Clean Your Plate!

The Bible provides spiritual milk and meat for the soul.  Those who teach God's Word have a duty of care to supply food for the soul, not empty chaff blown about by hot wind.  It would be a tragedy to have the tender fillet steak of God's Word available and set only bones before hungry souls.  Spurgeon wrote in Lectures to My Students, "Better far give the people masses of unprepared truth in the rough, like pieces of meat from a butcher's block, chopped off anyhow, bone and all, and even dropped down in the sawdust, then ostentatiously and delicately hand them out upon a china dish a delicious slice of nothing at all, decorated with the parsley of poetry, and flavoured with the sauce of affectation." (Spurgeon, C. H. Lectures to My Students: Complete & Unabridged. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub. House, 1954. Print. page 75)  The hypocritical Pharisees were ones who ignored the bread, meat, and Living Water offered by the wisdom of Christ and fought over the bones of the Law.  The Law is a meaty thing and bones have their place in hearty cooking, but to push aside meat to pick at the bones for the purpose of debate is to miss the whole purpose for why the Law was given.

Food is delicious and practical.  Without food and drink we would not be long for this world, and Jesus said His food was to do the will of the Father.  Jesus always did the will of the Father, and He offers eternal life to all who repent and follow Him in faith.  Christianity is not something to know - though it comes by knowledge - but it is a life to be lived in the real world.  Following Christ is practical, not technical.  Advancement in this world is often tied to education, knowledge, and performance, and it is a terrible error to think we advance spiritually in the same way.  Because education, knowledge, and works are part of the Christian walk it is easy to emphasise them and put the horse on the rider!  Many keen riders have been crushed by the heavy horse of legalism, and the pain of those powerful hooves are never forgotten!  Food is fine to look at, but it is not of any practical use until it is chewed in the mouth and digested in the belly.  Biblical truth is like a beautiful song to be danced to, not an assortment of instruments which can be separated into individual parts to be criticised and tweaked according to modern musical theory.  Theology is a science, but Christianity cannot be observed in a test tube.

I encourage all seekers of truth to consider that a Christian is not judged by God concerning his ignorance but if he has been obedient to what he knows.  A parent does not scold his child for leaving bones on his plate, but will see to it all meat is eaten before dessert is permitted.  God's truth must be adopted into our lives before we receive the reward.  To load your plate with food is like filling your head with knowledge:  it does us no practical good until the meat is voluntarily received and becomes part of us, fueling our thoughts and deeds.  We can know many technical aspects of doctrine and theology, but what matters most is our continual choice to practice loving, trusting, and obeying God.  We are called to love one another as Christ loves us.  We need to seek God about how He would have us demonstrate His love and actually do something about it which requires faith.  Knowledge is not the end, but a means to obtain wisdom.  If knowledge is our only end, we might not ever know God and be doomed to destruction.  This goes for the theologian, scholar, man on the street, you and me!

The Gift of Trust

I have been the happy recipient of the unexpected gift of trust.  It profoundly affected me.  Trust is something the world figures must be earned, but the impact of trust is greatest when it is all of grace.  Years ago I had an experience confirming this I will never forget.  The battery on my wife's car had gone flat, so during my lunch break I took it over to Viking Battery in Santee, California.  I knew the shop carried the type of battery I wanted.  When I walked into the tiny shop with a handful of batteries on display and a dog lazing on the dirty floor, it was far from the polished displays of conventional retail stores.

A friendly man (who I assumed to be the owner), supplied the battery I was looking for as I handed over my old one.  But as I pulled out my credit card to pay, he surprised me:  "Sorry, we don't accept credit cards here.  Only checks or cash."  I was flummoxed.  Having left my checkbook at home, I found myself in a bind.  Laura had already been without her car for the day and I didn't have time to return to pay.  To stretch the battery replacement to another day was a problem.  "I trust you," the man said.  "Tell you what:  take the new battery home and just send me a check in the mail when you can."  "Do you want me to leave my details or give you a business card?" I asked incredulously, wondering how this was a reasonable way to do business.  "No need," he said.  "I trust you."  I was dumbfounded.  The man didn't even know me, but he trusted me enough to make good on payment.  I thanked the man and left with my new battery.

I have never forgotten the man's gesture of goodwill and trust.  I did pay for the battery of course, and included a letter thanking him for trusting me.  Perhaps it was easier for the man to trust me because he did not know me.  Had I robbed him once he might have carried resentment and suspicion.  "Once bitten twice shy," the saying goes.  As a Christian, I am learning to extend grace like this man displayed - not trusting in the "good of humanity," but by actively trusting God. When I choose to entrust my circumstances and life to God, trusting other people can be an extension of my faith in God.  If we create a condition where trust can only be earned, we run the risk of creating an arbitrary, legalistic standard which is not obtainable by any means.  When I consider that God entrusted the keeping of earth to men, the scope of this phenomenal responsibility shocks me.  The fact God has entrusted a wife and children to me, given me ministry as a Christian and entrusted resources completely at my disposal is all of grace.  I never earned the right to have valuable souls entrusted to me, just like I did not deserve to walk out of the store with a new battery without paying.

Friends, I urge you to trust God.  Entrust you life and future into His capable hands.  He is able to protect, provide, and support you in every way.  May our lives be a beacon of God's grace, loving others and walking in obedience to the Spirit of God.  He is the One who binds our wounds and broken hearts so we can trust Him more.  You have received the gift of trust from God, though you did not ask for it nor deserve it.  Praise the LORD for His wondrous gifts and for His unspeakable grace.  Never forget that God is trustworthy!  Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; ⁶ in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."  Trusting people may not always be profitable for business, but when it is borne of faith in God it is good.

