Reformation Avenue

Hannah’s Glorious Faith

2012-01-14T17:44:00.000-08:00

“Then they … brought the boy to Eli. And she said, ‘Oh, my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the Lord. For this boy I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him. So I have also dedicated him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the Lord.’ …” (1 Samuel 1:25-28 NASB)

It had been several years since Hannah had poured out her broken heart to God at Shiloh when she worshipped with bitterness in her soul. She had seen many months and years go by with no success conceiving a child; she surely wondered at the Lord’s dealings with her. ‘Why’ had to be a constant cry from her heart. “Lord, why have You withheld from me the defining blessing desired by almost all married women, the one gift I wish above all else in this world, a child of my own.”

What was God doing in Hannah’s life back in those days? Why did He make her wait for so long? If it had always been part of His great plan to give her the child she so very much wanted, and then more children besides, why didn’t He just grant her conception without subjecting her to the compounded heartache and pain of those years when she felt like an utter failure? Why does God make any of His children wait to the point of heart pain, often waiting for years before He grants our ordained desires in His ordained time? Is He unkind? Are we mere puppets in a cosmic drama? Does Jesus truly care about our weariness and frustration?

As He dealt with Hannah, so He may deal with any one of us who are His. Our Lord is glorified by the faith of His people, faith that He gives to us in the first place and faith that He strengthens over the course of time and experience. He is glorified by John’s long and faithful life of witness and suffering for the gospel; He is glorified by Simon Peter, who was led to a martyr’s death after many years of faithfulness. God is glorified as Hannah prays and weeps and waits and keeps on trusting and lays hold on God by vows made and vows kept.

He is also glorified when we follow hard after Him and refuse to relent until we have found Him and, like Jacob near dawn, refuse to let Him go until He blesses us. Indeed, when our faith seems thin and weak and so very small, He is pleased and He is glorified by the tear-filled eye that keeps on looking to Him and by the heart that keeps on hoping and believing in Him who cannot fail—who will not fail and who will answer our cries with His grace.

A sapling is nourished by nutrients from beneath; so the faith of God’s beloved people is made strong and stronger still by powers often unseen. Summer heat, winter cold, drought, and flood all test the growing tree and all our trying seasons make us more of what He intends for us to be and to become—until we, at length, stand tall and strong ‘by grace through faith.’

Through trial true faith grows and we become much more than we were before. Through those long seasons faith grows and we become more trusting of Him, the One who planted us by the mighty river of His unfailing sovereign grace for His glory. Many marvel at Hannah’s persevering faith. Let us marvel at Him who gave it and then nourished it and, at last, rewarded it over and again all because of everlasting love. –TSA

Mighty Man, Impressive Woman

2011-10-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

It takes more than wealth to make a man noble; some rich men are very small characters, after all. Boaz was a man of wealth and influence in the region called Ephrathah and in the town of Bethlehem. He was also a man of measurable depth, evident faith and honorable character. He could recognize virtue in others; he was a businessman, knowing how to exercise and delegate authority.

When this important man came from Bethlehem to observe the progress of the barley harvest in his nearby fields he noticed an unfamiliar figure and asked the supervisor in charge who she might be. The report of this ranking servant was a good one. She was the foreigner who had returned with Naomi from Moab where all three of her men-folk had died during the course of their time there. Ruth, young and strong and likely beautiful, was no pampered wallflower waiting to be served and fed by others, least of all by her beloved Naomi. She was an eager, energetic, diligent worker from what the supervisor of the reapers told Boaz. She had worked all day except for a brief rest in the field-shelter.

We can imagine Ruth’s pulse quickening as Boaz, the owner of the field, approached. He spoke gently to one who might have been terrified by a commanding tone. He assured her that she could continue to glean in his fields and be unafraid; he had strictly commanded his young men not to touch her, which tells us that otherwise she might have expected to be ‘fair game’ to the workers. For even then it seems that some Jewish men (rather unlike Boaz) thought little of taking inappropriate advantage of female goyim, Gentiles, who were of somewhat less-than-human status. When Ruth became thirsty she was to drink from the water provided on-site for Boaz’s workers. Having no sense of entitlement and possibly expecting hostility instead of kindness, this foreigner was surprised and thankful. Her response was humility and appreciation.

It was more than hard-working diligence that made Ruth impressive. Everything Boaz had heard proved that this young Moabite woman was extraordinary. When she expressed thankful surprise at his kindness, he explained to her the why of it.

“And Boaz answered and said to her, "It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before. The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge" (Ruth 2:11-12 NKJV).

Boaz was more than a successful businessman; Ruth was more than an industrious woman. This tale of God’s great love for His people should teach us to value what is valuable and to appreciate unexpected kindness. –TSA

About Ten Years

2011-09-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

“And they lived there about ten years.” (Ruth 1:4c)

What a difference ten years made. As they began Naomi was happily married and the mother of two grown sons; at the end of those years she was a childless widow facing a bleak future.

We all live in a world where a nice little family story can quickly become a tragic tale of sorrow and struggle. In a moment hard times can descend and drive away every memory of ease and peace and comfort. Prosperity has often become a faint memory in only a few short days. The world being what it is, we must beware of finding our comfort in princes or presidents or economic good times—they all eventually change on us. God’s people must brace themselves against this uncertain world where famine and death and trouble come. But how?

“Trust in the Lord,” “Delight yourself in the Lord,” “Rest in the Lord,” and “Wait on the Lord” (Psalm 37). He alone must be our ultimate trust, our chief delight, our soul’s peace and our hope for the future.

Anyone who has lived for very long has experienced disappointment when hopes and dreams seemed to be dashed and destroyed forever. Thanks be unto God that our pains and disappointments are not ultimate. Neither are they permanent. Yet, we cannot always think or see or believe beyond the present darkness that overwhelms.

Naomi felt that her world had ended. The life she had known was now over. All alone, the whole world had tumbled down around her. Reflecting on those last ten years, she must have wept. Feelings of utter loss must have crashed over her soul like a flood.

Something amazing and wonderful may begin with a season of devastating loss, as it did in Naomi’s life. Unknown to her, the covenant-keeping God of Israel in whom she trusted was, even then, working all things for her good. But she could not see any of that at the moment. If the next ten years were anything like the last ten, how could she bear to live at all? –TSA

To Win the More

2011-07-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

What is our goal, our aim, our wish? What do we hope to accomplish in living? If it is to win the current argument, we have a terribly small goal. If it is to secure the respect we think we deserve, we are intent on something vaporous. If our interest is to be honored by men, it is an unworthy one. If we wish for others to be charmed and dazzled by our rhetoric and awed by our intellect, then our wish is mere vanity. All such things fully achieved truly amount to nothing.

We have all been, at some time or another, acquainted with someone who intended for us to know just how superior he was. Revealing more insecurity than greatness, he trumpeted his accomplishments and boasted of how high he had climbed the ladder of this world. Any freedom or advantage he has is used to advance and promote himself, whatever the cost. He will step on you if it becomes necessary to get his way, to achieve his goal—which is self-advancement.

Seldom do we meet people with the opposite determination, to represent themselves as smaller than we think, as less noteworthy, not seeking honor, and more interested in us than in anything they might gain from us. Have you made yourself a servant to someone that you might win him, the person? That was Paul’s goal—to win men and women! That should be our goal, as well: to win people! Not win them for ourselves and to ourselves—but to win them to Christ and for Christ by the gospel!

A free man volunteers to become your slave that he might win you! What he wants is for you to know and love Jesus Christ. He wants you to become rich forever. He wants you to share in the costly but free favors of saving grace, as you believe the good news that Jesus died for you and that He was raised from the dead as your sin’s Conqueror. This slave freely serves you so that you will know he loves you and that he wants, not what is yours, but you—so that Christ may have you as His own and so that you may have the Lord Jesus as your very own. Can we honestly say, “I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more” (1 Corinthians 9:19 NKJV)? –TSA

Truly, Love Builds Up

2011-07-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

When Paul came to Athens “his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols” (Acts 17:16). Imagine the impact on a person’s mind, to believe that an almost infinite number of gods, deities, and spirits exist—and that they either make you prosper for appeasing them or pay dearly if you offend. Then imagine, having believed all of those things just yesterday, and then hearing the gospel preached by Paul or Peter or Titus or Barnabas and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Indeed, many people were saved out of rampant idolatry, snatched from the swirling currents of demonic occultism. If we think they came to Christ and instantly became sound in their knowledge of God and truth and life, we should rethink that.

If we had believed in many gods throughout our lives and had seen idol figures almost everywhere we looked, supposedly good ones and notoriously sinister ones, the lingering effects of that would be hard to shake. While our modern culture does not acknowledge a pantheon of deities, it is overrun with superstition of all sorts. My dear grandmother was a precious believer in Jesus, as sincere and earnest as they ever come. But she continued to think of certain things in a superstitious way; on some level many still do. A broken mirror meant ‘seven years bad luck’ and I forget what was supposed to happen if you walked beneath a standing ladder—whatever it was, it wasn’t good. In times long past and even now, many who sincerely and truly come to trust in Jesus may have no easy time shaking free of their past way of thinking, no matter how utterly silly some of it is or how entirely inconsistent with faith in the Almighty God. Their faith is real, yet some of their thinking continues to be very inconsistent with their faith.

Some of the Corinthian Christians were more knowledgeable than others who worshipped with them. Knowledge informs beliefs. Beliefs have consequences. If one believes, is absolutely clear on the fact, that there is one God and only one and that idols are not gods at all—that will instruct a person’s conscience. He will think and live under the influence of what he believes is true. Some of the Corinthian believers were crystal clear on these things. To them Paul wrote:

“…We know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him” (1 Corinthians 8:4-6).

Paul’s next few words may catch us a bit off-guard. Remember, he is not speaking of men in general, but referring to Christians in the Corinthian church. Having just stated beliefs that most of us think of as kindergarten stuff, the ABC’s of the gospel: “there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one;” and, “there is one God, the Father…and one Lord, Jesus Christ,” Paul then says something surprising about some Corinthian church members, Christians:

“However not all men have this knowledge…” (1 Corinthians 8:7a)

What? Does he mean that there are some Christians who do not fully grasp that there is one and only one God and that idols are not actual gods at all? Yes; that is what he was saying. Paul was telling the Corinthian church that some among their number were weak in conscience because they were lacking in true knowledge, not understanding certain truths, even some basic ones. And not understanding those truths and their implications, they could not yet be directed in their consciences by truths they did not understand.

But can anyone be a real Christian, a truly saved person, if he does not know—fully understand—that “there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one;” and, “there is one God, the Father…and one Lord, Jesus Christ”? We might write-off such people as unsaved, as unbelievers. Paul regarded them as weak, not as enemies of the gospel and without Christ. Was he content to leave weak brothers and sisters in ignorance and weakness? Not at all; that is why we have the epistles in our New Testaments. Paul and others wrote to teach and clarify and rebuke and strengthen.

We could adopt this attitude toward those who are weak in knowledge and, therefore, stunted in their spiritual maturity, as well. We could love them as brothers and sisters “for whom Christ died” and seek their advancement in the Way. We could be patient and kind and considerate of them, for Christ’s sake and theirs. What if they are, after all, His precious sheep—bought and paid for? –TSA

Great Knowledge & Great Love

2011-07-19T14:47:00.001-07:00

Knowledge and love may peacefully occupy the same heart. But one or the other will always take the lead. We must be sure that love is in the driver’s seat. True knowledge is necessary for us to live a fruitful Christian life. Once we know the truth, we must still “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Knowledge is better than ignorance. “It is not good for a soul to be without knowledge” (Proverbs 19:2). Yet we must have more than bare knowledge; love must tincture and flavor everything if we are to please Christ. Love must drive us and our knowledge of truth forward.

