Spiritual Renewal

Greetings!

     This week's "thought" is about spiritual renewal.  Its about the power and presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit in our lives.  It comes to you from Jim Cymbala's book, "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire."  Cymbala has been the pastor of the large multi-racial "Brooklyn Tabernacle" since 1971, a church which had only 30 when he arrived that year, but now has over 16,000 members -- which is not, as this thought will show, what he really cares about.

     The Brooklyn Tabernacle is a church which has, by God's grace, broken down many racial and economic barriers, offering in the present a small taste of the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, inclusive body of Christ, where believers of every tribe and tongue, rich and poor alike, will one day gather side by side before the throne of God (Rev. 7:9).  Part instruction, part biographical, his book is well-worth the read if you have the time. Enjoy.

     "Are we not all prone to be a little cocky and think we can handle things just fine?  But let some trouble come, and how quickly we sense our inadequacy. Trouble is one of God's great servants because it reminds us how much we continuously need the Lord. Otherwise, we tend to forget about entreating him. For some reason we want to carry on by ourselves.  The history of past revivals portray this truth in full color. Whether you study the First Great Awakening, the Welsh Revival, the 1906 outpouring on Azuza Street in Los Angeles, or any other period of revival, you always find men and women who first inwardly groan, longing to see the status quo changed -- in themselves and in their churches. They begin to call upon God with insistence. Prayer begets revival and revival begets more prayer.  It's like Psalm 80, where Asaph bemoans the sad state of his time, the broken walls, the rampaging animals, the burnt vineyards. Then in verse 18 he pleads, "Revive us, and we will call upon your name." 

     The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of prayer.  Only when we are full of the Spirit do we feel the need for God everywhere we turn. We can be driving a car, and spontaneously our spirit starts going up to God with needs and petitions and intercessions right there in the middle of traffic. [Eyes open of course!]  If our churches don't pray, and if people don't have an appetite for God, what does it matter how many are attending the services?  How would that impress God? Can you imagine the angels saying, "Oh, your pews! We can't believe how beautiful they are! Up here in heaven, we've been talking about them for years. Your sanctuary lighting -- it's so clever. The way you have the steps going up to the pulpit, it's wonderful..." 

     I don't think so.   If we don't want to experience God's closeness here on earth, why would we want to go to heaven anyway?  He is the center of everything there. If we don't enjoy being in his presence here and now, then heaven would not be heaven for us. Why would he send anyone there who doesn't long for him passionately here on earth?  I am not suggesting that we are justified by works of prayer or any other acts of devotion. I am not a legalist. But let us not dodge the issue of what heaven will be like --  enjoying the presence of God, taking time to adore him, listening to him, giving him praise. I have talked with pastor after pastor, some of them prominent and "successful" who have told me privately, "Jim, the truth is, I couldn't have a real prayer meeting in my church. I'd be embarrassed at the smallness of the crowd. Unless somebody's teaching, or singing, or doing some kind of presentation, people just won't come. I can only get them for a one-hour service, and that only once a week." 

     Is that kind of religion found anywhere in the Bible?  [Gathering to go to] Jesus himself can't draw a crowd even among his own people!  What a tragedy that the quality of ministry is too often measured by numbers and building size rather than by spiritual results. As a preacher myself, let me be blunt here. When I stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ, he is not going to ask me if I was a clever orator. He is not going to ask me how many books I wrote. He is only going to ask whether I continued in the line of men and women, starting way back in the time of Adam's generation, who led others to call upon God." 

