Words That Devour

 

 

This being April 22, Psalm 52 is in my daily reading (I typically read Psalm 52 on January 22, April 22, July 22, and October 22).

 

The following struck me this morning, “You love all words that devour…” The psalmist is speaking of the wicked man, whose “tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor.”

 

It seems to me that we live in a society that feeds off words that devour, and that we pass these words on to others. The most popular news channels are those – on both the “right” and the “left” - who attract viewers by issuing a steady stream of words that devour. The viewers internalize these words and then spew them out to others.

 

Then there are so-called “Christian” ministries that distinguish themselves by using words that devour those with whom they disagree, rather than having Jesus Christ as their center of gravity. Their adherents, in turn, are known not for being devoted to Jesus Christ, but are rather known for being opposed to other Christians. (I am not suggesting that we ignore false teaching and practice (of which there is plenty), ha! What am I doing right now? Tension, tension, tension!) When our main course is anything other than Jesus Christ we ought to take a step back, consider where we are, and return to our first love.

 

It is not unusual upon first meeting someone to be subjected to words that devour. People will proclaim what they have been reading and hearing (usually within the past few hours due to limited attention spans) and if you do not accept what they are saying, if you refuse to allow their words to devour you, then you often find a barrier between yourself and the other person and limited possibility of meaningful communication.

 

Of course, people often assume that you naturally agree with them and that there is no need to question anything they’ve received from others and are passing on to you. Sadly, many Christians so completely identify with political and nationalistic thinking, and the words that devour that are usually embedded in this thinking, that they cannot be distinguished from the world…since our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20; Heb. 11:13 – 16; 12:18 – 24) this is a particular tragedy.

 

I have visited churches in which it was assumed Vickie and I agreed with the predominate political views of the people. In fact, in these churches, as in many others, political mantras were more critical than the Apostles Creed, and political affiliation was the important common ground and basis for acceptance, rather than Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

 

“Words that devour” permeate our society. We hear them in song lyrics of virtually all genres. We hear them in sports – from trash talking to more violent language. Our movies and television shows are animated by words that devour – words that destroy our hearts and minds and souls and reduce us beneath the dignity of men and women and children created in the image of God. Our popular authors produce written words that devour, and we are foolish enough to think that we can read their words with impunity – words of violence, sex, material lust, and self-deification. (And make no mistake, much “Christian” writing is not about Jesus Christ, it is about us – shame on us! These are also words that devour.)  

 

Words that devour eat our souls and corrupt our minds and turn us into earth dwellers, perhaps even into beasts of the earth. Words no longer are vehicles for thought and communication, they become cudgels to beat the opposition into senseless submission. They are also words to seduce us to sleep in the lap of Delilah.

 

Yet, Jesus says that His words are “spirit and are life.” Jesus tells us that “the flesh profits nothing” (John 6:63). Paul writes, “Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” (Col. 4:6).

 

Paul writes, “The Lord’s bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth…” (2 Tim. 2:24 – 25). And let me stress that “the truth” that Paul is writing of is not political truth, it is the truth of Jesus Christ.

 

Our calling is to be Light and Life to those around us, it is to call others to our Lord Jesus Christ, and as the hymn goes, we do this by sharing “beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life…words of life and beauty.”

 

We have the Word of eternal Life…will we share that Word with others? Will we “appear as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15) with words of goodness, truth, and beauty in Jesus Christ? Will we counter words that devour with words that give hope and joy and light and life and love in Jesus Christ?

 

Will we do this today?

 

Why I Bring My Bible To Church – And Why You Should Too

 

Why I Bring My Bible To Church – And Why You Should Too

Robert L. Withers, 2024.

 

A friend told me that there was no reason for him to bring his Bible to church because he has the text on his phone. I was surprised to hear this, for he is a leader in his congregation.

As I have pondered this, a phenomenon which is common in both church and small group settings, I wonder if we are thinking this practice through, and I wonder if pastors aren’t contributing to it by displaying Bible text on screens – giving attendees one more reason not to bring their Bibles – and with frankly not insisting that their people read the Bible – yes, I wrote “insisting.”

We have come to view the Bible as information and data, I hear this language all the time. We think we are cute when we say that B.I.B.L.E. means basic instructions before leaving earth – which again turns the Bible into a manual. We talk about the Bible being like a car manual in a glove box. If the Bible is a manual, if it is data and information, then okay, let’s use our tablets and smartphones and video screens because universal and cosmic and spiritual context and relationship don’t matter – and I do think that is what the Bible has become, when it is anything at all. I think we even skirt a danger zone when we speak of the “text” as an object for analysis and when that becomes our primary viewpoint – for a text is impersonal and there is no life in the impersonal.

If I open a Bible to read a passage I will see its context, I will not see the context on a video screen on my phone, a tablet, or on a screen in church.

As for the argument that we put the text on screens so that everyone will be reading the same version, I don’t think this was a problem before video screens when it was not uncommon for people to use different translations – after all we are supposed to be adults.

