Panning for Gold

It is amazing how God can use past experiences to provide wisdom in the present and future.  I was reminded of a school trip when I accompanied my eldest son as a chaperone to a historical site of the gold rush in California.  I was tasked with overseeing six very energetic year 5 boys who had their hopes on finding their fortunes in gold like thousands before them.

As our bus drove over a bridge one of the lads shouted with excitement, "I saw a gold nugget!  I saw a massive nugget in the middle of that stream!"  After arriving at the campsite where we would spend the next couple nights, the whole group was given instructions on how to pan for gold.  Each group was stationed around wooden troughs filled with water and sand that had been "salted" with real gold.  Our guide explained the gold in the river had long ago been mined and these troughs were an opportunity to find gold ourselves.

With the attention span of squirrels, it was mere minutes before some happy campers started whinging and complaining:  "I can't find any gold!" or "I'm tired!" or "This is too hard!"  Every time I dug the pan into the sand I was finding flecks of gold and helped each of my campers to give it a go.  I even found gold for them and poured it into their small vials.  But the lure of the bigger, better gold in the river by the bridge was too sweet a siren's song to endure.  A few of them wanted to go to the river.  I explained, "Boys, there's no guarantee of gold down at the river.  In these small troughs we have the guarantee of real gold right here."  After a discussion with the boys it was decided we would spend 30 minutes panning for gold at the troughs, then head down to the river to pan for gold there.

Now I bet you can just guess how the river excursion went.  Needless to say, no gold was found.  The gold nugget so easily seen from a driving bus was strangely elusive.  By the end of the afternoon we had a bunch of kids with wet clothes, muddy shoes and jackets, misplaced gold pans, and missing hats.  Somehow some kids lost their vials or poured out the little gold they had by accident while playing with it. Panning for gold was hard enough in the troughs, and it was doubly difficult at the stream because of the flowing water, the myriad of distractions and places to explore--not to mention the lack of gold.  We lacked the necessary equipment to dig deep enough in the sand or to go through the volume of material needed to find even a little gold.

The situation illustrates to me the childish notion which can surprisingly exist among Christians, to lay aside the word of God and the Gospel because they believe the real treasure is found elsewhere.  Like Boaz instructed his workers to intentionally drop grain so Ruth would find, gather it and be sustained with her mother-in-law Naomi.  Gleaning barley is hard work, and so is faithfully digging into the word of God.  God has treasures beyond compare in all the pages of scripture He provides for our benefit, yet our interests lie on the deeper, hidden truths.  In the Bible we have the guarantee of God's wisdom and truth, and praise the LORD He has given people insight and ability to illustrate old truths in a fresh way.

Believer, are you content to feed on the word of God or do you find yourself lacking an appetite because you've developed a taste for something else or have begun to major on fringe topics?  Learn from the experience of those year 5 boys:  leaving troughs of gold for a trip to the river led by a gold nugget mirage left us empty in the end.  Chasing satisfaction and wisdom from God apart from His word and the Gospel will prove to be a fool's errand because it leads us away from the good stuff He has generously supplied by His grace.

Living in Limbo

There are all sorts of situations in life which leave us feeling helpless and hopeless of making progress.  We pin our hopes on seeing measurable improvement but our best efforts seem futile.  Disappointment leads to discouragement, and we feel like we are living in limbo.  Limbo is described as, "an uncertain period of awaiting a decision or resolution; an intermediate state or condition."  We desire the feeling of closure over a legal decision or a personal conflict, and we cannot see the way forward or an escape from pain until the weight of waiting for justice to be done is lifted by meaningful action.  The wheels of justice turn slowly when at all, and the movement does nothing to heal wounds opened afresh by the process.

To those whose lives feel in suspension from grief and pain, there is real hope available for you today.  The LORD is righteous, holy and does not change (Malachi 3:6);  the God who is just and merciful, mighty to save and will judge the wicked is the same God today as He will always be.  Many people who are guilty of crimes will never be judged by a human court, but all will someday answer for their wickedness before the almighty who will see justice done.  Even when "justice is served" in a court of law, nothing can be done to heal a broken heart or replace the time victims served in a prison of pain and uncertainty.  Sometimes a judge and jury gets things wrong and people have been incarcerated for crimes they did not commit.  How can one continue to live joyfully in a cell when your life has been hijacked by injustice?

The answer is found in the person of Jesus Christ and all He willingly suffered for us.  He is described by the prophet as "being despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief." (Isaiah 53:3)  The justice of God for our sins was placed upon Jesus once for all, and by His stripes we are healed.  As victims we cry out for justice to be served:  on Calvary justice for you, child of God, was secured by the grace of God that transcends time.  Those who do wrong and die in their sins will ultimately be judged and punished for their wickedness.  Should the worst evildoer trust in Christ and repent of his sins, that one will be washed forever clean because justice was meted out on Jesus on the cross.  How great His pain, and how much greater His power and victory over sin displayed in His resurrection from the dead!

