The Narrow Way

The longer I follow Christ, the more I am struck by His objective claims.  The world says there are "many paths to God," but the Bible proclaims the opposite.  In our modern-day culture of relativity, people hate the idea of anyone claiming to possess absolute truth.  That is why people hated Jesus.  He stood up to the religious leaders of the day, boldly proclaiming He was the Son of God.  He transcended all earthly rulers in wisdom and power.  He performed mighty signs and wonders, and rose from the dead in glory.  He said without apology or caveat in John 14:6:  "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."  No politician, prophet, or lunatic spoke as this Man.  In Christ we find no comfortable middle ground with this world.

Following Jesus Christ is an exclusive, narrow way.  He will receive every sinner who repents and receives Him through faith.  The Gospel is incredibly simple, yet it is the hard way.  Christ's yoke is easy and His burden light, but the broad path to destruction is easier traveled than the upward call of God.  The way of Jesus Christ is an uncompromising way.  Because of this, it is an impractical way for anyone who desires earthly recognition, fame, power, or glory.  Yet it goes further.  It is an intolerable way.  People have no problem with Christians when they resemble the soft, weak, mushy persona that often passes for Jesus.  But when Christians take a stand upon the Bible as the literal Word of God concerning moral issues in society, they are fiercely attacked and despised.  It is an impossible, unthinkable way.  Following Jesus in obedience makes foolishness appear wise from a worldly perspective.  Those who have tasted and seen that God is good know better!

God's way is the only way, and that Way is Jesus Christ.  Exclusive and narrow, yes.  Narrow is not a bad thing when you are heading precisely in the right direction!  While the world searches fruitlessly for love, peace, joy, significance, assurance, and purpose, these things are found in Christ alone.  1 John 5:11-12:  "And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."  Notice the lack of words like "might," "may," "possibly," or "hopefully."  God has given eternal life and this life is in Jesus Christ.  Unmistakably direct and clear:  there is a God and He has provided a Way to heaven through Jesus.  He who has the Son has life, and those without the Son of God do not have life.  Clear, precise, and concise.  There is the claim; take it or leave it.  Laugh it off, fight against it, rage against the idea, hurl insult after insult.  But the truth resounds now and for eternity, for the Word of God endures forever.

The preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who worship the creature over the Creator, but to those who are saved it is the power of God.  Romans 10:8-9 reads, "But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."  Believe, confess your sins, repent, and be saved, becoming born again through the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is not one of many doors to heaven, but He is the Door through whom all who enter heaven must enter.  Jesus says in John 10:9-10:  "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."  Rely upon Christ Jesus and choose life!

Singing in the Fire

While busy with custodial duties at church, I was listening to a talk by Britt Merrick, pastor of Reality Carpinteria.  He spoke from experience about how joy and suffering are coupled in the Christian life.  Instead of God removing suffering from life, He allows Christians to embrace genuine joy in the midst of suffering.  Just yesterday I finished reading a biography of Mrs. Spurgeon by Charles Ray.  Susannah was a godly woman who not only endured suffering, but continued to persevere and be profitable for God's glory in the midst of acute long-term illness.  She was a woman of maturity and faith, one who learned to trust in God no matter what.  In the book, there is an object lesson she shares which spoke deeply to my heart.  Ray begins this quote from Susannah on page 81:

At the close of a very dark and gloomy day I lay resting on my couch as the deeper night drew on, and though all was bright within my cosy little room, some of the external darkness seemed to have entered into my soul and obscured its spiritual vision.  Vainly I tried to see the hand which I knew held mine and guided my fog-enveloped feet along a steep and slippery path of suffering.  In sorrow of heart I asked, 'Why does my Lord thus deal with His child?  Why does He so often send sharp and bitter pain to visit me?  Why does he permit lingering weakness to hinder the sweet service I long to render to His poor servants?'  These fretful questions were quickly answered, and though in a strange language, no interpreter was needed save the conscious whisper of my own heart.

