What Do We Want from Our Pastors?

Looking back on the many different churches I’ve been a part of, the matter of church leadership has always been a major concern. Pastors, elders, deacons (and deaconesses), board members, teachers, and various other office-holders appear in my memory in varying shades of “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” The overarching question that I keep coming back to is: What does the Lord of the church want His church to be? Because that ought to determine the nature of the church’s leadership.

Shepherding the “flock of God” is, or should be, a high and holy calling. Jesus prayed, not only for His immediate band of apostles and other followers, but also for “those who will believe through their word.” For the church of the future, all the way down to you and me. And He prayed that the Father would “sanctify them by Thy truth; Thy word is truth.” Throughout the Scriptures, the ministry of that sacred, sanctifying word is of paramount importance.

If you’re like me, you’re in constant need of reminding about “the basics.” I’m apt to forget what the Bible is. Not simply a written record of the opinions of those who lived centuries ago in a far-off land. It’s exactly the opposite. The Bible is the eternal truth of the living, ruling, supreme, saving God of the universe. The Bible’s message is as contemporary and relevant as if it had been written this very morning. And its truth, its WHOLE truth, is to SANCTIFY God’s people.

Parts of the Scriptures are thrilling, inspiring, fascinating, heartwarming, challenging. Other parts are strange, obscure, tiresome, uncomfortable, terrifying. But Christians consider “all Scripture” to be “God-breathed...profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God should be complete, fully equipped for every good work.” Serious Christians should desire to learn and treasure and obey “the whole counsel of God.”

Perhaps you find yourself in a church that seems content with lighthearted “sermonettes” on a Sunday morning. Your pastor picks his topic based on what he deems to be the “felt needs” of his people. Or the current crisis facing society the previous week. Or maybe he follows the dictates of the church calendar that rotates through a set litany of topics each year. Many pastors appear eager to make their flocks feel better about themselves and life in general. They portray God as a fountain of happiness, but downplay His desire to SANCTIFY us (make us HOLY).

Really, I’ve found that, by and large, a church will get the kind of pastor it WANTS. And very often, the kind it DESERVES. Unless a group of believers is truly hungry to be taught ALL of the Scriptures, that group will end up with a pastor who is more of a “hireling” than a shepherd. One who feeds the sheep with just what will keep them barely alive, not make them all that God wants them to be.

When was the last time that your minister preached through an entire book of the Bible? How about one of the difficult ones like Ecclesiastes or Ezekiel or Hebrews? Does your preacher tend to cycle through a limited pool of topics or preach only from the New Testament or even just the four Gospels? Would you be willing to go deeper and broader in God’s truth, if only your leader was willing to lead the way?

God gave us 66 books for a good reason. He knew what His people needed from all eternity, and He gave it to us in the form of a magnificent Book! Do we want a pastor who is everybody’s “pal” and keeps us all feeling good Sundays with his jokes and anecdotes and pep talks? Or do we want a scholarly mind that grapples with the depth and breadth of holy Scripture in order to challenge His people to make strides spiritually, preparing them for an unknown future that might include persecution and call for strong, sanctified soldiers of the cross?

What DO we want from our pastors? Isn’t it time to voice those desires in prayer? Isn’t it high time to be serious about our faith, our Lord, our churches, our world?

MNA
7/3/2020

A Dark Place to Pray

If Jonah is a well-known biblical character, it’s most likely because he was swallowed by a great fish, or possibly, by a whale. This mammoth sea creature became a tool in the hands of God to rescue His prophet from drowning in the stormy waters, to bring Jonah back to the dry land, and to be a resting place in which Jonah could reason with himself and repent of his rebellion against God.

For three days and three nights, Jonah was safe and secure in the fish’s belly. What was it like in there, I wonder? What thoughts went through Jonah’s mind during those many hours? Did he fear that he’d never see the light of day again? That he would die of suffocation or starvation? Surely he thought a lot about his disobedient behavior--how he’d run from the presence of the Lord, and how the Lord had pursued him with a mighty storm.

Whatever Jonah may have been thinking, the Bible tells us what he DID: “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish.” The opening of Jonah’s prayer tells of his heart-cry to the Lord as he sank into the murky depths of the sea. It also tells of a living God who not only hears the desperate cries of His children, but answers them. We often take it for granted that God hears and answers our prayers. But this is a precious, precious truth! Those who bow down to other gods might wish and hope for some kind of answer, but they hope only in vain! Believers in the God of the Bible can be assured that every prayer of theirs finds their heavenly Father willing and eager to listen...able and willing to help them in their time of need.

The next part of this prayer recounts how Jonah found himself in trouble: “For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas...all your waves and your billows passed over me.” Notice how the prophet gives glory to God. Gives the Lord the credit for everything that happened. Even though it was the sailors on the ship that physically threw Jonah overboard, Jonah knows that the sovereign God of heaven acted behind the scenes to engineer the whole thing. “YOU cast me into the deep...YOUR waves and YOUR billows passed over me.”

Several weeks ago, a great theologian and Bible teacher, R.C. Sproul, went home to be with the Lord. In his teaching, he’d often refer to his favorite fiction book, Moby Dick. This great American novel tells the tale of a ship’s captain named Ahab, who uses his ship and crew to hunt down a great white whale, Moby Dick. The whale had attacked Ahab in the past and taken off one of the captain’s legs. It had crippled both Ahab’s body and his soul. Ahab searched and searched for Moby Dick to get his revenge by killing it. R.C. Sproul believed that this was a symbol of man’s pursuit of God, not out of love, but a hunger for vengeance.

