A Collective Insanity?

Early this morning, as I was writing a piece for Mind On Fire, I decided to simply post James 1:19, 20 on Kaleidoscope:

“…But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

This was all I really wanted to say this morning…but then life intruded – more specifically the insanity surrounding us intruded.

As the pandemic continues, as civil unrest continues, as the concerted effort to erase the image of God continues, it seems as if what little equilibrium we once had is being toppled like so many statues. Is this a result of fatigue? Uncertainty? Prolonged stress? Fear? All of the foregoing and more?

I have a dear pastor friend who has been accused by elements of his leadership of leading out of fear because he has adhered to our governor’s executive orders and the guidance of public health officials. 

An acquaintance of ours told us that his very large church was not going to succumb to fear and would continue church pretty much as usual.

The vitriol, bad as it was prior to the pandemic, seems to be worse. This morning someone forwarded me an article from a “Christian leader” of a “Christian” organization attacking our governor with sarcasm and disrespect – where is Christ in this? Whether I agree with government officials or not, I am to respect them – especially as a follower of Jesus Christ.

There is a place for fear in godly leadership; the fear of the Lord and the fear of leading out of a rebellious spirit and heart. As the centurion of the Gospels teaches us, Jesus was “also a man under authority”. As Christ is subject to the Father, so we are to be subject to Christ and His Word, and His Word is clear about being in subjection to civil authority – this subjection is not the exception, it is the rule.

My gracious, the white church had no problem being subject to civil authority when there was segregation, when there was Jim Crow – where was our outrage then? Hypocrites we have been, self-centered hypocrites we are today.

So much of what I see within the professing church is anarchy - and that is insanity because it is self-destructive. Anarchy and lawlessness comes from the enemy – dress it up as we might, it is still from the enemy.

I guess I’ll close with another quote from James (3:13 – 18):

“Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

The Father’s Day

“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God…” (1 John 3:1).

Do we realize the greatness of our Father’s love for us? Do we ponder this and meditate upon it as a way of life? Our Father is not a father who is distant from us, who is removed from our lives, for He greatly desires intimacy with us in His Son Jesus Christ.

“…indeed our fellowship [koinonia] is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3).

Do we realize our koinonia with our Father? The measure of our koinonia with Him is the measure of the Trinity.

“…that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us…” (John 17:21).

Since the measure of the Trinity is infinite and unfathomable, so our koinonia with our Father is incomprehensible to us – a boundless and bottomless ocean of love, peace, delight.

Can we quiet our hearts and minds and sense the Father’s Presence within us?

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23).

Do we realize whose sons and daughters we truly are?

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons [and daughters] by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God…” (Romans 8:15 – 16).

O the intimacy of the cry “Abba!” A cry without pretense, without agenda, without self-consciousness, without shame. A cry with love, adoration, trust, joy, delight, wonderment.

Do we realize that our Father has “qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light” (Colossians 1:12) and that we are “heirs of God [our Father] and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17)?

Let this, and every day, be The Father’s Day, for all things in creation and in history are moving toward that Great Father’s Day when Christ will hand “over the kingdom to God the Father” (1 Corinthians 15:24) and we hear the words, “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I  will be his God and he will be My son” (Revelation 21:7).

As we move toward that Great Father’s Day, let us follow the Lamb wherever He goes, having the Lamb’s Name and the Father’s Name written on our foreheads (Revelation 14:1). Let us live as His sons and daughters, manifesting His light and life and love to the world around us – to His glory and the glory of our elder brother, our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:9 – 13).

What greater gift can we give to our Father, than completing the work which He has given us to do? (John 17:4; 2 Timothy 4:7 – 8).

The Valley of Vision (5)

The prayer titled, God the Source of All Good, begins on page 6 with:

“O LORD GOD, WHO INHABITEST ETERNITY, the heavens declare thy glory, the earth thy riches, the universe is thy temple; thy presence fills immensity…”

On page 7 it ends with, “Impress me deeply with a sense of thine omnipresence, that thou art about my path, my ways, my lying down, my end.” (The Valley of Vision, Banner of Truth Trust).

Throughout the Bible we see the point and counterpoint of the omnipresence and immediate presence of God; He fills the universe and yet He is here with me. In Christ, not only is He here with me but He has come to live in me. As Psalm 139 points out, God knows all about me; my words, my thoughts, my steps – He has always known me.

There is no place I will go today, or tomorrow, where God is not already there. There is no journey I’ll take without Him. There is no decision I’ll wrestle with that He will not know the thoughts with which I’ll struggle.

