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Wandering Saints
Wandering Saints
We know the old hymn Come Thou Fount well; in the third stanza of the third verse we sing something all too familiar to us in our Christian life:
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I Love;
I always feel a bit on tension when I sing this phrase in the song. I suppose it is because that is the truest statement that could be made about me as a Christian. I do have a strong pull within myself to “wander”. If we are all honest that is who we all are. Even the Apostle Paul wrote about the temptation to wander in Romans 7:
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25
We still live in the flesh; we still have desires within us to fall to the temptation of the flesh. We can see in James chapter one the slippery slope we can find ourselves on when we give in to the desires of the flesh.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. James 1:13-15
We have to be cautious, when we feel the pull to follow the desires of our flesh; we must understand the fire that we are playing with and how quick it can get out of control. In the text in James we can clearly see the progression from temptation, to sin, to death, it implies that the fall can happen quickly.
Proceeding with Caution
We have warning throughout Scripture to beware of falling to sin. We should not take these warnings lightly, but I feel that we do. Culturally we are not helped, not to be legalistic, but when we turn on our televisions we are tempted to a degree that is unprecedented. There is unlimited access through the internet to pornography; we live in the deep end of a cultural of consumerism. As Christians we have to be wise as to how we live in a day with temptation all around us. We have all seen the sad story. We have seen many of our friends, loved ones, people we have gone to church with walk away from the faith they proclaimed being pulled and enticed by temptation and sin.
So We Must Flee…
We all know the old story; maybe we have even experienced it one way or another. A child stands in the kitchen with his mother cooking over the stove, she looks over at him and says, “Do not touch that stove, it is hot, it will hurt you.” Then the next actions of the child are predictable, when the mother turns her back she is alerted by the scream of her son as he has done the very thing she told him not to do, he touched the hot stove. That is what is wired into us. We inherit this from the fall. As Adam & Eve were told not to eat of one tree in the Garden of Eden they did the very thing, the only thing God had told them not to do. So this should be no surprise that sinners act like sinners. But for us that have been saved from our sin nature we have had the chords of sin removed and now walk in the righteousness of Christ we must fight against these temptations. Paul in his letter to the Church at Ephesus gives us wisdom as to how to fight these temptations:
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Ephesians 5:3
Paul tells us that these things should not even be named among us; a better translation is that we should flee from these things. We have a strong tendency to get as close to the fire without getting burnt but sometimes falling into the fire. Paul warns us, he gives us good wisdom, that to fall into this fire to let ourselves be burned by sin will lead to destruction and damnation.
Grace to Sustain
Back to our hymn, the final stanza of verse three ends:
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it; Seal it for Thy courts above.
That ending to verse three as all good hymns uses language borrowed from Scripture:
In Him you also, when you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:13-14
As followers of Jesus we have a guarantee that our inheritance (salvation) is kept for us by the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. We are sealed with a promise that we will receive this inheritance that is in Heaven. God’s faithfulness to His people is from beginning to end, God is faithful to save and He is faithful to sustain us by His grace. Yes, we are prone to wander, but Jesus the Good Shepherd is faithful to go out and find His wandering sheep and bring them home. We will end by putting the whole verse together:
O to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness like a fetter, Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it; Seal it for Thy courts above.
Come Thy Fount –Robert Robinson
Worshiping the Right Way: Family Worship
Worshiping the Right Way: Family Worship
In the Genesis account God ordains the unit we know as family. We see this in Genesis 2 as God creates man and woman, providing everything that they need and commanding them “to be fruitful and multiply.” As God instituted the first family the family’s main activity, their main responsibility was to worship their God as a family.
This theme does not stop in the Garden of Eden, but carries over to the life of the people of Israel. We can see in the Law given by Moses in Deuteronomy the great command from God:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9
It is not hard determining what God is telling the Israelites to do here. As a family they were to be subject to learning the things of God in the home. Notice it was not the responsibility of tabernacle worship to educate the family on the things of God; it was always to happen at home. I know what you are thinking, well, that’s the Old Testament; we have the church gathered as New Testament Christianity. If we take a close reading to the Book of Acts and notice what would happen when people believed, we would see the text say things like “and the whole household was saved/baptized…” Acts 11:14cf. Yes, absolutely we see family worship happening in the New Testament. As a matter of fact we see that when one would believe the Gospel, they would go back to their homes and proclaim the saving Gospel to those they loved, their families.
