The Parable of the Sower (revisited)

Rather recently, I wrote on a possible interpretation of this parable. But this week I read the commentary on Matthew by a professor named Stanley Toussaint. He gives a much more plausible explanation for the parable. Like most interpretations from pastors, I was inclined to interpret the seed as the message of the gospel. But this is probably an unlikely interpretation because the gospel message was not yet given. Jesus was not yet on the cross, not raised from the dead, and therefore such an interpretation is jumping ahead in the story, not warranted when we take a closer look at what Jesus was actually doing. A better interpretation can be made that the seed that was sown, was sown from the Lord himself, and it was not sown to the world, but rather a description of what the Lord himself had been doing: sowing seeds to the nation of Israel. 

Read the parable for yourself:

³ Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
Matthew 13:3-9

Jesus’s explanation of the Parable of the Sower

¹⁸ “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ²⁰ The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ²² The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²³ But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Matthew 13:18-23

Is it not more likely that Jesus was talking about the way the Israelites themselves had been receiving the seed? Jesus came initially with a message: the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus even explains his parable that way: “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom” (emphasis mine). The farmer was scattering seed that represented the Word. But not the gospel, for the gospel was not to be proclaimed until the resurrection. In giving them that message he was met with many different outcomes. Only one of those outcomes was desirable; that some would get excited about the message of the kingdom, and would set about planting new seeds, producing many more plants. The other three were outcomes that resulted in loss. Once, the seed is snatched by birds ( the evil one) and the message is not considered at all.

There are two more results that are also not good. Here the people hear about the kingdom coming, and they allow their busy cares to choke out the message, and they are unable to look toward the kingdom which is coming. Some seed falls on rocky soil, perhaps meaning that the people were only listening with half an ear, finding themselves too busy to care much about the message. Some seed is cast on hard ground and is withered under the sun. In all three cases the good news of the coming kingdom is proclaimed, but for one reason or another is rejected.

This interpretation has two advantages I can see. First, it is not leaping ahead to the cross and the grace that is coming; rather it is focused on the coming King Jesus who is currently proclaiming his kingdom. Second, it seems to fit the context so much better. The king is rejected out of hand in this chapter. Nazareth, the very town where Jesus should be accepted, his hometown, rejects him in this very chapter. He goes elsewhere to preach his message, withdrawing from his hometown. Has not the very seed he has sown been stolen away by the enemy, blinding the hearers? Matthew is filled with stories of the rejection of the king; this theme of Matthew himself should not be ignored.

We also ought not to ignore what Jesus was doing and jump ahead to the unrevealed cross. Jesus was offering the kingdom and himself as the king. Many times in Matthew, he is rejected. In Chapter 13, his own town, Nazareth, rejects him. In Chapter 14, John the Baptist is killed, a sign that the Son of Man was rejected yet once again. In Chapter 15, Herod is on the prowl, and Jesus withdraws to a more Gentile section, Tyre and Sidon. There he feeds the 4,000, probably a largely Gentile crowd. Jesus becomes increasingly isolated and rejected.

When the book of Matthew is so clear as to Matthew’s aim (and I have not nearly covered the times he was rejected), we ought to pay closer attention to the central theme: “Hear, Israel, your king is here and the kingdom is at hand.” Only after these many rejections does the Son of Man make it clear about his sacrifice on the cross. Yes, the gospel seed is sown today, and it often follows the same model given by Jesus when he is offering the kingdom. But it seems obvious, that when we take it in context, Jesus is talking currently about the kingdom coming, and not the gospel that is yet to be revealed.

Get Your Shovel Ready

 

Get Your Shovel Ready

Matthew 13:22
²²He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

I note that the verse does not say the seed is destroyed; rather the problem is that it becomes unfruitful. I grew up on a farm of thousands of peach trees. We would plant the little trees, water them frequently and watch them grow. My father, an unbeliever, used to comment that there actually was little for the farmer to do other than planting and watering. I think even he recognized the hand of a Providential God was at work.

The little trees would struggle through their first year, but sometimes we had weeds which grew so splendidly that they would threaten the tree. They were tall weeds, and thick, and would quickly dwarf the tree, which the farmer would often have to find the little tree amongst all the weeds. We called the terrible weed, which grew everywhere in the field, Johnson Grass. I remember as a young fellow being cut again and again by the sharp long leaves of grass. They hurt!

Anyway, if Johnson Grass got into your field it was very difficult to get rid of. It would grow everywhere, and even when we freshly plowed the field, ridding the top of grass, the root balls would be left intact under the plow, and soon Johnson Grass would spring up again. But when we plowed a field of trees of course we did not plow the trees, and grass was left intact there, soon growing to five or six feet, eclipsing our poor little trees.

At that point my uncle would hand me the shovel and point me to the field. It was my task to dig all those weeds out, to give the tree a chance to grow and begin to shade out areas where the grass would not grow so well. It was hard work!  Johnson grass was famously for its gnarly roots, which might form a root ball. Often the root ball itself could be dug up and might measure a foot or more across.

Those root balls meant the grass would come right back, and I had to stick the shovel in and get as many of them dug out as possible, so that the tree might not be choked out. And that is what I think of when I read the part of the verse that says they would “choke the word’. They would not kill the tree; they just kept it from getting the sunshine and slowed its growth.

Familiar to farmers is the phenomenon of things choking out plants. Most often the weeds severely curtail the desired plant’s growth. To have a “fruitful” plant means keeping the weeds to a minimum. In the days before Round Up, the shovel and muscles were the best way of helping the tree.

All that to get back to the words of our Lord: “he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.”

I think our Lord here is not talking about a destroyed plant; rather he is talking about a plant rendered ineffectual by the choking weeds. Christians can be choked by the weeds of life. They can so easily destroy all our witness, ending our fruitfulness in the middle of the hostile world. Are you letting weeds ruin your witness? Why not renew yourself before God, and disdain the weeds of the world? It is the best path of the Christian life, so get out that shovel, and work at getting weed free, that the Holy Spirit may have free rein in your life. Being fruitful for a Christian is not just the best thing; it is the only thing. A life surrendered to Christ is a life that will be pretty much weed free.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free Will and Its Consequences

 

Free Will and Its Consequences

I hear this lament all the time by those not believing in God or his mercy. They say, “I do not want to believe in a God who condemns me to eternal punishment just because I do not believe.”

But the Bible, always true, speaks on the other side. He that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (John 3). It is a basic error in logic. Such a person reasons that it is horrible of a God to judge them for not believing. Yet what is God to do? He has sovereignly given free will to man. It is upon the man to turn towards God, but what if he just will not? Logic dictates that someone exercising free will must have choice, or he will no longer be free.

I am well aware that God must do the calling and open the doors for salvation. John says elsewhere that all who come to him will in no wise be cast out, and again, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. But leave all that aside for a moment and let us focus on the free choice part.

It also says in the same passage (John 3), that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved. He has provided for the “sins of the whole world”, but the world has rejected him. The natural man, unregenerate, thinks in his folly that God is being unfair in condemning him to an eternal hell just because he denies his Creator.

But what is God to do? Having given free will to man, man must be left to his choices, and the desserts from those choices. God, in his wisdom, deemed that man should be made in his image, capable of making choices.  God, in sending his Son, offered redemption to all of mankind. In giving his own Son, he has given everything possible to bring peace with man. Exactly what is he to do with man who desires to stay unredeemed?

