Venomous Snake Infestation

The first time I read about the bronze replica of a snake on a pole in the book of Numbers, I immediately saw the beautiful picture of Jesus.  This was many years ago in my early Christian walk.  I’ve read it many times since then.   But the wonder and excitement of that first moment has not been equaled.  That is not until recently.

In studying the book of John and using the John MacArthur commentary on the book, I was again struck with wonder.  However, this time from another angle. And I might add,  maybe I should change the word, “wonder” to “terror”.  All it took from the commentary is the word “infest”.  Yes, I definitely took new notice as I read that word.  Actually, it’s more like six words, six words in one sentence from one chapter: “venomous snakes to infest their camp”. (Chapter 9, pg. 114, MacArthur New Testament Commentary, John 1-11)  Think about it: INFESTED.  Snakes were everywhere. 

There is a place at my house that I have decided snakes reside.  To cap it, last year I found a snakeskin lying in the area.  Evidence in place, I now look with great caution in the whole area I’ve come to call, “the snake highway".  And this from just a feeling and one snakeskin.  In fact, the term, “snake in the grass” has new meaning for me as the area also has tall grass.  I get anxious and dread fills me just from the shear expectation of the possibility of a snake.  And this from one snakeskin!

But this moment in the history of the Old Testament, we’re talking about you don’t have to guess if the snakes are there.  They are everywhere, biting and killing people with their deadly venom.  Five short verses record this incident but the impact on the people was huge.  And by all means, the impact of this incident and it’s foreshadowing must reign huge in our minds.  (Numbers 21:5-9)

With the fall in the garden, everyone since has been born “infested” with sin.   Just like the Israelites were infested with venomous snakes in the camp in the wilderness wandering, we are infested with the blight of deadly sin from which there is no human cure.  By faith, the Israelites “looked” at a snake on a pole.  By faith, we must look to the God/Man on a cross, Jesus Christ. 

God gives us the cure.  God gives us the faith to look.  God is Sovereign, Supreme and Supplier for all parts of our healing.  God alone.  I love the simplicity and power of those words: God Alone!  May we experience daily the wonder and terror of our God.  

"Perfected in Unity"

On my exercise walk recently, a black flash caught my attention, and I looked up.  There above me was a giant crow.   It was almost as big as a hawk.  He was traveling pretty fast which is probably why I noticed; they are a bit large for fast flight.  At his tail, chirping loudly, were two very small birds (at least they were small in comparison to the crow).  These very small birds were chasing the black bird and he was fleeing.  I thought it humorous but also it was one of those moments you want to shout, “Hooray!” as the underdog had the upper hand.

Immediately, my thoughts turned to our walk as Christians and the importance of having brothers and/or sisters in Christ to help us stay the course.  We need each other to chase away the big black bird of sin.  I do not say that lightly nor do I mean it to be humorous.  It is very serious.  Do we have someone to whom we can turn for accountability?  I would say first, the Word needs to be administered daily like the needed food it is.  But we also need camaraderie.  John 17:23 says “that they may be perfected in unity.”  Why?  That the world may know that God sent Jesus and loves us as He loves Him.  (paraphrased from same passage)

Those little birds were boldly keeping their family safe and in tact by chasing off the predator.  Let us be faithful in our commitment to chase off our predator on a daily basis.

Powerless Efforts

Recently I was helping with a clean-up project.  I had volunteered to vacuum, something I'm very capable of doing!  So vacuum, I did.  I worked hard on this little room, vacuuming every little nook and cranny, window frames, baseboards, and even the closet.  It started off a bit hard, as I was using a vacuum I had never used and it was a shop-vac, which was a bit heavy.  But I wasn't to be deterred by a little extra effort and I became engrossed in my work.  The more I did the easier it became.  However, upon completion, I turned toward to vacuum to flip the switch to off and found to my embarrassed dismay that my hose had been disconnected.  I wasn't even aware when it happened.  Probably when it became "easy", I should have done some checking up on it.  I looked around to see if anyone was watching.  Thankfully, no one!  But I tell on myself today to make a point, a point I immediately realized as I looked at that hose I had carried around the room without any power!

How often do we as believers charge full speed ahead in our own energy to do a work we say is for the Lord?  For myself and my almost forty years of living for God, I would have to say, "way too many times".  Let us never charge ahead without bowing our heads in adoration to and complete dependence upon God.  I meant to write this many weeks ago, but busyness had disabled my posting.  However, I was reminded of it this morning when I read the following from "Valley Of Vision":  "I have laboured too much for spiritual life, peace of conscience, progressive holiness, in my own strength."

May we commit our work to the Lord, as we also ask Him for the strength and ability to accomplish that work.

Joy in The Moments of Now

I'd like to combine thoughts from two articles into one very important truth for us as believers.  Both articles are from the little magazine "Table Talk" put out by Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul.  One of the articles is by Sproul called, "Dream a Little Dream".  And the other article is authored by Gloria Furman called, "Glorifying God in the Routines".  The first is premised by John Knox's prayer, "Give me Scotland or I die."  The second is about not discounting the mundanes as mundanes.

