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MY FAVORITE NEW TESTAMENT STORY

I think most, if not all Christians have their own favorite Bible stories. My favorite in the New Testament is the following; it’s found in John chapter four, verses forty-six through fifty-three.

“So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told [him], saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.  So the father knew that [it was] at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.”

ALL AVENUES EXHAUSTED

I believe parents will agree with me that this father had tried all avenues open to him for the healing of his son. From the medical profession to homeopathic remedies; possibly, even some quack cures. All doors were closed and locked to him. He was literally “shut-up unto the faith.” He was at his Red Sea with no place to turn.

BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES

There seems to be a principle in the scripture: God loves it when His children come to the end of themselves. When all hope is taken away. When there is no man to help. Someone has written—

“God is a tower without a stair

And His perfection loves despair.”

A THOUGHT THAT HAS HELPED ME

From our scriptural story, God gave me a little saying that has helped me these many years.

“Act as though it were, And you’ll experience it as it is.”

NO MAGICAL BOOK

Paul tells us the Word of God works effectually in them that believe. There is nothing magical about the Word. Wishing will get you nowhere, believing it will take you a long way.

DON’T LET THE WEAKNESS OF THE FLESH TROUBLE YOU

You can have a weak flesh with a strong faith, look at Abraham’s life of faith. He staggered on the outside but the inner-man stood strong. The wise man declares, “The root of the righteous shall not be moved”. The storms can bow the limbs, but never the root. Like a buoy, you may be tossed to and fro on the surface, but underneath it is steadfast!  “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.”

"At the end of self...you’ll find God.”

(rds)

God's Oath to Himself

FAITHLESSNESS VERSES FAITHFULNESS

"If we believer not, yet he abideth faithful.” God’s faithfulness is not dependent on our belief. Belief can bring benefits to us, but whether we believe of not, God’s faithfulness is unchangeable. Our doubts will never change the dignity of His Deity. Our gentleman God always keeps His Word.

ONE PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Our faith may waver at times, as Peter’s of old. We may have honest doubts, as John the Baptist. And, like the disciples in the storm, we might even question His care for us. But, in the midst of all our carnal confusion, one thing abides the same: the faithfulness of God; believe it or not.

WHO ARE WE TO BELIEVE?

Often it is said, “I can’t believe.” But I ask the question, “Whom can’t you believe?” God is not asking you to believe you, but to believe Him. We are not to look at our faith, but to the faithful One.

GOD SWORE TO HIMSELF

Settled assurance comes from the fact of knowing God did not swear to us but to Himself. As Moses said to the Lord, “Thou swearest by thine own self.” And the writer of Hebrews, referring to this very thing adds, “For when God made promise…because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself.” Is it any wonder then that Jeremiah, in the midst of chaos, says, “Great is thy faithfulness.”

If not true of anyone else in the entire universe, “To thine own self be true” is true of God.

The Idealist

AN IDEALIST-A MISGUIDED OPTIMIST   

Webster defines an idealist as, “an impractical person; a person who represents things as they might or should be, rather than as they are.” For example, the young girl who believes her marriage will be free from all trouble, or the teen-age boy entering service believing he will return from war as a hero without a scratch. Such immature imaginations are idealistic, that is, “It just ain’t so.”

CHRISTIAN IDEALIST

Christians can be idealistic about spiritual things. Many have manufactured a life void of all problems. They believe they simply turn everything over to God, thus taking themselves out of the equation. This sounds good, but it is not reality. We are never removed from the picture. It is always us and God within the frame together (Philip.4:13). It is not I without God; nor is it God without I. It’s God and I together.

CARNAL IDEALIST VERSES SPIRITUAL REALIST

The carnal idealist rejects everything not within his or her plan; a Spiritual realist accepts all things as God’s plan. That is, when one is living for Him. Within the realm of the realist “all things are possible with God.” It is not so with the idealist, he or she “limits the Holy One of Israel.”  All things must come up to their ideal of what God will do in any given situation; if not, to them, God could not possibly be in it.

The Commoner

THE ENGLISH COMMONER

Some of the definitions for the old British term Commoner is: any person ranking below a peer; a person without a title of nobility...an ordinary person...a person who is not born into a position of high social status…a derogatory word or term for a peasant/lower class.

THE WORLD AND THE CHRISTIAN COMMONER

Paul tells us the elitist society of his day considered Christians

“as the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things.” Things haven’t changed for those believers who are sold out to God. They still look down their condescending noses at those who belong to Christ, thinking themselves superior.