It is not God who puts himself in such a place of judgment; all the while it is man who runs from every offer of redemption. All the while charging God with imagined offences. All the while fleeing from the only offer of redemption that will provide his cure; all the while blaming God for the judgment while he could freely choose to receive mercy in its place.

In essence, repentance for man is saying to God, “Thy will be done”. The blood of Christ is recognized by the sinner and every condemnation from God is taken care of. In the bitter end, the man who will not bend his will to receive mercy, will hear from God the final judgment, “Thy will be done.”

 

Some End of the Year Thoughts

 

1 Kings 8:38 (KJV)

³⁸What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:

What a verse! Note that Solomon specifically talks about man seeing into the “plague of his own heart.” I think it echoes the cry of Paul the apostle, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” Paul looks and shrinks back from the horror of his own sin and Solomon seems to also have seen into the horrible window of the human soul.

I was thinking about the cry today accusing nearly everyone and nearly everyday of being a “Nazi”. Particularly the accusation is made against those supporting Charlie Kirk, and it is used by both sides rather indiscriminately. It is often used, again by both sides, to depict the lowest grade of humans. There does not seem to be any lower appellation possible—as if being a “Nazi” is the worst conceivable human.

I submit to you that I am that Nazi. But I also submit to you that you are also that Nazi. In the eternal words of Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

I am reading my annual turn through the Lord of the Rings (estimated 55  times so far) and thinking about that awful draw of Sauron’s ring toward evil. The very best and wisest characters of the book know that to use the ring would only lead to evil, no matter how nobly one started. That ring thus symbolizes evil in the world, and must be gotten rid of. That the task of getting rid of evil should fall to Frodo seems to me to be one of the most interesting draws of the book.

And that is where I am at, where you are at. We could start with all the best intentions to better our world, but that evil lurking in our own hearts utterly confounds the best of intentions. Even in my old age, I sometimes find myself wishing that I was “in charge” and could change things. But it only takes a few seconds of reflection to realize that I would only make things worse, and perhaps much worse if I were in charge. The road to hell, it is true, is paved with good intentions.

And perhaps that makes the world, careening itself ever towards evil, a bit closer to realizing its need. If we really are all a bunch of Nazis, who shall deliver us from this body of death? Perhaps the key to understanding ourselves is to realize the hidden Nazi in our bosom, covered up well by some, but for all that still the guiding prince of our time. We need forgiveness. We need grace. As Paul concludes his epic chapter, “I thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord.”

 

 

The Shepherd Psalms

Yesterday, in the reading of the Psalms, I noticed that each Psalm in the twenties is a sort of a shepherd psalm. Check them out. For your convenience I included a key verse describing the title, but it might be more meaningful if you check the whole psalm out.

Psalm 20

The Guiding Shepherd

“May he give you the desire of your heart

And make all your plans succeed.” v. 4

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Psalm 21

The Forever Shepherd

“He asked you for life, and you gave it to him—

Length of days, forever and ever.”  v. 4

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Psalm 22

The Suffering Shepherd (Psalms 22, 23, and 24 Scofield inspired)

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” v. 1

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Psalm 23

The Good Shepherd

“The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” v. 1

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Psalm 24

The Chief Shepherd

“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,

The world, and all who live in it;” v.1

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Psalm 25

The Teaching Shepherd

“Guide me in your truth and teach me,

For you are God my Savior,” v. 5

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Psalm 26

The Judging Shepherd

“Vindicate me, LORD,

For I have led a blameless life:” v. 1

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Psalm 27

The Providing Shepherd

“The LORD is my light and my salvation—

Whom shall I fear?

The LORD is the stronghold of my life—

Of whom shall I be afraid?” v.1

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Psalm 28

The Protective Shepherd

“The LORD is my strength and my shield;

My heart trusts in him, and he helps me. v. 7

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Psalm 29

The Vocal Shepherd

“The voice of the LORD is powerful;

The voice of the LORD is majestic. v. 4

The Way of Cain

 The Way of Cain

What is the “way of Cain”? Cain is infamous for killing his brother, but largely ignored is what drove him to the killing. Abel presented an offering of animal fat, which involved shedding the blood of animals. Cain decided to make up an offering from what he did: produce an offering from the fruits of the soil.

Philosophically, I sympathize with Cain. As a one-generation-removed-farmer, I have spent my life sharing the sweet savors of fruit from Northern California, providing abundant fruit to friends and casual acquaintances. I love my fruit with a passion! And I enjoy teasing my daughters, reminding them that Revelation does talk about the fruits of the Tree of Life, 12 to be exact, but there is no future world of vegetables. Mom’s favorite edict: “Eat your vegetables” is not to be found in our future world. Thankfully, says this old fella who never learned to eat vegetables for their own sake.

But Cain was evidently unaware of the insufficiency of his offering. God accepted the offering of Abel, but that of Cain he rejected. Cain transferred his hatred of rejection to Abel himself, whom he eventually killed. He defended himself most infamously with the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”.

So the way of Cain is the generation of people wanting to devise their own offering to God. They compose the offering their way, with whatever suits them, and never-mind what God wants. And it is always doomed to failure. Anytime we rewrite the commands of God to favor ourselves, and base our offering of worship on that basis, it is the way of Cain.

As a young Christian I used to wonder about idol worship so prominent in the old and new testaments. I used to speculate that at last mankind had seemed to depart from idol worship, even if they did not worship my God.

But I came to realize it is not so. Idol worship is stronger than ever, and many who profess Christ are guilty. Humans are quite clever. They take the picture of God from the Bible, and find it does not quite suit them. So they proceed to ditch the parts of the Bible they disagree with and add the commands that they feel are warranted by a “civilized God”.

In effect they take the image of my beloved Creator and change it to one that suits them better. Idol worship? Yes, most definitely! A God of our making is not the I-am-God who so clearly presents himself in the Bible. The way of Cain is a large and growing movement in our world today, making idol worship bigger than ever.

I Have a Plan

 

I Have a Plan

A few years ago, I read about the 100-year prayer vigil, and immediately I wanted to turn my church into the beginnings of a new prayer vigil.  I read about the resurgence of decisions of college students for Christ and I want to leap on the back of this “revival” and build a revival that sweeps the country. I read lots, and almost anything I read can stimulate me to build a new plan to sweep the world with Christ.

And that is the problem. I have a plan. Not God. Not Christ. Not from the Holy Spirit. From me. I have a plan. I fail to realize the simple fact that long ago God has already given us the only plan that will work. The simple declaration of the gospel.

That is the plan of God and it did significantly change our world. I look for more, because I hunger to be used. And that is not a bad thing—until I remind myself that he has already made the plan and I need to be busy being used to implement it.

We are to evangelize the world—to announce the gospel at every possible turn. But our hand, our testimony has absolutely nothing to do with results. It is the Holy Spirit activating the witness (perhaps using our testimony?) that makes the call. Thus, we are always correct when we give thanks to God for any fruitful results.

Not our plan for effecting salvation; always His plan.

Sheer Idolatry!

 Sheer Idolatry!