     Cymbala is right.  God is not impressed by numbers, attendance figures, technology, marketing skills, architecture, stage presentation, etc.   Rather, what God wants is people who want him.  He wants people who want to spend prayerful time with Him in His presence.  He seeks people who yearn to seek Him (Jeremiah 29:13). He wants us to trust in Him and live a life of dependence on Him (II Corinthians 1:9). He wants us to realize what Jesus said so clearly in John 15:5 in the context of bearing spiritual fruit -- "I am the Vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."   That's what the Christian life is about:  Remaining in Jesus all the time. Abiding in Christ every conscious moment.  Being joined to Him unbroken fellowship.  Dwelling in intimate fellowship in His presence.  Bringing every thought captive to Christ (II Corinthians 10:5).  Communing with Him in ongoing prayer (I Thessalonians 5:16-18). Trusting Him with all our hearts (Proverbs 3:5-6). Living a life of reliance, surrender and dependence (II Corinthians 1:8-10).  If people are not led to call upon God, and seek His face in loving fellowship, earnestly seeking to do His will, all that other stuff matters little.  For "success" in the eyes of the world is much different than success (fruit that God desires) in regard to Christ's Kingdom.

May We Be Moved to Pray and Pursue Him More Passionately, 

Pastor Jeff

Holiness By Grace - Delighting In The Joy That Is Our Strength

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes from a book well worth the time it takes to read: "Holiness By Grace - Delighting In The Joy That Is Our Strength" by Bryan Chapell.  It has to do with God's grace and favor toward us, and the common misconceptions we often have about what it is that causes that grace to come our way.  There are very few who do not desire God's grace.  Few who do not yearn for His favor.  Yet, as Chapell points out, in our attempts to attain it, we often drive it further from us.  We often go astray in the ways we seek to become recipients of it.  I found his instruction in this regard helpful.  I pray that you might also.  Enjoy.

     "Despite the teaching of Scripture, I am at times no less troubled than Christ's disciples were with God's determination to resist human efforts to purchase his love.  I want to believe that God must be good to the organizations I serve, to the family I love, and the career in which I seek to advance, because I have tried to be good. Such reasoning abandons me, however, when I honestly compare my righteousness to Christ's standards... When I face the reality of the inadequacy of my works to merit God's favor, then I recognize that I must depend on his goodness and not my own. At times this dependence (on his goodness) is scary because it lifts control from me, but there is no other choice when I recognize the true character of my good works. For according to Scripture, even my best works are only "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:5). There is too much human imperfection and mixed motives in my best deeds to have them obligate God to do as I wish...

     That does not mean, however, that God never desires or blesses our goodness.  Walking in God's ways is itself a blessing (Ps. 1, Matt. 5:3-10). For example, being faithful to one's spouse brings integrity to a marriage that is a blessing.  Speaking honestly can enhance one's reputation and help secure faltering relationships... Still, no degree of human goodness will lock God into a pah of blessing according to our choosing, as though we have become his master through our merit.  God promises to bless obedience by using it for his purposes, but the blessings that result should be seen less as credit for our goodness, and more as evidence of his faithfulness to his purposes... Divine blessing flows from God's mercy rather than from our merit. Thus, we cannot guarantee that his care will flow according to our plans simply because we conform in some degree to biblical standards. Our works do not obligate God to care for us in the way WE think is best... God blesses according to the wisdom of his eternal mercy rather than in proportion to our works of earned merit...

     [In Luke 17:11-19 ten lepers cry out to Jesus in desperation, "Jesus, master, have mercy on us!"]... What does Jesus do when these desperate people plead with him for mercy? He shows them mercy.  Jesus shows pity to those who have nothing to claim but desperation.  He is moved by their desperate cry for help.  What is the message to us?  Our God is not moved by the deeds we trophy, but by the desperation we acknowledge as our own....

     God's heart is moved, not when we protest our innocence by pointing to our inadequate good deeds, nor when we promise that we will do better in the future. Though there is no reason for God to love us, yet he does.  This is the nature of grace that we must treasure to know the joy that God wants for our lives. Until we recognize that there is no reason God will be moved to love us other than the spiritual need we acknowledge, we have no good news to tell others or ourselves. How could it be good news that God waits to love us until we reach an unattainable standard of righteousness, or that he counts our "filthy rags" as meritorious?  Biblical faith is most evident not when we demand that God honor our flawed deeds, but when we trust that he will mercifully respond when we humbly and helplessly cry out, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

     Those who cry out in desperation have more hope of moving God's heart than any who would trophy their own righteousness before him.  Those who face the hopelessness of their spiritual condition apart from God's mercy are nearer to experiencing his grace than those who pride themselves on their goodness. Not beyond God's mercy is the homosexual dying of AIDS, who says in a broken spirit, "People may condemn me for a life they do not approve, but to tell you the truth, I would have loved anyone that loved me back."  In fact, such a man may be nearer to expressing what melts the heart of heaven, than I am on the days that my preaching, my position (as a seminary president), and my righteousness, swell my pride to make me think I am deserving of God's blessing.

