Better Than Dirt

I read an interesting article recently in a magazine put out by Reformed Theological Seminary. The author, Miles Van Pelt, was describing a speaking opportunity at a local Christian school. When he got up to the podium to speak, he held out a big bag of dirt. After asking for a volunteer, a sixth grader named John joined him on stage. The question he asked of the kids was this: “What is the difference between this bag of dirt and John?” After fielding some humorous guesses from the audience, he answered that essentially, there was no difference between the two. He pointed out Genesis 2:7a (“The Lord God formed the man out of dust from the ground.”) and Genesis 3:19 (“By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread until you return to the ground, because you were taken from it. For you are dust and to dust you will return.”) Not a very flattering comparison, right?

But of course, a fuller answer to the question requires the rest of Genesis 2:7 which states: “...and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” What a difference that breath of God makes!

Van Pelt asks another question that essentially has the same answer as the above one. What is the difference between the Bible and other books? It turns out that the creation of the Bible has this very same ‘breath of God’ uniqueness. “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Here is Van Pelt’s analysis of this similarity:

“According to the biblical account, therefore, the sixth-grader and the Bible share a common animating force: the very breath of God. Consider further that nothing else in the Bible is described in this way, only man as God’s image and the Bible as God’s Word. Or, to put it another way, the gigantic difference between a lifeless bag of dirt and a living, breathing person is the same difference that exists between the Bible and every other book ever written. Thoughtful consideration of this reality should stagger us.”

What an honor and what a privilege to have the breath of God give us life. What a gift to us to have the Bible, the inspired Word of God, to read and to receive every day.

Words for the Weekend

"It is a glorious thing to know that your Father God makes no mistakes in directing or permitting that which crosses the path of your life. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. It is our glory to trust Him, no matter what."

Joni Eareckson Tada

Farewell Address

It never ceases to amaze me how familiar Biblical passages take on new meaning from one reading to the next. Take, for example, 1 Samuel 12:19-24. The context is Samuel’s farewell address to the Israelites. He reminds them of his service to them as a prophet, a judge, and a priest; of God’s great provision for them as a nation; and lastly, in these particular verses, of their sin in demanding a king like all the nations around them.

“And all the people said to Samuel, ‘Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.’ And Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.’”

There are so many lessons to be considered in this passage:

1. Yes, we should recognize and repent of known sin.

2. We shouldn’t use our sin as an excuse to then turn away from God, thinking our sin is too great to be covered by the Cross of Christ.

3. We need to put off all distractions and activities that do not cause us to grow closer to God.

4. God will never forsake us, for His own name’s sake. When God has promised something, He delivers it despite our sin and lack of devotion to Him.

5. It pleases the Lord to make a people for Himself. (Yes, that’s us!)

6. Samuel considers it a sin to cease praying for the Israelites. Could it possibly be a sin to not pray for others?

7. We should faithfully serve God with all our hearts because He has done great things for us.

8. And if we continue in our sinful ways, we run the danger of being ‘swept away’ by the Lord. Definitely not a pleasant thought...

What a farewell address! What a variety of thoughts from just a few verses! God’s Word always gives us so much to consider. Through it all we need to remember His grace (God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense). And then we need to put that grace into action in our lives.

The Winner in the Devotional Category Is...

Although I have yet to decide on a book to teach for the Women’s Study groups here at Exeter Presbyterian, I have chosen a new favorite devotional work. (See “Summertime Reading, July 21st blogpost.) It came recommended to me by a very good friend who has similar reading tastes to mine. It is entitled Voices From The Past: Puritan Devotional Readings, edited by Richard Rushing.

The daily excerpts from the writings of authors such as John Owen, Richard Baxter, Jeremiah Burroughs, and John Flavel, are on various topics. Each one is a gem - really. The preface states that most of these selections are word for word copies from the original. “In many places the old language has been retained when to modernize it would have blunted the sharp cutting edge of the original.” Because of this attempt to present the material as close to the primary documents, reading must be done slowly. The reader will be richly rewarded for the effort.