It grieves me dearly when I see Christians dive off the heresy cliff in order to make God “acceptable”. They are the people who seem to study the Bible for what they can glean from it. As a young Christian (in the interests of full disclosure I am no longer young, 72, and holding steady) I assumed, at least in the United States that the times of idolatry were long past. Perhaps, I thought, it still occurred in third world countries, but we had learned our lesson and put idolatry behind us. Never was I so sadly mistaken.

Some Christians today are but a people looking at the Bible, and deciding which truths are no longer true. They proceed to butcher (they would call it finesse) the Word of God.  Casting out this teaching, then that, and finessing their way through Scripture. It is only after their “wresting the Scriptures to their own destruction” that their agenda becomes naked. At that point they insert into the Scripture from their own agenda, and make God to be like they desire Him to be. Then they call to all who are near them and say, “Let us worship God together."

They may as well have created their own golden calf, but it is no longer God. With God we do not get to claim what we desire; instead the Scriptures dictate truth to us. We do not get to rewrite Scripture because truth is no longer in fashion. Aaron, wanting to make an excuse for his sinful behavior said “I just cast their earrings into the fire, and look what came out.”

Of course, Aaron was guilty of idolatry, as were his followers. He stood before Moses, and was reprimanded. Christians similarly will have to stand before Christ one day, with their idolatry still staining their hands. Christ will ask them with what works do they show their service. Alas, for all the works will be burnt up. For they have changed the God of truth to one that more fits their purposes.

Insomuch if it were possible, they will deceive the very elect.

The Bible is given to be believed, not checked and abbreviated; neither added to. It is our job only to clarify and not change. God tells us that He changes not. How dare we make him any other way!

 

Dr. Ray Dugger 4

 Dr. Ray Dugger 4

One day Pastor Ray Dugger told us of how he himself had gotten started in the ministry. He was scrimping and saving, trying desperately to save enough money for getting into Bible college. But he was short. Not deterred he began to pray earnestly for the Lord to provide.

He just needed a certain amount to add, and he would have enough. Where could he possibly find such money? Reading one day in the newspaper, he found an ad for a contest. The contest was to find a better and lighter cake frosting, and the winner of the contest would take home—you probably have guessed it—exactly the amount that Ray was praying for.

Bowing his head, he prayed, “God, I need this money to get into school. If you want me to get into school, please help me to win.” He worked earnestly, for hours, and the hours turned into days. Somehow, he came up with the idea of using a lighter cream, whipped cream, as part of the formula.

Needless to say, he won the contest, got into school, and became a minister. For me, the most refreshing part of his stories were that God seemed to personally communicate with him. He answered prayer. He directed footsteps. God was alive in his life in sharp contrast to the sleeping God of the Seventies Churches.

I wrote these reflections, remembrances of a man who walked with his God, and invited all those he could to enter into the walk with him. But he also imparted doctrines and lessons from his study of the Scriptures that I carry with me today.

He began in late winter teaching us about the Ten Sabbaths. Point by point, pointing to the Scriptures over and over, he shared the Scriptures which clearly teach the Saturday Sabbath in not the only Sabbath taught in scripture. I remember wondering why this was significant, since much of the teaching had to do with law, and it seemed based in rules and such that we, as Christians, were no longer responsible for. He even taught, correctly, that there was a Sabbath year, and another Sabbath to be held every fifty years. All of it was backed up with Scripture verses, and I remember copiously following his lessons, but I was still confused about the significance of what he was teaching.

It all became clear when just before Easter he began teaching about the crucifixion week. Friday was impossible, he declared. Christ was probably raised early on Wednesday night, and spent three days and three nights dead. This is clearly true based on the Sabbath days he had spent so much time teaching. Christ was killed on the Day of Preparation, the day before Passover which was the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread. There was not one ordinary Sabbath day. Instead there were two Sabbaths together, and possibly even three.

I remember the young people learning in wonder at the truths he had carefully extracted from the Scripture. Fifty years later I still remember his teaching, rolling around in my head all those years. It finally came out in my latest book, Literally True, in a chapter entitled “Not Friday”.

So you might think that I am incredibly thankful to this man (and you would be right), who taught us to reverence for the Bible, and along with that reverence, a high regard to pay attention to details. I do look forward to seeing a glorified Ray Dugger in heaven. A man who took the time to share his personal walk with a fascinating God. I can hardly wait to see the exalted saint God will turn him into!

Dr. Ray Dugger 3

 Dr. Ray Dugger 3

We all liked the magnificent preaching job done by Reverend Dugger. (Being Baptist, we did not refer to him as reverend. Rather he was “Pastor Dugger”.) He would always make a big deal out of removing his wrist watch, and setting it carefully on the pulpit. His standard joke about women worrying about their roast in the oven became a staple for us. At 12:00 sharp, he would stop and sometimes it seemed almost in the middle of a sentence. I was so hungry for his teaching that I surely wished he would forget about the roast and finish his thoughts.

It was from Dr. Dugger that I learned to reverence the Word. He worked hard to teach us that every verse needed to be understood, not only for what we thought it said, but to go back, studying the context and trying to draw the exact meaning from the text itself. That lesson I have tried to carry out through my life.

Being in his eighties, and having lived a life of walking with God, he seemed to have endless anecdotes to tell us. I remember one anecdote in which he described coming home from church and having to step aside for a team of horses pulling a wagon. The driver cursed the horses, yelling at them, “God damn you horses!”

Pastor Dugger said to the man, “Your prayer is answered.”

“What prayer,” stammered the man?

“You just asked God to damn the horses. He is going to answer your prayer.” With that he turned and continued his walk home.

On the way home the driver of the wagon hit a sudden thunderstorm. Lightening came flashing out of the sky and struck dead the two horses.”

Dr. Dugger paused his story, with a twinkle in his eye, just saying the next Sunday the man was in church, where he remained until the end of his life.

Pastor Dugger was used to a life calling before lots of people, thousands instead of a few score. One Sunday after service, he was talking to one of the other young men, and I overheard him muttering that he did not quite understand why God sent him to such a small church (on Easter Sunday we might have 80 souls). I did not reply, as it was not my conversation, but I remember sharply thinking that I knew exactly why God had sent him. To give me what I needed for my Christian life.

I never got a chance to tell him that. But I look forward to the time when I will be able to thank him for getting this poor farm boy a start in his Christian Walk.

Dr Ray Dugger 2

 

Dr Ray Dugger 2

I did not exaggerate much when I told you of his first appearance in the First Baptist Church of Marysville, California. It was the early 1970s and lots of wild things were going on. The hippies were turning into Jesus freaks at an alarming rate, and soon the whole country was going to notice.

I think Ray Dugger was in his eighties, though he may just have looked like it. He drove down from Sacramento every Sunday and every Wednesday (and needed times between). I think of myself, in my early seventies, trying to negotiate all that traffic and roads, and frankly I am in awe. But the truth is that Rev. Dugger just looked old. It turned out that he was diabetic, and had been diagnosed from his youth. In those days being diabetic was akin to having a death appointment somewhere in the near future. In fact, his own doctor told him that he would suffer an early death.

As a young adult, Ray must have been quite fiery, for he looked the doctor in the eye, and told him in a bold statement, “I am not going to die early. In fact, I am going to preach your funeral.” And indeed, years later he was to officiate at his doctor’s funeral. And that is what we were to find out was only one of the many amazing stories of Ray Dugger.

