If we do not see
the transcendent first, we will not see the temporal in its proper framework.
The earthly must be seen in the light of the heavenly, the temporal in light of
the eternal.
The tyranny of
the immediate, which is poisoning our souls, is clouding our vision – we desperately
need cataract surgery.
“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.” James 3:13 – 18.
Paul writes to
Titus that we are “to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all
men” (Titus 3:2). He tells the Philippians that their “gentle spirit should be
known to all men” (Phil. 4:5). Paul teaches us in Galatians 5:23 that
gentleness is contained in the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
When I look back
over my life, there are times that it is as if I was looking at another person,
rather than myself. As a member of my small group said to another man who was
reflecting on his life, “Well, you aren’t the person now that you were then,
and you won’t be the person tomorrow that you are today.” While, by the grace
of Christ that is true of me, I nevertheless deeply regret the pain I have
caused others. I don’t write this out of a need for catharsis, I try to avoid
catharsis in my writing because I fear self-indulgence; I write it so that you
might have some sense of my heart.
One of the ways
I hurt people in the past was through harshness and vitriol and sarcasm.
Another way I hurt others was through a lack of respect for authority – both
duly constituted authority and moral and ethical authority. Therefore, I write
as a man who knows the deep poison that harshness, vitriol and sarcasm inject
into the soul, and how it contaminates those who come into contact with it. I
also write as a man who knows the damage that disrespect for authority causes
in the souls of men and women and young people.
For this reason,
the Holy Spirit has used the above passage in James to convict me of sin many a
time. Christ has used this passage to transform me a little more into His image.
The Father has spoken to me of this passage as He reminds me that I am his son,
and not a child of the world – system.
This is also the
reason that it pains me deeply when I see my brothers and sisters in Christ surrender
themselves to the vitriolic and disrespectful world of American politics –
because I know what the poison does to our souls, I know how it distracts us
from Christ, and I know how it makes us other than who we are called to be in
Jesus Christ. It is as if people I know who are normally loving and caring and
thoughtful, take on different personalities, different personas, when engaged
in political thinking.
People I know
who would normally be quick to respond to a person in need, no matter their
skin color, no matter their political affiliation, no matter their religious
background (or lack thereof) – when engaging in the political world become
different people and rather than seeing “others” outside their sphere of life
as simply men and women and children, objectify them and make them the objects
of derision and harshness.
It is like the
way some people drive – when people drive thoughtlessly does that mean they are
like that at work, at home, with friends? Sometimes the answer is probably “yes,”
but certainly at other times the answer is “no.”
Where does this
anger and harshness come from? According to James it does not come “from
above,” as much as we might want to justify it. And yet we call ourselves
Christians.
When someone is
in political office that certain Christians don’t agree with, the disrespect
they show is sinful and Satanic – these professing Christian don’t understand
the clear teaching of the Bible that we are to respect those in authority, nor
do they understand that Satan is the father of rebellion. I know what it is to
have that poison in my soul, I know what I’m writing about.
And what do we
teach our children and grandchildren when we engage in this behavior and
thinking? We are not teaching the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.
As James points
out in James 3:9 – 10 regarding our tongue, “With it we bless our Lord and
Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;
from the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not to be this way.”
And yet we
justify our anger, our vitriol, our fear mongering…when our Lord Jesus says, “Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be call sons of God.” Is not the Cross the
very emblem of peace – making? Can we not see the contradiction between our
lives and our professed faith? Can’t we see the damage to our witness?
Every time in my
life that I have deliberately sinned in an egregious fashion (if I may speak
this way), it has been because I thought I was the exception to the Biblical
rule, it has been because I justified myself and rationalized away my sin and
iniquity.
As the
Scriptures make clear, we conquer evil by our suffering witness for Jesus Christ.
We overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony of Jesus
Christ, and by not loving our lives, even unto death. This is how we worship God,
encourage one another, and witness to the world. This can be a hard thing. It
is a hard thing for me, perhaps it is a hard thing for you; yet is it necessary
that I die to myself in Christ so that I might live in Christ – and more
importantly, that Christ might live in me and through me to a world that is mired
in sin and death.
If we are indeed
a kingly priesthood (1 Peter 2:4 – 10) and the dwelling place of God (Ephesians
2:19 – 22), then we ought to be seeking the good of all humanity, praying for
them, loving them, serving, them, denying ourselves for them, and speaking
peace to them through Jesus Christ. We are to be the children of the Great King
and not of this world nor of any of the powers of this present age.
Are our lives
transcending the chaos of the world…including the political chaos? Are we
showing our generation a better Way?
Is the world
witnessing the “gentle wisdom from above” in our lives?
“Examine me O LORD, and try me; test my inner being and my heart.” Psalm 26:2.
“For the word of God is living and
active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division
of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts
and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.
One of the
reasons I read and ponder the Scriptures every day is that I’m afraid not to.
While that may seem pretty negative to some readers, I write it with joy in my
heart – for I have learned how desperately I need Jesus Christ and His Word.
While I dearly love koinonia with Christ in His Word, a dimension of that
koinonia (intimate relationship), while I’m in this body, is the searching and
refining work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of Christ.