Yes, there are those who know that our God exists, and yet do all they can to put Him out of their thinking--to kill God off in their hearts and minds. They do this so that they can be free of His laws and demands and expectations. In effect they are, like Jonah, running away from the presence of the Lord. But when those same people get into some kind of deep, dark trouble, where do they turn? Many of them turn to God out of desperation. They come to the end of their rope and have nowhere else to turn, so they PRAY.

Prayer, however, is no panacea--no magical formula that automatically solves all of my problems. People wrongly think of God as a kind of supernatural bellhop who is just waiting for us to ring for Him when we have a wish or request. What we discover in the book of Jonah, is that God is SOVEREIGN. That is, He is in control of all that exists in His creation, and all that happens to all His creatures, all the time. When he was sleeping in the hold of his ship, and even when the storm was raging all around them, Jonah failed to pray. But God arranged the events and circumstances in such a way that when Jonah was cast into the sea, at last he was willing to cry out to the Lord his God.

Do you see the purpose in God’s treatment of Jonah? The story began with Jonah running away from the presence of the Lord. He was running from the responsibility of being God’s prophet, of going to Ninevah and preaching against that city. But the Lord pursued him. The Lord didn’t give up on him. The Lord loved him and planned to return Jonah to a life of loving obedience. At first Jonah’s reaction to God’s casting him into the sea was: “Then I said, I am driven away from your sight.” But soon, inside the fish, he prayed: “yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.”

When dangers and tragedies happen to you and me, often we are tempted to become bitter like Captain Ahab. We are tempted to say, “Lord, why are you treating me this way? Are you trying to drive me away? I don’t deserve this harsh trial.” Or, perhaps we think, “I really DO deserve this. God must be doing this to punish me because He has stopped loving me.” When Jonah was tempted to turn bitter, he remembered instead the lesson of God’s “holy temple.”

What did the temple represent to God’s people Israel? A God who dwelt in their midst. A God who didn’t want to keep away from those He loved. A God who chose to share His own holy presence with them in a special, concentrated way. A God who wishes to be available for fellowship, not just with perfect, holy people...but with fallen, rebellious, guilty sinners.

Jonah went on in his prayer to describe the terrors he experienced as he sank deeper and deeper into the angry sea. He was staring death in the face. The concept of Sheol that he mentioned earlier is a shadowy underworld where the wicked dwell after death. Even as he drew closer and closer to drowning in the waters, Jonah’s hope in His God welled up inside him and he prayed for help!

The temples of false gods are so often UNHOLY temples. They are places where idol worshipers released their sinful passions and broke the laws of decency in order to please their wicked deities. But Jonah’s God came close to His people in a HOLY temple. A place where people were cleansed from their sins and gave sacrifices to a God of truth and purity and beauty: a God who called His people to be holy as well. A God of great and precious promises about a coming Savior who would bless not only Israel, but ALL the nations of the earth!

God longs to bless His people, to answer our faintest prayers. Remember this when you are weak, discouraged, fainting, even drawing close to death! Remember that this is often WHY you are tried and tested by dangers and difficulties: because God desires that we turn to Him for His blessings. He is well able to bring us up from the deepest pits just as He did for Jonah. Even our weakest, faintest prayer is heard in the heavenly courts of our all-seeing Father. He can but speak a word, and his almighty life-giving power can be unleashed to save His child.

Even the bonds of death are no match for the strength of our mighty God. Think of all the people in the Bible who were raised from the dead! Our Lord Jesus suffered death on a terrible cross at the hands of sinners and under the curse of God the Father, so that believers could be freed from their sins and receive eternal life. Then Jesus arose from the tomb three days later, fulfilling what He called “the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

The three days Jesus spent in the tomb were not like others who died. He saw no decay, because God had promised He wouldn’t. And the three days Jonah spent in the belly of the fish, God also preserved him from decay. Both Jesus and Jonah still had work to do. Jesus rose from the tomb to send His followers into all the world to make disciples of all nations...Jonah rose from the fish to take the message of the true God to the lost sinners of Ninevah.

But before Jonah fulfilled his mission, Jonah had a pledge to pay. A vow to fulfill. The Israelites would sacrifice to the Lord for several different reasons. They would make offerings for the covering of sins--to acknowledge their guilt before a holy God. But they would also bring offerings of thanksgiving, sacrifices to celebrate the answers to prayer they had received. Jonah was now more than ready to lift his voice in thanksgiving to the Lord of his salvation.

“Those who pay regard to vain idols,” he prayed, “forsake their hope of steadfast love.” Even after running from God’s presence, Jonah hadn’t lost his basic awareness that the false gods of the sailors could do nothing to assure their salvation. He knew that the One pursuing him with a storm was the Maker of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He realized that his own people were making a grave mistake by paying regard to the vain idols of the neighboring nations.

