Truth for Today

The neurotic cult of Instant Chritianity is with us. Many people do not have time for the old faith and the old and proven ways. The now generation demands the whole package today. Perhaps this one of the reasons why the life of faith is so unpopular with many on the modern scene. With instant coffee, instant tea, instant breakfasts, instant communication and instant computerization–who wants to wait on God or wait for God?  Waiting, they say, is waste.

God is never in a hurry and He will never be rushed no matter how much we plead or push. He moves deliberately and on His schedule and it seems, at times, agonizingly slow. But the promise and the performance are seldom on the same day. Generally there is a parenthesis between them and in that paranthesis we trust and wait.

God has ordained time. It is His instrument and He works in and with it. Creation took time. Redemption takes time. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” wrote a wise man centuries ago and we disregard his inspired words to our own personal hurt.

Every worthwhile and productive thing in the Christian life demands time. Spiritual growth is a process requiring time. We are born into God’s family in a moment but our maturation goes on until we are “like Him”. Preparation for service may require years on the back side of the desert, or in prison or in Arabia as we learn essential lessons from Him Who “orders our steps and directs our paths.”

And certainly wisdom comes with the passing of time. It is important to observe that the teachers and leaders of God’s people are called Elders in both Testaments. The Lord never gives large responsibilities to novices. See I Timothy 3:6-7.

Let us beware then of those who say that this moment is all that has meaning.  This moment is linked to the past and to the future and is just an infinitesimal part of the whole Divine scheme of things.

(Mother’s Day is Sunday and I am taking from my files the following article that offers some thoughts that may be helpful to stay at home Moms.) 

For a number of years in my pre-marital counselling, I would ask the couple what they treasured about their childhood experiences at home…the good things that they would like to carry over into the new home they would soon establish.  There didn’t seem to be a pattern in the response of the guys. As I recall, it ranged from doing sports with their Dad to taking vacations as a family. But there wa a definite pattern with the brides to be. By far, the majority said that the best memories they had of their growing  up years related to the fact that when they came home from school, Mom was always there. This was undoubtedly important to the fellows as well but it wasn’t mentioned.

Mom at home for her children. Not a very radical idea, but apparently a very important one.

In her book, “Home By Choice”, Dr. Brenda Hunter comments about a survey conducted by Ruth Josselson in 1971 among sixty women who were college seniors. Twelve years later she interviewed again thirty-four of the same women. Her findings would indicate that women never completely separate from their mothers and that the relationship between mother and daughter is quite intense and lifelong. Eighty-five percent of the women in her study were close to their mothers ten years after graduation. And fifty percent said that their mothers were their closest or second closest connection. Only forty-eight percent remained close to their fathers.

Some radical feminists teach that young women tend to reject their mothers as role models if they stay at home. They are supposed to be embarrassed if Mom is not a a career woman out of the home and making it in the business or professional world. Where is the evidence for this? I certainly have not found it so in fifty-plus years of counselling young people. To the contrary, coming home to an empty house didn’t appeal to any of them.

Mom at home for her children. Yes, an old-fashioned idea but a good one! “Older women…admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers…”  Titus 2:3-5 (emphasis mine).

Let me add a post-script to this:  I realize that I have not covered some exceptional situations such as single Moms who must work to provide for their children or mothers who take employment to supplement the family income. And there may be times after the children are in school that the mother can take outside employment and work with her husband in creative ways to see that the children never come home to an empty house. When we put our children first, the Lord will show how to involve Grandparents or close and trusted friends to assist us in their care.

As I write this,  we are observing the 61st annual  national day of prayer. The theme is ONE NATION UNDER GOD and the text is “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”  Psalm 33:12

The Father of our Country and first President George Washington prayed this prayer,”Make me to know what is acceptable in Thy sight, and therin to delight, open the eyes of my understanding, and help me thoroughly to examine myself concerning my knowledge, faith, and repentance, increase my faith, and direct me to the true object, Jesus Christ the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

One of our most popular presidents, Abraham Lincoln, made these profound comments. “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity;we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthed us, and we have vainly imagined , in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of of our own….We have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to the God that made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins,and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”  

 To the prayer of President Washington and the wise and sober counsel of President Lincoln I say a hearty Amen!