     To experience God's blessing I must readily and repeatedly confess my own hopeless condition. What makes me willing to do this is the knowledge that it is my desperation that inclines God's heart toward my own.  The awareness that he does not turn away from my desperation will actually draw me to confession and deep repentance. The assumption that God only loves the righteous will tempt me to hide from him (and myself) the flaws under the public veneer of my character and my fears of deeper failures... 

     Our Lord's response to the leper's cry for mercy should compel us to confess our sin to him no matter its degree or persistence. We need not have corrected the wrong in our lives to ask him to forgive us We should not attempt to try and compensate for our sin before we ask him to love us. Remember that Jesus cleansed all the lepers when they cried out for his mercy, even though in his divine nature he could have known that only one would return to thank him.  Neither past failing nor future weakness will dissuade our Savior from showing us mercy when we honestly acknowledge our desperate need for his grace."

     One only needs to glance at the any of the four Gospels to see the truth of what Chapell says.  God inclines his ear and opens his heart to the desperate, but resists the proud. He embraces the sinful man who won't even look up to heaven but in shame cries out, "Lord be merciful to me a sinner," yet refuses to listen to the Pharisee who looks down on that heart-broken man and brags inwardly that he is so much better and thanks God he is not like him.  Pride and self-righteousness (that is, thinking we can make ourselves acceptable to God by our personal deeds and efforts) pushes the divine hand of grace away, it does not (as many curiously think) bring God's favor and blessings near.  We must always remember: "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble."   It is the acknowledgment and confession of our sin, deep need, and personal inadequacy that draws close the grace and mercy of God, and the vain illusion that we have all our moral and spiritual ducks in a row that drives it away.

     If you would like to pray for grace, here is a simple prayer I often use: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Eternal God, be merciful to me a sinner." 

For His name's sake,  Pastor Jeff 

C. S. Lewis - A Collection of Thoughts

Greetings All!

     Today you get another post of many different "thoughts" rather than one longer continuous thought.  Yet, unlike my last mailing sent out two weeks ago, these all come from one author - C. S. Lewis.  I've been going through three of his books lately and found them all very rewarding. This is just a sampling of short thoughts from him.  I trust you might find a few of these to be helpful as you mull them over, and that one or two might be used of God to encourage, challenge, or comfort you.

     At our men's group this morning we discussed our favorites from my previous mailing two weeks ago, and why each person found particular ones the most helpful. If you get a chance today, and would want to share with me what your particular favorites are from the list below, I'd be interested in receiving your feedback!  Enjoy.

"If everything comes simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment dependent upon God." 

"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but God will make us good because He loves us."

"It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they will see God, for only the pure in heart want to."

"I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I knew that a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity." 

"We are not necessarily doubting God will do the best for us, we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." 

"Don't shine so that others can see you. Shine, so that through you, others can see Him."

"Do not waste time bothering whether you "love" your neighbor; act as if you did."

"If God had granted all the silly prayers I've asked in my life, where would I be now?" 

"If you're thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you are embarking on something that will take the whole of you."

"Everyone thinks forgiveness is a wonderful idea until he has something to forgive."  

"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... No one knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good. A man who gives into temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.  That is why bad people know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in." 

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world."

"God cannot give us happiness apart from Himself, because there is no such thing."

"It is not your business to succeed, but to do right. When you have done so the rest lies with God." 

"Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties."

"We must lay before God what is in us, not what ought to be in us."