When love leads it builds up, edifies, fortifies. Untempered knowledge is not so good a leader as love is. When knowledge leads the way, and our ‘knowledge’ may be inaccurate much of the time, it brings us to arrogance. Even thinking that we know more than others, we become puffed up with an honorable sort of pride (that’s how we think of it). And it happens almost instantly.

We know something someone else doesn’t and we become proud of ourselves for knowing it. We well remember a time when we, too, were ignorant. Ah, but now we ‘know’ and it feels really good to be right, even if we happen to be wrong about being right. Indeed, we could all wish that ignorance made us as humble as knowledge makes us arrogant, but it doesn’t. Truly, “If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know” (1 Corinthians 8:2).

Knowledgeable Christians, well taught in the Word, learn to apply the truths of the Bible. Their knowledge is not academic; they actually begin to live in light of what God has revealed in His Word. Their goal is to please the Lord and the Bible gives them the true way of thinking and living. But, at some point, a robust Bible-believer may become amazed (even appalled) that others who also believe have learned so little from the Word. They say they believe, but they still think like worldly people. They are superstitious instead of biblically spiritual. They are strong in legalism and judgmentalism, yet weak in their commitment to the word of grace and to gospel-driven godliness. And while these criticisms may be valid enough, they are too often laced with the poison of sinful pride.

Great love, not great knowledge, is the mark of Jesus’ disciples. It is true: some genuine Christians are woefully under-taught and unlearned, therefore, they believe far too little of what they should believe. “Not all men have this knowledge” that you have. And some, who ought already to be capable teachers of the Word, need to be taught again the first principles of the faith (see Hebrews 5:12). Still, we must not permit the knowledge we possess to make us unloving, which it tends to do. Knowledgeable believers, having been privileged to hear and learn and know the truth, must be careful not to regard those who are weak in gospel knowledge as unbelievers or as purely pathetic and unworthy of a second thought.

The Apostle teaches that we must not be unconcerned for a weak brother “for whom Christ died.” Knowledge may make us confident of the truth and bold in the exercise of our liberties, even too bold. But love will make us kinder and less likely to insist on having and using our every liberty in every situation. It was love that provoked Paul’s readiness to do without his liberty: “if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble” (1 Corinthians 8:13). To have insisted on his liberty at the expense of a weak brother’s conscience being, possibly, mortally wounded would have meant sinning against Christ. Does love for Christ, regard for His atoning death, or love for the people for whom He died have any such effect on us?

It sure is easy to let a little knowledge make us arrogant and obnoxious and unloving. It seems that all we need to know is just a little more than we used to know and we become proud of ourselves; we may then begin to think that others are shamefully ignorant and much less serious Christians than are we. It is true, “knowledge puffs up.” Love must drive us. Love must carry us and our knowledge forward and onward, everywhere we go, for “love builds up!” –TSA

Tell No One

2011-07-15T05:35:00.001-07:00

“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered and said to Him, ‘You are the Christ.’ Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him.” (Mark 8:29-30 NKJV).

Many people think the Lord would have them (always and in every circumstance) to tell others about Him, to make it unmistakably clear that Jesus is the Christ, mankind’s only Redeemer, a sinner’s one true hope. However, after confirming the truthful confession of Simon Peter about His identity, our Lord very specifically ordered His disciples to “tell no one about Him.” There are moments when the Lord is most pleased for His faithful servants to “tell no one about Him.”

It was a timing thing. It still is. As the Preacher of old wrote, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Likewise, when Jesus commanded His disciples to “tell no one about Him,” it was not a perpetual order; rather, it was a time-sensitive command. The time was not then ripe for Him to be broadly announced as Messiah, so our Lord told His disciples, for the moment, to keep that information under their proverbial hat. When the time was right, He would give them another command “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” But for the moment, Jesus wisely restricted their preaching, knowing the times.

We might think that since the command to preach Christ to the nations has now been given we are showing disloyalty to the cause of the Lord Jesus if we ever determine that some particular moment is just not the best time to speak of Him to another person. Yet, the Scriptures in many places commend wisdom and discretion. Jesus picked His spots and so should we. There were times when He would perform miracles, one after another. On other occasions, He limited His mighty works greatly.

He found the situation at His hometown of Nazareth hostile and unwelcoming, where most of the people were neither believing nor even mildly receptive of Him and His message: “And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief” (Mark 6:5-6a). When the it says “He could there do no mighty work,” it has no reference to Jesus’ power or ability; it has to do with the fact that He decided that such faithless people could only misinterpret and despise such great works. He decided not to do many great works there among them. In mercy, He did heal a few sick people.

Surely the message about Jesus is most precious, more precious than perfect pearls. If we think of the gospel as precious and worthy, then we will listen to our Lord Jesus and refrain from casting the lovely message of His love and grace under the filthy feet of filthy swine who only despise precious things. There are some who account themselves unworthy of eternal life by refusing to hear and obey the message of the cross (cf. Acts 13:46). A faithful evangelist does not cast the precious pearls of gospel truth under the feet of vicious, raging swine.

At times and in some circumstances, faithfulness to Christ Jesus will require us to “tell no one about Him.” On some other occasion it may be perfectly right to tell those very same people about the Lord Jesus. Effective evangelism is thoughtful. Effective evangelism strikes its blow when the iron is glowing hot. –TSA

Rejected & Killed

2011-07-12T07:59:00.000-07:00

To a first century Jew, the very thought that Israel’s long-awaited Messiah would ever “be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed”—that would truly have been unthinkable, the very opposite of every expectation. The illustrious Person designated by Yahweh Elohim to be King over all Israel, whose kingdom’s reach would extend to the very ends of earth, when He appeared He would be recognized and welcomed and loved and honored and served—that was the nigh-universal belief. However, the reality was to be far different.

Walking northward toward Caesarea Philippi from the Galilee, Jesus asked His chosen men about the general public’s thinking, “Who do men say that I am?” Public opinion was that Jesus was probably one of the old prophets returned, possibly Elijah or Jeremiah. They knew He was unusual and that He must have been sent from God, but they did not recognize Jesus as Messiah, the true King of Israel. The disciples, however, had another understanding. They knew Him to be the Christ, Messiah, the Son of the living God (see Mark 8; Matthew 16).

Jesus confirmed the disciples’ understanding of His identity: the Christ, Messiah, the Lord’s Anointed. How did they come to a right understanding about Him, while the elders of Israel and other leading religious figures, priests and scribes, all rejected Jesus as Messiah and conspired to have Him killed? Was the disciples’ understanding mere prejudice based on affection and admiration? Were they simply too impressed with Him to have a smaller opinion? Who was right, the religious elite or the fishermen and tax collectors? According to Jesus, the disciples were right. He explained how they came to right conclusions about Him.

Hearing Simon Peter’s confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” “Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). These men had been taught the truth about Jesus and it was Jesus’ “Father who is in heaven” who had made them understand that the Nazarene was and is Christ, the King, the Son of the living God.

But the King must die. And He well knew it before He ever came into this world by taking to Himself true humanity through the womb of the Virgin. After the disciples had acknowledged Him as Christ, as true Deity, and after they had been solidly confirmed in their understanding, Jesus then began to speak to them plainly of His death.

What a boulder of a truth and hardly one that they could have expected or anticipated! A stunning revelation it was. How could it be, that Messiah will be rejected and killed? —by every right He should be welcomed, adored and enthroned. The thought was utterly foreign to every mind—except Jesus’ mind. In fact, Simon Peter, the recent chief confessor of our faith, found His words about His impending rejection and death so unthinkable and incredible that he actually began to reprimand Him for saying such things. Simon did not yet understand God’s purpose that Jesus’ had to die to bear away the sins of His people. He would later understand it well and powerfully preach this gospel of a crucified, risen, enthroned Messiah. –TSA

Seeing More Clearly

2011-07-11T06:47:00.000-07:00

Some things happen instantly in one event and they’re done. Many of us think of spiritual enlightenment as a momentary experience, as in “I once was blind, but now I see.” Yet for many of us Newton’s lyric is an abbreviation of our fuller experience. It tells the truth of what has happened within us and to us, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Many of us experienced something rather like what happened to the blind man of Bethsaida.

Jesus “came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, ‘I see men like trees, walking.’ Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly” (Mark 8:22-26 NKJV).

It is common, at least in some circles, for some people to think that others are not truly saved because their particular experience does not exactly mirror their own. Some precious Christians have been tormented by friends and relatives who doubt the reality of their salvation because they cannot recall the date of their conversion or specify the moment of their new birth. For some Christians it seems more complicated and they simply cannot pinpoint the different parts of their conversion experience; that does not mean they are not true Christians. Indeed, some have a Damascus Road moment, while others have a Bethsaida Road experience—in fact, the Damascus Road and Bethsaida Road experiences are more alike than we might, at first, think.

Saul’s Damascus Road experience was a step by step event in his life. He saw a bright light, fell to the ground, as he was blinded by brilliance; he saw nothing for a period of days until the Lord Jesus sent Ananias to him and then there fell from his eyes something like scales. Saul’s experience began in an instant but it was not over in an instant. Over a period of days the Lord used those things to transform his life and He gave him his marching orders as an apostle.

The blind man from Bethsaida instantly got some vision; he was a blind man no more. His darkness disappeared in a moment. Light broke in and his utter blindness gave way to some sight—it was true sight, but it was not clear vision. He saw things. He did see something, whereas before he saw nothing. At first nothing was truly clear. He could see men, but they looked more like trees that walked than like men. It took another touch of Jesus’ hands with another powerful and wonderful work of grace to help him to see clearly.

Having been once blind to the things of God, receiving our first glimpse of Christ is a precious gift. But we may not see things so clearly at first. If we remember well our early days as believers, we know that we saw many things we had never seen before. But many things were rather fuzzy—unclear. We needed the Lord’s further help so that we could see things accurately, as they truly were and are. We still need that. If we now have received the faculty of spiritual sight, we need more and more to behold Jesus and understand the truth as revealed in Him. –TSA

Inviting Disaster

2011-03-04T06:06:00.000-08:00

When some prominent man in ministry falls into scandalous sin and becomes a shame to himself and an example of ministerial failure, skeptical people may quickly respond ‘I told you; they’re all a bunch of phonies.’ And is it any wonder that such an opinion would be held? It seems that ‘the Christian ministry’ is often plagued with such men (and now women). But how is that possible? How do such characters find any place, much less prominent places, in ‘the Christian ministry?’

Anything man can touch he can pollute. In some instances corruption seems to be an awkward intrusion, but in others it seems virtually invited. Without doubt it is a major factor promoting corruption when men can enter ‘the Christian ministry’ and then remain in positions of trust without meaningful accountability to anyone for their doctrine or manner of life. Unbiblical religious hierarchies can become massive monstrosities and hiding places for filthy men in priestly garb, all ordained and truly unfit to administer CPR to a dying rat. It is painful to see situations where “the people of the Lord” have little or no power to oust wicked men who have “crept in unnoticed;” and where those who do have some authority refuse to do what is right. And we wonder that some saints find it preferable to just stay home!

The fact that men are ‘in the ministry’ does not mean that they are men of God or even true believers. “And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there” (1 Samuel 1:3). “Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord” (1 Samuel 2:12 NKJV). It cannot be put much plainer than that. They were priests. They did not know the Lord. They were priests ‘in the ministry’ of the covenant God of Israel, sons of a priest who honored his sons more than he honored his God. They served themselves, regarded the worship of God as unimportant, and were notoriously immoral. Sound familiar? Wickedness may follow a millennia-old pattern.