We do have a responsibility to be Gospel light bearers in our homes. Our homes should be ground zero for Gospel growth. The question is, how do we do this? We have to admit that we exist in such a consumer culture that we have mostly outsourced even our Gospel teaching in the church to material from larger groups that make a business out of distributing “Gospel material”. To take that a step further in our homes we have outsourced all Gospel teaching to the church, and the church has made many different ministries to meet this need. Much of what we do to make things “easier” on ourselves has caused us to miss the essential means of grace that God has ordained with our homes, family worship. You will find as family worship goes, your worship corporately with the church will have more depth and substance. Three very simple steps we can take to turn our homes into the place we can meet our God in worship as a family.
Read
Step one; take up your Bibles and reading them together. I am not saying that an exegetical exposition of a biblical text needs to take place in the living room, but just a simple reading of Scripture together as a family. You will be amazed at the questions that your children will ask by just reading, or having them read the Bible together as a family. That is where the joy comes in family worship, as you get to lead your family into the mystery of discovering the depths and wisdom of our God. A healthy reading of Scripture together will have a supernatural effect on your family, helping you grow together in the grace of the Lord.
Pray
Step two: take to your knees and pray together. Now, I am not saying this has to happen on your knees, more figuratively speaking. As a family we should have plenty to pray for:
1. Growth in Christ as individuals & as a family
2. Salvation for those that do not know the Lord in the family
3. Specific church members (make a list or use what the church provides)
4. Needs in city/county, state, nation, or world
5. Issues at jobs or school
As awkward as you may think it may feel to pray for the salvation/growth in Christ of your child that is sitting before you, I would contest that there is nothing more loving that you could do, and nothing you could do that would show a child how much you love them. We cannot check our “spiritual” life at the door of the church but must let our lights shine in the world and most of all it is our mandate from Scripture to do this at home.
Sing!
If you can imagine for a moment, the Ford family has read the Scriptures together, we have prayed for each other and our church family and then we break out one of the five hymn books that we have and begin to sing. As our voices begin to ring out, not one voice in unison, not one in tune, our dog (Phineas) begins to howl on the back porch and we break out in laughter together as a family, but the sound of our commotion and laughter is a sound pleasing to the Lord. So your singing does not need to be pitch perfect, nor does it need to be led by a sympathy of accompaniment, sometimes a howl of an old mutt will do, but in obedience to the Lord we should make a joyful noise.
Most of All: Start Now
It’s not an ignorance of the Bible, it’s not a lack of knowing the right things to pray, it’s not the lack of ability to sing that is holding you back from family worship. It is the thing that keeps us from doing so many things, just not stepping out and doing it. The Lord has called you from Scripture to lead your family in His ways; it is your responsibility as a Christian to do it, so start now, start tonight. Sure your family may look at you funny, it may end in a train wreck, many of our family worship times have, but be obedient to the Scripture.
Some Helpful Resources:
https://www.amazon.com/Faith-Grow-Important-Things-Believe/dp/1400304423/ref=dp_ob_image_bk
Where is God Taking Us?
Where is God Taking Us?
I want to preface this question with some Scripture. I fully understand Paul’s statement in Romans 11 when discussing God’s foreknowledge in the salvation of the Jews and even the Gentiles in previous chapters, it is a mystery.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:33-36
It is wise to acknowledge that God’s ways can be veiled in mystery and God does not owe us an explanation for anything that God does. The possibility could also be that our finite minds do not have the capacity to understand what God is doing.
Another preface that I want to make is that it is not helpful or wise to try and form some sort of eschatological framework from events happening around us. We should let Scripture alone form our thoughts and views on Christ’s return, Scripture speaks on these things, and therefore we should listen. Signs and wonders will not be sufficient to speak in these areas, so we should not look to these things or make any type of “prophetic” reading in these areas.
We should, though, be wise to seek the will of God. That is what I am writing about, we have to acknowledge that God is doing something, He never slumbers. So this is not a “prophetic vision” of future tribulation coming but rather a seeking of the will of the Lord.
Waking Up
I hate being woke up, especially unexpectedly. Nothing can make me more disoriented than when I am in a deep sleep and someone or something rushes in and wakes me up. It will take me at least an hour maybe more to gather myself, to get my mind out of the shock of being woken abruptly. Once I get my bearings about me I can order my thoughts and then function as I should but it takes a moment. Sometimes I am in a very deep sleep and it takes a rather large jolt to wake me.
