An Invitation to Happiness

"Sing a new song to the Lord,
for he has performed wonders;
his right hand and holy arm
have won him victory."

Psalm 98:1

Spurgeon's thoughts: "The invitations of the gospel are invitations to happiness. In delivering God's message, we do not ask men to come to a funeral but to a wedding feast. If our errand were one of sorrow, we might not marvel if people refused to listen to us. But it is one of gladness. In fact, you might condense the gospel message into this joyful invitation: "Come and learn how to sing to the Lord a new song! Come and find peace, rest, joy, and all your souls can desire. Come and eat what is good and let your soul delight!

"When the coming of Christ to the earth was first announced, it was with the choral symphonies of holy angels. And as long as the gospel shall be preached in this world, its main message will be one of joy. The gospel is a source of joy to those who proclaim it, for to us who are less than the least of all saints is this grace given that we should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."

Candy's thoughts: What a pleasant thought to contemplate - that as faithful messengers of God we are spreading 'invitations to happiness' to the unbelieving world. I think most of us are so insecure about speaking of Christ to those who do not believe (or worse, to those who scorn or ridicule Jesus) that we lose track of the basic fact that it is GOOD NEWS we are sharing.

"It's YOUR fault." "No, it's YOUR fault."

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  (1 John 1:8-9)

In his devotional book entitled New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional, Paul David Tripp has much to say about the tendency for all of us to be self-defensive when it comes to dodging blame for our own sins and short-comings. It seems to be our first instinct to accuse others of bad behavior while excusing ourselves from such scrutiny. Even Jesus addresses this issue with the well-known speck and log analogy found in Matthew 7:3. So what should we do when the Holy Spirit points out the hypocrisy of our denials of guilt? Tripp tells us about the problem and leaves us with a simple point to help us overcome this natural inclination to justify our own actions or words:

"It started in the garden of Eden, and we have been committed to it ever since. We all point the finger of blame and we all work to convince ourselves that the party to blame is not us. Adam pointed his finger at Eve, and Eve pointed her finger at the Serpent; neither one of them accepted blame. Yes, it is true; there have been generations of finger pointers ever since.

"You see, when you've done something wrong, it's not natural to look inside yourself for the cause. Sin makes us all shockingly self-righteous. It makes us all committed self-excusers... We all have very active inner lawyers, who rise to our defense in the face of any accusation or wrong. 

"Because accepting blame is not natural, it takes rescuing, transforming grace to produce a humble, willing, broken, self-examining, help-seeking heart. Only divine grace can soften a person's heart. Only grace can cause you to quit pointing your finger and to run to your Redeemer for his forgiveness and delivering power... And if you have quit being defensive and are now willingly and humbly approachable, you know that transforming grace has visited you."

Two Pieces of Paper and the Cross of Christ

As long-time readers of CandyceLand know, Vaneetha Rendall Risner has written one of the best books on suffering I have ever read. It is entitled The Scars That Have Shaped Me. She also authors a blog that is wonderful as well. (If you'd like to see my previous 4 blog posts about her book, just type Risner in the blank box in the upper left hand corner of this page.)

Vaneetha's article this month has to do with an analogy believers can use to explain exactly what happened on the cross in a way that even those who have never heard the gospel can understand. It really resonated with me because it is so simple yet profound. Here is an excerpt from the article, but if you would like to read it in its entirety, just click here. Do look around the website while you are there - you will be blessed.

"Our pastor recently explained the gospel through a simple analogy that was more straightforward than anything I had heard before. He said, 'It’s as if we all have a paper with our name at the top and underneath is a record of the sins we have committed. For each of us, that list would be incredibly long.'

"I cringed when I considered what that paper would contain. It would be tens of thousands of pages since it would include everything I’ve thought, everything I’ve done, and everything I have not done. The unkind ways I’ve gossiped. The lies I’ve told to protect myself. The angry words I’ve snapped at my children. The jealousy I’ve felt when others have surpassed me. The indifference I’ve shown to the suffering of others. The doubt I’ve harbored about God’s provision for me. The desire to build my own kingdom and not God’s. The list would be endless if I considered all the ways I’ve failed to love and honor God and failed to love my neighbor.

