Ham, Christmas, and Eggnog

There are specific “Thou shalt not[s]” in the Bible that all Christians are to conform to. None of us is to lie, steal, murder, commit adultery, etc. But there are other things that God does allow, and they are individual and particular. For example, in Romans chapter fourteen we see differences among God’s people concerning diet, days, and drink (vss 2, 5, 21).

Allow me to take this primitive setting and advance it to our modern, contemporary, Christian age. We have meat-eaters as opposed to vegetarians; those who recognize Christmas, and those who refuse to acknowledge it; and the “tee-teetotalers,” over against those who believe moderation is Biblically acceptable. You will find that time, geography, culture, temperament, tastes, and tradition have a lot to do with deciding the above.

I read a little tract once entitled, Others Can; You Can't. But there is a flip side, and that is, You Can; Others Can't. The truth is, God has accepted both. Neither side is the better or the worse for what they do, or abstain from. All the frustration that comes into our lives is because we want everyone else to do and see things as we do.

Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with others as He is with you.

(Oswald Chambers)

Sacred Secrets

“...great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh…

(1Tim. 3:16)

“...this mystery...is Christ in you”

(Col. 1:27)

The word mystery as found in the scripture simply means a sacred secret. It does not mean a secret withheld, but truth previously hidden but now made known, for and to whom God intended it (cp. Col. 1:26). Also you can see this illustrated in the book of Daniel, chapter two. Elements of these supernatural secrets, even after it be once revealed, can still possess a sort of shadowy secrecy.

The Bible tells us the incarnation, God manifest in the flesh of the “Man Christ Jesus,” is a great mystery. The mystery not being great in its obscurity, but rather in its importance. But there is another mystery, among the eleven mentioned in the New Testament, not as great as the incarnation, but great in its own right. We are told, “God is in you of a truth.” (1Cor.14:25)

Once this startling truth is grasped and appropriated by faith, it will transform us in a way that all who beholds us will be amazed. Most of all, the Christian themself. Jesus, our example, said “I have glorified thee on earth.” Is it any wonder then that Paul tells us to, “Glorify God in our bodies?” If our dying words are the six that Jesus uttered, our lives will not have been spent in vain!

“To glorify God, simply put, is to make HIM look good.”

Hurry Up and Wait

“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD...he that believeth shall not make haste.”

(Isa. 28:16)

Anyone the least bit familiar with the military knows firsthand the meaning of the title of our article. It all begins in Basic Training. You double-time to the mess hall, to mail call, and the list goes on. There is hardly a place you do not run to get to, then you wait.

My wife and I, after our separate morning devotions, use to discuss this very topic. What was the cause of this obsession to hurry, hurry, hurry? Was it temperament, the age we live in, or just getting old? Possibly a little of all three, but especially the middle reason.

An old preacher use to say, “I’m not going anywhere anymore, I’m just dodging.” Daniel speaking of “the time of the end” says, “...many shall run to and fro.” We hurry and scurry to get somewhere, get something done, or to catch up, but at the end of the day we wind up waiting.

All our frustration and anxiety comes from not accepting the fact that God is not in a hurry! To Him a day is no more than a thousand years and a thousand years as a day in His sight. Time means nothing to our Eternal God. God is not on a time clock! He has all the time in the world.

“Time is a Parenthesis in God’s Eternal Sentence.”

(rds)

The Afflictions of Godly David

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted...”

Psa.119:71

God’s darling, God's pet, the very one who wiggled himself into God’s own heart, was afflicted. The only one in the Bible of whom it is said, “He (God) liked me.” You can love someone without liking them, but God had both affections for this rare breed of a man.

In the 119th Psalm David speaks of his afflictions and their purpose on at least four occasions. Let us take a brief look at each individually.

“Before I was afflicted I went astray…”

Psa. 119:67

David himself could have penned the words to the song, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love.” They tell me a shepherd sometimes has to break the leg of one of his sheep that wanders habitually. Then it stays close to its shepherd. “...in their affliction they will seek me early.” (Ho 5:15)

“...I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.”

Psa. 119:71

It is not the scholar who has taught me most about God’s Word, but the lowly afflicted saint. I remember a dear preacher friend, who had cerebral palsy, who spoke for me annually when I pastored. He once asked me, “Why did God have Abraham offer up his beloved son Isaac?" To which I gave a standard, as well as a lame answer. His reply was, “Two loves cannot co-exist, one must die: his love for his son or his love for his God.”

“I know, O LORD...that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.”

Psa. 119:75

No father worth his salt enjoys taking severe measures in correcting his child. He does it in love. Thus emulating his Heavenly Father, “As many as I love, I...chasten…” It is not something He likes doing, but something He has to do for our benefit. “For he doth not afflict willingly…” (Lam 3:13)

“This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.”

Psa 119:50

This, no doubt, is what another afflicted saint in the New Testament refers to as, “The comfort of the scriptures.” It is within the sacred pages of God’s Book we find comfort in such texts as: “I have seen the affliction of my people," (Acts 7:34).  “In all their affliction He was afflicted," (Isa.63:9). “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment (some 20 years), worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;" (2Cor 4:17).

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE ONE OF GOD'S CHOICE ONES?

"Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."

(Isa.48:10)