If my pastor is using an ESV and I have an NASB and my neighbor an NIV, we ought to be able to follow along and note differences – in fact, those differences ought to stimulate our thinking. Furthermore, good preaching and teaching can take differences into account when they matter. Again, we are supposed to be adults.

If we must display Bible texts on screens, let us please do it with a warning that what is on the screen is no substitute for viewing the text on the page of a physical Bible.

       

Peter tells us (2 Peter 1:4) that through the promises of God, which are in the Scriptures, that we become partakers of the Divine Nature. This means that reading the Bible ought to be sacramental, that in reading the Bible we partake of the very life of God, that God transmits His life to us. Instruction manuals do not transmit life, my Toyota RAV4 manual does not make me a RAV4, but the Living Word transforms me into the image of Jesus Christ.

The Scriptures reveal Jesus Christ. Most of us no longer believe this. Most of us have been taught that when we read what we call the Old Testament that there are some “Messianic texts” and those are the texts we gravitate toward. While there certainly are some texts which are Messianic in Technicolor; if we are to believe Jesus, the Apostles, and the Church Fathers, all of the Scriptures reveal Him – they give us a composite and holistic portrayal of Jesus Christ and His Body. Consider:

“Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:27).

“Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’” (Luke 24:44).

The writers of the New Testament see Jesus Christ from Genesis to Malachi – and they see His Body – they see the Head and the Body as a unity, as do many of the Fathers.

How can we not thirst for the Old Testament when Christ reveals Himself to us through it? How can we not thirst for the New Testament when Christ, who is our life (or at least is supposed to be) comes to us through the Gospels and Letters? (And let’s recall that Revelation is a letter).

The Scriptures are Holy Ground, how have we taken the Holy Bible and turned it into a religious database? A self-help book? A therapy manual?

The Scriptures are to be engrafted within us, not downloaded whenever we need to reference something. (James 1:21; 1 Peter 22 – 25; Psalm 1; Hebrews 4:12).  

Here is another thing we seem to have forgotten, for centuries men and women and families have risked their lives, and often paid with their lives, to preserve and distribute the Bible. Even today, Christians distribute Scripture in dangerous places and are imprisoned and executed for their faithfulness to God’s Word and love for others. As I write this, there are men and women and families who have dedicated their lives to translating Scripture in difficult and sometimes dangerous environments, foregoing the cotton – candy lifestyle of American professing Christians; yet many of us are too lazy to open the Book or take it to church.

May I ask, what image and example are we giving to our children and young people when we do, or do not, bring our Bibles to church? What are our children seeing? What image is being planted in their hearts and minds? What is our testimony to our neighbors when they see us walk from the front door to the car to drive to church?

When I was a young Christian, it was not unusual for believers to carry pocket New Testaments, sometimes with the Psalms, in their shirts or purses. Nor was it unusual for Christians to have Bibles in their cars for their devotional use during the week and for sharing Jesus with others. To this day I have a Bible in my glove compartment that I can place in a pocket to take with me wherever I am going. In my business career it was not unusual for my coworkers to see me with a Bible in my office – it came with the package of who I am in Jesus Christ.

When we gather with believers, we ought no more to think of leaving our Bibles at home than we would our wedding rings.

Pastors, are we encouraging our people to bring their Bibles to church? Church leaders, are you being an example to others by bringing your Bible?

When we carry our Bibles to church we are making a statement, a statement that the Book is the Word of God, that the Word of God is our source of life in Christ, that we are not ashamed of the Gospel (Mark 8:38), and that we belong to the Communion of Saints – including those saints who have suffered, and are suffering, for the transmission of the Bible and its message of Jesus Christ.

“More to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.” (Psalm 19:10).

Fact or Fiction - Romans 4 (4)

 here is the conclusion to Fact or Fiction?

What are the fictions in my life? What are the areas that I think I can control? What are the promises of God that I don’t trust God to fulfill, and that I am trying to fulfill on my own strength, my own wisdom, my own knowledge, my own ability?

What about you? What about us as a church?

Are we living in the fact of God’s supernatural life and Presence, or in the fiction of our own thinking and ability?

Abraham believed in a God who calls things which are not as though they are – and who gives life to the dead.

Abraham and Sarah’s bodies were dead, yet they kept believing God to fulfill His promise of a son.

And then after that son was finally born God told Abraham to sacrifice him – Genesis Chapter 22.

Hebrews chapter 11:

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; 18 it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” 19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

Are we living in the fiction that God will not require everything from us? Are we living in the fiction that we can hold parts of our hearts and lives back from God? If God required Abraham to offer Isaac, and if God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, do we really think we can live the Christian life without offering anything and everything to our Lord Jesus Christ?

Who can measure the love that Abraham had for Isaac? Who can measure the love that the Father has for His only begotten Son?

What is there in our lives that we refuse to offer to God? What is there in my life that I say to God, “You cannot touch that?” What about your life? What about our life as a church?