Fifty odd years ago all of this happened and I still remember those stories, and when I think back on them, I often find myself grinning from ear to ear. Being diabetic, Dr. Dugger had to take provisions. His wife dutifully carried a glass of orange juice into the church and would sit on the front pew. At times of low blood sugar, the Doctor would struggle, and sometimes even collapse to the floor. The deacons would rush to him, his wife would carry up the juice to him, and he would drink. With restored blood sugar, he would grip again the sides of the pulpit and finish his message as if nothing had happened. An amazing man!

Dr. Ray Dugger

 Dr. Ray Dugger

It was May 5^th, 1972, when I got saved. I became a member of the local Baptist church, a congregation of 40 to 50 people. Those people did not quite know what to do with me, a farm boy brought into a new culture of Christianity. Eventually I was to bond tightly with these people and feel an allegiance to these people that was as strong as a family allegiance.

I had not been in the church long when our Pastor accepted a call to a church down in Fresno, and left us bereft of a leader. The denomination (American Baptist) soon helped, and an interim pastor was on his way, all the way from Sacramento, about 50 miles from us.

I remember the first time our pastor came to us; the church still maintained a tradition in those days. The pastor was the last person to enter the church on Sunday morning, and all the church would stand and turn to view his coming in; we do the same with brides today. To my surprise, no one appeared in the aisle. The organist kept playing and we kept waiting. Finally, to our relief, we could see a small figure ever so slowly coming down the aisle, incrementally shuffling his way to the front of the church.

I watched as he finally reached a seemingly impossible hurdle. There were three steps up to the stage. Could this poor figure possibly make those three steps? The whole church watched with bated breath as he ascended one step at a time. At last he made the pulpit, and gripping the sides of the pulpit seemed to fill him with strength. He looked out over the small congregation and let us know right away that he was sent from God.

“One of your deacons got ahold of me this morning and let me know there were two things that I was to stay away from as a preacher. One was the Holy Spirit and the other was that we were not to talk of Satan.” He paused, and then continued, “We will be speaking on two topics the next months, the Holy Spirit and Satan.”

I was looking all about, trying to figure out who he was talking about, but there was not a clue to be had. For the next forty minutes, he spoke thunderously, the word of God pouring forth from his mouth. His watch, taken off his wrist and laid on the pulpit, ticked to the 12:00 position, and he stopped, with what was to become known as his common comment, “I know you ladies have a roast in the oven to get out, so we will stop there.”

Little did I realize how much this man was going to change my life. Over the next few months I was to learn what one man, wholly given to the word of God could teach me. It was to change this poor farm boy’s view of the Word of God forever.

God Be Merciful to Me a Sinner

God Be Merciful to Me a Sinner

Not to bring up unpleasant subjects, but have you looked in a mirror lately? I have, and the 72-year-old man looking back at me is disgusting. Yet it is to the mirror I must go if I am to at all gain a perspective of myself.

I wish I could say I remember a life of doing my duty before God—and to be fair, I had some of those experiences. But I remember a life where I frequently made poor choices and chose the road widely traveled. As I grow older, I do find myself thinking more about the past—both the good times and the bad times.

The problem with my memory, and perhaps yours, is that I remember the bad times as being not quite so bad, and I tend to remember the good times with a bit of editorial embellishment. Until I have a good hard look in that mirror. That is, I look deeper into things of the past and I realize once more, that I really am a sinner in deep need of grace.

But I remind myself, I have all the grace I need, for when I came to the recognition of Christ dying for me, all of my many shortcomings, including the ones I feebly see, are covered in his death on the cross. When he died, he died for all my sins, many of which I had not even yet countenanced.

Look at yourself squarely. Take that mirror and have a good reflection. I am convinced that those of us who look in the mirror are more grateful for the grace of God. Remember the story of Jesus, when he told about the two men. One was nicely clothed and the other was just a poorly dressed man. The rich man prayed before God, “God, I thank you that I am not as the poor man.” The poor man simply prayed, “God, be merciful to me a sinner. The poor man went away, forgiven by God, but the rich man seemed to be irretrievably lost in self-righteousness.

The mirror reflects the truth of my life, and is absolutely discouraging, but for the cross. I know in whom I have believed, and on that day, I shall stand in the righteousness of Christ. How about you? Can you take a courageous look into the mirror? But don’t stop there, look to the Christ who has given us such wonderful grace and forgiveness. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Overcome evil with good—how does that work out?

 

Overcome evil with good—how does that work out?

 

Romans 12:21 (KJV)
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Paul gives us a command, likely taken from the Sermon on the Mount where our Lord tells us to turn the other cheek. Evil should not overcome us; rather we should consistently work to overcome evil with good.

But is that not what Christ did? Exactly! And how did that work out? It leads directly to the cross—giving a new impetus to the command, “Take up your cross and follow me”.  We are to exactly follow Christ—to become “little” Christs.

Much is made by our Christian leaders in coming up with special formulas to successful evangelism. If you just do this, or you just do that, you will find phenomenal success under "my" plan, proclaims the latest evangelist. (I wrote a column on this, The Magic Evangelical Formula.). It is necessary to add this point. We are called to turn the cheek and to carry the cross.

I am reading a book by Joel Rosenberg titled The Auschwitz Escape, where one of his major subthemes is Christians who are busy carrying the cross—even while taken captive by the Germans. I am a very rapid reader, but find myself slowing down immensely, awed by all the evil gathered and focused against Jews and the Christians who would help them.

But that is exactly the Christian we are called to be. Like Christ, we are to face our problems down, and keep looking up towards him, just as he looked toward the Father when he faced the cross. But we in the United States know almost nothing of direct persecution. Instead our persecution is of a dark sort, gloomy and constant, pulling us subtly away from the closeness we are to have with God. It works best over time, gradually pulling us away from our Redeemer, pulling our eyes ever away from our Savior, putting our focus on anything but our God.

How does that work? Our country is about as far away from Christianity than it ever has been. But what is even more alarming is that we look at Christians and they are so far away from their Christ, they no longer see him. Replacing him with their latest lusts, and remaking him to be more what they desire rather than facing him for who he is. They are becoming deceived and distort and disturb the very Christ that is presented to us in the Scriptures. We are seeing pockets of Christian heresy rapidly grow here and there. Jesus did point to the question in his time: When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth? Apparently, in the US not so much.

Let nothing separate us from our eternal God, who has manifested himself in his Son, giving himself so that we might not only have life but have it abundantly. Have you been walking in the abundant life?  It is like no other life, and nothing we seek anywhere else will fill the empty spot in our souls that only Christ can fill.  Life in Him is life indeed!

 

The Magic Evangelical Formula

 

The Magic Evangelical Formula

America has had Four Great Awakenings in its history, and I wish fervently that she had a dozen more. The history of Awakenings was a intriguing study for me. Always I found a sleepy nation, hardly doing its evangelical duty and often mired in sin and blindness. The Awakening that God brought would rouse a sleeping church back to life, and a great harvest would ensue.

Dallas Willard points out that evangelicals often pursue vigorously the books that are out there, talking about this spiritual point or that spiritual basis being the one to pursue. But then he laments that seldom are evangelicals reading the Book and following the One whom the Book is talking about. I agree wholeheartedly.

