What’s He Done For You?

Posted on by March 5, 2015
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But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4, 19)

Do you remember the 1979 movie, “Monty Python’s Life Of Brian”. I can imagine that quite a few of you would never have watched something so irreverent … but I was young and unsaved… One of the best moments is when the bumbling  bureaucratic terrorist Reg is trying to sell his plan for the uprising to his followers. It degenerates when he asks “what have the Romans ever done for us.” Here’s the dialog from the end of the bit: 

Reg: All right… all right… but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order… what have the Romans done for us?

Xerxes: Brought peace!

Reg: Oh… (scornfully) Peace, yes… shut up!

This wonderfully funny passage comes to mind sometimes when I hear people’s ingratitude to God. Every so often I start to list what God has done for me on any given day. Take today, for instance:I woke up to the gift of a new day. I was next to my beautiful wife. We were in a comfortable bed in our comfortable house. I picked up our bedside Bible and read our morning devotions. A little later and I enjoyed my light breakfast (and my second cup of coffee). Once I had showered (enjoying the gift of hot water) and dressed, Myra drove me to work in the car God has provided for us ….and so it goes on, all day long. It is no surprise of course. The Bible tells us, time and again, that God will take care of all our needs. Matthew’s gospel gives just one example:

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? (Matthew 6:25-26)

I know that it’s easy for me. I am not so much of a fool that I do not know how blessed and privileged I am. I know there are starving children, abused wives, cancer sufferers, orphans … so what has God done for them? Apart from life, and breath, and a world to live in, what has the Lord done for them? Given them eternal life, that’s all:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

I know what He’s done for me. What’s He done for you?

 

Perfection

Posted on by March 4, 2015
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Matthew 5:48 — Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

This is another of those misunderstood and misinterpreted verses that lead to confusion.

The word for “perfect” is “Teleios” (transliterated of course! The instruction looks challenging –“Be perfect”! All those who have achieved it, please step forward …I looked the word up in a Greek dictionary. Here’s what I found. “Brought to its end, finished; wanting nothing necessary to completeness; of consummate human integrity and virtue; of men – full grown, adult, of full age, mature.”

Our Sunday School is spending time getting to know God better, guided by A.W.Tozer’s masterful two-volume study, “The Attributes of God”. (Side note — when I became a Christian, this book, along with C. S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity” was the greatest help in starting to understand what I believed.) One point that has come out more than once is the idea that God is, indeed, perfect. All of God’s attributes are always fully present, being fully exercised. I’ve been trying to understand that idea. One analogy that has come to mind is that it’s like having a diamond — you can’t separate the hardness of a diamond from its brightness. A diamond is always completely hard, and completely bright … just as God is completely good, completely just, completely merciful — all the time.

God meets the most stringent definitions of perfection. He “wants nothing necessary to completeness”. It is not so for us, of course. We are, perhaps “full grown, adult, of full age, mature”. Few of us are of “consummate human integrity” and I would suggest that none of us can claim to be “wanting nothing necessary to completeness”. We are sometimes good, sometimes humble, sometimes generous and sometimes merciful.But we are also sometimes bad, sometimes proud, sometimes heartless too.

So is Jesus demanding something that is impossible? Of course not.As is so often the case, the verse needs to be given in context. the full passage is Matthew 5:43-48:

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

It should be clear, reading the whole passage, that what is being required is perfection — “completeness” in love. Extending the command (for it is a command) to be universal is plainly unreasonable! Even so, is our love to be as complete as God’s love? Surely even that is impossible. Yes it is. And so it is not what is being commanded. The Greek word translated “as” is “Hos” (transliterated). Just like the English word it can mean “as much as”, but also “in the same way”. That is what is being asked here — not that our love should be that infinite undefinable love that God displays but as the old Puritan John Gill has it, “be ye sincere and upright in your love to all men, as your heavenly Father is hearty and sincere in his affections to them.”

We will never, in this life, reach to God in completeness, and integrity and virtue. Let us strive towards some flavor of His attributes in ourselves …

Commitment

Posted on by March 3, 2015
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Luke 9:57-62 — And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Myra and I went to a meeting this evening with a good friend who has committed his life to work in a Christian ministry, and a few of his other helpers. Coincidentally our conversation turned to commitment, and as we were coming home my mind turned to the idea.

There’s a saying, popular among some preachers: “Show me your wallet and your diary, and I’ll tell you what you care about.” I’ve usually accepted it without too much thought — it sounds pretty good doesn’t it? Surely how I spend my money and time shows my priorities? Perhaps not … after all, writing a check can be the work of the moment and going to the meeting doesn’t mean much if there’s nothing going on outside the meeting!