It is only as we experience the death of the Cross that we can experience the resurrection life of Easter. God calls us to die with His Son so that through us others may live.

22 Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness. 23 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.

Are we living in the fiction of religion, of religious tradition, of self-righteousness; or are we living in the fact that in Christ alone we have justification and new life and purpose and destiny?

One way I can tell whether there is fiction in my life is how I react when someone questions my fiction, when someone approaches it, challenges it, questions it…

What fiction is there in my life, in our life, in our life as a church – that we need to offer up to God?

How is our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ challenging us to live in the fact of the truth of the Gospel and the Word of God today? What is there in our lives, in my life, in your life, that God wants to renovate, to tear down in order to build up so that we can live in the glorious freedom of the sons and daughters of the true and living God?

AMEN.

Fact or Fiction - Romans 4 (3)

 continued from previous post...

13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified; 15 for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.

When we get to Romans chapter 7 we will dig deeply into what our relation with the Law ought to be – and it will probably shock us. But for now I simply want to point out that the Law brings wrath, that no one can be justified by the Law, the Law cannot produce righteousness.

Are we living with the fiction that the Law can produce a good and holy life? Or are we living with the fact that the Law is an instrument of guilt and death?

And for those of us who teach our children – what is our methodology in our teaching? Our we teaching our children the fiction that the Law produces righteousness? Or are we teaching them the fact of living in a relationship with Jesus Christ? Are we modeling that relationship as we spend time with our children? Are we sharing Jesus – not simply sharing about Jesus, but actually sharing Jesus with our children?

 

16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 (as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

If we are living in insecurity in our relationship with God then we are living in a fiction, we have a false idea of justification and of His love for us. God wants us to know that His promise of eternal life, of fulness of life in Christ, of an eternal future, is guaranteed to us if we have believed in Jesus Christ.

There is true guilt and there is false guilt. Some of us here this morning may have true guilt, and we need to stay here this morning until we have repented of our sins and allowed God to restore our relationship with Him.

Some of us here have false guilt, we have repented of our sins, we have confessed them to God, but we won’t let go of them – that’s living in a fiction – that’s refusing to believe the fact that Jesus paid it all on the Cross.

And some of us probably need to have some real guilt because there are things in our lives that are sin, habits in our lives that are sin – but unless we acknowledge sin as sin, as long as we think that we are the exceptions to the rule of holiness and righteousness…well…that is a delusional fiction.

The fact is that God wants us to live in relational security so that we can worship Him, encourage one another, and share the Gospel with others – explicitly share the Gospel with others. This idea that others are going to come to Christ through osmosis is a fiction and a copout – the fact, as we’ll see in Romans chapter 10, is that people need to actually hear the Gospel from us – that means you, that means me, that means us.

 

18 In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; 20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

A couple of weeks ago we saw what happened when Abraham and Sarah decided to take things into their own hands and not wait on God to fulfill His Word in His Way. When we attempt to take charge of God’s work and to make things happen on our own terms the result is heartache and sorrow and damaged relationships – and sometimes we live the rest of our lives with the consequences of our sin.

God fulfilled His promise to Abraham and Sarah when Isaac was born, about 14 years after Ishmael was born. Abraham was about 100 years old – from a biological -reproductive perspective Abraham and Sarah were both dead. God was going to make sure that there was no doubt whatsoever that Isaac’s birth was miraculous.

Sarah and Abraham had lived in the fiction that they could fulfill the Word of God and the result was Ishmael. God was going to teach them to live in the fact that only God can fulfill the Word of God that only God can bring life out of death.

to be continued...

Fact or Fiction, Romans 4 (2)

 continued from previous post....

Romans has three main sections to it, there are three stories, if you will, to this mansion. If we will roam this house and spend time in its rooms, and enjoy the furniture, it will not only change our lives, it will put us in a place where God can use us to change the lives of others.

Chapters 1 – 8 are the first section, and it deals with what we’ve done, our sins, and who we are outside of Jesus Christ – sinners. We have two problems before God can begin His work of renovation, the things we’ve done and the persons we are. What does it matter if our sins are forgiven if we are still sinners? It doesn’t matter, our lives are not changed, we are still living as dead people.

Chapters 9, 10, and 11 explore the sovereignty of God – I’d say these are the three most difficult chapters in the Bible, and if we aren’t familiar with them it would do us good to start reading them, and read them again, and again. We’ll likely still have questions when we’ve worked through them, but questions are good, it’s okay to say, “I’m, not sure about that. I don’t quite understand that.” Our goal should always be, “Do I see Jesus better today than yesterday? Do I love Him more today than yesterday?” Since Jesus is God and I am not, living with questions is quite okay if I realize that Jesus holds all of the answers to all of my questions.

The last section of Romans is chapters 12 – 16, and that is about living in close and intimate relationship with one another. Paul really messes with us in this section; he affirms God’s calling in our lives, but he also challenges us to stop playing religious games and get on with serious life in Jesus Christ. Our friends and neighbors need us to stop playing games, they need us to get serious about one another and the Gospel.

