Open Wide

"Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! ⁹ There shall be no foreign god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god. ¹⁰ I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I will fill it."

Psalm 81:8-10

The God who was faithful to bring His people out of Egypt provided for their needs, giving them manna from heaven and water from a rock.  Their survival was completely dependent upon God in the wilderness, and God met all their needs.  God bid His people open their mouths wide and He promised to feed them.  And this, my friends, requires faith.

Have you ever heard the loud chirping of hungry baby birds?  Whenever their mum or dad draws near, these helpless and blind birds spring to life.  Though they have no feathers to fly, they certainly are unhindered to make noise!  They instinctively open their mouths wide to eat whatever their parents drop in.  Baby birds are not picky eaters:  they do not push food around on plates, complain about temperature, or comment on how the flavour or texture is disagreeable.  They open their mouths wide trusting their parents to drop in healthy, nutritious food.

I wonder how many of us are willing to open our mouths wide, trusting God will fill it?  The Hebrews looked to idols they brought out of Egypt to provide sun, rain, and bountiful harvests.  They prayed to idols and not to God, opening their mouths to make requests of images who could not speak, hear, or save.  God lamented His people did not hearken to His voice.  Instead of receiving His Word in faith, they closed their mouths and hardened their hearts.  God has put in all people the triggers of hunger and thirst to ensure the needs of our physical bodies are met, and He also supplies the Bread of Life Jesus Christ who gives life for our souls.

As we follow Jesus the Good Shepherd, He leads us in green pastures and beside still waters.  All our needs are met in Him.  He satisfies our hunger with His Word, and provides us the Holy Spirit who is Living Water for our souls.  Let us open our mouths wide and trust He will fill them with good according to His promise.

The Feast of Grace

I was recently reminded of the movie Babette's Feast based on the book by Isak Dinesen and the wonderful illustration it provides of grace.  I like Philip Yancey's description of grace, that it costs everything for the giver and nothing for the recipient.  We are mistaken to think the grace of God is free because it came at a tremendous cost to Him, even as the feast Babette prepared.  As adopted children of God our freedom came at the cost of God's only begotten Son.

It's a funny thing how things we receive for free are not valued like things we worked to earn.  The guests at Babette's feast (save the amazed and verbose General) had no appreciation for the quality of the food and drink placed before them course after course.  Had they been accustomed to such foods it is likely they could have even been critical, not complimentary as the General was.  Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:17, "Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy."  It is God who has richly given us all things to enjoy in life, and having received such bountiful love and grace we should be perpetually thankful.

Babette chose to spend her lottery winnings on others rather than herself, and it was the sheer delight to bless others which motivated her.  It was not to show the spinsters she lived with how her culinary skills were superior, or to show the superiority of French cuisine over cod and gruel.  That is what makes her humble gift of an exquisite meal so remarkable, that all the townsfolk needed to do was attend to receive a free meal.  Their presence was a gift Babette was pleased to receive so she could serve.  Hasn't our God done even a more remarkable thing that He would invite sinners to receive of the Holy Spirit, a new nature, forgiveness, and salvation?  May our hearts be filled with gratitude for the Living Bread come down from heaven who offered Himself freely so we might live.

Come to the Light

"He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed."

John 3:18-20

At Teen Camp this week I used an illustration of what it means to "come to the light."  I told the kids to imagine we had a party at an abandoned home with music pumping, people were drinking, dancing, and increasingly rowdy.  People at the party started vandalising the house by smashing bottles, breaking furniture, and punching holes in walls.

Suddenly a guy runs into the party, shuts down the music, and informs us of approaching police cars.  The lights are quickly turned off and a hush falls over the crowd.  The tyres of the cars crunch gravel, brakes squeak, and the baying of dogs ring out.  The faint sound of a chopper can be heard in the distance.  A beam of light pierces the darkness and is fixed upon the front entrance, and the voice of a constable is heard over a speaker.  "OK kids, we know you're in there.  If you come out the front now, no harm will come to you.  You have 10 seconds until we send in the dogs."

In this situation, what would you do?  If you've ever watched an episode of COPS, you know one tactic is to trust your own legs, to climb out the back door and attempt to futilely run from the "eye in the sky" with heat-sensing cameras.  After inevitably being caught the arrested would face additional charges.  Some might choose to barricade the door and arm themselves with whatever they could find.  Others might try to climb into a dark spot like an attic, a closet, or under the floorboards to escape.  But what of the dogs?  And the additional squad cars and firepower?  In this situation, the best possible outcome is to demonstrate faith in the safety promised by the constable, walk towards the snarling dogs and drawn firearms, and come into the light with empty, raised hands.

This scene is an illustration of what God requires of sinners.  We are condemned already, our lives forfeit because of sin.  God has made a way of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ:  if we confess our sins, repent, and ask God for forgiveness and salvation, He will justify us.  All our sins will be forgiven and our guilt washed away.  But if we try to hide our sin, blame others, claim ignorance, or try to escape by running we will be bound and cast into outer darkness and eternal torment.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one can be forgiven or see the kingdom of God without Him.