GOD HAS AN AFFINITY FOR COMMON THINGS AND PEOPLE

The Bible speaks of: a common people; a common faith; a common salvation. In fact, God had to correct Peter for referring to things and people as common; things God had associated Himself with with. “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common...but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common.”

GOD IN DISGUISE

To the world and religion,  Jesus Christ was a common man, beneath them.  But in truth, He was God in disguise. And so it is with His children. The world’s not aware God is in these common, earthen vessels, and that these lightly esteemed, plain people are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.    

WHAT A RUDE AWAKENING WHEN THE WORLD FINDS OUT THAT THE PEOPLE THEY TREATED AS  NOBODIES WERE GOD’S SOMEBODIES!

(rds)

A Test Tube God

DANIEL, PAUL, AND SCIENCE

The Bible tells us Daniel was, “...skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science…” On the other hand Paul writes of a ”...science falsely so called.” Science is like children; there are both legitimate and illegitimate kinds. Down through history, as today, there have been godly scientists, but sorry to say, such have always been outnumbered by the other kind.

MUSINGS FROM FAMILY FELLOWSHIP

Recently, our preacher/author son, Andrew, who lives a little over an hour away, visited us with his lovely wife, Sharon. As our family custom goes, it was not long before the conversation moved from the everyday things to those of the Lord. The discussion centered around the noticeable lack of interest in the greatness and power of God in the lives professing believers today.

MY TWO-CENTS WORTH

Personally, I believe God’s mighty wonders began to cease when we allowed the scientific world to take God into the laboratory and begin dissecting Him. Their plan was to  bring  Him down to their size, even smaller. So much so, that they now fit Him into a test tube. Christians who are either intimidated or impressed with their pseudo-knowledge presently worship and serve a pygmy god.  

CHRISTIANS GRABBED THE BAIT

Humanism is the deification of man and the humanization of God. Sorry to say, the mass of Christendom have fallen for this doctrine of devils, hook, line, and sinker!

Our Bible Reading

UNHAPPY DEVOTIONS

All good Christians read their Bible; but not all of us are happy afterward. To read our love letter and be concerned only with what the “Lover of our souls” said, forgetting who said it, will leave one, to say the least, wanting. It is actually possible after spending time in the scriptures to be left in a state of misery, even desiring to give it all up.

PUTTING THE CART BEFORE THE OX

Everything must begin with God-”In the beginning God.” All things have a cause and effect; to take away the former is to leave one ineffective. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “He is the author and finisher...” Only by increasing our spiritual and intellectual knowledge of God do we understand life with its complexities and great mysteries.

OUR ONE MAIN PROBLEM

When looking into the mirror of God’s Word, we are to see HIM, not our reflection. Most of us are so taken up with ourselves and our concerns we lose sight of the author of the Book, who is its main character. We are so self-centered, we cannot think about anything other than “me, my, and I.” On God’s pedestal, there's only room for one, and it is not me.

LOOKING FOR THE WRONG THING

If not careful, we will spend a lifetime looking for “nuggets” from the Word rather than seeking “The One Pearl of Great Price.” The gem to be sought in our search of the scriptures is HIM! He is the one who gives value to everything else. Both the Written and Living Word of God were, and are, designed to bring us to God. Don’t stop short with either, let us go on.

“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD"

(Hos. 6:3)

Mercy

LEARNING THE MEANING

“But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice...But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.”

(Matt. 9:13; 12:9)

GETTING PAST THE EXTERNAL

The ritualistic, legalistic Pharisees of Jesus day could truly be called, “Hardshell Religionists.” His was a day that put great emphasis on the external works of the flesh and had little, or no, concern with the workings of the heart. Because of this, they had become exceedingly hard and harsh in dealing with the less fortunate, the unenlightened.

CORRECTION FROM THE SCRIPTURES

Jesus directs their attention to what God said in Hosea. He shows them God is much more interested in seeing mercy extended to the needy than a heartless show of sacrifice to Him.“ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law...mercy...these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”

REBUKED FOR WILLFUL IGNORANCE

Our Lord rebukes both them and us for not knowing something we should have, and could have, known. The moral standard of the Law, He teaches, takes precedent over its ceremonial requirements. The main focus to always  be on the former.

THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT

It is not good enough to know the “letter” of the scripture; we must by the Spirit learn the meaning. And then, APPLY IT! Like our beloved Paul admonishes, “...shew[ing] mercy, with cheerfulness.”

“It’s difficult indeed, if not impossible, to live at the Mercy Seat and not be merciful to others who desire it.”