“As for me,” Jonah concluded, “I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to YOU.” The covenant-keeping God of the Bible, the One who keeps all His promises. And then he tells us why: “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

MNA
1/14/2018

The Amazement of "ALL"

The word “all” appears in the Bible over 5,000 times. Here are just a few of the “alls” of the Scriptures:
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. (Gen. 2:1)
And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life. (Gen. 6:17)
Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five? (Gen. 18:28)
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. (Gen. 41:41)
The fish that were in the river died, the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. So there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. (Ex. 7:21)
And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. (Ex. 12:29)
Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Ex. 33:19)

I gave you just eight examples from just 2 books of the Bible. In those 2 books, Genesis and Exodus, “all” appears over 500 times. One of the most important things about God’s Word is its universal truth. Here are some major ways the word “all” applies to what we read in the Scriptures:

--The God of the Bible, who appears in the first verse of Genesis as the Creator, is the only God that is. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists besides Himself.
--Therefore, all creation--every creature that exists--owes its love, worship, thanksgiving and service to the God of all.
--Our first parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed the Lord, and because of their sin, God brought the curse of death and judgment upon all of their offspring--including you & me.
--Because God Himself is the Truth, all truth flows from Him. All the words of God are true, and therefore, all the words of the Bible are divine truth.
--The Scriptures are true for you and for me, they are true for all people, in all places, at all times, for all generations, through all of history, and to all eternity.
--The Bible declares that the Son of God--Jesus Christ--became the only Savior for all people. He claimed: “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
--Those who turn from their sins and fully trust in God’s Son to save them, receive forgiveness and cleansing from all their sins. Jesus Christ paid for all their sins on the cross of Calvary 2,000 years ago. So, believers have no more payments to make for sin!
--That brings us to my main topic for this article: Our risen Savior Jesus reigns today, right now, in Heaven, and is in sovereign control over ALL THINGS.

Everyone knows that the Bible is all about Jesus--the people of Israel anticipated Him as their coming Messiah, the prophecies of the Old Testament foretold His coming, His ministry, His sacrifice and His everlasting kingdom. Then, the New Testament Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke and John--give the story of His incarnation, His life and ministry, His miracles and teaching, His betrayal and arrest, His trial and crucifixion, and then His resurrection and ascension.

But Jesus’ followers had their Master’s promise that the Holy Spirit would lead them into “all the truth” about Him. This was accomplished as Christ’s Apostles received direct revelation from the Son of God through the ministry of the Spirit--revelation that was written down by both the Gospel writers, and by the writers of the New Testament epistles. One of the most important of these letters to the churches was the book of Romans, authored by the Apostle Paul.

No other book of the Bible gives such a complete explanation of what makes the coming of Christ such good news for all people. And Paul himself was such an enthusiastic preacher of that gospel message for a very surprising reason: he started out as one of Christ’s biggest enemies!

The gospel is so amazing because it is good news for sinners--sinners like you and me, those guilty of the smallest sins and the biggest sins, those who admire Jesus and those who hate and despise Him, rich and poor sinners, foolish and wise sinners, young and old sinners, Jewish and Gentile sinners. All sinners in the world can receive Paul’s message as “good news”!

The good news Paul describes to the Christians in the church at Rome is all about receiving. When Paul was known as Saul of Tarsus, he was a Jewish Pharisee, committed to keeping God’s law as strictly as possible, and counting on his own strict obedience to make him acceptable in God’s eyes. His religion was based on doing, on offering, on giving something to the Lord that was demanded of him.

But when he finally met God’s Son on the road to Damascus, Saul found out that salvation from his sins was all about receiving. Jesus Christ had come to provide a free gift of forgiveness and perfect righteousness that is offered by grace and through faith alone. He discovered that all of his law-keeping put together could never earn the favor of a holy God. God is so high and holy and perfect, that no one’s obedience is good enough.

Isaiah 64:6 tells us that “all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags” in the eyes of the Lord! So, how many “filthy rags” would it take to make our holy Creator pleased with us--pleased enough with us to allow us into His perfect presence? Our only hope for salvation from God’s judgment would have to be based on His mercy and grace. We must trust in a God of mercy to save us.

So, Paul explains to the Roman believers--and to you and me--that “the righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17), that Christ offers us a “righteousness apart from the law” (3:21), that faith in Christ is “credited as righteousness” (4:22), that believers are identified with Christ so that “we too might walk in newness of life” (6:4), that our freedom from sin makes us “slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (6:19), that the Spirit of God dwells in us to help us in our weakness (8:26). All of these benefits are love-gifts of grace from our heavenly Father.

Of course, our faith in Jesus Christ doesn’t end as soon as we become Christians. The challenge and the power of living out our life in Christ requires that we go on trusting Him. Jesus’ ministry to His people didn’t end after He died and arose and ascended to His heavenly glory. The risen Lord Jesus is ruling and reigning on the throne of the universe. Romans 8:28 is one of the most reassuring verses in Paul’s entire epistle: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

For believers in Christ, faced with the weaknesses of our own fallible flesh, a fallen world full of persecution and temptations, and the craftiness of the devil and his fallen angels, Romans 8:28 is a source of strength, comfort and confidence. Our progress on the path to heaven doesn’t depend totally on our effort, our faithfulness, our strength of willpower. No, our Savior and King is always providing us with supernatural help. He is in control of all things. And He causes all things to work together for our benefit. The good purpose of making us like Jesus Himself!

