Christian Privilege

For our brief stay on earth, our main work as believers is to be fruitful.  God does it all, we merely bow down as His humble servants.  And even that is done in His power!   The Bible tells us the "harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."  (Matthew 9:37)

 In reading Francis Schaeffer's book, "Escape From Reason", the following reminded and disturbed me greatly:  "The Bible teaches that, though man is hopelessly lost, he is not nothing.  Man is lost because he is separated from God, his true reference point, by true moral guilt.  But he never will be nothing.  Therein likes the horror of his lostness.  For man to be lost, in all his uniqueness and wonder, is tragic." And I would add, how horrible to be made in the image of the Creator with whom you never get to spend eternity.

A few days later, I read this in Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening" which also speaks as to the seriousness of the hopeless situation of man without God.  "Sinners are perishing for lack of knowledge; he who loiters may find his skirts crimson with the blood of souls.  Jesus gave both his hands to the nails, how can I keep back one of mine from His blessed work?"   "Up idle heart; stretch out thy hand to work, or uplift it to pray; heaven and hell are in earnest, let me be so..."

Tolerance

For years now, many have screamed "tolerance",  but what are they really saying?  I believe they are saying this:  "I want to do what I want no matter what you think, and I want to be accepted and respected irregardless of the boundaries I cross in doing so.  And if it is harmful to you in any way, so be it, what's that to me?"  Judges 21:25 says, "Everyone did what is right in his own eyes."  So, I'll also go to Solomon who said in Ecclesiastes, "There is nothing new under the sun."

With that out of the way, I'll get on with what I really want to say here.  I have come to look at the word "tolerance" in a bad light for the last several years; don't really like to use the word!  But yesterday, I was reminded of how God's involvement looks on the word.  "...do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?"  Ah, here is refreshment for the mind and soul!!  If you are reading this and you do not know Jesus Christ as Savior, then you are enjoying the "tolerance" of God, as you still have the breath of life flowing in you to seek Him!  Act on it!   He is kind, tolerant, patient and loving.  He "is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."  Let us bask in the divine tolerance of Almighty God.  And let us not be slow in doing so!   (References: Ecclesiastes 1:9; Romans 2: 4; 2 Peter 3:9)

Come, Let Us

"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image.'  God in Trinitarian conversation, plans His crowning creation.  Man rebelled and though made in the wonderful and creative image of the all-powerful God and can accomplish amazing works with his hands and mind, he, also, with the sin nature unchecked, can commit atrocities unnameable.  Without God, man is the center of his own universe.  But without God, that universe will come to a terrifying and unfulfilled end.

What brings me to this line of thinking is my morning reading about the tower of Babel.  Nimrod, in his pride, wanted to make a name for himself.  The tower was to be a monument of man in all his glory.  They had been commissioned by God to fill and populate the earth.  Instead, they took residence and combined their strength to display their own glory.  "Come, let us make bricks...Come, let us build for ourselves a city...let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."  This scattering abroad was God's command for them, yet as with Adam, God's command was again ignored.   God removed Adam from his comfort zone and again He proceeds to remove the great city of Babel from it's lofty place.  "Come let Us go down...  So the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the earth."   (Genesis 11:3, 5-9)

The "Come let Us" of God once again overrides the "come let us" of man.  And it always will.  Man's power is no power in the face of God and as His crowning creation, we need to be facedown saying, "Come, let us adore Him."

