of “The Shack” is to embrace a false conception of God and to worship an idol, not the true and living God who has revealed Himself, His will, and His message of salvation in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, as set forth in the Scriptures and preached to mankind in the gospel. –TSA
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Man in the Iron Cage
The Character and Condition of an Apostate
In Bunyan’s classic allegory of Christian’s journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, one of the most striking and horrifying sights is the man confined in the iron cage of despair. His hopeless, miserable, irrevocable condition is set before Christian to warn against the damning sins that lead to apostasy and, at last, to hell. Here one should learn to keep watch over his own soul and to make his calling and election sure, lest he prove reprobate, false, and deceived. While it is not possible for a true child of God to apostatize, it certainly is possible for one who thinks he is a true child of God to do so.
Apostasy is not a concept with which most modern evangelical Christians are at all familiar. In this day it seems that every profession of faith in Jesus is regarded genuine and soul-saving, as long as it is sincere. Sincerity and tears sway us into thinking that any person who professes to know and love Jesus actually does savingly know and love Him. Should such a sincere person turn out to be a hypocrite who ultimately turns away from Christ and the gospel in his heart, that person is still thought to be sure for heaven because of a twisted understanding of ‘eternal security.’
The apostate man in Bunyan, forever bound in the iron cage of despair until he is cast into everlasting flames, is certainly an allegorical man. It is one in ten thousand (if that many) who will ever admit to his own apostasy (or even understand it for what it is) as the man in Bunyan’s story. Most apostates equivocate, split doctrinal hairs, and continue to present themselves as true Christians, only believers with areas of struggle and difficulty; they are, in fact, aliens to the life of God, have never loved Jesus Christ, nor were they ever regenerated by the Spirit-power of saving grace. They heard the gospel declared in the Spirit’s power and experienced something spiritually real, and then trifled with it. They took holy truths into their hands and treated them as playthings. Their pretended love for Christ was always counterfeit; yet one more deception of themselves and others.
Many Christians have no concept that apostasy is real, even though it is evident all around us. Many whom the people of God have regarded as ‘carnal Christians’ are certainly apostates. They once thought themselves sure for heaven and made a good show of it; but secretly their hearts are so hardened against Christ that they cannot repent. These will never be saved. Hear the man describe himself and the sins that sealed his soul up to despair and eternal loss.
“I am now a man of despair, and am shut up in it, as in this iron cage. I cannot get out; Oh now I cannot!” “…I left off to watch and be sober: I laid the reins upon the neck of my lusts; I sinned against the light of the word, and the goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and he is gone; I tempted the devil, and he is come to me; I have provoked God to anger, and he has left me: I have so hardened my heart, that I cannot repent.” “…I have crucified him to myself afresh; I have despised his person; I have despised his righteousness; I have counted his blood an unholy thing; I have done despite to the spirit of grace: therefore I have shut myself out of all the promises and there now remains to me nothing but threatenings, dreadful threatenings, faithful threatenings of certain judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour me as an adversary.”
The reason for any person’s apostasy is his own sin and wickedness of heart and willful rejection of the gospel and its promises. We must never blame divine sovereignty for anyone’s apostasy. It was out of the rich goodness of God that the apostate once perceived enlightenment through the preaching of the gospel. It was from God’s goodness that he tasted the powers of the age to come and received the clear light of the gospel and got a certain taste of the good Word of God.
What a testimony to the necessity of regenerating grace the apostate person is! No matter how many sweet favors are ours through the goodness of God, our wicked hearts would cast them all back into the face of God apart from regenerating grace! It is the wretched sin of the sinner that damns him and seals him up to lasting hopelessness. Be sure of this: every apostate, like a madman, drives headlong to hell trampling underfoot the eternal Son of God, regarding Jesus’ blood as worthless as dung.
While there may be sadness and despair in the heart of an apostate, there is never repentance. Repentance flees where there is no humility, no sorrow for sin, and no turning to Christ. Matters are so much the worse because of the tremendous privileges the apostate person enjoyed, but then ultimately despised and refused the Savior of men.
Christian asked the caged man why: “For what did you bring yourself into this condition?” His reply is chilling. “…For the lusts, pleasures, and profits of this world; in the enjoyment of which I did then promise myself much delight: but now every one of those things also bite me, and gnaw me like a burning worm.” Thinking of his own conversion and knowing the tenderness of Jesus, Christian wonders at the man; why he does not simply change his mind and turn? The man answers: “God hath denied me repentance. His word gives me no encouragement to believe; yea, himself hath shut me up in this iron cage: nor can all the men in the world let me out. Oh eternity! eternity! how shall I grapple with the misery that I must meet with in eternity?” How strange this is to the modern evangelical’s ears; but it represents a spiritual truth too quickly and too easily dismissed in this time by those who profess to be wise, yet who know nothing as they ought to know it.
This man in the iron cage had Bunyan’s knowledge of Scripture to fill his mouth with a true report of his soul’s condition. Most apostates walking about in this world continue to play out the scene, as if nothing is amiss and their hope of heaven remains sure. The reality is that there are far more people than we realize, people with whom we brush elbows day by day, who are sealed up in the sins they love. They cannot repent. Their coming misery is yet to be comprehended, for only eternity will measure their bloodguilt, they who have trampled underfoot God’s Darling Son and done despite to the Spirit of grace.
The apostate’s misery is a dreadful warning to every true saint. True saints keep watch over their souls; to live in disobedience to God’s Word while holding a Christian profession is to tempt God and to run the risk of personal apostasy. True saints live in love with Jesus and more and more despise their sins. True saints are aware that they could as easily have been deceived; they “make their calling and election sure” by a constant appeal to the unfailing promises of the gospel. They realize that they are only “accepted in the Beloved.” The redeemed take refuge in Jesus alone. To us His blood is most precious, because only by His cross do we have the sure hope of heaven. True saints trust not their own hearts, deceitful as they are; but they do trust the heart of their Savior who takes away their despair, replacing it with everlasting hope and joy for the journey. -TSA
In Bunyan’s classic allegory of Christian’s journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, one of the most striking and horrifying sights is the man confined in the iron cage of despair. His hopeless, miserable, irrevocable condition is set before Christian to warn against the damning sins that lead to apostasy and, at last, to hell. Here one should learn to keep watch over his own soul and to make his calling and election sure, lest he prove reprobate, false, and deceived. While it is not possible for a true child of God to apostatize, it certainly is possible for one who thinks he is a true child of God to do so.
Apostasy is not a concept with which most modern evangelical Christians are at all familiar. In this day it seems that every profession of faith in Jesus is regarded genuine and soul-saving, as long as it is sincere. Sincerity and tears sway us into thinking that any person who professes to know and love Jesus actually does savingly know and love Him. Should such a sincere person turn out to be a hypocrite who ultimately turns away from Christ and the gospel in his heart, that person is still thought to be sure for heaven because of a twisted understanding of ‘eternal security.’
The apostate man in Bunyan, forever bound in the iron cage of despair until he is cast into everlasting flames, is certainly an allegorical man. It is one in ten thousand (if that many) who will ever admit to his own apostasy (or even understand it for what it is) as the man in Bunyan’s story. Most apostates equivocate, split doctrinal hairs, and continue to present themselves as true Christians, only believers with areas of struggle and difficulty; they are, in fact, aliens to the life of God, have never loved Jesus Christ, nor were they ever regenerated by the Spirit-power of saving grace. They heard the gospel declared in the Spirit’s power and experienced something spiritually real, and then trifled with it. They took holy truths into their hands and treated them as playthings. Their pretended love for Christ was always counterfeit; yet one more deception of themselves and others.