Which leads me to the point of this article; there are many authors out there (of which I am one) who are vying for an audience. Too often, the authors are resorting to their magic formulas of finally reaching the nation for Christ. They say, “Do this faithfully and watch the great results.”  I remember one author, who shall remain nameless, recommending that the church follow his special evangelism technique, and watch the church double. The author was so carried away by his magic formula that he declared his church, following his formula, would double in size the next year, and then double the year following. He then suggested the entire national church could follow his magic formula and would double every year.

Which is enough of “magic formulas”. It takes no great guess to see that I am adamantly against those formulas. Let me try to throw a bucket of cold water on it to try to bring us back to reality. There is no magic formula that will awaken our wayward world. There is no training in apologetics that will win the day. (Of course, we are to seek always to be ready always to answer every man that asks you.)

Consider for a moment the complete arrogance of some of these authors. God himself provided a way of salvation in the person of his Son. What did the world do with the Son? They hung him on a cross; there is no doubt that they would, if they had the opportunity, do the same thing all over again. God did all he could in sending his Son—a Son who warned the world of judgment and was killed for his warnings.

Could anymore have been done? Was there a magic formula waiting to be picked up and used to produce Christians? Or did God really do everything that could be done?

When we try to explain the simple gospel—that Jesus came into the world as God incarnate to die for the sins of the world—the message cannot be changed. There is no magic formula that can be concocted. God did it all in sending Jesus. Thank God that there is nothing more! We have been given it all.

Carrying a simple message to a lost world is the task God has given the church. It remains our responsibility. But should we expect a world who crucified the Savior to welcome our message? I think the closer we are to presenting a clear and true simple message, the closer we become to experiencing the rejection that Christ himself faced.

What is the remedy? It is found, I believe, only in the mind of God. A God who sent our nation four great awakenings—could he not do it again? I was saved as part of that Fourth Great Awakening in 1972. God reached out and saved this poor farm boy sovereignly, amid of thousands of others whom he also brought to himself. And a sleeping national church was invigorated.

We are tasked with telling the simple gospel. It is not beyond our means to do so. Neither do we have to put some special whammy on it to make it more effective. But the world has not changed, neither has it become “better”. We can expect the very same rejection given to our Savior when we tell others of His saving grace.

My hope—and I hope yours as well, is that the Lord may bring a renewed harvest in these dark days. Let us proclaim faithfully—and may He bless the efforts of his feeble servants.

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

John

The Wonder of Conversion

 

The Wonder of Conversion

I was reading Acts yesterday, along with Romans, and once again was struck by the repetitive theme of Paul’s testimony.  Then again, this morning my through-the-Bible daily reading was in Acts, where again Paul is testifying about his conversion. His testimony is at least told three times in Acts, and probably was repeated wherever Paul went to a new mission field.

I do remember that I used to express a bit of frustration as I worked through Acts, and hit yet again another “refresher course” about Paul. But after considering my frustration, I realized that Paul was doing his testimony yet again because it was where he met the Lord, where the Lord gave to Paul meaning.

In my conversion, the Lord met me squarely, and after 53 years, I do still find it both fresh and poignant. Nothing in my life compares to it, and I do not think anything in this lifetime will ever compare to it. Of course, in the lifetime to come I will come to see the Lord himself and that will eclipse all that has happened here.

How about you? Is it the same for you? I suspect so, but always there are people with different experiences. Tell me about yours.

He is Risen!

 He is Risen!

Upon this basis, Christianity rises or falls. If he is not risen, our faith is in vain, and as the apostle says, “We of all people are most miserable.” 

So, what of the evidence? The evidence for his resurrection is substantial by any historical standards. But set those standards aside for a moment—we will get back to them. If we paid no attention at all to the evidence, what sort of things we notice might be convincing?

The answer is in the people God has called. Many of the people called we might see as people of a “religious” mind, and pay them no attention, especially their testimony, as we see it as “tainted evidence”. Tainted by the desires of the people. But any look at the variety of people who have come to Christ will quickly dissolve the idea of “tainted evidence”. We have only to look at the Sauls of Christianity.

Who are the Sauls of Christianity? Like Saul of Tarsus, who became the greatest of the apostles, these people are people who have radically changed their outlook, and they go to their deaths proclaiming the good news of the resurrection. It seems like they occur in every generation. There are a couple of big names in this generation. Lee Strobel and J. Werner Wallace come first to mind; skeptics who bothered to examine the evidence. They are both famous authors who came to realize that He had risen indeed. Chuck Colson is more of my generation. Whittaker Chambers of my father’s generation. These people have in common the idea of a risen Lord, and look at their respective changed lives. It would take a book to note all their changes alone. 

That should be “arresting”, if not compelling evidence of Jesus resurrection. Any person, looking at just those lives, should be able to see that “something” radically changed them. But the evidence is just beginning. I have not time to tell all—this would be a book. But the manuscripts are wonderfully preserved and date from early apostle times. The record is that there were hundreds of witnesses to the marvel that God had done. Exactly what we would expect, if someone had finally defied death, and set the course for the rest of us.

We see the birth of the church, against all odds, succeeding where failure was the likely outcome. Why? Just maybe, just maybe there really was a resurrection. And that leads us to the next tenet. Maybe Jesus was exactly who he said he was. God come in the flesh, to reset mankind to a new life. That deserves your consideration. Just like it has in every generation.

He is risen indeed!

He Lives!

I serve a risen Savior
  He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living,
  Whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy;
  I hear His voice of cheer;
And just the time I need Him
  He’s always near.

 

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
    He lives within my heart.

2

In all the world around me
  I see His loving care,
And though my heart grows weary,
  I never will despair;
I know that He is leading,
  Through all the stormy blast;
The day of His appearing
  Will come at last.

3

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian,
  Lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs
  To Jesus Christ the King!
The Hope of all who seek Him,
  The Help of all who find,
None other is so loving,
  So good and kind.

Pharisees and Sadducees

In the New Testament times of Christ, there were two prominent sects of religious thought. There were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. We are very familiar with the groups; we watch them stir up feelings against the Messiah of God, and we watch them eventually succeed in taking Christ to the cross.

But what was the difference? Pretty much the doctrinal differences were like the difference between night and day. The Pharisees believed in zealous good works, sort of fitting the philosophy of overdoing everything in their zeal for God. They were very concerned about rules and were even confronted over some of their rules about hand washing by Jesus himself. Jesus pointed out that they were more concerned with ritual washing of hands than they were concerned with the insides of men themselves.

Sadducees pretty much believed that there was no resurrection from the dead. There were no angels and no after life. Of course, they could not believe in a Messiah raised from the dead; neither could they believe that such a one had the power to grant others victory over death through the forgiveness of sins.

Saul was a Pharisee, trained under the famous Gamaliel, and a devout hardened Pharisee who took great pride in persecuting the new Christians. When Jesus called Saul, Saul left that life behind, and became the great defender and explainer of Christian doctrine.  Many Pharisees took the Christian viewpoint and believed in the Christ, which became somewhat problematic to the church.

Some of the Pharisees were unable to leave Judaism, and tried to embrace a keeping of the Law along with receiving grace. We see part of this group in the faction of Acts Fifteen, where a group of Pharisees insisted that the new Gentiles coming to faith had also to adopt Jewish customs and law. The church council ruled that there was a new age, an age of grace, and the law was forever left behind.

But the problem persisted, evidently throughout the lives of the apostles, for the heresy of keeping the law was time and again referred to, and the false teachers had to be continually reprimanded. 