If only God’s people would insist on applying the biblical standards for the men who serve in the church’s offices as pastors and deacons, the only way wicked men could get in and stay in the ministry would be by hook and crook, by lying, cheating and sneaking in. Churches that will not insist on following the Bible’s prescription for a healthy ministry are inviting disaster. And it is disaster when the true ministry of the gospel is lost.

There is a mainline church in a nearby town, less than an hour’s drive from my home; its minister is an admitted apostate who denies every distinctive of the biblical gospel, mocking true, gospel-believing Christians who attempt to be true to God and His Word. The ‘church’ there is thrilled with him and his Christ-denying ways. In this case, the corruption is cheered by the people, not as in the days of Eli’s sons when “the people of the Lord” were grieved by the priest’s abuses. Some assemblies who have the name ‘Christian’ are truly mislabeled.

The words of Jeremiah seem very fitting: “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it” (Jeremiah 5:30-31 NASB)? –TSA

Our Little Window of Time

2011-02-05T16:23:00.000-08:00

Every last one of us has an appointment with death, just as we had an appointment with birth. Every day we live is one that was ordained for us, a day God fashioned for us and that He always intended for us to live. You are alive today because God always intended it so. “…And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (Ps 139:16).

Thinking about his life and God’s intimate involvement with all of it, the psalmist was certain that his life was no accident of some mindless Fate. He was sure that his tiny existence that began in his mother’s womb was part of Yahweh’s great plan for His seemingly infinite creation. Although small as a particle of dust and seemingly as insignificant, his life mattered to God.

Before any of them actually arrive in time, “the days fashioned” for us existed in God’s mind. All of our days from birth to death were ordained, intended for us. Beyond anything we can imagine or control Almighty God’s plan is at work, unfolding through what we call history. We are living tomorrow’s history today; what we do (and leave undone) becomes part of the story. The story is being written and we who know God and His love must do all the good we can—however little it may seem in our eyes.

Time will come when time will be done—until then, there is a window of opportunity during which we may work the works of God. We work His works by believing—by grace believing in “Him whom God has sent” (Jn 6:28). Believing and seeking to please Jesus, we find joy in doing His will and substantial measures of misery in everything else. Our doing flows from our believing. If we live despising what is and grieving over what is not, we squander “the days fashioned” for us and give them one at a time to the devil’s sly servant, Demon Despair. Every day thus given away is time unredeemed (Eph 5:15) and life lost.

The works of God cry out to be done; where are workers who will live out their faith? Cups of cool water must yet be given and received; thirsty people are fainting. Kind deeds must still surprise an unkind world in which sin has soured so many poor souls. Relationships must yet be valued and nurtured, for loneliness kills men and women deader than bullets and bombs. True words must still be spoken in love so that our brothers will be strengthened for another day’s service to the King. Gospel words must yet be lifted up so that hopeless and condemned souls may find, as we once found, eternal life and peace with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. –TSA

The Weber City Auction

2011-01-25T18:50:00.000-08:00

The first auction I remember attending was when I was a little boy. It was in Weber City, Virginia and the building is still there almost fifty years later; in fact, I drove by there earlier today. When I go toward Gate City I almost always take mental note of the old auction house, but I never notice it on the way back.

The auctioneer blaring his voice into a microphone that he seemed to have swallowed, there were escalating bids here, there and everywhere for whatever it was he was selling. Going once, going twice…Sold! Then it all would start over again with the next item. Quite the entertainment to a small boy who lived by the river on a rural road; attending the Weber City auction was better than going to town on Saturday morning.

The only rule dad imposed on me was to not scratch my nose or ear or anything else while inside the auction house. He didn’t want to have to pay for whatever I might have bid on by scratching something. He and Mom bought a piece or two of furniture during one of our few visits there, but mostly we went to have something to do.

The best day was when Dad bought for me a medium sized cardboard box full of cast off toys, including a mechanical robot man with gears and gears and gears of different colors behind a clear plastic exterior. That was a great day. But it only lasted a little while, that best day.

The worst day was about a week later when I didn’t stop playing with the noisy mechanical robot toy after Dad’s third or fourth warning and in a quick moment he picked up the amazing robot man thing and threw it with some force into the cardboard box and busted it. It landed with a ringing clatter and never worked again. Right away he was sorry; but he could never apologize for anything so he let me feel like it was me that broke it—my fault. Of course, I should have stopped playing with it when he told me to stop. But I was a kid with a new toy, after all.

Anytime I remember the Weber City auction, I recall that mechanical robot toy and dad breaking it in the cardboard box as I sat on the floor in the doorway of the hall closet.

If there is a lesson here it might be this: all dads need to remember that their kids may very well remember things long after they’re gone. If dads mess up and in an angry fit break their kid’s amazing mechanical robot toy that came in a cardboard box of junk, they should apologize for losing control and doing something they really shouldn’t have—a little like the excited, engrossed kid who wouldn’t stop playing with the mechanical robotic toy thing when he should have.

Dads are sometimes overgrown, misbehaving boys. Take a breath and think. Your kids are watching all the time. And sometimes the woman who gave them birth is watching, too; it never hurts to impress her any time you can. –TSA

Right Verse, Wrong Chapter

2011-01-25T06:50:00.000-08:00

Long ago in a county not far away a Baptist church sprang up. Anyone could tell it was a growing concern from all the cigarette butts on the ground near the back door. Between Sunday School and the worship service, a cloud of white smoke would rise as the saints lit-up all at once.

One family of five attended and seemed very happy to be part of the church. Of the three children, the youngest was a boy about ten. He was constantly misbehaving, often sticking his face in the midst of various women’s chests and hugging them, and the parents routinely did nothing to teach him better. After many incidents of such totally unacceptable behavior, his parents were taken aside by the pastor and one of the leading men and asked to do their duty as parents and regain control of their son. The parents reacted badly, at least as badly as their son.

The boy’s father was startled that anyone would be so bold as to point out the elephant in the room, but the wife was enraged out of her mind. Her claws shot out and she gave the men a good cussing and told them that her precious little son’s behavior was none of their **** business. The men insisted that the boy’s behavior must be reined in and corrected if the family intended to continue attending the services. It was their duty to discipline their son and their duty to seek the good of the church. She told the men to go somewhere besides heaven and that her family would come to church as they pleased and that nobody had better say a word to their son. Ah, yes; life among the saints!

Right away the church acted to apply basic church discipline to this situation. Mama changed everybody’s mind and they never attended again. The man did like many men do. He stood with his hands in his pockets and every now and then said, “That’s right” and “You tell ‘em, Honey,” as his wife ran her filthy mouth. They did send the church a silly letter threatening legal action and made a few unfriendly phone calls to the pastor and a few others. Needless to say, the man and woman refused to submit to any sort of church discipline; and that was that.

As part of the church’s attempt to deal with the matter biblically, Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:15-20 were followed to the best of the church’s ability. This Scripture reference was recorded in the Minutes of the congregational meeting. But it was recorded incorrectly; an innocent mistake. The right verse was referenced but from the wrong chapter. So instead of Matthew 18 the church record referred to Matthew 17:15-ff, which begins, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic…” Everyone had to suppress themselves. Some of us ‘lost it.’

It might not have been the spiritual thing to do, finding humor in such a mistake, but it was hard not to at least smile.

As fitting as that Scripture might have been, it was not actually used to justify the church discipline. After all, it was not the boy’s fault that he had ungodly parents that refused to obey the truth and to teach him well. Almost needless to say, that whole family reaped the fruit of rebellion against God’s truth. No one was happy to see things happen as they did, yet no one was terribly surprised when all three of their children soon rebelled beyond all control. Another family ruined through pure folly. –TSA

Deception Hurts Worse

2011-01-23T20:40:00.001-08:00

They say the truth hurts; sometimes it hurts a lot. Ah, but deceptions hurt so much worse. Falsehood impersonates truth and some heart is misled and carries on with confidence in something untrue or, at least, not to be depended on.

Surely, we do ourselves a great favor to remember often that this is indeed a fallen world. Adam’s Fall in Eden (and our Fall with him) followed closely upon the serpentine utterance of deceptive words and lying promises. And ever since, “the wicked…go astray from birth, speaking lies” (Psalm 58:3). Truth has become a casualty in this world, suffering daily a thousand wounds at the hands of smiling ‘friends.’

“Remove far from me falsehood and lying” (Proverbs 30:8a ESV). These words are from the only prayer recorded in the Book of Proverbs. This is the first of two things asked for; the second request is for material adequacy in life, as he asks God to sufficiently supply enough of life’s good things, but not too much—and there is such a thing as too much (see Proverbs 30:8b-9).

The first desire of that wise man was that God would not permit him to traffic in falsehood (outright untruth or truth set forth in untrue colors) or lying (willing deception by false words or unfaithful dealing). He would not become a liar by any definition. Having prayed for virtue, he also asks for Heaven’s protection from those who might victimize him by deception or lying. And this request was put ahead of his asking for food, clothing, housing, health, riches or any other earthly prosperity. First and above all he wishes to be preserved from deception and lies, even from their near vicinity—he wants those things to be far away from him and no part of his life.

Almost always after deception, sooner or later, the truth becomes evident; the deceived person cannot help feeling that he played the fool or was played for one. Sometimes the fault is ours for being foolishly unsuspecting; we rightly blame ourselves for being insufficiently wary in this fallen world.

Then we may misjudge people at times, believing them trustworthy when they are not. Often we trust too quickly, too much, too unreservedly. Some twice-burned children still play with fire. As hurtful as ‘getting burned’ can be, it seems too cynical and hopeless a way to live to never trust anyone for anything. But it truly is a fallen world and it is a long way down from the high-wire on which we stand when we trust. It is a high-wire act of sorts, how to navigate whether and just how much we may safely trust even the people we should be able to trust implicitly. Beneath the high-wire, is there a net? I don’t see one. The more we trust, the higher the wire and the farther we may fall. Broken trust, broken bones, broken hopes, broken hearts.

Unkindness and Deception are partners. Unkindness gives aid to Deception, as a strong breeze lifts the sails and drives a ship forward. Deception declares that Unkindness is never unkind. Unkindness says Deception is very often misquoted and more often misunderstood. These two always travel together with Unkindness leading the way.

For citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, love for truth in word and deed is the Shibboleth—and we can pronounce it correctly. There is no place for Unkindness and Deception in our tents or in our streets; let them be slaughtered at the fords of the Jordan. If we let these enemies live, then no one will be safe, “but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13 ESV).

“Speaking the truth in love” is and always will be the hallmark of a citizen of Zion. Surely deceptions and lies burn like acid on a true saint’s tongue. In this way let us live, “…having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25 ESV). “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). And so we pray with him who prayed before us, “Keep deception and lies far from me” (Proverbs 30:8a NASB). –TSA

Offenses Do Surely Come

2011-01-22T13:06:00.000-08:00

Most of God’s people regularly pray that He will keep them safe from harm—it is a standing request. He may answer this prayer daily across most of the years of our lives, but there are seasons when He wills for us to be offended and wounded and heartbroken. Jesus once said to His disciples, “Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes” (Matthew 18:7)! We may wish it were otherwise, but so it is and so it happens. Offenses come; they are sure to come. Somehow they are part of God’s unfolding plan. And yet the persons through whom they come bear responsibility for what they do to offend.

Precisely how God is glorified through our pain and failure, I’m not sure we can know; but somehow we believe it is true because His Word so assures us.