(rds)

The Lost Art-Meditation

MY DEVOTIONAL MEDITATION

I’ve started reading through my Bible again in my devotional time. While meditating on Abel, I received such a blessing. It never occurred to me, he was the first sinner to go to heaven, the first one to enter, singing, if you please, “Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it; redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.” He was first to worship and praise God for His salvation by grace, to behold the pre-incarnate Lamb who was the antitype, the foreshadowing, of his own animal sacrifice, standing next to His Father. You might say, in one sense, he had heaven all to himself.

THE COW’S CUD

The old saying, “Chewing the cud,” generally refers to a cow bringing back up partly digested food from their first stomach, to the mouth again, for further chewing. One could apply this to some extent to meditating on the Word. We need to take more time chewing (meditating) on the Word of God. We need more “Selahs” in our Bible time. David mentions this word over seventy times in the book of Psalms. We also need to pause and consider what we have just read. All deep thinking Christians are men and women who give time to meditating on the Word. We need to heed the words, “Dwell deep.”

THE BLESSED MAN

The sweet Psalmist tells us the man (or woman) God blesses meditates in God’s Word, night and day. That is, he or she is thinking about it “round-the-clock,” as they say. C.H. Spurgeon has a good note on this in his book, Treasury of David. “He delights, moreover, to meditate in it, to read it by day, and think upon it by night. He takes a text and carries it with him all day long; and in the night-watches, when sleep forsakes his eyelids, he museth upon the Word of God. In the day of his prosperity he sings Psalms out of the Word of God, and in the night of his affliction he comforts himself with promises out of the same book. "The Law of the Lord" is the daily bread of the true believer.”

Brooms

Going to the Broom Closet

It’s a wise woman who grabs a broom when she has lost something of great value, and begins immediately sweeping the area where it disappeared. The woman in Luke’s gospel was such a person. She searched diligently till she found the cherished possession she lost. In fact, she swept the whole house before ultimately finding it.

I’ve been waiting some years now, watching to see when the Church will go to her broom closet. It has been most difficult for me to understand how she could lose her dearest and most treasured possession and not be concerned with her great loss. How like Samson the Church of today is. “And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.” Or as my dear old mentor, Dr, Joe Henry Hankins, used to preach, "Destitute, and unaware of it!"

Many once blessed churches now have indelibly written above their door, “Ichabod…The glory is departed…” The church then becomes a mortuary. They’re of no use to anyone but the mortician, grave digger, and the monument builder, who will inscribe on the tombstone what their church once was.

When Mary and Joseph lost Jesus, after three days of searching, they finally found Him where they left him. And so will any church that takes the time to do so. Revival is a re-discovery of Jesus.

New brooms sweep cleanest-but old brooms know where all the dirt is hidden!
(Dr. B.R. Lakin)

Lifeless

One Thing Lacking

“Having a form…but denying the power…” What a tragedy to see one who has the form of a lifeguard, only to find he or she cannot swim. But, how much more tragic it is to behold Christians who pass themselves off as being Spirit-filled, yet who are powerless to help anyone. True, they may have form, but their deeds deny the fact that they have the power of God.

Ezekiel’s dry bones came together and had all the external characteristics we require to pass muster, but they needed the breath of God upon them, before they could really get on their feet and be greatly used.

I’m afraid many of us have lost our “axe-heads.” But rather than stop and find it again, we continue to go through the tiring motions of chopping, in spite of the revealing fact that chips are no longer flying nor trees falling.

A Christian without the breath of God is like a mannequin; they look good, but that’s as far as it goes.

Test Time

The Professor and His Son

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”

Charles Spurgeon says of this text, "If all the trials which come from heaven, all the temptations which ascend from hell, and all the crosses which arise from earth, could be mixed and pressed together, they would not make a trial so terrible as that which is contained in this verse. It is the most bitter of all afflictions to be led to fear that there is no help for us in God. And yet remember our most blessed Saviour had to endure this in the deepest degree."

What is one to do during those times, which St John of the Cross calls, The Dark Night of the Soul?” Are we to doubt our Lord’s promise, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Most certainly not!  A father who is his son’s English professor may leave him during test time, not being able to help him, but by no means has he deserted him. At Calvary, Jesus was taking His finals before graduation. It  was something He had to do on His own; no one could do it for Him; not even His loving Father.

Not only does our main text speak prophetically of our Lord, but was also true of David historically. Most certainly, not to the same extent and depth, nevertheless in a lesser form. David tells us he felt like a fatally wounded animal, all alone, roaring in the black of night. To me, this is the ultimate Christ-like experience, when, as in the Old Testament, one can testify to the fact that the darkness could be felt (Ex.10:21). As the song says, “THEN CAME THE MORNING!”

David's Remedy

How to Stay Fresh

“I shall be anointed with fresh oil.”