This slightly depressing thought process started me thinking about what I’m committed to, and how anybody looking at me could see it.

Here’s what I would like to think that people see when they look at me. I’d like to think they see somebody committed to being a Christ-follower, a disciple.

Discipleship has many aspects to me, but at it’s heart is the idea of loving God and never wanting to do anything except what pleases Him. It’s a total lifestyle … That means that all my time and all my resources, financial and otherwise, are His to dispose of. A lot of it is invisible — quiet time, Bible study, prayer — it happens out of the public eye. When it is out in the open, what I don’t do might be as important as what I do do. Nothing I do should ever reflect poorly on my Lord.

I didn’t really enjoy thinking about all of this, because it made me aware — once again — of how far I fall short. How does it make you feel to think about your Christian commitment?

 

Walk In Jerusalem

Posted on by March 2, 2015
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Psalm 122:1-9 — I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.

We approach Easter through the quietly contemplative Lenten season. It’s easy to forget that the Jews of Jesus’s time were approaching Passover. It was no solemn, contemplative time. 150,000 extra people joyously converging on the spruced up city which was carefully refurbished for the celebration of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, away from Pharaoh’s slavemasters.

What, I wonder, was it like for Jesus? He had been coming to Jerusalem for the great festivals for a long time, but this time was different. He knew what was waiting for Him this time. Did His mind go back to that time when He was 12 when He waited behind questioning with the doctor’s of the law and His parents had to return from the road to find Him in the Temple? He was God, of course, but He was also a man. I have to believe that there was some fear and some sadness. The “Queen of Gospel” — Mahalia Jackson — sang a wonderful up-tempo song, “Walking In Jerusalem” and I wonder if it catches some of what was in His mind …

God knows I’m gonna

Walk in Jerusalem

Talk in Jerusalem

Sing in Jerusalem

Be in Jerusalem

High up, oh, in Jerusalem

When I die, Oh yeah

Well, be in Jerusalem

Sing in Jerusalem

Shout in Jerusalem

Sing in Jerusalem

High up, oh, in Jerusalem

When I die

It might seem obvious to some of you, but for myself I cannot shake off a sense of amazement at Jesus’s iron self-discipline. The disciples were unaware of what was ahead of Him, and there was nobody to whom He could turn. The burden certainly weighed on Him — we know that, because we can look forward and see into the Garden of Gethsemane.  Every step of the way He was thinking of the disciples, ministering to them, preparing them, approaching His last walk in Jerusalem.

About That Cup Of Water …

Posted on by March 1, 2015
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Mark 9:41 — For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.

A cup of water. Does it make so much difference then? Yes it does. 

At first glance this verse might seem like an oddly selfish proposition. Let’s analyze it, following Matthew Henry:

  1. Christians are privileged to be in Christ’s family.
  2. Being in Christ’s family may not prevent us from becoming so poor that we may even be grateful for a cup of cold water.
  3. Helping Christ’s family is a good deed and He will accept it and reward it.
  4. But that kindness must be done because we are Christ’s family — that is what makes it holy and valuable to God.
  5. This is why we should not reject those who are good to the family — even if they are not in the family.

The proposition is anything but selfish. To be one of Christ’s disciples is to be prepared for whatever God chooses to provide, and to allow others to be His agents to meet some of our needs … to their eternal benefit. 

There is another aspect that suggests itself to me about this, and I know I might be stretching a little. But suppose Jesus looks at anybody in need and sees one of His children, one of His “little ones” which is what the parallel verse at Matthew 10:42 calls them. If that’s right then any charitable act — any “cup of water” will be rewarded. The idea appeals to me because there’s something going on that’s filling a lot of those cups of water. And in its way that’s a lot of worship going on, a lot of holy and valuable kindness.

Formally, I suppose, the movement would be called micro charity — indeed there is even a “dot com” called microcharity.com based in India. The idea is that lots of people make tiny donations that add up to substantial hope. There are other initiatives that I’m aware of. A local store that donates 10¢ every time a customer brings their own bag. Amazon has a “Smile” program that donates a fraction of every purchase. SurveyMonkey provides an option for donations when surveys are completed. None of the donations are more than that cup of water … but together they add up to a flood of kindness. All those people who are not in the family, being kind to the family, … unintentionally giving glory to God!

Mercy

Posted on by February 28, 2015
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Luke 23:39-43 — And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

We are in Lent and Easter is coming, and so I’m sure I’ll be writing some Easter-flavored devotionals.

