A Tale of Four Beliefs

There are degrees of belief, and not all belief translates to saving faith.  Jesus arrived in Cana of Galilee, the place where He previously performed his first public miracle by turning water into wine.  A nobleman came to Him and begged Jesus to come quickly and heal his dying son.  Jesus remarked as a matter of fact in John 4:48, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."  The man may not have come to Jesus at all unless he heard of the previous miracle Jesus had done.  It meant He believed Jesus could heal His son, not that He followed what the supernatural sign pointed to:  that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah and Son of God.  The words of Jesus would prove prophetic.

John 4:50 says, "Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way."  The man believed the word Jesus spoke to him, and his belief was evidenced by obedience to leave.  He did not continue begging for Jesus to return to heal his son because Jesus affirmed his son lives.  The burden of worry lifted, the nobleman began to head for home.  John 4:51-53 continues, "And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!" ⁵² Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." ⁵³ So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives." And he himself believed, and his whole household."

After the nobleman was met by his servants with the wonderful news his son lived, as Jesus had said, he asked them precisely when his son began to mend.  They confirmed it was the same hour Jesus had proclaimed, "Your son lives."  This was a sign to the nobleman Jesus indeed was directly responsible for his son's healing, and thus "he himself believed."  The man believed at first Jesus could heal his son, then he believed the word Jesus said, and then "he himself believed, and his whole household."  Having believed that Jesus was the Christ, the man joyfully shared the truth with his son who was healed and his whole house.  They all believed as the man did, having heard his eyewitness testimony and seeing the miraculous healing firsthand.  Genuine faith makes the truth known to others so they might believe themselves.

It was a watershed moment when the man himself believed who Jesus was, for salvation through the Gospel begins here.  It is not enough to believe a man named Jesus lived, spoke the truth and performed miracles if we do not believe ourselves in Him.  Jesus gave the man everything he needed to place his faith in Jesus Christ as LORD and Saviour, and He does the same for us.  He has given us the testimony of the word of God and believers who share the truth about Jesus.  No one is without excuse to believe today in Christ, as Paul said in Acts 17:30-31: "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."  If the Law, Prophets, and resurrection of Jesus will not convince us, then we will not believe--even the testimony of the Man risen from the dead.

Preaching to the Converted

Today I read a statement that grabbed my attention.  In describing a political speech a reporter mused, "It sounds like he is preaching to the converted."  The ironic thing is as one who preaches I can say with absolute certainty the converted need preaching as much as the unconverted, for this is a way God has designed for people to know God and grow in grace.  While a Gospel presentation may be tailored to an unbelieving audience for salvation, going on with God is important too.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:17-21, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. ¹⁸ For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. ²⁰ Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? ²¹ For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."  Contrary to the views of some, the Gospel is not merely the starting point of our walk with Jesus but guides us in following Jesus faithfully.  Being washed in the water of the word renews our minds, reveals our need for God's grace, skewers selfishness and prompts us to seek our Saviour.  We who are saved ought to work out our salvation, exercising ourselves unto godliness.

The church needs to be under the preaching of God's word, including the choir.  The best preachers are those who sit personally under the preaching of scripture by the Holy Spirit to their own hearts first before they present it themselves.  Preachers do not sit in the place of high and lofty knowledge insulated from the folly of men, for they themselves are mere men numbered among the most foolish and weak.  If a preacher does not realise this about himself, he will be a fraction the preacher he could and ought to be.  God is able to speak divine truth through the weakest instruments even through silent, small creatures like the ant.  These faithful workers caught the attention of king Solomon and taught him lessons, a man filled with the wisdom of God.  Having responded to the word of God we read out of sheer need, we are thus equipped to present it as truth we have tested ourselves as eyewitnesses of God's faithfulness.

The converted need preaching as well as the preacher, for unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Grief and God's Grace

Grief is a complex process, and though we may never have closure with our loved ones we can experience comfort through closeness with God.  It is faith in the goodness, grace and mercy of God where we discover rest.  Paul blessed the LORD in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4:  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."  The God of all comfort has chosen to suffer for our sakes out of love for us, and knowing Him we are sustained.

I've been reading Grieving a Suicide by Albert Y. Hsu and have been blessed with his insights, especially around the grieving process and the elusive feelings of closure:

"Suicides usually leave conversations unfinished, with many loose ends.  But ultimate closure is an unrealistic expectation.  We can close on a house, but we can't close on a person's life.  To put the past behind us and lock it up into a little box dishonors the memory of our loved one; it says that we are trying to pretend that this didn't happen.  No, instead we acknowledge what happened, and that it was tragic; we acknowledge that it has changed our lives forever.  We live on as changed people who look at life and death differently now.

