Loved and Liked

Have you ever heard the distinction between liking and loving someone else?  For a young man looking for love it was disheartening to be "friendzoned" by a woman they are taken with, to be viewed at most a friend when the heart of the love-struck fellow is set on much more.  I have also heard this distinction made among family members:  "I love my family member, but I do not like him or her at all."  It is possible to love someone with whom we are not currently pleased and thus do not "like" due to circumstances.  The seeming contradiction between loving someone we do not like is resolved when we realise our natural love is not God's love at all.

I was struck by how amazing God's grace and love is towards us today by a statement David made in 1 Chronicles 28:2-5:  "Then King David rose to his feet and said, "Hear me, my brethren and my people: I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and for the footstool of our God, and had made preparations to build it. ³ But God said to me, 'You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.' ⁴ However the LORD God of Israel chose me above all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever, for He has chosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of my father, and among the sons of my father, He was pleased with me to make me king over all Israel. ⁵ And of all my sons (for the LORD has given me many sons) He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel."

A man after God's own heart, David remained humble even as ruler over Israel.  By grace God chose Judah out of the 12 tribes to be one that ruled, the house of Jesse was also chosen by God and David, though the youngest son, was chosen to be king.  David had not desired to be king, yet God delighted to bring him from the sheepfold to the throne.  David did desire to build God a temple, and God instead chose David's son Solomon to sit on the throne after him and build the temple.  Verse 4 says God "was pleased with me to make me king over all Israel."  The KJV puts it, "among the sons of my father he liked me to make me king..."  Isn't it great to hear God chose David by grace because He liked him?  God made David king out of all Israel because it pleased Him.  God loved and liked David, and this was displayed in graciously promoting him and also preventing him from doing what David really wanted to do.

When human beings "like" someone else, in their eyes the one they like can do no (or little!) wrong.  Though God was pleased to make David king, it did not give him a free pass to sin without consequences.  Also it did not mean God's love or liking was restricted to David alone, for His choosing of David and finding pleasure in him was all of grace.  The God who does not and cannot change has seen fit to create all human beings with a unique, distinct soul and personality.  I am told no two different snowflakes or fingerprints are identical, and consider the creative genius of God to make everyone and their talents, perspectives, likes and loves different from one another!  The elders said before the LORD in Revelation 4:11:  "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."  God created all things--including every person--because it pleased Him to do so.

Do you realise God knit you in the womb of your mother because it pleased Him?  David was convinced he was chosen of God for his role because God liked him, and blessed is the man who has received the love of God by faith, knowing He also favours us.  God showed grace to David by choosing him to be king, and He showed grace by giving the task of building the temple to Solomon.  It pleased God to not have David build the temple, but he was not loved any less.  For God so loved the world He sent His only begotten Son Jesus that whosoever believes in Him will have eternal life, and those who receive His love by faith begin to realise God likes us too, undeserving though we remain of such grace.

By Grace Unshakable

For a reason probably only known for certain by the author Ian Fleming, the common cocktail of choice by James Bond included an odd request for preparation, that the martini serviced him be "Shaken, not stirred."  Apparently his palate was refined to notice a difference, and he cared enough over the distinction to include detailed instructions in his order instead of leaving it to a professional barkeep.  Whether a drink is shaken or stirred, the reason the drink is mixed is the same:  it is for drinking.

Like a drink, it is possible for people to be shaken and disturbed by what they have seen; people can be stirred by troubling circumstances.  In the end it doesn't matter if we feel shaken or stirred but how we respond to the situation and our feelings.  I used to live in southern California, a part of the world often shaken by small earthquakes.  It was not uncommon for me to hear earthquakes ratting the windows at night and once I heard the house snap like a whip.  Because earthquakes were common and we were as prepared as we could possibly be in case of an emergency, when the house shook I was not shaken in mind.  I am sure if the house had collapsed due to the force of a quake, it would have been a different story.

I was reminded of a passage of scripture where the children of Israel were shaken by an encounter with the living God when He revealed Himself in fire, lightning, thunder and an earthquake on Mt. Sinai.  The people were overwhelmed by the presence of God and shook them to the core.  Needless to say they shook more than a leaf in a hurricane and were far more impacted than rocks dislodged by God's power.  The writer of Hebrews drew the attention of Christians to the quaking Hebrews long ago and how we as believers are being given an unshakable kingdom by faith in Jesus in Hebrews 12:18-29:

"For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, ¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. ²⁰ (For they could not endure what was commanded: "And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow." ²¹ And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.") ²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, ²³ to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, ²⁴ to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. ²⁵ See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, ²⁶ whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." ²⁷ Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. ²⁹ For our God is a consuming fire." (NKJV)

The LORD who shook the earth when He appeared to the Hebrews on Sinai has promised to surely shake the earth and also heaven.  The earth will shaken by God like a tree is shaken by those who harvest olives to gather them.  Everything that shakes will be removed and will not endure, but all people who are founded on Jesus Christ by faith in Him will not be moved.  We can remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the LORD knowing we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, for it will endure forever.  This result of this knowledge and steadfastness ought to result in us having grace, "by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."  Apart from Christ we are like chaff which the wind stirs up drives away.  It is by the grace of God we can stand, by His grace we will receive an unshakable kingdom, and by grace we can serve God acceptably.  Instead of being shaken when the earth and heavens are shaken, by the grace of God we stand, serve and endure.

Sin is Never Barren

One of lesser known works of C.S. Lewis is one of my favourites, titled The Pilgrim's Regress.  While Pilgrim in John Bunyan's original classic starts his quest for the Celestial City in the right direction, John in The Pilgrim's Regress begins his trek longing for and seeking what he knows not.  He looks for something to satisfy, a beautiful sight, a pleasurable feeling, anything to make life worth living.