Today my thoughts have been running on mercy. It seems to be that one of the unique elements in the Christian view of God that He is merciful. Actually, that’s slightly misstated. A. W. Tozer reminds us that mercy is not something God has it’s something God is. God’s mercy is infinite, unlimited.

The cross is the ultimate demonstration of God’s mercy. “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God“. We are in a terrible fix. It’s not something we can do anything about. God is also Justice. The implication is that sin has to be paid for. There is no option. How could the universal sin of man be paid for? Only a perfect sacrifice could meet the need. Sacrifices must always be perfect: And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein. (Leviticus 22:21) The only perfect sacrifice that could be enough to pay for all the sin of every person that ever was or ever will be is God Himself.

As I thought about this, an odd question occurred to me. “Where was the mercy for Jesus?” And that was when I remembered the two thieves. At His moment of deepest agony, Jesus received mercy from the most unexpected place — a sinner who knew His sinful state. You might question my thought. “Mercy”, you might say, “is surely forgiveness for sin?” That’s too narrow a definition, though. “According to the Old Testament, mercy has certain meanings: to stoop in kindness to an inferior, to have pity upon and to be actively compassionate. It used to be a verb form of the word compassion, but we don’t use it anymore—maybe because we don’t have the concept anymore. God actively “compassionates” suffering men—I like that wonderfully well.” — more from Tozer. The thief on the cross “compassionated” Jesus.

You might think the thief’s mercy was little enough but remember that Jesus said “For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.” (Mark 9:41)

It is such a moving thought for me. The cross is God actively having mercy on His lowly people … And in the midst of that supreme sacrifice, one of the lowliest of His people extends a tiny gesture of mercy to God Himself!

Be Different!

Posted on by February 27, 2015
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Leviticus 20:22-24 — Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spew you not out. And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people.

How do you tell the difference between a secular American and an American Christian? No, it’s not a joke. And if your answer is “I don’t know” then you’re like me. Don’t get me wrong … I know some great Godly Christians. But sadly I know some that are no advertisement for the faith. Of course I know some non-Christians that are no prize either — but I know some pretty decent ones too!

It’s not a new story. A Barna Group survey as long ago as 2007 pointed to the issue. Christianity Today reported:

The differences, however, between the self-oriented behavior of born again Christians and that of national norms were small. Although born-again Christians are more likely to volunteer for their church, they are no more likely than average to help the poor or homeless, the survey found. And they are also one of the least likely groups to recycle.When measured for other moral behaviors, born-again believers are not much different from non-born-again adults. One quarter of born-again believers are less likely to view sexually explicit movies and magazines, to use profanity in public and to buy a lottery ticket compared to roughly one third of non-born-again Christians.

Recent research doesn’t make us look any better. For example, another Barna study published only last year pointed out that self-proclaimed Christians — by their own admission — show behavior that is more Pharisee-like than Christ-like.

How did we get here? We got here because of the processes I wrote about yesterday and the day before. America is on a moral path that has been consistently downhill. The Christian worldview is losing the battle against alternate religious and secular worldviews.

There are two things we have to do. First, we have to start living up to our convictions. Second, we have to work at winning back the hearts and minds of non-Christians. Roll up your sleeves get to work and be different!

Good Witch?

Posted on by February 26, 2015
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Exodus 22:18 — Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

There’s a new TV series being trailed  — “Good Witch will take viewers on a new magical journey with Cassie Nightingale and her daughter Grace. When Dr. Sam Radford moves in next door to Grey House with his son, they are charmed by the ‘magical’ mother-daughter duo.“

Now I don’t want to get too serious about all this — I liked the Harry Potter books, and who wasn’t enchanted by starred Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York in “Bewitched”? — but there’s no such thing as a Good Witch. (Pauses for terrible pun … The only good witch is a sandwich …)Here’s the thing … far to many people nowadays seem to believe that there are good witches, and bad witches too. And that means that one of two things is happening.Either these folks are placing faith something that is completely bogus, a total illusion …or something far worse, they’re placing faith in something wholly evil.

There’s an underlying problem and it’s increasingly pervasive. It’s the problem of the distorted worldview.Most of you reading this will share my worldview —  Man is God’s creation, designed to govern the world and live in fellowship with Him. Adam and Eve broke God’s law and placed the whole world under a curse. God’s Son Jesus, the God-man, died on the cross and redeemed the world.  On a day of His choosing, God will restore His creation to its former perfect state.

