Our Awesome God

One awesome quality of God is His sovereignty and immaculate plans only He could possibly conceive and accomplish.  While we try to do our best with our scraps of intelligence and limited ability, He brings into existence what could not be foreseen or predicted.  The birth of Samson is one of those moments in history when God was working to do what His people could not even dream was possible in an unlikely, improbable way.

During their marriage, Manoah and his wife had been unable to have children.  This suggests they desired children, did everything in their power to have a child, but as time wore on they were unsuccessful.  One day the wife of Manoah was met by an angel of the LORD who told her she would have a son who would begin to deliver the children of Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, a people who had oppressed them 40 years.  It is remarkable that Manoah and his wife were well aware of their present inability to even fall pregnant, much less deliver Israel from the Philistines!  Their own personal struggles likely overshadowed the plight of their nation God intended to deliver by their son who was not yet conceived.

Where there was only inability, emptiness and barrenness, God purposed to raise up a deliverer to save His people.  The second time the angel of the LORD appeared Manoah feared they would be struck dead because they had seen God, yet his wife wisely responded in Judges 13:23:  "But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time."  Consider all God has spoken to us in the Bible concerning the future and how to presently order our lives in the way that pleases Him.  God has chosen to allow His redeemed people to remain on earth so His plans, purposes and salvation would be accomplished through us--despite our inability to do anything.

Regardless of our season of life on earth, God reveals enough for us to take the next step of faith in obedience to Him.  We are the overwhelmed and ignorant; we are the helpless and barren, yet God plans to work His wonders, deliverance and salvation through us.  God's answer to our prayers is not only for our sakes but to accomplish His purposes concerning our nation in the years to come.  Praise be to God who only does awesome things, who instructs and prepares us for what we never could have dreamed or foreseen that He will make reality by His grace and goodness.

The Legacy of Glory

"The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools."

Proverbs 3:35

There is a desire in the hearts of men to be well-thought of and long remembered, and this is seen even in lives of self-serving people who did not fear God.  Absalom the son of David could easily be numbered among such people, for 2 Samuel 18:18 tells us:  "Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up a pillar for himself, which is in the King's Valley. For he said, "I have no son to keep my name in remembrance." He called the pillar after his own name. And to this day it is called Absalom's Monument."  The proverb spoken by the wisdom of God proved true, for Absalom's infamous insurrection that ended with his death and being cast into an unmarked grave only brought himself and his memory shame.

A legacy is what a person leaves behind for others, something that imparts a positive or negative impact that remains long after the person is gone.  As Absalom's case demonstrates, both the foolish and wise are considerate of how they will be remembered after their days on earth are brought to an end.  It is a good thing to consider:  will your legacy be one of shame?  What this passage shows us is better than leaving a rich legacy to others is to be one who inherits glory by faith in God.  The wise, whom Jesus identified as those who hear His words and obey them, are God's legacy and inheritance.  When we are born again He chooses to allow us to remain on earth for a season as a testimony of His love and power to save for the benefit of others, and He has also chosen us as His everlasting inheritance in glory.

Whilst Christians can have a bad rap for their imperfections (as if those who criticise are any better), followers of Jesus Christ have many admirable qualities due to our heavenly Father.  The love, grace and goodness of our LORD Jesus covers and cleanses us of our many transgressions and sins, and our God begins to refine us day by day to be more like Him.  How blessed we are by the legacy left behind of godly men and women who expended their lives in faithful service to the LORD day by day, an inspiration that encourages us to press on as they did through many trials, persecutions and troubles.

All have sinned, yet the wise who follow Jesus need not have a legacy of shame as the fools.  Many people have heard the Good News of the Gospel and given it no heed, and in the eternal state they will look back upon their calloused hearts and minds with shame.  People who can recite the Gospel as easily as lyrics from a popular song have not been saved or transformed by the Gospel, and it will not be God or "hypocritical" Christians but only themselves who are to blame.  Those who place their faith in Jesus can be assured of inheriting glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools--regardless how much they accomplish, acquire or leave behind to others.  The world is enriched by Christ more than they know through His legacy of Christians who have died and those still living.  While the world may take Christ for granted, may we live for His glory today.

A Prepared Sacrifice

This morning at church the martyr Polycarp was mentioned in the sermon, a man who was blameless in the eyes of others and accepted death by wild beasts or flames rather than deny Jesus Christ the LORD.  God had been good to him for his 86 years of life:  how could he deny God?  Unlike convicted criminals who were terrified of dying and did everything in their power to evade the execution of justice, Polycarp wore martyrdom as a privileged crown.  Like Jesus before him who had done no wrong, Polycarp did not resist evil.  He did not protest or rail against the injustice he suffered that would cut his life short.  Rather than being nailed to the stake, he offered to stand against it willingly by the power of God who gave him strength..