On this day of prayer, our primary national problem is not caused by Democrats or Republicans or Libertarians. It is not caused by high un-employment, as difficult as that is. It is not caused by Wall Street or by having too many millionaires or billionaires. It is not caused by being too dependent on oil energy and not dependent enough on wind energy. It is not caused by having too many unions or too few unions. Many other non-causes could be sited but let me strongly suggest that the real cause for our grave national problem can be found in the text below.

“If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face,and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” II Chronicles 7:14

Our real problem is spiritual and moral in nature. And the solution comes when we the people of God called by His name do as the text instructs. Change will not occur out there until radical change occurs in us His people. God help us…God help ME on this day of prayer. Amen.

What we believe about the future will have a profound and practical effect upon us in the present. “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”  Heb. 11:7

While others were living in pleasure and building houses, Noah was preaching righteousness and building an ark. His life-style , philosophy and projects were determined by what he believed about the future and what he believed about the future was correct because  it was founded on the sure Word of God. Noah was right and his contemporaries were wrong because he believed and they didn’t. He had an infallible lodestar for the future, while they only had their limited observations and vain speculations.

Today, we as Noah, must believe what God says about the future if we are to make correct judgments and live our lives with the the ultimate and not just the immediate in view. We belive that Christ will build His church and bring it to final perfection. So, we will stay in the church, pray for its growth and contribute to its spiritual edification. We will not follow those who say that God is through with the  church and is raising up something in its place.

We belive that this world is marked for destruction so we will be separate from it and will not follow its fancies, fashions, foolishness or fanaticism. We will be realistic about all humanistic peace programs, liberation movements  and political utopoias because we know that man’s day must end in failure.

We believe that the Lord will gather out of this world a people for His Name at His promised return. Therefore we will be happy and hopeful as we witness and work and wait. With the Thessalonians, we will “serve the living God; and wait for His Son from heaven. “    AMEN!

Good Friday and Easter Sunday are the two most important days in the history of the world.  The agony and glory of those days have been captured in song and canvas and written word in a thousand ways.

What do those days mean in the grand scheme of things? What can they mean to me?

They mean that God loves me. God’s love is not some abstract and hard to grasp concept. It is not primarily a feeling He has toward me. His love has been graphically and historically demonstrated. “For God so loved the world that He gave..”  He gave His Son to the nails of the cross and to the shame of dying as a common criminal under Roman law. He did this for me.

Good Friday and Easter Sunday mean that the Lord understands me in the most profound experiences of my life. He understands that there are questions for which there are no immediate answers…”My God, My God, why?”…He understands the terror of loneliness…”They forsook Him and fled.”…”Why have You forsaken Me?”…He understands suffocating darkness…”There was darkness over all the land.”…He understands pain…”It pleased the Lord to bruise (crush) Him.”

And those two days out of the distant past mean that God has provided salvation for me. He did something there that I could not do for myself. “Christ died for our sins…He arose for our justification.”

Fianally, Good Friday and Easter Sunday tell me that death need not be final or fatal. The worst that men could do on Good Friday was followed by the best God could do on Easter Sunday. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Yes, Lord, we believe!

From our text observe:

I. LESSONS ON SOVEREIGNTY

This is the first day of the worst week in the life of our Lord.  Worst, that is, from every human standpoint In only a few hours He will endure the most horrible obscenities, blasphemies and atrocities ever suffered by anyone. He will be forsaken by His own, condemned in a mock trial, beaten to a bloody pulp and finally nailed by laughing soldiers to a cross and left to die before a jeering mob. All of this was perfectly forseen by the Lord and had been rehearsed in His mind and had been taught to his disciples many times. Luke 18:31-34.  However, in spite of the awful darkness He knowingly faces, He is amazingly calm and composed as He prepares for His entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He moves with the quiet dignity and authority of a King.  Obviously, He is in control….Notice in particular the incident with the donkey. Arguing from the lesser to the greater, if Jesus knew exactly where the donkey was and all the particulars surrounding him, then He knows all about you and me.  If our Lord perfectly anticipated and understood  the problem of the  owner and had the answer to his question when  his little animal was being led away, then He certainly has answers to all our questions about what He is doing in our lives.