Here is just one sample of the loveliness of these writings:

“Nothing comes to pass without our heavenly Father’s permission or ordination. By this almighty providence, God overrules and sways all things to his own glory. There is nothing that comes to pass but God has his purpose in it. Though the world seems to run at random in blind confusion and rude disorder, yet God governs it to make perfect harmony out of all the seeming discords. Question: ‘If God’s providence ordains all things that come to pass according to the immutable law of his purpose, then what necessity is there for prayer? We cannot by our most fervent prayers alter God’s decrees. Our prayers cannot hasten or ripen his blessings before their time, or prevent or prolong the time fixed to bring afflictions to pass upon us.’ Divine providence does not only ordain what effects shall come to pass, but also by what means, what causes, and in what order they shall flow. God has appointed not only the effect itself, but the means to accomplish it. Prayer is a means to bring to pass that which God has determined should be. We do not pray out of hope to alter God’s eternal purposes; but we pray to obtain that which God has ordained to be received by our prayers. We ask, that we may be fit to receive what God has from all eternity determined to give by prayer, and not otherwise. Therefore, when we lie under any affliction, or if we are pinched by poverty, prayer is necessary because, as God by his providence has brought these things upon us, so likewise possibly the same providence has also determined not to remove them until we earnestly and fervently pray for our deliverance. Prayer does not incline God to bestow that which before he was not resolved to give, but prepares us to receive that which God will not give otherwise.”

WHEW. There is so much in there worth considering! My favorite is this: the idea that God appoints not only the specific answers to our prayers, but the very act of praying itself:  “...the same providence has also determined not to remove them (our afflictions) until we earnestly and fervently pray for our deliverance.”

This is the kind of encouragement that we need to continue in prayer. It is not that we are going to change the will of God, but that God has willed that we should pray, and that our praying is part of His unstoppable plan to bless us and others.

Words for the Weekend

“It cost God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things: but to convert rebellious wills cost Him crucifixion.”

C.S. Lewis

What Would Jesus Say?

Our journey through the Scriptures on the topic of Heaven is about to change rather dramatically. And why is that? It’s because we are, for the moment, finished with the Old Testament and moving on to the New. While there are numerous other OT verses that could be used for our comfort, perhaps it’s for the best that we now enter into the realm of the Gospel accounts written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Throughout our entire previous discussion of the Old Testament, we are left with the nagging desire to actually ‘interview’ someone who has been to Heaven and back. Can you imagine the questions we might ask, or the insights that might be shared? If only we had something more than shadows and visions to hold on to while we are facing the dark night of our grief... Actually, we do!

The word “Gospel” literally means “Good News.” And the Good News for us is that the Gospels contain the words, insights, and descriptions of One who HAS been to Heaven and is willing to tell us first-hand accounts of what awaits us! Of course this traveler is Jesus Christ. Here is His own testimony:

“I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” (John 16:28)

What better person to help us in our grief than the one who has been a citizen and resident of Heaven for as long as Heaven has existed? Who has a more credible testimony than Jesus concerning the realities of life beyond death? And why shouldn’t we study and reflect upon the promises of everlasting bliss that come to us from the premiere expert witness on this important topic?

What a blessing to have authoritative words about Heaven from the person who knows it so well!

Jumping for Joy?

Can grief co-exist with joy? What about pain with contentment? Do our afflictions still allow us to have a sense of personal peace? These are difficult questions to ponder, especially in the midst of great turmoil and sorrow. The Bible, though, seems to suggest that the answer is “yes” to all these questions.

One passage that helps us reach that conclusion is found in Habakkuk:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
     nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
     and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
     and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
     I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
     he makes my feet like the deer’s;
     he makes me tread on my high places.”

We must remember that the prophet Habukkuk wrote to a very agrarian society - and so he used the language of vines and flocks. A modern day rendering of this Scripture would surely include words that we would be much more familiar with. But the essence of the passage is the same; yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Sometimes God takes from us what we cherish the most. Most likely that is the reason you are reading this; you have lost someone very close and dear to your heart. In the early years of grief it seems incomprehensible that joy, contentment, and peace will ever return as common emotions in our lives. But shouldn’t they? Isn’t it possible that grief, pain, and affliction will one day subside enough to allow positive emotions to surface once again?

