The Surfactant of Relationship

Due to a prolonged drought in NSW, level 2 water restrictions are now being enforced.  This means sprinklers and hoses are no longer permitted for watering lawns or washing cars.  All watering must be done by hand with a bucket or watering can.  Had I known water restrictions were coming I wouldn't have put so much effort or time to beautify the lawn in spring!

Because it has been so dry and hot lately when I bucket water on burnt spots the water just runs off.  The soil and roots desperately need water but the hardness of the ground repels it.  When I was trained to remove asbestos as a union mechanical insulator it was common to add a "surfactant" or wetting agent to the water before spraying the material to be removed.  Because asbestos is most dangerous when airborne a key part of the removal process is to thoroughly wet it.  The high surface tension of water does not allow it to penetrate the material and much of the water is wasted as runoff.  But when a little detergent is added to a sprayer it is remarkable to see it almost magically absorbed by a previously hydrophobic surface.  What a difference a surfactant makes!

It isn't just soil which can become hard and dry:  it can happen to our hearts as well.  The irony is love, kindness, and grace do not always penetrate a hard heart that thirsts for it, just like a bucket of refreshing water can run off hard ground without effect.  After we are rebuffed it may seem like a waste to "invest" or continue to pour ourselves into people who repel our efforts.  It occurred to me today a surfactant can make all the difference.  When removing asbestos it didn't matter what brand or kind or detergent was used, and only a few drops made a huge difference.  In a similar way there are many things which impact the hearts of people like a wetting agent which enables them to receive instruction, care, and love.  Shared experiences, building rapport through faithfulness, gentleness, and patience are key.  If I boil it down, the key wetting agent for hard hearts is loving relationship.  Having a genuine relationship with a person makes them more apt to receive what God graciously supplies through others.

Building and cultivating relationships is much more difficult, time consuming, and costly than maintaining a green lawn in drought conditions.  But praise the LORD there is never any restrictions on His infinite supply of love, grace, and goodness.  Like the widow's oil and flour that was miraculously replenished day by day according to God's Word, God provides the Holy Spirit for those who are born again by faith in Jesus without measure.  Every vessel has a limit of capacity, but Jesus has promised He will cause Living Water to overflow from us.  We are not sufficient for these things, yet God is!  Instead of despairing over perceived hardness of hearts in others, we ought to ensure we are humbling ourselves to walk in love and be spiritually well-hydrated ourselves in our relationship with God.  It is good to identify ourselves as the only hard-hearted one we have a responsibility to change through repentance, submission, and obedience to God.  Let us not write-off those who repel our efforts to love and minister to but labour to add the surfactant of loving relationship. 

Gift of Repentance

Speaking of Jesus Christ, Peter and other apostles told Jewish rulers in Acts 5:31:  "Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins."  Jesus humbled Himself to be crucified for sinners, and God exalted Him above all by raising Him from the dead in eternal glory.  Jesus willingly laid down His life on Calvary and took it up again according to His Word, and provided salvation and redemption for all through the Gospel.

Peter's explanation provides insight concerning repentance and forgiveness.  When people think of repentance it is often in the context of something we must do, an obligation and responsibility of a sinner before a holy, just God.  Repentance is more than being sorry or feeling guilty:  it is when a person sorrowfully acknowledges their sin and guilt and turns from it in submission and renewed agreement with God.  It means to change, to reform, to turn from sin to doing what pleases God instead.  It is a change of mind which results in an amended life.

Have you ever thought of "repentance" as a gift from Jesus Christ?  It is!  The awareness of our need to repent from sin, the opportunity God has granted us to turn to Him from sin in repentance, and the forgiveness, cleansing, and salvation resulting from repentance are all of God's grace.  How privileged and blessed we are to be able to repent, be forgiven, and have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us through the Gospel.  Without Jesus being the Way, the Truth, and the Life there would be no atonement for our sins.  Repentance, forgiveness, and salvation are gifts from God we ought to be grateful and thankful for.

Repentance is a gift that keeps on giving because it is not a disposable or "one use" item:  as long as we are in a body of flesh we will need to repent because we are sinners.  The worldly wisdom concerning sin is to do anything but repent:  try to justify ourselves, make excuses, deny guilt, deflect blame upon others, pander to sin, flaunt and embrace it.  After they sinned Adam and Eve wove fig leaves to cover their nakedness, but God had already defined sin and would hold them accountable despite their vain efforts to hide.  We can use language to cover up the truth but God looks upon the heart.  We cannot justify ourselves, but when we repent of our sin and trust in Christ God justifies us.  By grace through faith in Jesus all our sins are expunged and we are declared righteous as He is.

Praise Jesus for the gift of repentance and forgiveness of sins through Him!  How blessed we are to be loved, accepted, and forgiven by God.