II.  LESSONS ON SERVICE

The Lord’s explanation for conscripting the little donkey for His service is simply, “The Lord has need  of him.”  …”Lord” and “need” …a strange conjunction of words. “Lord” means sovereignty, supremacy, self-sufficiency and total authority.  “Need” relates more to peasants, beggars and common people like you and me. Does the Lord really have needs?  In His essential deity, no. In the out-working of His earthly kingdom purposes, yes. Anyway, please look with me at “Doctrine from a Donkey” (1.)The Lord always takes the initiative in calling people into His service. We do not volunteer, He commissons. There were many donkeys in Jerusalem, but only one was specially called! (2.)Serving the Lord in even the most humble of circumstances will always be the fulfillment of some higher and grander purpose. In Matthew 21:4-5 we are told that the donkey Jesus rode was no ordinary donkey! He was a donkey of destiny! A donkey that fulfilled prophecy and made sacred history! The Lord can use anyone or anything in His service. He delights in using common people in uncommon ways. A lowly beast of burden brought the Savior to the climax of His earthly mission.  (3)  We learn also from the donkey’s owner. At the Lord’s word, he released what he owned to the Lord’s work with no price attached. What might Jesus ask me to release to Him?…time, talent, money, children..?

III. LESSONS ON SINGING

Often the most humble service leads to the highest praise. The service of the disciples and the donkey were simply the means by which He is brought before the singing and worshiping throng. All service is to focus attention on Him. He alone is worthy of our praise. And all of these songs were totally spontaneous. There certainly was no rehearsal for that first Palm Sunday parade! Unquestionably this was the greatest single outpouring of public praise that Jesus ever received. And the people sang better than they knew how. The large crowd that surrounded our Lord shouted “Hosanna!”–(Save now) ”Blessed is the King who is coming in the name of the Lord!”  They meant save us now from pagan Rome by establishing your kingdom. Give us a political salvation that wiill ensure our security and prosperity. They anticipated coronation not humiliation! He would save them but not with a gem studded crown but with a crown of thorns! His salvation would flow down to them from a bloody tree not a beautiful throne!  I Peter 2:21-25  In spite of the multitude’s misunderstanding of what salvation was essentially about, that first Palm Sunday was a very good and necessary event. If the people had not sung, “the stones would have cried out”. A final and sobering thought…Less tha a week after the crowd shouted” Hosanna!”,  they screamed, “Crucify Him! Crucufy Him!”….With all this in mind, let us prepare to genuinely sing His praise on Palm Sunday and think ahead to the coming of the King of Kings when we shall all bow before His eternal throne and celebrate His salvation forever. AMEN.

That revival is needed in the church of Jesus Christ no one will deny; but how to have it is another question. Some say a new experience is needed. Others suggest that we must discard our old methods and discover something more contemporary. And then there are those who say that our message must be “over-hauled”  so that we are more relevant and practical to the current generation. Well, there may be  some value in these ideas but ultimately it does not really matter what people think or say on the subject of revival. What does matter is what we learn from the Word of God.

The divinely inspired psalmist said something that can help us. He prayed, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”  Psalm 85:5. There are principles in this brief text that must be observed and applied if we are to see revival in our time.

First, consider the SOURCE of revival. “Will YOU not revive us..” (My emphasis)  Revival is new life from God Himself. He is always the source of revival blessing. Revival is not worked up, it is prayed down. It does not come through organizing our forces or energizing our faculties, but rather through exercising our faith. We must learn from Ezekiel that all human abilities are woefully lacking when we are in a lifeless situation. God alone can make  dry and dead bones live again.  See Ezekiel 37  If we are to be favored with revival, we must focus on Him who is the source . This is never easy because our tendency is to try not to trust.