Has the church been sleeping? To answer we have to ask what causes sleep, I know for myself that certain circumstances will usually help be to fall asleep. First is apathy, when I have a lack of concern, a lack of passion, a lack of excitement, or lack of awareness of things going on around me it is easy to fall into a good sleep. When our mind and emotions are heightened it is difficult to rest well. Second is comfort, one thing that helps me to get into a good sleep is to find a comfortable spot. Some of the worst sleep I have had in my life is hotel rooms; the first test for a good hotel room is the comfort of the bed so I can rest.
Let’s think through these things & the church in our country. Has the church been apathetic? Is there an overall lack of concern, passion, excitement, & awareness among Christians in our country? I will leave you to answer that question, but will present facts:
1. Usafacts.org reports in 2016 there were 623,471 abortions in the U.S.
2. Statista.com reports in 2019, there were about 567,715 homeless people living in the U.S.
3. USA Today in its 2019 report, the State Department found the top three nations of origin for human trafficking victims were the United States, Mexico and the Philippines.
4. Childrensrights.org reports on any given day, there are nearly 443,000 children in foster care in the United States.
I would say that just scratches the surface of facts that we could look at that associate with Matthew 25:42-45:
For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
We have to acknowledge that we have become very comfortable as the church, even so much that we will avoid being uncomfortable as much as possible. Many times we will let our convictions that are grounded in Scripture to fall by the wayside for the sake of comfort. We have a hard time sacrificing any type of comfort we have to meet needs of others or to stand for truth. Comfort has become a mark of the American Christian, but it should not be.
Responding to the Brakes Being Slammed On
Driving along outside of town at about dusk, Elijah my son is in the passenger seat nodding off when all of a sudden a deer runs out in front of us; thankfully I had the wherewithal to slam my brakes to bring us to a safe stop. It shocked both of us, but for the rest of the drive until we reached our destination I am laser focused on the road before us.
In the early part of the year we started hearing about a virus spreading through China, if you are like me you did not give it much thought. Four months later, I sit in my office at home, yesterday, I preached for the 4th time from the very spot that my desk sits Monday thru Friday on Easter none the less. Not only has this virus stopped our meeting as the church it has brought us all to a full stop in almost every aspect of our lives. Our God has hit the brakes.
Let’s take a lesson from Judah and warning from the Book of Isaiah:
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: "Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand." Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. "When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations-- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." Isaiah 1:2-20
In this text Isaiah is warning Judah (Israelites) that they have wondered from God. The effect of their worship becoming stale or rather led by complacency caused them to quit caring for the hurting of society, maybe better put becoming apathetic and comfortable. The warning implies that even though they worshiped in practice it was not worship that was pleasing to God; furthermore God despised their offerings of worship. God’s people needed to be woke up, God was intervening into His people’s situation and they should listen to their God’s call to turn from their ways and come back to Him. We see this toward the end of the prophets warning to the people. As there was a warning, there was also a call to come back home.
Coming Home
God’s calling us to come home. To come back into a true worship of Him that is expressed in how we seek & praise Him in our corporate gatherings, and how that is expressed in how we love our neighbor in the world. How to live our lives as Christians is not a secret thing, it is not hidden from us. God has spoken in His Word giving us the guidelines to how to live. The travel home is marked with a life that is seeking holiness, loving our neighbor, meeting the needs of the least of us, and loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Have we fallen into a slumber as the church? I think so. Is God using a worldwide pandemic to wake us up? He could be. How should we respond? We should seek the Lord, begging Him to examine our hearts, come back to true worship, and run home as hard and fast as we can home. God’s great plan is full proof, He is sovereign and good. I think if we are honest as Christians we know exactly what God is doing. The question is not what is God doing, but how will His church respond?
A Time to Reset
A Time to Reset
Some of my fondest childhood memories are from the times that my brother and I would face off on the Nintendo or Playstation video game system. This is a fond memory for me because I mostly won. We would wake up early on the weekend and start first thing in the morning; it was NBA Jam before breakfast. Even though I would win most games sometimes my brother would sneak up on me for a victory. However, sometimes when one of us would get angry, because that is what happens when brothers compete (see Cain & Able), we would reach toward the gaming console and hit the reset button before the other brother could stop this unforgivable sin. Generally once the reset button was hit it was game over, usually because a fight would break out.