On the other hand we have the Sadducees. Interestingly, there is not one record of a single Sadducee ever repenting and coming to the faith. If you believed in what the Sadducees did, how could they possibly have faith in a resurrected Messiah when they did not even believe in the resurrection? So, one can search the New Testament in vain for a single record of anyone who came to faith.

As has been said many times before, that is quite “sad you see”. 

Do This and I Will Bless You

 Do This and I Will Bless You

The formula for Old Testament promises is “do this and I will bless you”.  Having read the Bible through hundreds of times, when I noticed this formula advanced by Scofield, I decided to test it out. I remember thinking to myself that since it is so obviously based on works, it cannot be true. But apparently it is. 

This very short article will only cover three major promises from the Old Testament; the rest will depend on your reading and noticing the truth: “do this and I will bless you.”

Of course, the natural place to start is with Abraham, the first covenant made with the Jewish people. Israel was a nation yet unknown, about to be started by divine fiat. What does the Bible say? Genesis 12:
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

What is the duty given to Abraham? He has to get out of his country, separate himself from his father’s household and go to an unknown country. What is the promise given if Abraham does these things? God promises to make of Abraham a great nation, bless him by making his name great and making Abraham become a blessing to others. He further promised to bless them that bless Abraham, and curse them that curse Abraham.

Does this follow the formula: do this and I will bless you? Yes, it does. Clearly God promises his blessing conditioned on Abraham’s obedience. Is the promise unconditional? Of course it is now that Abraham did as the Father asked. Seldom is pointed out the conditional part of the promise, but I have often speculated about what might have happened if Abraham had not left his country. God would not be able to bless him, as the promise was clearly made on the condition that Abraham left his country, his people and followed God.

Abraham receives many assurances and elaborations of these promises, but they are all part of the same formula: do this and I will bless you. Instead of making this shorter piece all about Abraham, I thought next to move to Isaac. In Genesis 26, God promises to Isaac:
And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.2 And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

Is the formula apparent in the above text? Note the condition: Isaac must sojourn in the land, and then God will bless by: 1) by being with Isaac, 2) by being with his seed (children), 3) being given countries, 4) by blessing all nations of the earth through the Jewish people. Note that God says this because “Abraham obeyed my voice”.  It is a conditional affirmation of Abraham’s promise, with some new elaboration. But it clearly follows the formula, do this and I will bless you.

Even after the great period of slavery for the Israelites, God again follows this formula. Moses, in one of the greatest passages of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 28, tells us:

28 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.7 The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.8 The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.9 The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.11 And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.12 The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Note verse one, “if you shall diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, and observe all his commandments”.  Conditional again. The formula is followed yet again. Do this and I will bless you.

How does that differ with the coming of Christ? Now the formula is no longer based on works. It is not a matter of what anyone does; it only is a matter of what Jesus has done. He did it all on the cross. No longer do we have to do this and work on that. We look to the author and finisher of our faith. As Hebrews would teach us, we have entered into a “better” rest.

Gamaliel- a Tragedy?

 Gamaliel- a Tragedy?

Acts 5:34 (KJV)

[34] Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;[35] And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.[36] For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.[37] After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.[38] And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:[39] But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.[40] And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

Gamaliel is perhaps most famous for being the teacher of a young man, Saul of Tarsus. Saul himself (now going by Paul) says that he sat at the feet of Gamaliel, which must have been a privileged position. In the above passage is a rare moment where Gamaliel might be best pictured as trying to be neutral in the furor about Jesus. He actually says that the meeting of these men might be of God, and if it is of God, the Jews would find themselves opposing God himself.

The irony is that persecution of the church was stopped only this once, and ever afterwards the Jews set themselves solidly against the church and this man whom they crucified, Jesus. In fact the next chapters of Acts unfold the story of Stephan, the first martyr of the church, killed by zealous Jews.

But what about Gamaliel? I think him a picture of tragedy—the man who almost came to realize the truth. We are not told how close he came and we do not ever have record of his coming to Jesus.

So, I think he is a bit of a tragic figure—the man who almost saw Christianity as a movement of God. But not quite.

In that I suppose there are many modern examples of people, who like Gamaliel, see some of the truth, but hang on the sidelines, never quite committing themselves. Like the rich young ruler, they end by walking away from the only one who could bring them life.

Are you one of those who look at the Truth, are interested, but just not willing to commit?

What about today? Plans committed to the Lord are likely to succeed. Try committing your life to him, and see if He is not worthy of all your commitment.

Times of Refreshing

Times of Refreshing

Acts 3:19 (KJV)
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

I look at the world’s problems today, and I shudder. I know that we all suffer from a “modern” outlook. Every generation has always been modern and always convinced that this is the worst time ever. Yet, the tides are turning, and the signs are there for all to see. Only in recent years have men developed the ability to use warfare to destroy all of mankind. Yes, we have always had terrorists. But not terrorists with the full power of the nuclear bomb, an ability half of our country seems eager for Iran to obtain. Nuclear power to develop bombs was very slow in spreading. It used to be easy to count on your fingers the number of states with nuclear power.

But not anymore. Now so many are on the “edge” of developing them. It is only a matter of time before the accident (contrived, terroristic, or otherwise) happens, and a nuclear war envelopes the entire world. It is remarkable to me how America, frightened out of its wits in the Sixties, could come to such a place where America upholds the rights of terrorist nations to develop a nuclear arsenal. We are, as they say, living in a world that is a house of cards, and the least bump is going to bring great tribulation.

In times like these we need times of refreshing once again. Not that we shall escape the problems of the world—they will never go away, and will probably only deepen in the near future. Times of refreshing. Why not? Let us ask of the Lord for one more time of refreshing, that many in our country will see the coming judgment and flee from the wrath to come.

I myself, with my wife, am praying daily for our renewal and revival. Why could God not chose to bless our country with one more awakening? Let us lift up our hands together.

The Return of Jesus

  The Return of Jesus

Acts 1:7 (KJV)
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

How I have longed for the return of Jesus. I first learned about Jesus in 1972, he changed my life, as it has millions of others. He really was raised from the dead, and lives in the person of the Holy Spirit in us today, even while sitting next to the Father on the throne.

But there are now many generations of Christians who have watched for his coming. He has not come. Does that mean we should just give up? No, for Peter reminds us that his time will come during a period like that of Noah. Men and women getting married, life seemingly going on just as it always has, when suddenly everything changes. As the lightening flashes from the east to the west, so suddenly shall the coming of the Son of Man be.

The proof of his resurrection? Look at the millions of lives changed by their belief. If the Bible is correct, and it always is, our Risen Lord shall soon return, just as the angels said in the verse below.

Will you join with me in watching? The signs of the end are even now fomenting, and while we cannot fix the time of his coming, we do know the season. Spring is about ready to be sprung.

Acts 1:11 (KJV)
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Israel Is Going to Have Their Come To Jesus Moment

  Israel Is Going to Have Their Come To Jesus Moment

Acts 3:26 (KJV)
Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

Here Peter announces to his fellow Jews that God the Father had raised from the dead his Son Jesus, that all might be turned away from their sins to the holy and true God. Many Jews at first received the faith with great joy, not be dissuaded by the priests, for the priests had not yet time to develop their opposition.