God inhabits eternity, and in Christ we are called to live in eternity. An element of our growth as the sons and daughters of God is learning to view life from eternity past to eternity future and within that framework to view the present. (Yes, eternity is eternity without past or future in one sense, but in another the Scriptures speak to us of before the foundation of the world and also of that event that will see the heavens and the earth pass away. Who can really think and speak of these things without using the language of time and space?).

“Thou hast made me what I am, and given me what I have; in thee I live and move and have my being…” (Page 6).

He created me to be me, not to be somebody else, and the same is true of you. Yet, how often do we want to be someone else, at least in some measure? Certainly our world and our economy fosters and cultivates this desire within us – we want to look different, act different, have different innate skills and talents and abilities, have different possessions. Our economy operates off our dissatisfaction with ourselves and our experiences and our possessions.

While because of sin, there is a sense in which I am not the person God created me to be; when I come to live in Christ and when Christ lives in me I become a new person in Christ and a process of restoration begins, hence in our prayer we have; “Let me know the need of renovation as well as of forgiveness…”

If we think that initial redemption and forgiveness is the Gospel we are mistaken, the Gospel is so much more – included in the Gospel is our transformation into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29) with all that entails. Yet, sadly, so many of us escape Egypt only to camp on the other side of the Red Sea, never moving across the Wilderness and into the Promised Land. There is more to life than escaping Egypt, than leaving behind a life of sin and death and idols – we do not cleanse and sterilize a canning jar for the sole purpose of getting it clean, we do it to fill it and seal it (Ephesians 1:1 – 12). Frankly, we cannot leave behind a life of sin and death and idols unless Christ lives in us and we live in Christ – unless He is willing and working in us His exceptionally good pleasure (Philippians 2:12 – 13).

O the glory of living life in the God who fills all in all – including ourselves in Christ.

The Valley of Vision (4)

“O God, whose will conquers all, there is no comfort in anything apart from enjoying thee and being engaged in thy service.” The Valley of Vision, Banner of Truth Trust, page 4.

We can also say, “There is no fullness, no true satisfaction, no lasting sense of purpose and destiny apart from enjoying you and serving you.”

To serve God is to do all things to His glory by and through Jesus Christ. It is to repair an automobile in His name, to bake a loaf of bread, to repair a computer, to serve in an office of government, to care for the sick, to work in a bowling alley, to teach elementary school – for the disciple of Jesus Christ all vocation is to be vocation offered up to God (Colossians 3:17 – 25).

To enjoy God is to know God, and to know God is to enjoy God. To seek the Face of God, to behold Him in ever greater splendor, is to enjoy Him. In enjoying God we find ourselves experiencing a glorious homecoming in that we are returning to Him in whom we have our origin, to His House which we had foolishly left – our dear Brother Jesus came to rescue us and bring us Home to His Father and our Father, to His God and our God (Hebrews 2:9 – 18; John 16:25 – 33; 20:17).

“I can of myself do nothing to glorify thy blessed name” (page 5).

Here is a truth that the church ignores, and in so doing it ignores our Lord Jesus who said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19; see also John 5:30, 8:28, 12:49, 14:10).

Jesus says that “…apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5) – do we believe this? Do we live this?

“O God, it is amazing that men can talk so much about man’s creaturely power and goodness, when, if thou didst not hold us back every moment, we should be devils incarnate. This, by bitter experience, thou hast taught me concerning myself” (page 5).

Outside of Christ we are capable of all wickedness in thought, in feeling, in word, in deed. As Christians we are capable of clothing our own ideas of goodness and self-righteousness in religious garb – thinking to impress God and others. Far better to allow the realization of God’s restraining grace to drive us to the Cross and the realization that, “I can of myself do nothing to glorify thy blessed name.”

The Valley of Vision (3)

“O Holy Spirit, I thank thee that in fullness of grace thou hast exhibited Jesus as my salvation, implanted faith within me, subdued my stubborn heart, made me one with Him forever.” The Valley of Vision, page 3, Banner of Truth Trust. (italics mine).

Being made one with Jesus is a wonderful assurance; we can stop striving and rest when we know that the work of Christ is perfect and that He is our Sabbath. To be sure there is an enigma in that as we rest in the completion we have in Jesus Christ, we find ourselves being changed from glory to glory into His image – as has been said, “We are becoming who we are in Christ.”

We have a peach tree on our property, and I recently noticed that all of the branches were bearing fruit except one. I looked for disease on the branch, but there was none. I looked for insects eating away at it, but there were none. I looked around me to make sure I was by myself, and then I asked, “Branch, why don’t you have any fruit? Surely you can see that all of the other branches on your peach tree are bearing fruit, why is it that you have no fruit?”

