Eating Together As Family

When I was a kid I enjoyed watching "Yan Can Cook."  He was always so happy, positive, and the food he made looked simply delicious.  The ingredients of his dishes were typically easily available because he encouraged people to cook for themselves.  That makes sense, right?  It's fun to see contestants on "Iron Chef" cooking with truffles, foie gras, and shark fin, but who can source or afford these sorts of delicacies?  I have found food tastes better when you are hungry, and even more so when you have laboured over it yourself.  Putting effort into a dish that turns out beautiful is satisfying on many levels!

C.H. Spurgeon compared the preparation of a sermon to preparing a delicious meal.  With the saturation of TV cooking shows and the internet which have revolutionised cooking by providing access to techniques and recipes for everyone, I sometimes wonder if the same thing has happened with sermons.  When I was a kid there was one radio station which broadcast sermons and praise music.  It used to be people would queue up to grab a cassette tape or CD after the sermon at church if it was particularly meaningful.  Gone are the days of cassettes (a good thing really!) and most churches and preachers have internet websites, live message streaming, downloads, and podcasts without end.  Since we can be highbrow over our gourmet creations, proper coffee, or seared ahi, isn't it possible we can become sermon or church snobs, preferring delicate aromas and exotic flavours over simple roast beef and potatoes?

We all have unique tastes and preferences when it comes to food, and I expect this also applies when it comes to church and varied approaches to the preaching of God's Word.  An international cornucopia of sermons accessed via the internet is a luxury afforded us the early church did not possess.  The abundance of options can tempt us to become gourmets where presentation and plating is more important than nutrition!  In my life it seems the amount of food intolerance and allergies has increased dramatically, and I wonder if the same is true concerning Christians today.  There are themes and styles we avoid when possible.  We prefer sampling over feasting because we're really not hungry anyway.  We are full of doctrine but not necessarily full of the Spirit who has given us a spiritual appetite.  There's something special  and uniting about enjoying a family meal at home together which can't be duplicated, and I believe the same concerning gathering as the Body of Christ in your home church.  We don't have the power to choose what's for dinner, but we can receive nourishment for our soul from God.

Hebrews 10:23-25 says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, ²⁵ not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." Let's consider one another and continue assembling and exhorting one another to "stir up love and good works."  It is impossible to obey the "one another" commands of the New Testament in isolation, regardless of the quality of a podcast.  Are you hungry for the Word?  Dig in yourself and share what God teaches you with others.  How long has it been since you sat down to share a sermon with your brothers and sisters in Jesus?  God will supply the hunger of your soul by His grace and the pure Word.

God Makes Holy

I love reading through the Law sprinkled in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  The commands and prohibitions may be tedious to some, but I find them fascinating and illuminating.  There are commands which impact all parts of the lives of God's people, from the clothes they wore to the food they ate.  There were boundaries placed on their sex lives and how they should treat foreigners.  The more I read the more it emphasises how God wanted to impact every aspect of life, for He dwelt among them.  I am convinced God did not load His people with commands because He is a nitpicky, grousing, or sensitive Being who is easily offended.  He gave them commands because without His guidance His people would bear no resemblance to God's holy and righteous character or practice whatsoever.

This is the place where the children of Israel lost the plot, thinking they could be made righteous through keeping a Law which could not save.  The Law could only condemn.  Through the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we understand that nothing is evil in itself, like wearing clothes of mixed fabrics or sowing different seeds together.  Both circumcised and uncircumcised in flesh can be accepted by God through faith in Jesus Christ.  God gave His people commands so that every part of their lives would be lived in acknowledgement of His Word and love for them as LORD and Saviour.  Jesus said that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments.  God's Law was an opportunity God provided His people to demonstrated their love for Him, for they were to love the LORD their God with all their heart, soul, and might.  The Law of God was a revelation of God's righteousness to be responded to, not a means of obtaining eternal life.  As it is written in John 1:17, "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

When I read through the Law I realise there are areas of my life I do not naturally consider God.  I do not necessarily think about God when I dress myself in the morning, during a meal, or when I meet a stranger.  But as a child of the Living God who has filled me with the Holy Spirit, I can and should.  I am no longer under the yoke of Law but under grace which requires far greater sacrifice and supernaturally assisted obedience.  The scribes (sofer) who copied the Torah were required to know and observe about 4,000 laws concerning their conduct to properly handle God's Word, and the Word has become flesh and dwelt among us.  Jesus has baptised His followers with the Holy Spirit, and He helps, comforts, teaches, and guides us into all truth.  As His purchased possession through the shed blood of Christ, God has the right to be included into every aspect of our lives even as in the day of Moses:  what we eat, drink, what we say, do, and how and why we do so.  The Law dealt with externals, and because Jesus has transformed our hearts His presence affects infinitely more.