For me a most memorable and insightful scene occurs when John went into the wood hoping to catch a glimpse of a beautiful island.  One day in the wood when he was thinking about what actual benefit the island or sweet music that came from it did him, he was surprised to hear a sweet voice speaking to him.  What is described next is nothing less than masterful genius of how sin (especially in the sexual realm) seduces and ensnares unsuspecting people without guilty victims realising the awful consequences.

"...Just as he was opening his eyes he heard a voice speaking to him.  It was quite close at hand, and very sweet, and not at all like the old voice of the wood.  When he looked round he saw what he had never expected, yet he was not surprised.  There in the grass beside him sat a laughing brown girl of about his own age, and she had no clothes on.  "It was me you wanted,' said the brown girl.  'I am better than your silly islands." And John rose and caught her, all in haste, and committed fornication with her in the wood.

After that John was always going to the wood.  He did not always have his pleasure of her in the body, though it often ended that way:  sometimes he would talk to her about himself, telling her lies about his courage and his cleverness.  All that he told her she remembered, so that on other days she could tell it over to him again.  Sometimes, even, he would go with her through the wood looking for the sea and the Island, but not often.  Meanwhile the year went on and the leaves began to fall in the wood and the skies were more often grey:  until now, as I dreamed, John had slept in the wood, and he woke up in the wood.  The sun was low and a blustering wind was stripping the leaves from the branches.  The girl was still there and the appearance of her was hateful to John:  and he saw that she knew this, and the more she knew it the more she stared at him, smiling.  He looked round and saw how small the wood was after all--a beggarly strip of trees between the road and a field that he knew well.  Nowhere in sight was there anything that he liked at all.

'I shall not come back here, ' said John.  'What I wanted is not here.  It wasn't you I wanted, you know.'

'Wasn't it?' said the brown girl.  'Then be off.  But you must take your family with you.'

With that she put up her hands to her mouth and called.  Instantly from behind every tree there slipped out a brown girl:  each of them was just like herself:  the little wood was full of them.

'What are these?'

'Our daughters,' said she.  'Did you not know you were a father?  Did you think I was barren, you fool?  And now, children,' she added, turning to the mob, 'go with your father.'

Suddenly John became very much afraid and leaped over the wall into the road.  There he ran home as fast as he could."  (The Pilgrim's Regress, by C. S. Lewis, Fount Paperbacks, 1990, pp. 40–41. )

John ran but could not hide from the little brown girls who haunted his every step; at every turn they were there.  He tried in vain to comfort himself over time because of the "rules" he had broken, but "when he crept away to bed, tired to death and raw in his soul, always he would be sure to find a brown girl waiting for him there:  and on such a night he had no spirit to resist her blandishments." (ibid. pg. 43)  Is this not an inspired description of one trapped in the futile pleasure/guilt cycle of sin with fearful, haunting consequences?  It is only by Jesus Christ and the Gospel wretched sinners are saved from the snare and condemnation of sin, and in God find the freedom, forgiveness and rest we truly long for.  Our sin is never barren but always produces death.  For those trapped in the wood, life becomes a living hell.  Oh, what joy to have fellowship with God freely offered us despite ourselves with the sure promise of heaven!

Putting God's Word into Practice

I have never been alive during a global pandemic before, and the impact on church gatherings has been felt.  When businesses and churches were locked down in Sydney for months last year it prompted us to begin live-streaming Sunday sermons.  As restrictions eased I entered discussions if we should continue live-streaming or if it encouraged people who were permitted to worship with a body of believers (with restrictions) to stay isolated in the comfort of their homes.  In the end it was decided any means of sharing the word of God and the Gospel was more profitable than seeking to exert control over the decisions of others.  Each one of us will give an account of himself before God, and to leave matters in His hands is best.

My experience largely lines up with people from other church fellowships I have spoken to, that there are people who regularly attended church before the pandemic who have not made it back.  We have also seen new people visit and attend our fellowship when their churches were not yet meeting.  In a church that practices expository teaching through the Bible from the pulpit, it has occurred to me the emphasis on teaching might convey it is the primary need or means of being "in fellowship."  This, of course, it not true.  Genuine fellowship occurs between people and God when they are born again by faith in Jesus and are filled with the Holy Spirit.  Believers comprise the church of which Jesus is the Head, and we gather together in His name.  Regular gathering with other Christians is assumed in scripture, for over and over Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Corinth, "When you come together..." not "If you come together."

It is a real problem if people think teaching is all they need for fellowship and spiritual health, as if knowledge alone is enough.  A coach knows a lot about the sport he or she coaches, and they are coaching because for whatever reason they are no longer playing.  Knowing the truth doesn't mean we follow it ourselves.  I have spoken words of encouragement straight from the scripture to people who attended church who later attempted suicide.  This shows attending church, hearing and knowing the scriptures does not profit us unless we heed it!  James 1:22 guides us, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."  There are a lot of deceived people in the world, and those who are born again (and not of this world) should take care we are not numbered among them.  Hearing and not putting into practice what we have heard leads to self-deception, and this warning is for believers to take to heart.

This is the key:  we must put into practice what God has said.  Professional athletes are not beyond practicing.  I daresay these who rise to the pinnacle of success in their sport often practice the most and best!  None of us needed to work to earn salvation, for it is a work accomplished by Jesus.  He invites us to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him, to be the servant of all as we follow His example.  This means to practice more than church attendance, reading the Bible or praying:  it means taking action afterward accordingly to what we hear at church, what we read and what God impresses on our hearts.  If God speaks encouragement, let us receive it.  Should He correct us, let us admit we have been wrong about that and seek to do right.  It is when we put faith in Christ into practice we finally begin to grow.