The branch, strangely enough, answered me. “I do not have fruit because I am trying to become part of the tree. As soon as I become part of the tree then I can bear fruit. This is not my peach tree yet because I am not yet a part of it.”

“But,” I replied, “you already are a part of the tree, you already belong to the tree, the life of the tree is already within you. Simply accept what you are in the tree and allow the life of the tree to flow within you and you will have beauty and fruit and the sweetness of your fruit will feed others.”

Alas, the branch did not believe me, and it still bears no fruit – it is trying to become something it already is. The branch does not know that it has already been made a branch in the beautiful peach tree – in fact, the branch fights this message.

So many professing Christians still striving, still working, still attempting to measure up – not realizing that the Holy Spirit has made them one with Jesus Christ forever.

The Valley of Vision (2)

After Arthur Bennett’s own introductory prayer, the first prayer in his compilation is The Trinity, beginning:

“Three in One, One in Three, God of my salvation, heavenly Father, blessed Son, eternal Spirit…”

Then comes, “O Father, thou hast loved me…O Jesus, thou hast loved me…O Holy Spirit, thou hast loved me…”

Later we come to, “O Father, I thank three that in fullness of grace….O Jesus, I thank thee that in fullness of grace…O Holy Spirit, I thank thee that in fullness of grace…” (The Valley of Vision, Banner of Truth Trust).

If Christian prayer is communion with God, then Christian prayer is fellowship, koinonia, with the Trinity. The Valley of Vision begins with a prayer that portrays the mystery and ineffability of our life in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I have often been asked to whom in the Trinity should we direct our prayers; my response is along the lines of, “Enjoy God, allow Him to direct your heart, your mind, your soul – you can trust Him.”

Augustine writes (Sermon 52), “…the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are a Trinity inseparable; one God not three Gods. But yet so one God, as that the Son is not the Father, and the Father is not the Son, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son…This ineffable Divinity, abiding ever in itself, making all things new, creating, creating anew, sending, recalling, judging, delivering, this Trinity, I say, we know to be at once ineffable and inseparable.”

Augustine also says in Sermon 52, “You have then, the distinction of persons, and the inseparableness of operation.”

Somewhere else, Augustine says to the effect, “If you have comprehended the Trinity, then whatever you have comprehended is not God.”

The Scriptures speak to us of our communion with the Father, our Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. We see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working toward us, within us, and through us – drawing us onward and upward into the Holy of Holies, the Heaven of heavens. Our hearts are moved by the Holy Spirit in prayer. We speak the “Our Father”. We approach our Lord Jesus as our Great High Priest who has passed into the heavens – we come to the Throne of Grace. We assume our place before the Throne surrounded by elders and living beings and angelic choirs – we come to the great feasting Table of the Living God.

And we say, “Ah yes – we are home. Home in God, home in the Trinity.” We are reminded that we have new life in the New Man, that we are no longer in Adam but are now in Christ – we are new creations in the New Creation. We are putting on the wedding garments – and they fit quite well!!! As they should, for Christ Jesus is our heavenly tailor!!!!!

Yes, yes indeed: “Three in One, One in Three, God of my salvation.”

The Valley of Vision (1)

For the past few years I have used a book of prayers titled, The Valley of Vision, in my communion with God. This is a compilation of prayers authored by several people (all of whom went to be with our Lord many years ago), assembled and edited by Arthur Bennett and published by Banner of Truth Trust. As with many books, including prayer books, there are some passages that I cannot pray because to do so would be to violate my understanding of the Gospel in terms of where I am in Christ today. This does not mean there is anything “wrong” with those passages, for they are passages that we’ve all needed to pray at one time or another.

When I hear people disparage the use of “written prayers”, as if using written prayers is less spiritual or real than extemporaneous prayer, I wonder if they realize that the longest book of the Bible, right in the middle of our Bibles, is the Psalms. I have also found it helpful over the years to write my own prayers, I wish I did this more often because it never fails to help me “see” how the Holy Spirit is prompting and directing my soul in prayer and intercession.

Bennett begins the book with an introductory prayer that he composed titled, The Valley of Vision. The term, the valley of vision, comes from Isaiah 22:1 and 5; “The oracle concerning the valley of vision…For the Lord Yahweh of hosts has a day of panic, subjugation and confusion in the valley of vision…”

Bennett’s prayer is a prayer of paradox; “Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly…the valley of vision where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights…let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart…that to have nothing is to possess all…”

This reminds me of Jeremiah Denton’s “God writes straight with crooked lines”. As God says in Isaiah, “My ways are not your ways”

We are not keen to “learn by paradox”, to see by paradox, to think by paradox, to live by paradox. Solomon begins the book of Proverbs by desiring to know “wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction in wise behavior…to increase in learning…acquire wise counsel, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles.”

