Forget the Universe

I am always a bit puzzled when I see people reference "the universe" with gratitude for something fortuitous or beneficial.  These references often correlate with how a Christian commonly invokes the name of God or Jesus Christ with thanks or admiration.  I wonder if those who thank the universe or their "lucky stars," consider where or how those things originated.  For those who appeal to the goodness of the universe, one might as well believe the soil or grass under their feet was worthy and able to receive their praise.

The children of Israel were distinct from all the nations of the earth in that they were guided to worship the God Who is the self-existent Creator of all things.  While the heathen nations worshipped the sun, moon and idols of man's devising, the children of Abraham made a covenant with God who revealed Himself to them on Mt. Sinai.  Not only did God create the world, but Scripture testifies along with the annals of history that God also kept His word and gave them the land He promised their fathers.  Joshua 21:43-45 affirms, "So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. ⁴⁴ The LORD gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. ⁴⁵ Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass."

The Hebrews were led out of Egypt by God's mighty hand, passed through the Red Sea, and survived 40 years in the wilderness before the LORD brought them into the land of Canaan.  God providentially supplied food, water and fought their battles.  He was their good Shepherd as well as their refuge, and He has remained faithful to this day.  Even Gentiles such as myself have had our eyes opened to see the majesty and worthiness of God to be trusted, worshipped and praise:  He is a Saviour and there is no other.  He spoke through the prophet in Isaiah 45:22-23:  "Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. ²³  I have sworn by Myself; the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath."  The universe God created cannot compare with Him, for all God has created is a mere wisp of vapour that disappears in a moment.

The universe was not, than came to be, and suddenly will not be:  how does this compare to God who was, is and will always be?  The universe can make no covenant, promise or provision.  Like an image made by a craftsman that has ears but cannot hear and a mouth that cannot speak, the universe is a mindless thing that expands but cannot draw anyone close.  In stark contrast, the God who made the ear can hear everything without ears, and He who created the mouth does not need vocal cords to speak.  God is entirely other and awesome in comparison to the wondrous things He has made, which makes Him infinitely more worthy of praise than the vast array of sparks and pebbles He has scattered throughout the cosmos.  Because of Jesus Christ who loves us we can say with joy, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men." (Luke 2:14)  At the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is LORD to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-11).

People can have the universe as their god if they want, but I choose the LORD Jesus Christ.

Waiting on God's Name

"I will praise You forever, because You have done it; and in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good."

Psalm 52:9

David compared himself to a green olive tree planted in the house of God, and that he would trust in the mercy of God forever.  David realised it was by faith in God he was thus established, having received favour from the living God of Israel.  He had an unshakable hope in the goodness of God presently and for the future because God is faithful, a deliverer and redeemer.

During the Friday night Bible study at Calvary Chapel Sydney, we discussed what it means to "wait on Your name" in relation to God.  In the Bible, God's names describe His glorious unchangeable attributes and good character.  I was led to consider the passage where God's presence was introduced by His name before Moses in Exodus 34:5-7:  "Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. ⁶ And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, ⁷ keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation."  God's name does not only say what He does but shows us Who He is.

God introduced Himself by calling Himself LORD, the self-existent Creator Who is sovereign over all things.  He stands alone in majesty, glory and power over all, and without Him nothing has been made that is made:  all are beneath Him in every regard.  While He is awesome in power, He has revealed Himself to be merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth.  He does more than show mercy, for God is fundamentally merciful.  Man may show mercy in an instance here or there, yet this is only because mankind has been created in God's image.  Because of man's fall into sin we are not gracious, patient or abundant in goodness and truth.  God is all these things and infinitely more--because He is the LORD God who is good.

God is good to show mercy by forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.  He is willing to forgive those who repent and trust in Him who are exposed of having selfish motives, who willfully disobey and those who do their best and fail to measure up to His perfect standard.  God is also good to hold sinners to account, allowing sin's unpleasant consequences to draw them to Himself or to administer justice to the unrepentant so others will avoid sin.  God has revealed His goodness to sinful humanity in Jesus coming to earth to break the power of sin over people and their families so generations who would have been lost forever can receive His mercy for thousands of generations to come.

Waiting on the name of the LORD is patient expectation for the LORD God to be and do exactly as He has declared in His word, that He will keep His promises to redeem and save us forever.  Because God is good His love never fails, and we ought to praise God now and forever for being worthy of praise in Himself as David said in Psalm 34:1-2:  "I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. ² My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; the humble shall hear of it and be glad."  Bless the LORD, you His saints, for as Psalm 34:22 says, "The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned."  Lift up your heads, for even now your redemption draws near.

Gift of Suffering

I was reminded of the film Silence today, specifically how the persecution of Jesuit priests by the Japanese for the sake of the Gospel proved ineffective to stop their ministry.  The antagonists found their brutal tortures only seemed to goad the priests to further sacrifice to spread the Good News of Christianity.  In the film, the Japanese changed their approach and discovered they made inroads to hinder the ministry by making the congregants suffer.  This created a conflict within the priests who felt personally responsible for causing the pain, suffering and death of the local people.  Had those missionaries considered the teaching of scripture, it perhaps would have changed their outlook to realise believers are appointed by God to suffer and were never at the mercy of their enemies.

