Words to Ponder

Only be still and wait His pleasure
In cheerful hope, with heart content:
He fills your needs to fullest measure
With what discerning love has sent;
Doubt not our inmost wants are known
To Him who chose us for His own.

George Neumark (17th century)

Musings in Samuel (2)

Blessing

“Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.” (1 Samuel 1:17).

“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:

“The Lord bless you, and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.’

“So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”” (Numbers 6:22 – 27 NASB)

When Eli came to his senses, he encouraged and blessed Hannah and Hannah’s face “was no longer sad”. Those who serve Christ and His People are called to encourage and bless His People. His People are called, in turn, to bless one another. In Christ we are called to bless God, to receive blessing from God, and to bless others. Peter writes that we are to give blessings, for we were “called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:9).

Jesus teaches us that we are to be as our Father in heaven, who “…causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteousness” (Matthew 5:45).

One of the great joys of Christian ministry is the opportunity to bless others. Indeed, the life of the Christian, wherever we find ourselves in life, ought to be one of blessing those around us. We bless with our words and our deeds – our blessing flows from Christ in us and through us.

Certainly we bless the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16), the Church of Jesus Christ, as the Levites of old blessed ancient Israel, in a special fashion: “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).

I have a friend who often spends Saturdays handing out bread in distressed neighborhoods. Shouldn’t this be our way of life in Christ? Handling out both physical and spiritual bread? Offering blessing to others in all of the very forms that God blesses us?

Let us not be discouraged if our blessing is rejected, are not our Father’s blessings rejected everyday by rebellious mankind? But I promise you, there are also those among humanity, and within the Israel of God, who are as parched ground; it will take but little water to see life burst forth.

Is it possible to go anywhere and not find people who need encouragement and hope? Our Good Shepherd did not wait for us, His lost sheep, to find Him; He searched for us and found us. Are we searching for others? Are we searching for others to bless?

Even Eli, in his increasing degenerate condition, was able to spur into action and bless Hannah…what about us? Are we living lives of blessing others?

I Did Not Freely Choose You

For 2020 I am reading the Moravian Daily Texts. Wednesday's reading included two verses of a song originally by Josiah Conder, and then altered by Charles P. Price, that merit pondering:

"Lord, I did not freely choose you
till by grace you set me free;
for my heart would still refuse you
had your love not chosen me.

"Now my heart sets none above you,
for your grace alone I thirst,
knowing well that if I love you,
you, O Lord, have loved me first."

Musings in Samuel (1)

Samuel 1:1 - 18: The motif of the fruitful and barren, Peninnah and Hannah, reminds me of Isaiah 54:

“Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; for the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman, says the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent; stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations and will resettle the desolate cities…”

It strikes me that the message of Isaiah 54 comes immediately after the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 and the question, “Who will declare his generation?” The Suffering Servant appears desolate, it appears that He will have no generation, no seed, no offspring – little do most readers know of John 12:24.

Those who were of the many mocked Christ on the Cross – they would finish Him and He would have no offspring.

No doubt the faithful Bride of Christ has often been mocked, as Peninnah mocked Hannah; for faithfulness to Christ is found not in the many, but in the Remnant. Well, it may appear that the faithful Remnant is unfruitful…we shall see.

1 Samuel 1:6, “…Yahweh had closed her [Hannah’s] womb.” This was all in God’s timing and plan; a son, Samuel, would be born at the appointed time, through the appointed process. Our “times” truly are in His hands.

Hannah prayed to Yahweh and “wept bitterly”, her “soul was distressed”. I don’t pretend to understand this, but when we wait on our Lord, and when we enter the valley of distress and tears, the Holy Spirit does a work of cleansing and transformation within us, drawing us more intimately into fellowship with the Trinity and with one another.

Eli thought that Hannah was drunk. Here is a picture of a discerning priest and pastor – see how in tune Eli was with the people! Hannah was in agony of soul and spirit, crying out to God, and Eli thought she was drunk.

How many times do pastors and priests think their people are drunk when the flock desperately wants a connection with the Ture and Living God? Religious leaders can become so institutionalized and “professional” that they lose touch (if they ever had it) with the cries of God’s People for the Presence of God; they lose touch with the cries of a fallen and lost humanity for hope, help, and salvation.

At least Eli is willing to admit his gross error, at least he is not yet incapable of reaching within himself, by God’s grace, to give Hannah encouragement, prayer, and benediction.

O that we might have Hannahs in our midst, crying out for the birth of the Son in His People!