Paul had his thorn in the flesh and it seems to have been part of his life until he died—there was no praise report sent out from prison concerning its removal. He developed some idea as to the why and came to some peace about it.

Job’s charmed life disappeared in one day and was replaced by a long season of unspeakable misery bombarding him from what seemed like every side. He eventually got some peace and perspective at the end of it all, when he finally saw himself as nothing and God as awesome beyond anything he had ever imagined. He put his hand over his mouth, speechless except for expressions of repentance.

Jacob lived for years and years with the grief of Joseph’s death weighing down his very soul into the sand and dirt. Every fair morning was tinged with bitter herbs. Every evening sunset announced the nearness of yet another lonely night, as Israel lived grieving over his Joseph. All the while his heart was consumed with loss, his Joseph was very much alive and having his own successes and trials of faith in Egypt. Eventually, great good came and old Israel’s pain eased, but only at the end of many years of grief—all stemming from so much hatred, jealousy, and deception.

Why does God deal with His own in such ways? Well, that is complicated and painfully simple. I cannot explain it, but I believe that is true, all at the same time: very complicated and very simple.

What we can know is that all of us are born for trouble just as sure as sparks fly upward from the fire (cf. Job 5:7). None of us are immune and no one can sufficiently insulate himself from life’s pain, neither by the best of good works nor by the truest, most earnest faith. God is God. We are not. He knows all things and His purpose is true and good. Created and finite, we mostly see life and its mysteries through a peephole in time and space; our perception of reality is dim and, most often, ridiculously inaccurate.

Knowing some facts and grasping a few concepts is not the same as knowing God. After all imaginable study and much contemplation, we still don’t know much about the Holy One or His ways. The essence of His holiness is His entire otherness and that makes Him beyond predicting—we assume from all we know of Him that He will do this, but He does that instead.

His covenant name, I AM, speaks of His utter independence, as well as self-existence. He is surely bound by nothing beyond His own character and pleasure. He is certainly not bound by our infantile, simplistic ideas of who He is. Knowing Him at all, personally and redemptively, depends on His revealing Himself; otherwise, He we could never know Him, except for His power and fearful judgment. For our salvation, He has revealed Himself through a glorious creation and through providence, which certainly includes His Word written, proclaimed, and redemptively applied in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

When He has ordained hard providences to come into our experience and cause disappointment and pain (some of those offenses that come), we complain from our wealth of ignorance—not from knowledge of much more than our temporary pain or our more enduring arrogance. If we echo the heart of Job, “He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree,” still, who are we to talk back to God, this God of providence, “who works all things after the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11)? “Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” (cf. Romans 9:20). Yet we do at times, as foolish as it is.

If we ever become weary enough, we may cease our striving against the evident providence of God, admit our ignorance and emptiness, and seek pure mercy, and anything of good that He might be pleased to give—looking through the eyes of a needy child to our Father in heaven. Surely He knows best and all that He does is right in His eyes. O that we might see things through His eyes!

“The man declares, I am weary, O God;

I am weary, O God, and worn out.

Surely I am too stupid to be a man.

I have not the understanding of a man.

I have not learned wisdom,

nor have I knowledge of the Holy One” (Proverbs 30:1b-3 ESV)

May the God of peace give you peace in the midst of trouble. –TSA

Distracted & Enamored?

2011-01-11T17:25:00.000-08:00

How often we lose sight of our Savior because some storefront glass along one of life’s city streets caught our eye. Glancing sideways and not forward, much like a little child we become distracted and enamored with our own reflection. Our forward pace slows to a crawl and then we stop altogether, mildly captivated by our own mirrored image. Following Christ momentarily ceases to be our focus and, in what seemed an instant, He led on ahead and we lost our way.

When we come to ourselves and to our senses (and by grace we do) we find that we are standing still and feeling very alone. Christ led the way but we were distracted, maybe for a few moments or days or weeks. He moved on while we dawdled before the window. Then we knew not the next step to take or in which direction it should be. Rather than standing still and crying out to Him, that He will come to us and forgive us and lead us again, we wander down one street and then another. Before long we feel all turned-around, disoriented, bewildered and in a state of spiritual confusion.

It is tempting to think we might just watch the flow of the crowd and find our way. Notable Christians are going on their way; if we follow them we will surely find our way, too. There is profound Paul and his ever-encouraging friend Barnabas, diligent Timothy and committed Titus, bold Luther and mild Melanchthon, fearless Knox and eloquent Spurgeon, and even some of our contemporaries who we admire. But, in the end, each of us must run his own race, trace his own course.

We each have a unique marathon course laid out for us in the providence of God and are guided by the compass of His Word. And while we may be encouraged to see a Joseph, David, Peter or John run well, to fix our eyes upon them is not how we find our pathway. They encourage and inspire, but it is Jesus who gives us faith to begin with, who strengthens us and leads us through life. We must fix our eyes on Him, because He is “the author and perfecter of our faith.” He is the object of our believing and the One who guarantees that our faith will reach its final goal in glory with Him.

We each have unique lives; one is never exactly like another. Therefore, we expect each person’s course to be one-of-a-kind. Yet no Christian runs his race in solitude. Christ has appointed it otherwise; we are added to His church when we are saved. And unlike a physical race, this spiritual race is not a competition. We may run hand-in-hand, heart-to-heart, pulling for and helping one another.

Let us each run our unique course, loving and helping one another. And we help each other best when we direct each other’s eyes to fix on Jesus, who is “the way.” If ever we find ourselves distracted and enamored by our own reflection, let us call again upon our Lord Jesus; surely He will come into view and lead us on our way. –TSA

Unspeakable Love

2011-01-06T17:04:00.000-08:00

True and saving faith begins in a single moment with one lingering gaze of the soul. It then continues throughout a lifetime—persevering, unrelenting, trusting in Jesus. Our faith may quiver from weakness or grow bold at times, but at our core we know that only Jesus can save us; and that through faith alone. Our confidence is not in the greatness of our faith, but in the perfect righteousness of our Lord Christ imputed to us through faith. Indeed, our hearts reject every other hope as false and empty and damning.

The persevering of saving faith is no work of human effort. Faith and its enduring persistence are entirely of grace. None of us has power to generate this faith. Neither can we add perseverance to it once we have received the ability and will to believe from God. We believe and persevere only by grace and strength from above. But persevering is something believers actively do. Wherever saving faith abides, there is a striving to please the Lord and a growing, deepening trust in Him.

Perseverance is one of those “better things” “that accompany salvation” (cf. Hebrews 6:9). Yet it is important to understand that our perseverance is never, in this life, a perfect steadfastness. It is one of the ‘growing graces’ that increases and thrives when fed and nourished and withers if starved or neglected. Therefore, we must nourish our faith so that we may “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

The believer who earnestly strives against his remaining sin and seeks to do righteousness finds that there are still occasions when the heavenly Father touches us with His correcting, training hand. Any of us who finds himself walking in known disobedience will surely know the Lord’s strong hand, as well. And He disciplines us because He loves us, not to harm us or discourage us. Among our greatest comforts is to remember that our Father rebukes and chastens us because we are His and we are cherished as “the apple of His eye.” Because we are His, He will have us be more like Jesus and much less like the world.

We must not be disheartened when He disciplines us, but rather bear up well, trusting His hand and heart. When His dealings with us are puzzling or even painful, shall we doubt our Father’s love? When our comforts seem fewer than ever before and our fears are greater than we ever recall, shall we think His love has diminished? No. But He will have us to trust Him more.

When we have sought His face and feel sure that it is only His back we have seen, we must remember the immutable nature of our Father’s love. If He makes His loves ones wait, if He sends troubles instead of ease for which we prayed, if He says ‘No,’ surely His reasons are wise and good. Dear one, He has not changed and we yet see dimly. In all these hard things we are “more than conquerors” and we may be sure that, despite our present discomfort, His “banner over us” remains ‘Unspeakable Love.’ “Let your heart not be troubled…” (John 14:1). –TSA

“For whom the Lord loves He chastens, …” Hebrews 12:6a NKJV

“…we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them…they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.” Hebrews 12:9-10 NASB

“…the reproofs of discipline are the way of life” Proverbs 6:23 ESV

They and Us, Together

2010-12-10T06:39:00.000-08:00

“And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:39-40 ESV)

All those OT believers mentioned either by name, character, or conquest were approved by God through their personal faith in His promise. (In this Abraham was not alone, for justification has always been by faith alone.) The promise had not primarily to do with temporal blessings or material favors like land or worldly riches, but with eternal, spiritual, and redemptive realities.

Although they all received their commendation from God through faith in Him, thoroughly evidenced through their abiding hope in His promise—fact is, none of them received the fulfillment of what was promised. The promise could only be fulfilled by Jesus, the Mediator of the new and better covenant. And in the fullness of time, God sent His Son as promised (cf. Gal 4:4-5).

The new covenant and its unsurpassable blessings of salvation are the fulfillment of what was promised. In Christ, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all have the promise fulfilled. Now, together with us who are in Christ by faith, those who believed in Him through the promises have received the fulfillment they waited for. Now we, all of us—OT believers and NT believers in Christ Jesus together possess what God planned. Now, together with us, they also have the perfection of conscience that was often typified and promised since the Fall in Eden—now fulfilled in the finished, once-for-all-redemption accomplished by our Savior and theirs.

Here is yet another Scripture declaring the unity and continuity of the elect of God of all ages. We are, together, one people of God, one holy nation, one true ecclesia taken from all nations, from Israel and from all the rest. Together, we partake of one salvation. We Gentiles who have believed the fulfillment have sat down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (and also with Peter, James and John, and Luke, and all the rest) in the kingdom of heaven (cf. Matt 8:11). Together we are one people of God, the true Israel, having natural and wild branches in one peaceful olive tree that is the one true church of Jesus Christ (see Eph 2:14 & Rom 11:17-24).

Those who cherished the promise before it was fulfilled in the Person and work of Christ (OT believers) have been made perfect together with us who have believed in the promise fulfilled. Together with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob we have come to understand the mystery of redemption revealed, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (cf. John 8:56 & Col 1:26-27).

Now there is an ‘already’ and a ‘not yet.’ Have we already been made perfect, we who have believed in Christ? Yes; already (cf. Heb 7:18-19 & Heb 10:1 & 14). Our consciences are now perfectly at peace as we rest in the absolute righteousness of our Lord Jesus, imputed to us by faith alone. We are accepted in God’s Beloved Son (Eph 1:6). However, there is also the ‘not yet’ grace awaiting us, to be unveiled at the Last Day, at Christ’s coming again (1 Peter 1:13), at the resurrection (John 5:29 & 11:24), at our glorification (Rom 8:30). Along with all of our brethren of OT and NT times we await that eternal day and the new heavens and new earth where only righteousness will dwell (2 Peter 3:13), where the Lamb once slain is the light of that never-ending world (Rev 21:23). –TSA

Squandered Potential

2010-12-08T08:01:00.000-08:00

Several years ago word worked its way around to me that a man I much admired and appreciated remarked that I needed to quit messing around and finish Bible College and then go on to Seminary, that I was wasting my potential. I wanted to do that, actually; but providence surely ordered otherwise, as other responsibilities made that not an option.

Reflecting on the last three decades, I suppose in terms of a religious career the man was right. (I do indeed wish that I had acquired the biblical languages and others wish I had acquired a few advanced classes in ‘tact.’) No doubt, some potential was squandered while I messed around attempting to shepherd a small assembly and seeking to become a competent Bible expositor.