Just think about it:
~ All of the circumstances of your birth, your family, your physical traits and talents,
~ All of the events of your past, your upbringing, your education, your victories & failures,
~ All of the relationships you’ve made, your spouse, your children, your friends & enemies,
~ All of the problems in your life, your disappointments, your diseases, your weaknesses,
~ All of the situations you worry about, your doubts, your fears, your joys & your sorrows,
~ All of the lessons you’ve learned, are learning, or have yet to learn,
~ All of the local, national, or world situations we read about or see in the media,
~ All of the decisions made by those who have authority over you, those who care about you or don’t care at all,

All things are under the control of your good God, Lord and Savior, who plans them for your good.

At the same time, you and I must keep in mind that knowing about Romans 8:28 and believing it are two different things. Many of God’s most precious promises are some of the most difficult to fully accept. The world, the devil, and our own weak flesh can cause us to doubt God’s sovereign control over life’s circumstances. When we doubt His loving power over all things, we can start to lose the peace, the joy, and the hope that sustain us through the storms and trials of life.

Believe me, Paul certainly understood that this earthly life is filled with storms and trials, especially for Christians. Chapter 8 of Romans is concerned with the sufferings and weaknesses that take place in our world. Paul writes that the whole creation is “groaning,” as if it is in labor, waiting to be delivered. You mothers know what the pains of labor are like. Paul goes on to say that we Christians have a “groaning” in our souls as well. It is a longing for our heavenly home, for the pure, beautiful, eternal state where we will leave all suffering behind, and dwell in the glorious presence of our Lord Jesus forever.

Mothers, when your baby is born, I’m told that the memory of your labor pains quickly fades away--there is such overwhelming joy and relief that your new child has arrived safe into the world, the agony of the delivery process all seems to have been worth the effort. In fact, isn’t it true that the joy is actually ALL THE GREATER because of the part you played in bringing the son or daughter into the world--painful though it was?

That is very much like the suffering we go through as believers. At times it is extremely hard to see the loving hand of a sovereign God at work in and through those difficult, painful trials. When we lose a job...when fire or violent weather strikes our property...when a loved one leaves...when our bodies grow tired and weak...when we get confused, depressed or frustrated…

All of those hardships, the Bible assures us, are the pains leading up to our DELIVERANCE into glory! And when we trust our heavenly Father to cause our pains and sufferings to “work together for good,” we are following the example of our Lord Jesus. Remember, HE took on our weak, limited human flesh when he became a man. HE experienced poverty, hunger, thirst and physical pain. HE suffered the loss of loved ones and the misunderstanding of his own people. HE was accused of being false, demonic and guilty of crimes he didn’t commit. HE was nailed to a terrible cross to pay for sins that were not his own!

Paul describes Jesus in Philippians 2: He “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.” All that Christ suffered as a man, led up to the glory that He received in Heaven from His Father--glory that will be His forever. Glory that you and I will share in when we see Him face to face!

Paul writes: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). Our sufferings are being worked by God together for our ultimate good. In fact, our sufferings make us more like our Savior, who suffered so much for us!

And think of the great scope of the “good” God is preparing for those who love Him! The pains and struggles of this life are only for that long: “this life.” But the glory and blessings of the life to come will NEVER END. The inheritance that awaits all of God’s children will outweigh this life’s sufferings so much, we will think it strange that we ever doubted or complained about them.

Think of the “good” God accomplishes through our hardships even IN this life: They cause us to pray more often and more fervently. They strengthen our faith as we lean on Christ. They increase our desire and expectation for Heaven. They make us more humble and less self-dependent. They give us more sympathy and compassion for others so we may comfort them. In other words, trials and sufferings make us more like Jesus. They sanctify us.

“Every human tie may perish; Friend to friend unfaithful prove;
Mothers cease their own to cherish; Heaven and earth at last remove;
But no changes Can attend Jehovah’s love.

In the furnace God may prove thee, Thence to bring thee forth more bright,
But can never cease to love thee; Thou art precious in His sight:
God is with thee, God, thine everlasting light.”

At the end of chapter 8 of Romans, Paul gives a frightful list of things that might conceivably make our Lord “cease to love” us. “Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” “In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (v. 37).

All things work for our good,
We are more than conquerors over all that threatens us.
All that we suffer cannot be compared with the glories of Heaven.
Because God loves all those who are called according to His purpose,
And His love is eternal. It will outlast it ALL!

MNA
4/3/2017

"Kinds" of Christianity?

Probably no other person in history has been so variously discussed and interpreted as has Jesus Christ. And with good reason.

Jesus’ arrival on the stage of human history changed the world’s calendar for all time (B.C. to A.D.), producing radical changes in religion, philosophy, law, art, politics, ethics...the list is endless.

Curious observers may see all this and be contented with plain historical facts and journalistic analyses of Christ’s life and its affects on civilization...

But surely it is much more crucial for me to consider WHY Jesus came.

Of course, to those who believe He was no more than a great man, that would be a meaningless question. If Jesus was a mere human being, his coming into our world was no more a volitional act on his part than the conception and delivery of any other male baby.

But, the New Testament (as well as the prophecies of the Old) clearly present Jesus Christ as MORE than a man. In truth, the reason so many things changed so drastically as a result of His coming, is that Jesus is “God in the flesh.” Christians the world over have accepted this as a settled article of their faith for millenia.

So, WHY did God decide to take on flesh--a human nature--and come into our world two thousand years ago? We need not guess at the answers. All we need to do is read our Bible.