But that would be disruptive and we can’t have that…we can’t have God’s People acting drunk as on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Go away Hannah! Go away Holy Spirit!

I write as a fool.

But…maybe it is a good thing…a good thing…to be a fool…for Christ

Rewriting and Editing

Sometimes you write to get where you are going, and once you get there you see you could have taken a better way – making that adjustment is called rewriting and editing.

I have found this true in other areas of life, in order to get where we are going we need to get moving, put the ball in play. We are going to make mistakes, we are going to have “false starts” on a play we call [American football concept],  and not quite see things as we should – but we grow in the process, learn in the process, gain perspective in the process – if we are willing to admit mistakes, learn from others, learn humility, and be firm in our commitment to reaching the goal.

Much of life is rewriting and editing.

Ponderings Today

I know people are well-meaning when they ask, “Now that you are not pastoring or working in business, what are you going to do?”

Perhaps I should seek to know Christ better and myself less; perhaps it is better that I learn to rest in Him and not feed my anxiety by “action”. Perhaps it is time for me to learn with the Psalmist what it means for my soul to be a child who is weaned from all but Christ (Psalm 131).

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Saladin is said to have given one of his sons this advice, “I have only achieved what I have by coaxing people. Hold no grudge against anyone for Death spares nobody. Take care in your relations with people.” To be sure Saladin shed blood, but compared with his “Christian” and Muslim contemporaries, it is probably safe to say that, in the words of historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, “…he deserves his attractive reputation”.

Montefiore writes, “While his rise had been bloody, he disliked violence, advising his favorite son Zahir: “I warn you against shedding blood, indulging in it and making a habit of it, for blood never sleeps.””

Looking at the Middle East, indeed, looking at the world, Saladin’s 12^th century words have stood the test of time – a sad test, a painful test, an insane test, but nevertheless a test.

We have little opportunity to learn from a test on which we score 100%. We have much to learn from a test on which we do poorly, or even fail. Our problem with those tests is that it requires humility to learn, and often repentance – we would much rather not change, take the test again, fail again, and blame it on circumstance and other people.

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I still don’t understand how people can attend Sunday school all their lives and still not know and live in the Bible. I had an email interchange with an editor at a major publisher of Sunday school material that my church was using. I asked what the goal of the curriculum was, I was told “That is an interesting question that I’ll pass on to my team.”

I asked how people could learn if they were given the answers, that was also an “interesting question.”

Giving a person a fish makes them dependent on you – perhaps lest they should at some point no longer need Sunday school curriculum. I think there is always a need for creative and Christ-centered curriculum, let us honor the gift of teaching; but let us also recognize that gifted teaching is focused on Christ and on developing people in Christ, not on nurturing a dependence that results in people attending Sunday school all their lives without knowing Christ in the Scriptures and the Scriptures in Christ.

The Emperor is naked – stark naked, not a stitch of clothes, but we ain’t saying noth’in.

The Sacramental Reading of the Word

“Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” 2 Peter 1:1 – 4.

The Word of God, from Genesis through Revelation, is one continuous promise to us of Christ, through Christ, unto Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul reaches back to Genesis 1:3 when he writes, “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

Peter writes that through God’s promises we become partakers of the divine nature, that is, we have koinonia with the Trinity. The Apostle John writes that “our fellowship [koinonia] is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).

Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians Chapter 2 that without the Holy Spirit we simply cannot receive the things of God.

We are called to partake of [to have koinonia with] the divine nature, as Christ comes to us through God’s “precious and magnificent promises”; through the Word, the Bible, the Scriptures. In all of God’s promises is the Promise, and in the Promise we have all promises. In Christ we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).

Surely the Word of God comes to us sacramentally. Surely we are called to preach and teach the Word sacramentally.

We are called, in and through the Word, to have koinonia with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ – to partake of, to share in, the Divine Nature.

O Christian, allow the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to come to you in and through the Bible; let God draw you into His Divine koinonia.

Just A Thought

Embrace the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ (Mark 8:34 – 38; Galatians 2:20) and run from the cheap Christianity that requires nothing and promises a good time for everyone.

Transformation by Christ, for Christ

Christ, by His Presence and glory, molds and transforms us for eternity in His Presence and glory.

2 Corinthians 3:17 - 18; 1 John 3:1 - 3; Romans 8:29 - 30; John 17:22 - 26

May this be a year for you of exceptional transformation into the image of Jesus Christ.

Much love,

Bob