Hear His Word, and Tremble

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good, He's the King, I tell you."

This familiar scene from Lewis' Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe reminds of our often silly or ignorant assumptions about God. The Word of God is dangerous and the life of the Christian is not safe. Nor indeed should be expect otherwise. Psalm 29:9 says, "The voice of the Lord twists the oals and strips the forest bare." God's Word moves the hurricanes and casts down lightning bolts, hardens the hearts of kings and pierces the hearts of sinners. At his Word, we should tremble.

Jeremiah says, "You words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.."(Jeremiah 15:16) And yet Jeremiah became the picture of what happened to Judah and to those who do not heed his Word- destruction and despair. The Word of God is an awesome, consuming fire that sinful men should fear.

And yet, there is much hope for the Christian, because God promises that he will look upon the man "who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word." (Isaiah 66:2) God promises that he will not destroy those who hope in Him and whose faith proclaims his excellencies. But his word is still true and active and piercing. And as sinners, we still experience the refining and pain of God's probing into our hearts, or at least, we should. Let us not fear his Word and therefore keep our safe distance, but let us delve deeper and let it renew and sanctify us, though it hurts and grieves us. For the Christian, there is great joy in being made more like Christ and all the burning and cutting serves us in removing that filth that poisons us.

Many a pharoah and Belshazzar heard God's Word and balked in prideful disbelief. Let us not be counted among those whom Mrs. Beaver calls silly, but let us approach his Word with a contrite heart "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19)

I love this poem so much, because although we are expected to suffer as Christians, we have hope and there is a purpose to it, whether God is rooting out our sin or whether we are being tried in our faith:

I stood a mendicant of God before his royal throne
And begged Him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out his hand, but as I would depart
I cried, "But, Lord, this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange and hurtful gift, which though hast given me."
He said, "My child, I give good gifts and gave my best to thee."
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed, I learned to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.

~Martha Snell Nicholson

Deo Gratias.

Why don't YOU sin?

I am in a Bible Study at Dr. Burke's and we are reading William Gurnall's The Christian in Complete Armour. You've got to love those Puritans. It's good stuff on Ephesians 6 and combatting sin. Anyway, in one of the chapters, Gurnall makes the statement: "Others wrestle with sin, but they do not hate it, and therefore they are favourable to it, and seek not the life of sin as their deadly enemy."

Think about some of the sins with which you continually struggle. Do you truly hate them? Do you sin for what it is- a lie about the sufficiency and love of God and as offensive to him? I find that often I refrain from sin simply because I know in my head that it isn't right or because I want to hold up my reputation with other people. Other times, we don't sin because it isn't convenient or we just don't find it in our particular taste or interest. But sin is more than breaking a rule, it is an attitude about God. Gurnall strikes a very human chord, because if we still find pleasure in sin, then we are still subject to it and we are not letting Christ win the victory over that sin in our lives. We must view sin with hatred and replace the pleasure of sin with the vastly infinite pleasure of knowing and loving and being loved by God, our Creator and Savior. If we don't see what the life of sin is, namely as our own moral independence decrying the overflowing nature of Christ the image of God, then we struggle in vain. Once we view sin as our "deadly enemy," then we can begin its mortification in our lives. Our fight with sin can neither be passive nor complacent.

So why don't you sin?

Some regimes never change...

"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple." -Isaiah 6:1

Isaiah 6 marks the call of Isaiah as a prophet. It also marks an unsteady period in Judah's history. King Uzziah had just died and the people were frantic, because they were left without a strong leader and faced threats from Assyria, and even Israel and Syria. But though the king died, what did Isaiah see sitting on a throne? None other than Yahweh, the Lord. The message is quite remarkable, and I may add relevant, for us today as it was back then: the Lord still reigns. He is the king who is seated on the throne and builds up and puts down rulers. There is comfort in that, especially on this day in American history.

The Psalmist reminds us, "Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. " (Psalm 146:3) Augustine faced a similar experience when the Roman empire fell. Some Christians at that time despaired the fall of the empire, holding to a "Rome" theology that elevated the empire to undue admiration. Augustine wrote in response to this thinking the City of God, in which he sets for a different way of looking at history. Sure, God raised up the Roman Empire and sure, Christianity flourished by the blessings of Roman roads, etc. BUT Rome was not God's chosen people, nor the means by which God would bless the nations. Christianity, by God's faithfulness and promises, has surived and will survive many regime changes, and the rise and fall of many nations.

God intends to bless the nations, not through a country, but through his chosen and holy people, the church. It is important on this election day not to put undue weight or worry upon the fate of America and to take comfort in God's promise that HE is seated on the throne. The church will survive, even if America does not. America is not God's chosen people, and though she may be a blessing indeed to the church, she must not be loved too much. We should pray for our nation and take our responsibility as citizens seriously, but our hearts should be committed to loving the church and participating in advancing God's kingdom through the church to the nations.

Our God reigns.