Contrast that to today. All of the nation of Israel has been successfully turned from the Lord, being armed with the false doctrine denying the Messiah has ever come. I would think it obvious to Jews today that they missed the coming of the Messiah, the one that the whole nation was anxiously looking forward to be revealed. Something is obviously wrong with their outlook. So it has been for 2,000 years now.

But it will not always be that way. Paul tells us in Romans 11 that:
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Paul tells us of a time when all of Israel will be saved. We need only know two things. The first is that God has promised that all of Israel would be saved. Has this happened? Not at all. That leads us logically to the second thing: Since God promised it, and it has not yet happened, it must be yet future. In the future, probably not far off, the nation of Israel will finally perceive their Messiah.

The book of Zechariah tells us of this great prophecy coming to pass, in chapter 12:
10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

The nation of Israel (all Israel says Paul in above passage) will understand the one that they pierced, and they will mourn. The King is coming, not only for all of the Christians who have died waiting for His return, and those of us anxiously waiting today, but also for his nation, his chosen people, whom he has never forgotten. God is always faithful to his promises!

The Wonder of It All

John 18:21-23 (KJV)

Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said. And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?

I have thought about these words that I read for part of my devotion this morning. Jesus simply tells the priests that everyone knows what he said. He is declaring his innocence, and mocking the accusers by reminding them that they have no witness because there was no crime. 

For his comment, one of the minions strikes him, probably hard enough to draw blood, certainly hard enough to begin bruising his face. He is reprimanded for insulting the “high priest”.  Now it was the high priest’s job to recognize and honor the Messiah of God. What did the high priest do? He condemns Jesus to death, fearing his competition.

Jesus answers honorably, “if I spoke evil, tell me where. But why do you strike me?” Jesus knew very well that the priest were engaging only in what we have come to call a “kangaroo court”, one in which the principal was already convicted.

It does take my breath away when I stop to consider that the Creator of the Universe was struck, beaten, and crucified. The wonder of that sacrifice will be overwhelming for us all. In his very fingertips lay the power to completely undo the whole universe, yet he chose to endure a painful time of torment and death that I might live. I will never stop wondering at the grandeur of it all!

The Vineyard

John 15:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

In the rules of interpretation, this is a classic mis-interpreted passage. Jesus is not referring primarily to a Christian picture of Christians being in the Vine and the Father being the Vinekeeper. Rather he is continuing a conversation with his Jewish disciples about the Father being the Husbandman of Israel. 

Consider the setting. Judas is even now betraying his Christ to the leaders of Israel. The leaders are fomenting the death of Christ. All of the disciples are about to forsake the Christ and run away. Why would Jesus suddenly depart from contextually speaking to his disciples and start speaking to his Christians before the cross? It would make no sense, other than the great comfort we get from reading these words. They certainly apply to us, at least some of them. We are being kept by the Father who tends us even as a Loving Father does his son, or as a farmer might tend his vines. But that is application, not interpretation.

To look at the interpretation, we must understand the context. Jesus was facing desertion on every side, but mainly with the national leaders. Israel was about to forever reject their Christ. What else would Jesus have in mind when he declares, “if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men cast them into the fire and they are burned.” What other thing could possibly  be on his mind? His chosen nation, his people are about to reject him and he is facing the cross all alone. 

Not only the betrayal of Judas and the priests is on his mind; he is also thinking of his disciples. Peter has just foolishly, along with all the disciples, that they would never forsake him. But Peter does it so insistently, that Christ predicts that Peter would deny him three times. Having just said that in John 13, and having sent Judas on his way to betrayal, what else would he possibly be thinking about?

Does he not talk in the Vineyard passage about pruning the branches? Is he not thinking about the disciples being pruned here? Of their denial, and eventual restoration to belief? Israel was constantly being compared to a vine, with different pictures, but all having the background of God being in charge and Israel being responsible.

Early in my Christian life, I was learning the doctrine of eternal security.  Here is a verse that gives eternal security fits: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth. . . into the fire.” I used to worry over these verses, contrasting them with the many verses on eternal security and worry about what God could possibly mean? But now I see that these verses are referring the nation of Israel, telling them that if they do not abide, they will be cast out. Is not the evidence before us? Israel has long denied their Christ, and has spent 2,000 years being cast out and burned. This tragedy is foretold in Jesus speaking in John 15.

 

A Tree Ought to be Enough

I never saw a poem as lovely as a tree

Says Joyce in a poem for me

But I cannot help but note

Others not in the same boat

Say they in some random rants

Trees are the product of chance

Products of accident and time

Springing from primordial slime

But I sit under the tree

And wonder at that I see

Its dancing leaves seem to sing

Praises to God it does bring.

Silly fools who do not believe

In darkest doubts they deceive

In all the wonders of creation

The tree is but a singular sensation

True, a wonderous one so strong

But, only one in the mighty throng

Created by our own Designer

The plan could not be finer

The tree alone ought to be enough

For you to believe the right stuff

But everywhere else do I look and see

The God who made the tree for me

So You Think You Can Fool Jesus? Part Two

 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
2 Peter 1:20

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2 Peter 2:1

There are ten characteristics that Peter lists about these false teachers.

1. They shall bring in damnable heresies.

verse 1: But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

2. They shall follow their own selfish ways, and speak evil of the truth.

verse 2:  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

Parenthetical statement of the complete fairness of God’s judgment:

These men are subject to God’s judgment, as Peter stops to explain how God will judge fairly the righteous and the ungodly.

1. God spared not the angels that sinned. Thus he will not spare false teachers (v. 4).
2. God spared not the whole world while rescuing Noah (v. 5).
3. God spared not Sodom and Gomorrah while rescuing righteous Lot (v. 6).

Summation principle v. 9: (see below) God knows how to discriminate between godly and ungodly.

Paranthetical verses V. 4-9

4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

Signaled by the word “but” at the beginning of verse 10, Peter begins again to characterize these false teachers.

10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities

These false teachers characteristics (continued).

4.  Angels are afraid to accuse others; but not so with these “brutes”.

11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. 12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

5. They shall receive the reward of unrighteousness.

13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;

6. They have eyes full of adultery and cannot cease from sin.

14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

7. They have forsaken the right way following Balaam. 

15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness

8. They are like dry wells of water.

17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

9. They make great boasts, alluring through lusts, capturing even the righteous.

18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

10. They falsely promise freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption. 

19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

 Parenthetical three verses explaining consequences to those in bondage:

1. First consequence: (v. 20), Those in bondage are entangled in the deceptions of the world worse than they were formerly.
2. Second consequence: v. 21, Those in bondage are subject to judgment that makes them doubly responsible, for they knew better.
3. Third consequence: v. 22, Those in bondage have returned to their former folly.

20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

To sum up, Peter has given us lists for three different types. First, and mainly, he gives us a list of ten characteristics of false teachers. That is the main subject of this chapter, and Peter, looking to the times after his imminent death, worries about the false teachers inundating the church. Second, Peter provides three examples of God distinguishing between evil and good behavior. He is able to ferret out such behavior, and will faithfully reward the righteous, and judge the wicked. Third, Peter tells of the judgments coming against those who choose to do wrong.

May I add one verse yesterday I read in Isaiah:

They have abandoned the Lord;
they have despised the Holy One of Israel;
they have turned their backs on Him.

