Few Bearers of His Cross

Greetings Friends,

     Today's "thought" comes to you from the Christian devotional classic, "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas a' Kempis (1380-1471).  His name means "Thomas of (or from) Kempen" - a small town in eastern Germany, just a few miles from the border of Holland. His God-given gifts which come through to us in his writing consist in his wisdom, keen insight into human nature, and ability to say a lot in very few words (a gift I missed out on)!

     In terms of personal transformation he taught: "The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step in repairing our loss."   In terms of spiritual leadership he stressed: The loftier the building, the deeper the foundation must be laid."  In terms of the self he said as we all can: Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself."  And in terms of Jesus words in John 14:7 he assured us: "Without the Way, there is no going, Without the Truth, there is no knowing, Without the Life, there is no living."   This selection is entitled"Few Bearers of His Cross."  Enjoy.

     "Jesus now has many lovers of the heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His Cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who desire tribulation. He finds many companions at His table, but few of His abstinence. All desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to endure anything for Him, or with Him.

     Many follow Jesus unto the breaking of bread, but few unto the drinking of the cup of His sufferings. Many reverence His miracles, but few follow the shame or disgrace of His Cross. Many love Jesus so long as no adversities befall them.  Many praise and bless Him so long as they receive consolations from Him.  But if Jesus hide (the sense of His presence) and leave them but a little while, they turn to complaining or into much dejection of mind.

     But they who love Jesus for the sake of Jesus, and not for some special comfort they can receive from Him, bless Him in all tribulations and anguish of heart as well as in the state of highest comfort.  Even if He was never willing to give them comfort, they would, even then, praise Him and wish to be always giving thanks. 

     O how powerful is the pure love of Jesus, which is mixed with no self-interest or self-love!  Are not all those to be called mercenary who are ever seeking consolations? Do they not show themselves to be rather lovers of themselves than of Christ, who are always and only thinking of their own profit and advantage?  Where shall one be found who is willing to serve God for nothing?" 

     Now, here, I do need to confess I am one who enjoys and cherishes the comforts and consolations of Jesus when they come.  I believe we all do.  Even Mr. A'Kempis did, as he confessed elsewhere.  That's not really his point. His point is that if that's all we seek; if we only seek, love, praise, and thank Jesus when we are receiving those things, and we cease doing so, or walk away in bitter anger and disillusionment when the opposite comes (whether it be for a short or extended time) we must question what we are seeking, who we are loving, why we are praising, and why difficulties would make us stop giving Him thanks.

     If we love Jesus only when the blessings are flowing, and not when the struggles come; if we cherish and adore Him only for what He gives, and not for the sake of who He is (the Lamb worthy of all glory and honor and power - Revelation 4:6-5:14) we must truly question if it's Jesus that we love.  If a child only "loves" his father when his father was giving him gifts, and is indifferent or does nothing but complain when he withholds those gifts, what would it say about the object of that child's "love"? 

     You see, a pure love for Jesus mixed with "NO self-interest or self-love"  may be an ideal that we can never fully achieve so long as the principle of sin still clings to us in this life. Yet, that ideal can be placed before us, and should be placed before us (as a'Kempis does here), to serve as a means of grace which helps us move away from the all too common tendency to love so conditionally the Lord who loves His children so unconditionally. Only you can know the reaction a'Kempis' words caused inside you, but I must confess they lead me to say, "Sorry Lord, please change my heart." 

Thankful for His Grace, Pastor Jeff

The Promise of the Spirit

Greetings All!

 This week's "thought" comes to you from a superb yet not-so-well-known book by William Barclay.  It is entitled: "The Promise of the Spirit."  Barclay is known mostly for his popular "Daily Study Bible Series" covering the entire New Testament. Yet the "Barclay Prayer Book" and this volume about the work of the Spirit, are also good resources to have around on your shelf.
     Today's selection has to do with the power and work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. It focuses on His moving in both extraordinary and everyday ways. I trust his words might challenge and encourage you.  And for those who may be put off by the exclusively "male" language, please remember it was written in a time (1959) when no one really gave it much thought, and the terms "man" and "men" had a more generic "person" or "people" connotation.  Enjoy!

Men of the Spirit

     "No man who asks for, and receives, the guidance of the Spirit can ever be an irrelevant teacher or preacher. The Spirit of God is always looking for men who will be messengers to their day and generation. There is no moment without its message from God, there is no crisis without its word -- if a man can be found by the Spirit to bring that message and that word...  It is the conviction of the Old Testament that no man can prophecy without the Spirit. No man can teach others unless he himself is taught. The Spirit is God's witness in any human situation.  It is through the Spirit that with the need there always comes the power. And it is the Spirit who gives the prophet the strength and courage to bring to men the message of God, whether that message be consolation or condemnation.

        Great as the work of the Spirit is in creation in the Old Testament, still greater is the power of the Spirit in the lives of individual men. The great leaders of the Old Testament are all men who possess the Spirit, have been possessed by the Spirit, and in whom the Spirit dwells... When God has some great task to give a man, He gives it to a man whose equipment for the task is the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The conviction of the Old Testament is that no man can do the work of God without the Spirit of God, and that no man can lead his fellow men unless he himself is led by the Spirit of God...

