Children Are Known

God's character is revealed in scripture as just, One who does not show partiality.  All excuses or justifications of men are swept away by God's righteous judgments.  Though God put on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, God is not like a man that He should change.  His Laws are absolute, and His holiness without fail.

This morning I read a most enlightening passage, a verse which stands in stark contrast to the views some have of a gracious God.  2 Chronicles 36:9 says, "Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD."  "Evil" is a word in our society reserved for the worst of the worst.  God summed up the 100 day reign of Jehoiachin in a way no one would dare today - a child merely eight years old - like this:  "And he did evil in the sight of the LORD."  Heavy, isn't it?  God did not soften His judgment of Jehoiachin because of his age, his parents, advisors, the fact he was thrown into the deep end as king at a tender age, or the culture of his day.  Jehoiachin stood alone under the piercing gaze of a righteous God, and did evil in God's sight.  This undoubtedly clashes with the views of some, that a good God could have such a view of a mere child.  But that is the point.  God is good, and in Him is no darkness at all.  Without atonement, Jehoiachin would stand eternally condemned for his wickedness - even at eight years old.

There is none who does good, no not one.  In our natural condition, from the womb all are cut off from fellowship with God because of sin.  Proverbs 20:9-11 says, "Who can say, "I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin"? ¹⁰ Diverse weights and diverse measures, they are both alike, an abomination to the LORD. ¹¹ Even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right."  Even a child is known by God by his deeds, whether he works abominations or righteousness.  By the works of the flesh shall no one be justified, but the righteous live by faith in God.  God knows if there is something good in us toward Him, even during our childhood (1 Kings 14:13).  God grants all opportunity through the Gospel to be forgiven and reconciled to Him.  The Judge of all the earth will do right.  There is much we cannot know or grasp now, but we need not grope for God like a man in the dark.  He has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, and His immutable Word.  God has demonstrated His love for us because whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Sin is serious business, and God's law reveals our desperate need for a Saviour.  Children and adults alike are observed by God according to righteousness.  How great is our need for the Gospel!  How precious is God's gift of forgiveness and salvation He has offered to all who repent and trust in Him!  Let us not excuse in children what God condemns as evil.  We are to faithfully discipline our children compelled by love, even as God chastens us.  In a culture adrift and bankrupt of biblical morality, God's standard can be upheld in mercy, grace, love, and steadfastness.  God is no respecter of persons, and His righteousness is without partiality.

Rejoicing Always in the LORD

"Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!"

 Philippians 4:4

At Calvary Chapel Sydney, we've been studying through Philippians.  Rejoicing in the LORD is a common theme repeated throughout the book.  It's amazing to consider these words were penned by Paul, a man who had been imprisoned without committing a crime.  In fact, in the book of Acts it states one of the rulers who could have released Paul kept him in chains because he hoped to receive a bribe from him - which Paul did not pay!  Paul had every opportunity to be bitter and angry for "losing his freedom."  Yet Paul had learned the secret of contentment and peace that passed understanding through faith in Christ.  He rejoiced in the LORD always, and exhorted all others to do the same.

God uses the circumstances of life to reveal to us the condition of our hearts.  He allows struggles and difficulties to purify and strengthen our faith and resolve to obey Him.  I experienced one such instance (which remains in the infancy stages!) yesterday.  I play baseball on Saturdays with mates at a club in Rouse Hill.  Before the game I knelt on the field for a quick prayer, committing myself and the game to God.  I started on the mound, and for five innings we battled.  Behind 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning with two outs, I hit a ball up the middle and ran.  As my foot came down on first base beating out an infield hit, I saw the ball kick past the first basement.  Without hesitation, instinctively I began to turn to run to second.  Problem was, my right lower-leg didn't get the message as fast as the rest of my body.  I felt my right knee twist out of joint and all my weight pushed down on it - and down I went like a sack of potatoes.

After a couple of minutes I was able to hobble off and ice up.  I could move my leg, but I knew I was done for the day.  We failed in our comeback bid and lost the game.  Personally I had lost a little bit more still:  the ability to easily walk without a pronounced limp or take off socks and shoes!  24 hours later I am not sure if it is a strain, sprain, or a partial tendon rupture (will make an exam appointment tomorrow God-willing).  But having first given the game to the LORD gave me great peace through the knowledge everything is under God's control.  Whether I am back to the diamond in a week or rehab back to health over months, God has me on an adventure of sorts.  He wants me to do some personal pioneering in patience.  He adjusts our limits at times so we might seek to find our satisfaction and comfort not in what we can do but in His presence and what He has done.