More than once I’ve
prayed from Psalm 119:176, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your
servant…”
Consider the description
of the Word of God in Hebrews 4:12, “living, active, piercing, judging.” Peter
writes that we have been born again “through the living and enduring word of
God,” (1 Peter 1:23). Is this what the Word of God looks like in our lives? Can
we sense the piercing and judging and wounding and healing work of the Word within
our hearts and the depths of our being?
Proverbs 28:26
tells us that, “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool…” This is one reason
why we are to, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your
own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). This is to be our way of life. This does
not mean that we when we don’t have the answers that we look to the LORD,
it means that we look to God all the time, not trusting in our own
understanding, because “he who trusts in his own heart is a fool.”
I know what it
is to be a fool, I’ve had lots of experience.
The chastisement
and correction of God is painful, but the healing that comes with it has a peace
and deep joy that is enduring. We simply cannot know ourselves, we cannot know
our hearts and motives, our souls and minds are clouded by our historic
separation from God, and even though we are being renewed in the image of Jesus
Christ we still see through a glass darkly.
Francis Schaffer
used to say that he read the Scriptures every day to renew and refresh his mind.
That makes a lot of sense, our minds and hearts need constant cleansing and
renewal, and we will not find that outside of God’s Word.
The longer I
live with Jesus, I find the deeper the examination of the Holy Spirit goes and
the more painful it can be. But I know this is an examination of love and grace
and that it occurs in a relationship of blessed assurance – I belong to
Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ belongs to me. He suffered wounds because He
loved me, and He wounds me because He loves me…and of course He heals me…the wounds
that Christ inflicts are wounds that heal.
What does one do
when one sees falsehood that leads others astray? Falsehood that creates false
impressions? How long does a person watch and not say anything?
Often people are
led astray because they just don’t know the truth. They trust the person speaking
to them, they trust what the person says, and based on that trust they follow.
When the leader, pastor, or teacher comes from an institution, or a family,
that has a reputation for trustworthiness it is all the more understandable
that people uncritically accept what they are told.
I have written
previously of the grave danger of Christian leaders and churches identifying
themselves with political parties and agendas. Proximity to power, including
political and economic power, is seductive, and nations and political powers
are all too willing to use religion, including Christianity, to achieve their goals.
We see this dynamic in the ancient Kingdom of Judah, where false priests and false
prophets aligned themselves with ungodly kings and their administrations. They
arrogantly thought that since the people of Israel were initially chosen by God
that they could sin and deceive and commit idolatry with impunity. Many of us
seem to believe the same thing and act the same way.
Billy Graham, as
wonderfully as God used him, learned this lesson in a hard and embarrassing way.
Billy Graham was given the grace of God to acknowledge his mistakes, and to ask
forgiveness for wrongs he had done. While Mr. Graham was used by God to minster
in a healthy way to some presidents, he was seduced by others – most notably by
Richard Nixon. This was painfully revealed in the White House Nixon tapes, but
Billy Graham also realized this to some degree before the release of the tapes.
Below are
excepts from two articles regarding Mr. Graham’s realization of his mistakes and
advice he had to give in light of them. One is from The Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, and the other is from Dartmouth; I have also provided
links to the full articles.
Billy Graham
learned from his mistakes, and from his sin (for a sad element of this was
sinful, but I’ll not touch on that) – and Mr. Graham wanted others to
learn from him so that we would not repeat it.
Yet, Billy’s son
Franklin, has not only aggressively aligned himself with a president and that
president’s agenda, he has attacked the opposing candidate and political party.
But even worse, he has encouraged others to do the same in the name of Christ.
On September 26
Franklin Graham led a prayer march in Washington, D.C. The morning of the march
he appeared on television attacking the Democratic Party, saying that the
Democrats were the reason for the division in our nation. A week or so ago Franklin
Graham, via the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, sent an email calling
for today, October 25, to be a day of prayer for the “healing” of our nation –
the email had a link to a fuller explanation of this call for healing, and it consisted
of a series of attacks on Democratic positions and endorsement of Republican positions.
This is hardly a sincere desire for healing – it is a desire for political
victory.
At no time have
I seen Franklin Graham discuss the lessons his father learned as noted above.
Why is that? In the Graham email regarding October 25, there is a quote from
Billy dated 1952 regarding being informed voters, why no discussion of being
manipulated and seduced by political power? What about full and honest disclosure
about what his father really learned and thought?
What a shame
that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which was once an organization
of integrity, has become a political tool. And quite honestly, what a shame
that the man, Franklin Graham, who founded Samaritan’s Purse, a wonderful organization,
should allow himself to go so far afield as to call the Gospel witness of both
Samaritan’s Purse and the BGEA into question.
We can only hope
and pray that Franklin will come to realize what Billy learned.
From the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Article:
BILLY GRAHAM
APOLOGIZED. When thinking about Billy Graham, the word “apology” doesn’t
typically come to mind. Graham was not only a public figure; he was also
extremely articulate and careful with his words. However, one cannot enjoy the
length and degree of limelight that Graham did without a few blunders along the
way. True to his seemingly incorruptible, moral character, the man once called
“America’s Pope” was not above acknowledging his few public mistakes.
