Quotes from "Stones of Fire"

Yesterday I finished reading Isobel Kuhn's "Stones of Fire."  It is a tale of her ministry in China among the Lisu people.  Through the story she weaves the concept of God's people as precious gems in the hands of a master lapidary.  Here are three paragraphs I would like to share which introduce different chapters in the book.  We ought not to think it strange when we are faced with trials and difficulty.  This is God's way to mold us into vessels He can use for His glory.

"Diamond dust mixed with oil is the only abrasive used in polishing precious stones.  It is put upon fast rotating wheels called "skaifs" at 2,500 revolutions per minute, and the gem held firmly against them.  A quick succession of hard, unconquerable particles pressed against the jewel will polish it.  The spiritual counterparts, as God brings them into human lives, are sharp and painful events that follow fast one upon another, all of them irresistible, which cannot be pushed away but must be accepted and endured.  When the skaif is removed, one sees the beautiful lights of patience, self-sacrifice, and humility shining forth.  Those who watch it from above, see it as the Master Lapidary's diamond dust polishing His stones of fire." (pg. 82)

"Do you know that lovely fact about the opal?  That in the first place, it is made only of desert dust, sand, and silica, and owes its beauty and preciousness to a defect.  It is a stone with a broken heart.  It is full of minute fissures which admit air, and the air refracts the light.  Hence its lovely hue and that sweet lamp of fire that ever burns at its heart, for the breath of the Lord God is in it.  You are only conscious of the cracks and desert dust, but so He makes His precious opal.  We must be broken in ourselves before we can give back the lovely hues of His light, and the lamp in the temple can burn in us and never go out."  - Ellice Hopkins (pg. 147)

"The most magnificent diamond in the world's history was presented to the King of England, who sent it to Amsterdam to be cut.  It was put into the hands of an expert lapidary, and what do you suppose he did?  He took that gem of priceless worth and cut a notch in it.  Then he struck it a hard blow with his instrument, and lo! the superb jewel lay in his hand cleft in twain...For days and weeks that blow had been studied and planned.  Drawings and models had been made of the gem.  Its quality, its defects, its lines of cleavage, had all been studied with the most minute care.  That blow was the climax of the lapidary's skill...Seeming to ruin the superb precious stone, it was in fact its perfect redemption.  For from those two halves were wrought two magnificent gems...to blaze in the crown of state."  - Streams in the Desert (pg. 125)

A Lesson in Digestion

Today I took a little morning run, an attempt to work off a kilo (2.2 pounds) or so I must have carried into Australia and an additional one I carried out.  It was a bit warm at the beginning of the run, and by the end I was panting like a dog lying in the sun!  As much as I detest pain caused to my body through running, it is not without many benefits.  I found that not only does it increase energy, burn fat, builds and tones muscle, but to my surprise it aids in my digestion immensely.  No need to go into all the details of how I know, but five servings a day of whole fiber cannot do what a 15 minute run does.

This made me consider how digestion works.  The digestive process begins with a choice and technique.  A key to good digestion is first to choose good food.  The second step is to chew food thoroughly and completely so the body can extract nutrients and benefit from them.  The rest of the digestive process is taken care of according to the health of each person.  If your body is anything like mine, when I exercise regularly the natural process of digestion is improved.

Now let us turn this to an examination of the spiritual.  Jesus is the Living Bread who has come down from heaven, that Living Manna who can sustain us day by day into eternity.  His Word is food indeed and our new spiritual birth comes along with it an appetite for spiritual nourishment which is only found through God.  It begins with a choice:  what will we choose to feed ourselves today?  Will we choose the sugary temptations of worldly things or sensational "doctrines" which are devoid of spiritual value, or will we choose to feed on the Word?  Most Christians are guilty of ignoring the second part of spiritual digestion:  chewing our food properly.  We will blow through chapters at a time hardly without any thought whatsoever, the equivalent of shoving food in un-chewed gulps down our throats.  It is when we begin to live-out what God has spoken in practical exercise that we begin to digest His truth more completely.  Our obedience and devotion will cause His Word to impact us in ways we never imagined possible.