Our current situation is very unique. A couple of things are happening to us as we are quarantined for the most part to our homes. First, we are taking account of what is really important. It is not often that we universally all have the opportunity, or are going through the same trail that makes us take into account what we prioritize in our lives. This trial of the COVID-19 virus is giving us that opportunity. Second, it is not often that on a daily basis we are faced with a trial that makes us consider life, death & eternity. Daily we see reports of hundreds of thousands of people being diagnosed with this virus and the death toll continues to grow. When we hear these facts it should and I believe does trouble our soul, this should cause us to take into account how we will spend eternity.
Priorities & Church
Who could have predicted that we would be on almost a month now of not gathering together and realistically there is nothing that would imply that we will be gathering in the next month or so. No one could have predicted that for the most part gathering and worshipping together as the church would come to a full stop. As I think about what I miss as we gather there are many things, but at the top of the list are: singing hymns together, hearing the pages of Bibles turn as I announce the days text, the Sunday nights that we would gather for our prayer meetings and hearing others lead us in prayer, and as we gathered to take the Lord’s Supper there is always a time that I am able to look out over the congregation as they sit in prayer before their Jesus. All those times are precious moments of real worship.
We can let ourselves get caught up in many nonessential things in the life of the church. Whether it is traditions of the past or hopes for the future, the agendas we focus on as we can see now are fleeting. The testimony of Scripture is that any work that we put our hand to that is not Christ honoring and Church edifying will burn in that last day when presented before our Lord (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). Through this trial that we now exist in the Lord is painting the clearest picture for us. The church at this moment stands completely stripped clean of all our worldly adornment, all or our outward aesthetics and what are we left with, just Jesus and His Word. Do we need anything else? God in His mercy, in His grace, is pointing us home. Our Lord is being faithful to His people to rid us of anything that could lead to or is idolatry and calling us to repentance and worship.
Comfort & Eternity
It is easy not to think about eternal things, if we can flow through life without giving much thought about death or what happens after that we would be ok with that. However, when a global pandemic hits and the death toll rises day-by-day our thoughts cannot help but to be thrusted toward the eternal. So here we are, the reality is that this virus is a serious thing, my intention is not to add worry but to expose reality. The Apostle Paul in Philippians reminds us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling…” as Christians we should think about eternity, we should think deeply about it. We should always be setting our faith on the scales of Scripture and asking the Lord to examine our faith. This is not a version of Christianity that negates assurance but the opposite. If we have been truly converted and are walking with the Lord then it is assurance that the Lord would reveal this to us, but if not we need to know so that we do not continue to stumble in darkness.
Now Is the Time to Press the Button
As I reminisced above about how in my brother’s and my competitive video games the reset button was always off limits, that is not so now. It is the time to press the button. The opportunity for the slate to be wiped clean does not often happen, for our current context within the church it has not happened. I think it would be wise for all Christians, everywhere, to examine ourselves, our own motives. For us all between now and when we will gather again to truly ask the question, “Why do we gather, What do you miss about church?” My hope is that the Lord is reprioritizing our life of worship for us, that the main thing will be the main thing again. Also, that Christians and non-Christians will take into account what eternity will look like. It is always wise for Christians to think of eternity, the hope we have now we will then know as we see Jesus face-to-face. For ones that are not sure of their eternal destination, that they would consider Jesus, that God would use this avenue of our current trial to have a non-believer ask us about the hope in us.
As we think about all that we have, all that we have known, all we could gain, and all we could lose, I am left with one thought: You can have all this world….Just give me Jesus.
Home-Bound Mercies
Home-Bound Mercies
As I write this I sit here in my office. Three weeks ago this was my domain, I could sit at my desk, I could roam around the room, and I had the freedom to walk around, move about, be loud or have complete silence. But today as I sit in my office what used to be a rather large room is now pack with four desk, two kids, and my wife. Now I do not say these things in frustration but just to show as everyone else the COVID-19 virus has flipped our lives upside down. The new normal is nothing like what we thought normal was. It is a treat now to load up in the car and drive to Casa Grande for some take out Mexican food. It seems that this new normal is inconvenient, we cannot do many of the things we used to be able to do. However, I can see some of the mercy of God in this home-bound sentence.
