Connections, Near And Far

Posted on by February 8, 2015
Reply

1 Corinthians 12:12-14 — For as the body is one, and hath many members and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.

This devotion comes from two conversations at today’s Bible and Life Group (Sunday School class for those of you who don’t attend FBCN).
The first conversation was with a couple who were a mainstay of the group, but have moved away. They are back in town for a few weeks as “visitors”. The connection when they walked into class today was instant — direct and loving, as though they had never been away.
The second conversation was with a lady who is part of one of our “snowbird” couples. She told me of a chance meeting she and her husband had had with someone they had never met, with whom — it proved — her husband had a lot of common background. It’s a familiar experience — so often we meet people in the church with whom we have unexpected connections.
These two unrelated conversations reminded me of the network of “family relationships” that exist in the church. That thought, in turn, reminded me off this passage in Corinthians.
We are all different in the Church, all differently gifted, but all connected so that we can work together to do the churches work. The comparison Paul is making is with the workings, and the interconnections, of the parts of the human body. It seems a prosaic and obvious sort of connection — the hand and the foot, the eye and the ear, all working together — but it’s really extraordinarily beautiful. Right now, Jesus isn’t here in the body, but we are …
The sixteenth century Spanish mystic, the Carmelite nun Saint Theresa of Avila wrote a beautiful poem — Christ Has No Body:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Have I wandered a long way from those conversations — maybe, but I’m not always in charge of the path these pieces take. I’ve just followed the thought and enjoyed the journey …

Oh Me Of Little Faith

Posted on by February 7, 2015
Reply

Acts 12:5, 16 — Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. …

… But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.

We have an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good God. We have a God who has plans to do us good. We have a God who ensures that all things work together for the good of them that love Him. So why are we amazed when He does things for us when we ask Him to?
Here’s an example of the sort of thing I mean. A few years ago, Myra and I were called to England, at short notice, for an immigration process. When we got to the embassy we were given a list of the documents we were supposed to have. Now I promise you we had prepared diligently, but there was one on the list we hadn’t been warned about and hadn’t got. What were we to do? We did the only thing we could. We prayed, cried out to the Lord, desperately. The next day our interview was a breeze. The agent who interviewed us hardly looked at our papers. We knew God had intervened … And we were amazed.
Have you had those experiences, where you prayed, the Lord responded, and you were amazed? So what is it with us? Have we so little faith?
Don’t feel to bad. We share our inability to connect our prayer to God’s action with those who were at the very start of the church. It’s what the two verses I’ve pulled out of chapter 12 of Acts point to.
Herod Agrippa I had seized and executed John the Apostle (brother of James — they were Jesus’s “sons of thunder”). The Jewish authorities had greeted the move with enthusiasm, so he had decided to repeat the dose with Peter.
The church were praying without ceasing for Peter. Actually, a better translation would be “fervent” — it is translated to suggest that kind if earnestness in the only three other places it’s used in the New Testament — 1 Peter 1:22 and 4:8 and Luke 22:44. They were praying fervently and yet when the servant girl Rhoda tells them Peter is at the door they tell her she’s seeing ghosts, and when they see him for themselves they’re astonished. They were amazed that God had done what they were asking Him to!
I don’t think the problem is lack of faith. I think it might be that we really don’t quite understand how God feels about us. We love to call Him Abba — Papa — but it’s hard for us truly to grasp that He loves to not just call us children but to have us, and treat us, as beloved children.
Go ahead, ask … but try not to be so surprised when He answers!

A Desperate Search

Posted on by February 6, 2015
Reply

Luke 15:6-7 — And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Remember the other day I said I had an idea for a devotion, but that it would have to wait for a few days? Well, here it is.
A few days ago some of my credit cards went missing. It set off a frantic hunt. You’ve been there right? Look through the clothes I’d been wearing, search the drawers, call the cafe I had lunch at … I looked everywhere. Myra got in on the act. She’s a great hunter with a terrific imagination.
As we hunted, the parables Jesus told about searching for the lost came to mind. You know the ones — the lost coin, the lost son and this one, the lost sheep.
Of course I was desperate and Jesus definitely wasn’t — desperate … He’s the perfect God-man, always in control!
Of course the other parallels between my situation and the three “loss” parables aren’t exact either. Consider the causes of the lost items going astray. My credit cards went astray because of my carelessness or at best (being kind to myself) because of misfortune. The coin just rolled away. The son was lost through his own folly. The sheep got lost because — like many of us — it saw the grass and thought that it could find better grazing away from the shepherd.
The size of the loss was, for me, unknown — but the losses in the parables are exact — one coin, one son, one sheep.
Unfortunately for me there’s another difference. The coin, the son and the sheep were all recovered. My cards have not been — I’ve had to cancel them.
Actually, that last one is the real difference. I gave up … I stopped searching. In the three parables the Father, the woman who lost the coin, and the shepherd never gave up. Jesus never gives up. He keeps looking for that lost sinner — that one in a hundred — until the last possible moment.
I’ve always loved the story of the lost sheep. At least, I have since I got saved. I can look back and see that Jesus kept looking for me. There were several moments in my life when I might have become a Christian but turned away. He kept coming after me. I love to think that on that day when I surrendered there was one of those parties in Heaven.