Paul’s letter of 2 Corinthians has a motif of suffering, of “having the sentence of death” and “despairing even of life”; and yet it also has “this treasure in jars of clay”, “my strength is made perfect in weakness”. It is in 2 Corinthians that Paul writes, “we don’t look at the things that are seen but the things that are unseen.”

We live in a society oriented toward data and information, not one centered on wisdom and understanding. We want a quick fix and not a developed and tested character or way of life. We want prayer to be an email with a quick response – otherwise we’ll move on to something else.

We think that it is on a mountain that we’ll see things clearly, and yet, more often than not, God calls us into “a valley of vision”.

Bennet concludes his introductory prayer with:

“Let me find thy light in my darkness, thy life in my death, thy joy in my sorrow, thy grace in my sin, thy riches in my poverty, thy glory in my valley.”

How is our Father speaking to you through paradox, enigma, and mystery? Through uncertainty? How are you communing with the Trinity in your own valley of vision?

Musings

Written on June 4 and 5:

My friend Hank has been volunteering with Samaritan’s Purse for the past few years, helping those in disaster areas try to put their lives back together. I asked him this past Tuesday how things are in Panama City, FL, and he told me that the people there have years of rebuilding ahead of them.

“Years of rebuilding…”

Yesterday, June 3, the best man I ever worked for, Earl Ferguson, died. Earl truly had a heart to provide affordable housing for those who needed it – Earl and I didn’t always agree, but I never questioned Earl’s heart. Vickie, who also worked for Earl, and I loved him.

Fifty-two years ago today, on June 4, 1968, my Mom, Alice Frances Grover Withers, went to be with Christ. My last glimpse of her was seeing her wheeled on her hospital bed from her room to ICU.

Yesterday I called my brother Jim, who is battling a rare form a cancer – he was in too much pain to talk.

Our prayer list is long, and it includes those at home and abroad; those we know and those we don’t know, from Richmond, VA to Syria and beyond.

Then, of course, there are the double vees, the Virus and the Violence.

What does one do when one is in a tsunami? Perspective can be difficult. Frames of reference can be fleeting.

Of course, since we are a society addicted to instant gratification the thought that anything could take “years of rebuilding” is repugnant to us. Hence our political and social and religious leaders tend to focus on the short term in order to placate us, and also not to demand too much from us – after all, both votes and Sunday offerings are important.

I am reminded that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride” (Psalm 46:1 – 3).

This life is fleeting. We have a friend who is 102 years old, even his life is fleeting.

When the Cross is wrapped in a national flag the Gospel cannot breathe.

If professing – Christians are not clear that their citizenship is in heaven, but they rather align themselves with political power, when times of national crises arise they have little or no credibility to speak God’s Word to a nation for they are not identified with the Gospel, Jesus Christ, and God’s Kingdom, but rather with political agendas.

How can professing – Christians read the Bible and ignore that “inasmuch as you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it unto Me”? Show me how a church, or a nation, treats its poor and powerless and disenfranchised and I’ll show you how the nation or church measures up to the Word of God. This is true of home and abroad – of domestic and international thinking and behavior.

Can we identify with the psalmist, “Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war” (Psalm 120:6 – 7)?

The Prophets never apologized for God’s Word. They trembled, they wept, they feared, but they never apologized. Why do we apologize for God? He is holy, outside of Him we are depraved. This is good news, our affliction has been diagnosed – Jesus Christ, our cure, has been offered. Jesus Christ is not a vaccine against sin, He offers us a blood transfusion – His life eternal in place of our death.

Panama City, FL. How can a nation as wealthy as we are allow our fellow citizens to remain in a desperate situation? We can ask the same question about our inner cities, and about our Native Americans, and about our poor rural regions. How can much of the professing – church mirror society in this regard?

This is a good day for me to pray and ask God to search my heart.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23 – 24).

Let nothing in me hurt others or myself, and let me know that Jesus Christ is the Everlasting Way. Let us speak peace – peace in the words that flow from our hearts, and peace in our actions. Let us be islands of peace in a tsunami of fear, hatred, and vitriol. Let us remember that, if we profess Jesus Christ, that He is the Prince of Peace – and that when people touch us that they should be touching Peace.