Friday, March 15, 2024

I Love You

 

March 15, 2024

 

Good morning beloved,

 

This is one of those mornings where the dam keepers upriver have opened the flood gates and I am overwhelmed with love and thanksgiving for my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is beyond words and description, and yet I so want to communicate my love and thanksgiving for you.

 

In a moment of time I am back in the Food Mart grocery store in Georgetown, Washington City (that is old timer speak for D.C.), and Howard Wall is asking me, a fifteen year old, if I am a Christian, words that would lead me to Jesus Christ; then I am stationed in Germany and meeting Miguel Diaz at a Chapel service; then I’m in Haight Ashbury with the Jesus People; and down through the decades I go, vivid pictures and conversations and experiences and cups of coffee and laugher and excitement and challenges and valleys and dangerous rapids and placid lakes.

 

George Will, who introduced me to Andrew Murray, Bonhoeffer, Tozer and others when I was but a teenager (if George could do it, why can’t we do it?). Bruce Harrison who was a friend’s friend…how I miss hearing him call me “Bobby.” My own dear brother twice over, in the flesh and in the Spirit, Jim – who in the midst of his terminal illness sought to bring others to Jesus. Rod, my friend and brother-in-law, who on his last day on this planet was on the phone telling his friends about Jesus. Harry Hanger, who through ALS, with his dear wife Elaine, continued to share the Gospel with others and to strengthen his brethren.

 

I can see myself entering Dan Smick’s hospital room as he was terminally ill. When he opened his eyes and saw me sitting by his bed he smiled and said to me, “O Bob, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been thinking of new ways to reach Boston for Jesus.”

 

O dear friends, Jesus says that the overcomer will have “the name of the City of My God, the new Jerusalem” written on him. What is the City of God but the People of God? This morning I see through that translucent veil that there are many names written on me, inscribed in my heart and soul…and that these names merge into one great name, the City of God, the New Jerusalem – these names are distinctive and yet they are One in the Trinity.

 

And I hear and see John writing, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).

 

Our love for one another and our unity in the Trinity (John 13:34 – 35; 17:20 – 26) are the only hope the world has to see Jesus Christ and His love for them. We are called to live for one another in Jesus Christ – to lay down our lives for one another, as brothers and sisters of our one glorious Father (Heb. 2:9 – 13).

 

I have had experiences of Psalm 133 in my life, and how sweet they are; they are visions of that City descending from the heavens – actually they are living in that City.

 

This, my friends, is worth living for – it is worth everything that we may know Jesus and love one another. (Phil. 3:8 – 14; 2 Tim. 2:10; John 15:12 – 13). It is worth everything that we may bring others to Jesus.

 

We are called, not to live for ourselves, but for Jesus Christ and others. (Mark 8:34 – 38).

 

Is the name of the City of God, the New Jerusalem, being written on us today?

 

I love you!

 

Bob

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Resting in God's Rest, Jesus

 

Andrew Murray has been in my life since I was a teenager. His was a remarkable life for Jesus, lived in the midst of political and social turmoil – loving all, caring for all, seeking the welfare of all.

The other day I read this chapter from The Holiest of All, An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews. Murray refreshes my soul in Jesus.

Bob

 

The Holiest of All – by Andrew Murray

Public Domain

 

Chapter XXXI.

 

REST FROM WORKS.

 

Hebrews IV.—9. There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God. 10. For he that Is entered Into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.

 

There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God: taken in connection with what precedes about the seventh day or Sabbath, the rest is here called a sabbatism or sabbath rest. lt is spoken of as remaining, with reference to the rest in Canaan. That was but a shadow and symbol: the real sabbath rest remained, waiting its time, till Christ the true Joshua should come, and open it to us by Himself entering it.

 

In ver. 10 we have here another proof that the rest does not refer to heaven. How needless it would be in that case to say of those who have died, For he that hath entered into his rest, hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

 

The remark would have no point. But what force it has in connection with the rest of faith in this life, pointing us to what is the great secret of this entrance into rest—the ceasing from works, as God did from His.

 

ln God we see, as it were, two distinct stages in His relation to His work. The first was that of creation—until He had finished all His work which He created and made. The second, His rest when creation was finished, and He rejoiced in what He had made, now to begin the higher work of watching the development of the life He had intrusted the creature with, and securing its sanctification and perfection. lt is a rest from work which is now finished, for higher work now to be carried on. Even so there are the two stages in the Christian life. The one in which, after conversion, a believer seeks to work what God would have him do. The second, in which, after many a painful failure, he ceases from his works, and enters the rest of God, there to find the power for work in allowing God to work in him.

