Love Is Patient

While I was doing yardwork today I saw an older man wearing an Akubra approaching.  I had seen this man walking around on the streets near our home other times before.  I would see him lingering around plants, and once he was crawling around looking for something on the ground.  As I swept, he walked up and introduced himself.

He was a soft-spoken man with a friendly, toothy smile.  He wanted to see if I would grant him permission to pluck five small flowers from the bush near the street on my property as had been his custom for many years (unknown to me!).  Apparently the neighbour had told him to move on.  "But she does not own the plant because it is on your property," he said.  "I've no problem with you taking flowers from the bush."  I wasn't planning on using them, and if he had already been doing it what harm would it do?  "I use them for prayers."  Now I wasn't expecting this, a foreign idea to my western mind.

After a pause I asked, "Who do you pray to?"  "I pray to Rama...I'm a Hindu."  Continuing to smile he introduced himself formally, and we shook hands.  "Good to meet you Ben.  I live right around the corner," he said as we parted ways.  The encounter had solved the mystery of what the gentleman had been doing whilst loitering around.  He wasn't loitering:  he was carefully, meticulously gathering flowers to offer to a deity in prayer.  I look forward to meeting up with him again with the aim of speaking of my God and Saviour.

Now I don't know much about Hinduism, but I know devotion when I see it.  From a biblical and Christian perspective I know there is one God, the Creator of this world filled with trees, stones, seas, flowers, animals, and people.  This nice old man from down the street was gathering flowers created by my God to offer to his god, one of many deities served by Hindus.  Strange that Rama would receive a re-purposed gift!  My God does not require an offering of flowers to hear and respond to prayers, and my allegiance ought to be greater than this man - for I know whom I worship, and He knows me.  I grieve that a man would expend such effort to seek the blessings of images and demons who can only destroy and cannot save, but I also rejoice in the opportunity God has provided to share the reality of the Almighty seen in Jesus Christ.

"Land is patient," a mate of mine told me yesterday.  This is true.  God's love is also patient.  There may have been a time in my life I would have blurted out something about my superior God in reply, but I am learning the importance of valuing other people first rather instigating a conversation only to give a message.  The message I have of the Gospel is greater than any man, but it is a message to be delivered according to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  I trust God will provide me the opportunity to sow the good seed of God's Word, learn something from my neighbour, and perhaps make a friend or even better - a brother in Christ along the way.

God Puts Up

God is patient and longsuffering.  As God who is omnipotent and almighty He does not need to endure pains or the folly of men, but He chooses to do so because of His loving character.  Kings of earth can easily pass unpleasant tasks to their many servants.  It seems the more power or authority one possesses the less patient he or she needs to be, but God expresses the exact opposite.

Consider the gracious love which prompted God not only to bring the nation of Israel out of Egypt but to endure them in the wilderness after they rebelled against Him.  Paul said in Acts 13:17-18, "The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it. ¹⁸ Now for a time of about forty years He put up with their ways in the wilderness."  And what were the ways of the sons of Israel?  Let's see:  murmuring, complaining, disobedience, idolatry, rebellion, falsely accusing God of wanting to kill them when He sought to save them, and much more.

Before we judge the Israelites harshly, we must recognise we are in no way superior.  These folks were no worse sinners than we are!  The takeaway from Paul's words should not be to nod approvingly in judgment of sinners but to rejoice in the gracious salvation of our God.  We are no prize, yet God has reached out to us whilst mired in sin.  He has long endured our ways and continues to entreat us kindly and provide for all our needs - even when we have been thankless and ungrateful.  How great is the LORD and worthy to be praised!

Having received such grace and love from God, may we be moved to love one another.  We are exhorted in Romans 13:8, "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law."  Having been adopted, forgiven, reconciled, redeemed, and accepted by God's grace, we owe others a continual dose of the infinite love God has lavished upon us.  No one is worthy of such love and grace, yet we have freely received it through faith in Jesus.  God loves us when we were yet sinners, so clearly this love should not be restricted only to the redeemed or who we deem worthy.  If people must be worthy, where then is grace?  Let us be patient as our LORD is patient towards us.

There is an old saying:  "Put your money where your mouth is."  Basically, this infers if we believe something to be true, we should take action to back it up.  "Put up or shut up," another line goes.  The way God "put up" with His people conveyed the love He had for them.  He did not merely tolerate them but He provided for their needs and guided them in the right way.  He spoke with them, protected them, and ultimately sent Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of all who believe.  If we are indeed children of God, it's time to love people we have been avoiding.  It's time to pray for people who have ill-treated us.  It's time to bless those who have cursed us.  Let's show grace to others according to the grace we have received from God.

The Implications of God's Word

Reverse engineering is the process of deconstructing a man-made object to observe how it has been designed and operates.  When sophisticated military equipment is stranded in a hostile region it is a standard practice to destroy it so enemies cannot analyse, copy, or obtain good data from it.  Technological secrets are highly guarded, and there are safeguards in the industry to prevent copyright infringement.  Studying a complete and functional product can offer tips and clues to how it was made and possibly improve upon the design whilst reducing cost.