For a while silence reigned in the little room, broken only by the crackling of an oak log burning on the hearth.  Suddenly I heard a sweet, soft sound, a little, clear, musical note, like the tender trill of a robin beneath my window.  'What can it be?' I said to my companion, who was dozing in the firelight; 'surely no bird can be singing out there at this time of the year and night!'  We listened, and again heard the faint plaintive notes, so sweet, so melodious, yet mysterious enough to provoke for a moment our undisguised wonder.  Presently my friend exclaimed, 'It comes from the log of the fire!' and we soon ascertained that her surprised assertion was correct.  The fire was letting loose the imprisoned music from the old oak's inmost heart.  Perchance he had garnered up this song in the days when all went well with him, when birds twittered merrily on his branches, and the soft sunlight flecked his tender leaves with gold; but he had grown old since then and hardened; ring after ring of knotting growth had sealed up the long-forgotten melody until the fierce tongues of the flames came to consume his callousness and the vehement heat of the fire wrung from him at once a song and a sacrifice.

Oh! thought I, when the fire of affliction draws songs of praise from us, then indeed are we purified and our God is glorified!  Perhaps some of us are like this old oak log - cold, hard and insensible; we should give forth no melodious sounds were it not for the fire which kindles round us, and releases tender notes of trust in Him, and cheerful compliance with His will.  As I mused the fire burned and my soul found sweet comfort in the parable so strangely set forth before me.  Singing in the fire!  Yes, God helping us if that is the only way to get harmony out of these hard, apathetic hearts, let the furnace be heated seven times hotter than before.

When God sees fit to refine us in the fire, may the Holy Spirit quicken us to praise Him!  May the joy of the LORD be our strength always!

The Grace-Knowledge Connection

"You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; ¹⁸ but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen."

2 Peter 3:17-18

After I read this passage, I was led to consider the connection between grace and knowledge.  Without knowledge we are unable to appreciate or even acknowledge grace.  For instance, salvation by grace through faith is an unmerited gift from God.  Because of His great love for us, God the Father chose to satisfy divine justice through the sacrifice of His own Son Jesus the Christ on Calvary.  What a gift!  Not only can man be forgiven for his sins by repenting and trusting in Jesus as Saviour, but the righteousness of Christ is freely credited to each Christian born again through the Holy Spirit.

There was a time when I was ignorant of God and His grace.  I didn't know that Jesus is God-made-flesh and humbled Himself to take human form.  I did not know Jesus died so I might live.  At first, His gracious sacrifice and gift of eternal life had been reduced to a picture on a page of an ornate Bible.  I didn't know that Jesus did that for me and everyone else who was guilty of sin.  But after reading the Bible I grew in knowledge.  I learned the Bible reveals Jesus is God's Son sent to seek and save the lost.  How greatly He humbled Himself in becoming a man and embracing the cross!  I realised all have sinned and none are worthy to be purchased with the precious blood of Jesus.  Only through knowledge and enlightenment by the Holy Spirit did God's grace - generous favour freely given which I cannot earn, purchase, or deserve - actually appear as grace.

So how can we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?  Practical knowledge spurns on our growth in grace.  When we understand who Jesus is, His infinite love for man, and the degree of His sacrifice and suffering, the grace He extends to us is discerned.  As our understanding of the depth of our sin grows, our appreciation of God's grace towards us also grows.  We realise our obligation to extend more and more grace to others, even as God has toward us.  We have freely received:  we are called to freely give.  If we do not see ourselves as great sinners, we will never be great in grace  If we are more concerned about the speck in our brother's eye than the log in our own, our growth in grace will be stunted.  This fact is illustrated in a conversation Jesus had with a self-righteous Pharisee named Simon.

Luke 7:40-50 reads, "And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." So he said, "Teacher, say it." ⁴¹ "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?" ⁴³ Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more." And He said to him, "You have rightly judged." ⁴⁴ Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. ⁴⁵ You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. ⁴⁶ You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. ⁴⁷ Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little." ⁴⁸ Then He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." ⁴⁹ And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" ⁵⁰ Then He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."

The difference between the sinful woman who anointed Jesus and the judgmental Pharisee was that the woman loved much because she had been forgiven much.  Do not misunderstand:  she had not sinned more than the Pharisee!  They were both sinners before God.  The woman recognised the enormity of her debt which had been forgiven.  Because of this, she expressed her love for Christ with tears and the sacrifice of expensive perfume.  The Pharisee loved little because he thought he had little need of Christ's forgiveness.  Though the woman was known as a sinner, she was the one who went home in peace justified and saved.

