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.