Many Christians have no concept that apostasy is real, even though it is evident all around us. Many whom the people of God have regarded as ‘carnal Christians’ are certainly apostates. They once thought themselves sure for heaven and made a good show of it; but secretly their hearts are so hardened against Christ that they cannot repent. These will never be saved. Hear the man describe himself and the sins that sealed his soul up to despair and eternal loss.
“I am now a man of despair, and am shut up in it, as in this iron cage. I cannot get out; Oh now I cannot!” “…I left off to watch and be sober: I laid the reins upon the neck of my lusts; I sinned against the light of the word, and the goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and he is gone; I tempted the devil, and he is come to me; I have provoked God to anger, and he has left me: I have so hardened my heart, that I cannot repent.” “…I have crucified him to myself afresh; I have despised his person; I have despised his righteousness; I have counted his blood an unholy thing; I have done despite to the spirit of grace: therefore I have shut myself out of all the promises and there now remains to me nothing but threatenings, dreadful threatenings, faithful threatenings of certain judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour me as an adversary.”
The reason for any person’s apostasy is his own sin and wickedness of heart and willful rejection of the gospel and its promises. We must never blame divine sovereignty for anyone’s apostasy. It was out of the rich goodness of God that the apostate once perceived enlightenment through the preaching of the gospel. It was from God’s goodness that he tasted the powers of the age to come and received the clear light of the gospel and got a certain taste of the good Word of God.
What a testimony to the necessity of regenerating grace the apostate person is! No matter how many sweet favors are ours through the goodness of God, our wicked hearts would cast them all back into the face of God apart from regenerating grace! It is the wretched sin of the sinner that damns him and seals him up to lasting hopelessness. Be sure of this: every apostate, like a madman, drives headlong to hell trampling underfoot the eternal Son of God, regarding Jesus’ blood as worthless as dung.
While there may be sadness and despair in the heart of an apostate, there is never repentance. Repentance flees where there is no humility, no sorrow for sin, and no turning to Christ. Matters are so much the worse because of the tremendous privileges the apostate person enjoyed, but then ultimately despised and refused the Savior of men.
Christian asked the caged man why: “For what did you bring yourself into this condition?” His reply is chilling. “…For the lusts, pleasures, and profits of this world; in the enjoyment of which I did then promise myself much delight: but now every one of those things also bite me, and gnaw me like a burning worm.” Thinking of his own conversion and knowing the tenderness of Jesus, Christian wonders at the man; why he does not simply change his mind and turn? The man answers: “God hath denied me repentance. His word gives me no encouragement to believe; yea, himself hath shut me up in this iron cage: nor can all the men in the world let me out. Oh eternity! eternity! how shall I grapple with the misery that I must meet with in eternity?” How strange this is to the modern evangelical’s ears; but it represents a spiritual truth too quickly and too easily dismissed in this time by those who profess to be wise, yet who know nothing as they ought to know it.
This man in the iron cage had Bunyan’s knowledge of Scripture to fill his mouth with a true report of his soul’s condition. Most apostates walking about in this world continue to play out the scene, as if nothing is amiss and their hope of heaven remains sure. The reality is that there are far more people than we realize, people with whom we brush elbows day by day, who are sealed up in the sins they love. They cannot repent. Their coming misery is yet to be comprehended, for only eternity will measure their bloodguilt, they who have trampled underfoot God’s Darling Son and done despite to the Spirit of grace.
The apostate’s misery is a dreadful warning to every true saint. True saints keep watch over their souls; to live in disobedience to God’s Word while holding a Christian profession is to tempt God and to run the risk of personal apostasy. True saints live in love with Jesus and more and more despise their sins. True saints are aware that they could as easily have been deceived; they “make their calling and election sure” by a constant appeal to the unfailing promises of the gospel. They realize that they are only “accepted in the Beloved.” The redeemed take refuge in Jesus alone. To us His blood is most precious, because only by His cross do we have the sure hope of heaven. True saints trust not their own hearts, deceitful as they are; but they do trust the heart of their Savior who takes away their despair, replacing it with everlasting hope and joy for the journey. -TSA
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Where His Glory Dwells
“Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells.” (Psalm 26:8)
“…He dwells between the cherubim…” (Psalm 99:1b)
“… you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22)
Soon after the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, God gave to Moses instructions to build a portable worship structure, the Tent of Meeting (the Tabernacle). It was made of materials available to the Israelites as they traversed the desert, animal skins, desert wood, gold, silver, and such things. When they moved from place to place, they packed up the Tent and carried it to the next camp, as they were led by the movement of the glory cloud. This visible cloud of Yahweh’s presence was later called the Shekinah (‘residence’); this cloud of glory, residing above the Mercy Seat “between the cherubim,” evidenced His immediate presence with His people wherever they went (See Exodus 40:34-38).
The portable structure was called the Tent of Meeting because Yahweh met with His people there. He had delivered them from Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea on dry land, drowning their pursuers. God gave the Ten Commandments at Sinai and there Moses received instructions about how the people of God should go about worshipping the Lord. Israel could actually see evidence of the nearness of God when they saw the Shekinah descended upon the Tent, resting above the Mercy Seat behind the inner Veil.
The Mercy Seat was the pure gold, cherubim-covered propitiatory where the blood of reconciliation was sprinkled each year. It is written, “…the Lord of Hosts…dwells between the cherubim” (2 Samuel 6:2). There Yahweh communed with His people on the basis of Christ’s atonement, prefigured under prescribed forms. The sacrifices and religious services performed there prefigured Christ, and especially His actual working out redemption and reconciliation by His death at the cross many centuries later.
During the daytime, the glory cloud appeared overhead. Israel lived for forty years in the desert and that cloud of Yahweh’s presence protected them from the burning sun each day. At night when deserts become so miserably cold, the glory cloud became a fire over them: shade by day and heat by night. The Lord met Israel’s needs by being with them. As it was then, so it is now; He still meets the needs of His people by His nearness to us throughout life’s journeys.
The Temple was not yet built in the time of David. He desired to build a beautiful house for the glory of the Lord, but that task would fall to his son Solomon. David erected a Tabernacle, a Tent, to house “the ark of the covenant” (the golden box that held the tablets containing the covenant, the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod, and a pot of the Manna that sustained Israel for forty years in the desert). The Davidic Tabernacle may not have been quite like the one carried through the wilderness, but this Tent was certainly in David’s mind as he wrote many of the inspired Psalms. This Tent housing the Ark of the Covenant was the focal point of Yahweh worship during David’s reign.
As he wrote, “I have loved the habitation of Your house” and “the house of the Lord” and “the secret place of His tent,” David surely thought of the place where Yahweh was loved and worshipped. He loved the Tent because it was the place of Yahweh’s near presence, where the Ark and its Mercy Seat were. Forgiveness of sins and peace with God were so eloquently declared at this place. The glory of Yahweh dwelt there.
So, where is God’s house now? Where does the glory of the Lord dwell at the present time? At a church building on the corner, down the street? Where does God now evidence His glorious presence? Which place is ‘the’ place? Which house does the Lord God Almighty now inhabit? The answer of the New Testament is clear. The house of God is not a place; it is a people.