With prayers for your continued growth in godliness, and your service in Jesus name, Pastor Jeff

Christian Faith -- God as the Initiator of All and Every Saving Good

Greetings All!

     Today I share an excerpt that has to do with one of the most important aspects of the Christian faith -- God as the initiator of all and every saving good.  A. W. Tozer once spoke of this as well in the opening chapter of his classic work, "The Pursuit of God."  But James S. Stewart (1896-1990) emphasizes it even more strongly here in his classic work, "A Man in Christ - The Vital Elements of St. Paul's Religion."  (And lest there be any confusion, Stewart is not the famous Hollywood actor from the well-known Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life," he was formerly Professor of New Testament at the University of Edinburgh, a minister in the Church of Scotland, and Chaplain to the Queen of England from 1952-1966.)

     


     I pass his words along to you as something we all need to ponder, meditate upon, cherish, and take into the soul as truth that will stir the heart to praise God for His unspeakable grace. Read it, and then read it again, until every trace of contrary opinion is erased. And then let it move your heart to respond by bowing the knee in adoration of a God so gloriously worthy.  Enjoy.

     "Everything in religion that matters starts from God's side. Even faith and repentance and prayer, three attitudes of soul which might appear to originate in man and to be said to be human virtues, are, if we believe Paul, nothing of the kind. They are God's creation, God's gift. Faith because it is evoked by the action of God in revealing Himself as worthy of all trust, repentance because it is produced by the divine reaction to sin of which the cross is the culmination, and prayer because when "we know not what to pray for as we ought... the Spirit itself makes intercession for us."  In the words of Baron von Hugel, "The passion and hunger for God, comes from God, and God answers it with Christ." 

     Man's intelligence and will and heart and conscience never initiate anything in religion. And over the best moral and spiritual triumphs of this life the saints can only cry, "not unto us, Lord, but unto Thy name be glory" (Psalm 115:1).  In this sense at least, Schleiermacher was right when he defined religion as "absolute dependence."  Of ourselves, we can do nothing. There is no Creator but God.  "And every virtue we possess, And every victory won, And every thought of holiness, Are His and His alone."  This is the meaning of grace, and this is the inmost secret of reconciliation.

     It is hardly likely that a Gospel so annihilating to human pride will ever be popular with an age conscious of its own enlightenment and trusting in its own initiative for world redemption... Nor will Paul ever be 'persona grata' with those -- and there are many of them -- who seek, by a punctilious observance of religious ordinances, to screen from their own souls, and from others, the stern and disturbing fact that their first necessity is to have God change radically their whole attitude toward Himself.  If Paul's doctrine of reconciliation means anything, then the religion that is tinged with self-satisfaction, is, even when it bears the Christian name, a thing downright heathen, and the man who thinks his own deeds and character are doing God credit and have a claim on God's regard and favour, is the victim of a disastrous delusion. To spiritual pride of every degree, nothing could be more devastating than Paul's evangelicalism.  For where religion walks around clothed in the garments of moral unreality [thinking that by one's own efforts they can earn God's grace] his Gospel will always be anathema.

     But who cares? It is the Gospel of God and there is no other.  It is the very Gospel of Jesus, who proclaimed God's initiative first and last, who was Himself God's initiative become flesh. Jesus, whose eyes were like a flame of fire to those who would seek to appease His divine displeasure by their gifts and offerings and character, but whose eyes smiled the welcome of heaven to those who confessed they had no standing before God at all. Jesus, who did not wait until sinners sought Him, but went forth to seek them first, coming to bring the gift of reconciliation near to men, and dying to put it in their hands. No man who is too proud to be infinitely in debt [to God] will ever be a Christian. God gives forever, forever man receives.

    Is it incomprehensible that the holy God should thus deal with unworthy man?  Maybe, but as Barth pointedly remarks, "only when grace is recognized to be incomprehensible is it grace."   For me, Paul would say, religion began on the day when I ceased straining and striving and struggling for heaven's favour, and was content to bow my head and accept the gift I could never win.  It's all the doing of the God who has reconciled me to Himself through Christ" (II Cor. 5:12). 