My dad and I were having a discussion about the danger of idolizing scripture.  Today many people are ever learning, but never coming to the truth.  We have more commentaries, books, DVDs, and access to sermons and studies than ever before, but people remain without spiritual strength.  The church is bloated with much information about God, but never seem to experience God with the power He has made available to His church.  This is a digestion problem.  God's Word has not lost potency, but God's people have become dull by much hearing.  We think that hearing is as good as doing, agreeing with our minds is the same as obedience in our hearts.  It is only after I look in the mirror and decide that I am fed up with my sloth and extra pounds before I will put on my running shoes and take a jog.  I make a choice to limit myself to one Coke rather than three, and pass on cake even though it looks good.  We must notice that we are putting on the spiritual pounds through much feeding, but growing weak through little doing before anything will change.

The benefits of physical exercise are obvious, and even greater are the spiritual ones.  1 Tim. 4:8 says, "For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come."  Let us therefore choose to observe these simple guidelines:  consider well what we eat, thoughtfully feed upon the pure Word of God, and put this powerful truth into action in our lives.  Only then will we digest spiritual food well, become strong, grow in endurance and faith, and become the soldiers and fighters God drafted us to be for His glory.  Put on those shoes of the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, soldier.  Instead of being happy with just wearing them, how about taking a jog?  Only good will come from it!

Experiencing God

Last Sunday in Sydney I held forth the three things Peter said to the multitudes on the Day of Pentecost when they asked, "What shall we do?"  He said repent, be baptized (in water), and receive the promise of the Father.  It was the last exhortation that was particularly heavy upon my heart.  Jesus promised the baptism with the Holy Spirit to His disciples in Acts 1:8:  "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."  When the Holy Spirit "came upon" the believers in Jerusalem, this marked the first time the Holy Spirit was poured out in such fashion apart from Christ.  As it is written in John 3:34:  "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure."  When the disciples on Pentecost received this gift of the Holy Spirit, it was accompanied by tongues and the gift of teaching.  Later in the New Testament we see many other manifestations of the Spirit operated through God's people by His grace.

When Jesus was baptized in water, that moment held special significance for John the Baptist.  He speaks in John 1:32-33 "...I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. [33] I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit."  I believe in these days Christians who seek this baptism are many but those who receive it are few.  God has said that we will find Him, if we seek Him with our whole hearts.  When our hearts are divided with love of this world we oppose God's inner work.  Many refuse to come apart from the world and be separate, unwilling to be sanctified for God's use alone.  Idols have infiltrated the temple of the Holy Spirit and defiled it, and many refuse to part with their secret sins.

Another reason many do not receive was revealed to me after I preached last week.  God said quietly to my heart, "Many do not receive because they seek an experience instead of seeking Me."  Isn't this often the case?  People everywhere are always seeking after experiences:  a wonderful meal or a long holiday, a spendy night out on the town, catching a favorite sport in person or on a huge TV.  It's all about the experience, the latest and the greatest.  First movies were silent black and white, then color, then talking pictures with song and dance, then Betamax, VHS, Laserdisc, MPEG-1, DVD, and now Blu-ray with surround sound, IMAX, and even IMAX in 3-D!  Entertainment is all about the quality of the experience!  God does not exist to entertain people or wow their senses.  He is not interested in people looking for Him to "one-up" their previous experience.  He is seeking true followers who worship Him in Spirit and in truth, not thrill seekers who are just as happy to watch a movie as to worship God.

Paul is a great example of a seeker who rejected all worldly gain for the pursuit of Christ.  Philip. 3:8-11 says, "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; [10] that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, [11] if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."  Everything Paul desired was to be found in God:  "that I may gain Christ and be found in Him," "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection," "the fellowship of His sufferings," "being conformed to His death," that he might "attain to the resurrection from the dead."  A walk following Christ is full of experiences.  But it was not the experiences Paul looked to:  it was Jesus!

May we learn from Paul's example and seek Christ for Himself, for He is worthy.  It is not for us to dictate how God will use us, or what manifestation of the Spirit we deem acceptable and convenient.  As it is stated in Psalm 115:1, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, because of Your truth."  It is not because of jaw-dropping experiences we have, but because of the worthy character and nature of God we worship Him and seek to have His Holy Spirit poured out upon us.  Then He will receive all the glory.  It no longer is about my experiences, but experiencing God Himself.

