Category Archives: Christian Life

No judgment?

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Our local newspaper has a couple of “faith-based”pages every Saturday, with a question and answer column, a few articles, church announcements, etc. It’s very much a mixed bag, but every now and then there is something good and Biblically-based in it.

The Q&A column yesterday contained a note from a lady saying she had heard that God judged people for their sins and she thought that was pretty unloving. The preacher answered as most people I know would have, that God is righteous and holy and therefore cannot tolerate sin, but He is also loving and merciful and provided for forgiveness by sending His only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that if we believe on Him our sins can be forgiven and we can have a home in heaven with Him when we die.

But my mind ran for a little while with the implications of her comment. She seemed almost offended that God would judge sin. I wonder if she has the same problem with the librarian charging her a fine when she returns an overdue book (I was a college librarian for four years, and people do have problems with that!) or the policeman when he gives her a speeding ticket. I wonder if she would have the same problem with the drunk driver or the child molester or the murderer being judged? Ah, that’s a different story, isn’t it? When someone commits a “really big” sin, or when someone sins against us, we want them to be judged and to be made to make it right or pay for it. But our little paltry sins, well, we had good reasons for those, and who has the right to judge us, anyway?

Do we not see the inconsistency there?

Think what a world without judges would be like. No one to say anything was wrong, no consequences for doing wrong against another. Everyone doing what was right in his own eyes. Have you ever had someone do something he thought was right that impacted you in a way that you didn’t feel was right? What confusion and anarchy there would be. I wouldn’t want to live in a place like that.

I’ve been somewhat alarmed by the trend I see in parenting these days on not dealing with a child’s wrongdoing but rather handling everything in a positive light. Sure, parenting shouldn’t be all negativity, and there are times when a positive approach may be best. But a child who is never brought to face the fact that he has done wrong will be crippled for life. Imagine how all his relationships will be impacted if he can never admit that he has done wrong and apologize for it? One of our children used to have a really hard time agreeing that he had done wrong, and we had to emphasize to him time and time again that admitting wrong-doing is the first step in making things right. Proverbs 28:13 says, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Sure, it’s not pleasant to admit we’ve done wrong. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11). One of the hardest things in the world is to have to go and tell someone that you have wronged them and you’re sorry. But besides that exercise helping you to make things right with that person, it also helps motivate you to do right so you don’t have to go through that experience again. I’ve gotten one speeding ticket in my life, but I almost automatically slow down every time I am on the stretch of road where I got it because I don’t want to repeat the experience.

Is it unloving to judge sin? Isn’t the opposite true? If someone is intoxicated, wouldn’t it be the loving thing to take him home or call a cab rather than let him drive as a danger to himself and others? Would a parent really be loving a child to let him hit others or steal candy from the store and make excuses for him, confirming and justifying in him that behavior and therefore reinforcing it? It can be the most loving action ever taken to let someone know that what they are doing is wrong and that it needs to be faced and dealt with.

The woman’s comment about God’s judging sin has even further implications, though, as if she thought He had no right to judge sin.

We accept the fact that a store owner, message board owner, school administrator and board, etc. all have the authority to make the rules about how people act in their establishments. If a student defied the rules and was expelled, we wouldn’t look on the principal of the school as unloving. Why do people look at God that way? Perhaps they don’t recognize that He has the authority to make the rules?

He’s the Creator, the God of the universe. That in itself gives Him the right to make the rules. But because He made people in His own image, and because He is righteous and holy and good, He knows how best how we should live.

The problem boils down to our own pride. We don’t want anyone to tell us what to do or even suggest, much less judge, what we’re doing as wrong simply because it is what we want do to.

In Isaiah 57:15, God says, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

To be right with God, to dwell with Him, one of the first things we have to do is humble ourselves and be contrite over our sin. He is abundantly willing to forgive and has made every provision to do so, be He can’t grant that forgiveness until we admit we’ve sinned in the first place.

The melting point

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The following is from Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank Houghton.

When the children of Dohnavur were really difficult, Amma [Amy)] sometimes told them of a day when she sorely grieved her mother.

I had been very willful and, as you know, the will of a child can be like steel. My mother did not know what to do with me, for I would not give in, and was not at all sorry. So at last she set me upon a green ottoman which was at the foot of the bed, and, perhaps to give me time to think, she said. “I am going out now.” Then she put on her bonnet.