Hearing this, some may see this appointment to suffering as a blight upon God's goodness and righteous character.  But how can one say this when Jesus went through suffering and crucifixion for our good and will ultimately end our suffering forever?  A biblical perspective is suffering is actually a gift (our flesh would gladly avoid receiving or return if it could) as it says in Philippians 1:27-30:  "Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, ²⁸ and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. ²⁹ For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, ³⁰ having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me."  Remaining steadfast in suffering by faith in Jesus--without  any fear of enemies--reveals faith to be genuine and powerful to save.  We can rejoice to suffer for Christ knowing it has been ordained of God for us to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake.

A key theme of the book of Philippians is exhorting Christians to rejoice in the LORD always, and this rejoicing in God was despite all the trials and suffering Paul experienced.  Further on in the letter he wrote in Philippians 3:8-11:  "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; ¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, ¹¹ if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."  Paul viewed suffering the loss of all things for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ as a most worthy trade.  His genuine faith resulted in righteousness being credited to him and thus he would experience the presence of God, the power of the resurrection to life, and fellowship of Christ's sufferings.  Suffering was something Paul and all Christians can share in common with our Saviour Jesus, and this draws those who trust Jesus closer to Him day by day.

It may be easier for us to personally experience suffering for Christ than to watch others suffer.  But we are not without hope or help in this case, even if we are ourselves helpless to change the situation or end the season of suffering.  That is what God has promised to do.  Know that in our suffering God is working to accomplish good things we never dreamed possible--like love increasing and abounding towards all and establishing hearts blameless in holiness (1 Thess. 3:11:13).  If you have faith to endure suffering and loss of all things for the sake of knowing Christ, we can exercise that faith that God is good and sovereign in the lives of other believers as well.  Glory to God for His redeeming grace, for He is truly able to make all things work together for good to those who love God.

The Scale Insect War

I have found gardening challenging in Sydney.  It feels like something is always against you, whether it be nutrient poor soil or clay, variety of turf or weeds, birds or extreme heat.  Grubs and insects also pose a problem that can go unnoticed until damage is done to roots or leaves.  The most recurring problem I have in our area is scale insects that attach themselves like barnacles to the top and underside of leaves as well as digging into the branches.  I don't know how long scale insects were on our lime tree until I noticed them by looking closely, and only then did I begin to realise the extent of the infestation and the damage they were doing.

From what I have read, the scale insects draw nutrients from the tree and then excrete honeydew which attracts ants and causes sooty black mould.  The mould doesn't directly harm the tree, but when it builds up on the leaves it can inhibit photosynthesis and cause leaves to drop off.  Quiet and sedentary, scale ignored will drain a tree of life.  Suffice it to say, it would not do much good to wash the leaves with water and mild soap unless treatment is applied to the root cause:  scale insects.  At first I started occasionally removing the scale insects by hand and washing off the black mould.  But it was only a matter of time before the sedentary scale was almost magically back on nearly every leaf in great numbers (thankfully the tree is small).

The only way to rid the tree of scale was by making the treatment of scale the first priority, for half-hearted measures only provided temporary benefits.  I looked online and bought Neem oil to spray on the tree every 3 - 4 days after removing the scale by hand.  Every day as I look into the yard through a window, the light passing through the leaves reveals small black dots of scale that sneakily hug the underside of leaves and dodge the spray.  As of now I am still in the thick of battle with scale that has required daily attention for weeks.  The pests were hardly hindered when I waited weeks before cleaning and treating the leaves, and my experience shows that my desire to have a tree free of scale will not and cannot happen unless I do something drastic about it.

This is a good object lesson concerning our need to declare war on sin and folly in our lives--without holding anything back.  Half measures will accomplish no lasting benefit and only provide opportunity for infestation to persist and wreak havoc.  It is a great shame when sinful thoughts, desires and actions begin to have a place in our minds and hearts.  Like the scale that drain vitality from a tree, so sin saps our spiritual strength and hinders our growth and fruitfulness.  A tree planted by rivers of water that brings fruit in season can be infested with scale insects, and thus there must be close, regular inspection of our hearts.  The fruit of our lips can be indicators all is not well in our hearts, and it is the Holy Spirit who does this inspection and brings conviction of sin.  God will use His word, others and our own conscience to expose sin inside us, and He gives us the ability to repent of sin and do what pleases God.

One recurring problem with sin that hinders our fellowship with God and fruitfulness as Christians is not always seen as deadly or troublesome as sin that damns the unregenerate to hell.  Some do not see sin that is not leading to death as a "salvation issue."  However, in one sense it is a salvation issue, for having been saved by grace through faith we are called to abound more and more in living in the way that pleases God!  Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches.  If God calls us to bear fruit and prunes us so that we would bear more fruit, then sin needs to be dealt with immediately and most severely.  Our problem may not be sins in themselves but hindrances or habits that prevent us from being spiritually healthy.

David sang in Psalm 139:23-24:  "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; ²⁴ and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."  He also penned in Psalm 51:6-7:  "Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. ⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."  Jesus compared the Pharisees with whitewashed tombs that were clean in appearance but inside were unclean and polluted by dead corpses who defiled others.  Unless we make renewed effort to put off sin in the fear God and walk in humble obedience before Jesus our LORD and Saviour, any Christian can end up resembling them.