Here is what Matthew Henry has to say regarding these verses in Habakkuk:

“But those who, when they were full, enjoyed God in all, when they are emptied and impoverished can enjoy all in God, and can sit down upon a melancholy heap of the ruins of all their creature comforts and even then can sing to the praise and glory of God, as the God of their salvation. This is the principal ground of our joy in God, that he is the God of our salvation, our eternal salvation, the salvation of the soul; and, if he be so, we may rejoice in him as such in our greatest distresses, since by them our salvation cannot be hindered, but may be furthered. Note, Joy in God is never out of season, nay, it is in a special manner seasonable when we meet with losses and crosses in the world, that it may then appear that our hearts are not set upon these things, nor our happiness bound up in them. See how the prophet triumphs in God: The Lord God is my strength, v. 19. He that is the God of our salvation in another world will be our strength in this world, to carry us on in our journey thither, and help us over the difficulties and oppositions we meet with in our way.”

If eternal salvation has been secured for us, then we can experience joy in the midst of our grief. We can feel pain and yet be contented in the reality of our future existence. And we can be filled with the peace that passes all understanding even when we are afflicted with great difficulties.

We must learn to trust God and not our circumstances. The God of our salvation in another world will indeed be our strength, both in this life and in the life to come.

Lamentations

What better place to turn in the Bible to help a grieving soul than the book of Lamentations? The actual name of this book originated from the Latin word lamentationem, meaning "wailing, moaning, weeping.” Jeremiah wrote this part of Scripture to describe the desolation of Judah after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, but there are many verses that are particularly appropriate for those of us sorrowing over the loss of a loved one.

Here is one such section:

“He (God) has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say ‘My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.’”

Isn’t this an apt description of grief? Lacking peace, forgetting what happiness is, flagging endurance, and hopelessness?

Jeremiah continues:

“Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.”

This prayer is directed to God that He would remember the many trials that have been already endured. Asking this causes Jeremiah’s soul, the very core of his physical, mental, and spiritual being, to bow down in humility, reverence, and submission to God’s sovereignty and providence in the midst of such anguish.

The tone of the next verse, though, changes dramatically:

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”

Reminding God of His actions reminds the one praying of a few things as well: God will never forget or forsake us, and He brings new kindnesses to us each and every day.

When we are engulfed by feelings of despair, there really is no better remedy than to recount the mercies of God. It is no small matter to “...count your blessings, one by one.” Doing so causes us to remember the faithfulness of God even when we are overcome by lamentation. Each morning we need to wait in confident expectation to see how God’s love and compassion will be revealed to us during the course of the day.

God is the source of our hope. When everything else fails, He alone remains faithful.

Words for the Weekend

"If there is one trial greater than another, it is the trial of being disappointed in those we love. It is a bitter cup, which all true Christians have frequently to drink. Ministers fail them. Relationships fail them. Friends fail them. . . . But let them take comfort in the thought, that there is one unfailing Friend, even Jesus, who can be touched with the feelings of their infirmities, and has tasted of all their sorrows. Jesus knows what it is to see friends and disciples failing Him in the hour of need. Yet He bore it patiently, and love them notwithstanding all. He is never weary of forgiving. Let us strive to do likewise.”

J.C. Ryle

Words With God

For those of you who know me in person, you probably have seen what I received from my family for my birthday on July 11th: an iPhone 4. I have now become one of those many Apple fans who think that Apple products are the best. I really don’t think I could return to any other type of phone after experiencing the fun and usefulness of this one. Let’s just hope I don’t drop it and have to make that decision!

Anyway, I digress from the main point of today’s blog. With this new technology in my hands, I am now fully engaged on the phone in the game of “Words with Friends,” otherwise known as Scrabble. There are five of us in our immediate family who play it constantly; the sixth and final abstainer knows who he is! The fun of this game is that it allows you to keep trying new letter combinations until you find one that is actually a word, even those that you never knew existed before. For instance, trial and error brought me to the word ‘Qi,’ which the dictionary defines as the “...circulating life force whose existence and properties are the basis of much Chinese philosophy and medicine.” I’m not sure what that really means, but I do use this word very often now to rack up points! Another new-found gem is ‘jun,’ which is a monetary unit of North Korea. Another beauty that I stumbled across was “jarl,” a Norse or Danish chief.