And as she tied the ribbons of her bonnet I watched her hands moving in the dressing-table looking-glass. The table was across the corner of the room opposite the ottoman, so that when she stood with her back to me I could see her reflected in the mirror. And then I found myself looking not at her hands tying on the bonnet, but at her face.

Suddenly something melted inside me. In one moment I was in her arms, soft and sorry and wanting to be good. It was the look on her face, such a grieved look, that was too much for me.

And often since then I have thought that if when we sin we could see the face of the Saviour as in a mirror, we should never have the heart to grieve Him again.

It’s the little things

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Sometimes it seems easier to trust the Lord for the big trials of life rather than the little things.

When a major crisis comes my way, I realize it’s too big for me. I’m acutely aware of my need for God’s grace and strength. I feel myself sinking, like Peter, and cry out for help almost instinctively.

But when I encounter some smaller provocation — when someone interrupts what I am doing; when I’m trying to wrap up computer time or I’m just logging in for something real quick and my computer decides to run extremely slowly or “time out” on the connections I am trying to make; when I am running late to an appointment and hit every red light along the way; when another driver cuts me off; when I am in a hurry at the grocery store and find the shortest check-out line only to have the customer in front of me encounter some time-consuming problem; when I give dinner a quick stir and slosh red sauce over the side of the pan and onto the stove, the floor, and/or myself — then too often I react with simmering impatience, carnal anger, unloving harshness.

Amy Carmichael once wrote:

The hardest thing is to keep cheerful (and loving) under little things that come from uncongenial surroundings, the very insignificance of which adds to their power to annoy, because they must be wrestled with, and overcome, as in the case of larger hurts. Some disagreeable habit in one to whom we may owe respect and duty, and which is a constant irritation or our sense of the fitness of things, may demand of us a greater moral force to keep the spirit serene than an absolute wrong committed against us. (1)

“Well, I was provoked.”

Love…is not easily provoked. I Corinthians 13:5

“I’m only human.”

Yes. That’s the problem, not an excuse. With the exception of One, all humans have a sinful nature. Our natural reaction is likely to be a selfish one. As Christians we’re called to have a supernatural reaction.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Galatians 5:22-23.

Even on the highway or in a check-out line.

Thank God there is forgiveness with Him, His mercies are new every morning, and if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness(I John 1:9).

But how can I get the victory over wrong reactions to little provocations and react in a right manner the next time?

  • I think first of all by not excusing it, but recognizing it as sin and confessing it to Him.
  • Plus I think a careful evaluation of using my time better is a good practical solution to some situations, such as stopping whatever I am doing soon enough to leave early enough for an appointment so that a few red lights (which really don’t last as long as they seem to) will not cause me to be late (or agitated).
  • Then relinquishing control of my life and time and schedule into the Lord’s hands will help me to handle interruptions better. Have you ever studied the life of Christ with an eye toward how much He was interrupted? It’s enlightening. Even when He was interrupted during prayer or on his way to perform a miracle, He never reacted harshly or impatiently.
  • I need to relinquish the “I” factor as well. Some of the agitation I experience is simply my thwarted desire for things to go my way. I mentioned in an earlier post that another of Amy Carmichael’s experiences that helped me was when she felt the “I” “rising hotly” in her toward one who was unfair and dominating, and she realized that that moment was a chance to die to self. “See in this which seems to stir up all you most wish were not stirred up — see in it a chance to die to self in every form. Accept it as just that – a chance to die.”
  • Remembering that my testimony before others is at stake helps as well. “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:25). I sometimes think of Satan standing before God and accusing that Job only served God because God blessed him, but let Satan take away Job’s blessings, and he would curse God. I envision him saying of me, “Yes, she acts like a nice Christian at church, but let me trip her up here and there and see how she reacts.” We not only forget that we are a testimony to others in our homes and at check-out lines, but we forget that our testimonies are as far-reaching as heaven. Rosalind Goforth was a missionary wife to China during years in which the Chinese were quite suspicious of and disdainful toward “foreign devils.” To try to alleviate those feelings and establish relationships with the Chinese, the Goforths would allow crowds of the curious into their home to look around and to talk with them. This resulted in some agitation and disruption as well as theft of some of their belongings, but over all they felt it was worth it. Of one particular day, Rosalind writes:

The day had been an unusually strenuous one, and I was really very tired. Toward evening, a crowd of women burst through the living room door and came trooping in before I had time to meet them outside. One woman set herself out to make things unpleasant. She was rough and repulsive and– well, just indescribably filthy. I paid no attention to her except to treat her as courteously as the rest. But when she put both hands to her nose, saying loudly, “Oh, these foreign devils, the smell of their home is unbearable!”, my temper rose in a flash and, turning on her with anger, I said, “How dare you speak like that? Leave the room!” The crowd, sensing a “storm,” fled. I heard one say, “That foreign devil woman has a temper just like ours!”