Unfortunately, they almost always involved partisan politics. “There is no
American I admire more than Richard Nixon,” Graham once said while introducing
the candidate’s two daughters to a crusade audience in Portland, Oregon.
Graham’s well-publicized relationship with Nixon forced him to eventually admit
his overly rose-colored view of the corrupt figure years later. After defending
Nixon’s character relentlessly and even dismissing the Watergate findings,
Graham eventually demonstrated a profound change of heart about his involvement
with American political life. He later repented, “in my earlier days. . . I
tended to identify the Kingdom of God with the American way of life. I don’t
think like that now.” Just a few weeks before Nixon’s resignation, Graham
warned a group of evangelists “not to identify the Gospel with any one
political program of culture.” He admitted, “this has been my own danger.”
Billy Graham’s faith was authentic, on and off the crusade stage.
From the Dartmouth article:
During his life, the religious
right emerged as a political force. How did he feel about that?
Graham was
profoundly uneasy about the religious right. He made a comment in 1981: “It
would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists
and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to
manipulate it.” That is probably the most prescient statement that Graham
ever made over the course of his career. At the same time, I think you have to
acknowledge that Graham tilted toward the right politically. He was a political
conservative, and certainly his real engagements tended to be Republican
presidents, beginning, of course, with Eisenhower, but especially with Nixon,
the Bushes, and Reagan to a lesser extent. All of them were important friends
to him.
https://news.dartmouth.edu/news/2018/02/religion-professor-randall-balmer-remembers-billy-graham
Yesterday was an interesting day in terms of the responses I received regarding John Piper's article. I was going to reflect on those responses today, but I think I'd better give it another day or two. In the meantime, this is a repost of a piece back in January, which is where my heart is on these matters.
Bob
Great Is Diana of the
Americans
Robert L. Withers
Written in January
2020
During
the past few years, as I’ve become increasingly concerned about the engagement
of professing-Christians in the political melee in the United States, John
Newton has become an historical mentor to me in thinking, teaching, and
behavior. This mentorship is particularly pronounced in the area of politics
and nationalism.
In
August 1775, four months after Colonists and British regulars fought at
Lexington and Concord, Newton, Anglican priest and author of Amazing Grace,
writes to a young friend concerning Britain and the Colonies:
“As
a minister and a Christian I think it is better to lay all the blame upon sin.
Instead of telling the people Lord North [the Prime Minister] blunders, I tell
them the Lord of hosts is angry. If God has a controversy with us, I can expect
no other than that wisdom should be hidden from the wise…I believe the sins of
America and Britain have too much prevailed, and that a wrong spirit and wrong
measures have taken place on both sides because the Lord has left us to
ourselves.
“It
seems to me one of the darkest signs of the times, that so many of the Lord’s
professing people act as if they thought he was withdrawn from the
earth…instead of unavailing clamors against men and measures they would all
unite in earnest prayer, we might hope for better times, otherwise I fear bad
will be worse.”
As
the letter continues, Newton turns his attention to the idea of liberty;
turning to Jeremiah the prophet Newton writes:
“He
[Jeremiah] preached against sin and foretold judgment, but I do not find that
he made a parade about liberty…He does not seem to have troubled his head, who
was scribe or recorder, or who was over the host [that is, who was in charge of
government and the military], for he knew that whoever had the management, the
public affairs would miscarry because the Lord fought against them. When I
hear the cry about liberty I think of the old cry, ‘Great is Diana of the
Ephesians’ [italics mine]. Civil liberty is a valuable blessing, but
if people sin it away, it is the Lord [who] deprives them of it…
“However
a believer has a liberty with which Jesus has made him free which depends upon
no outward circumstances. It grieves me to hear those who are slaves to sin and
Satan, make such a stir about that phantom which they worship under the name of
liberty, and especially to see not a few of the Lord’s people so much
conformed to the world in this respect [italics mine].”
When
I first read the above letter, a year or two ago, I was taken with Newton’s
image (no pun intended) of Diana of the Ephesians from Acts Chapter 19.
A few days ago I realized that Newton’s use of Diana preceded his 1775 letter,
for in a 1773 letter he writes to a fellow minister:
“On
the other hand, you and I, dear sir, know how much they are to be pitied who
are frantic for what they call liberty, and consider not that they are in the
most deplorable bondage, the slaves of sin and Satan, and subject to the curse
of the law, and the wrath of God. Oh for a voice to reach their hearts, that
they may know themselves, and seek deliverance from their dreadful thralldom!
Satan has many contrivances to amuse them, and to turn their thoughts from
their real danger; and none more ensnaring, in the present day, than to
engage them in the cry, ‘Great is the Diana Liberty!’ [italics mine].
“…And
already in some pulpits, (proh dolor!) [Latin: oh the grief!] a
description of the rights of man occupies much of the time which used to be
employed in proclaiming the glory and grace of the Savior, and the rights of
God to the love and obedience of his creatures.”
It
seems to me that Christian nationalism, and Christian political engagement, whether
it be from the “right” or the “left”, or even the “center” – is a snare to the professing-church
in that it obscures our witness to Jesus Christ and His Gospel as it exalts our
“rights” and “liberties” and “personal freedoms”.