Guitar Strings

In keeping with my last post (and I'll say oblivious to thinking about it at the time), I was asking God to make me fruitful in whatever way He chose.  As I prayed, I said, "Pluck me as just a string on a guitar unnoticed but used."  Immediately, I was reminded of my post about "bows and arrows" and realized yet another seemingly insignificant item, yet sorely missed when absent.  Continuing in that thought process, I was also reminded of my "evening" read of Charles Spurgeon yesterday:

"All things are possible to him that believeth."  Mark 9:23
"When you read of the high and sweet communion enjoyed by favoured saints, you sigh and murmur in the chamber of your heart, 'Alas! these are not for me.'...You hear of exploits which holy men have done for Jesus; what they have enjoyed of Him; how much they have been like Him; how they have been able to endure great persecutions for His sake; and you say, "Ah! as for me, I am but a worm; I can never attain to this.'  But there is nothing which one saint was, that you may not be.  There is no elevation of grace, no attainment of spirituality, no clearness of assurance, no post of duty, which is not open to you if you have but the power to believe."

Bows & Arrows

Bows and arrows, guns and bullets!  Which item in each pair do you spend the most time researching when making a purchase?  I have absolutely no experience in either pair but I would say the bow and the gun are the major purchase, the most important of the pair, albeit you have to have the bow and arrow, gun and bullet, to matter.  But for my post today, the importance of our view of one over the other is my subject.

We tend to view spiritual gifts that way.  The outward and seemingly more prestigious, we tend to hold in higher esteem.  But we do wrong in that kind of thinking and must be diligent to turn away from that human tendency.  When God is using us or anyone else, whatever the work is, we must be in awe and amazed at His use, not necessarily the work.  We should be praying for each other in EVERY work we do int eh name of Christ Jesus.  Every work needs God's power, protection and provision.

So back to "bows and arrows".  In Zechariah 9:13a, God is describing His use of Judah and Ephraim as "bows and arrows".  So you might think a measly arrow is expendable.  It's shot and may or may not be retrieved again by the owner.  However, it can and does strike fear in the enemy and many times puts an eternal end to that enemy.  And the bow continues to be used over and over again.  But the point to be made is, "I will bend Judah as My bow, I will fill the bow with Ephraim."  It is God's use, not the instrument!!  In His Hand, whether it's a one time act or something done over and over again, it is a sovereign, designated plan with a purpose.

Signs of Peace

Riding through a neighborhood last week, I passed a house with two little boys in the front yard.  Guess what they were doing??  Playing!!  They were playing and laughing, oblivious to the world around them.  It made me smile and gave great joy to my heart to watch them.  It reminded me of how seldom I see that sight.  I've thought about this often over the years.  When my children were young, mothers were scared to let children out of their sight.  However, when I was young fifty plus years ago, I played all over my neighborhood.  My mother whistled for us kids to come home to lunch.  Then we went out again and when supper rolled around, mom whistled again.  And if it was summer, we went back out after supper and played until ten o'clock.  Times are, indeed, changing.

So what's my point?  God, too, knows the joy we receive from the sound of children playing.  Zechariah reports good news from God to His people.  They had been oppressed by other nations, war, loss and hopelessness.  But through Zechariah, He lets His people know that peace will again return.  And what is one of the sweet characteristics of peace?  "And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets."  (Zechariah 8:5)  What a wonderfully personal God we serve.  It makes my heart soar to read all the details He desires for those He loves and protects.  Let us rest in His sovereign protection as we hope for the better day to come.

"HELL!"

A young mother tells of going to kiss her young daughter goodnight.  Approaching her child's bed, she hears her sobbing!  The mother asks her daughter 'what is the problem?'  The daughter leans in to the mother, cups her hands  and whispers in the mother's ear, "HELL!"  The mother thinking she misunderstood asks, "what?!!"  The daughter again whispers, "HELL!"  The mother asks why is she crying, what has occurred in regard to hell that is making her sad.  The daughter responds, "I have sinned many times lately and I'm afraid of hell."

Two verses come to mind as I heard this story: "unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."  Matthew 18:3    "...knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men..."  2 Corinthians 5:11

Well, and one more: "Jesus, said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

Let us again be pained with the wrath of God that will ultimately send us to "hell" unless we  repent.  Let us as believers be all about turning sinners toward Christ.  May they experience in their hearts like this little child, a holy fear of "hell"!!