        In general the work of the Spirit is connected with the extraordinary and the abnormal. The work of the Spirit is not so much a daily power and presence as it is an abnormal phenomenon and manifestation.... It is not everyday life with which the Spirit is connected, but with the unrepeatable moments.  Even in the case of prophecy, the prophecy in early times tends to be ecstatic and abnormal... The manifestations of the Spirit are wonderful and miraculous. [Dreams, interpretation of dreams, visions, prophecies, miracles, tremendous feats of strength, victory over enemies, etc.  Such things begin to happen when, or after, it is said: "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him..."  Gen. 41:38  / Numbers 11:16-17 / Numbers 27:18 / Judges 3:10 / Judges 6:34 / Judges 11:29 / I Sam. 11:6 / I Sam. 16:13 / Isaiah 42:1...]

     Yet, as we shall see, it is not always so... It is possible to over-stress the element of abnormality in the idea of the working of the Spirit in the Old Testament, for the Spirit also stands for the universal presence of God. The Spirit stands for the fact that it is neither possible to lose God in trouble, nor escape God in sin (Psalm 139)...  In Exodus 31:1-3, God told Moses to set Bezaleel aside for the work of building the tabernacle, because, “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in sliver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.”

     Here is something new.  Craftsmanship is the gift of the Spirit.  Here is something which in an illuminating flash transfers the Spirit from the realm of theology to the realm of life, from the stillness of the Church to crash of the hammer and the buzz of the saw and the noise of the chisel on the stone in the workshop.  Here the Spirit is indeed in the midst of life and living.  We do well to remember that, whatever gift a man has, of mind or heart, of brain or eye or hand, that gift is the gift of the Spirit.  It is not only the theologian in his study, the priest in his church, the prophet with his message, who is working in the power of the Spirit.  The man at the bench and at the machine, the man in whose hands wood and metal become obedient, the mechanic, the engineer, the carpenter, the fitter, the mason, are all men of the Spirit, and can, and must, serve God in the Spirit."

     Anyone who has been in ministry for any amount of time knows that apart for the power, presence and unction of the Holy Spirit attending our words and efforts, there is little or no lasting (and definitely no eternal) transformational result. As Spurgeon once said in all earnestness in regard to the task of preaching: “We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were a mysterious power going with it—the Holy Ghost changing the will of man.  Oh Sirs!  We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it power to convert the soul.”  To believe otherwise is to miss the point of divine grace and the indispensability of Spirit's work in the hearts of people.

      As Barclay states in his introduction of this book: "It is my prayer that those who read this book will by their own study come more and more to know the Holy Spirit, not as a doctrine, but as a Person, and that they will thereby experience more of His power in their own lives."  That is my prayer as well.

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

The Birth of the Song "Precious Lord'

Hi All,

Just got back from a trip and was wondering what to send along when I received this from a friend. Thought it was encouraging enough to pass along. It goes along with what I wrote to a grieving parishioner not long ago. "In the crisis' of life God most often gives us peace, comfort and consolation and not answers."

THE BIRTH OF THE SONG 'PRECIOUS LORD'

Back in 1932, I was 32 years old and a fairly new husband. My wife, Nettie and I were living in a little apartment on Chicago's south side.
One hot August afternoon I had to go to St. Louis, where I was to be the featured soloist at a large revival meeting. I didn't want to go. Nettie was in the last month of pregnancy with our first child. But a lot of people were expecting me in St. Louis. I kissed Nettie good-bye, clattered downstairs to our Model A and, in a fresh Lake Michigan breeze, chugged out of Chicago on Route 66.
However, outside the city, I discovered that in my anxiety at leaving, I had forgotten my music case. I wheeled around and headed back. I found Nettie sleeping peacefully. I hesitated by her bed; something was strongly telling me to stay. But eager to get on my way, and not wanting to disturb Nettie, I shrugged off the feeling and quietly slipped out of the room with my music.

The next night, in the steaming St. Louis heat, the crowd called on me to sing again and again. When I finally sat down, a messenger boy ran up with a Western Union telegram. I ripped open the envelope. Pasted on the yellow sheet were the words: YOUR WIFE JUST DIED.
People were happily singing and clapping around me, but I could hardly keep from crying out. I rushed to a phone and called home. All I could hear on the other end was 'Nettie is dead. Nettie is dead.'
When I got back, I learned that Nettie had given birth to a boy. I swung between grief and joy. Yet that same night, the baby died. I buried Nettie and our little boy together, in the same casket. Then I fell apart. For days I closeted myself. I felt that God had done me an injustice. I didn't want to serve Him any more or write gospel songs. I just wanted to go back to that jazz world I once knew so well.
But then, as I hunched alone in that dark apartment those first sad days, I thought back to the afternoon I went to St. Louis. Something kept telling me to stay with Nettie. Was that something God? Oh, if I had paid more attention to Him that day, I would have stayed and been with Nettie when she died.

From that moment on I vowed to listen more closely to Him. But still I was lost in grief. Everyone was kind to me, especially a friend, Professor Fry, who seemed to know what I needed.

On the following Saturday evening he took me up to Malone's Poro College , a neighborhood music school. It was quiet; the late evening sun crept through the curtained windows. I sat down at the piano, and my hands began to browse over the keys. Something happened to me then. I felt at peace. I felt as though I could reach out and touch God. I found myself playing a melody, once into my head they just seemed to fall into place:

'Precious Lord, take my hand, 

lead me on, let me stand!

I am tired, I am weak, I am worn,

Through the storm, through the night, 

lead me on to the light,

Take my hand, precious Lord, 

lead me home.'

The Lord gave me these words and melody, He also healed my spirit. I learned that when we are in our deepest grief, when we feel farthest from God, this is when He is closest, and when we are most open to His restoring power. And so I go on living for God willingly and joyfully, until that day comes when He will take me and gently lead me home.

-Tommy Dorsey-

Have a great week. In His Service, Pastor Jeff

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