 

lt is this resting from their own work which many Christians cannot understand. They think of it as a state of passive and selfish enjoyment, of still contemplation which leads to the neglect of the duties of life, and unfits for that watchfulness and warfare to which Scripture calls. What an entire misunderstanding of God's call to rest. As the Almighty, God is the only source of power. ln nature He works all. ln grace He waits to work all too, if man will but consent and allow. Truly to rest in God is to yield oneself up to the highest activity. We work, because He worketh in us to will and to do. As Paul says of himself, " l labour, striving according to His working who worketh in me with might" (lit. "agonising according to His energy who energises in me with might"). Entering the rest of God is the ceasing from self-effort, and the yielding up oneself in the full surrender of faith to God's working.

 

How many Christians are there who need nothing so much as rightly to apprehend this word. Their life is one of earnest effort and ceaseless struggling. They do long to do God's will, and to live to His glory. Continued failure and bitter disappointment is their too frequent experience. Very often as the result they give themselves up to a feeling of hopelessness: it never will be otherwise. Theirs is truly the wilderness life— they have not entered into God's rest. Would that God might open their eyes, and show them Jesus as our Joshua, who has entered into God's presence, who sits upon the throne as High Priest, bringing us in living union with Himself into that place of rest and of love, and, by His Spirit within us, making that life of heaven a reality and an experience.

 

He that is entered into rest, hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. And how does one rest and cease from his works? lt is by ceasing from self. lt is the old self life that always insists upon proving its goodness and its strength, and presses forward to do the works of God. lt is only in death that we rest from our works. Jesus entered His rest through death; each one whom He leads into it must pass through death. "Reckon yourself to be indeed dead unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Believe that the death of Christ, as an accomplished fact, with all that it means and has effected, is working in you in all its power. You are dead with Him and in Him. Consent to this, and cease from dead works. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Yea, saith the Spirit, for they do rest from their labours." That is as true of spiritual dying with Christ as of the death in the body. To sinful nature there is no rest from work but through death.

 

He that is entered into rest hath rested from his works.

 

The ceasing from our works and the entering the rest of God go together. Read the first chapter of Joshua, and hear God's words of strength and encouragement to everyone who would enter. Exchange the wilderness life with your own works for the rest-life in which God works. Fear not to believe that Jesus came to give it, and that it is for you.

 

1. Not l, but Christ. This is the rest of faith in which a man rests from his works. With the unconverted man it is, Not Christ, but I. With the feeble and slothful Christian, l and Christ: I first, and Christ to fill up what is wanting. With increasing earnestness it becomes, Christ and l: Christ first, but still l second. With the man who dies with Christ it is, Not l, but Christ: Christ alone and Christ all. He has ceased from his work: Christ llveth in him. This is the rest of faith.

 

2. God saith of His dwelling among His people, "This is My rest; here will l dwell." Fear not to say this too. lt is the rest of God in His delight and pleasure in the work of His Son, in His love to Jesus and all who belong to Him. lt is the rest of Jesus in His finished work, sitting on the throne, resting in the Father's love. lt is the rest of our faith and love in Jesus, in God, in His love.

Friday, February 23, 2024

The Joke's On Us

 

February 23, 2024

Good morning,

This morning, as I was reviewing some of my older writing, I came upon “The Joke’s On Us” from 2006, almost twenty years ago. With the proliferation of AI, it is more relevant today than it was then. When creators abdicate the dignity and calling of cocreation, they sell their souls to the Beast.

To think that magazines have been publishing AI – generated articles under fictitious names and see nothing inherently wrong with it – and to think that this is only the beginning. But then again, if we truly are the products of time plus matter plus chance then none of this matters…however, if we are not – then what questions ought we to be asking? O how our pragmatism and utilitarianism is swallowing us and destroying us – within and without the professing church.

A photo you took with your phone is not the photo you took with your phone if your AI photo software manipulates the people in your photo – such as creating smiles where there were no smiles. How much of our souls will we sell?

When we abdicate our calling as creators, and give ourselves and our children and grandchildren over to virtual reality in its many forms – some subtle, some not – are we not worshipping the Beast and inviting that hideous strength into our souls?

When the consumers become the consumed, is not the joke on us?

Much love,

Bob

           

 

The Joke’s On Us

From Creators to Consumers

By: Robert L. Withers

©2006 Robert L. Withers

 

            “Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness,” Genesis 1:26a.

 

            Dorothy L. Sayers, in commenting on this passage in The Mind of the Maker, writes, “…had the author of Genesis anything particular in his mind when he wrote [this passage]? It is observable that in the passage leading up to the statement about man, he has given no detailed information about God. Looking at man, he sees in him something essentially divine, but when we turn back to see what he says about the original upon which the “image” of God was modeled, we find only the single assertion, “God created.” The characteristic common to God and man is apparently that: the desire and the ability to make things.”