In the real world of difficult trials and spiritual opportunities, though, unusual and strange words don’t win you any extra points. In life, it is better to understand something about the words you use.

Here’s a word that can help you if you are able to know and accept what it means: Faith.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Here is what my ESV Study Guide says about the way the word “faith” is used in this verse:

“By defining faith as ‘assurance’ and ‘conviction,’ the author indicates that biblical faith is not a vague hope grounded in imaginary, wishful thinking. Instead, faith is a settled confidence that something in the future - something that is not yet seen but has been promised by God - will actually come to pass because God will bring it about. Thus biblical faith is not blind trust in the face of contrary evidence, not an unknowable ‘leap in the dark;’ rather, biblical faith is a confident trust in the eternal God who is all-powerful, infinitely wise, eternally trustworthy - the God who has revealed himself in his word and in the person of Jesus Christ, whose promises have proven true from generation to generation, and who will ‘never leave nor forsake’ his own.”

Do you have this kind of faith? Real faith can radically shape a person’s life and eternal destiny. It is solid and sure, an “assurance” and a “conviction,” since it is based on promises that will definitely come to pass. Thankfully, God is not just playing games with us. One day we will see with our eyes all that He has for us. Until then, we do well to live by faith.

Words for the Weekend

“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued and that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time.”

Timothy Keller, The Reason For God

From Top To Bottom

The previous post really got me thinking about the 'best of' Biblical verses. Today I have a submission for “The Most Overlooked Passage.” It is Matthew 27:51a:

“And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.”

This verse appears at the moment in the Gospel narrative when Jesus died on the cross. The “temple” was the place of sacrifice and worship for the people of Israel under the Old Covenant. Access to the most holy place within the temple was restricted to the High Priest, and he could only enter once a year, and only with blood. A curtain separated the holiest place from the rest of the temple.

So what makes this little verse in Matthew 27 so important? Here is what Maurice Roberts writes in The Happiness of Heaven:

“When the atoning work of our Savior was complete, Matthew says, the ‘veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.’ That incident was neither natural nor accidental. God was the only agent in the rending (tearing) of the veil, for it was not torn from the bottom, which human agents could do, but from the top, which only God could do. By the rending of the veil, God indicated that the ‘way into the holiest of all’ was no longer closed but open due to the complete, perfect sacrifice of Christ. This torn veil meant that believers now had access to God in prayer. But it means more than that. The ‘holiest of all’ in the Old Testament tabernacle was a a symbol of heaven, where the shekinah glory of God was visible. In this symbolic manner, Almighty God taught us that the way back to heaven for sinners has been accomplished through the death of Jesus Christ.”

Amazing. All that from the few words “...from top to bottom.”

One Little Verse

Have you ever wondered what the most important verse in the whole Bible is? Is it John 3:16? (“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”) How about the end of 1 Corinthians 13? (“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”) Today, though, I found an author who offers a most unusual candidate for the best verse:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

The context, of course, is the fall of man into sin. These words are spoken after Adam’s disobedience. For those unfamiliar with this passage, the “you” refers to Satan, the “woman” is Eve as the mother of all living after her, “he” is Christ. God is predicting that Jesus will deal a death blow to Satan, and that in the process Satan will hurt Christ.

But there is more going on here according to Maurice Roberts, who writes this paragraph in his book entitled The Happiness of Heaven:

“All of human history, not to say of angels and demons, is included in this single promise. From that point of view, this is not simply the first announcement of the gospel. It is also the first announcement that Satan and those who fell with him, together with the future impenitent part of mankind, would eventually be confined to the punishment of hell. Conversely, Christ and the unfallen angels, together with the redeemed of Adam’s race, would one day overcome the powers of darkness, obtain the victory, and reign in the glorious kingdom of heaven. The entire Bible is embryonically present in this one statement (Gen 3:15). And the whole subsequent history of the world is neither more nor less than the gradual outworking, step by step, of what is already implicit here. “

Wow. I’d say that Roberts makes a pretty convincing case that this passage tells the entire story, not only of the rest the Bible, but of human history as well. We would do well to meditate on the truths contained in this one little verse, and thank God that He has provided us a way into the Heavenly realms.