But the human element is present in revival. Our text clearly teaches this. Notice, the MEANS of revival is praying people. The psalmist looked at the present problems, reflected on past blessings and prayed, “revive us AGAIN…” (My emphasis)  His petition was for a renewal of blessing from God. God could work apart from our prayers but for some unknown reason He chooses not to. And, we must remember that  an essential part of revival praying is that we humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways. IIChronicles 7:14  The attitude in prayer is as vital as the action in prayer. All of us can and should be involved in this holy exercise. It does not require great gifts or deep theology or profound knowlege…it simply requires a sense of need and a genuine turning to Him.

And what is the RESULT of revival?  The text states it beautifully…”that your people may REJOICE IN YOU.”(My emphasis)  Revival always brings joy to the Lord’s people because it awakens within us a new awareness of the Lord Himself. We rediscover His sufficiency. We recapture our “first love”.  Failure and frustration leave us and are replaced with His favor and fulness. In short, we become God-centered again.

If we haven’t been seeking revival, let’s begin today. His renewal will mark the beginning of our rejoicing. AMEN.

What is a Spirit-filled person like? Is he noisy and demonstrative with bizarre ways of talking and acting?  Or is he staid and stern with a far- away look in his eye as he departs from the defiled and deficient creatures about him to practice his devotions?  Or might he be very emotional..one who is persuaded that he is the holiest when he is the happiest?

Permit me to offer an answer.  The Spirit-filled person is like our Lord Jesus Christ.  The One to whom the Father gave the Spirit without measure (limit).  John 3:34.  He is our perfect pattern.  Consider, then, these facts from His Spirit-filled life.

1.)  His life was beautifully balanced. It was a symphony of sympathy and strength; the simple and the sublime. There was a total absence of the silly, sensational or strange. He was always a gracious gentleman and never boorish.  He was angered by wrong doing but it was a controlled anger and ever tempered with mercy. His great wisdom was often expressed in one syllable words.  Children loved Him and inderstood Him.

2.)  His life was singularly and obediently focused. He delighted in doing the Father’s will.  It was His meat (food). John 4:34. He set His face as a flint and refused to deviate from the discipline of duty even though it led to a bloody cross. And He could declare at His death,  “I have finished the work You gave me to do.”

3.)  His life was fully exposed.  Being filled with the Spirit did not keep Him from temptations, trials and tests.  There were sufferings and sobs and strong cryings in His experience. Hebrews 5:7.  He touched the wounds and shared the woes of others as He went through this world.

4.)  His life was unselfishly invested.  He ministered to others. He pleased not Himself. He moved with great grace and charm among commoners and sinners and never indicated the slightest interest in social climbing or impressing the religious or political elite of His day.  Indeed, He made Himself of no reputation.  Philippians 2:5-8.

5.)  His life was clearly undefiled. He walked through unspeakable filth but He was never polluted. No one could ever convict Him of sin.  He was the Light in the darkness but the darkness could not put it out. John 1:5

What a great life!  Little wonder that the hymn writer ardently sang: ” Be like Jesus this my song,  In the home and in the throng;  Be like Jesus, all day long!  I would be like  Jesus.”      AMEN.

I celebrate my spiritual birthday today. On February 8, 1948 the Lord Jesus Christ found me, convicted me of my need for Him and entered my life. It was a cold Sunday night in a small town in Kansas. I had gone to Church with a young lady who later would become my wife. The congregation was small and I don’t remember the sermon, but what mattered was that a profound transaction took place between the Lord and me.  This caused a radical change in my life and determined my eternal destiny.

Personal salvation  touches on so many great themes from the Bible…regeneration, justification, sanctification, adoption, reconciliation and more.  However, my purpose here is to share what rises to my mind from deep within me as I reflect on my 64 years in the household of faith.