Eventually we come to the point of realizing that though we may always grieve, we no longer do so continually or consciously.  In some ways grief will go on forever.  In other ways it does come to some end points.  After his wife's death, C. S. Lewis wrote A Grief Observed in a series of four notebooks.  He decided that he would not buy any new notebooks after the fourth one.  He said, "I thought I could describe a state, make a map of sorrow.  Sorrow, however, turns out to be not a state but a process.  It needs not a map but a history, and if I don't stop writing that history at some quite arbitrary point, there's no reason why I should ever stop.  There is something new to be chronicled every day..."

Healing doesn't mean that we are ever completely "recovered."  We are never fully "healed."  The human body is never in a state of perfect health; it is constantly in flux, with some cells dying while others are growing.  Every day we experience minuscule injuries and abrasions, and if our bodies are healthy, they are always in the process of healing.  It is better to speak of experiencing healing as an ongoing process than to pretend we have been healed and have arrived at a final destination...We are never completely healed.  After all, we still carry the scars.  But grief that has done its work in us will help us experience God's grace more fully." (Hsu, Albert. Grieving a Suicide: a Loved Ones Search for Comfort, Answers and Hope. Inter-Varsity Press, 2017. pages 157-159.)

To all who have experienced grief and painful loss, may you also experience the comfort and hope found only in Jesus Christ who will never leave or forsake us.  God knows what it is like to lose what is most precious when He gave His only begotten Son for us on Calvary.  God has suffered for us in the person of Jesus Christ so we could receive comfort, and by faith we can cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us today and always.

Lift Your Eyes to Heaven

When king Nebuchadnezzar was troubled by a dream he had, the Hebrew Daniel was summoned to give the interpretation because the Spirit of the living God was in him.  In the dream a great and fruitful tree was cut down and all the beasts and birds which ate of its fruit were scattered.  The king recounted  what he heard in Daniel 4:15-17, "Nevertheless leave the stump and roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him graze with the beasts On the grass of the earth. ¹⁶ Let his heart be changed from that of a man, let him be given the heart of a beast, and let seven times pass over him. ¹⁷ 'This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men.'"

After an hour passed, God revealed to Daniel the interpretation of the dream, and it troubled him.  The tree represented king Nebuchadnezzar, and it was he who would be removed from ruling for seven years.  But as the stump was left in the ground, so the king would be in seven years restored to his throne after he learned the Most High rules over all men.  Daniel urged the king in Daniel 4:27, "Therefore, O king, let my advice be acceptable to you; break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity."  What God had said would certainly come to pass, yet Daniel urged Nebuchadnezzar to humble himself before God and to cast away his sins and show mercy to the poor.  As months passed, the sobering reality of the message from God drifted from memory.

It was a year later when king Nebuchadnezzar strutted proudly in his palace built "by the might of my power and for the honour of his majesty" when the word of the LORD spoken through Daniel came to pass.  Daniel 4:31-32 reads, "While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven: "King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you! ³² And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses."  The purpose of Nebuchadnezzar's reason and throne departing from him was repeated again:  to know the Most High rules and gives power to rule over those He chooses, and that Nebuchadnezzar was NOT most high.  For 7 years Nebuchadnezzar lived as a senseless, unkempt beast, a shocking physical depiction of the spiritual folly he displayed as he paraded proudly through his palace in Babylon in royal attire.

Daniel 4:34-35 shows the 7 years of divine exile accomplished God's good purposes in the words of Nebuchadnezzar: "And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honoured Him who lives forever: for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. ³⁵ All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, "What have You done?"  The truth expressed by the dream and Daniel was finally understood by Nebuchadnezzar.  It is no surprise that lifting his eyes to heaven preceded Nebuchadnezzar's understanding returning to him since it is a gift of God.  He used his understanding to praise and honour God instead of himself and his kingdom which he also received by God's grace.

I find it fascinating and a bit tragic God-fearing people can be more entranced with the interpretation of dreams than to praise and honour God who gives understanding to all who look to Him.  The dream of Nebuchadnezzar revealed what Daniel already knew because he knew God.  Nebuchadnezzar grew in understanding of God by having his kingdom and reason stripped from him for a season, for in the end he lifted his eyes to God in heaven.  Seeking interpretations of dreams for divine guidance when God has already given us His word and wisdom is just as silly as Nebuchadnezzar taking pride in his kingdom as if it was his own doing.  Micah 6:8 reminds us, "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"  Sounds a lot like the advice Daniel gave to king Nebuchadnezzar.

I have one question to ask:  did the correct interpretation enable Nebuchadnezzar to learn the lesson or heed the advice given him?  Obviously not.  The understanding and ability to accomplish God's purposes come from Him alone, and we gain this by lifting our eyes to heaven in faith--not trying to interpret dreams.  Can God speak through dreams?  Sure, but what is the chaff to the wheat?  The only way we can discern the truth is according to God's wisdom revealed in His Word, so lift your eyes to God in humble praise and adoration as Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar did.