I take Paul's exhortation to heart.  In the LORD I can rejoice always, even when my knee is swollen, stiff, and sore.  The peace God gives is independent of my circumstances or how I feel.  Will I choose to experience this rejoicing for the long haul?  Only God knows, but I aim to.  Whether we suffer a strain or complete knee destruction, God remains just as good.  For those who are facing the worst life can offer, Jesus understands because He has gone through it.  He was in all points tempted - He had every opportunity to become bitter at His Father for what He allowed Jesus to face.  Jesus willingly went to the cross for the joy that was set before Him.  You can rejoice in Him, for He is able to deliver and save.  He will never leave or forsake those who put their trust in Him.

Love The LORD Your God

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! ⁵ You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

Deuteronomy 6:4-5

The world is filled with things people love.  As God's adopted children, Christians know their love for God ought to overshadow all other loves, making them even as hate in comparison (Luke 14:26).  But we don't always do what we should, do we?  Our affections should be set on things above, not on things of this earth.  This is a battle we often acknowledge with only half our heart, so filled are we with other loves.

"I love God more than anything," we protest.  Those words, at times, may be true.  But we must admit we are very good at justifying ourselves and quantifying love according to our hearts - which are deceitful beyond compare!  Indeed, love is difficult to discern because it is expressed in many ways:  thoughts, words, actions, emotions, and feelings.  So let me make it easy for you in the way God recently has made it easy for me.  One of the prime aspects of God's love towards us is His fervent desire to be with us in fellowship and communion.  Another aspect is how things we love will fill our minds.  In fact, David wrote in Psalm 139:17-18 concerning God's thoughts toward people, "How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! ¹⁸ If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You."

Let's take into account just these two criteria:  1) we want to be with what or who we love, and 2) we think about what or who we love.  As you go through your days, what or who do you want to be with?  What or who fills your thoughts?  Whether you have amorous feelings towards the things that occupy your time or your mind, it does not matter.  Simply put, you love them.  As long as we love things that are not God, it will rob us of affection, thoughts, and love we should have towards God.  God's love is unlimited, but we humans have limits.  Love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit we bear when we are walking according to God's will.  If our hearts and minds are set on things of this world - even on things, ideas, or relationships that in their right place can be very good - we are not walking in God's will, and therefore cannot love as we should.

God wants you to freely give up these other loves so you might love Him more perfectly.  He is worthy of that sacrifice.  Let's say for example your thoughts have been occupied on a television program.  You would not admit to "loving" that program, but you must admit you like it.  Truth be told, it does take up a fair amount of your thoughts during the day.  You might be careful to watch the program every time it airs, and if you cannot watch it live you record it to watch later.  It is disappointing to miss it.  Perhaps this is a shocking revelation you cannot accept:  you actually love that program.  If you think otherwise, the Holy Spirit can reveal even this to you.  Loving things of this world is as easy as breathing, and we do it without even recognising it.  If our love of which God is worthy has been let loose like streams of waters in the streets, we must return to the spring of Living Water.  All other loves must be culled so our love of God can be again cultivated.

So feeling guilty, you decide you should stop following the program, and are a bit bitter over it.  When we have walked with Jesus for any period of time, we have all done this sort of thing - and admittedly, felt pretty awful at times.  We felt like we are having to give up the one part of our life that made us very happy.  And that is why we might waffle back and forth on the issue for years.  But hear me:  anything we lay aside for the purpose of drawing nearer to God and loving Him more, we will have only gain.  We won't have lost anything!  If God replaces that thing we loved, our love and appreciation of Him will grow exponentially.  Oh, the things He wants to tell you!  What time of sweetness He wants to spend with you!  God is greater than all found in this world!  He is the One that thing or activity has become a cheap substitute for that is working to destroy the love we have left over for Him!  Christianity is not a life of restrictions but one of abundance and freedom.  As long as you hold onto other loves, you cannot know God's love as you should, and therefore cannot express His love to others either.

Let us heed God's command to love Him with all our heart, soul, and strength.  We are no longer our own, but redeemed children of our Heavenly Father who loved us so much He sent His only begotten Son.  Through the Holy Spirit God has shed abroad His love in our hearts.  Romans 5:1-8 tells us this revelation of Divine Love and His benefits towards those who are born again:  "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³ And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. ⁶ For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Do you have any other love in your life that has done so much for you?  I think not.