There
is a sense in which, for the disciple of Jesus Christ, there is no “personal
freedom”, for we are called to be servants of Jesus Christ; indeed, since we
have been purchased and redeemed by Jesus Christ, we are no longer our own
possession – to echo Paul, we are not our own, we are bought with a price.
The
People of God are called to be distinct from the world, the flesh, and the
devil. We are called to be distinct from the “right”, the “left”, the “center”;
our Gospel is to be for all mankind without regard to ethnicity or national
flag or economic system.
We
are to discern the difference between the Bible and the constitutions of
nations, the political systems of nations, the economic systems of nations, and
the foreign policies of nations. If the Gospel of Jesus Christ is transcendent
then the Church of Jesus Christ ought to express itself, in Christ,
transcendently. How can this be otherwise, unless professing - churches within
national boundaries prostitute themselves in the service of the world? Babylon
the Harlot rides the beast until the beast destroys her (Revelation Chapter
17). Can we not be a foolish people?
We
have been taught to make idols of liberty, prosperity, pleasure, our founding
national documents, our foreign policy, our economic policies – and we seek our
identity in these things rather than in Jesus Christ. As we fail to be citizens
of the Kingdom of Heaven (Philippians 3:20) we fail to be good neighbors to our
fellow earthly citizens and neighbors.
When
we adopt a faulty sense of our national identity in place of a true sense of “a
better country, a heavenly country” (Hebrews 11:16) and we cease to live as
pilgrims and strangers we, as Esau, sell our birthright for a mess of pottage;
we trade our high calling for short-term pleasure and gratification. We forego identification
with the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ for temporal agendas that
will turn to dust. The beast will eat us and we are so drunk with the world
that we won’t even know it – it devours us even as I write this.
Newton
chose Christ above everything. When other ministers of the Gospel attempted to
pull him into political and nationalistic orbits Newton resisted, when others
appealed to “liberty” Newton recognized the danger of liberty outside of Jesus
Christ. Newton saw the that great need of mankind was not political liberty, but
rather liberty from sin and death. Newton saw that Christ held him accountable
for preaching the Gospel, and that not a day was to be spared in the service of
temporal movements outside of the Gospel.
Newton
saw that the turmoil of his nation and world could only be the result of sin,
and that there is no political remedy for sin.
Lest
we forget, Newton was engaged is serving the fatherless, the widow, the hungry,
and the slave; the Gospel of Jesus Christ for John Newton included serving the “whole
person” – John Newton knew, as we should know, that the only hope for this
world was, and is, Amazing Grace.
Good morning dear friends,
John Piper has written a piece that has given me great encouragement, and is a model of faithfulness, courage, and fidelity to Jesus Christ. I hope you will read it, I’ve provided this link.
Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin
PONDERING THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE 2020 ELECTION
After
the Preface, Murray writes an Introduction in which he considers authorship,
audience, the object of the epistle, the structure of the epistle, and the
relationship between the epistle and the church of his day. Between the Preface
and Introduction, he provides a complete text of Hebrews, with structural
headings and cross references.
“I
have had the Epistle printed at the beginning of the book, with headings
showing the contents of the different parts, with the view of inviting and
helping the reader to make himself master of the writing as a whole. It
is of great consequence that the student of God’s word should not only seek his
edification from individual texts or passages, but that each book should be
to him a living and connected organism, all alive with the Spirit that
dwells in it. The more we thus take time and trouble to accept the great
thoughts of God, the more will our life be brought to that unity and breath, in
which the purpose of God will be perfectly fulfilled.” Andrew Murray
Murray’s
goal was not to produce 130 unrelated meditations on the Epistle to the Hebrews,
it was to have his people “see” Jesus and “see” the book of Hebrews as an interconnected
organic whole. He wanted Hebrews to belong to his people, and he desired that
his people belong to the Epistle. He wanted his flock to become “master of the
writing as a whole.”
My
wife Vickie and I have toured many historic homes during our travels over the
years, bur touring a home and living in a home are two different things. We
have friends with whom we’ve spent many an hour in their homes, but spending
many hours in others’ homes, even over the course of decades, is not the same
as living in those homes.
Christ
has not called His people to tour the Bible again and again and again, He has
called us to live in the Bible. He has not called us to peak into the Bible,
viewing a verse here and a verse there, a passage here and a passage there, but
to open the front door, walk down the passageways – to live in the House and
allow the House to live in us. We are not called to consume information
about the Bible, we are called to be consumed with the Word of God and to be
consumed by the Word of God.
Dear
friends, the Bible is not a self – help manual, it is not Basic Instructions
Before Leaving Earth (as witty as that may sound,) it is the unfathomable
and dynamic revelation of the Triune God, living and dwelling in His People. Perhaps
you know from experience, as I do, what it is to touch a live electrical wire.
You have either had the experience or you haven’t. May I gently ask, “Do you know
the experience of the Word of God living within you?” If not, or if you are not
sure, let me encourage you by saying that Jesus Christ desires to reveal
Himself to you through His Word with all His heart, with all that He is – He desires
to live in you and you to live in Him as a way of life. He deeply
desires to be your Way of Life, He passionately desires His Word to energize
every fiber of your being. How can I write these things? Because Jesus Christ
gave His all for you, for me, for us – of course He wants you living in the
fulness of an intimate relationship with Himself! It is nonsense to think
otherwise!