Isaiah 1:4

What shall happen when the faithful become unfaithful? It won’t be pleasant. Turn today back to Him, that ye may find life.

So You Think You Can Fool Jesus? Part One

From the beginning of God’s intervention with man, the “cunning” man has dreamed of ways of fooling God. Isaiah, a prophet from the Old Testament, declared, “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men” (Isaiah 29:13).  I want to insist that when we come to God, we ought to come with much fear and trembling, for we are standing before the One who knows it all. But we don’t. People start wanting something else, or they question God on topics that they do not agree with him about. Soon they start to make “accommodations” and then the accommodations turn into a full-fledged deviant doctrine. Before we turn around, heresy or even a new cult is started. Sometimes it seems to this mournful heart like man will never learn. An idea that I find myself dwelling on all too often lately, as I see so many signs of it.

It starts in the individual often first. Hath God really said? That is the question that they start with. Question God. And question Him again. Then go to the Word, and just like Eve, begin misstating the word of God. Oh, you missed that? Eve did misstate the word of God, for she says to the devil, “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” (Genesis 3:3) God never said anything about not touching the fruit. Eve made that up. Commentors sometimes suggest that since Adam gave Eve the command, and she did not get it directly from God, that the message may somehow have become garbled.  But the Bible does not say that. What we are left with is only the command God gave. In the day that you eat it, you shall die. To this command Eve adds her own command. In the day that you touch it, you shall die. 

I think whether Eve did it intentionally or not is not declared; the Bible does explain that Eve was deceived, and Adam bears the graver consequence of sinning with the full knowledge of his disobedience. The point has to be made that for the first time, mankind has taken the word of God and twisted it into a more palatable form. Satan cleverly used her twist of the Scripture against her, showing her that she could indeed “touch” it and come to no harm. But that touch led her to look at the fruit and believe the lie and eat it.

Little has changed with man. We still figure that we can outsmart God. If we twist things a bit, turn them around here, and ignore them there, He won’t notice. But He always does notice. We have a God who is omniscient. There is not any fooling Him; there can be no duplicity when we come to him.  The hymn’s words remind us, “Just as I am”. There is no other way to really come to him except just as we are.

Second Peter, written shortly before Peter’s martyrdom, contains plenty of warnings to the church about this very thing. Peter saw and foresaw clearly the nature of man inclined him constantly to be trying to “rewrite’ what God plainly declares.  In part two, I will take a quick look at some of Peter’s admonishments.

The Seat of Dishonor

    Jesus told a story of a man invited to a wedding, just as every member of the church. He described the wisdom of such a man in choosing the humble seat, rather than a seat of honor. If the man chose a seat of high honor, he might be embarrassed by being asked to move “down” to a lessor seat. How much better it would be to choose a humble seat, and then have the host of the wedding move him up to a more noble seat.  

   

    So, at the wedding feast, I see a potential conflict coming up. I want to follow my Lord’s suggestion, and I want the least honorable seat. But I know thousands and by extrapolation, millions of Christians who have the exact same feeling that I have. We all want that seat of dishonor. Will that provoke the first argument in heaven? 

     Just joking. I trust God will have worked it all out. At that wedding feast, which we so look forward to, we will perhaps just know where we ought to be. If not, I am sure that God will work it out. What a blessed event to look forward to—when I shall at last sit down with the saints that have gone before me, and together we shall celebrate what the Lamb of God has done for us all. Lift your eyes to the heavens and watch. That day is coming!

Watch

Mark 13:32-37

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. 

Count the commands to watch. I find four times our Lord tells us to watch. And this passage is one of many; over and again we are told to watch. Curiously, we sometimes have a type of Christian who belittles the job Christ has given us. Watch. I find Christians sometimes tending to sneer at the command—and I suppose Christian history has had a lot to do with that. “Of that time, no man knows” says Jesus, but how many false prophets have stood in the annals of time and told us specifically of the date and time of His coming? They have all been spectacularly wrong; but that only means that they were wrong. It certainly does not put into question the coming of our Lord. He is faithful and has told us that his coming will be “as in the days of Noah” when the humans were busy elsewhere, and not at all looking for his coming.

Watch. A simple command. Let us be found faithful. Watch.

Kindergarten Babies

I spent most of my life in the not-so-hallowed halls of an elementary school. Most of that was within the confines of room 9, the fourth-grade class. The kindergarten teachers were great shepherds of their little flock, and seemed to be most intuitive about strays, and excellent at keeping them together. But every once in a while, I would find the forlorn kindergartner standing with both hands in front, holding his lunch pail, and obviously not knowing where to go.

In elementary schools, the school works hard at keeping the kindergarteners separate.  And the kids are just so young, that they know almost nothing about the school-world at large. They know their boundaries, their playground, and maybe that is about the total sum of their knowledge. But as long as they were in the boundaries, they were okay.

It only happened a few times in my 27 years with Pony. But I would see the child, bereft of his class, and lost. I would bend over, as kindly as an adult could (does any adult not intimidate the little ones by their very presence?), and ask the obvious question. 

“Did you need help getting back to your classroom?”

They would nod their head. 

“Who’s your teacher?” 

They would give a name, and I would lead them back to their classroom, where relief would spread all over their faces when they saw their familiar surroundings, their room, their home.

The picture of that poor child in the hallways is haunting me these days. I remember the lostness of the child so much and I have come to compare it to adult Christians before their God. I think we assume far too much when we get into the presence of God these days. We assume that we know what we are praying for, but after we reflect a bit we realize we do not have a clue. We assume we know what God wants us to do, but reflection again shows we do not have a clue.

We are lost and the only way out is to nod your head at the adult in the room (God) and follow him back to safety. We can rest in assurance that “our adult” is always there, and ever at our right hand. I wish we might tout a little less about our importance, and tout a little more about the only one that can get us out of the calamities we find ourselves in. In God’s eyes, we must all appear as those forlorn kindergarteners. Waiting patiently to be helped.

God’s Plan for Human Prosperity

Did you know that God does indeed have a plan for human prosperity? The proverbial old man dressed in a white robe, holding up a sign, “The End is Near” only has part of the picture.  The end of the world is near only in the sense that God is nearly finished with the wickedness of mankind, and elects to bring that free reign of wickedness to an end. In that sense, wickedness—the end—is near, but the Bible clearly proclaims this new time to be a beginning.

So how is it a beginning? It begins the restoration of man to a full and whole relationship with his creator. God has made a plan involving everyone that responds to him in faith, believing in the grace that was shown to reconcile man to God through Jesus’s offering on the cross. Christ himself will return to earth (this time as a roaring lion rather than a sacrificial lamb) and will reign over mankind.

He will reign over Jerusalem, bringing in the prosperity and peace so often promised to the Jews in the Old Testament. Scores of prophecies from the Old Testament all sound the trumpet: there is a coming peaceful time for the Jews, when even the Gentiles will come to the Jewish homeland in subservience to the leadership of Christ in the world. There is a peace plan—one that Christians fully subscribe to. The time that at last swords shall be beaten to plowshares, and the blessing of God himself will flow outward from Jerusalem to the frontiers of the world. 

Then we will have everlasting peace. We will have Christ himself reigning and bringing prosperity to what is now a “cursed” world, but in that day, will be a blessed world. God’s plan, and every Christian’s hope.