After being led to the stake, Polycarp prayed before many witnesses:  "O Father of thy well-beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have attained the knowledge of thee, the God of angels and powers, and of every creature, and of all just men which live before thee, I give thee thanks that thou hast vouchsafed to grant me this day, that I may have my part among the number of the martyrs in the cup of Christ, unto the resurrection of eternal life, both of body and soul, through the operation of thy Holy Spirit; among whom I shall this day be received into thy sight for an acceptable sacrifice: and as thou hast prepared and revealed the same before this time, so thou hast accomplished the same, O thou most true God, which canst not lie. Wherefore I in like case for all things praise thee, and bless thee, and glorify thee by our ever lasting Bishop, Jesus Christ, to whom be glory evermore. Amen."

Polycarp prayed to a God he knew was in complete control and had orchestrated the circumstances of his impending death even as Jesus had gone to the cross.  While the purpose of Jesus going to the cross was different--providing atonement for lost sinners and a demonstration of God's love for lost humanity--Polycarp's death for his faith in Jesus would bring glory to His LORD who died for Him.  Polycarp so loved God he praised Him for the opportunity to die for Christ's sake, really a gift in his eyes, to have prepared and provided him the means of blessing the LORD in a new way:  by fire.  Polycarp's embrace of death was not insanity, for he had been granted eternal life by faith in Jesus.

The testimony of Polycarp remains a curiosity for those who do not know God and an inspiration to all who do.  Praise the LORD He is sovereign over all and has prepared us and provided good works for us to do every day--not just to go out in a blaze for God's glory.  Ephesians 2:10 says of believers, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. "  To lay down your life for Jesus' sake in martyrdom is a good work, and to live for Him every day is a great privilege too, for He divinely enables to walk in the path Jesus guides and strengthens us.  As we present ourselves as living sacrifices to God, we are prepared for every good work until our lives on earth end.

The Orthodox Victory

This morning while reading a passage in Judges of Gideon's victory over the Midianites, Amalekites and people of the east, I was struck with how unorthodox (from a worldly perspective) their tactics were.  Rather than assembling a massive fighting force, Gideon dismissed fighters until only a meagre 300 men remained.  These men did not endure grueling training or drilling, and they did not don armour or helmets.  Instead of being armed with sword and shield, they carried a torch in their left hand and a trumpet in their right into the fray.  It was clearly the sword of the LORD that devastated their enemies, and it was a victory as comprehensive as the Egyptians being overthrown in the Red Sea or the walls of Jericho falling down.

A common Hollywood plot is when a ragtag team is thrown together and defies overwhelming odds by becoming champions.  This was the case individually of the "Karate Kid" and "Rocky" and many others, that by hard work and personal sacrifice the unknown underdog became the top dog.  Both of these characters employed unorthodox training habits, like painting a fence, waxing cars or punching sides of beef in a meat locker to hone their skills.  While the tactics Gideon and his men employed were likely never used before or since, their victory over the Midianites was totally orthodox for God's people who cried out to God, trusted and obeyed Him.  That is always the winning formula for the child of God--not to get what we want when we want it--but for God's will to be accomplished to save, deliver and provide.

God employed a process to lead Gideon into that marvelous moment when, after dividing his small fighting force into three companies, he and his men threw down their pitchers and shouted, "The sword of the LORD and the sword of Gideon!"  After God revealed Himself to Gideon while he threshed wheat in a winepress and called him to deliver Israel from the Midianites, Gideon was led to destroy his father's altar of Ba'al, confirmed God's guidance by laying a fleece before the LORD twice, culled a fighting force 32,300 strong to 300,  and ventured into the enemy camp to hear what they were saying with his servant.  God led Gideon step by step to victory to deliver the nation from their enemies, and we ought to be greatly encouraged that God does the same to this day for all who cry out to Him in faith.

Crying out to God in faith, waiting on the LORD and obeying Him is the common denominator of God's people who overcome regardless of the conflict we face, whether it be the lack of food or a job, dealing with a schoolyard bully or a wayward child, a physical illness, upheaval in society, government or a church, experiencing personal betrayal or the car breaking down.  Our failure to cry out to God and stubbornness to try to save ourselves are common problems we may not realise when we are busy trying to deliver ourselves the way others in the world do:  we follow the lead of others to pick up sword and shield to fight when God would have us take up a torch and trumpet in reliance upon God to deliver.  Faith in God and obedience to His guidance are keys to experiencing God's salvation, and Gideon's experience shows God is willing to wait decades to bring us to a place of surrender for His glory.