The Voice Of The Lord

Posted on by February 5, 2015
Reply

Psalm 29:1-4 — Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

There was a storm early today, and the sky has been pretty grey all day. A co-worker passed me in the office today and asked me how I was. I replied that I was a little down (that’s a story for another day). The follow was “Oh, it’s the weather I suppose?” Here’s what I said …
“No, not at all. I woke at 4:30 this morning and was entertained by the music of the rain. Then I saw the glory of the lightning and heard the Lord’s voice thundering over the Gulf of Mexico. Then when Myra and I did our devotions this morning, there was Psalm 29 almost like a direct message from God! I love this weather.”
The storm speaks to me so clearly as the voice of the Lord. But it carries another message to me — a warning that haunts me.
The message is tied up in the name Ichabod — which is what the wife of Phinehas son of Eli named her son.
The Philistines defeated Israel in battle, killing Eli’s two sons Hophni and Phinehas and, worst of all, capturing the Ark of the Covenant:

And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken. (1 Samuel 4:21-22)

Whenever I hear one of the great Florida storms passing over, the thought passes through my mind that the glory of the Lord is passing — may have passed — from God’s church in America.
Dr. Robert G. Lee was the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee (where Dr. Adrian Rogers was later to be another beloved pastor) for thirty-two years, and a strong leader in the Southern Baptist Convention. He preached a powerful sermon “Goodby To Glory, Ichabod” on the passing of glory from nations, cities, churches, homes and even individuals. All can have a good name and lose it, and it can never be retrieved. In that message he said:

In America we must remember that the glory of a nation is righteousness and faith in God – and going the way God points – and in such is our security against all foes, our immunity against the ravages of time.
“For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.”- Isaiah 60:12. This sober truth that only righteousness exalteth a nation — that if ever America loses her faith in God she will have to come off her pedestal, that pallbearers that carried other nations to their graves will do work for us if we forsake God and refuse to go the way He points — was put upon our hearts once by the editor of the Watchman-Examiner”

When I hear the storm overhead, and the voice of the Lord on the waters, I rejoice. When the storm has passed, and His voice is still, sometimes I tremble.

God’s Perfect Timing

Posted on by February 4, 2015
Reply

Habakkuk 2:1-4 — I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

I’ve got this really good idea for a devotion — but it’s not right for today. Now, I know it would be really overblown to compare my little devotions to the prophet’s visions — but I do believe they have a time and place, so that one will have to wait.
Habakkuk came to understand about waiting. He had an attitude that I would love to say that I had consistently. He didn’t say “I’ve got it all figured out, so let me tell you”. He said, “I’ve told the Lord how I feel, and now I’m going to go to my place and listen … even though He’s probably going to correct me”. It’s a combination of openness and humility that seems a perfect foundation of faith.
The Lord’s response was wonderful. He told Habakkuk to write down the vision — on tablets, because the fulfillment was not going to be immediate. “Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” — It looks odd, but it’s God saying “Because it seems slow to you, doesn’t mean it’s slow to me!” It’s the same thought as 2 Peter 8-9:

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Trusting God’s perfect timing is really important. The pay-off is “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” It’s often used (it was even used by Paul) to have justification hang on belief. It might also be translated as “See, the one whose desires are not upright faints, but the godly one lives by his integrity.” The way the verse is referred to in the New Testament makes it clear that the contrast is between the man who trusts in his own judgment and the one who trusts in God’s perfect timing.
It becomes clear in Hebrews that the vision speaks of the Messiah — “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10:37-38)
All good things come, with God’s perfect timing!

Happiness?