The habitation of God, where His glory now dwells, is the blood-bought church of the Lord Jesus. Jesus came and fulfilled all of the Old Testament types and shadows by His life and death and resurrection; the house of God that was established in earthly Jerusalem was one of those figures, a picture of a far greater reality, one that would fill heaven and earth in the end. In Christ all who believe the gospel are now built together into God’s household. The house of God is a family headquartered in heaven, in the very throne room of God Himself.
Whenever born again members of Christ’s redeemed church meet together as one people, whether a handful of saints or a massive congregation, there is the glorious habitation of God. This is God’s house. There the glory now dwells.
How amazing and how humbling it should be for each redeemed child of God to realize that, since the work of Christ was finished on the cross, the living God has been pleased for His glory to dwell in the gathered churches of the redeemed. Individually, we are indwelt by God’s Spirit. But in an astounding display of love, our God is now pleased for His glory to uniquely ‘reside’ upon and within the assemblies of the redeemed—in local, visible expressions of the one household of faith.
When the people of God gather together in true churches for worship, instruction, and fellowship, something wonderful occurs. When the living Christ brings together His redeemed people to make of them worshipping assemblies, the glory of God dwells among them. And it is especially so when they are gathered in one place, in one accord. He lives among them and causes His Name to be exalted before their eyes and before the eyes of some who, as yet, know Him not. He makes the united worship of His people to multiply; here is a case of something amounting to so much more than the total of its parts—multiplication, not addition. Five loaves and two small fish; multiplication!
What a gift to individual believers a genuine gospel-believing church is! It is God’s habitation, His house, His family. This is where His glory now dwells, in those who join together in loving and serving Jesus the Christ. David loved the place where God’s glory formerly dwelt. That house was a house of figures and types. Do we love the new place where the glory of the Lord now dwells—the living churches of Jesus our Lord, where He walks among the golden lamp-stands and holds the messengers of His gospel in His right hand? –TSA
“…He dwells between the cherubim…” (Psalm 99:1b)
“… you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22)
Soon after the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, God gave to Moses instructions to build a portable worship structure, the Tent of Meeting (the Tabernacle). It was made of materials available to the Israelites as they traversed the desert, animal skins, desert wood, gold, silver, and such things. When they moved from place to place, they packed up the Tent and carried it to the next camp, as they were led by the movement of the glory cloud. This visible cloud of Yahweh’s presence was later called the Shekinah (‘residence’); this cloud of glory, residing above the Mercy Seat “between the cherubim,” evidenced His immediate presence with His people wherever they went (See Exodus 40:34-38).
The portable structure was called the Tent of Meeting because Yahweh met with His people there. He had delivered them from Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea on dry land, drowning their pursuers. God gave the Ten Commandments at Sinai and there Moses received instructions about how the people of God should go about worshipping the Lord. Israel could actually see evidence of the nearness of God when they saw the Shekinah descended upon the Tent, resting above the Mercy Seat behind the inner Veil.
The Mercy Seat was the pure gold, cherubim-covered propitiatory where the blood of reconciliation was sprinkled each year. It is written, “…the Lord of Hosts…dwells between the cherubim” (2 Samuel 6:2). There Yahweh communed with His people on the basis of Christ’s atonement, prefigured under prescribed forms. The sacrifices and religious services performed there prefigured Christ, and especially His actual working out redemption and reconciliation by His death at the cross many centuries later.
During the daytime, the glory cloud appeared overhead. Israel lived for forty years in the desert and that cloud of Yahweh’s presence protected them from the burning sun each day. At night when deserts become so miserably cold, the glory cloud became a fire over them: shade by day and heat by night. The Lord met Israel’s needs by being with them. As it was then, so it is now; He still meets the needs of His people by His nearness to us throughout life’s journeys.
The Temple was not yet built in the time of David. He desired to build a beautiful house for the glory of the Lord, but that task would fall to his son Solomon. David erected a Tabernacle, a Tent, to house “the ark of the covenant” (the golden box that held the tablets containing the covenant, the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod, and a pot of the Manna that sustained Israel for forty years in the desert). The Davidic Tabernacle may not have been quite like the one carried through the wilderness, but this Tent was certainly in David’s mind as he wrote many of the inspired Psalms. This Tent housing the Ark of the Covenant was the focal point of Yahweh worship during David’s reign.
As he wrote, “I have loved the habitation of Your house” and “the house of the Lord” and “the secret place of His tent,” David surely thought of the place where Yahweh was loved and worshipped. He loved the Tent because it was the place of Yahweh’s near presence, where the Ark and its Mercy Seat were. Forgiveness of sins and peace with God were so eloquently declared at this place. The glory of Yahweh dwelt there.
So, where is God’s house now? Where does the glory of the Lord dwell at the present time? At a church building on the corner, down the street? Where does God now evidence His glorious presence? Which place is ‘the’ place? Which house does the Lord God Almighty now inhabit? The answer of the New Testament is clear. The house of God is not a place; it is a people.
The habitation of God, where His glory now dwells, is the blood-bought church of the Lord Jesus. Jesus came and fulfilled all of the Old Testament types and shadows by His life and death and resurrection; the house of God that was established in earthly Jerusalem was one of those figures, a picture of a far greater reality, one that would fill heaven and earth in the end. In Christ all who believe the gospel are now built together into God’s household. The house of God is a family headquartered in heaven, in the very throne room of God Himself.
Whenever born again members of Christ’s redeemed church meet together as one people, whether a handful of saints or a massive congregation, there is the glorious habitation of God. This is God’s house. There the glory now dwells.
How amazing and how humbling it should be for each redeemed child of God to realize that, since the work of Christ was finished on the cross, the living God has been pleased for His glory to dwell in the gathered churches of the redeemed. Individually, we are indwelt by God’s Spirit. But in an astounding display of love, our God is now pleased for His glory to uniquely ‘reside’ upon and within the assemblies of the redeemed—in local, visible expressions of the one household of faith.
When the people of God gather together in true churches for worship, instruction, and fellowship, something wonderful occurs. When the living Christ brings together His redeemed people to make of them worshipping assemblies, the glory of God dwells among them. And it is especially so when they are gathered in one place, in one accord. He lives among them and causes His Name to be exalted before their eyes and before the eyes of some who, as yet, know Him not. He makes the united worship of His people to multiply; here is a case of something amounting to so much more than the total of its parts—multiplication, not addition. Five loaves and two small fish; multiplication!
What a gift to individual believers a genuine gospel-believing church is! It is God’s habitation, His house, His family. This is where His glory now dwells, in those who join together in loving and serving Jesus the Christ. David loved the place where God’s glory formerly dwelt. That house was a house of figures and types. Do we love the new place where the glory of the Lord now dwells—the living churches of Jesus our Lord, where He walks among the golden lamp-stands and holds the messengers of His gospel in His right hand? –TSA
Friday, February 20, 2009
If God Should Repay
No Thumbs, No Big Toes
Judges 1:5-7
After Joshua’s death, Israel was led by a series of leaders called judges; thus, we have the Book of Judges to tell their history. There was no permanent successor to Joshua and no monarchy at the time. For many years, as they settled into the Promised Land, Israel would wax and wane. They seemed to trust in the Lord for periods of time and to walk in His ways. But they would eventually forsake Him through various forms of idolatrous disobedience.
After some extended period of suffering because of sin (and it always seems to bring suffering in the end), the people would finally turn and cry to the Lord. Then, in mercy and love, He would raise up a deliverer to rescue Israel from the trial that had been sent upon them. After a time the cycle would replay itself with new details. The Judges were Israel’s deliverers.