The first section of the first section is Romans chapter 1 through verse 11 of chapter 5. We have rebelled against God and we are all sinners, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – whether Jew or Gentile. We have God’s written Law, we have God’s natural law written on our consciences – and we have all rebelled against God, we are all born sinners, and we’ll see in chapter 5, that we have all been God’s enemies. This isn’t a case of us being naughty littles boys and girls, this is a case of us being God’s enemies and deserving God’s judgment.

If we stopped minimizing sin, perhaps we would better understand that our lives ought to belong completely to Jesus Christ – that we ought to be, as we’ll see in Romans chapter 12, living sacrifices. That when people see us that they can say, “There goes a living sacrifice, there goes a woman, there goes a man, there goes a child, who is living sacrificially for Jesus Christ. There is a church living a sacrificial life.”

And so in the second half of Romans chapter 3 Paul makes clear that the only way our sins can be forgiven is for us to trust in the death on the Cross of Jesus Christ, it is only in Jesus and through Jesus that we can be justified – that God can look at us as if we’ve never sinned and have always lived righteously.

Do we believe this fact, or are we trusting in a fiction that we really aren’t all that bad, that we can live up to the Law, that if we do more good than bad in this life that God will accept us? And keep in mind, this is not just about how we live, it is about whose life is living within us – because eternal life is meant to be lived here and now, not just in the hereafter. We are called to live supernatural lives – and I don’t think we necessarily understand that, let alone experience it.

Paul begins Chapter 4 with saying “Look at Abraham, look at David – they were justified not because they kept God’s Law, but because they believed in Him, they believed God’s Word, God drew them into a relationship with Himself – they are justified by faith and their sins were forgiven and they lived in an intimate relationship with the Living God.”

9 Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” 10 How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; 11 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, 12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.

There were Jews in the Roman congregation who were believing a fiction that Abraham was justified before God because he was circumcised – and Paul says “That’s not true, that’s not a fact, that’s a fiction.” Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness and he was called the friend of God – and after that God instituted circumcision as a sign of Abraham’s belief; Abraham was not justified because he was circumcised, he was circumcised because he was justified.

As Paul points out in chapter 2, and as he will point out in chapters 9, 10, and 11 – you can be circumcised and still be dead in your sins. And that ought to remind us that we can be baptized, whether as infants or as adults, and still be dead in our sins. To the believer baptism is sacramental, to the family of the infant dedicated or christened baptism ought to be covenantal – but baptism in and of itself is not salvation just as circumcision was not salvation.

to be continued....

Fact or Fiction? Romans Chapter 4 (1)

 Good morning,

The next few posts are a message I preached on Romans Chapter 4. I hope there is something here to encouragement you in our Lord Jesus.

Much love,

Bob

Fact or Fiction? Romans Chapter 4

 

A few weeks ago in Sunday school Greta gave us a little quiz that consisted of a list of statements; we were to mark on the paper whether the statement was myth or fiction. One of the statements was one of my favorites having to do with the Pilgrims. While I don’t recall the exact wording it went something like this: “The Pilgrims came to the New World to have religious freedom.”

How many brave folks think that statement is true – that it is a fact? How many brave folks think that statement is false – that it is a fiction?

I know I’ve heard and read since childhood that the Pilgrims came to the New World to escape religious persecution and to have religious freedom; however, that is not a fact, it is actually fiction. While it is true that the Pilgrims left England for Holland to have religious freedom, they had religious freedom in Holland. The reason they left Holland is because of Holland’s culture and the effect that the Pilgrims thought it would have on their spiritual lives and especially the lives of their children. 

Are we living life based on fact or fiction? What is the foundation for the way we live? What is the foundation for the things we really and truly believe? Not the things we might like to believe, but the things we truly believe?

We can tell the things we truly believe by how we spend our time, by how we spend our money, by what we think about, by what we talk about – by how we live our lives.

We may want to believe the Bible, we may even say we believe the Bible; but if we don’t know the Bible, if we aren’t spending time in the Bible, if we don’t spend time with others sharing the Bible – then the fact is that we have fictionalized our relationship with the Bible.

In his NT letter to the church in the City of Rome, Paul is dealing with fact and fiction. He is proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and at the same time showing the religious, philosophical, and cultural fictions that the Roman Christians believe.

Fact or fiction: There is something I can do to earn, or merit my salvation?

Fact or fiction: I may be initially saved by grace, but after I am saved it is up to me to make sure I stay saved, to make sure that I live under the Law and obey God’s commands?

Fact or fiction: I can never be certain of my salvation, of my relationship with God?

Fact or fiction: If I do come to know Jesus, then I can live the way I want to and God will not hold me accountable?

Fact or fiction: God doesn’t want me to give up anything in my life, He wants me to live life the way I want to live it?

Fact or fiction: God doesn’t want me to live supernaturally?