The question remains:  will you hate the light and choose darkness or come into the Light of Life in full surrender?

Good Will on a Plate

I have the privilege of being the speaker at Camp Kedron this week, a Christian camp which has shared the Gospel with young people for over 50 years.  Holiday camps attract youth from diverse backgrounds and beliefs and it is a joy to share the truth of God’s Word with them, to answer questions, and tackle issues which confront people today.  Centred on Jesus Christ and the Gospel, leaders from various Christian denominations and groups unite as one to demonstrate the love and grace of God.

I was admiring the artistic skills of campers who chose the ceramic elective today, and I came across a plate with a message and scripture reference.

As a student of scripture (hopefully not one who could be described as ever learning but never coming to the truth) I was instantly curious what passage in scripture could possibly support the idea presented.  Love and judgment are never placed in opposition to one another in the Bible, as if righteous judgment cannot spring from love.  I was glad to see this plate because it instructed me in some people’s minds love and judgment are opposites.  I mean no offence when I say this is a classic example of cliché Christianity which ignorantly hijacks scripture disjointed from the biblical revelation of God.  It is a perspective which elevates a worldly concept of love to the status of God.

Before we examine the passage cited, a little more on the catch-phrase.  The Bible reveals God is love (1 John 4:16), and His active love is far more than unconditional acceptance.  It is a sacrificial love expressed for the good of others according to His grace and goodness.  It is the love demonstrated by Jesus when He healed the sick, fed the hungry, raised the dead, and laid down His own life on Calvary for undeserving sinners.  At the same time, God is a righteous judge:  Abraham called Him the “Judge of all the earth” in Genesis 18:25.  This establishes how love and judging can coexist, just like a good judge can love people and uphold law at the same time.  The Bible teaches a father who loves his son will discipline him, and there can be no discipline without judgment:  a weighing of God’s standard of righteousness against words, deeds, and motives by the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Judgment was required for King Solomon to decide who was the real mother of the child brought before him, and the desire to unite a mother with son is a loving judgment.

Some might say, “It is all very well for God and kings to make judgments, but surely this is above the pay grade of the common Christian” (or anyone really).  Perhaps there is no word more despised than when a person feels “judged.”  Doesn’t the word provoke a universally negative sense?  Judging by itself is a neutral word but to many appears a cardinal sin in itself, that to judge—to decide or examine—should be struck from the responsibilities of a Christian.  People are fond of quoting snippets of scripture but do not consider the context.  They’ll say something like, “Doesn’t the Bible say we aren’t supposed to judge?”  Consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:1-2:  “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”  Far from a prohibition of judging, we are called to examine—to judge—how we judge others knowing the stricter we are with them the more severe our loving Judge and Father will be with us.  Jesus said in John 7:24, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."  We are commanded by Jesus to examine and judge ourselves according to God’s righteousness.  God gave Moses the Law and equipped him to judge his people righteously, and Jesus has given the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.

The verse quoted on the plate is the passage where a woman was brought before Jesus who had been caught in the act of adultery.  The text reveals the Jewish rulers cared nothing about the woman (or the man who was strangely absent from the proceedings) and upholding justice:  their motive in bringing the woman before Jesus was in the hope of finding fault with Him.  Jesus, knowing their plot find fault and hypocrisy, ignored them.  John 8:7-11 reads, “So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" 11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

So what does this have to do with, “Love, don’t judge?”  Though the immediate text does not mention love, it is well-established in the Bible Jesus Christ, being God made flesh, is love—even when the words He said and things He did don’t seem loving to us.  But love did not change the fact the woman had sinned; love did not rub out the 7th Commandment written on tablets of stone on Mt. Sinai or the just punishment for sin.  God had already given a judgment on the sin of adultery, but what Jesus did not do is condemn the woman.  Judgment and condemning are two very different things.  To judge is to weigh and examine sides, and to condemn is to damn, a final, binding sentence or judgment.  The woman was by Law condemned for her sin and under a curse which would bring death, yet notice she called Jesus “Lord.”  Faith in Christ freed her from the condemnation her sin deserved.  It is condemnation—not judgment—which is God’s sovereign territory.  Those who were once under condemnation can be set free by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, justice having been satisfied.

We are called to use righteous judgment, yet this does not give us license to what could be called judgmental—to judge others by our self-righteous standards.  This was one sin of the Pharisees Jesus called out, the hypocrisy of claiming to uphold God’s righteousness when they gave greater weight to enforcing traditions of men.  This plate reminds me of something Paul wrote in Philippians 1:15-18.  I am very glad the plate was made as it is, for it moved me to go to the Word and these considerations have sharpened me on the subject.  Paul wrote, “Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from good will:  16 The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defence of the gospel. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”  If you could write a message on a plate about anything, would it be about love and a scripture like this skilled artist?  I can say it wouldn’t have been my first idea.  It is good will on a plate, an exhortation to love, and a platform to dive into God’s Word so we can be washed clean of misunderstandings.