When we think of a ‘king’ we probably imagine a glorious, robed, richly jeweled ruler over an impressive, expansive realm. But many ancient kings were more like regional strong-men who would lead their forces in ruthless raid campaigns on neighboring ‘kingdoms,’ and the rest of the time defend their own.
When the tribe of Judah began to possess the land promised to them by God’s covenant, they conquered one particular king known as Adoni-bezek, which means ‘the lord of Bezek.’ The Israelites had killed some ten thousand men in battle at Bezek, an ancient town in the region that became Judea. What a bloody mess it was, primitive warfare being as it was—nothing sterile about it! Everything was personal, eye to eye business. They pursued the “king” of Bezek who had retreated into the town. Pressing on, they thoroughly defeated the ‘Bezekian’ forces and when the head man attempted to slip away, he was captured.
Utterly defeated, Adoni-Bezek experienced one of the appalling cruelties of primitive warfare. He had often inflicted the very same cruelty on scores of other once-powerful men and now it would happen to him. Imagine a muscular figure approaching with a jagged hatchet—to cut off your thumbs and your big toes. Whack, scream! Again! Again! Again! I imagine that he slipped into an unconscious state for a time, only to revive to horror.
No more would Adoni-Bezek present a threat. Never again would he wield a sword. Thumb-less, he was incapable of gripping anything well. Big toes missing, the once proud ruler would never again confidently strut as vain men often do. He would struggle to walk at all. The lord of Bezek, once ruler of the place, was reduced to begging and scrounging about for scraps. Freshly humiliated, his haunting words drip bitter irony. The Scriptures tell us his thoughts.
“Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. And Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me." Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died” (Judges 1:6-7 NKJV).
What words! “…as I have done, so God has repaid me.” Adoni-Bezek had been successful in life. He conquered kingdoms and humiliated their most noble citizens, cutting off the thumbs and big toes of the kings of conquered realms. They were made to grovel under his regal table in the very depths of degradation. Instead of reclining at table as men, they would scramble like animals for scraps, every morsel tinged with gall, every swallow mingled with misery.
This was major payback. That is how Adoni-Bezek saw it. He considered this as God giving him his due. Because of his own unspeakable cruelty to those he had defeated and abased, now it was his turn—and God Almighty was seeing to it.
How do those words strike you, “…as I have done, so God has repaid me”? Are they not fearful to consider? If God should repay, what would become of us? Have we ever been cruel in success? Might He visit cruelty on us? Have we been thankless and proud in prosperity? Might He take His gifts and give them to someone more faithful and appreciative? Have we taken glory for ourselves when it belonged to the Lord? What if he poured out upon us the dishonor we deserve? What if God should repay? What if God should repay!
How long was the journey to Jerusalem? Was he caged like an animal or forced to walk the whole way barefooted on wounded feet, stumbling and falling and bleeding as he went? How long did he live in Jerusalem after arriving there, months, years, decades? The City of Peace held no peace for him, just scraps and degradation; a humiliated mascot, an object of disgust. At last, he died. There was no funeral oration, no fond remembrance, no monument erected to honor his life. He just died, alone and humiliated to the end.
What if God should repay? If we ever reap a full harvest of what we have sown, what will that mean? Do we truly want our deserving or His grace? If grace ever comes, surely we will want to cease from cruelty! How could we who receive mercy give out malice? We want to deny pride and cease from ingratitude. We have nothing good that we did not receive from our loving Lord; let us thank Him. He is worthy to be honored! What are we but mere men of flesh and frailty? We merit no goodness from Him, but the very reverse. What love He shows when He saves and forgives the likes of us! O’ that we might live as if we actually recognized it!
Our Deliverer, Christ Jesus, not only defeated our enemy and rescued us from the condemnation of our sins; He also changes our hearts. When we trust in Him who first loved us, we who are forgiven a mountain of sin learn to love Jesus with a mountain of love. We receive soul peace and free forgiveness when we receive Him as our Savior and Lord, by faith.
David wrote, “Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to Your mercy remember me, for Your goodness' sake, O Lord” (Psalm 25:7 NKJV). We all have been such sinners. Every day God does not repay us according to what we deserve is another day of mercy. –TSA
Judges 1:5-7
After Joshua’s death, Israel was led by a series of leaders called judges; thus, we have the Book of Judges to tell their history. There was no permanent successor to Joshua and no monarchy at the time. For many years, as they settled into the Promised Land, Israel would wax and wane. They seemed to trust in the Lord for periods of time and to walk in His ways. But they would eventually forsake Him through various forms of idolatrous disobedience.
After some extended period of suffering because of sin (and it always seems to bring suffering in the end), the people would finally turn and cry to the Lord. Then, in mercy and love, He would raise up a deliverer to rescue Israel from the trial that had been sent upon them. After a time the cycle would replay itself with new details. The Judges were Israel’s deliverers.
When we think of a ‘king’ we probably imagine a glorious, robed, richly jeweled ruler over an impressive, expansive realm. But many ancient kings were more like regional strong-men who would lead their forces in ruthless raid campaigns on neighboring ‘kingdoms,’ and the rest of the time defend their own.
When the tribe of Judah began to possess the land promised to them by God’s covenant, they conquered one particular king known as Adoni-bezek, which means ‘the lord of Bezek.’ The Israelites had killed some ten thousand men in battle at Bezek, an ancient town in the region that became Judea. What a bloody mess it was, primitive warfare being as it was—nothing sterile about it! Everything was personal, eye to eye business. They pursued the “king” of Bezek who had retreated into the town. Pressing on, they thoroughly defeated the ‘Bezekian’ forces and when the head man attempted to slip away, he was captured.
Utterly defeated, Adoni-Bezek experienced one of the appalling cruelties of primitive warfare. He had often inflicted the very same cruelty on scores of other once-powerful men and now it would happen to him. Imagine a muscular figure approaching with a jagged hatchet—to cut off your thumbs and your big toes. Whack, scream! Again! Again! Again! I imagine that he slipped into an unconscious state for a time, only to revive to horror.
No more would Adoni-Bezek present a threat. Never again would he wield a sword. Thumb-less, he was incapable of gripping anything well. Big toes missing, the once proud ruler would never again confidently strut as vain men often do. He would struggle to walk at all. The lord of Bezek, once ruler of the place, was reduced to begging and scrounging about for scraps. Freshly humiliated, his haunting words drip bitter irony. The Scriptures tell us his thoughts.
“Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. And Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me." Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died” (Judges 1:6-7 NKJV).
What words! “…as I have done, so God has repaid me.” Adoni-Bezek had been successful in life. He conquered kingdoms and humiliated their most noble citizens, cutting off the thumbs and big toes of the kings of conquered realms. They were made to grovel under his regal table in the very depths of degradation. Instead of reclining at table as men, they would scramble like animals for scraps, every morsel tinged with gall, every swallow mingled with misery.
This was major payback. That is how Adoni-Bezek saw it. He considered this as God giving him his due. Because of his own unspeakable cruelty to those he had defeated and abased, now it was his turn—and God Almighty was seeing to it.
How do those words strike you, “…as I have done, so God has repaid me”? Are they not fearful to consider? If God should repay, what would become of us? Have we ever been cruel in success? Might He visit cruelty on us? Have we been thankless and proud in prosperity? Might He take His gifts and give them to someone more faithful and appreciative? Have we taken glory for ourselves when it belonged to the Lord? What if he poured out upon us the dishonor we deserve? What if God should repay? What if God should repay!