People were lost.

We were created by the God and King of the universe, and had rebelled against Him, denied His word, rejected His love, scoffed at His laws. Because of His just and holy nature, God hates our sin and must judge and punish the sinner.

People were lost, but God loved us anyway and came to save the lost!

Mankind needed a Savior: a Prophet to deliver the truth from God we needed to hear, a Priest to make perfect atonement for our sin, a King to lead, defend and rule over us both in this life and the life to come. JESUS is that Savior!

So...are there OTHER “kinds” of Christianity?

Is there a “kind” of Christianity that says that God is NOT angry at our sin, and would never sentence any sinner to eternal punishment? A kind that sees no real need for a sin-bearing Savior on a blood-soaked cross? A kind that compromises the word and warnings of a holy Lawgiver by suggesting an “unconditional,” man-pleasing love that makes God more acceptable and reasonable? A kind of Christianity that sees Jesus as just a good example who encourages some divine spark in all of us?

For these “kinds” of Christianity, the coming of Jesus Christ, at least, for the reasons the Bible gives, would have been unnecessary...even tragic and ridiculous.

You, friend, are free to believe any “kind” of Christianity you please; thankfully, we all still share that right.

As for me, I choose to believe my Bible, the words of Jesus, the promises and warnings of God, and the historic testimony of Christ’s beloved church.

Because once I was lost...and thanks to Jesus, I’ve been found!

Pearls, Pigs and Parables

God’s truth is the most precious thing on earth. It makes one wise unto salvation. It’s the one true window we possess into the wondrous unseen world of heavenly things. Besides the souls of men and women, it’s the one treasure of this world that shall never pass away.

In our Christian literature-soaked culture, it’s hard to fathom that, in whole regions of our planet, people are risking more than their lives in order to possess even a fragment of this Book of Books.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Christian Scriptures (Testaments Old and New) is that, in spite of their divine origin and profound wisdom, so much of this Book is so easy to comprehend. Its overarching theme and story-line reads like a simple fairy tale. Yet its history, teaching and directives are so practical and all-encompassing, that the most scholarly minds are still plumbing its depths after thousands of years!

Clearly, the Bible is a message from the keenest and deepest Thinker in the universe. Of course, as has often been admitted, ALL truth is GOD’S truth...we know many useful things about our world through our secular observations. Yet there are essential truths God has shared with us in the Scriptures about humanity, Himself, history, hope for the future--things we could learn in no other way. Pearls of great price, indeed!

Unfortunately, most people today fail to recognize God’s written revelation as the precious string of pearls it is. Many who feel themselves too self-sufficient, worldly-wise, scientific and sophisticated, view those who love God’s Word as “Bible-thumpers,” bigoted hayseeds and unschooled hicks. The combined childlike simplicity and timeless profundity of the Scriptures leave them uninterested, unimpressed, unmoved.

To most folks, the Bible is a purely human invention, a crutch for feeble minds; at best, it’s just one arcane religious tome among many. To them, the possibility that their sovereign Maker has a message they desperately need to hear, is too remote a possibility to bother about. If honest, they would say, “That book was useful in years gone by, before mankind ‘came of age’ and realized we’re nothing but creatures sprung up by chance from primordial slime. But we’ve grown up. We’ve gone beyond supernatural explanations and old-fashioned myths.”

Interestingly, this was the attitude of many of the skeptics in Jesus’ day when He was ministering throughout Galilee and Judea. Jews of the party of the Sadducees were especially prone to dismiss Jesus as just one more troublesome fanatic who spoke of a supernatural realm and a coming divine kingdom, where all human power structures would be subject to God’s judgment, and the down-trodden poor would be rewarded and comforted at last.

The Pharisees weren’t much better. Unlike the Sadducees, they believed in the supernatural and the possibility of miracles. But they saw God as One who could be appeased and manipulated by “playing the system” of rules and regulations, most of which their traditions had added on to God’s own requirements of obedient Jews. They listened carefully to Jesus’ teachings. But they did so with the primary goal of confirming their own preconceived interpretations, or else, finding fault with His teaching so they could accuse Him of sedition or heresy.

One of the most insulting epithets that I can think of is to call somebody a “pig” or a “swine.” To most people, this would be associated with one who is inhumanly selfish, rotten, dirty or vile. Pigs are animals which are known as rooters in the mud and the slime. This is a name thrown at police officers by those who run afoul of the law. It’s used by tyrants to describe people they have no use for and wish to denigrate as less than human. I’ve even heard it used to characterize women who are hopelessly committed to lives of prostitution.

When Jesus wanted to make a point about those who had no use for His words, He drew the picture of casting a valuable string of pearls into the pigsty. He warned His followers against casting pearls before swine, and giving holy things to dogs (Matthew 7:6). Both dogs and pigs were unclean animals to the Jews, and the Lord was clearly saying that some hearers of the truth are so hardened in their hearts and confirmed in their rejection of what is holy, that the clear presentation of God’s truth to such people only provokes them to even more violent rejection.

This is one of the reasons, I believe, that Jesus’ primary mode of teaching, especially among large crowds, was by way of parables. Some of His most chilling words are recorded in Mark 4:11-12...