Yet,
what do we have today? Throughout much of the professing – church is
disconnected preaching and teaching with no discernable ultimate purpose, no
continued focus on bringing the sons and daughters of the Father into the image
of Jesus Christ. We have capitulated to the immediate, the functional, the
pragmatic. We seem to have no understanding of Biblical epistemology or
pedagogy. We give people information to consume, Bible studies to consume,
Sunday school material to consume – but do people grow into the image of Jesus
Christ? Are they living in the Word of God and is the Word of God living in
them?
During
the current pandemic, many people are learning to grow their own food and
preserve it. Also, during the past few years there has been an expanding Farm
to Table movement in the United States – locally raised produce and meats
delivered to local tables, both restaurant tables and household tables. Isn’t
it about time that local congregations learned what it is to grow their own
food in Jesus Christ? Who will grow Philippians? Colossians? 1 Samuel? Genesis?
Matthew? John? Who will cultivate the soil and grow food for his brothers and
sisters? Who will bake bread? Who will grow and harvest grapes? Who will teach
others how to farm?
Why
can’t we bring ourselves to say, “The Emperor is stark naked?”
Who
in our congregations has mastered (and been mastered by!) the Gospel of
John? James? Micah? Job? Who can romp and run throughout the entire palace of
the Word of God?
And
what of our pastors and teachers? What of our seminary professors? What about
me? What about you?
The
Word of God is a treasure house that will overwhelm us if we will allow it, for
within it is the Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ – and His ineffable glory will
transform us into His image…individually, as husbands and wives, as families,
as local churches and beyond.
Which
room in the Palace (book of the Bible) will you decide, by God’s grace, to make
your own…beginning today?
Here are two excepts from thoughts I shared with friends this morning:
I don't know why
people talk about praying for our country and the election, when what they
really mean is to pray that their party will win and that our nation - as
ungodly as it is - will prevail over other nations. They don't talk about
repentance, either as a church or a country. We worship the myth of the nation
the way the society surrounding the Early Church worshipped the Emperor. Every
day people absorb the mark of the beast and don't know it - it seems so natural
to them, so American, so right, so practical.
It is only through the portal of
suffering that we can witness to the world.
If we are raised in a prison of
pleasure, how can we know it? If one escapes and comes back to tell us, will we
believe him?
No Cross, no witness.
Galatians 2:20, 6:14.
I am appalled at
what I see in the professing church in the midst of the election and cultural
upheaval - both in terms of politicization and also silence regarding our
spiritual promiscuity. This includes among those who should know better. The
fact that many pastors who do have concerns dare not preach about them says
volumes, though I suppose they are in the minority among
"Evangelicals" - though I'm not sure what that term means anymore.
We dare not preach, "This is
My Beloved Son, hear Him!" We must acquiesce to having multiple tents on
the mountain.
Isn't this insanity? Spatial
disorientation?
Where are those
who are speaking "as the oracles of God" to His people? We react, and
react, and react, but we do not provide direction. How can this be? Have our
heads been shaved and our eyes blinded?
Dare anyone today begin a message,
"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God"? Mark
wrote this, of course, in the face of emperor worship, can we preach it in the
face of nationalism and politicization?
If we cannot,
then what does this say about the soul of the church? I would not be offended
if someone suggested that I owe Vickie my total love and devotion to the
exclusion of all other women - and if I were to be offended then that would
indicate that there is something amiss in my soul.
Our friends
Ralph and Daniela were married a few months ago. We first met Ralph in Boston
around 1996 at Park Street Church. At the time Ralph, who is German, was in the
States working for the Siemens Corporation. We met Daniela (Dani) last
Thanksgiving when she and Ralph visited the States, we were the final stop on
their itinerary and they shared a few days with us in our home - including Thanksgiving.
This was
poignant for us in two ways, the first was that it was one of the sweetest
Thanksgivings we’ve had for many years, not only did we have Ralph and Dani,
but other friends as well, friends who are very dear to us. None of these
friends knew each other when they arrived at our home, they were our
friends; but by the time they left they were friends with one another. It was
simply and deeply a beautiful day and it still warms our hearts.
The second
poignancy is that since we first met Ralph, he has shared Thanksgiving with us
on numerous occasions, for after he returned to Munich to continue his work
with Siemens he continued to fly over every few years to spend Thanksgiving
with us. When we know Ralph is coming, we decorate our home for Christmas for
him, which is quite the undertaking, especially for Vickie, since we have 8 or
9 themed Christmas trees, numerous nutcrackers, and other decorations. (In case
you’re wondering, we don’t do outside decorations other than a few items on the
front porch and candles in windows). Meeting Dani over Thanksgiving was perfect…just
perfect.
Not long after
their May 2020 marriage (which had to be rearranged because of Covid – 19 restrictions,
but which was still beautiful), Ralph took Dani climbing. Ralph is an avid
outdoorsman – bicycling, hiking, mountain climbing…and I do mean mountain climbing.
Dani did a post
on her Facebook page about the climb, and when Vickie told me about it, I said
something like this:
“Well, isn’t
that like Christ and the Church? When we are married to Him, He teaches us to go
higher and higher. He draws us to Himself and His Cross.”