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     A. W. Tozer put it this way: "Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him. Imperfect it may be, but a true work nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow.  We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit.  "No man can come to me," said our Lord, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (John 6:44 and 65), and it is by this prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is to follow hard after Him. All the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand" Thy right hand upholds me" (Psalm 63:8).  In this divine "upholding" and human "following" there is no contradiction. All is of God, for as von Hugel teaches, God is always previous." (The Pursuit of God, pgs. 11-12)

     Take a moment to let that truth wash over you. It really will change your whole perspective on life and cause you to see God, and His grace, in a whole new light.

In The Bonds of Gospel Truth, Pastor Jeff

A Godward Life

Greetings All,

     This week's "thought" comes to you from John Piper and is found in his book, "A Godward Life."  This selection speaks of the extraordinary gifts of a man named Charles Haddon Spurgeon -- a man who has been called by many, "The Prince of Preachers," or "the best preacher that ever lived."

     After reading of his life accomplishments, it's nearly impossible for any pastor not to envy -- even though the 10th Commandment forbids that!  Yet, even though what Piper shares about Spurgeon's amazing life relate to his work in the pastorate, the things we can learn from our reaction to his accomplishments can apply to anyone we admire who is extraordinarily gifted. Thus I offer it to you for your consideration. Enjoy.

"Mountains Are Not Meant to Be Envied"

 Awed Thoughts on Charles Spurgeon

     "... If you try to make a Minnesota hill imitate a mountain, you will make a fool of your hill.  Hills have their place too. So do the Nebraska plains. If the whole world were mountains, where would we grow wheat for bread? Every time you eat bread say, "Thank God for Nebraska!"

     I'm talking about Charles Haddon Spurgeon. I am warning my wavering self he is not to be imitated.  Spurgeon preached as a Baptist pastor in London from 1854 until 1891 -- thirty-eight years of ministry in one place. He died January 31, 1892, at the age of fifty-seven. His collected sermons fill sixty-three volumes equivalent to the twenty-seven volume edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica and stand as the largest set of books by a single author in the history of Christianity.  He read six books a week and could remember what was in them and where [on one occasion quoting both the page and paragraph where a quote was found]. He read Pilgrim's Progress more than 100 times.

     He added 14,460 people to his church membership and did almost all the membership interviews himself. He could look out on a congregation of 5,000 and name the members. He founded a pastor's college and trained almost 900 men during his pastorate. Spurgeon once said he had counted as many as eight sets of thoughts that passed through his mind at the same time while he was preaching. He often prayed for his people during the very sermon he was preaching to them.  He would preach for 40 minutes at 140 words per minute from a small sheet of notes that he had worked up the night before. The result? More than twenty-five thousand copies of his sermons were sold each week in twenty-seven languages, and someone was converted each week through the written sermons.

     Spurgeon was married and had two sons (twins) who both became pastors. His wife Susannah (who died the same year as Charles, though three years older) was an invalid most of her life and rarely heard him preach. He founded an orphanage (funded mainly through the sales of his sermons), started a home for poor widows, edited a magazine, and produced more than 140 other books (three of which sold over 1,000,000 copies and one of which is still a best-seller). He responded to 500 letters a week and often preached ten times a week in various churches as well as his own. He suffered from gout, rheumatism and Bright's disease, and in the last twenty years of his ministry, he was so sick that he missed a third of the Sunday's at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. He was a politically liberal and conservative Calvinistic Baptist who smoked cigars, spoke his mind, believed in hell, and wept over the perishing, ten's of thousands of whom were saved through his soul-winning passion....