Over the years, it could be that the critic wasted more potential than I. Career-wise, no. He earned a handsome living, raised a handsome family, and no doubt has a handsome annuity laid up for many years. But as far as I know he never reformed a single church; never left even one congregation with a solid biblical theology upon which to build their future. Instead of becoming a theologian-shepherd-mentor-evangelist, over time he became just another company man, loyal to denomination and traditional, tasteless, middle-of-the-road-ness. It seems that he now mostly labors to keep deep-thinking, theologically-minded preaching men out of the pastorates of churches within his circle of influence. That helps guarantee that those churches will remain as weak as ever, overly-traditional, and stuck in the same mud they have been stuck in for years—and painfully ineffective for Christ. As for potential squandered, God knows and the last day will reveal.

As for any remaining potential we might have to pour into the service of Jesus Christ, let us not waste another micron of it. Don’t waste your potential. But understand this if you miss everything else: faithfulness to the Lord Jesus and faithfulness to the truth of His Word is success. So be kind and be faithful. That will be our potential realized. –TSA

To See His Face Again

2010-03-06T19:35:00.000-08:00

“And I will wait on the Lord, who hides His face from the house of Jacob; and I will hope in Him.” (Isaiah 8:17)

There are seasons when it seems that the Lord hides His face from His people. We look to Him and pray to Him, but it seems that His attentions are elsewhere. We can’t seem to catch His eye. We feel that we are seeing His back and not His face. But the people of God, determined to see His face and not His back, can only wait until He turns and refreshes their hearts. We must wait; faith has no other choice. And, my, how wilting the wait can be!

We all have seen the cut flower deprived of its root, wilted. Water in a vase helps only for a time. It eventually droops and curls and dies because it no longer has connection to the source of its life and strength. A waiting soul can feel like a cut flower at times.

Sometimes sin is the issue. We may live under our Father’s frown because of carelessness and disobedience toward His truth. When we cannot see His face by faith we must ask to see if there be any wicked way in us that must be purged. Upon repentance we may sweetly sigh at the fresh sight of our Father’s face. It is amazing how peace is restored and comfort given.

Sometimes it’s about spiritual training. During a season of seeing His back we learn how sinful it is to ever take His face for granted. O to see His face and feel the comforts of His Spirit! O to know delight in the gathered church once more and to feel the touch of Christ’s hand as He walks among us!

This waiting is no idle thing. Neither is it despairing. But it can be wearying and hope may wane at times. But a believing child of God, alive by His Spirit and trusting the cross work of Jesus, keeps on asking and seeking and knocking (Matthew 7:7). “I will wait on the Lord…I will hope in Him” until He has mercy. What a moment when we see His face anew! –TSA

In the Background

2009-09-06T05:18:00.000-07:00

In the background of life where we think there is nothing but silence and emptiness, there is something. A cacophony of sound makes up what we call silence. We have conditioned ourselves not to hear it and think everything is all quiet.

The still of morning is almost amusingly boisterous, with the humming of industrial machines and tires whirring on streets a few seconds ahead of a car that seems out of place, as if it should still be parked at home at such an hour.

Early birds gurgle out their silent sounds and most days we never notice. But they are there in the background when everything is quiet, seeming to compete with the army of invisible crickets and their unrelenting noise.

A kitchen door closes down the street just loudly enough to be recognized; the morning paper was brought in. Someone else was out in the noise and didn’t hear a thing, either. The cicadas and their rolling chorus just blended into the everyday fabric of another silent morn.

We all might go a little bit crazy if all we had for background was our own voice in our own heads mulling over the disjointed thoughts of our own minds. Thank God for the harmonies of silence: distant dogs, birds in trees, tires on streets, rain softly kissing dry leaves, and green vines swaying with each other in a breeze. Such symphonic silence aids our sanity, don’t you think?

Can you hear it just above your heartbeat? That’s it, the sound that surrounds us as we live, always there in the background. –TSA

Jonah's Gourd & My Maple Tree

2009-04-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

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).

You Won't Meet God at "The Shack"

2009-04-03T06:10:00.000-07:00

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

The Man in the Iron Cage

2009-03-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

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

Where His Glory Dwells

2009-03-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

“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

If God Should Repay

2009-02-20T05:59:00.000-08:00

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

Heaven Closed

2009-02-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

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

Repentance, Not Regret

2009-01-15T11:36:00.000-08:00

“…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

Remember...

2009-01-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

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

The Exclusive Savior

2008-06-29T14:10:00.000-07:00

The natural minds of fallen men simply and profoundly hate the truth about God. Some that frequent churches and attend religious services are no different—full of religion they despise the truth revealed in the Bible. The peerless character of the one, true, and living God is too holy and His intolerance of sin too exacting for the worldly person’s taste; indeed, the world delights to worship lesser, more manageable gods.

The truth about God Almighty is too hard to handle unless one has peace with Him on His terms. His terms are plainly stated in the gospel of Christ and nowhere else. His gospel is plain and narrow: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The Lord Jesus’ understanding of Himself was that He alone was (and is) the only “way” by which sinful people can be restored to real communion with God. The “way” to eternal life is that narrow according to Jesus. Either we put our trust in Him or we perish.

One Redeemer
Jesus is Lord, not a moral teacher. He did not come to show us how to be nice. He did not come to inform us that we too can become gods. Rather, He is the eternal God who became Man in order to redeem us. None was more compassionate, but He did not come to merely demonstrate compassion. He came to accomplish redemption, to purchase His people by His blood! “To save His people from their sins” by His spotless life and obedient death on the cross; to conquer death and darkness by His death and resurrection from the dead!

Some prominent celebrities, religious and secular, along with innumerable New-Age types lend their voices to condemn the biblical gospel as too narrow. They favor ‘another gospel,’ along with its anathema (see Galatians 1:6-10); one that tells of many ways to God and many doors through which ‘good people’ may enter heaven. Nationally-renowned religious heroes who once preached Jesus Christ and faith in His Name as the only way of salvation (see John 14:6) have begun to whistle ‘another gospel’ tune, becoming even more beloved and more highly-honored—apostate though they be. Sad and sickening, the shipwreck some have made concerning the faith!

More than a Local Savior
He is not merely “the way” for those who hear the gospel; Jesus is the only way for any person to be reconciled to God. Those who suggest that some who never hear will be ‘saved’ because they are ignorant of the gospel and that will render them unaccountable in the Judgment, they lie against the truth! If that were so, then the only guaranteed-successful evangelism program would be to leave everyone as ignorant as possible and never mention Jesus to anyone—but ignorance does nothing to diminish a sinner’s corruption of heart. Ignorance does not remove accountability and sin still fully deserves the righteous wrath of God, whether or not we ever hear the gospel. To hear the gospel is a mercy from God, for it is only by resting our soul’s hope in Jesus Christ that we are saved from the wrath due unto us for our sin (see Acts 4:12). It is by faith alone that we savingly embrace Jesus our Sin-bearer.

A Line of Nonsense
Just how numb are people’s minds; can people not tell when they are being fed a line of nonsense? Are we unable to discern light and darkness? Know the difference between truth and falsity? Can we not recognize the disparity between the gospel according to Oprah and the gospel according to Jesus?

When some people talk about Jesus and the gospel they engage in such intellectual dishonesty as would land them in jail if they used the same measure of truth in a court of law. For them Jesus and the gospel are subject to definition-at-will, which always results in misrepresentation and dishonesty. The ‘Jesus’ they describe is not the Christ revealed in Scripture, and yet they give the impression that their representation is consistent with the testimony of the Bible, when all they have correct is the spelling of His name. They display abysmal ignorance, profound incompetence, or incredible dishonesty. Their ‘Jesus’ is nothing more than a reflection of their own sentimental, religious feelings; and that has nothing to do with anything that matters.

What Matters
What the truth is matters. (Jesus is “the truth.”) Who God is matters. (Jesus is God.) Our true spiritual condition in our fallen nature, that matters. (We are spiritually dead and alienated from God by nature.) How we can be right with God and forgiven of our sins matters. (Putting our trust in Christ, we will be justified and forgiven.) Whether Jesus Himself thought there was more than one way for people to know God matters. (He didn’t.) Whether or not the Bible is the Word of God matters. (It is, fully and utterly.)

What Oprah thinks about these things matters not. Not only is she not an expert on Christianity, her understanding of the gospel message is comparable to that of an illiterate incompetent. Anyone who can read the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 6 (with even minimal comprehension) will know more than she does. She is wrong to say that she is a Christian who believes that there are many ways to God and heaven. A Christian by Jesus’ definition would believe Jesus to be who He says He is—not a way, but the one and only way by which a sinner can be reconciled to God. To reject Jesus’ claim as the exclusive Savior is to reject Jesus Himself.

The Exclusive Savior
Only Jesus Christ, crucified and raised from the dead, can save any sinner from spiritual death and unending hell. No amount of human reasoning can change this reality. Jesus alone can deliver us from the power and penalty of sin. There are no other saviors, no other ways to God and heaven. There is one Name by which we must be saved, one Person who can transform our lives for time and eternity. Only the Father can reveal Christ the Son to us (Matthew 16:18); only Christ the Lord can reconcile us to the Father (John 14:6). And only the Holy Spirit can make us spiritually alive (John 3:3-8), giving us eyes to see and hearts to believe. Do you know what it is to be saved by Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior?

Help from the Inspired Word
“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:8-12 NKJV)

“When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” …” (Matthew 16:13-18 NKJV)

What is Your Christian Testimony Worth?

2008-06-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

A credible testimony of true and saving faith in Jesus Christ is a treasure to be earnestly desired, carefully secured, and tenaciously guarded. There are so many frauds and false brethren, that a well-established, credible gospel witness is worth something. Just how much is yours worth?

What are the components of a credible Christian witness? First, there is a public profession of faith formalized in one’s baptism. By our baptism we profess something. We declare to the church and to the world that we are Christ’s and that He is ours by grace alone through faith alone. We profess that grace has made a change in us and that we have begun to follow the Lamb as our Lord and Master. Second, there is discipleship. This is what builds the credibility of one’s profession of faith, that it is real and genuine and, truly, of the Lord’s doing; as the Lord’s brother said, “I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18).

Discipleship has been called “a long obedience in the same direction” (Eugene Peterson). Pastor A. N. Martin wrote a small booklet, “A Life of Principled Obedience,” addressing discipleship and the ongoing grace of sanctification in a believer’s life. Disciples discipline themselves for success. Disciples are scholars who hear and heed their mentor. If we know Jesus Christ in saving faith and repentance, then we have responded obediently to His gospel and have become His disciples. Without evident discipleship, there is also no evident saving grace.

So, the primary components of a credible testimony are, (1) our outward, public profession declared in our baptism and, (2) our discipleship lived-out day by day as we follow Christ and obey His Word. Every day that we conduct ourselves in the disciplines of God’s grace, the credibility of our Christian witness is more firmly established.

None of us are perfectly consistent in our following Christ; consistently inconsistent is more often the case. We all make missteps and mistakes and we all sin in ways every day, so all too often our discipleship does not shine. Some days are better than others and some days are just plain terrible when it comes to our faithful obedience to Christ, and those days end with shame and tears and in deep repentance. Still, the promise of our Lord makes us certain that He will hear and forgive and give us more grace heaped upon grace, helping us to find our way back to the path of obedient, determined discipleship.

How Are You Running?
Paul writes, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NKJV).

Very likely alluding to the ancient Olympic Games, the Apostle urged the Corinthian believers to live their lives in such a way that they might obtain the prize. But what was “the prize?” It was an imperishable garland, a conqueror’s crown. But what is it, after all? Nothing other than the smile of God; His approval of the way we conducted ourselves during the course of our lives.