Posted on by February 3, 2015
Reply

Ecclesiastes 2:1-2 — I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? (Ecclesiastes 2:1-2)

I read a sad thing today. A sad little tag to a desperately sad story. It seems the family of comedian Robin Williams are in court, fighting over his estate. You may remember that the wonderfully funny man took his own life while suffering from depression, in August of last year.
Why is it, do you suppose, that great comedians — men (usually) who spend so much time making people laugh — are so prone to depression? Actually, it seems the question has things backwards. It might better be asked, how come depressed people are such good comedians? It seems the laughter is hiding the sadness. But laughter doesn’t heal the pain. Laughter isn’t the same as happiness.
It’s an old, old, story. Solomon new it. Henry Cowles comments:
His experience compels him to say of laughter. “It is mad.” This Hebrew word for “mad” suggests rather that it shines with a false glare, and plays off a false splendor in which there is nothing substantial.—Of mirth he said, What can it do?
Laughter is not happiness. There is a powerful comparison between the sources of the happiness of the saints and the sources of happiness available in the world. In his “New Topical Handbook” R. A. Torrey provides lists of each:
The happiness of saints comes from:
— Fear of God. Ps 128:1, 2; Pr 28:14.
— Trust in God. Pr 16:20; Php 4:6, 7.
— The words of Christ. Joh 17:13.
— Obedience to God. Ps 40:8; Joh 13:17.
— Salvation. De 33:29; Isa 12:2, 3.
— Hope in the Lord. Ps 146:5.
— Hope of glory. Ro 5:2.
— God being their Lord. Ps 144:15.
— God being their help. Ps 146:5.
— Praising God. Ps 135:3.
— Their mutual love. Ps 133:1.
— Divine chastening. Job 5:17; Jas 5:11.
— Suffering for Christ. 2 Co 12:10; 1 Pe 3:14; 4:13, 14.
— Having mercy on the poor. Pr 14:21.
— Finding wisdom. Pr 3:13.
The “happiness” of the wicked comes from:
— Their wealth. Job 21:13; Ps 52:7.
— Their power. Job 21:7; Ps 37:35.
— Their worldly prosperity. Ps 17:14; 73:3, 4, 7.
— Popular applause. Ac 12:22.
— Gluttony. Isa 22:13; Hab 1:16.
— Drunkenness. Isa 5:11; 56:12.
— Vain pleasure. Job 21:12; Isa 5:12.
— Successful oppression. Hab 1:15; Jas 5:6.
It’s a powerful comparison isn’t it? Which list would you rather have? I think if I only had the world’s list I’d be depressed — and I’m not good comedian material!

The Great Commandments

Posted on by February 2, 2015
Reply

Matthew 22:34-40 — But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

So how are you doing on that? Observing the greatest commandment, and the second? I have to say that I am not really doing as well as I would like to.
The first thing, I suppose, is to know what the two commandments are saying. Mathew has Jesus giving them as I quote them above, although Mark and Luke tells the story slightly differently, inserting “strength” between “soul” and “mind”.
In the first commandment “heart” is heart as in the sense of whole-hearted or half-hearted. It is not about emotions, but about commitment. We are to be fully committed to loving God. It is the soul that is the seat of the emotions. Loving God is not just an intellectual or moral choice — it requires passion, all the passion I can command. Strength is not, I think, mere physical strength — it is the strength to endure. Finally, whilst loving God is not an intellectual choice, it does require the exercise of the intellect. We cannot love what we cannot understand. 
The second commandment seems simpler — love your neighbour as thyself. The complexity, of course, is tied up in the definition of who my neighbor is (which is the lawyer’s follow-up question). Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan to make the point that anyone can be a neighbor — and that the relationship should be defined by need, nothing else.
There’s another “little” issue to consider, though … Why does Jesus say the second commandment is “like unto” the first? The obvious link is in the phrase “Thou shalt love”. But how is loving my neighbor like loving God? One key is that my neighbor is made in God’s image — from that point of view, loving my neighbor is certainly like loving God.
As I said at the start, I don’t really do as well as I would like. I can be distracted from loving God as I ought — and I find it really hard to love some of my neighbors! I’ll keep trying though …