By grace we are saved by faith in Jesus, and we are forgiven because God's justice was satisfied on Calvary.  1 John 1:9-10 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."  If the body of Jesus remained in the tomb, we could justify living in limbo.  Since Jesus is risen and remains faithful and just, we have an everlasting hope no trial or pain can wrench from us.  Grief and suffering from injustice is real and the pain ought not be dismissed.  The word of God and faith in Jesus teaches us to shift our focus from the injustice we have suffered to Jesus who saw justice served on the cross.  We know for certain God will one day judge the world in righteousness.  Not one who dies in their sins will evade the full responsibility of guilt, and God's eternal sentence will be just. 

The Fruit of Righteousness

"Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

Hebrews 12:11

When I was trained to be a union insulator for years on the job and classroom, there was a lot to learn.  We were taught to understand the systems we insulated, how to read a set of drawings and lay out patterns.  Knowing how to insulate mechanical systems also required skill in fabrication:  cutting out material and applying it correctly.  Working in the field meant we also needed a degree of physical fitness to climb up and down ladders all day and make the most efficient use of our time.  Different foremen had additional techniques and approaches which apprentices practiced and adopted to improve our skills.  Being trained was hard work, but those who committed themselves to the process with a good attitude would go far.

The writer of Hebrews told the readers they had forgotten the Old Testament exhortation found in Proverbs 3:11-12:  "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor detest His correction; ¹² for whom the LORD loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights."  It was a bitter pill to swallow your hard work was not up to scratch and the foreman demanded all the material applied for hours needed to be ripped off and the work performed by someone more suited for the task.  Chastening is not joyful at the time, but that tutoring and instruction is done with the future in mind.  God chastens His beloved, adopted children because it yields afterward the "peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

The training God employs is strenuous as it nurtures and conditions us to walk in holiness as God is holy.  How blessed is the child of God, for Jesus has taken upon Himself all the punishment for our sin.  Just as seeds are planted in the ground and must grow into plants before fruit can be produced, so painful chastening is the process for the peaceable fruit of righteousness to be yielded in our lives.  Training is effective for those who in a desire to learn and please their teacher submit their mind, bodies and efforts to the guidance of their master.  Many skilled insulators were out of work because they failed to yield in one of these areas:  they argued with their foreman, refused to arrive on the site on time or work the full day, or disobeyed directives to suit their own opinions.

The pain God allows is a demonstration of His love and care for us and the glorious future He has in store for us.  What is presently painful will prove to be most practical, for the sweet peaceable fruit of righteousness is evidence we are holy and His.  All along He has consolation and comfort for us, for we are not in this alone.  It is God who supplies healing, wholeness and endurance by His grace.

Deal With Your Sin

An important part of our Christian walk and being sanctified is dealing with our sin as God deals with us.  He treats believers as His own adopted children, having freely provided us access into His presence and an eternal inheritance in heaven.  A father disciplines and corrects the son he loves, and we ought not to despise God's chastening.  Recognising our sin and wicked tendencies is a necessary start, but for us it ought not to end there.

It is a wise man who notices common pitfalls of sin and does everything possible to prevent opportunity and invitation to transgress.  A person who knows they cannot be trusted to have one alcoholic beverage because once the door is opened they will drink themselves drunk is wise not to drink at all.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, the cliche goes.  The simple act of not being alone with a boyfriend or girlfriend has prevented temptation to fornication.  I have witnessed many people in competitive gaming "rage quit" because of frustration with losing despite their best efforts.  They shout, "That's it, I'm deleting this game!"  But was the game itself the problem?

So you delete the game from your computer, you avoid "chilling" with your girlfriend alone, you avoid drinking alcohol:  have you dealt with the sin in the heart that leads to outbursts of wrath, lustful thoughts, sexual immorality and drunkenness?  This is the necessary action our sinful behaviour ought to prompt us to undertake by confession, repentance and determination to obey God in the future.  Circumspect boundaries can sink into the mire of legalism unless our hearts are transformed by putting off the old man and walking in the Holy Spirit.  We can imagine we are more righteous by avoiding temptation rather than taking our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ and put sin to death in our bodies (Colossians 3:5-11).

Paul exposed this error of believers in Colossians 2:20-23:  "Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations--²¹ "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle," ²² which all concern things which perish with the using--according to the commandments and doctrines of men? ²³ These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh."  By all means avoid sin and refuse to place a stumbling block in the way of others, but our own sinfulness must be confessed and forsaken.  Not one of us can purify our hearts, minds and hearts by "temptation avoidance:"  it is by the power of Jesus Christ revealed in the Gospel by grace through faith in Him.

James wrote the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:20), and when God allows circumstances to stir up sin and brings it to the surface through our behaviour we must deal with the source of sin in our hearts.  A man once told me of his ex-wife, "I never stopped loving her, but she made me more angry than anyone else."  Divorcing a spouse does nothing to divorce anyone from their sinful pride, anger and hardness of heart.  Praise God the LORD who opens our eyes to our sin by conviction of the Holy Spirit and God's word is able to purify us of all guilt.  By the Gospel we are made righteous in God's sight, and in Christ we joyfully abide.