Vickie said, “Look
at the photos.”
The Bride and Groom
Is it peace or fear? Love or hate?
What, this morning, is in our hearts?
How long will we
be manipulated with the same appeals to fear and hate? How many more elections?
How many more Supreme Court nominations? If you are young, you may not know
that this goes on and on. If you are old and have a short attention span, and
have allowed yourself to be conditioned by your surroundings, then you are unaware
of the ocean you swim in if you are propagating fear among your fellow citizens
– whether you are the source or are “just passing it on.”
But let me make
this more personal for the man or woman who professes to follow Jesus Christ –
if you have bought into fear and into hate, into vilifying others and smearing
them with slogans and taglines, then you, just as James and John in Luke 9:51 - 56 who
wanted to call down fire on others, have forgotten just who Jesus Christ is and
who you really are. You are exchanging your birthright for a mess of pottage – and
a stinky mess at that.
Paul writes that
“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound
judgment [thinking]” (2 Timothy 1:7). Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). Peace is to be a Way of Life
for those who belong to the Prince of Peace – is it my Way of Life? Is
it your Way of Life?
While it is true
that the Church is involved in spiritual warfare, let’s not forget two things
(at least!). The first is that the warfare is indeed spiritual. The second is
that the warfare is cruciform – that is, it takes place in a life that
has been crucified with Jesus Christ, a life that is perpetually laying itself
down for Christ and others.
The overcoming Lion
of the Tribe of Judah is seen as a Lamb that has been slain (Revelation 5:4 –
6). This is the Lamb whom we are called to follow, wherever He goes (Rev. 14:4).
Just as Christ Jesus overcame by crucifixion, so in Him we overcome by sharing
in His sufferings and crucifixion (Galatians 2:20; Phil. 3:8 – 13; Rom. 8:14 –
18; 1 Peter 1:6 – 9; 4:12 – 14; 5:10).
And let us not
forget that, if we belong to Christ, that we are not of the world (John 16:19;
17:16). Have we forgotten this? Have we ever actually known it?
It is not for us
to propagate fear. It is not for us to live in fear. It is for us to, in Christ,
be a source of peace, and hope, love, and reconciliation.
Biblical
leadership, cruciform leadership, does not vilify others; it does not seek to
place itself or God’s People in subservience to worldly agendas – most especially
political. It certainly doesn’t motivate people by propagating fear and distrust
and tribal warfare.
The season of Advent,
the birth of the Prince of Peace, will soon be here. If we cannot and do not
live as the people of the Prince of Peace now, right now – if we are not
sowing seeds of peace rather than seeds of fear (see especially James 3:13 –
18); then let us have the integrity not to celebrate Advent.
Who can we bring
peace to today? Who can we pray for? Who can we love? Who can we help?
Are we places
and people of safety and peace, in Jesus Christ, in this surrounding tsunami of fear?
As Murray moves toward the conclusion to his preface to The
Holiest of All:
“In
offering these meditations…I do so with the prayer that it may please God to
use them to inspire some of His children with a new confidence in the blessed
Lord, as they learn to know Him better and give themselves up to and
expect and experience all that He is able to do for them.
I have not been afraid of continually repeating the one thought: Our one
need is, to know Jesus better; the one cure for all our feebleness, to
look to Him on the throne of heaven, and really claim the heavenly life He
waits to impart.” Andrew Murray.
Read
in the 21st century, this seems a bit simplistic and naive. Murray
certainly couldn’t write those unsophisticated words today and be taken
seriously. Could he?
Consider
the idea of giving ourselves up to Christ – how often do we hear that today? The
idea of denying ourselves and following Jesus, of offering ourselves as “living
sacrifices” (Mark 8; Romans 12), is probably not something most of us often hear.
What
about the idea that we should, as we offer ourselves, do so in expectation that
we will experience all that our heavenly Priest is able to do for us? Do
we act as if our Lord Jesus grudgingly dispenses His promises to us? In spite
of the fact that we are assured by our Lord Jesus that it our Father’s good
pleasure to give us the Kingdom, and that all of the promises of God, in Christ, are a resounding
“Amen!” to us?
What
does Murray mean by “feebleness”? While he may explain this in the pages to
come, there are likely many dimensions to the answer. The baseline could be the
chasm between us and the image of Jesus Christ, individually (Romans 8:29) and
collectively (Ephesians 4:11 – 16) – a chasm for which, in light of the Person
and work of Jesus Christ, there is no excuse.
Friends,
we can either look to our excuses for anemic lives, including congregational
lives, or we can look to Jesus and His all – sufficiency for transformation into
His glorious image. Excuses do not justify us. Confessions that we are still,
at heart, Egyptians do not justify us. Only Jesus Christ both justifies and
transforms us – for in Christ we share in the life of the Trinity, a Life which
has destroyed sin and death through the Incarnation (in Christ we participate
in the working out, the manifestation, of this dual destruction as the
Incarnation continues in us, His Body).