There is none like God’s anointing oil. It was pure and sweet, not rancid: it was always “fresh!”  Woe be to those who attempt to imitate anything like unto it (Ex.30:32). One of the things it depicted (power, discernment, etc) was joyfulness, exuberance, happiness. It is said of our Lord, “Thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”

There are times we all feel that our Christian life is becoming repetitious, ritualistic, and in danger of stagnation. How can this be cured? For us New Testament saints, by simply realizing that each day is a resurrection day. It’s a new beginning. There is no past. Yesterday’s grave clothes are to be left behind in the tomb as we come forth to walk in newness of life.

Each morning, our meeting with God should be, as it were, for the first time. Each day is a first for everything. All things are to become new with the rising of the sun. The excitement of sins forgiven, communion with a Holy God, and being able to pray like it was the first time, bring freshness into our Christian life.

Don’t bring yesterday into today. If it’s more than a day old, it’s not fresh.

(rds)

The "ONE" and Only

Christ’s Merit Badge

“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

My wife sings a lovely song entitled, “The Answer.” In it there is a line that says, “I come in the merits of Jesus.” You would think that every child of God would realize this fact, but it seems “strutting saints” are the “in thing” in this age.

Christ alone is the only one who is worthy to wear a “merit badge.” But in spite of this truth, as proud peacocks, we continue to swagger down the church aisles trying to impress with our man-made plumes.

But all our good deeds apart from Christ, in God’s sight, are no more than “righteous rags.” As an old preacher used to crudely say, “The only thing any of us deserve is to be lying on the floor in Hell, with our backs broken.”

It’s difficult for self-righteous creatures as we to admit to our sad state without Christ. There is a great line in the newest remake of the movie, 3:10 to Yuma. The truth of the statement is a must if you want to know God. “Sometimes a man has to be big enough to admit how small he is.”

The Facts of Life

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” The wise writer is laying down for us the facts of life. He does this by a series of contrasts. He tells us there is a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and pluck up; to kill and heal; to break down and build up; to weep and to laugh; to mourn and dance; to cast away stones and gather them; to embrace and to refrain from it; to get and to lose; to keep and cast away; to rend and sew, to love and hate; and to go to war and to have peace.

Someone has said, “Consistency is the virtue of fools.” There are misguided Christians who actually believe that life can be lived on an even plain. What a rude awakening when they realize the truth that life is a series of ups and downs. Life cannot be lived in an incubator. God does not protect us from distasteful experiences, nor will He keep from us the exuberant, joyful times. They are both part of God’s mix.

Mature Christians take life as it comes; and they do it realizing, in the final end, everything will work out for their good and God’s glory.

When your cup is full of bitterness, God’s sugar bowl is close at hand.

Half a Shave

Don’t Let the Devil Shame You

“Wherefore, Hanun took David’s servants, and shaved off the half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away. When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed: and the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.”

What a considerate king! What a loving concern he showed toward his blushing servants. We, too, have such a King. But ours, we are told, is greater than David. When the enemy of our souls takes from us, leaving us nothing but shame, it is then that our Compassionate Sovereign manifests His tender mercies toward our embarrassment and hurt.

Some things our adversary robs us of can be presently replaced (such as the garments). But there are other things we must patiently wait for their return (the growth of their beards). Remember, Samson’s hair began to “grow again” after he was shaved.

The devil may cause us shame for a season, but God knows how to shame him in the end. Consider Job. God gave back to him twice as much as Satan had taken. Losses do not mean we are less of a Christian. Do not give up the other things, when you’ve lost some things. “…hold that fast which thou hast.” God is excellent at math, especially addition.

Knowledge in the Dark

Paul...The Know-It-All

“For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer...For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens...for I know whom I have believed...And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Taking just these few instances, the man of the world would peg Paul as a know-it-all. And after reading the latter, would add he no doubt had a screw loose. For the man under the sun believes one event happens to all the same. That it rains on the just and the unjust alike. While this is true, the the effect on each isn’t. The result is noticeably different. The same sun melts and hardens.

The wise of the world tell us we are all victims of chance, no more. But God’s enlightened elect reject the foolishness of this wisdom. We are not creatures of fate, but of faith. God rules in every area of our lives. He has a predestined plan for each of us. Some saints, I find, have a problem with the negative side of predestination, but none with the positive, as in Romans eight, twenty-eight.

Sometimes, during those seemingly senseless and unexplained trials, the head has no answer other than that there is simply no rhyme nor reason to it. But as Pascal says, “The heart has reason of which the mind knows nothing of.” May it suffice each suffering saint to know that on the flip-side of every dark and wearisome cloud, there is a silver lining. Darkness always gives way to light!