Fact or fiction: God will understand if I don’t explicitly and intentionally share the Gospel with others?

Fact or fiction: A person can be a Biblically – based Christian and not be committed to the Church of Jesus Christ?

 

During our time in Romans we’ll touch on these facts and fictions, in most instances more than once. Let’s ask God to open our hearts and minds and to respond to Him in obedience to the facts, to the eternal realities of His Word.

I’ve spent a good part of my life in new construction and in the renovation of properties; and I can tell you that new construction is a piece of cake compared to renovation. In new construction, if the engineering and architectural work is done well, you can generally go, go, go.

But in renovation before you can put something up, before you can upgrade a kitchen, a bathroom, the common areas of a high rise; or before you can install new mechanical systems – you have to take things down, you have to remove things…and that is usually time-consuming and messy.

Having said that, there are two things critical in both new construction and renovation – at least if you’re involved in the project’s management – you’ve got to see the finished product, you’ve got to know where you are going. If you don’t see the vision, if you don’t see the end result – then you can’t lead a team to get there.

The owner of an apartment community isn’t likely to fund a renovation of a few million dollars if he can’t “see” what his or her property will look like after the work is done. The owner isn’t likely to let me tear things down in order to build things up unless he has a vision for the completed renovation.

Much of the Bible is about tearing things down in order to build things up. This is because we’ve built houses of fiction, we’re living in houses of fiction, we’re living lives of fiction – and we certainly live in a world of fiction, of myth in the sense of stories that aren’t true – there are true myths but we don’t have time to delve into that right now.

All of this means that when I come to the Word of God that I must be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to renovate my life. To tear things down in order to build things up. Every day, I think it is safe to say, our lives ought to see a tearing down and a building up – because if we are in a relationship with Jesus Christ then God’s Word and the Holy Spirit will be working in our lives from here into eternity.

to be continued....

The Key Bridge

 

The Key Bridge

 

I’ve been pondering the tragedy of the Key Bridge, praying for the families who lost loved ones. I often pray for those involved in tragedy, and I pray on an ongoing basis for regions engulfed in war and famine and disease, and I pray for our Lord Jesus to return in His glory and establish righteousness and justice. We have plenty to pray for, plenty to intercede for, more than enough to keep us away from the vitriol of the world and its politics and lust after money and pleasure and power. If we stay on our knees, we won’t be able to run after the world, the flesh, and the devil.

 

The thing about the Key Bridge for me is that many years ago I used it during my morning and evening commute to and from work. I used it many other times as well, for I lived in eastern Baltimore County and the Key Bridge was often the best way to travel. I have been on the Key Bridge hundreds, if not thousands, of times and I don’t recall ever once wondering if the bridge would collapse while I was on it.

 

In May 1980 a freighter hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, killing 35 people when a section of that bridge collapsed. I suppose some of those folks had driven the bridge many times, for others it may have been their first and last time. I doubt that any of them wondered whether they would make it from one end to the other, they assumed the bridge was safe, they assumed their passage would be safe. There were people waiting for them at the other end of the bridge that they would never see.

 

In 2018 a bridge in Genoa, Italy collapsed, killing 43 people. Did these people know that there was a design flaw in the bridge that experts knew about? Did they know that 8 years before the tragedy the risk of the design flaw had been raised? Gianni Mion, who was in charge of the bridge’s maintenance, asked in 2010 if someone could certify the bridge’s safety. He was told, “There’s the self-certification.”

 

After the disaster Mion said, “I didn’t understand the meaning of that answer; I thought it was nonsense. I should have done something about it, but I didn’t.”

 

When Mion was asked why he had remained silent, he said according to a BBC report, “that he was afraid he could lose his job and his position of power and prestige at the helm of one of Italy’s major industrial companies.”

 

What can we learn from all of this?

 

How many of us remain silent concerning Jesus Christ because we don’t want to lose earthly things? Like the Pharisees, how many of us do not witness to others of Jesus Christ because we “love the praise of men more than the praise of God”? (John 5:44; 12:42 – 43; Gal. 1:10). Just as Mion and others faced an Italian court as a result of their gross negligence that resulted in the deaths of 43 people, we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of our lives, including our witness of Christ to others (2 Cor. 5:9 – 11; Mk. 8:38; Ez. 33:1 – 9).  

 

There is only one True Bridge for us to take in this life, a Bridge that will withstand all that can be thrown against it, a Bridge that will always stand – even when it appears to have been destroyed on the Cross – that Bridge is Jesus Christ. This Bridge takes us from being sinners to being saints, it takes us from spiritual death to spiritual life (Eph. 2:1 – 10; 2 Cor. 5:11 – 21). This Bridge most surely spans our passage from life through death to life forever.

 

But, of course, we must take the Bridge, we must travel on it. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). Knowing about the Bridge is not enough, seeing pictures of the Bridge is not sufficient; driving to the Bridge to look at it, to see other people traveling on the Bridge, without traveling on the Bridge ourselves leaves us on the wrong side of the shore.