How long was the journey to Jerusalem? Was he caged like an animal or forced to walk the whole way barefooted on wounded feet, stumbling and falling and bleeding as he went? How long did he live in Jerusalem after arriving there, months, years, decades? The City of Peace held no peace for him, just scraps and degradation; a humiliated mascot, an object of disgust. At last, he died. There was no funeral oration, no fond remembrance, no monument erected to honor his life. He just died, alone and humiliated to the end.
What if God should repay? If we ever reap a full harvest of what we have sown, what will that mean? Do we truly want our deserving or His grace? If grace ever comes, surely we will want to cease from cruelty! How could we who receive mercy give out malice? We want to deny pride and cease from ingratitude. We have nothing good that we did not receive from our loving Lord; let us thank Him. He is worthy to be honored! What are we but mere men of flesh and frailty? We merit no goodness from Him, but the very reverse. What love He shows when He saves and forgives the likes of us! O’ that we might live as if we actually recognized it!
Our Deliverer, Christ Jesus, not only defeated our enemy and rescued us from the condemnation of our sins; He also changes our hearts. When we trust in Him who first loved us, we who are forgiven a mountain of sin learn to love Jesus with a mountain of love. We receive soul peace and free forgiveness when we receive Him as our Savior and Lord, by faith.
David wrote, “Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to Your mercy remember me, for Your goodness' sake, O Lord” (Psalm 25:7 NKJV). We all have been such sinners. Every day God does not repay us according to what we deserve is another day of mercy. –TSA
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Heaven Closed
A Test of Faith, a Call to Humility
“When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14 NKJV)
Do you ever have the sense that heaven has been “shut up” and that God has decided not to send refreshing times to you anytime soon? Have locusts eaten your productivity? Has disease or death brought sorrow to you or to those you love? So, what do these hard times signify? How should we ‘read’ God’s dealings with us in hard times, when it seems that, while others are experiencing good, enriching times, God has surrounded us with loneliness or trouble?
At the level of knowledge our faith may regard the unchanging love of Jesus as an irrefutable fact. But at the level of experience even true faith may find little comfort in His very real love when He has “shut up heaven and there is no rain.” When He has commanded locusts to ravage the spiritual or material economy, it is hard to ‘feel the love.’ When He has sent pestilence and everything seems ashen, dead, or dying, even the truest faith may struggle to peacefully rest in the love of Jesus.
The why of it all is, often, beyond any real understanding. Why does our Lord “shut up heaven?” Why locusts? Why pestilence? The Lord told Solomon that it was a matter of time. When God deems them appropriate, He still sends things like these among His people. “When I shut up heaven” does not mean “if I shut up heaven.” But what is God’s point? Just to prove that He can turn our little lives upside down? Merely to show His might and make us feel bewildered by an unpredictable life?
Hard things do happen and Jesus Christ not only knows about them, He governs them as to their degree and scope and dimension. He gives, He withholds; blessing and cursing are His to command. The sun is His; by it He can gently warm or fiercely parch the earth. The rain is His; He may sweetly water the soil with pelting droplets or overwhelm it with torrents. “The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm.” He is the King of kings; the entire creation belongs to Him. It is His world and nothing ever just happens. Jesus is Lord of all. Down to the least detail, everything is under His power and all things fall out according to His ultimate purpose.
Now this can be a tremendous comfort to one who trusts the Lord, to know that our God is God and that nothing can happen or does happen apart from His will. And this applies to big things as well as little stuff—from the whole vast universe to our tiny lives. But during those times when He has shut up heaven and we don’t understand anything, His sovereignty can be acutely sobering and even bewildering. What a test of faith hard providences are! And what a summons that we should humble ourselves!
In light of God’s words to Solomon, we are not arrogant to think that God intends to speak to us through difficult providences. And the sooner we rightly respond, the sooner He may relent and open heaven for us and send those spiritually refreshing times again. It is a humility thing. Worldly people won’t get it; redeemed people will.
Occasionally, we think we are independent; but we can’t even breathe unless God grants it. If we are breathing and living, existing in this world, a mighty and loving God means for it to be so. And how precious a thought this should be to any discouraged believer in Jesus. But what is the meaning of our troubles; what is the purpose of this life? How do we make sense of it, especially when the God who loves us sends such hard things into our lives? We will never make sense of anything until we see our own life in reference to God, His glory, and His will.
Christ loves all who are His; if you are His by the grace of adoption, it is sure that He loves you. From eternity He loved you with an everlasting love. But this is not something we always feel. Sometimes we just know. Often, we must wait until later to feel a sense of His love. This is exactly what faith must do in those awful, dry times, when the heavens have been shut up and locusts have come and the very life has gone out of life—we must deeply trust in Him who changes everything, yet who changes not.
Meanwhile, do we simply tell our hearts, “It’s what we know that counts, not what we feel. Feelings are not on the same plane as facts. Facts are real. Figures are real. Feelings are too changeable, too temporary; they’re just not as real as the rest of what we call reality. So, get real, snap out of it, and live by what you know!” If we take that approach we would drain life of its essence. Love and hate, liberty and bondage, joy and misery, justice and injustice, kindness and cruelty—none of these are important if they are unreal. These all concern thoughts, ideas, emotions—and they all are monumental! Indeed, the coming Judgment at the Last Day will be greatly concerned with such things.
One is thought quaint if he truly thinks God actually touches this world and has anything to do with everyday life—the weather (floods, tornadoes, tsunamis), bug infestations (fleas, mosquitoes), deadly epidemics (Bubonic plague, HIV-AIDS). Why would God concern Himself with such things since they only involve fortune and poverty and life and death?
The Lord says, “When I shut up heaven…” Locusts show up at His “command” and pestilence goes where He “sends.” Unbelievers imagine a random universe existing of itself, but the Scriptures tell us of God who is sovereign over the details—all of them. If He is God at all, He is God over the details. After all, big things are just a bunch little things taken together.
Is it really arrogant of us, in times of stress and hardship, to think that our faith might be in the process of some testing? Do we delude ourselves to think that God would try us? If we are truly Christ’s we delude ourselves to think that He could leave us alone and never intervene. We are, after all, not our own—He bought us with a price. Our Master does intrude. He does intervene.
When God sends hard times to wicked, worldly people it often comes as a punishment for their sins. But when hard times come into the lives of His redeemed people, we know that He intends to use those things to draw us to Himself, not to harm us or drive us away. When He shuts up heaven we are tested. How much trial and trouble and spiritual drought must come before we happily humble ourselves? What will it take for us to cease from pride and thoughts of our own sufficiency and for us to turn again to the Lord? What will motivate us to turn from our wicked ways?
If you have been tested, if you are being tested, turn your mind now to God’s promise. He resists proud hearts, but draws near to the humble person. If we belong to Christ, being called by His name, these words provide tremendous hope: “…if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin…”
The humility we must have is a self-imposed thing that causes us to pour forth prayer—we speak from our hearts to our God and make our desires known to Him. The prayers prayed by one who has humbled himself show a desire, not for more stuff, but for more of God and more of His grace. That sort of serious humility makes us glad to repent, to think and then live differently—to think God’s thoughts after Him, and then, by grace, to live righteously.