     What shall we make of such a man?  Neither a god nor a goal. He should not be worshiped or envied. He is too small for one and too big for the other. If we worship such men we are idolaters. If we envy them we are fools. Mountains are not meant to be envied. They are meant to be marveled at for the sake of their Maker. They are the mountains of God. More than that, without envy, we are meant to climb into their minds and hearts and revel in what they saw so clearly and what they felt so deeply. We are to benefit from them without craving to be them. When we learn this, we can relax and enjoy them. Until we learn it, they may make us miserable, because they highlight our weaknesses. Well, we are weak, and to be reminded of it is good. But we also need to be reminded that, compared with our inferiority to God, the distance between us and Spurgeon is nothing. We are all utterly dependent on our Father's grace.

     Spurgeon had his sins. That may comfort us in our weak moments. But let us rather be comforted that his greatness was a free gift of God -- to us as well as to him. Let us be, by the grace of God, all that we can be for the glory of God (I Corinthians 15:10). In our smallness, let us not become smaller by envy, but rather, larger by humble admiration and gratitude for the gifts of others. Do not envy the mountain, glory in its Creator.  You'll find the air up there cool, fresh and invigorating and the view stunning beyond description. So don't envy. Enjoy!" 

     There are few preaching pastors who did not study Spurgeon, and of those that did, probably most have coveted some of the many gifts he had or the things he was able to do.

     He had preached 600 times before he was 20 and had such a booming voice he once preached to a crowd of 23,654 people with no microphone or amplification.  He had a photographic memory, pastored the largest independent congregation in the world in his day, and was not tempted by money, giving most of it away to charity or missions. He worked 18 hours a day, had an uncanny ability to paint pictures with words, came up with phenomenal illustrations from everyday life on a regular basis (many of which I have used), and would frequently ask his members NOT to come to church the next Sunday so that the lines of visitors who waited outside each week might be able to get in to have a seat.

     Yes, it's easy to envy or want to be like Spurgeon (I have often)!  But that would be to question God's sovereignty. That would be to forget that God makes each person just as he desires, not that we may wish we were someone other than who we are, but that we might praise His wisdom and be content to simply be who he's made us to be -- weaknesses and all. The giants of the faith are there to inspire us, and we can thank God for their example. But they can actually be a distraction and cause us harm if we end up idolizing them and lamenting us.  God gives us mountains to admire, not imitate, for as Piper points out, the rolling hills and the flat plains have their particular purposes too! 

In the Bonds of Christian Charity, Pastor Jeff

Springs in the Valley

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes to you from a devotional named, "Springs in the Valley," by L. B. Cowman (also the author of "Streams in the Desert" from which I quoted not long ago).

     
     I chose to share this particular selection because it displays such a profound understanding of God's personal intervention in our lives. In the age we live in, which loves formulas, and thinks we can duplicate the results of others simply by duplicating their methods, God often has a surprise for us.  For as many who have tried will testify, we can duplicate everything others do and still not get the same results.  Why? Because a sovereign God reigns over the universe who moves uniquely in each person, place, and situation -- a God who is intensely personal and isn't into cloning or copycat ministries.  In fact, the desire to duplicate the life and experience of others not only takes God's unique plan for each of us far too lightly, it also disavows the working of grace, and the richness of diversity within the Church -- the unique path to maturity that God has ordained for each individual believer.

     That's why I so enjoyed this entry.  It displays a profound understanding of God's unique care and work in the life of each believer.  If you have sought to do ministry at all, you have surely thought, or wrestled internally, with some of the things he speaks of here.  I know I have. 

     The only thing I might have changed would be the verse she uses for this entry.  She used Philippians 3:7, I would have used Matthew 20:1-16. Enjoy.

     "If God has called you to be really like Christ, He may draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility and put on you such demands of obedience that He will not allow you to follow other Christians, and in many ways will let other good people do things which He will not let you do.
     Other Christians, who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it. And if you attempt it you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

     Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their success, of their writing, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. And if you begin to, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

     Others will be allowed to succeed in making money... but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, and that is a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

     The Lord will let others be honored and put forward, but keep you hidden away in obscurity because He wants to produce in you some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory. He will let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but you He will make to work and toil without knowing how much fruit your efforts are bearing. The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you... rebuking you for little words and feelings or for wasting time.