The Escape Strategy

On the way home from Australia, I watched the popular movie "Avatar."  It resembles closely, in a way, this current generation which finds escape through technology.  I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but the film holds forth the concept it might be possible to move your soul from one body from another.  Instead of remaining bound in a paralyzed body, one could inhabit a new body in an alien environment.  All one must do is find this new environment, have a body made which could live in it, and the fantasy potential is endless.  Yet after the movie is over, reality is still reality.  After coming home from a two-week trip, reality waits in the form of going back to work, paying the bills which have piled up, and cooking dinner.

Escaping reality has been a hobby for humans since the beginning.  Music, sports, theater, stories, gambling, sex, drugs, and alcohol are just the beginning of things which have been used by people for millenia to remove them temporarily from reality.  As Lemuel's mother says in Proverbs 31:6-7, "Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart. [7] Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more."  These verses point out how alcohol numbs the mind but has no power to change reality in a positive way.  In the last century, technology has added to the ways we can "unwind," specifically with television, radio, video games, movies, and the internet.  All of these latest inventions are highly portable and have opened the door to an almost sinister pursuit of fantasy.  It has escalated to such extremes that people or their neglected children have actually died because of this addiction to seeking this escape.

Last night the thought occurred to me:  is it possible that church activities could become just another way to seek escape from reality?  Is this why some people become disillusioned with Christianity and the church when real problems occur within it?  If you haven't recognized this by now, people have problems.  Christians are people, therefore Christians have problems too.  Since the church is made up of Christians, it stands to reason that there will be problems within the church.  This is in no way a justification for sin or immoral practice, but an objective statement of fact.  We all have a history with a number of hurts and pain which may or may not have been confessed, recognized, or even dealt with.  There are issues that everyone faces on a regular basis and also times of crisis which can occur with the sudden violence of a tornado, leaving wreckage in its path.  Those who expect the church to be a perfect utopia free from human error soon find themselves facing grim reality.  This should not surprise us, for it is the sick who need a physician and Jesus is a Healer and Restorer of souls dead in sins.  Reality should not be grim, for we serve a God who is a Redeemer, Savior, and Lover of our souls.

This desire to escape from reality can also find a foothold in doctrine.  There are some who in my opinion over-emphasize certain doctrines such as the Rapture.  I believe the Rapture is imminent and certain, but there are some who are given over entirely to the intrigue of eschatology (end times prophecy).  There is a longing in people to be free from their current situation.  They think, "How great it would be to be caught up to heaven with the church now!  Not only will I be spared from the great tribulation, but I won't have to worry about my financial debt, the fact my marriage is a disaster, or that I'm about to lose my job.  I can't wait until this is all over!"  Church and biblical doctrine become just another way to distance the heart and mind from reality.  Thoughts turn from glory of God and the lost and hurting of this world and are turned inward.  Those who use Bible teachings to escape into a world of fantasy will find their desire to live a godly life stunted and choked of any power to walk with Christ.

Jesus prays this for His church in John 17:15-17:  "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. [16] They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [17] Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."  We do not know which day will be our last, whether we are caught up to be with the LORD in the clouds or if our physical body fails due to sickness or trauma.  Jesus did not pray that we should be taken out of the world, and we should not desire to escape from it either.  This desire to escape is largely selfish.  In what way would leaving this earth glorify God?  I suppose it is in the way you leave it.  King Saul was caught up wounded in the midst of battle and fell upon his own sword because he was afraid he would fall into the hands of the Philistines.  Stephen was stoned for his unwavering faith and boldness in Christ.  I ask you:  from whom did God receive greater glory?

Paul says this in Philip. 1:19-26:  "For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, [20] according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. [21] For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. [22] But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. [23] For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. [24] Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. [25] And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, [26] that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again."  May we as Paul live every day with the unwavering determination to live for the glory of God.  Paul loved Jesus and wanted to be with Him in heaven, but he recognized that God's will was for him to remain on earth.  The day for leaving the earth would someday come, and it would not be productive for Paul to dream about that day when there was much work to be done for the glory of God.  Day-dreaming never makes us more efficient in our labor, more diligent workers, or stronger Christians.  May we be able to say, "To live is Christ."  God will manage the day of our death without our input.  When it comes may He receive the glory due His name.