He promises to hear us. What a thought, that the God of heaven would actually bend an ear and listen to you and me! And forgive our sin. And make the place we live a happy place! Is there any kindness we need more than His forgiveness and the peace that accompanies it? What promises! The Lord Christ who shuts up heaven can also open it. He can send times of refreshing and give great joy to those who have endured brazen, silent skies. O that we will humble ourselves, pray, and seek His face, and turn from our sinful ways—expecting our loving Christ to refresh us with a deeply felt sense of His love yet again. –TSA
“When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14 NKJV)
Do you ever have the sense that heaven has been “shut up” and that God has decided not to send refreshing times to you anytime soon? Have locusts eaten your productivity? Has disease or death brought sorrow to you or to those you love? So, what do these hard times signify? How should we ‘read’ God’s dealings with us in hard times, when it seems that, while others are experiencing good, enriching times, God has surrounded us with loneliness or trouble?
At the level of knowledge our faith may regard the unchanging love of Jesus as an irrefutable fact. But at the level of experience even true faith may find little comfort in His very real love when He has “shut up heaven and there is no rain.” When He has commanded locusts to ravage the spiritual or material economy, it is hard to ‘feel the love.’ When He has sent pestilence and everything seems ashen, dead, or dying, even the truest faith may struggle to peacefully rest in the love of Jesus.
The why of it all is, often, beyond any real understanding. Why does our Lord “shut up heaven?” Why locusts? Why pestilence? The Lord told Solomon that it was a matter of time. When God deems them appropriate, He still sends things like these among His people. “When I shut up heaven” does not mean “if I shut up heaven.” But what is God’s point? Just to prove that He can turn our little lives upside down? Merely to show His might and make us feel bewildered by an unpredictable life?
Hard things do happen and Jesus Christ not only knows about them, He governs them as to their degree and scope and dimension. He gives, He withholds; blessing and cursing are His to command. The sun is His; by it He can gently warm or fiercely parch the earth. The rain is His; He may sweetly water the soil with pelting droplets or overwhelm it with torrents. “The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm.” He is the King of kings; the entire creation belongs to Him. It is His world and nothing ever just happens. Jesus is Lord of all. Down to the least detail, everything is under His power and all things fall out according to His ultimate purpose.
Now this can be a tremendous comfort to one who trusts the Lord, to know that our God is God and that nothing can happen or does happen apart from His will. And this applies to big things as well as little stuff—from the whole vast universe to our tiny lives. But during those times when He has shut up heaven and we don’t understand anything, His sovereignty can be acutely sobering and even bewildering. What a test of faith hard providences are! And what a summons that we should humble ourselves!
In light of God’s words to Solomon, we are not arrogant to think that God intends to speak to us through difficult providences. And the sooner we rightly respond, the sooner He may relent and open heaven for us and send those spiritually refreshing times again. It is a humility thing. Worldly people won’t get it; redeemed people will.
Occasionally, we think we are independent; but we can’t even breathe unless God grants it. If we are breathing and living, existing in this world, a mighty and loving God means for it to be so. And how precious a thought this should be to any discouraged believer in Jesus. But what is the meaning of our troubles; what is the purpose of this life? How do we make sense of it, especially when the God who loves us sends such hard things into our lives? We will never make sense of anything until we see our own life in reference to God, His glory, and His will.
Christ loves all who are His; if you are His by the grace of adoption, it is sure that He loves you. From eternity He loved you with an everlasting love. But this is not something we always feel. Sometimes we just know. Often, we must wait until later to feel a sense of His love. This is exactly what faith must do in those awful, dry times, when the heavens have been shut up and locusts have come and the very life has gone out of life—we must deeply trust in Him who changes everything, yet who changes not.
Meanwhile, do we simply tell our hearts, “It’s what we know that counts, not what we feel. Feelings are not on the same plane as facts. Facts are real. Figures are real. Feelings are too changeable, too temporary; they’re just not as real as the rest of what we call reality. So, get real, snap out of it, and live by what you know!” If we take that approach we would drain life of its essence. Love and hate, liberty and bondage, joy and misery, justice and injustice, kindness and cruelty—none of these are important if they are unreal. These all concern thoughts, ideas, emotions—and they all are monumental! Indeed, the coming Judgment at the Last Day will be greatly concerned with such things.
One is thought quaint if he truly thinks God actually touches this world and has anything to do with everyday life—the weather (floods, tornadoes, tsunamis), bug infestations (fleas, mosquitoes), deadly epidemics (Bubonic plague, HIV-AIDS). Why would God concern Himself with such things since they only involve fortune and poverty and life and death?
The Lord says, “When I shut up heaven…” Locusts show up at His “command” and pestilence goes where He “sends.” Unbelievers imagine a random universe existing of itself, but the Scriptures tell us of God who is sovereign over the details—all of them. If He is God at all, He is God over the details. After all, big things are just a bunch little things taken together.
Is it really arrogant of us, in times of stress and hardship, to think that our faith might be in the process of some testing? Do we delude ourselves to think that God would try us? If we are truly Christ’s we delude ourselves to think that He could leave us alone and never intervene. We are, after all, not our own—He bought us with a price. Our Master does intrude. He does intervene.
When God sends hard times to wicked, worldly people it often comes as a punishment for their sins. But when hard times come into the lives of His redeemed people, we know that He intends to use those things to draw us to Himself, not to harm us or drive us away. When He shuts up heaven we are tested. How much trial and trouble and spiritual drought must come before we happily humble ourselves? What will it take for us to cease from pride and thoughts of our own sufficiency and for us to turn again to the Lord? What will motivate us to turn from our wicked ways?
If you have been tested, if you are being tested, turn your mind now to God’s promise. He resists proud hearts, but draws near to the humble person. If we belong to Christ, being called by His name, these words provide tremendous hope: “…if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin…”
The humility we must have is a self-imposed thing that causes us to pour forth prayer—we speak from our hearts to our God and make our desires known to Him. The prayers prayed by one who has humbled himself show a desire, not for more stuff, but for more of God and more of His grace. That sort of serious humility makes us glad to repent, to think and then live differently—to think God’s thoughts after Him, and then, by grace, to live righteously.
He promises to hear us. What a thought, that the God of heaven would actually bend an ear and listen to you and me! And forgive our sin. And make the place we live a happy place! Is there any kindness we need more than His forgiveness and the peace that accompanies it? What promises! The Lord Christ who shuts up heaven can also open it. He can send times of refreshing and give great joy to those who have endured brazen, silent skies. O that we will humble ourselves, pray, and seek His face, and turn from our sinful ways—expecting our loving Christ to refresh us with a deeply felt sense of His love yet again. –TSA
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Repentance, Not Regret
“…bear fruits worthy of repentance…” (Matthew 3:8 NKJV)
Some would baptize old Lucifer hisseff if he showed up with a towel and a willingness to get wet. The Baptist confronted the Pharisees and Sadducees who professed that they had repented, as well. He refused to baptize them. Why not? He did not believe their repentance was real. Before John would consider baptizing them, they must first “bear fruits worthy of repentance.” Their lives must first provide credible evidence of genuine repentance.
What happens when a hypocrite ‘repents?’ The same thing that happened the last time he repented—nothing. No real change occurs because his professed repentance is only one more fleeting impression that vanishes as soon as it appears. Such repentance is repentance to be repented of.
He believes he is righteous while others are rather flawed. His thinking is straight; others are irrational or delusional. He knows the truth; others merely trifle with truisms. The Pharisee acknowledges himself sinful…but he is not nearly as flawed as those with whom he is forced to deal, day by day. Anyone who seriously challenges him just isn’t right; couldn’t be!