     God is an Infinite Sovereign! He has the right to do as He pleases with His own.  Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Lord Jesus -- that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, chaining your hand, or closing your eyes in ways that He does not deal with others.  Then you will have found the vestibule of heaven.  Others may, you cannot."

     In the parable of the kingdom in Matthew 20 Jesus speaks of hiring workers to tend His field for a denarius a day (the typical work day being 12 and not 8 hours)!  Yet as the story goes on, we see one worker works 12 hours, one works 9 hours, one works 6 hours, one works 3 hours, and one works only 1 hour -- but they all get the same pay!   And when they complain about the "unfairness" of this policy, Jesus (speaking as the landowner) responds, "Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I'm generous."

     The "pay" is obviously salvation, and its the same for those who follow Christ all their lives as it is for the person who comes to Christ in the last hour, on their deathbed. It's something Jesus sees as displaying God's uncanny generosity, though some see it as God being "unfair."

     Yet the same phrase the landowner uses to refer to money could also refer to the way God moves through all the varied details of our individual lives: "Doesn't He have the right to do what He wants with my own..."  Doesn't God have the right to deal with each of His grace-chosen children as He chooses?  And when He does, should we complain that we are not being treated as "fairly" as others (whose lives we envy)?  Should we not rejoice that the path He leads us on is one He designed specifically for us, in light of our unique makeup and personality, and the special work He desires us to carry out for His glory?

     You see, it is true -- God is an Infinite Sovereign!   And because He is, and deals with each of us uniquely, it can be said: Other may do what He will not permit us to do. He may even call us to do some difficult thing that others are not called to do.  He has the right to do as He pleases with His own.  No clones or formulas, just a sovereign God who as the divine Potter does what He desires with each unique and individual lump of clay.

In the Name of Him who is in Control, Pastor Jeff

The Gift and Grace of Weakness

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes to you from Charles Spurgeon.  It is found in the devotional I have recommended before (one that I consider a gem) - "Beside Still Waters - Words of Comfort for the Soul." This particular entry has to do with the gift and grace of weakness.  It's a concept that's hard for those raised in our "strength worshiping" culture to understand, but he true believer will grasp what he says.  In fact, the true believer may be the only one who grasps what he says.  Enjoy.

     
     "Your faith will never be weak when you are weak, but when you are strong your faith cannot be strong. To the apostle Paul, Jesus said, "My strength is made perfect in weakness" (II Corinthians 12:9). The only way to increase your faith is through great trouble.  We do not grow strong in faith on sunny days; only in stormy weather do we obtain it. Strong faith does not drop from heaven in a gentle dew; generally, it comes in the whirlwind and the storm.

     Look at the old oaks. How did they become so deeply rooted?  The March winds will tell you. It was not the April showers or the sweet May sunshine that caused the roots to wrap around the rock.  It was the rough, blustering, north winds of March shaking the trees.  The weakest of trees are those grown in the shelter of the greenhouse.

     Life in the barracks does not produce good soldiers. Great soldiers are made amid flying shot and thundering cannons.  Nor are good sailors made on calm seas. Good sailors are made on the deep, where the wild wind howls, the thunder rolls like drums, and the waves smash in repeated succession against the hull.  Storms and tempests make tough and hardy sailors.

     It is that way with Christians. We must expect great troubles before we attain great faith."

     In times of plenty and ease it is questionable whether faith is even necessary, and the longer or more extended those periods of ease and plenty are, the weaker faith becomes.  So also in the Lord's work, it is better to have a man who knows his weakness and casts himself wholly upon the Lord in utter and desperate dependence on Him and His grace, than a confident man who thinks he is strong and completely capable of doing anything, and thus depends on himself alone. 

     Spiritual work is not like physical work, and worldly success is far different from eternal fruit borne for the kingdom of God.  Faith in God must not be confused with confidence in self.  If we were more attuned to the ways of God and what He was up to in permitting our struggles and trials, we would be far less anxious and far more willing that His power might be made perfect in us through our weakness.

In the sufficiency of His grace, Pastor Jeff