"Our pastor went on to say, 'In the analogy, Jesus has a piece of paper too. He has his name at the top and underneath are all the sins that he committed. His paper, of course, would be blank because he lived a sinless life. At the cross, Jesus exchanged his paper with ours. He crossed out our name from our paper with all our sins listed and wrote his name in our place. And he took that paper to the cross where God poured his wrath out on Jesus for us. In exchange, Jesus put our name at the top of his perfect paper. So now when God looks at us, he sees Christ’s sinless record.'
"Christ took my name to the cross. He took the paper with all my sin and satisfied the wrath of God. And in exchange, he gave me his sinless record so that I can live with him forever. And because Christ dwells in me, I will never be alone. I am blessed with every spiritual blessing. My life has meaning and purpose. I am loved beyond all comprehension."

The God Who Sees

Disclaimer: I never watch music videos. I am never even tempted to click on them when they randomly pop up on various sites on the internet. The only rare exception I make is when my brother recommends something special. I have to watch when Chet sends them, because, well, ummm, being my brother, he will ask me every day "Did you watch it yet?" so resistance is futile. (Kudos to anyone who can identify the 'resistance is futile' quote without googling it!)

I recently discovered a second exception to the "never watch music videos unless recommended by someone I respect" standard that I've adopted for myself. This time it was Nancy Guthrie. I am "friends" with her on Facebook because, as most of you know because often in conversation I will drop her name and casually (and persistently) mention that I've met her twice and she hugged me twice. Yep. One of my few claims to fame is having been embraced by Nancy.

But I digress, back to the music video. Nancy posted a music video, and her only comment about it was this: "Wow. I'm in tears."  I've never heard a better recommendation for something so of course I clicked. And guess what? My response is the same as "Nancy-who-hugged-me-twice." Yes, it was powerful and had me in tears. I've watched it several times now to catch all the words and with each viewing I've grown to appreciate it even more. So now I pass it along to all of you.

Some interesting tidbits before you watch: The name of the song is "The God Who Sees," taken from Genesis 16. This video was released just this past weekend. It is directed by Kathie Lee Gifford based on a song written by Gifford and Nicole Mullen. It chronicles 4 biblical characters (Hagar, Ruth, and David during their wilderness experiences), and ends with Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem at the tomb of the Risen Savior, Jesus. (This last sentence was taken from the promo.)

The actual video is 12 mins long. I'm linking to the main "The God Who Sees" website and I totally very much encourage you to also watch the 5 minute video under the menu called "The Making-Of" the video. It tells the amazing story of how this music video came to be. Another WOW.

Here are the lyrics to the song. I found it very helpful to look through this so that I wouldn't miss any references. Click here: Lyrics

And finally, here is the video itself:  The God Who Sees

In Spite of Ourselves

Anyone who has been around me for a while knows that I very much value the writings of both Nancy Guthrie and Paul David Tripp. They are 'modern' writers and speakers who teach theological and biblical concepts in their own winsome, understandable, and practical ways.

I am presently reading Tripp's book entitled "Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense." It is based on his own life-threatening physical suffering that began in 2014 and troubles him to this day. He has so many "quotable" insights that I cannot begin to choose between them, so I've decided at least for today to just give you a sampling of them.

"Suffering is never abstract, theoretical, or impersonal. Suffering is real, tangible, personal, and specific. The Bible never presents suffering as an idea or a concept but puts it before us in the blood-and-guts drama of real human experiences."

"Remember that the theology of suffering in Scripture is never, ever an end it itself but is designed as a means to the end of real comfort, real direction, real protection, real conviction, and real hope. This concrete way of dealing with what Scripture teaches forces us away from platitudes and denial and toward concrete understanding and candor."

"What you think about yourself, life, God, and others will profoundly affect the way you think about, interact with, and respond to the difficulty that comes your way."

"Weakness is not what you and I should be afraid of. We should fear our delusion of strength."

"Here's what is so important to understand, and what may be the principal contribution of this book: your suffering is more powerfully shaped by what's in your heart than by what's in your body or in the world around you."

Candy's thoughts: OUCH! All this in the space of 6 pages in which he further explains these concepts. As for me, I have yet to process these quotes fully, except to say that instinctively I believe them all to be true. At a minimum, my recent bout with a serious illness proved to me the truth of the 4th of the quotes. While lying in the hospital bed hooked up to machines I remember thinking "I've been through illness before, I'll get through it again."  But would I? Because of my own strength of body or will? How could I know that for sure? So I continued in this delusion until a few days after I was released when I got the final diagnosis of what I actually had wrong with me, and then I felt humbled. It caused me to rethink my prideful attitude that I could pull this recovery off by myself as I had before.

The reality is that our lives always have been, are now, and always will be in the hands of an almighty God who loves us with an everlasting love. He will carry us through every trial, in spite of ourselves.