 

The Bridge of Jesus is a one-way bridge, there is no two-way traffic – for Jesus is our Author and Finisher, in fact, once we are on the Bridge, once we are in Him and He is in us…He takes control, we are no longer in the driver’s seat and we can trust Him for the journey – no matter how perilous things may appear. (Phil. 1:6; 2:12 – 12; Heb. 12:1 – 2).

 

What bridge are we traveling on today? What is our destination?

 

Perhaps we could ask others, “What bridge are you traveling on? What is on the other side of your bridge?”

 

Let us make no mistake, only One Bridge will stand, and His Name is Jesus. (Acts 4:12; Heb. 12:25 – 29).

The Cup

 

The Cup

 

By: Robert L. Withers (by Christ’s grace)

(Revised March 2021)

 

O Father let this cup please pass away

If it be possible, this I pray

I long to be with You always,

But to drink this cup is to drink the pain

And sin of all humanity,

It is to cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 

Born to drink this cup I know I am

From Mary’s breasts in Bethlehem to

This garden named Gethsemane,

Right named Olive Press, for my soul is

Pressed with impending death and separation,

And I will cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 

From Mary’s arms to this garden cup

To sour wine offered upon the Cross

Which soon shall be, I’ll drink the dregs

Of humanity, of men and women,

Of boys and girls,

And as I drink my cry will be, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 

 

 

Down the corridors of time, from ages past

To ages future, as long as they shall last

I’ll go to each person who is living now,

Who has lived in the past and who is yet to come.

I’ll take their cups and pour in mine, their sin, their death, all of their crime.

I’ll drink it down, all of their cups, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 

My soul is sorrowful unto death,

I am pressed down with little breath

Left in this body, left in this soul,

But drink I must, and drink it whole, I must empty the cup

With all it contains, the death, the sin, the separation, the pain

And as I drink darkness will descend, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 

Who will watch with me this hour?

Who will resist Satan’s power?

Who will surrender his will to God?

Who will share my Cross, my shame?

Who will embrace Him who is despised?

Who will hear the depths of my cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 

I drink your cup of sins, I drink them

Little or big; black or white lies it matters not,

They have all separated you from your God.

I drink your pride and ego too, I take into me

All there is of you, my cry is because I bear your sins,

I bear you too, you are in my heart as I cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 

I must go now, my betrayer is at hand,

The cup I shall drink, it is in my Father’s plan,

I shall drink it for Him, and I shall drink it for you,

I shall drink the cup and enter the abyss of pain,

And before the sun sets tomorrow, the heavens shall

Hear my cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 

But know that you are my joy and I did this for you,

To bring you home to my Father, and your Father too.

For after that questioning cry on the Cross, will be

“It is finished.” “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.”

I drank the cup of sin and death for you, a cup I’d not tasted till I drank it for you.

I now offer you my cup of love and of life - forged on the Cross; what will you do?

 

Barefoot in the Church - Part 4

 continued from yesterday...the conclusion

I have a friend who gave a deposition in a legal case.  In depositions lawyers often spend the first hour asking you questions about your life, where you were born, where you went to school, the various jobs you held…they go on and on.  After he’d received a printed copy of the deposition – which was quite thick, my friend pointed to it and said to me, “Read this and you’ll know all about me, all about my life.”  And I thought, “I already know all about your life, it’s stamped with “Paid in Full, by the Blood of Jesus.”

            What did I mean?  I meant that I choose to see people in Christ.  I meant that I choose, as much as possible by God’s grace, to view people in their Upper Rooms, in their new rooms in Jesus Christ.  I know everyone has a lower room, so I’m not usually surprised when I see someone living out of that particular room…sure it can hurt me, but seldom surprise me…I choose to see people in their Upper Rooms and to affirm who they are in Christ, not who they are in the lower room of self-centeredness.

            Next week is communion, and communion is not just about a vertical relationship with Jesus Christ, it is also about a horizontal relationship with our brothers and sisters – and frankly the two cannot be separated.

            The saddest relationships – if you can call them that – are the ones where people would rather die than have reconciliation, they would rather die than admit their attitudes are wrong, they’d rather live in a straight – jacket of unforgiveness and isolation than open up their hearts to others.  They will keep their shoes on at all costs, shoe strings knotted tight, double and triple knotted…before they’ll allow their hearts and spirits to be loosed in the love of Jesus and the freedom of the Holy Spirit.

The freest people I know are the ones who can say, “I am sorry, please forgive me.”  The best marriages I know are the ones where husbands and wives say, “I’m sorry, please forgive me.”  The best parents I know are the ones who say to their children, “I’m sorry, please forgive me.”  The best friendships I’ve ever seen are the ones where friends say, “I’m sorry, please forgive me.”  And without a doubt the best and healthiest churches on this planet are the ones where the family of God has learned to say on a regular basis to each other, “I’m sorry, please forgive me.”