Do you not long to hear your Savior say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23)? That, beloved ones, is “the prize” awaiting a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. But who among us is nearly as faithful as we should be? So, shall we despair of ever pleasing our perfect Lord because we are imperfect in this life? No, we are to believe the promises of the gospel. Our offerings of true, albeit imperfect, obedience presented to Christ in faith will be accepted because of His once-for-all, perfect obedience sanctifying our earnest, yet feeble and imperfect, attempts.

He is Watching & It Really Matters
Is it possible that the Lord Jesus who calls us to be His disciples would not take notice of our discipline, or the absence thereof? Paul knew that his Lord was watching every moment! He was sure that in order to win “the prize” he must run the race “according to the rules” (2 Timothy 2:5), according to the truth of the gospel.

Paul did not want to be “disqualified” after running so far for so long. Disqualified from what? He wanted to live with the sort of discipline that, on its merits, would prove that he was indeed a true child of God, a true disciple, a true Apostle. Many imposters had made their empty claims, but ultimately proved themselves false by the way they ran the race, not according to the truth of the gospel, but according to their own bogus set of rules. But Paul was the real deal. He was the genuine article. The grace that saved him was not impotent, cheap grace. It was sovereign grace, indeed.

Paul’s purpose was to succeed, to win, to receive that imperishable victor’s wreath that would proclaim throughout eternity that he had purposely lived for the glory of Christ Jesus. How do you think of your Christian life? Do you see it as a race that you must run with integrity and a race to be won? How much value do you place on running your life’s marathon “according to the rules” of the gospel, in “principled obedience” to Christ? Too many think of Christian life as a sprint when it is more like a marathon.

Shipwreck, Train-Wreck, a Tangled Mess
Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy about numerous people who had “made shipwreck” concerning “the faith” (1 Timothy 1:18-20), mentioning two of them by name. A shipwreck was a terrible tragedy, especially in those days; with the loss of cargo, with great damage to the ship or the loss of it altogether, not to mention the loss of life that was often involved. To “make shipwreck” concerning the faith of the gospel was nothing short of tragic; it was to suffer great loss.

“Hymenaeus and Alexander” (v. 20) had apparently persistently spoken blasphemies against the Lord and the truth of the gospel. There was some hope that they might “learn not to blaspheme” and be recovered to the church, but because of their blasphemies they had been excommunicated from the church. The church made it clear that those two men were no longer in the communion of the saints; they were under the church’s discipline in hopes that they might repent and be restored. Their sinful blasphemy had resulted in their making shipwreck concerning the faith, and they stood to lose everything by being proved nothing more than false, lying professors of gospel faith; unsaved men.

If the Apostle lived in this day and time he might have used a different analogy to describe the mess some professing believers make of their lives because of cherished sin. I recall once seeing a train-wreck as a child. There were overturned train cars and loose coal strewn everywhere. Years later my brother bought a mint-green Chevrolet in near-mint condition (what a car!); within a couple months one night the car stalled at a railway crossing and along came the train. About a mile or so down the tracks someone with some sort of machinery peeled the crumpled wreckage off the front of the train; so much for mint condition. What a picture! What a mess we can make of our lives in a matter of minutes!

Whether a shipwreck, train-wreck, car-crash, or some other tragic picture of loss and ruin—let us, every one, beware the devastating power of cherished sin. O, the wretched tendency to blaspheme, to prefer our sin over our Savior! Let us all beware and redouble our resolve; a credible witness of faith in Christ can be spoiled in such a short time!

Don’t Care What Anyone Thinks
When someone is in the process of ruining his life and spoiling his Christian testimony, he is likely to think or even to say, “I don’t care what anyone thinks! It’s nobody’s business but my own.” Such an attitude only reveals the mighty power of sin’s grip.

To the suffering believers of the Christian Diaspora, Simon Peter wrote strange words; strange, in that he wanted them to care how their lives were perceived by people around them, even those unbelievers who persecuted them and called them evildoers. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:11-12 NKJV).

The Tragedy of a Credible Testimony Forfeited
The forfeiture of a credible Christian witness by behavior that undermines that credibility—what a tragedy! What loss! What is our credible testimony of faith in Christ worth? Is cherished sin worth what it is going to cost? When our “good name” is destroyed because of persistent love of sin and refusal to obey God, will we care then? Indeed, the pleasures of sin are only “for a season.” And then what?

Are we, at this moment, determined to obey the Lord Jesus Christ with all of our hearts? If there is even one sliver of doubt, then let us beware. Truly, “sin crouches at the door,” patiently waiting for an opportunity to seize us and drag us off to some out of the way place, away from the gospel, away from the church, away from everything familiar, to rip and tear us limb from limb—bringing our whole life to utter ruin and leaving us to wallow in our own blood and to suffer unspeakable misery under guilt and shame. How Satan would delight to see any one of us forfeit our credible testimony; in exchange he would happily let us bear the infamy of a hypocrite to our grave.

Let us hear the Word of God and love it and live it, all by grace. Value your credible Christian witness. Desire it, secure it, guard it. If you have lost it, seek by God’s forgiveness and grace to recover it for His glory. May our Lord give us grace to run well and to finish strong! –TSA

Help from the Inspired Word
“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another. "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:17-32 NKJV)

"The Great Tribulation"

2008-06-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

“These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:14)

Here is the only occurrence of the phrase “great tribulation” in the Bible. The scene portrayed is that of a numberless multitude of redeemed sinners from every segment of humanity, all standing in the presence of the sovereign God and before the Lamb, our Lord Jesus. All are clothed in white robes, symbolic of absolute righteousness. They each have palm branches and strong, loud voices with which they praise God for His free and priceless gift of salvation from sin, death, and hell (vv. 9-10). At the sight, the heavenly audience, composed of angels, elders, and living creatures, falls down joining in worship to the Lord (vv. 11-12).

This was part of the vision John saw. Then one of the twenty-four elders asked John to identify that sea of humanity dressed in pristine robes and to tell from where they came (v. 13). Correctly assuming the question to have been asked only so that the true answer might be given, John deferred to the knowledge of the elder who told him who they were and where they had been.

The people dressed in white, holding palm branches of peace, shouting glory for the salvation they had received through the cross-work of the Lamb—these are the ones who came out of “the great tribulation.” What was “the great tribulation” out of which they came? What did the elder mean; what did the Spirit of Jesus intend by this expression; what was meant by “the great tribulation?”

"Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”" (Revelation 7:13-17 NKJV)

The Difficult Journey of the Redeemed
The people who “come out of the great tribulation” are born-again Christians from all the earth in all ages from the Apostle’s time until Jesus’ return. The vision portrays God’s church robed in white, enjoying peace and worshipping joyously in the presence of God, giving glory to God and to the Lamb. These are Christ’s churches all gathered together in one, who have entered heaven’s glory by way of “the great tribulation.” Our pilgrimage through this world is called by this sobering designation. Once dressed in defiled garments of sin and shame, John saw us all wearing clean clothes; once polluted by sin, we are now robed in the perfect, imputed righteousness of Jesus. By obedience to the gospel, we have washed our robes in His blood and they have become white. It doesn’t seem like something that could happen, but it has. Dirty robes washed in Lamb’s blood, now as white as snow.

Tribulation is trouble and stress and struggle; such is the life of the true child of God as he pursues the will of God in a hostile world. Those described as having “come out of the great tribulation” are all the redeemed purchased by Christ and forgiven through faith in Him. Although there are also joys and victories and delights along life’s journey, “great tribulation” still accurately describes a Christian’s life in this world. If there is a more apt description, one wonders what that would be. Truly, some believers suffer more than others. Some suffer unto death as martyrs, while other children of God seem to live in relative ease; but all of God’s people, in some sense, endure great tribulation through life.

Sin, Satan, and the world all oppose the believer. Remaining sin, sin not yet mortified (put to death), sin that still finds a place in our hearts and actions creates all manner of trouble (see Romans 8:12-14). God deals with His redeemed ones as with deeply loved sons and sometimes visits harsh discipline on them when they walk in disobedience. Temptation pursues us, and all the worse when we give the devil an opportunity by not faithfully obeying the Word of God. And while we still have much to learn, how can we plead ignorance? We already understand so much that we do not yet perfectly obey. How dishonest to plead ignorance, while we boldly sin against clearly revealed truth! God knows our hearts and even our imperfect conscience bears witness against us.

Satan, the devil, our adversary truly exists. He is real and evil. He opposes everything that is good and everything that glorifies God. He is against us if we are for God. Against him we must stand, wearing spiritual armor with bravery and resolve and faith (see Ephesians 6:10-18).

Further, worldly men who love neither God nor His truth often plague the people of God in many ways. They add trouble to tribulation as they undermine all that is good and worthy and noble. When we would attempt righteousness, there is always a worldly voice to shout us down or to criticize our failings. “Love not the world,” John wrote. Worldliness only adds grief and sorrow to the tribulations of true believers. Indeed, it is a difficult journey “from faith to faith” and “from glory to glory” (Romans 1:17, 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Heaven, At Last
Because of God’s grace, because of what the Lamb did in bearing away our sins, throughout the endlessness of eternity the redeemed people of God will always be in His presence, serving Him all the time—worshipping and exalting His Name and giving glory to the Lamb. The reality we will experience is God’s presence all the time, indicated by the expression, “day and night in His temple.” The living God will occupy our existence, filling our souls to the full with His own presence. We live by faith and will die in faith, and we all are more than conquerors through the Lamb who loved us. Then “great tribulation” will be no more.

Our everlasting home will be peace and comfort. Unlike the journey through this world in which God often permits His people to endure hardship, in that day there will be no hunger anymore. Never again will God’s people thirst or be drained of their vitality and sapped of their strength. No longer will we be exposed to the parching powers of the sun, beating down upon us until we are utterly spent and exhausted. No; for then we will follow the Lamb and He will guide us to rest alongside gushing fountains of perpetual refreshment. “The great tribulation” will then be past. God Himself will dry our tears; tears that often filled our eyes during the difficult journey through affliction. Never again will weeping be heard among the redeemed, for never again will sin or sorrow or disappointment come. Truly, in that moment heaven is begun.

“And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:15b-17).

RASH WORDS

2008-06-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

“My Words Have Been Rash…” (Job 6:3 NKJV)
By Timothy S. Adkins

Have your words ever been rash? Have you ever spoken as an impetuous fool, either before God or to men, when crushing burdens weighed upon your soul? When heaven’s books are opened will rash utterances from your lips appear, that you now vainly wish had never been thought, much less spoken? Yet somehow your battered soul seemed incapable of holding back its flood. Have you felt ashamed to speak another word to God in prayer? He knows all that you said in those moments and what you meant. Indeed, He knew our thoughts before we distilled them and while they were still formulating He knew our rash words.

In pain and puzzlement, “my words have been rash,” too. Yet, amazingly, there is still comfort even in the midst of what feels like a gross failure of faith. Faith still believes and hopes during the dark storm as much as when skies were blue and clear. In spite of the struggle and heart-rending disappointment, it is still true that God is incapable of erring. And, yes, all of this, all that now hurts, was always part of His plan. His purpose is pure and good and for my good, whether or not I feel it to be true. It is true. My quivering faith trusts His heart when His ways are utterly baffling. There is peace in His love when His ways make no sense to me.

In times of suffering, whether of body, mind, or spirit, we believers so often believe faintly. Not that we doubt God’s ability to intervene and to powerfully change the course of our lives anytime He wills; we know that He is El Shaddai, God Almighty. We believe in His utter independency and absolute power; our belief remains unshaken although less than the grain of mustard seed. We know He will be Himself as He is declared in His Word. His attributes and character are comforts in the very worst of times. When the storms are raging and the torrents sweeping life away, He changes not. The presence of the storm or the flood does not announce a change in His mind, but yet another path superintended by love and grace and wisdom beyond us.