There is a point in every Christian walk we either grow or regress in grace.  Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.  When we grow in knowledge, we can be deceived to assume we have obtained the right to sit in the seat of judgement of others.  Our eyes are to be fixed on Christ, judging ourselves lest we be judged.  Knowledge of Christ and how undeserving we are allows us to grow in our appreciation of God's grace, to receive it from God, and freely offer it to others.  Maybe you figure you deserve grace because you have repented.  No!  We can never earn God's grace or it could not be grace.  Perhaps we withhold grace because someone has not proven themselves worthy to us.  In doing so we make grace of no effect.  If increased knowledge of doctrine makes us legalistic, we have abandoned the grace of God.  Paul warns the church in Galatians 5:2 & 4, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage...⁴ You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace."

Let us grow in grace and knowledge of our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ.  Gracious words should attend gracious thoughts.  Colossians 4:6 says, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one."  Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  Out of the abundance of grace a man has received from God so he thinks.  Unless God's grace seasons our knowledge, we will know nothing as we ought to know.

Mowing That Lawn

While driving yesterday, I caught sight of a heart-warming scene.  A man was mowing the grass in his front yard.  That in itself was not an unusual thing to see.  But what brought a smile to my face was his little boy, probably about three years old.  This boy industriously pushed a large plastic cart back and forth accross the turn, glancing occasionally at dad from his "work."  The riding toy had a handle at the back gripped tightly by the youngster.  Tongue sticking out in a concentrated effort, the boy was completely absorbed in mowing the lawn.  Some would say the boy was not actually "doing" anything.  It's true that his train toy was completely ineffective at cutting grass.  But the boy was doing something.  Best he could, he was working with his dad - and teaching me a lesson as well!

It is natural that this boy would delight in emulating his father.  Doing something like dad was fun in itself, and it is a great joy to serve those you love.  I have heard imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but in this case it would be truer to say imitation was the sincerest form of love and respect.  Small children are for a time incapable to dispense the sweet poison of flattery.  Boys with great dads don't only want to do what they do:  they want to be like them.  I have been blessed to have a grandpa, grandad, and a dad that I not only admired as a youngster, but I wanted to be like them when I grew up.  I still respect them and hold them in highest honour.

When we are adopted into the family of God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, our eyes are opened to the awesomeness of our heavenly Father.  It is right for us to emulate Him in everything.  As children of God through the Gospel, we are made co-heirs with Christ as a brother and friend.  He is like the big brother we should always want to be like.  I started thinking about this little boy, feverishly pushing his cart across the grass.  A day will likely come when he will be taught to mow the lawn for real.  Someday that boy who has become a young man will grow tired of mowing the lawn.  He will put it off as a burdensome chore or even refuse to do it altogether.  This picture popped into my head of the greying dad mowing the lawn in his gumboots ten years from now, and the boy stayed at a friend's house, happy to avoid the chore he once did freely and happily as a child.

God, keep me young in heart as a child!  We must never see our service to the LORD as a burdensome task.  It is really God who does the work:  He pushes the real mower, and we are pushing our plastic toys.  But it pleases God profoundly when we joyfully work with sincerity of heart for His glory.  He no doubt smiles broadly when He looks over and sees us doing our best to emulate Him in thought, word, and deed.  That little boy wasn't being paid to copy his dad.  He took it upon himself to do, and his dad encouraged him in his efforts.  He didn't scorn the child for mowing the lawn improperly.  I can see it now:  the lawn mower and toy have been put away, and the father and son walking hand in hand to the house for a cold drink. "You were a good worker today, mate.  You did a fine job."  The boy looks up to the smiling face of his father and beams with satisfaction and profound joy.

Doesn't the thought of your Father saying that to you bring delight to your soul?  May we mature in faith, allowing Christ to live His life through us.  But may we retain the heart of a child with simplicity of love and utmost respect.  Let us look to our Father with our hands on the plow and worship Him!