Where the believers in witchcraft have a clearly articulated worldview it includes the idea of an indeterminate divine principle, with male and female aspects. But the worldview also believes that the divine spark is in everything and everyone … man is divine and there is no “Satan”. The moral code is built around the idea of “do what you like, as long as it harms nobody else”. There is no idea that man is sinful and in need of redemption, or of “heaven” or “hell”. Instead there are ideas of karma and reincarnation. It’s really a very imprecise and wooly worldview.

There’s a root cause to the spread of fluffy worldview. The Christian worldview has been explicitly driven out of schools under pressure from small but vociferous interest groups. Competing worldviews have been spread through media and other outlets, and a flabby tolerance has replaced a willingness to provide young people with religious and moral direction.

So I have to admit … I am bothered by the spread of “occult” movies and TV series — not because any one of them is particularly harmful in itself, but because of the collective sickness they represent.

Decline and Fall

Posted on by February 25, 2015
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Matthew 7:13-14 — Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

I wasn’t going to talk about “50 Shades of Grey”. However, I saw a review of the movie version in a local free newspaper today which provoked me. At first sight, the review was encouraging. The headline sucked me in: “Is It Worth Paying To See: No”. (Actually, I’ve paraphrased, to conceal the paper’s identity — but that was the implication). As I read though, I found the piece very depressing.

The problem was that the review had no concerns about the moral content of the film — but was very upset that the film’s makers had managed to make it really dull. That’s right. Subject matter which in my life time would have been universally regarded as vile, if not criminal, is now fine as long as it’s presented in the context of an interesting plot and strong artistic values!

There’s a sort of folk legend that if you boil a pot of water and throw a frog in, he’ll jump out — but if you put a frog into a pot of cold water and gradually heat it the frog will fall asleep and cook to death …  never waking up. It’s not true, but it’s a good warning against all kinds of slippery slopes. In this case I’m concerned, of course, about the slippery slope of moral degradation that America is sliding down, in the wake of many Western European societies. 

There are those who will argue that the “slippery slope” is imaginary: It’s true that to argue, without providing any evidence, that one action will be followed by a chain of others, is fallacious. But I’m not doing that. I’m looking backwards and I don’t think I have any problem making the case that successive “relaxations” laws and moral standards have us sliding downhill.

What really bothers me is that there used to be a “brake” on the moral slide. There was, at least, an implicit acceptance that the Biblical framework defined “right” and “wrong”. It would be a lot harder to get general agreement on that nowadays. Morality has become a matter of personal choice for many people, with no consensus framework. Even more alarmingly perhaps, when the people speak on an issue of morality, their opinion expressed through the ballot box can be overturned by the legislature. 

What’s a Christian to do about this? I suggest three things. First, of course, insist on applying a Biblical framework to your own moral choices. Second, become expert at promoting a Biblical worldview to people you have contact with. Third, lobby legislators and judicial official to apply Christian standards in passing and applying legislation. It will be an uphill struggle. The downhill slide is that broad path Jesus was talking about. Uphill is the path through the narrow gate. It’s the only way for us to go.

Seasons

Posted on by February 24, 2015
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Genesis 1:14-16 — And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

It’s kind of strange round here just now. The temperatures are cooler than you might think of for Southwest Florida, dead leaves are falling off the trees and today it’s even been overcast and misty … if this were anyone else I’d say it was fall! I was reminded of John Keats beautiful poem “To Autumn” … you might remember it. The first verse is:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;  

Conspiring with him how to load and bless  

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;  

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;  

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells  

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,  

And still more, later flowers for the bees,  

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

My thoughts moved, naturally I think, to the seasons and God’s providence. God created the seasons. Though the earth’s orbit and tilt and differences in latitude mean that different places experience different seasons at different times, God has made provision for seasonal variations in all the earth. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)

The seasons are just one mechanism in the wonderful engine that is God’s creation. Modern creation advocacy might make you think this is a new observation, but as long ago as 1764, Swedish philosopher and theologian wrote:

Many constant things exist, created that inconstant things may exist. Such constants are the ordained changes in the rising and setting of sun, moon, and stars; their obscurations by interpositions called eclipses; the heat and light from them; the seasons of the year, called spring, summer, autumn, and winter; the times of the day, morning, noon, evening, and night; also atmospheres, waters, and lands, viewed in themselves; the vegetative force in the plant kingdom, that and the reproductive in the animal kingdom; likewise what is constantly produced when these forces are set in action in accord with the laws of order. These and many more things existing from the creation are provided so that infinitely varying things may exist, for what varies can exist only in what is constant, fixed, and certain.

It is a glorious idea to me. God created a wonderful system of rules that interact to provide the blueprint for the infinite variety of creation … 

I seem to have come a long way from the falling leaves on a misty day. I have enjoyed the ride … we have an amazing God!