Indeed, we all deny the truth about ourselves at times. The truth can be a rather unflattering thing. Turns out that we are not the people we imagine ourselves to be. In our dreams we are reasonable with a good grasp on reality, fair and sober-minded. Our over-reactions are not really over-reactions at all; we can justify our behavior no matter how inappropriate; turns out that our reactions were precisely what the situations called for. Some people are simply unwilling to acknowledge the truth about us. Isn’t it strange?
Why does no one seem to believe a hypocrite’s repentance is real? Why do emotional apologies fall on deaf ears and meet with blank stares? Could it be that people recognize the same old song and dance? It may be a new situation, but the same tune and the same lyrics. They know that, if history can teach them anything, recent apologies mean no more than the earlier ones meant. Within minutes, hours, or at the most days, true colors will shine through again. The new repentance is but momentary sorrow; it will pass. Sorrow sometimes comes because harvest has begun. And who wouldn't feel sorrow when his evil seeds have produced evil fruit in abundance?
A hypocrite is surprised, and even angered, by the reluctance of others to believe that he is sincere. He believes others are sincere. He gives them the benefit of the doubt. He is quick to show sympathy and is understanding. He holds no grudges, but freely forgives. His conscience is clear, although seared black as night. Without malice, he is simply amazed at the pettiness, the pathetic smallness, of people: so exacting, demanding, unforgiving, and unfair.
Repentance and regret are not the same. Temporarily replacing anger with remorse is a hypocrite’s repentance. Saying, “I’m sorry” with tears is just his way of saying, “I’m sorry I lost control over my situation; I want it back.” Repentance is not an emotional event. Real repentance, the kind the gospel speaks about, is a spiritual grace that transforms a person at his very core. As a result, his thinking and his behavior change.
The ‘change of mind’ that is true repentance produces new actions and right words, the things life is made of. Degrees of sorrow, regret, and remorse may accompany true repentance, but the fact that one feels such things does not prove true repentance; a hypocrite may feel all of these ever so deeply and remain a hypocrite. Repentance is known and shown by persistent, consistent, appropriate fruits. Otherwise, the professed repentance is not credible. Pharisees and Sadducees talk the talk, call you “Brother,” and pretend love for God; all hypocrites do. These prove nothing.
“Fruits worthy of repentance” consist of more than apologies and wordy justifications. For repentance to be taken seriously and regarded genuine, one’s life must consistently produce the right fruit. A man often-remorseful and, as often, returning to wallowing in the mire of his sins—face it; he is a hypocrite. He is not a struggling Christian, although many have, in charity, treated him so.
At some point it ceases to be charitable to recognize a hypocrite as a struggling Christian; he must know that the farce is no longer convincing. He is a stranger to God and to saving grace. That is the sober assessment of men who know and love God in truth. He may have passed himself off as “wheat” for a time, yet the evidence of his life declares him to be “chaff” destined for destruction by “unquenchable fire.” The seeming evidence suggesting that he is a genuine child of God has vanished. What remains is empty, meaningless “chaff.”
Instead of fearing eternal wrath and bowing low in brokenness over the sins that hold him captive and poison his soul, the hypocrite maintains that he is genuine, although misunderstood. Never mind the mountain of evidence to the contrary. It is the nature of self-righteous delusion. In such a condition, no one will repent; but only keep up appearances as long as possible. And when no longer possible, keep on trying—the only other option is to acknowledge the truth. But the truth would utterly devastate his religious and damning pride.
“Fruits worthy of repentance” are produced by the Holy Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). Who is kidding who? The hypocrite is only kidding himself, because he simply cannot bear the truth. Instead of producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit, he is, instead: ‘quietly cruel, mostly joyless, much troubled, often impatient, subtly unkind, conniving manipulation, consistently inconsistent, inappropriately coarse, and absent self-control.’ A self-serving life blurts out the truth, as plain as day.
Can we bear to face the truth? Or, must we twist it and torture it and turn it on its ear so that it becomes something else? Only the truth can really set anyone free. Hypocrisy ultimately fools only the hypocrite. –TSA
Some would baptize old Lucifer hisseff if he showed up with a towel and a willingness to get wet. The Baptist confronted the Pharisees and Sadducees who professed that they had repented, as well. He refused to baptize them. Why not? He did not believe their repentance was real. Before John would consider baptizing them, they must first “bear fruits worthy of repentance.” Their lives must first provide credible evidence of genuine repentance.
What happens when a hypocrite ‘repents?’ The same thing that happened the last time he repented—nothing. No real change occurs because his professed repentance is only one more fleeting impression that vanishes as soon as it appears. Such repentance is repentance to be repented of.
He believes he is righteous while others are rather flawed. His thinking is straight; others are irrational or delusional. He knows the truth; others merely trifle with truisms. The Pharisee acknowledges himself sinful…but he is not nearly as flawed as those with whom he is forced to deal, day by day. Anyone who seriously challenges him just isn’t right; couldn’t be!
Indeed, we all deny the truth about ourselves at times. The truth can be a rather unflattering thing. Turns out that we are not the people we imagine ourselves to be. In our dreams we are reasonable with a good grasp on reality, fair and sober-minded. Our over-reactions are not really over-reactions at all; we can justify our behavior no matter how inappropriate; turns out that our reactions were precisely what the situations called for. Some people are simply unwilling to acknowledge the truth about us. Isn’t it strange?
Why does no one seem to believe a hypocrite’s repentance is real? Why do emotional apologies fall on deaf ears and meet with blank stares? Could it be that people recognize the same old song and dance? It may be a new situation, but the same tune and the same lyrics. They know that, if history can teach them anything, recent apologies mean no more than the earlier ones meant. Within minutes, hours, or at the most days, true colors will shine through again. The new repentance is but momentary sorrow; it will pass. Sorrow sometimes comes because harvest has begun. And who wouldn't feel sorrow when his evil seeds have produced evil fruit in abundance?
A hypocrite is surprised, and even angered, by the reluctance of others to believe that he is sincere. He believes others are sincere. He gives them the benefit of the doubt. He is quick to show sympathy and is understanding. He holds no grudges, but freely forgives. His conscience is clear, although seared black as night. Without malice, he is simply amazed at the pettiness, the pathetic smallness, of people: so exacting, demanding, unforgiving, and unfair.
Repentance and regret are not the same. Temporarily replacing anger with remorse is a hypocrite’s repentance. Saying, “I’m sorry” with tears is just his way of saying, “I’m sorry I lost control over my situation; I want it back.” Repentance is not an emotional event. Real repentance, the kind the gospel speaks about, is a spiritual grace that transforms a person at his very core. As a result, his thinking and his behavior change.
The ‘change of mind’ that is true repentance produces new actions and right words, the things life is made of. Degrees of sorrow, regret, and remorse may accompany true repentance, but the fact that one feels such things does not prove true repentance; a hypocrite may feel all of these ever so deeply and remain a hypocrite. Repentance is known and shown by persistent, consistent, appropriate fruits. Otherwise, the professed repentance is not credible. Pharisees and Sadducees talk the talk, call you “Brother,” and pretend love for God; all hypocrites do. These prove nothing.
“Fruits worthy of repentance” consist of more than apologies and wordy justifications. For repentance to be taken seriously and regarded genuine, one’s life must consistently produce the right fruit. A man often-remorseful and, as often, returning to wallowing in the mire of his sins—face it; he is a hypocrite. He is not a struggling Christian, although many have, in charity, treated him so.