Longsuffering Love

God is infinitely good, and one of the aspects of His character I have appreciated lately is how longsuffering He is.  We labour to avoid suffering however we can, and when we suffer our main objective is to find relief.  If God was not longsuffering, patient, and compassionate He would have wiped us wretched sinners from the globe ages ago.  See how Paul introduces a description of God's love in 1 Corinthians 13:4:  "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up..."  Love suffers long.  The death of Jesus Christ on Calvary was a demonstration of His love:  every insult, physical blow, and slanderous accusation against Him was patiently received.  With every step towards Calvary His longsuffering character was on display.

Having been born again through faith in Jesus Christ, it is God's will this longsuffering love of God would be displayed as we bear our cross daily.  It involves self-sacrifice to walk in love when we are hurting.  I was reminded of this the exhortation to pastor Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-2:  "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: ² preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching."  Those who labour in the Word of God rejoice when we see a hunger in people to feed on God's Word and apply it personally to their lives.  As long as we preach the Word, however, there will be a continual flow of people who do not or will not receive it.  If this were not the case why would rebuke, exhortation, and longsuffering continue to be necessary?  I do not say this as one who has great knowledge or understanding but as one who owns being a weak, flawed, and foolish sinner.  It is only by the grace of God I stand and speak.

Oh, to be longsuffering like Jesus!  As He physically hung on the cross covered with His own blood and the spit of people who rejected Him Jesus said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."  The longsuffering love of God continues beyond what is humanly possible to experience.  When God tells us to love one another, follow Him, and daily bear our cross we cannot do this--I cannot do this.  It is not a difficult thing to walk on the narrow road of the fellowship of Christ's suffering with joy:  it is an impossibility only made possible by the life of Jesus Christ living through us because we by faith have been crucified with Him.  To suffer is never man's aspiration, but to be longsuffering is the calling of every believer.  Suffering naturally produces bitterness, but God's love suffers long and is kind without envy, boasting, pride, and keeps no record of wrongs.  How great God's love is!

Not Godforsaken

Places that are inhospitable or bleak are sometimes called "godforsaken," but looks can be deceiving.  No matter how barren the landscape or isolated the place the Bible teaches the presence of the almighty God is available and accessible right there and now.  In the darkest dungeon, in the most frantic emergencies, when no help is coming and no one seems to care, God is there and ready to save.

Remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?  They were Jews who were taken captive by the Babylonians and trained to serve King Nebuchadnezzar.  He made an image of gold and commanded when music was played all his subjects would bow down in worship before it.  These three men of faith refused.  They were ultimately thrown into a furnace heated seven times hotter than normal.  In that moment a remarkable miracle occurred:  those who threw them into the fire were consumed by the flames, but only their bonds were burnt off.  They walked free in the midst of the roaring furnace with the Son of God, and when they emerged alive and unharmed from the furnace they did not even smell of smoke.

In Australia we have been reeling from tragedy upon tragedy.  Lives, homes, towns, and countless animals have been lost in the bushfires across the eastern states.  Weeks ago a report reached our shores of a terrible tragedy when White Island erupted in New Zealand and killed many people--including Australians.  Daily there are horrific reports of conflict, tragedy, and great suffering by people all over the globe.  This earth is full of trouble and troubled people looking for someone to blame, looking for answers, trying to make sense of the mayhem.  One thing I know for certain is this world is not godforsaken:  the great I AM has revealed Himself, He has come, and He is here.

Christians look unto Jesus our Saviour who will someday return in glory to judge the world in righteousness.  But in the meantime we are called to walk in love as we follow and serve Him, making disciples of Jesus.  The irony is we can know the abiding presence of Jesus Christ who was forsaken on Calvary when the the sins of the world were laid upon Him.  From the cross He cried out in the darkness, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" hearkening back to the opening words of Psalm 22 penned by David.  David was not forsaken by God (though it felt like it), but Jesus experienced desolation, cut off from the Father.  Because Jesus was thus afflicted those who trust in Jesus as LORD will never be because atonement has been made.  Just because this world isn't what we wish it was Hebrews 13:5 exhorts us to remember what God has promised: "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

In Christ our Saviour we sinners find all our needs miraculously met because through Him God has supplied all we need for life and godliness.  Our eyes look for hope and help, for answers which evade our sight, but what we see is like a slight-of-hand trick with cups where the hand is faster than the eye.  We who have beheld the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ can know we are not forsaken, nor the world God loved enough to send His only begotten Son.  God sent Jesus to seek and save the lost, to open the eyes of the blind, to turn hearts back to faith in God so people might be redeemed.  With our renewed minds and faith in Jesus we can see beyond the current circumstances and how we feel to know God is with us and will never leave or forsake us.  It is Jesus Christ who gives the the strength in fiery trials to trust and press on with joy.