When people respond in faith to the Gospel, it is likely they already have established views concerning how the earth or people came to be.  Their worldview has already been established and primarily what has influenced it is secular.  The Bible presents a totally different view concerning our origins and the significance of life.  As children we tended to agree with our parent's views, and as we grew older we were exposed to various teachings and philosophies in school, university, and online.  Those who come to Christ as adults are faced with deconstructing their existing and impotent worldview through the revelation of the Word of God.  The vain wisdom and philosophies of man could not save or deliver from sin, but Jesus Christ is able to do everything.

Sometimes I wonder if people who claim to love and know Jesus Christ observe what He says.  He spoke explicitly of creation in Mark 10:6:  "But from the beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female.' "  Jesus said in the beginning everything was created in six days, fully-formed as male and female.  This explicitly speaks against any kind of Darwinian evolution to account for the living creatures which are seen in the earth.  The question is not if the chicken or egg came first, but exposes how evolution cannot answer the question where the rooster came from needed to reproduce.  God created people, provided them a gender, and commanded them to multiply.  The genealogy in Luke 3:38 takes us back to the first man Adam, the one God created from the dust of the ground and breathed into him a living soul.  Adam and Eve gave birth to their own kind, and their second son Abel was mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 23:35 and Luke 11:51.  To believe these are literal people likely will deconstruct a lot of beliefs held previously.  To claim man evolved from another kind or that Adam is figurative stands in opposition to the teachings of Jesus.

That's just the beginning.  There are a lot of implications in believing God created the heavens and the earth as it is written in Genesis 1 and the genealogies of scripture.  It is strong evidence the earth is not as old as evolutionists claim (and this number has more than doubled in my lifetime).  Jesus also spoke plainly of Noah and the judgment of a wicked world in the form of a great flood which destroyed the earth (Matt. 24:37-38; Luke 17:26-27).  Having been raised reading and looking to the Bible for truth, I was always surprised how in my public high school classes there was never mention whatsoever of a great flood but an "ice age."  Creation by the word of God, a relatively young earth, and the judgment of the great flood are all confirmed by scripture, and despite widespread scorn (from the same who scorn the suggestion of God's existence) there is good science which supports it.  If we really believe and trust in Jesus, we will take to heart the things He explicitly said, for nothing God has said is untrue or without purpose.

The New Testament is full of references to men and women spoken of in Genesis and speaks of God's creation and judgment of the world as a matter of fact.  Judgment is never a popular subject, but praise the LORD God has told us of what was, is, and is to come.  He has made a way of salvation for all who believe, and our belief is founded on the sure Word of God.  If we will believe God's promise to forgive us sins and grant us entrance into heaven, believing in the existence of Adam, Abel, and Noah - and all the following implications - should not be a stretch.

Focusing On Jesus

During a prayer meeting at church last night I was reminded of the lame man by the pool of Bethesda.  John 5 relates how a great number of sickly, blind, lame, and withered who waited for the moving of the water.  These were desperate people who hoped for a miracle, and patience alone was not enough to bring healing.  The great irony of the situation is healing came not only to the alert but the fittest among them.  The first one to enter the pool after being stirred by an angel would be the only one healed of any infirmity.  The blind couldn't see the water move and the lame couldn't move to respond fast enough.  For nearly all who languished hope had been swallowed by despair.

John 5:5-7 says, "Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" ⁷ The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me."  Verse 5 introduces the reader to a lame man who had suffered from an infirmity for almost four decades and long remained at the pool's edge.  Jesus walked up to the man and asked, "Do you want to be made well?"  The man did not answer the question at all.  His response shows a preoccupation with his hopeless situation:  I am alone, I have no help, I am too slow, and others too fast.  In his mind healing could only come one way, and this could not happen in his current circumstances.

Into this pitiable and hopeless situation entered the Son of God, Jesus Christ!  John 5:8-9 says, "Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." ⁹ And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath."  Jesus is the Healer and Saviour who found the man in his time of need, and He comes to you and me today in our time of trouble ready to save.  What I love about this passage is the man had a very limited view of how he might be healed, yet without meeting any of his criteria Jesus spoke and simply overruled!  It is true healing does not always occur immediately and none of us will be without troubles in this life, yet Jesus is able to heal abundantly, exceedingly beyond what we can ask or think when we look to Him.

How the world needs Jesus, and this lame man needs Him more than ever.  What a great and awesome God we have who seeks us out in our time of need.  Who are we to criticise the timing of God who allowed 38 years of infirmity or allowed it in the first place?  The ways of God are past finding out, for without sorrow and despair we could not recognise joy if it looked us in the eye and shook our hand.  There the Prince of Peace stood, and the man poured out his lame complaints.  Jesus knew the man's weakness, his infirmity, and how long it had been since he had been well.  Jesus loved him, came to him, spoke with him, and healed him.  Let us look to Jesus and praise Him rather than focusing on our lameness or circumstances.  This is the true path to life and joy forevermore!