 

            In her discussion of the metaphor “Creator” Sayers continues, “This particular metaphor has been much less studied than the metaphor of “the Father”…partly because most of us have a very narrow experience of the act of creation. It is true that everybody is a “maker” in the simplest meaning of the term. We spend our lives putting matter together in new patterns and so “creating” forms which were not there before. This is so intimate and universal a function of nature that we scarcely ever think about it.”

 

            A major credit card company currently has an advertising campaign centered around the issue of identity theft. Actors and actresses portray consumers who are victims of stolen credit card information with the advertisement assuring us that if we are customers/consumers of the advertiser that we will be protected from fraudulent credit card charges – we will be protected from identity theft.

 

            Do we see the irony in this advertisement? Has it occurred to us that the people who are mouthing protections against identity theft are the ones who are rapaciously engaged in the practice?

 

            We moan and lament the displacement of manufacturing jobs in the United States. We blame cheap labor and multinational corporations. We struggle to understand how our domestic Big Three automakers have made buying an “American” car more problematic with each passing year.

 

The phrase, “They don’t make them like they used to,” is more seldom used than ever because fewer and fewer of us can remember a time when “they” made whatever “them” is at all.

 

We pay to watch people in Colonial Williamsburg make things. Human creation has become a novelty in the United Sates. Human creation is so rare that it is marketable. As we watch the cobbler or the cooper or the silversmith we wonder, “How does his mind work? Fascinating. I could never do that.”

 

The Apostle Paul writes, “Professing to be wise, they [mankind] became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man…”

 

What is this “glory” that we exchanged? While there are likely many facets to it, because the idea of “image” is rooted in Genesis 1:26 and because Genesis 1:26 is rooted in the Creator, the “glory” speaks to us of our identity in God as co-creators, or creators with a lower case “c.”

 

The downward spiral of humanity that Paul depicts in Romans Chapter One is a descent from a core identity rooted in the Creator-God to a black hole identity which sucks all things into itself and which perceives all things as consumable goods – material, sexual, emotional and spiritual (with a lower case “s”).

 

We may still remark from time-to-time that, “I’m just a number,” but that is not our identity. We don’t really think of ourselves as numbers, for the numbers are but a means to exercise our identities. Our PIN numbers, our Social Security numbers, our valued customer numbers at myriad retailers; they are all a means to an end, a means to pursue the great exchange of image from creators to consumers.

 

How many advertisements do you read, listen to, or watch during the course of a day, a week or a year? How about your children and grandchildren? What is the message of the advertiser? What is the language? How do we listen and respond? Consumer-speak is the lingua franca of our society. As a nation of little potentates the merchants of the world bow before our thrones plying us with their exotic delicacies, from French fries to luxury cars to cruises to a weed-free lawn.

 

Do we stop to consider the royal debt with which medieval kings and queens constantly struggled? But we needn’t worry, for the moneylenders are quick to assure us that they will protect us from identity theft. In fact one credit card firm’s television advertisement goes so far as to indicate that it will protect us against savage Vikings seeking to ravish us with high interest rates. I am sure we all sleep better knowing that Leif Erickson is not a threat.

 

And lest we take our consumerism lightly, let us not forget that the freedom of the world rests upon our narcissism. What other people in the history of the world have been implored by its leaders in response to an enemy attack to go out and spend money to keep the economy moving – we’ll show them!

 

The prophet Ezekiel was taken by the Spirit of God to the Temple in Jerusalem and recorded this witness, “So I went in [the Temple] and saw, and there – every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls.”  Ezekiel’s contemporaries exchanged the image and glory of God for idols. They imported the images and language of idols into the Temple – that which was holy was profaned. We would never do that…would we?

 

We would never introduce the language of consumerism into our churches. We would never measure our commitment to others based on the benefit we derive from the relationship. We would never critique a Sunday morning church experience (I hesitate to use the word “worship”) as we would a performance at the Landmark Theatre.

 

We would never make bestsellers of titles which exalt the consumer Christian and relegate the Creator to a butler-servant. We would never engage in promiscuous spiritually, a spiritually bereft of the Cross of Jesus Christ.

 

We would never substitute the call of Christ to deny ourselves and take up the Cross and follow Him for a Christianity centered on ourselves.

 

We would never lack the courage to look within ourselves, just as Ezekiel looked within the Temple, to see the images on the walls of our hearts and minds, our own personal pantheons – images which declare that we have exchanged the glory of the Creator for that of the consumer.

 

The joke is on us.