At some point it ceases to be charitable to recognize a hypocrite as a struggling Christian; he must know that the farce is no longer convincing. He is a stranger to God and to saving grace. That is the sober assessment of men who know and love God in truth. He may have passed himself off as “wheat” for a time, yet the evidence of his life declares him to be “chaff” destined for destruction by “unquenchable fire.” The seeming evidence suggesting that he is a genuine child of God has vanished. What remains is empty, meaningless “chaff.”
Instead of fearing eternal wrath and bowing low in brokenness over the sins that hold him captive and poison his soul, the hypocrite maintains that he is genuine, although misunderstood. Never mind the mountain of evidence to the contrary. It is the nature of self-righteous delusion. In such a condition, no one will repent; but only keep up appearances as long as possible. And when no longer possible, keep on trying—the only other option is to acknowledge the truth. But the truth would utterly devastate his religious and damning pride.
“Fruits worthy of repentance” are produced by the Holy Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). Who is kidding who? The hypocrite is only kidding himself, because he simply cannot bear the truth. Instead of producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit, he is, instead: ‘quietly cruel, mostly joyless, much troubled, often impatient, subtly unkind, conniving manipulation, consistently inconsistent, inappropriately coarse, and absent self-control.’ A self-serving life blurts out the truth, as plain as day.
Can we bear to face the truth? Or, must we twist it and torture it and turn it on its ear so that it becomes something else? Only the truth can really set anyone free. Hypocrisy ultimately fools only the hypocrite. –TSA
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Remember...
We are rarely able to put ourselves into another person’s shoes. To feel what he feels and think as he thinks is not natural. It’s a wonder that any of us wonder why no one really understands when we are in trouble; we don’t try very hard to really understand when others go through trouble.
“Remember the prisoners as if chained with them — those who are mistreated — since you yourselves are in the body also.” (Hebrews 13:3 NKJV) Here, we are called to remember and to put ourselves into someone else’s skin. That requires us to think and to feel. Some prisoners suffer confinement and abuse for Christ and the gospel, not for evildoing. Instead of whining and complaining, they go on furthering His cause in the place where Providence has put them and they still find their joy in Christ. They deserve to be remembered—and remembered with great feeling.
Many who love and serve the Lord Jesus with all their hearts find themselves today in prisons of other kinds. Steel bars and guards and razor-wired walls are nowhere in sight, but they yet live in a confinement of circumstance and in too much maddening isolation. They are not the sort of martyrs whose memory we sing, but they love Christ with all their hearts and bear witness to His grace by their persevering faith. But it isn’t easy to walk in their shoes. How could we forget them? How could we fail to comfort the Lord’s loved ones who suffer in any prison? Ah, but we do. We do.
We have intentionally short memories when it comes to pain or trouble or solitude. We forget as soon as possible. The royal cupbearer forgot Joseph as he quickly put the dungeon experience behind him. We too forget Joseph, like we never knew him. And why not leave an unpleasant past unremembered? It was a bad time we want to forget forever. Weary times, possibly not so long ago, when we suffered things most unbearable and felt that no one cared or understood—who wants to remember such things or such times? But forgetting our unpleasant past means forgetting Joseph’s painful present.
And what about Joseph? We didn’t put him there. Ultimately it was God who purposed that he should be in that hard place, right? Are we to interfere with evident providence, to intervene?
We make a great mistake to think that since Joseph lived in a dungeon that God had judged him guilty. We err further to think that God intended for him to stay there forever. Was he not impressive enough to recall, when he spoke comfort and strength to our soul, bearing good news in hopeful words? Did not Joseph’s quality shine through, despite the peculiar setting? How do we forget a virtual diamond of a man?
We have known some people and have conveniently forgotten them, and possibly some “of whom the world was not worthy.” They once enriched us, but that was then. It is as if they died, or never lived. But they are very much alive, though forgotten. To remember them would require us to revisit an old dungeon from our past where we were afraid and cold and alone. We would just as soon never think of it again. It is so much easier to leave it all in the forgotten past. Joseph will somehow be noticed. Someday someone will do something. Meanwhile, we have plenty to keep us busy without taking on projects. He’ll be fine. He was well a couple of years ago.
Is there someone you must remember, whose life, whose existence, should be your great concern today? Do you think you can now feel what they feel? Would you try to get into their skin? Are they lonely, sick, grieved, or even hungry? Can you begin to imagine their relief to see your face and to feel kindness in the touch of your hand? To know you care enough to interrupt their trouble! Someone…yes, you! You remembered!
Dear one, we have forgotten long enough. It is time to remember and that is something we must do on purpose! Remember; then do something. Do it today! –TSA
“Remember the prisoners as if chained with them — those who are mistreated — since you yourselves are in the body also.” (Hebrews 13:3 NKJV) Here, we are called to remember and to put ourselves into someone else’s skin. That requires us to think and to feel. Some prisoners suffer confinement and abuse for Christ and the gospel, not for evildoing. Instead of whining and complaining, they go on furthering His cause in the place where Providence has put them and they still find their joy in Christ. They deserve to be remembered—and remembered with great feeling.
Many who love and serve the Lord Jesus with all their hearts find themselves today in prisons of other kinds. Steel bars and guards and razor-wired walls are nowhere in sight, but they yet live in a confinement of circumstance and in too much maddening isolation. They are not the sort of martyrs whose memory we sing, but they love Christ with all their hearts and bear witness to His grace by their persevering faith. But it isn’t easy to walk in their shoes. How could we forget them? How could we fail to comfort the Lord’s loved ones who suffer in any prison? Ah, but we do. We do.
We have intentionally short memories when it comes to pain or trouble or solitude. We forget as soon as possible. The royal cupbearer forgot Joseph as he quickly put the dungeon experience behind him. We too forget Joseph, like we never knew him. And why not leave an unpleasant past unremembered? It was a bad time we want to forget forever. Weary times, possibly not so long ago, when we suffered things most unbearable and felt that no one cared or understood—who wants to remember such things or such times? But forgetting our unpleasant past means forgetting Joseph’s painful present.
And what about Joseph? We didn’t put him there. Ultimately it was God who purposed that he should be in that hard place, right? Are we to interfere with evident providence, to intervene?
We make a great mistake to think that since Joseph lived in a dungeon that God had judged him guilty. We err further to think that God intended for him to stay there forever. Was he not impressive enough to recall, when he spoke comfort and strength to our soul, bearing good news in hopeful words? Did not Joseph’s quality shine through, despite the peculiar setting? How do we forget a virtual diamond of a man?
We have known some people and have conveniently forgotten them, and possibly some “of whom the world was not worthy.” They once enriched us, but that was then. It is as if they died, or never lived. But they are very much alive, though forgotten. To remember them would require us to revisit an old dungeon from our past where we were afraid and cold and alone. We would just as soon never think of it again. It is so much easier to leave it all in the forgotten past. Joseph will somehow be noticed. Someday someone will do something. Meanwhile, we have plenty to keep us busy without taking on projects. He’ll be fine. He was well a couple of years ago.
Is there someone you must remember, whose life, whose existence, should be your great concern today? Do you think you can now feel what they feel? Would you try to get into their skin? Are they lonely, sick, grieved, or even hungry? Can you begin to imagine their relief to see your face and to feel kindness in the touch of your hand? To know you care enough to interrupt their trouble! Someone…yes, you! You remembered!
Dear one, we have forgotten long enough. It is time to remember and that is something we must do on purpose! Remember; then do something. Do it today! –TSA
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