The COVID 19 has strained all of us in many ways. It has caused anxiety, concern for an unknown future, financial strain, a sense of stir craziness, and for the Church not being able to gather. I began yesterday afternoon to think about all this theologically. I know that Scripture’s testimony of our God is a sovereign Lord that is sitting on His throne and doing whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3). When we marry that scripture with one of our favorite scriptures: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28. We must come to the conclusion that God has us exactly where He wants us.
At this point we have to admit some things. We have to admit that we as a culture have over stretched ourselves with busyness. I can confess for myself, I can let myself become busy with trivial things, maybe better put temporal things. My/our mind and focus should be set on things that impact eternity. I believe that it is always wise to consider how God would want us to respond to the circumstances that we are in. Certainly, the scripture speaks that we should be “discerning the will of God.” Romans 12:2. If God is sovereign, and He is, and God has put us in this circumstance, He has, could this be the mercy of God for us to right the ship, if it is then how should we respond?
The Mercy of Knowing His Word
What would happen if we spent all of this extra time that we have immersing ourselves in God’s Word? What will happen when we finally gather back together if we take this time and dive deep into the Word of God and we come out of this knowing God better than we ever have before? As the Psalmist says in Psalm 119:103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Daily Bible reading, Scripture memorization, Scripture mediation should become our food as we are home-bound for this season. The opportunity that God has given us, He has slowed us down, He has given us His Word, so brothers & sisters let us take up and read the Words of Life and let them flow into our hearts & minds.
The Mercy of Family
One of the joys of the day for me is when I scroll through FaceBook seeing pictures of families spending time together. A better joy is the extra time I have with my family, the endless hours we have been able to spend in God’s good creation, having extra time to spend in the Word of God together, it has been a sweet time. We cannot deny that one thing that has suffered in our culture because of the busyness we exist in is the family. Furthermore, as the pendulum of cultural acceptance swings God’s good design for family certainly has taken a hit. But now, we can and must reclaim the created order of God as He ordained family as His good design in the beginning.
As Moses wrote to the Israelites the Law of God in the Book of Deuteronomy he told the Israelites:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Moses gives command to love the one true God with all of our being and then to be diligent to teach that to our families with an intensity that we would always have the truth before their eyes. If I can be honest, I fail at this command regularly. Yet now we have this unique opportunity to lead our families into a deep devotion of love to our God.
A Mercy to be Hungry to Worship Together Again
From the moment that news started coming in and the realization that for a time we would not be able to gather together became a reality I felt an immediate emptiness. It was somewhat shocking to think all of our plans at church would be put on hold, but surely it would not last a few weeks. Now after two weeks of not meeting it looks like we are in this for a long haul.
In the 42 Psalm David expresses his longing to lead the Israelites again in worship:
These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Psalm 42:4
Though our gathering is not the bedrock of our faith, that is Christ, the need for fellowship with fellow believers is important. Our corporate gathering should be longed for; it is a small dose of our eternal gathering in heaven with every tribe, tongue, and nation. Again, we have to admit that we can become complacent within our gathering; it always has been. Sunday after Sunday, Midweek Bible study, singing's, potluck dinners, the Church is never short on gathers until it all stopped two weeks ago. Let us become hungry to gather again, let us not be satisfied with the normalcy of how we usually gathered but be hungry to gather around the life giving Word of God seeking our one true Savior, Jesus Christ as we worship together. My greatest prayer through this pandemic is that God would fan the flame of the church until it burns white hot for the worship of God corporately again.
If God can take a microscopic virus and bring the whole world to its knees, from great kingdoms & nations, to strong economies, to the most brilliant minds, a disease that is not a respecter of person can you imagine what God can do through the faith the size of a mustard seed.
Fear or Faith
Fear or Faith
Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Fear is a funny thing that manifests itself in weird ways. Currently, we are buying up every isle in grocery stores, from milk, bread to toilet paper. For the most part in our culture we can basically control the outcome of most the things that happen to us. But when the unknown happens and we enter into times of uncertainty we become overcome with a sense of fear. Lack of control is so outside of our normal life as Americans. We are routine people; we get up every morning, take the same route to work, put in our time, head home and continue our evening routines. With the COVID-19 virus we have now came to a full stop. Should we respond in fear? Should we continue to walk with uncertainty when we now realize everything could change tomorrow?