Valleys Fill First

"The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah." 1 Kings 16:17

So truthfully, I am getting quite worn out with this semester. I probably took on more than I should have and stress more than I should. But today I was reminded of the story of Elijah and the widow. The widow had faith, not because her jar was already full, but because she trusted in the future promise of its filling. God uses weak and empty vessels so that He can provide and show forth His strength and make His name great. That is something we as Christians should want but all too often we begin to rely on our strength or the blessings that God has provided. So it is not up to us to be strong so that God can use us, but we can be, and most certainly are, weak and broken people who have faith in the promise of God's sufficiency as evidenced by His past faithfulness to Himself and to us. And what a comfort that should be to us.

This is the valley that I’m walking through
And if feels like forever since I've been close to you
My friends up above me don't understand why I struggle like I do
My shadow's my only, my only companion and at night he leaves too

Down in the valley, dying of thirst
Down in the valley, it seems that I'm at my worst
My consolation is that you baptize this earth
when I’m down in the valley, valleys fill first

Down in this wasteland I miss the mountaintop view
but it's here in this valley that I'm surrounded by you
Though I'm not here by my will- it's where your view is the most clear
so I'll stay in this valley if it takes 40 years

And it's like that long Saturday your death and the rising day
When no one wrote a word, wond'ring is this the end
But you were down there in the well, saving those that fell
Bringing them to the mountain again

~Caedmon's Call (the best band ever!)

"Here am I, send me"

So just as a follow to yesterday...here is a good and short article on how to pursue God's calling in your life and lay yourself open for the call to missions. Take five minutes...

"Seeing now, but then...darkness"

The words of Teiresias speak concerning Oedipus' future doom. Or prophesying my certain doom on a Greek test I took today where I felt Oedipus' pain, as one who blindly "wanders beating the ground with his staff." Sigh.

It's that word, darkness (skotos in the Greek), that really struck me when I read it, as did the images of sight/blindness and light/darkness upon which Sophocles plays between Oedipus the seeing blind man and Teiresias the blind seer. A word quick search on "skotos" turned up 30 uses of the word in the New Testament, and such images of light and darkness should sound very familiar to the Christian. (Hehe...considering my own blog theme...) I'll just list a few here for quick reference:

Speaking of the doom of unbelievers

"I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 8:11-12

Where we were before fellowship with Christ

"Therefore do not associate with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord." Ephesians 5:7-10

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:9

"He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:13-14

What We, as Christians, should avoid

"The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light." Romans 12:12

That out of which we should call others

"But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles- to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'" Acts 26:16-18

What Gods exposes and will expose

"Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God." 1 Corinthians 4:5

I think it very beneficial to consider this imagery and tease out what the NT writers might mean by such talk. Perhaps in a succeeding post I will expound more upon these thoughts.

What is the greatest crime in the desert?

...Finding water and keeping silent.

Kristen is at Wycliffe orientation these next two weeks at their center in Orlando. The more I hear and read about the vision and ministry of Wycliffe, the more I am impressed by their passion for the glory of God and the salvation of men. After 2000 years, there are over 3000 languages that still do not have any of the Bible in their own language! These people have never heard the gospel message and do not know Christ, their only hope for salvation. Many of these language groups do not even know what writing is. I heard another statistic today that said 80% of support for missionaries today comes from my grandparent's generation.

So in pondering these two statistics, I wonder what it is that my generation is seeking. I know that God will continue the work that he has started among the nations and that one day men from every nation, tribe, and tongue will stand before his throne. But will my generation be among the harvesters? I wonder that my generation hasn't grown up despising suffering and therefore forfeits any endeavor that might inflict such misery upon us. And yet Christ called us to suffer, but even more to take part in the great joy of suffering and living and dying for his namesake. We sit in our churches and seminaries and Bible schools with every imaginable tool and book with which to study our Bible- all at our fingertips. We have Bibles in whatever flavor you could want. There are millions of people who have no such access to the Bible and thirst for its hope and salvation, and yet how dispassionate are we to their need or maybe ignorant or blinded by our own ambitions. Some, like Kristen, have heeded the call of Christ and begun their journey to spread God's name among the nations...will you? Will I? God commanded us to missions. It isn't a choice. Here lies the choice: whether we live and die stateside supporting missionary work or live and die as the missionary. Both call for sacrifice and suffering and a war-like mentality...and a joy found in the promises of Christ, indeed Christ himself.

I end with a quotation by missionary Jim Elliot from The Shadow of the Almighty:

"You wonder why people choose fields away from the States when young people at home are drifting because no one wants to take time to listen to their problems. I'll tell you why I left. because those stateside young people have every opportunity to study, hear, and understand the Word of God in their own language, and these Indians have no opportunity whatsoever. I have had to make a cross of two logs and lie down on it to show the Indians what it means to crucify a man. When there is that much ignorance over here and so much knowledge over there, I have no question in my mind why God sent me here. Those whimpering stateside young people will wake up on the day of judgment condemned to worse fates than those demon-fearing Indians, because, having a Bible, they were bored with it- while these never heard of such a thing as writing."