Are we learning what it means to live with each other with our shoes off, are we learning what it means to wash the feet of our brother and sister, are we learning what it means to allow our feet to be washed…are we learning what it means to go barefoot in the church?

Whose feet are you being called to wash this week?

Who will wash your feet?

“If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

Barefoot in the Church - Part 3

 Continued from yesterday...

Now let me say something else that may be a surprise to you, if you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are perfect and complete and fully loved in Him. 

It’s almost as if we have two rooms inside of us…an old nasty room that is furnished with pictures of “Me, me…me!” and a new room that God has furnished for us to live in with His Son Jesus Christ.  In the old nasty room there is a map on the wall and we are at the center of the universe, in the new room there is a map on the wall and the Lamb of God is at the center of the universe.  We can choose to live in that old nasty room with its self-righteousness and pettiness and self-centeredness, we can run through life shouting, “Look at me, notice me, put me first.”  We can nurture unforgiveness like a favorite plant, we can make it a cherished part of our lives…or we can take off our robe, wrap a towel around our waist, pour water in a basin…and wash the feet of our brothers and sisters in Christ…and then…we can remove our shoes and allow our feet to be washed by others. 

            Jesus could wash the feet of these men because He knew who He was.  The apostles were having a fit about being first because they didn’t know who they were.  When we know who we are we can wash even the feet of Judas Iscariot.  There are times we’ll minister to people, we’ll serve people, and we’ll know that they’re going to turn around and bite us, but it’s ok because we know who we are in Jesus Christ, and if Jesus could wash Judas’s feet then we can wash the feet of people who will take advantage of us or talk about us or gossip about us.

            Didn’t Jesus cry out on the Cross, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they do”?

            Jesus knew who He was and He knew He had a purpose, a destiny…He knew He’d come from God and was going to God.  I am reminded of a statement that one of our parishioners made during an ALPHA retreat; Bill Robinson was in his 60s or 70s and had been in church all his life; but he never knew that God wanted an intimate relationship with him, he said, “We’ve got an inheritance in Jesus Christ.  This is great.”  When we know who we are in Christ, when we know how much our Father loves us, when we know that God has a destiny for us…we can wash feet…and we can allow our own feet to be washed.

            Now next Sunday is a communion Sunday, and the Sunday after that is Palm Sunday, and the Sunday after that is Easter.

            Is there any barrier or sin between you and God this morning?  Is there anything between you and a brother or sister in Christ?  If there is anything between you and a brother or sister, then there is something between you and God.  Are you holding unforgiveness in your heart toward someone?  Is there bitterness to be found?  Are you part of the argument about who is going to be the greatest?

            Have we learned to allow our feet to be washed?  Have we learned to wash each other’s feet?  Do we know what it is to pray for each other?  Are we speaking words of love and encouragement to one another?  Have we learned to look beyond the old nasty room in our brothers and sisters and to see them as God the Father sees them…in that nice new fresh room filled with Jesus Christ and God’s love and acceptance?

Barefoot in the Church - Part 2

Continued from yesterday... 

Years ago we had a career military man in our congregation by the name of Eric Engstrom; Eric received new orders that took him from our rural area in the mountains of western MA to a new duty station in Kansas City. Our two country congregations were much like Bethlehem Church, people dressed in what they were comfortable with. Eric emailed me after he’d been in KC a week, and he made a point to mention that he had attended church last Sunday and it was a reminder to him of how many churches get all dressed – up on Sunday mornings – I think Eric probably showed up dressed fairly casual and felt out of place.  Isn’t it funny how we can be taught to dress differently and talk differently and act differently during a particular hour of a particular day?  Why can’t we just be who God created us to be in Jesus Christ?

           

            Why can’t we just go barefoot?

            Now I do respect the folks who will talk to me about reverence toward God.  I believe in reverence.  God is not to be messed with, He is not to be trifled with.  God is holy and we are called to be holy.  But holiness is not an outward thing, it’s a thing of the heart.  It will have its outward expressions, but it doesn’t begin with the outward, it comes from within.  The patterns of worship we see in the Scriptures range from the quiet and solemn to the wildly exuberant, and I’m for all of it in its due season.  Reverence does not mean that we put on a sour – puss face and attitude.

            Having acknowledged that reverence is important, that respect is important, let me suggest that one reason we go through a persona change on Sunday mornings is that we want to play it safe, we want to keep our shoes on.  We don’t want to expose ourselves to each other and we don’t want the Holy Spirit messing with our attitudes toward life or toward each other.

            Reverence is removing our shoes, it is removing our Sunday morning personas, it is removing our facades.

            When Moses and Joshua each encountered the True and Living God they were both told to remove their shoes for the ground they were on was holy.  Yet when Adam and Eve separated themselves from God their response was to hide and to cover up.  The New Jerusalem that the apostle John sees coming down from the heavens is transparent, you can see right through it.  When we live before God we are called to be transparent, and I think it is far better to learn that way of life here than later on, otherwise we might be a tad bit uncomfortable in heaven. 