This
idea of “feebleness” encompasses all areas of life which have yet to be brought
into submission to Jesus Christ, and which have yet to experience the power and
life of Jesus Christ. This includes marriage and family, community
relationships, local congregations, education, social policy, national policy,
economic policy, relations among tribes and races and ethnic groups, sin in all
of its myriad forms. I write the foregoing with confidence because Murray’s
life touched all of these elements of life – Murray loved Christ and he loved
people and he saw life as holistically in Jesus Christ. His love and practical
concern for others did not stop at the church doors, it encompassed southern
Africa and beyond.
Today,
most Christians, at least in the West, simply do not believe that the “one cure”
for our feebleness is Jesus Christ. We either think that there is no cure, and
that the best we can do is to rationalize away the chasm between the life that
Christ promises in the Bible and our own lives; or we believe that the cure
lies in some form of therapy – which is not really a cure but more of a
maintenance regimen.
For
sure therapy can take many forms and is not limited to professional therapy
(and this is not to say that we don’t need those trained in social
sciences!). Usually therapy simply takes popular forms of self–help, self–focus,
and entertaining ourselves – whether within or without the church. Preaching
and teaching that is all about “us” and “me” is therapy. Singing with a center
of gravity on “us” is therapy. Many small groups are forms of therapy – their focus
is not Christ but on ourselves. It is in the light of our current thinking and
practices that Murray’s words seem out-of-place and unrealistic.
But
consider, if God in Person is not the transformative help and healing
that we need – then what does this say about God? What does this say about
Divinity? What does this say about our relationship with Divinity? Do we
honestly believe that if Christ is actually in our lives, if He is living
within us, that He is insufficient and unable to transform our marriages, our
families, our churches, and to affect our communities? I am not writing about
some kind of mental or creedal assent; I am writing about the reality of life
in the Resurrected Jesus Christ – I am writing about supernatural and
transformative life in Jesus Christ. Is this life a myth or a reality?
Then
we have, “I have not been afraid of continually repeating the one thought:
Our one need is, to know Jesus better…”
Why would Murray write, “I have not been afraid…”?
In
Murray’s day, (and I think even more so in our day), this idea that our “one
need, is to know Jesus better,” could be viewed as simplistic – it certainly
doesn’t appeal to our pride and intellect and our self-righteousness. It is
frankly foolishness; but it is the foolishness of God (1 Corinthians 1:18 – 31).
If
you are a pastor, would people come to hear you if they heard this every week?
If you are a member of a congregation, would you participate in a church in
which your pastor and teachers emphasized this every week? If you read “Christian”
books, or watch or listen to Christian programming, would you purchase books
(if you could find them) with this emphasis, or watch or listen to programming
with this continual emphasis? And what about popular Christian music – how much
of it carries this message?
If
you are in Christian academia, is this the thrust of your college or seminary?
Is this what you and your colleagues, or fellow students, desire and speak of? Is
this the proper subject of a thesis or dissertation?
If
you are a Christian counsellor, or teaching others in Christian counselling, is
this the center of gravity of your practice? If you are involved in pastoral
counseling, I ask the same question.
Perhaps
it takes more courage to speak of Jesus as our “one need” within the professing
– church, than it does outside the church.
Are we “looking unto Jesus”? Is Jesus Christ our all in all?” Do we really believe
that our “one need” is to know Jesus Christ?
The Church, the real Church, the true Church, only has One refuge, One place of safety, One place of security. It isn’t colored red or blue, nor is its banner a $.
To be persecuted
or seduced? There are benefits in persecution; for one thing it is often open
and obvious – at least to those who can see. When we are persecuted we must
make a decision, even if that decision is to do nothing, to go with the flow; acquiescence
is a choice. Persecution can separate the wheat from the chaff. Persecution is a
venue for witness and for sharing in the sufferings of Christ. Persecution
helps us get real.
Seduction? Now
seduction is dangerous because it looks and feels so good, so religious, so “Christian”.
Seduction appeals to our self-interest, our need for security, our desire to be
thought special. Seduction imprisons us within our comfort zones, appeals to
our tribal identities, and focuses our anger, hatred, and vitriol on others.
Seduction gives us someone to blame.
Can there be any
seduction worse for the professing Christian than syncretistic seduction? Blending
the worship of money, the flag, and the Cross? It can feel so good. It can feel
so righteous and moral and upstanding.
Can we not read
the Prophets? Can we not read Revelation Chapter 17? Judgment awaits those who
prostitute the people of God and His Word. When the rulers of the earth are
done having their way with whores (a Biblical image!) they throw them out on
the street at best, or as Revelation 17:16 reads, “…make her desolate and naked,
and will eat up her flesh and burn her up with fire.”
Indeed, there is
only One place of safety for the follower of Jesus Christ – and that is Jesus Christ…hopefully
in community with the Body of Christ. Christ is the only place we have for a
credible witness to a broken world.
We are called to
wear the white linen of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not to wear red or
blue or the color of money.
Shame on those
who pervert the Gospel and place it in the service of political and economic
power and seduce God’s People – leading them into servitude. We are to be in a
monogamous relationship with Jesus Christ, and with Him alone (2 Corinthians
11:1 – 3).
Shame on those “Christian”
leaders who attack one political party, and vilify it, on behalf of that party’s
opposition, and cloak the attack in the name of Christ.