“To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”

Elsewhere, Jesus taught that one must become as a little child to enter His kingdom. Little children typically will sit on a parent’s or grandparent’s lap and happily drink in the stories and instructions he or she is given. An innocent little child won’t get hung up on doubts and objections and needless adult-style worries when confronted with uncomfortable truths.

Sadly, though, most folks bring a great deal of mental and moral baggage with them as they are exposed to the precious pearls of God’s truth. And far too many of them consider themselves too sophisticated and “mature” to humbly submit to what God has to tell them. They see themselves as above and beyond the need for repentance and a new birth such as Jesus offered to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. These know-it-alls find it offensive that a simple carpenter from Galilee (or one of His untaught followers) would seek to instruct them in matters of spiritual importance.

In Romans chapter one, Paul writes that the sinful proclivity of mankind that chiefly causes God to display His holy wrath against us, is that of suppressing His truth in unrighteousness. Even the mere awareness of God’s presence in our universe, revealed in creation and in our own consciences, is so repugnant to us, we do all we can to repress it, deny it, explain it away, push it down and out of sight. And when we can’t do that, we twist that knowledge into a false deity-- some idol we can fashion and control.

Jesus’ words of warning must be heard. Even now, God is scattering the seed of His Word all around us. It is a day of grace. But, that grace will not be offered forever. If my heart is resisting the simple call of Christ to repent and believe and follow Him, the day may come when He’ll consider me dog-like or pig-like enough to keep His pearls away from me forever.

Cheap Imitation God?

Atheism is on the rise. But, you know, that doesn’t bother me a whole lot...

According to the Bible, the inerrant word of God, true belief in the non-existence of God is itself non-existent. In short, nobody believes, in his heart of hearts, that there’s no God.

As a witty writer once quipped, “God doesn’t believe in atheists.” In the heart and mind of every man, woman and child, there is at least a haunting awareness that we are creatures: products of a transcendent Creator, made in some way like that Creator, and will be held accountable by Him.

So, no, the “new atheism” being promoted nowadays, even selling millions of best-selling books, is, to me, nothing to rob me of sleep after a grueling day on the job.

What bothers me much more, is the “god” so many so-called believers believe in.

Idolatry comes in all shapes, modes and manners. Gone, at least in our sophisticated times, are the honest, heathen, pagan idolaters who bow down to images of wood, stone and metal, like the golden calf fashioned by Aaron the priest while his brother Moses was up the hill receiving the Ten Commandments from the one true God. No, today, we are far less crass and overt with our idol-making.

And really, I’m not even much disturbed about the idolaters who worship at the shrines of pro sports stadiums, materialism gone wild, workaholism, kids and grandkids who can do no wrong, and other substitute “divine” pursuits.

What genuinely get me to the edge of madness, are the caricatures of the true God.

You know what a caricature is: the funny, cartoonish, pastel portrait an artist might draw of you while you pose for her at the mall or the fair ground. It is designed to bring a smile to those who know you and can detect the resemblance to the real thing because the artist focuses on one or two prominent features like your nose, haircut, or earlobes.

Caricatures are fun, but if an investigator is trying to find an actual person, he doesn’t ask for a caricature, but for a photo. Because, as the saying goes, “the camera doesn’t lie.” And everyone created in God’s image, being innately aware of the Creator’s existence, is called by that very awareness, to investigate...to somehow discover their Creator’s true identity and divine nature.

Thankfully, the invisible Being who created us and rules our universe--His universe, that is--hasn’t left us in the dark about who He is, what He’s like, or what He expects. As Christians, we are supremely privileged to have a whole library of sixty-six books we call the Bible. And in its pages we have God quite clearly and vividly revealed, described and explained to the human mind. We even have Him illustrated and literally “personified” in the incarnation of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ! How’s that for a reliable portrait?

Investigation over--problem solved, right?

Well, the sad fact is, a whole lot of “Christians” are dissatisfied with the picture of the real God captured so photographically in the pages of scripture. To many, the portrait it paints is a little TOO vivid...a bit TOO specific...and a great deal too unsettling. They read about a God who institutes a death penalty for crimes they see as minor offenses. They cringe at accounts of holy jihadist campaigns in Canaan. They wince at Psalms that rejoice in the conquest and destruction of God’s enemies. They wink or roll their eyes at St. Paul when he writes about a wrathful God, and hem and haw when the gentle Jesus preaches about hell as if it’s a real place.

Someone posted a blurb recently on a certain social media site, quoting a purported man of God who was criticizing those who portrayed God as vengeful and angry, bemoaning the criticism he received because he portrayed Him as too loving and tolerant. I wanted to ask the probing, but reasonable, question: “But, what if He’s BOTH?” Let’s have the humility and honesty to take a good look at the WHOLE picture.

Truth is, the Bible is God’s word. Yes, inscribed by human beings, but inspired by the invisible God so as to make Himself clearly visible and understandable to honest readers of all ages.

Truth is, God reveals Himself to be loving AND wrathful. Forgiving AND vengeful. Tolerant AND demanding. Life-giving AND life-taking. A gentle Father AND a consuming Fire. “Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated.” We may have trouble reconciling what we see as negative traits with the ones we feel are positive...but God says they are ALL true.

It is faith and trust in the true God that makes a Christian persevere in his or her investigation of this surprising, puzzling, unexpected God in order to see how perfectly He expresses every one of His many attributes. His love is quite different from ours...and so is His anger. If a human mom can be simultaneously loving and angry toward her child, what makes me think that God’s emotional makeup is any less complex?