As children of God's Kingdom, we should live our lives unto the LORD by the power of the Gospel, even as God made a distinction between the Jews and the surrounding nations in Leviticus 20:22-26, "You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My judgments, and perform them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out. ²³ And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them. ²⁴ But I have said to you, "You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey." I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples. ²⁵ You shall therefore distinguish between clean animals and unclean, between unclean birds and clean, and you shall not make yourselves abominable by beast or by bird, or by any kind of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. ²⁶ And you shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine."  Instead of having lives which resemble those who live in darkness, may the Light of the World shine bright through us as we walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit.

Love Meets Needs

"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰  And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the LORD your God."

Leviticus 19:9-10

In the Law, God made provisions for the widow and fatherless, for the poor and the stranger.  It was forbidden for the Israelites to harvest all the crops which grew in their field so those without an inheritance could gather food for their survival.  All the crops produced in their fields was a gift of God, and He gave them enough to spare.  God was a generous Father for  His people, and through them He would bless the fatherless.  Those whose husbands had died would find practical needs met by God through the people He had betrothed to Himself.  The children of Israel had experienced poverty as foreigners in Egypt, and they were called to remember their humble beginnings so they might retain humility.

Further on God said in Leviticus 19:18, "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD."  The children of God were to consider the needs of others and love them without bitterness or resentment.  The measure of their kindness to others was according to the preference we naturally extend to ourselves.  When Jesus came, He immeasurably increased the standard we ought to follow, for He said in John 15:12:  "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."  The love of God expressed through Christ's life and demonstrated in His death is beyond measure, and only through the power of the Holy Spirit can we begin to fulfil His glorious command.  As we have freely received from God we are to freely give to God and others.

James 1:27 reads, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."  Jesus has come to us, and it is fitting we would visit those who are in trouble, motivated by the love Jesus has given us.  God has shown His love to us practically by meeting our spiritual and temporal needs, and we too can show the protective and providing love of a husband and father to those God brings across our path.  God does not change, but may we be changed into His loving likeness, willing to sacrifice and give for the benefit of others and the glory of our God.

Black and Whites

Yesterday during the discipleship course I am leading we discussed a message delivered by a precious sister in Christ, Corrie Ten Boom.  Once when she was being interrogated in the concentration camp Ravensbruck about her "misdeeds," her judge showed her "dangerous" papers which contained damning evidence of her efforts to save Jews.  When she realised the papers had particulars of people she loved and wanted to protect, she said she had nothing to say about them.  She was elated when the man opened the grate and threw all the papers into the stove.  All the handwriting which condemned her and others was gone without a trace, and how grateful she was.

Later in her life, Corrie spoke with her biographer about a troubling incident which filled her with resentment and bitterness - which did not involved the Gestapo or concentration camps - but a mean thing done by fellow Christians.  When the biographer gently probed concerning how the situation had been resolved Corrie said gladly, "It has been forgiven and forgotten and I will not speak about it anymore."  Her friend continued to dig about how the offending party had been since.  "They take it easy," Corrie offered.  "They simply say they have not done it.  They can say that, but I have everything in black and white in the letters they have written me."  "What?" said her friend in surprise. "Say, where are your sins?  You have said that when you brought your sin to the LORD, He has thrown them into the depths of the sea with a sign that says "No Fishing Allowed," and for the sins of your friends you have black and whites?  O LORD, give Corrie the grace to burn all the black and whites of sins of others as a well-smelling sacrifice to you."  And she did.  She exhorted her listeners, "You can't forgive and I can't either, but Jesus can."

From her talk there are indicators which help us know if we have truly forgiven others from the heart as Jesus has forgiven us.  The first is when we intentionally free others from the burden of guilt of their wrongdoing in light of how Jesus has lovingly forgiven us.  This is illustrated in the parable Jesus told of the servant who owed his master an enormous debt.  He fell down at his master's feet and begged for mercy.  His master had compassion on him and loosed him from the debt, forgiving all.  Another way we work towards forgiveness is to refuse to ruminate on how we have been wronged and wallowing in self-pity.  Bad feelings and resentment are signs we have yet to fully forgive others.  We take critical ground in forgiveness when we never again feel the need to mention - to the offender or to others - the situation in detail.  In her message Corrie never laid out exactly what had happened or who had done it, but how God used it to change her.  A negative was thus made positive.  Finally, we must burn our "black and whites," even destroying evidence we would use to prove others wrong or to protect ourselves in the future.  Corrie had forgiven her "friends" in her heart, but burning those black and whites was the final nail driven home into the coffin of unforgiveness.

How about you?  Have you black and whites?  Perhaps it is time to pertinently delete those old emails, burn those hurtful letters, or decide that you will never recount that story you tell about how you were wronged or betrayed by those you trusted.  Praise the LORD God does not have a secret stash of the evidence of our sin, just waiting for an opportunity to throw it in our face.  He has taken all our sins and put them as far from us as the east is from the west.  Like Jesus on the cross we can say with compassion, "Father, forgive them - even if they know what they are doing."  If we refuse to forgive others after receiving such great forgiveness from God, we torture ourselves needlessly (Matthew 18:34-35).  Let us love and forgive our enemies, even when they are brethren.