Shame? It seems
we have no shame…whatever happened to Jesus? Jesus? We have sold Him…can’t you hear
the thirty pieces of silver jingling in our coffers?
“The cure the Epistle has for all
our failures and feebleness, the one preservative from all danger and disease,
is – the knowledge of the higher truth concerning Jesus, the knowledge of Him
in His heavenly priesthood. In connection with this truth, the writer has three
great mysteries he seeks to unfold. The one is that the heavenly sanctuary
has been opened to us, so that we may now come and take our place there,
with Jesus in the very presence of God.
“The second, that the new and living
way by which Jesus has entered, the way of self-sacrifice and perfect obedience
to God, is the way in which we now may and must draw near [to God].
“The
third, that Jesus, as our heavenly High Priest, is the minister of the heavenly
sanctuary, and dispenses to us its blessings, the spirit and the power of the
heavenly life, in such a way that we can live in the world as those who are
come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and in whom the spirit of heaven is the
spirit of all their life and conduct; the heavenly priesthood of Jesus, heaven
opened to us day by day, our entering it by the new and
living way, and heaven entering us by the Holy Spirit…
“The
knowledge of the heavenly character of Christ’s person and work is what alone
can make heavenly Christians.” Andrew
Murray.
Murray
continues to point us to Jesus Christ, again and again and again. Murray writes
of “our failures and feebleness”; he does not excuse it, he does not say, “That’s
just the way we are,” nor does he fall back on, “Well, of course we’re sinners,
what do we expect?” Instead, he points us to Christ in His heavenly priesthood.
Now,
lest anyone take offense at Murray’s use of “the higher truth concerning
Jesus,” let’s be clear that Murray means that we need to know more and more of
Jesus Christ, who He is, what He has done, and what He is doing. Let’s not
forget that it is in this very letter to the Hebrews that we read (5:11 – 14):
“Concerning
him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull
of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need
again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God,
and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes
only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an
infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their
senses trained to discern good and evil.”
Let’s
also recall Paul’s words to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 3:1 – 2):
“And
I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of
flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for
you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able.”
Friends,
let’s face it, if we had Christian grocery stores they’d be filled with baby
food, a diary department specializing in milk, and you’d have to special-order
meat because any meat placed on display would spoil before anyone purchased it.
This is pretty much what we had when we still had Christian bookstores, and it
is pretty much what we have when we peruse popular Christian books. We would
rather cope via self-help and religious therapy with our feebleness and
failures, and be given something to make us feel better about ourselves, than
grow in Christ.
Because
we overlay our Bible reading with a therapeutic mentality, we do not see our deep
need for Jesus Christ. Because we have conflated the Gospel to the forgiveness
of sins, we do not see the fullness of the glorious love and work of Jesus Christ.
God
in Christ has opened the heavenly sanctuary to us; He has called us to live in
this sanctuary as a way of life. This way of life should be the rule,
not the exception. Yet, we have been taught to think of it, when we do think of
it, as the exception. We think of ourselves as citizens of earth and its ways,
rather than as citizens of heaven and its Way. In Christ, and in Christ alone,
is transformation; for the individual, for a husband and wife, for a family,
and for a congregation.
Murray
writes that the way of Christ is the way of self–sacrifice and perfect obedience
to God. We don’t like the term “self-sacrifice” and we don’t like the word “perfect.”
Self-denial is what Christ calls us to, and this self-denial has a dimension of
death to it – we die with Christ so that we might be raised into the heavens
with Christ. This is death to sin, death to the world, and death to ourselves –
and this is most certainly a dimension of the Gospel.
May
I ask regarding the idea of perfect obedience, “If we are not called to perfect
obedience, then exactly what measure of obedience are we called to?” Friends,
we are called to love as Christ, to forgive as Christ, to sacrifice (as a way
of life) as Christ, to go to others with the great love of our Father as
Christ, and to obey as Christ. Any measure, any goal, any ideal, any
pattern, that is other than “as Christ” is something other than the Gospel of Christ.
It
is not our insufficiency in these things that matters, it is God’s all –
sufficiency. We do not look to ourselves but look to Jesus Christ. We can trust
God to “will and to work in us, His good pleasure.”
Are
we living in the world “as those who are come to the heavenly Jerusalem”?
Are
we living as those “in whom the spirit of heaven is the spirit of all their
life and conduct”?
Is
the heavenly priesthood of Jesus, with “heaven opened to us day by day,”
a present reality in our lives, in our marriages, in our congregations?
Dear,
dear friends; our Lord Jesus desires us to live in intimate relationship with
Him, our Father, the Holy Spirit and with one another. He deeply desires us to
live in assurance of His love for us, of the fact that our sins have been
forgiven, that His Divine Life now lives in us – indeed that the Trinity now
lives in us and we live in the Trinity. He wants us to know that we are His
brothers and sisters, the children of the Living God. He truly wants us to know
who we are now, in Him, and leave the past behind, buried in the waters of
baptism – to see Him in us and us in Him, not to look back at who we once were
and live in the horrid past.
Can
we not accept the glorious and wonderous love and grace of Jesus Christ? Can we
not learn to adore and worship our Great High Priest, and to live in the
Holiest of All as our Way of Life?
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