We do understand theologically that a right type of fear of God is good. We should have a reverent fear of God even as Christians. We can feel the fear that Isaiah feels as we read Isaiah 6. Isaiah comes to the point of fear because he is a sinner before a Holy God crying out, “Woe is me! For I am lost: for I am a man of unclean lips: and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Isaiah 6:5 Isaiah had a healthy fear of God, the prophet understood his state before the Holy God and he was in a place he could not stand. This is the same fear we should have toward our God. He is Holy, our God will not tolerate sinners in His presence.
If I have learned anything from living a week in a world during a worldwide pandemic is that we have misplaced fear. Should we be concerned about the COVID-19 virus, sure we should, we should be wise in what we do, we should love our neighbor. But should we fear the COVID-19 virus, absolutely not. Whether it is this virus or whether it is something else there will always be pandemics, calamities, natural disasters, or economic crashes yet our God reigns over all. Even though life is uncertain there is one thing that is certain, we will all stand before the Lord.
However, we have this text later in the Book of Isaiah that says “Fear not, for I am with you…” How do we marry these two things? Isaiah starts the book in fear of God but by the end of the book is told not to fear. So what is the thing that takes us from fear to fear not? The love of God manifested in Jesus. The expression of God’s love is seen when He poured out His wrath on Jesus at Calvary, the hatred of sin and love for the sinner put on full display.
Should we fear God? Yes, we should, we should have a reverent healthy fear of God because of who He is. We should feel a tremble in our soul when we read the Scriptures about the times when God’s holiness was put on display, when we see how our God deals with sin. But, this world should give us no reason to fear! Our God is the hand that turns the pages of time, He exists outside of time but entered into our time as God put on flesh. Jesus, the name above every name, for there is salvation in no one else, no name under heaven or above but in the name Jesus can we be saved. Salvation through Christ alone will extinguish all fear, even in that Day of Judgment because we will not stand in our unworthy work but in the finished work of Jesus, thanks be to God! Fear of this world is a tool of Satan to use in attempt to weaken our faith. So let us cast away all fear of these things and trust our good God in the midst of this pandemic and whatever will come next, for His glory.
A good word from Jonathan Edwards as we walk through life:
“In all your course, walk with God and follow Christ as a little, poor, helpless child, taking hold of Christ's hand, keeping your eye on the mark of the wounds on his hands and side, whence came the blood that cleanses you from sin and hiding your nakedness under the skirt of the white shining robe of his righteousness.”
-Jonathan Edwards
Weary Travelers
Weary Travelers
Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Our family loves to travel. We have had the blessing to be able to travel throughout most of the Eastern parts of the United States. My main role as we travel is to be the driver. I do not mind driving; I have a terribly hard time trying to sleep in vehicles while on the road. So if I must be awake I am just as satisfied driving than anything else. But there are certainly draw backs from being the “driver”. Of course the obvious: traffic, bathroom breaks, other drivers on the road, but the less obvious is the toll the drive takes on the driver. When we reach our desired destination it takes a day or so, depending on the length of drive, to get your barrens about you again. As we all know, however, sometimes when we travel things just do not go by our plan. We can find ourselves in bad weather, the traffic can be worse than normal, we could drive through more construction usual, or we could just get lost. These things cause a weariness to fall on the travelers.
What a picture of our Christian life. When the Lord draws us to Himself and calls us to salvation we generally feel excited, full of zeal, and ready to take on life. But then the long road begins. The Christian life gives us many hills and valleys. Generally those hills and valleys sneak up on us and we find ourselves not as prepared as we should be. Can you imagine driving down the interstate coming around a bend and hitting stopped traffic as far as you can see and it does not look like it is going to break anytime soon. Then you look down and notice you’re sitting on about a 1/8 of a tank of gas, instant anxiety. As we journey toward heaven, trials and tribulations meet us head on, unfortunately we find ourselves low on fuel as we try to walk through the valleys. More than often we find ourselves as weary travelers on our way home.
Weariness as we make our journey home is not always a bad thing; it is not always something we can control. Things happen in our life that our completely outside our hands. But to be ready for the weariness is what we must do. When we go down into the valley and are burdened with sin or even burdened with the weight of worldly concern it can become very hard to pick ourselves up out of the valley. But, the point of the Christian life is not to do this on our own. The point is that we cannot pick ourselves up; the fact is that we have a Savior that can empathize with us in our weariness, so that by faith in Him we can press on as well. Our weariness must be expressed in our desperation for our Savior to take us home. We have to cast off those sins that burden us and to cast off anything that would keep us from running. As the writer of Hebrews continues to write in chapter 12 we must set our gaze upon Jesus as we travel:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2
As I said above, I love to travel. I love the new experiences, I love seeing new things, and I love eating the food associated with the culture of where we travel. Many times the weariness of travel is forgotten when we reach our destination. But, there is nothing like coming home. It is the same feeling every time. The dread of the drive but late in the evening pulling into the driveway, opening the front door smelling that smell of home, walking in laying on that comfortable, familiar couch and taking rest from our journey.