Our problem is to correctly discern His will. Interpreting providence as it unfolds is not an exact science. God never changes in His being, but He is not predictable. The God who defined Himself as “I AM” is not subject to our definition. He cannot err or fail or be less than He is, and He does as He pleases and all He pleases. All of this we believe and doubt not. Yet, the comfort and assurance that we long for is often absent.

At the thought of losing his beloved Benjamin also, after having already lost Joseph to Egypt, old Jacob cried, “All these things are against me.” Whereas all of those painful things were for his ultimate salvation and the preservation of his entire family, at the moment his heart was broken. God’s love would mend his heart and Jacob would know joy in another day. But on that day, as he watched Benjamin’s form grow smaller as he walked toward Egypt, the old man must have thought that he would never see another good day in this world.

Some of David’s psalms prove that our believing hearts are not the first to feel as though God has stopped listening, that He has not been paying attention to what’s been going on, and that He must not care that our hearts are burdened and bleeding. How did life come to such a place? “My soul is among lions…they have prepared a net for my steps” (Psalm 57:4, 6). “From the end of the earth I call to Thee, when my heart is faint” (Psalm 61:2a). “My soul thirsts for Thee…in a dry and weary land” (Psalm 63:1). “Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord” (Psalm 130:1).

Lions…snares…the end of the earth…a dry and weary land…out of the depths! Such is the story of so many of God’s beloved children. Consider Hebrews 11. There was not a fainting flower among them or even one who enjoyed a life without intense trial. As for those who portray “the victorious Christian life” as always prosperous and an always hopeful affair, can they not read?

These psalms graphically show that the life of faith will sometimes be lived with frightful danger near at hand. A true believer may sometimes find himself at the very end of the earth, peering off the very precipice of death, feeling all alone, and crying out to God. Instead of the well-watered plains of Goshen, even the most faithful believers may live in parched places that dehydrate their very souls. Instead of treading the heights, they walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Not surprisingly, they are not always the most cheerful lot; to some they seem unspiritual and unthankful. They seem preoccupied and much too difficult to encourage and even bitter. They are like the captives of the 137th Psalm who, in bitterness of soul, could not bring themselves to sing the Lord’s song beside Babylon’s stream so far from home and so far from peace.

Truth be told, many of God’s dear people look to Him with mystified expressions. There is no doubting His faithfulness. He will fulfill His promises: “You have magnified Your word above all Your name” (Psalm 138:2). But we do often wonder whether we have correctly understood what His promises in Scripture (made to others) truly mean for us. How may we rightly appropriate the truth to our lives?

Many seem to find multiple promises in every verse and then treat them all as personal guarantees; as if all that God said to Abraham or David or Noah or Jonah was intended as a direct personal message. Others see the character of God revealed in scriptural accounts and indeed find some promises to which they tenaciously cling; certain that the same God who dealt faithfully with His people then will also deal in love and grace with us now. So these look to God trusting His heart, although perfectly puzzled at His providence.

Have we misread God’s will? Why is He so silent? Or has He spoken and we have not heard? Are we wrong to expect specific answers to our specific prayers? Has He truly promised to grant all that we ask? What about those times when we put our wishes into His mouth and call our wishes divine promises?

Too many people think they have God all figured out. Truth is, He does all that He wants to do, on His terms, according to His wisdom. No one can dictate to Him or demand anything of Him. He does all of His will; He cannot deny Himself. The sooner we understand, the better and more peacefully our hearts may rest.

“Then Job answered and said: "Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it on the scales! For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea — therefore my words have been rash. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.” (Job 6:1-4 NKJV)

He suffered for reasons known to God. The angels that heard the heavenly proceedings knew. Even the one for whom hell was first set on fire knew more about Job’s circumstances than he did. He had no clue as to why so much was happening, nor why there seemed to be no response from God. None of God’s providences made sense to him. Property destroyed, children dead, body in ruins, Job yearned for death as one longs for a cherished friend. But death would not come. He could not see how life was worth living anymore; and why would a merciful God not just let him die and have rest from this life of misery. All life held now was grief and suffering; and, as far as he could see, it was all for no fathomable purpose.

From all Job could tell God had painted a target on him. How else could all of those things have befallen him? He didn’t understand anymore than we sometimes do, why certain things happen. Is He not the sovereign Lord of history? Does He not rule the present and the future? Does He not govern the comings and goings of men and microbes; directing, orchestrating, and overruling when and where and how He pleases? Ultimately, whatever the means, it was God that ordained all of this ruin for Job’s life, reducing him to less than dust.

The painful, poisonous barbs sticking out of Job’s body and spirit were God’s arrows. But WHY? What had so provoked God that He would deal so harshly with him? Had Job sinned grievously? Had his hypocrisy stirred up God’s wrath? His friends were certain that he had provoked God to punish him; as they knew God to be, they were sure that He never did things like this to one who didn’t deserve it.

Terrified by calamity, buried by grief, miserable Job longed to know just where the mercies of God were now? He felt that God was hounding his very life, chasing him like a frightened rabbit now caught in burning underbrush; refusing him a peaceful moment to swallow a mouthful of spit.

To read of Job’s inner and outer terrors and to think of his sorrows makes most of us ashamed to whine. Just how much have we suffered? Have we endured a tiny fraction of what Job suffered? Still, we wonder as Job wondered: how could God possibly be honored by the cold, hard providence that unfolded? Unlike Job, we are not so exceptional and accomplished in grace that God would deal with us as with him. It is not faith and faithfulness on display in us nearly as much as weakness and fear. So what’s in this for God? Is there glory, praise, vindication? Are the multiplied sorrows for our growth in grace or for our humiliation? Are they for any purpose that we might begin to grasp before we reach heaven?

Why does it seem that He prefers not to grant a single request out of the hundreds held up before Him? Why does it seem that Heaven’s mind is steeled against those who have been so loved? Jesus taught us that, if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, much more will our Father in heaven give good gifts to us. So, why does it seem that the heavens are brazen and that God will not be persuaded by our pleading? He has emboldened us to pray and given to us boldness to hope for an answer beyond imagination; but we cannot dictate His answer. O that our faith might not waver! Again to have a truly expectant faith! But we have been disappointed; asking and not receiving, and not understanding even now why His answer was “no.”

Have we misunderstood? Has delusion taken hold? Did not our Savior instruct us to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking at our Father’s door? But when does faith take on the nature of presumption? How long do we ask and seek and knock before we perceive that God has answered with “no” or “not yet?” It is not always an absence of faith to determine, at length, that the desires of our hearts must not be the desires of His. If our ways are not His ways and our thoughts are not His thoughts, why are we surprised when our desires sometimes don’t match His desires for us? Acquiescence is not unbelief. Submission to God’s providence is not surrender to hopelessness.

Sometimes mistaken, certain that we are not, we may earnestly pray for what God has not willed. Still, we must not become disheartened. God is yet God. We are mere men. Prayer is worship, not prescribing what God will do and when He will do it. Prayer is hope. It is trust given a voice. Faith can take “no” for an answer when it is God’s answer, for true faith wants nothing that He is not pleased to grant from His heart.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). We say we know this; but do we? If it is true that nothing is outside the scope of God’s infinite wisdom and sovereign power, then why do we still live with white knuckles, holding on for dear life? Why do we not rest completely secure? The mountain that stands between us and the peace we long for, let it be removed and be cast into the sea! Drown mountain, drown!

O that our faith might embrace His faithfulness! And with a greater vigor than that with which we once clung to our fears! Thanks be to God that He forgives all our sins through Jesus Christ, including the sins of a rash tongue and a trembling faith. “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared” (Psalm 130:3-4). –TSA

Shepherds Who Are Scholars

2008-04-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

One of Christ’s sustaining gifts to His church is God-called men to be “pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). These two words show the main functions of those who occupy the office of elder: shepherding people and learning God’s Word so as to teach others.

The order of Paul’s words, with shepherding placed first and teaching second, may be insignificant. However, it may hint at something worth noticing; namely, that the first task of pastors is the care of people. Preaching and teaching the Word of God are central to that priority, as the proclamation of God’s truth is the chief means to secure spiritual well-being. But the public ministry of the Word is not all the ministry that is needed (See Acts 20:20).

Some who preach well and teach ever so faithfully do not shepherd very well—at least not in those ways that require tender, understanding, personal involvement with God’s flock in their distress. And the Lord’s sheep have distresses in this world. As every shepherd knows; at times, sheep-care can be rather unpleasant business.

It seems that many dear men, intent on being faithful workmen in the Word, have virtually retired from hands-on, up-close-and-personal shepherding. That would require a man to be intimately involved with the sometimes messy lives of hurting, sometimes stupid, often smelly sheep. Studying, writing, preaching, enjoying fine coffee and even finer theological discussions with colleagues is so much cleaner work. Preference for quiet study over time spent with sheep may begin with a man’s sincere intention to faithfully proclaim the Word of God so that the Lord’s people don’t starve: there are starving sheep out there. Yet sometimes well-fed sheep feel very alone, forlorn, and weary. Well-fed sheep can get into real trouble.

Seldom is there an easy fix, but just occasionally a word of encouragement from our pastor can change our entire perception and encourage our obedience to Christ. Someone cares. When the scholar who preaches to us on the Lord’s Day shows a shepherd’s interest in our daily pains and stresses and needs, it means more than …, well. Saints do grow weary in well-doing; sheep can get stuck in a briar thicket. We need personal care. We need to be loved by someone who loves Jesus. We need help getting out of the mess we’re in. Nothing replaces heart-to-heart ministry. In fact, the absence of it can be devastating.

We must never begrudge God’s man the time and space and energy he needs in order to do his important work in the Word. The better he studies and learns and grows, the better our souls are nourished by the Scriptures. It is necessary that pastors be maturing scholars, growing students in God’s school; time in study and time in prayer are essential.

Ah, but is it possible that some excellent men in the pastorate think of themselves too much as scholars and not enough as shepherds? More comfortable with books than with people, they read and write and prepare sermons. Dealing with sick sheep and seemingly always needy saints is not exactly work for a refined academic. They imagine that if only they do well in the public preaching there will be little if any need for personal ministry; everything should be fine. But this is not always the case, as we well know.

Well taught sheep may disobey the Word. They may know the truth and not do it. What then, pastor? Is it back to the study to fashion a better sermon? Or do we get ourselves out from behind our desks and alongside that sinning or suffering believer and help him out of his jam? Or maybe just be there with him. He may have gotten himself into the mess. He may be a victim of pathetic judgment. He may be ruined through the treachery of others and through no fault of his own, although we tend to doubt it. Whatever the reason, whatever the excuse or explanation, God’s blood-bought sheep need real shepherds who really love them.

Some utterly fail as scholars, unable or unwilling to learn the Word of God and faithfully teach it. Because they cannot feed the flock of God they do not belong in the pastorate; they have not been called by the Holy Spirit, who equips God-called men for the work He calls them to do. Indeed, there are some men whose academic scholarship is simply astounding and they are devoted, superlative shepherds to their people. But those who sequester themselves in the study and only come out to preach or to present another scholarly “paper” will never truly shepherd God’s flock. Monastic isolation often makes men strange and many are strange enough already. Seclusion does little to make men ready to care for souls.

Pastors are bishops. Their work is to oversee, supervise, to watch over God’s flock. This oversight, shepherding, requires some measure of involvement in the lives of people. The pastor’s study must never be abandoned, for there is no substitute for the meat of the Word. But the people of God need their pastors to come out of the study occasionally and breathe the same air as they do. We need real men, men of God, shepherds who are scholars to serve the good of our souls.