First of all, I CELEBRATE DIVINE ELECTION.  Jesus said to His disciples, “You have not chosen Me , but I have chosen you.”  Of course, the disciples did exercise their free will and chose Christ; but the prior choice was His! He took the initiative. He acted first.  Paul reveals an awesome dimension to this truth when he says, “He has chosen us in Christ  before the foundation of the world.” I and all believers were in God’s loving heart from all eternity! Our salvation flows out of that great fact. It had to be this way because our depravity left us lost, blind and dead in trespasses and sins. We were totally incapable of seeking God. The condition of our will is defined in the biblical statement, “We will not have this man to reign over us!”  It is therefore a great blessing to read, “FOR IT IS GOD who works in you both TO WILL and to do for His good pleasure.” (Emphasis mine)

And then, I CELEBRATE DIVINE DIRECTION.  Just as with those first disciples, I heard Jesus say, “Follow Me”. And from the first hour of my conversion until now I have endeavored to do that. I haven’t always done this well but there never has been a question in my mind as to Who  the Lord of my life is. In the majority of cases, by God’s grace, I have been able to say, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”  The Lord has immersed me over the years in words like these: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord”…”He shall direct your paths”….
…”He knows the way that I take.”..”In Him I live and move and have my being.”…”He leads me beside the still waters..He leads me in the paths of righteousness.” ..”You will show me the path of life.”…”A man’s steps are of the Lord.”..The most important events and assignments in my life were not on my agenda first!  He  led and I followed..He opened doors and I stepped through. I rejoice in saying that I have lived by His appointments. This certainly rules out luck or fate or chance.

And finally, I CELEBRATE DIVINE PROVISION. ”The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”… This area of  celebration is immensely wide and deep…By sovereign grace,  God provided me a perfect salvation in Christ. As someone has aptly put it, I have been saved from sin’s penalty; I am being saved from sin’s power and someday I will be saved from sin’s very presence… God provided scholarly and Spirit-filled professors from whom I learned the Word of God…God provided me with spiritual gifts and loving and supportive congregations where those gifts could be exercised…God provided the indwelling Holy Spirit Who gives the dynamics for life and service. I learned after many failures that it is not what I do for God that matters but what I permit Him to do through me that will produce fruit that will remain and ultimately glorifiy Him…And, on a very personal note, God provided me Leila, my loving wife for over 60 years. She has modeled unselfish service to our 5 children, their spouses and now 11 grand children and 4 great- grand children…And I must acknowledge the host of family and friends God provided as our faithful support group. They prayed, paid bills, stood with us in all the crises of life. Indeed, they are still with us…. In conclusion, I must embrace the hope God provides. Jesus said, “I will come again.” This is the blessed hope of all believers. When He returns, “The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and forever!”  In a world filled with unspeakable filth and violence and injustice, this is our only hope. Jesus gives us the last promise of the Bible, “Surely, I am coming quickly.”  And we respond with the last prayer of the Bible, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”  

                   “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding  joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” Jude 24-25

Much of what the world tells us is wrong. For example, we are told that “seeing is believing”.  The materialist believes in what he sees. Life to him is pretty concrete; none of this God and angels and heaven for him. He looks upon “believers” as being out of touch because to him the only reality is what you can put your finger on. Everything else is beyond the realm of his understanding and experience and he therefore rejects it as being non-existent.

The Psalmist expressed the philosophy of the person of faith when he said, “I had fainted unless I had BELIEVED TO SEE the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  (emphasis mine) To him and to all believers, believing is seeing. He saw the blessing of God with eyes of faith before he saw it with eyes of flesh, and his faith sustained him in his adversity until the reality of the promised blessing was his. He didn’t faint.

Joshua and Caleb are great examples of this.(see Numbers 13 and 14). They believed God’s promises and wanted to go into the promised land immediately and possess their possessions. But they were voted down by ten men who were more ”sensible”. They were living by the sense of sight and they believed what they saw. They saw giants and high walled cities and all sorts of problems. They even developed a “grasshopper complex”! To them, “seeing was believing” and they didn’t venture by faith…it was too risky. They believed in giants and their fears not God. They didn’t go anywhere and they didn’t get anything. They just went around in circles in a wasteland for forty years and then died a very “sensible” death. This certainly shows how”progressive” unbelief is!

But the unbelief of the ten could not cancel the promised blessing to Joshua and Caleb. God’s delays are not His denials! Afer forty-five years and at age eighty-five, Caleb cries out “Give me this mountain!” and he took it, giants and all!  (Joshua 14).

Dear Arthur Mathews use to say, “The strongest thing in your life is what you are looking at.” So, am I looking at problems (giants) or promises?