There should be no barrier between God and us and there should be no barrier between one another.  When we find ourselves covering up like Adam and Eve - that ought to be a check in our hearts that we are moving in the wrong direction, away from God.

            Do we have a willingness to give to one another and a willingness to receive from one another?  Do we have a willingness to wash each other’s feet and to allow our feet to be washed?

            Let me share something with you that I trust will come as no surprise…not one of us is perfect.  Not only that, but we can all be mean at times, we can be petty, we can be self-righteous, we can be arrogant, we can be downright selfish and we can all be unforgiving.  And worst of all we can be religious…we can think we’re better than someone else.

            I am amazed when people have their little spats and then become concerned about who was right and who was wrong…rather than be concerned about reconciliation and restoring unity in the Body of Christ.  Where did we ever get the idea that forgiving someone is an option that we can exercise if we please?  How did this cancer ever get into the Church of Jesus Christ?  Who am I to say, “I won’t forgive this brother or that sister?”  What an arrogant statement for me to make!

            “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.  Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  Ephesians 4:31 – 5:2.        

We have missed the point of the Cross if we have missed the point of going barefoot in the church of Jesus Christ.

Barefoot in the Church - Part 1

 Good morning,

Yesterday a dear friend called to talk about John 13 and feet washing...Holy Week is soon upon us and he is going to lead his conjugation in washing one another's feet - a sacramental practice that I dearly love.

This got me thinking about a message I first preached in Becket, MA years ago - as I began my message I sat down and removed my shoes and socks - and so I preached the message while I was "barefoot in the church."

I hope there is something here for you - I'm posting it in sections, more will follow tomorrow.

Much love,

Bob

Come with me into what may be familiar territory for some of us…for others perhaps it is the first time…walk with me down the narrow streets of Jerusalem…past Roman soldiers, past priests and religious types, past men and women preparing for tomorrow’s Passover observance.  Each family is preparing a lamb for slaughter, a lamb that will completely be consumed tomorrow night.  But let’s walk through this hustle and bustle and climb these stairs over here…but please be quiet…let’s keep things hushed…for there is another Lamb being prepared…let’s step into the room at the top of the stairs…

            There He is…the Lamb…He knows that He’ll soon be walking down these stairs, He’ll be walking outside the city, beyond the brook Kidron, into the olive garden…He knows there will be torches in the night sky…betrayal by one whom He has loved and cared for…an arrest…He knows that a long night stretches before Him…a night in which the friends which now surround Him in this very room will abandon Him…a morning in which a dear friend denies knowing Him…within hours His flesh will be torn from His back by a whip laced with pieces of metal and bone…and shortly thereafter…can you hear it…shortly thereafter there is the sound of a hammer pounding spikes…penetrating His flesh…nailed to a Cross…and the sky will turn black…the sun will cease to shine…and a cry will pierce the universe…

            And as these events close in on this Lamb…what do we witness in this room?

            Luke tells us in his Gospel…as we look over there…that there is an argument going on…the twelve apostles are arguing…”Who is going to be the greatest?  Who’s going to be in charge?  Me!  No me!  Jesus spent more time with me!  I’m better educated!  I’ve given up more to follow Him!  I am a better public speaker!  I have a better singing voice!  I’m better looking!  I have more contacts!  Me!  Me!  Me!”

            Here is the Lamb about to be sacrificed.  Sacrificed and abandoned, mocked and ridiculed, despised and hung on a Cross…bearing our sins…and what is going on in this room?  “Me…me…me.”

            And so the Lamb…looks at them…rises from His seat…removes His outer garments…wraps a towel around Himself…pours water in a basin…walks over to one of the twelve…kneels on the floor…and begins to wash the man’s feet.  From one…to the other…to the next…James, John, Matthew, Peter (of course Peter has something to say about it all), Phillip…and Judas Iscariot…from one to the other until He has washed the feet of all twelve.

            A silence cloaks the room.  No longer the “Me, me, me” of argumentation.  No longer the self-promotion of making oneself look better than the rest.  No longer the puffed-out chest of pride and vanity.  For the Lamb has administered a rebuke that all but the most dense of fallen humanity cannot fail to see.  But lest there be any misunderstanding…the Lamb speaks,

            “Do you know what I have done to you?  You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.  If I then your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you….If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

            How can this room be filled with, “Me…me…me!”?  With the shadow of the Cross hovering above…with Judas Iscariot having done the deal to betray Jesus…with over three years of living day in and day out with Jesus…how can this room be filled with, “Me…me…me!”?

            How can the Lamb take on the form of a lowly servant in the midst of these cries of “Me, me, me!”?  How can He stoop to the ground and wash feet…how can He wash Peter’s feet, the one who will shortly deny Him with curses?  How can He wash the feet of Judas Iscariot…the one who has given himself over to Satan?  How can He penetrate the cries of “Me, me…me!” and stoop beneath the pride, the vanity, the arrogance?

            The Lamb says, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

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

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.

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.