Consider the encouragement and challenge of Paul’s admonitions. “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28 NKJV).

Brother, pay attention to the man you become. Love repentance. Pay attention to the flock, remembering that they are individuals, too. Be a true shepherd. Consider the work and Him who calls you to it. Be an eager scholar. Reflect on the ransom that Heaven demanded for our freedom. Let us meet together in worship at His feet. –TSA

Rock of Offense

2008-03-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

“As it is written: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’” (Romans 9:33NKJV)

God’s way of salvation is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. The only righteousness sufficient to make a guilty sinner right with God is the righteousness of Jesus credited to the believer by faith. This crediting Jesus’ righteousness to sinners who believe in Him is called imputation. The Bible does not teach that Jesus makes believers righteous in themselves. Rather, He Himself is their righteousness. Only He, with His pierced hands and speared side and thorn-crowned head, stands between a believer and hell. His righteousness is credited to those who believe.

Imputation is a major biblical concept, one seen throughout Scripture. There is the imputation of the guilt of Adam’s sin to all human beings. “In Adam all die.” Romans 5:12 says that “all sinned” in Adam’s disobedience. That can only be true via imputation, since only Adam actually sinned. But when he sinned he involved all of his natural seed (descendants) in sin and spiritual death. “Death reigned” during the interval between Adam and Moses, at which time the law was given. Although none of those people who died in that interval sinned like Adam did, they all died because God regarded them all as being guilty of Adam’s sin (See Romans 5:12-14)

There is then the imputation of human sin to Jesus. He was not guilty of anything but went to the cross and suffered as one guilty of the most dreadful crimes. This imputation of human sin to Christ was repeatedly pictured through the sacrifices of the OT system. The sins of the people were symbolically transferred to the sacrificial offering; the animal was then subjected to death, the penalty due to those whose sins it bore. Of course, no animal sacrifice ever actually “took away” the sins of human beings. Those sacrifices were temporary and symbolic; performed only until God, in due time, sent His Lamb to actually and truly “take away the sin of the world” (See John 1:29).

There is also the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to those who truly believe. Through faith alone in Christ alone, the righteousness of the perfect Son of God is credited to all who believe, put to their account who trust the perfect Christ as their Savior and Lord. We sinned in Adam, our representative. Christ represented His people at the cross, bearing their sins and dying for them. Now all who believe are credited with His perfection. They are regarded perfectly righteous in God’s sight—all by Heaven’s design.

Jesus, the Rock of ages, who came to redeem sinners, is also a “Rock of offense.” His gospel offends many a proud sinner. Many stumble at His gospel and would sooner go to hell than to rest their souls in Him by faith. Naturally people want a “can do religion.” The gospel is not natural; further it is the one “can’t do religion.” No works allowed; you just can’t do it. According to the Bible, true salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. This does not offend you, does it?

The Gospel: Do you understand it?

2008-03-20T04:53:00.000-07:00

Do you know why Jesus was born and why He died on the cross—and why the message about His death and resurrection is the only truth that can save our souls from death and endless destruction?

Do you desire to be reconciled to God and have your sins forgiven? Do you want peace with God? What if the emptiness of your soul could be filled with God’s love? Through the work of His Holy Spirit, strong desires to know the Lord may arise in our hearts. No matter how terribly we have sinned, faith in Jesus changes everything. By His grace, He makes every true believer to become a new person.

To be forgiven and reconciled to God we must believe the gospel1. But what is the gospel? So that you might understand and place your trust in Jesus Christ, the essential truths of the gospel are presented here.

The Existence of God & the Entrance of Sin
The Bible never sets out to prove the existence of God. It begins by asserting that God has always existed and that He is the Creator of all things2. Only He is eternal. Everything else is created: time, space, and matter in all its forms. In six days God displayed His almighty power and deity: the Genesis account of creation is true, accurate, and entirely compatible with true science. Our Creator, the eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, made us in His image, with a moral and spiritual essence3.

Sin exists but was not created by God. It entered through the rebellion of creatures to which God gave moral natures. Sin exists according to His eternal purpose and even serves His will, yet He is in no sense its Author or Approver. So says His Word4.

The Bible tells us of once-pure angels sinning and forfeiting their place in God’s presence; they are eternally fallen. He made no provision for their redemption; they face eternal wrath. Yet in order to magnify His grace God eternally purposed to save some of sinful mankind5.

All mankind is fallen through the disobedience of our first father, Adam. God regarded him as the head of the human race. His sin plunged us all into a state of spiritual death, darkness, and depravity6. We all bear the consequences of “original sin,” namely, spiritual death; “in Adam all die.” The guilt and penalty of original sin are imputed to us all7. We are also guilty of personal sin, as well. Both original sin and personal sin condemn us. The moral law of God and our consciences agree together, bearing witness against us. We are not right with God. Sin has alienated us from God, ruining our souls—and we instinctively know this is true.

Sin is powerful and destructive. It makes some people angry, hateful, and violent. It makes us immoral. Emptiness and loneliness are miserable fruits of sin. Worst of all, sin condemns us to everlasting death and to the loss of our very souls forever8.

Judgment Day, Heaven and Hell
Judgment is coming; we intuitively know it. We all have an inborn sense that there is no way that we are going to get away with our sin9. Even if we have no clearly defined understanding of sin based on the Bible, our consciences assure us that there is a holy God who knows everything. We know we are accountable to Him. Even if we have never read the Bible or heard the gospel, we recognize that we are sinners and that, one day, God will judge us10.

Some people console themselves by imagining that the good they have done in life will outweigh the bad and that God will accept them and receive them into heaven. But the Bible makes it very clear. Sin, even a single sin, is sufficient to condemn us forever11. “All have sinned” and “the wages of sin is death”12. In the eyes of God we all deserve “everlasting punishment.” Heaven is a reality and hell is no joke13.

How is it possible to survive the Great Judgment Day? How can imperfect people live forever in heaven with a perfectly holy God? There is only one way. Our sins must be forgiven and we must be accounted perfectly righteous before God14.

God’s Answer to Our Sin
Only the gospel of Jesus Christ provides an adequate answer to the problem of human sin15. We need God’s forgiveness, a fresh start, and a new heart. By His grace and through the sin-bearing of His Son on the cross, God can righteously forgive sinners like us and see us as though we were as pure and holy as His perfect Son. Because He laid their sins on Jesus, God can now credit all who believe with the flawless righteousness of Jesus16. This is called justification when God declares believers entirely righteous through their faith in Jesus and in what He accomplished by His sinless life and substitutionary death. His death on the cross was about taking away sins so that they could no longer alienate us from God; He nailed all the sins of all who believe to His cross17.

“Christ died for our sins…” “He was buried…” “He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures”18. The death of Jesus is truly meaningless if He did not rise from the dead. If He died and remained dead, then death conquered Him as it conquers everyone else and our sins remain unconquered. Christ not only died; He also rose from the dead19! The bodily resurrection of Jesus was God’s seal of approval on the life and death of His Son; the resurrection proves that Jesus succeeded when He “bore our sins in His own body on the tree”20. It powerfully proclaims that God was entirely satisfied with the Self-sacrifice of His Son21.

Because He suffered, died, and rose again, all who sincerely trust in Jesus will be completely forgiven and reconciled to God. Jesus’ resurrection holds the promise of our resurrection, even that we who believe in Him will never die! The Christ who died for us conquered our sin and the death we deserve; dark death could not maintain its grip on Him who is life. Do you yet trust in Him; truly? Then death cannot hold its grip on you, either!

A New Heart
How can we be changed? It is certain that we cannot change our own hearts. Only God can do what must be done; only He can make us anew.

How does faith come? How can we who are spiritually dead believe and be saved? Obviously, God must work in us by His power and grace22. His Spirit must cause us to live. Just like at the beginning when God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, even so it is now. He must command the light of the gospel to shine in our hearts. When it does, we experience salvation and are spiritually born again—regenerated.

Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”23. This is not only true for certain people in certain places. For all people everywhere believing in Jesus is the only way to God. There is no other Savior, no other cure for sin, no other way for anyone to be reconciled to God24.

Becoming a True Follower of Jesus
How does one become a disciple of Jesus, a true follower, a genuine believer? Trusting in God’s power to save us and make us new in Christ, we must place our whole trust in Jesus as Lord25.

To be saved we must believe; but believe what? First, the truth about God; He is the Creator, the Almighty God, the loving, gracious Author of salvation for all who believe26. Second, truth about ourselves; we are deeply stained by original sin and personal sin. We are condemned and need to be rescued27. Third, the truth about Jesus: He is eternal God who became a true Man in order to redeem us by His death and resurrection; He is the one and only Mediator, the only way anyone can ever be reconciled to God28. Fourth, the promise of the gospel is that all who put their trust in Jesus will be saved, forever changed, and reconciled to God through faith in Jesus. The gospel promises eternal life from our first believing look upon the Savior29. Fifth, saving faith is always accompanied by repentance, a change of mind resulting in a new way of living. Like faith, repentance is also a gift. When God saves us, we turn to Him and away from our old life of loving sin30. We then begin to grow in grace, loving the Lord and learning His ways.

Ready for a New Life
If you now know that you must have new life in Christ, then look to Him believing the gospel. His promise is clear: “the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out”31. Admit your sin to God; all of it; hide nothing from yourself or from Him. Then put your trust in Jesus as Lord. Flee to Him and you will experience for yourself—Jesus Christ truly is the Friend of sinners! He will not leave you enslaved to sin; He will save you and help you and give you a new life by His grace—not because you deserve it, but because of His great love!

What Now?
Have you believed? Are you now entirely trusting in the Lord Jesus? If so, you will want to live to please Him. How does one get started? Here are a few suggestions based on the Bible’s teaching.

· Bow in prayer to God, speak to Him from your heart, and ask Him to forgive your sins, to save your soul. Then ask Him to give you an assurance of your salvation, so that you may completely rest in trusting Jesus and the power of His cross.
· Confess your faith by telling others what God has done for you.
· Attend a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church where you can worship God and fellowship with others who believe. This will strengthen your faith. God commands it for His glory and for your good.
· Begin to read the Bible and learn God’s Word for yourself. He will help you understand. A new way of living will arise from a new way of thinking.
· Learn about baptism for believers, the Lord’s Supper, and local church membership. These are rich blessings that reinforce true faith.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.” 2 Corinthians 13:14
—Timothy S. Adkins

Endnote Biblical References: (1) 2 Corinthians 5:20-21; (2) Genesis 1:1-2; (3) Genesis 1:27; (4) James 1:13-15; (5) Hebrews 2:14-18; (6) Romans 5:12, 18a; (7) 1 Corinthians 15:22; (8) Mark 8:36-37; (9) Romans 1:18; (10) Hebrews 9:27; (11) James 2:10; (12) Romans 3:23, 6:23; (13) Matthew 25:46; (14) Romans 4:18-25; (15) Hebrews 10:11-14; (16) Romans 3:23-26; (17) Colossians 2:13-14; (18) 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; (19) 1 Corinthians 15:13-14, 20; (20) 1 Peter 2:24; (21) Acts 2:22-24, John 10:18; (22) John 3:5; (23) John 14:6; (24) Acts 4:12; (25) John 3:36; 8:24; (26) Hebrews 11:6; (27) Colossians 1:21a; (28) 1 Timothy 2:5, 2 Corinthians 5:18; (29) Acts 16:31; John 3:14-15 (30) Acts 20:20-21: 26:20; (31) John 6:37

“Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”