One day, as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We come to the end of our journey; we walk up to the mighty Jordan and cross to the other side. It will be somewhat of a familiar feel, something we have known deep in our soul. We will realize that we have not come to our end but that we have made it home. The journey will probably be hard, there will be mountains and valleys, heartbreak and pure joy, but nothing will compare to the rest we take as we sit with our Savior for all eternity fully in His grace and love. As weary travelers let us look to our hope at the end, our Christ, our King, Jesus.
The Implanted Word
The Implanted Word 7/27/20
James 1:21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
The obnoxious weed that creeps into our gardens that brings many plants to their end. This is a slow destruction for our plants, day-by-day the weeds grow a bit more and eventually overtake the plant. Sometimes we can see this happening but neglect to step in and destroy the weed so the plant can live. If we think about it, if we would just everyday do a little work around our plants we would not be faced with trying to restore what looks to be a hopeless situation.
Much is the same with our Christian life. The complexity of life will often leave us over ran with “weeds” before we realize it. Therefore, when we realize we are nearly too far gone we then must go into emergency mode to try and salvage any fruit that may be left. As James writes to the Twelve Tribes in the Dispersion he addresses these very issues. He first tells us as we have the privilege to hear the Word we should be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger (James 1:19). But then James moves on to verse 21 telling us how to prepare and receive the Word.
Putting Away
James tells us to put away a couple of things before we approach the Word of God: filthiness & rampant wickedness. We must as we approach the Word remove any type of overflowing wickedness for our lives. James is not necessarily pointing out specific sin, though that could apply. But James is speaking of a general evil. Regardless, any type of excessive behavior is the very thing followers of Christ must put off. We see this exhortation many times throughout Scripture. Paul encourages the reader in The Letter to the Colossians & the Letter to the Ephesians to put on the new self (Colossians 3:10/ Ephesians 4:24). As Paul writes to the churches the implications is that by “putting on the new self” that we are putting of the old self and all the sinful desires that we were enslaved to. Paul reminds the Ephesians:
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. -Ephesians 5:3-4
Paul knows the importance of walking in holiness as the believer. When we walk in obedience to God we then have hearts and minds that are not held captive to this world but are prepared to be informed and reformed by the Word of God.
Receiving in Humility
The Creator has spoken and He has put it in a book. Paul tells Timothy the Scriptures are the very “breathe of God” (2 Timothy 3:16). The Word is the “implanted Word, which is able to save our souls” (James 1:19b). As we turn the pages of Scripture or hear the Word expounded we should receive the Word bearing the weight as if God himself is speaking to us. As James has spoke in the previous verse we must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger (James 1:19). This is the humility that must fill our hearts and minds as we are confronted with the Word. It is in the Word of God where we meet our Savior. The Christ revealed to us through the Scripture by the Holy Spirit takes us from darkness to light, we understand this as believers. We know that the Word brought us face-to-face with Jesus; therefore, as we seek maturity in our Christian life we must know as the Psalmist the Word is the “lamp unto my feet and light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).
Seeking Maturity
Our greatest desire as believers should be that we grow in maturity throughout our Christian walk. We should want to know God more so that the zeal of our faith will shine bright into the world. This is James’ desire for the believer as well; it is Christ’s desire for us too. How do we grow? We grow by and through the Word. We grow by sitting under right preaching of Truth, we grow by personal Bible reading & study time. If when enter into that time when we encounter the Word with sin running wild in our lives or self righteous arrogance the seed of the Word that is thrown forth will be choked out by the world (Matthew 13:1-23). So brothers and sisters let us cast away every weight & sin and receive the Word of God with humility for the sake of our soul. As those pesky weeds begin to overtake the garden, let us take the tools we have been given and clear the ground so that the fruit of the seed planted will come and the harvest will be bountiful.
God has spoken, He put it in a book, let us be mastered by that book.