A pastor friend of mine observed, when we were discussing this subject, “People have trouble fitting God into their own little picture of reality. But which is more reasonable, to believe in a God who easily fits our picture, or to believe in one that challenges us to fit into His?”

The answer is never to reduce or cheapen our image of who God is and what He’s like. The Bible gives us a God-designed, God-ordained, God-approved portrait. And all of us would do well to take each and every page of that portrait seriously. Every phrase is a brush stroke that makes His image larger and larger, His identity clearer and clearer, His holiness higher and higher.

Don’t settle for a cheap, carnival caricature of the triune Ruler of the cosmos. Jesus taught His followers that all scripture is important because it contains “things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Let’s follow His example and fill in the true picture.

Beware of imitations.

Crying Out in the Darkness

“Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done...”

If you are like me, you can echo the words of that cheerful song most of the days of your life, and you can list blessing after blessing given to you by our gracious God. As Ethan the Ezrahite says in Psalm 89, “The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it.” Every breath I take, every beat of my heart, every wonder of nature I behold, is a good gift from my heavenly Father. And the greatest gift of all is the gift of forgiveness and eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ who gave His life for me on the cross!

But, likewise, if you are like me, there are days of sadness, fear, doubt, and discouragement--times when our heavenly Father seems to be far away, seems to have turned his back on me, even seems to be afflicting me with severe punishment! This is the kind of experience that Heman the Ezrahite is writing about in Psalm 88.

Someone has said that this is the only Psalm in our Bible that doesn’t contain words of praise, joy or thanksgiving. Apparently, Heman the Ezrahite was referring to a time in his life that was so dark and dreadful, all the blessings and benefits of knowing God seemed blotted out. What kind of trouble could account for this?

Perhaps it was a time of terrible sickness: an illness that threatened his life. He refers several times to being near the grave. Of being like one who is without strength. If you have ever been sick with a severe fever or bedridden with a wasting disease, then you know what it’s like, perhaps, to lose any hope of recovery: you cry out in your soul for God to deliver you. Or, you might even imagine that you are so close to death that not even He could help you. We must remember that God “knows our frame, he remembers that we are but dust.” The Lord created us and he knows that when we are weak and sick and played out physically, those are the times we find it hard to trust him and go on “counting our blessings.”

Maybe the darkness and trouble Heman refers to has to do with his relationships. There are times in all our lives when the people around us are difficult to deal with. People are fallible, sinful, unreliable, often careless. They make us promises and fail to keep them. They claim to be our friends but then betray or abandon us. They are greedy and ambitious, so they tend to manipulate or attack those who stand in their way. Heman complains to the Lord that He has taken away his closest friends and made him repulsive to them. Heman understands that God is in control of all things, even the relationships in his life that have gone wrong and become hurtful.

Do you and I cry out to the Lord when people in our lives let us down? Do we give God the credit He deserves for the friends and loved ones we treasure and rely on? We must remember that God declared “It is not good for man to be alone.” He created us to desire and to need companionship. And that is one important reason God became a man--the Lord Jesus Christ--to be our closest companion, even when all other friends and loved ones fail and abandon us.

It is clear that Heman the Ezrahite felt himself to be in real, immediate danger. Time and again in his Psalm he mentions being close to death, pleading with God on the basis of soon facing his own grave and the oblivion death represented to him. He even says that the closeness of death has plagued him even from his youth. There may have been an episode in his boyhood days in which the death of a parent or a friend affected Heman deeply and permanently. It became a scar on his heart and in his mind that tortured him throughout his life. Indeed, the Bible speaks of death as a great enemy--a terrifying force to be reckoned with as long as we live in this sinful world. Once again, Heman lays the complaint at the feet of God, telling the Lord “Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me.”

I sincerely doubt that Heman is referring to God’s wrath against his own sin. Nowhere in the psalm does he mention his own need for repentance because of some wrongdoing. I rather believe he’s referring to the fiery intensity of the trials he is going through, seemingly an angry outpouring of punishment that could only be coming from the hand of his Creator. Does a God of perfect love really cause fiery affliction to fall upon his children, so that they begin to despair and lose hope? If we are honest and read the scriptures faithfully, we will see that the answer is often “yes.”

Joseph faced afflictions and trials at the hands of his own brothers, as well as those who owned him as a slave in Egypt, and he spent years in prison unjustly, before God cause him to be raised to the office where he could save his own people. Later, God caused his people the Israelites to be oppressed as slaves in Egypt for four hundred years, before He brought them out in the Exodus and made them a nation.

Finally, the ultimate affliction God dealt out was upon His own beloved Son, in whom He was “well pleased.” One of the lessons we must learn again and again is that God has a good purpose in everything He does and everything He allows in our lives. The suffering and death of Jesus was the most terrible and unjust thing that ever took place on earth. And yet it was part of God’s perfect plan to atone for the sins of His beloved people.

I believe that this is a lesson that Heman the Ezrahite had learned. For even in the darkness of the terrifying pit, the place of fierce affliction where darkness was his closest friend, Heman cried out to the right person. “O Lord (Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ), the God who saves me, day and night I cry out to you. May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry.” Yes, he complained and expressed his fear and grief and pain and loneliness. But he knew who to complain to and he knew where his only hope of salvation lay.