"We live in the mundane, and life-altering, dramatic moments are, by definition, extraordinary.  Whatever your normal is, I think we can all agree that that's where we live.  Even so, we long for significant work, unique callings, and uncommon opportunities.  It's tempting to view everyday life as a monotonous cycle of making your bed only to lie in it again.  Our perspective on the everyday business of our lives is important because when we forget about God's activity in the world, we become functionally hopeless.  What's the point of anything if "all is vanity"?  We hear Paul's instruction of "whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" and we wonder how that squares with the "have-to's" of our everyday lives." (Furman)

"Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, warned us against worrying about the petty things of this world, the very things that tend to hold our attention--what we will eat, what we will wear.  We are inveterate worriers and insatiable spenders, which together mean that we tend to fret over funds.  Jesus calls us, however, not to worry over such things.  Our Father in heaven knows what we need, and He provides for us.  What we ought to be focused on is the kingdom of God, and His righteousness....  [In focusing on His righteousness, John Knox desired this focus for the citizens of Scotland to the point of his, "Give me Scotland or I die" statement.  This brings Sproul to the point of "dreaming big".]  We would be wise to learn to discern the difference between the brightness of our King's glory and the brightness of the spotlight.  There is a very thing line, one I suspect we all are tempted to dance along, between wanting to do great things for the kingdom and wanting to be great in the kingdom." (Sproul) [Dr. Sproul goes on to say that we go so far as to wondering if God would be pleased to use me the way He used Knox and believers five hundred years from now commemorating my life, and carving my likeness in marble?  He also reminds us of even Jesus own disciples arguing over their greatness in His kingdom.]

So, how do I bring these two articles together.  I believe it is the Christian's dilemma of balance and warfare with the righteousness of Christ living in them and their old sin nature and the Enemy of their souls.  We think our little lives of no consequence in the cause of Christ.  We worry over everything, both big and small, important and unimportant.  We always look for a future great work for God and neglect the joy of His working out every little detail in the moments of now.

Jesus is as much glorified in victory over the silent residual sin in our lives as He is in using us in the righteous conquest of a country.  It is, after all, the power of God in both situations.  Let us bask in that power, in that greatness with worship.  Whether or not one other person or the masses ever know of the victory, God has ordained it and it is good.  It is very good!!

Making Up Our Minds!

I love how I learn when I study to teach!  What a joy it continues to be for me, and what excitement it brings to my heart when God drives new thoughts home!  As I have many times before, I taught my little preschoolers this morning about Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.  It was the story of their refusal to eat the king's choice food and how God blessed them for their obedience.

What I loved today, as I taught, was this simple phrase, "Daniel made up his mind...".  He made up his mind!  Oh, how we need to learn that truth on so many levels.  Just make up your mind.  I know we have to have our blessed Spirit to guide us and give us strength.  I know Jesus draws us to Himself.  I know God is The Power to do it.  And it is because I know these things that I must make up my mind not to sin.  I must make up my mind to follow Him, live for Him, speak about Him and think about Him all the time.  I must make up my mind daily, moment by moment.  May we all rejoice in this liberating thought!

Resolved

 As I read God's Word today, it welled up in me a determination, a passion that moves me to action even when I don't feel like acting.  God hasn't answered a prayer, a most earnest and desperate prayer.   Do I lay down and cry out (or scream out) "WHY?  Why are You so long in hearing me?"  No, I keep asking, pleading, waiting and watching.  And in the meantime, I am resolved to live for Christ moment by moment.  My living for Him is not conditional on His answering my every prayer.  "I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delights; things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured my sight.  I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free.  Jesus, Greatest, Highest, I will come to Thee."  That song has spoken to me in different ways in different seasons of my walk with Jesus.  And now, as I labor over unanswered prayer, I am still resolved to continue coming to Jesus, living for Him, and bringing glory to Him in every detail of my being.  Amen and Amen!!

Boat of Reason

Watched a bit of a documentary about Stephen Hawking this week.  His kind of intelligence gives me a headache.  I am so very small in my thinking compared to him, yet, by God's grace, I know where the credit goes.  I respect and admire Stephen's ability and while admired by an academic world, he completely misses the big picture.

He says, while promoting the "Big Bang Theory", that alas, there is no need for thoughts of God at the beginning of such a theory.  Apparently, the release of that spiritual connection brings him some kind of happiness, maybe freedom.  In reality, he only digs deeper into the prison of unbelief, which is no freedom at all and devoid of all hope for eternity.

As I think about this with great sadness, I have also come to the conclusion that unbelievers are not the only ones who are guilty of this great blight of unbelief.  We, as believers, do this on a daily basis as we angst over life situations that are out of our control.  Things do not go the way we plan, we hit bumps in the road, we allow life to weigh us down and this with too much regularity.  While reading the Valley of Vision this morning, these lines from a few different prayers struck me: "I believe, help me experience it to the full.  Help me to make use of it [Christ's righteousness] by faith as the ground of my peace.  It is not feeling the Spirit that proves my saved state but the truth of what Christ did perfectly for me.  It is not inner sensation that makes Christ's death mine for that may be delusion... I rejoice to think that all things are at Thy disposal, and I love to leave them there.  Let me lament for forgetting daily to come to Thee, and cleanse me from the deceit of bringing my heart to a duty because the act pleased me or appealed to reason."

Reason!  It is to what the Stephen Hawkings of the world flock.  That is their great delusion!  For reason has nothing to do with the supernatural work of the God of the Universe.  It is a faith that is completely given as a gift.  And as I prayed to our great God this morning, I thought of Peter walking on the water toward Jesus.  And I asked our Father to help me on a daily basis step out of the boat of reason, keeping my eyes on Him and my feet on His path.  He alone gives us this ability and strength and it must be our earnest prayer!!