Thy Will Be Done

Posted on by February 1, 2015
Reply

Matthew 6:9-10 — After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

I said I would be coming back to The Lord’s Prayer often — and here I am! I want to focus on “Thy will be done”, knowing that I can only touch the surface of what it means to me. In fact today I will touch on only three facets of this particular jewel.
Let me start with a comment about “Hallowed be”, “Kingdom come” and “will be done”. I don’t often tangle with grammatical constructions when I write these pieces — I’m not that smart. This time though I do want to point out that these three verbs are all what are called “aorist imperatives”. That means they are talking about things that definitely need to be done, now. To me they call for obedience from us — complete and precise obedience. When we pray “Thy will be done” we are praying “Thy will be done completely and precisely”. It’s an offer of complete submission of the will.
To me, this prayer — especially in its aspect of complete submission — is closely related to the “Gethsemane Moments” I wrote about the other day. Jesus modeled the attitude perfectly when He prayed “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39)
Another thing to consider with this prayer is what to make of “as it is in heaven”. Some of it is plainly about attitude. Obedience can be compelled, offered out of respect, or offered out of love. In heaven, of course, there are no malcontents to be compelled to obedience, or even dutiful servants obeying because they must. The obedience offered in heaven is surely of the same kind that William Barclay describes when he talks about this part of the Lord’s Prayer — “Some people may say: ‘Your will be done’ in perfect love and trust. They may say it gladly and willingly, no matter what that will may be. It should be easy for Christians to say: ‘Your will be done’ like that; ”
The last thing I want to mention today us that, as with the other petitions, “Thy will be done” should not perhaps be considered in isolation. It connects naturally to “Thy Kingdom come”. God’s Kingdom on earth would surely be a fulfillment of His will. It connects too, perhaps, to “Give us our daily bread”. Even if we are willing to do God’s will, we surely cannot achieve it without His provision. This is yet one more of the beauties of the Lord’s Prayer. It is by no means a set of unlinked petitions, but one beautiful whole cloth.
Thy will be done indeed.

Rupture, Ritual, or Rapture?

Posted on by January 31, 2015
Reply

Luke 4:16 — And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

So it’s Sunday morning — or Saturday evening for some of you. Here comes that two or three hour chunk of time called “church”. How do you feel about it?
For some people, church is an interruption in an otherwise satisfactory day — a rupture if you like. For some people the day just flows around that awkward chunk of time. If it’s like that for you, can I suggest you think about your relationship to your church. Are you just a weekly visitor or are you really actively involved?
For some people, church is a ritual. They go willingly, but they feel there is only one way to “do” church …the process is more important than the passion. I need to be careful in how I say this, for Paul was careful to warn the Corinthians of the need for orderly behavior in services : “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. …” (1 Corinthians 14:33). Having said that, it’s important to know that we serve a God who is infinitely creative. I was reminded by someone today that God loves new songs. Psalms 96, 98, and 149 all start “sing to the Lord a new song.”. Isaiah 42:10 and Psalm 33:3 reinforce the message. I don’t think God wants “church” to be an unconsidered ritual.
For others, the regular weekly attendance at church is a rapture — an emotional lifting out of the rest of life, a pouring out of worship to a perfect God. It will be no surprise, perhaps, that this is the form I favor. Even here, though, there is a risk. Emotional outpouring, on its own, is not enough. Church should be life changing, not just an emotional uplift.
The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that the best way to attend church every week has all three elements in it — rupture, ritual and rapture. Though I shouldn’t resent it, there should be an interruption to daily life. The collective teaching and worship time shouldn’t be “business as usual”. There should be an element of ritual to weekly church. One definition of ritual is “an act or series of acts done in a particular situation and in the same way each time”. There is value in preparing for church, knowing when it will take place and having an idea of what will happen. There is no doubt out, either, that there should be a rapturous surrender to the process of worship.
If your weekly worship has become a little static, I hope these few thoughts might start you on a thought process and a journey to a transformed church experience.

Gethsemane Moments

Posted on by January 30, 2015
Reply

Matthew 26:38-39 — Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Myra inspired this piece. As we discussed our morning devotions she said “You know, we all have Gethsemane moments …”. Wow! Regular readers (thank you!) will know that I spent a lot of time reading “Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday” by Alan Lewis. In it, he talks about the idea that we all go through “Easter Saturday” times in our lives — times when something we cherish — a relationship, a job, our health — “dies” and after a “dead” time there is a rebirth. It’s a powerful idea, and Myra’s comment struck me with the same force.
All of us have those things in our lives that we dread, and that we plead with God to take away. Times when people we feel should stand by us are just not there. For Myra, it was the time when her second husband died, and the small church she had been attending just didn’t show up.
Gethsemane moments are not moments that take us by surprise. They begin, I believe, as a concern and grow into the moment of crisis. The cancer diagnosis that leads to agonizing treatment. The marital disputes that lead to the disaster of divorce.
If you know someone who’s going through a Gethsemane moment, be aware that the normal texts we use to proffer sympathy are not going to help. They know “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28). It’s not the time to tell them to have more faith — it’s time just to be there, as the disciples could not be for Jesus.
If you are going through your own Gethsemane moment, all I can offer you is the memory of Jesus’s Gethsemane moment. He’s been there … and He will go through it with you. “For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16)