When I wake up and find myself in total darkness, one of the first things I probably do is to feel around for a light switch. Even though the God of our salvation may lead us into a dungeon of darkness for a time to teach us to trust in him alone, this God has assured us that His light “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

When you and I face our darkest days of affliction, it can be a comforting and reassuring thing that we know whom to cry out to. And He has promised that His light will conquer the darkness one day, forever.

Challenged and Cheered

Paul writes in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” No sooner does the apostle explain this, than he proceeds to paint a very painful picture of the human race. A race of people doomed to experience the wrath of God for their sins.

The point that Paul is making is that the gospel of God--the “good news” regarding Jesus, God’s only Son--can only be seen as good news as it is proclaimed against a backdrop of a fallen world. This is a world that is rendered fallen by a rebellious, treasonous, disobedient human family, of which each of us is a guilty member.

This bad news about people marks out the irreconcilable “no-man’s land” that separates so-called liberal Christianity from what may rightly be called evangelical Christianity. Full-orbed biblical faith in Jesus Christ is based on truth which insists on a radical antithesis.

When I use the label “liberal” here, I am referring to those who believe in unifying humanity under a banner of fallacious hopes and wishful thinking. These well-intentioned folks want to see peace and healing for a hurting and divided mankind...but they believe they can be attained by basically human, non-miraculous methods.

This became clearer to me recently as I pondered the apparent aims of some spiritually minded poets. These writers urge us to look within ourselves to discover the common ground and universal desires that can unite us all. They imply (or preach openly) that if flawed, mistaken, dissatisfied men and women would rally together under a banner of brotherhood, or a love of nature, or a desire for self-preservation, then...all would be well. After all, we are all “in the same boat together,” and together we are sufficiently equipped to get things right in the end.

Only a casual glance through the pages of Scripture will show that this view falls far short of the plight of mankind as the Bible describes it. Rather than facing a self-perfecting building project that merely requires a beefed-up quantity of concerted effort, humanity is, in reality, in the middle of a to-the-death cosmic combat of God-sized proportions! Our Creator is extremely mad...because people are extremely bad. And eternity in either a real Heaven, or a real Hell, hangs in the balance.

This biblical picture presents too sharp an antithesis to the liberal mind. In order to avoid such a God-vs-Man confrontation, one must do one’s best to equalize the two sides in the conflict. The liberal must either inflate man’s goodness and perfectibility, or deflate God’s nature as powerful and holy sovereign. Or both. Making man more god-like than the Bible paints him, or making God more man-like, is the key.

A favorite tool of such theological makeovers is modern textual criticism: taking the plain language of Scripture concerning God, His nature, His demands, His action, judgments and decrees, and re-interpreting it to render it more manageable on a purely human level. To a large degree, the biblical God has died the death of a thousand re-interpretations. Liberal theologians have taken God’s wrath, laws, miraculous powers and sovereign providence--even His plan to save sinners, and have reduced them to symbolic signposts that humans can use on their own journey toward self-perfection.

Those divine qualities, no longer seen as simple and factual, have been ripped from their spatial and historical context and boiled down into Aesop-like moralisms. In the modern theologian’s mind, there’s no genuine conflict--there’s only a moralistic stew where all of man’s good intentions (including his assumptions about God) are simmering together on the fire until we all wake up to the fact that we’re really all the same. All is One. There is no real antithesis to worry about.

When I, as a Christian poet, seek to reflect my faith in beautiful verses, the resultant lines cannot avoid the antithetical. To me, the truth of the biblical faith is just that: truth. And the truth forces one to make distinctions. The universe is not all “A”...it is also “non-A.” The reason that humanity is divided is that we’ve sinned against our Maker. The existence of evil in our world and in ourselves makes this perfectly plain, even if it wasn’t for the biblical testimony.

Furthermore, now that our Maker has provided a way to be saved from the punishment our sins have earned--Jesus--we turn our noses up at that gracious way, and go on devising our own ways--including the self-perfectionist path of the liberal.

The call of God from time immemorial has always been, “Repent”--to turn from non-A, and return back to A. This was the antithetical call of the judges and prophets of the Old Testament, the call of the Christ, as well as His forerunner and emissaries in the New Testament. To repent is to surrender before the challenge of God that stands against the proud, false hopes of those who imagine salvation is within their own grasp.

The Christian antithesis is that only the perfect work and atoning death of the divine, historical Jesus can provide a saving record of righteousness for sinners in the courtroom of a holy God. Every other path of salvation is “non-A.”

The liberal thinker may ask: “Are things really that desperate? Is the message of Jesus really so stark, judgmental and exclusive? Isn’t there room to flex, to leave our doors open a crack for sincere Buddhists or Jews or Hindus or Muslims? Can’t we all get along on a platform of good intentions?”

To those with such hopes I would simply point to the manger...the cross...the empty tomb...and ask the question: “Why?” If our good intentions were always good enough, who, then, really needs a Savior? Jesus said He came to earth “not to bring peace...but a sword.” He became the most challenging, antithetical figure who ever lived. But in love, He gave His life “as a ransom for many, to bring us to God.” And He claimed to be God’s only Way. His sole, unique Savior for the lost. That’s His challenge.

Only those who surrender before the challenge of Christ’s gospel, can truly be cheered by it.

Mark Aikins
April 12, 2015