Fellowship of His Suffering

Paul desired to be found in Christ so he might experience the power of Christ's resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings (Philippians 3:9-10).  He wanted to be conformed to the death of Jesus Christ so he could partake of His life and resurrection.  All men, Christian or not, are lured by a desire for power.  Most people would love to possess the miraculous power displayed in the life of Jesus Christ.  But very few people have any interest whatsoever to share in the sufferings of Christ.  All people suffer, and to increase our degree of suffering seems to have little upside from an earthly perspective.  It is important to recognise it is impossible to have the power of Christ without suffering with Christ.  And if you are content to have one without the other, there is a disconnect between God's will for your life and your own will.

When you think of suffering for Christ's sake, it is likely persecution which leads to suffering by unbelievers which comes to mind.  It actually goes far deeper than that.  When we choose to walk in love as Jesus did, we will suffer on all fronts.  You will experience the same feelings of rejection in sharing the Gospel with people who don't care as Jesus did when He invited people to follow Him and they refused.  You will understand a new depth of sorrow of watching people ignore biblical wisdom and destroy themselves with sin.  You will mourn over people who love to debate the truth which has never managed to impact their attitudes or choices.  How Christ suffered these same things Himself, called a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  At the cross His pain could have stopped with that climactic moment in history, but no:  He rose from the dead as conqueror and overcomer, alive with a heart which loves, cares, and continues to feel profoundly.

Faith in Jesus Christ provides the power we can draw upon to suffer.  God's ministers suffer to a high degree in many ways, and Jesus gives the miraculous source of strength to persevere.  It is hard to lead Christians to the Living Water and watch them leave thirsty and despairing.  It is sad to offer the Bread of Life to a starving soul and watch them fade away into a spiritual coma.  It is sorrowful work to stamp out fires of the flesh when the desire of all believers is to see people baptised with the Holy Spirit and fire.  Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they refused His love, and it is a grief when we are reminded that  the nature of man towards the love of Christ or His ambassadors has not changed.  Love suffers long and is kind, and when our love reaches an end we can know it was our love, not God's.  It is shocking when the faithful follower of Christ becomes a prodigal, and to see them content with the companionship of swine with no desire to come home.

Yet this story of suffering and dying to self does not have a tragic end:  out of the terrible pain God brings new life!  Jesus suffering immeasurably on the cross for the sins of mankind, yet He rose glorified with healing in His wings.  Though we will suffer in this Christian walk, we have fellowship with God which brings wonder, joy, and contentment beyond price.  There are no shortage of encouragements and moments of ecstasy to see the light pierce through a darkened conscience, when the truth of the Gospel is received with joy and salvation comes to a household.  It is painful when people choose to leave the fellowship of the local church, but how lovely it is to see young lambs gamboling about!  The fellowship of Christ's sufferings makes these victories all the sweeter, and it is clear Jesus Christ is the author of these unspeakable joys.  It is His power which makes life worth living and to taste the sweet fruit of His sacrifice is a double blessing.

If you are in a season of suffering, do not despair:  fellowship with Jesus Christ is available to you through faith in Him.  He supplies the power to continue walking with Jesus.  Consider how Jesus suffered and that the Father never made Him suffer needlessly.  You need not suffer alone, for Jesus has opened His arms wide to you.  He will faithfully speak to you from the Bible.  The Father has sent the Helper and Comforter to indwell you.  He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.  We will suffer upon the road, but Jesus will bring us to His glorious end.

The God Who Thunders

Whilst driving today I was caught in a massive downpour.  Traffic inched forward with very limited visibility as lightning flashed.  Asaph wrote in Psalm 77:17-18:  "The clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound; your arrows also flashed about. ¹⁸ The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; the lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook."  There is something awe inspiring in the power of nature, and God put souls in men with the need to worship what is greater than themselves.  For this reason men have worshiped nature, the sun, moon, stars, and things God has made.  Men bow before their human idols in appreciation and admiration.  A violent storm cell brings men uniformly back to those common feelings which can become unfamiliar to us:  awe, fear, and the understanding we are small and our existence is precarious indeed.

As I cheered on God for the powerful display, my mind went to the passage in Psalm 29:1-6, a song of David:  "Give unto the LORD, O you mighty ones, give unto the LORD glory and strength. ² Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. ³ The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the LORD is over many waters. ⁴ The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. ⁵ The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars, yes, the LORD splinters the cedars of Lebanon. ⁶ He makes them also skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox."  I have seen rain, hail, snow, lightning and heard booming thunder which pumps the adrenaline.  When the power of these elements are unleashed it brings people young and old to windows to admire and causes vehicles to pull off to the side of the road.  It is revelation of power so much greater than a man, and the power of God is far greater than this world.  This recognition of such power drives a man to worship.  It is his only response.  He must worship something; he cannot help himself.

Speaking for myself, I am convinced Asaph and David had it correct.  Skeptics would say those superstitious men of old foolishly attributed natural phenomena which can be explained scientifically to a "god."  But if the God who created and sustains the heavens and earth exists and does all things, couldn't He do a thing and reveal the science behind it to men?  To explain lightning does not mean mastery, and God has no master.  In light of His majesty I cannot just acknowledge Him with a wink or nod:  I must fall down before Him and worship Him as LORD over all.  It is foolish to worship the creature over the creator, and when God's power is displayed through the elements I impulsively worship my Maker.  Every man longs to be part of something bigger and greater than himself, some significant thing that will endure.  This desire is satisfied only in the worship and adoration of the great God of the Jews, the King of kings!  Nature itself bows humbly before Jesus Christ, for the wind and the waves obey Him.  Every man will one day bow the knee before Jesus Christ as well - some in worship and others at the prospect of His justice.  And a God who thunders like that...wow.  And thunder is compared to just His voice!  Think of it!