The Presence

A sign by the Temple Mount in Jerusalem reads, "The Sages said about it, "The Divine Presence never moves from the Western Wall."  In the Old City it seems there is a constant flow of Orthodox Jews heading to and from the Western Wall to pray.  Like in the days when the temple Solomon built stood on Mount Moriah as the focal point of God's presence, today many look at the Western Wall as the place to draw near to God.

When Jesus died on the cross, the veil separating the holy place from the "Holy of Holies" was rent from top to bottom.  This revealed the Ark of the Covenant which had previously been concealed from the view of everyone but the High Priest on the Day of Atonement.  In the days of the tabernacle when the ark was moved it was always wrapped in skins, hidden from the sight of the people.  Jesus ushered in a New Covenant in His own blood, once for all atoning for the sins of all who will repent and trust in Him.  The need for sacrificing animals and burnt offerings has been once for all completed by the sacrifice of Jesus.  The Ark no longer needed to be sprinkled with blood annually in the Holy of Holies, for the sacrifice of Jesus was complete once and for all.  Christians are now the temple of the Holy Spirit not made with hands, and the Divine Presence lives within us.  We need not go to a particular geographic location to gain access into God's presence, for we have been invited in God's throne room of grace through the power of the Holy Spirit.

That being said, there is an admirable quality in the Orthodox Jews' efforts to draw near to God.  They rise early and stay up late praying at the Western Wall.  They read the scriptures and their prayer books.  They lay tefillin (some say phylacteries), don prayer shawls, and make personal sacrifices at great expense to seek the presence of God.  God is worthy of such sacrifice, that our lives would be spent in the pursuit of God.  Unlike the Sages, the Bible does not suggest we go to a particular geographic location to be heard by God, but to humble ourselves before Him right where we are as we are.  If we humble ourselves before Him and seek Him with our whole hearts we will find Him according to His sure promise (Deut. 4:29).  This promise was given long before there was a temple or a Western Wall.

I believe we live in a day where Bible knowledge abounds among Christians but few invest time seeking the presence of God.  The church is packed with activities and objects which have become cheap substitutes for God's presence.  We know prayer is important so we have prayer meetings.  "Worship" for some has been reduced to a performance with skilled musicians and flashing lights.  Some church buildings are historical and ornate, pointing to the great traditions of saints long held in high esteem.  Churches burn incense, light candles, kneel, and recite from the scriptures.  Lights are dimmed, sermons are preached, elders lay hands, and gifts of the Spirit are exercised.  We have training, classes, courses, programs, meetings, ministries for young and old concerning diverse interests.  And I could go on.  But the fact still remains:  unless we are seeking and experiencing God's Divine Presence ourselves, it is all meaningless.  All the external service we perform, all the helps we employ are pointless unless the point of them is to draw near to God.  That may very well be the point of them.  But all too often our focus is on externals when what we really need is God Himself.

At times in my life I have been like the cripple at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5), praying for help from others when it was Jesus I needed.  Day after day, year after year the man languished there lamenting his lack.  When Jesus came to him and asked if he wanted to be well, he did not answer the question.  He said, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool."  It is easy for us to lament over the condition of our churches or even the "church in general" - as if we know anything about it!  We can fall into the trap of lamenting over the lack of labourers, the lack of servants, lack of young people, lack of growth, or the lack of a charismatic leader!  We wring our hands over our lack when Jesus stands before us and asks quietly, "Do you want to be made whole?"  If God makes us whole, do we lack any good thing?  Jesus is who we need.  We don't need more people or programs.  We don't need a better graphics department or a state-of-the-art sound system.  We don't need more meetings or training.  Tools and helps are fine, but what we need most of all is for every person in the church to seek the presence of God as gold, to thirst for Him as a deer pants for water in the dry and thirsty land.  We must lay aside other affections and make entrance into God's presence our single aim.  Our meetings and gatherings ought to be an outflow of this continual practice in our lives of cultivating the presence of God individually.  If you think going to a building where other professing Christians go will bring your closer to God, you are no different than someone hustling to the Western Wall - convinced "God hears better from there."  My God has no such limits.

Why do you read the Bible?  Why do you pray?  Why do you sing songs, raise your hands, or serve in your church?  Unless you seek God's Divine Presence in your church services and activities, you will end up empty instead of full, weary instead of refreshed.  Why should we spend our money on what is not bread?  Why should we waste our efforts on maintaining church attendance when it is presence of God we desperately need?  The change in your Church can start with you.  You need not tell a soul.  But if you spend your days drawing near to God in humility, seeking His presence above all other things, you will be transformed and God will breathe new life into your walk.  Then you will be a giver and not just a frustrated user.  Isn't Jesus who we really need anyway?