Now, I had not noticed that the door of my husband’s study was ajar, not did I know that he was inside, until, as the last woman disappeared, the door opened and he came forward, looking solemn and stern. “Rose, how could you so forget yourself?” he said. “Do you realize that just one such incident may undo months of self-sacrificing, loving service?”

“But Jonathan” I returned, “you don’t know how she — ”

But he interrupted. “Yes, I do; I heard all. You certainly had reason to be annoyed; but were you justified, with all that is hanging in the balance and God’s grace to keep you patient?”

As he turned to re-enter his study, he said, “All I can say is I am disappointed!”

Oh, how that last word cut me! I deserved it, yes, but, oh, I did so want to reach up to the high ideals he had. A tempestuous time followed alone in our inner room with my Lord. as I look back now, it was all just one farther step up the rocky hillside of life — just climbing! (2)

  • The verses mentioned above in Galatians 5 say that gentleness, long-suffering, self-control, etc., are all a part of the fruit of the Spirit. Maintaining time in the Word so He can speak to me through it, yielding to His control throughout the day, memorizing verses in the areas I am having trouble with, sending out a quick prayer for help when I feel that agitation and frustration building up will all help in gaining the victory.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16.

___________
(1) Houghton, Frank. Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur. (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1983), 86-87.

(2) Goforth, Rosalind. Climbing. (USA: Bethel Publishing), 45-46.

Scriptural reasons for suffering

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One of the most perplexing and troubling questions people deal with is “Why is there suffering in the world?” — or, more often, “Why am I suffering right now?” There have been whole books written on the subject. Among the best I have found are When God Weeps by Joni Eareckson Tada, Rose From Brier by Amy Carmichael, and A Path Through Suffering by Elisabeth Elliot.

In the back Elisabeth Elliot’s book she has an appendix titled “A Summary of Reasons for Suffering” which I want to reproduce here. These verses do not deal so much with how to respond Scripturally to suffering, though some touch on that: that will have to be the subject of another post. These are just several of the reasons we find in Scripture for why God allows suffering. I wish I could print out all the related passages here, but it would make this post exceptionally long. I did try to link to most of them so you could just click on the reference to read the passage.

For the LORD will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. Lamentations 3:31-33

We may group God’s reasons [for allowing suffering] into four categories. The list of references is by no means exhaustive.

1) We suffer for our own sake:

That we may learn who God is — Ps. 46:1, 10; Dan. 4:24-37; Job
That we may learn to trust — II Cor. 1:8-9
That we may learn to obey — Ps. 119: 67, 71
Discipline is a proof of the Father’s love and of the validity of our sonship — Heb. 12: 5-11
It is the condition of our discipleship — Acts 14:22; Luke 14:26-27, 33
It is required of soldiers — II Tim. 2:3-4
We are being “pruned” that we may bear fruit — John 15:2
That we may be shaped into the image of Christ — Rom. 8:29
To qualify us to be fellow-heirs with Christ — Romans 8:17 (I don’t know if I would have used the word “qualify” there — it is certainly not meant in a salvation-obtaining way.)
To qualify us for the kingdom of God — II Thess. 1:4-5 (Same herewith the word “qualify.” These verses isn’t saying that once we’ve suffered then we can go to heaven)
To qualify us to reign with Christ — II Tim. 2:12
That our faith may be strengthened — James 1:3; II Thess. 1:4-5; Acts 14:22
That our faith may be tested and refined — Isaiah 43:2; Dn. 11:35; Mal. 3:2; I Cor. 3:13; I Pet. 1:7
That we may reach spiritual maturity — James 1:4
Power comes to its full strength in weakness — II Cor. 12:9
To produce in us endurance character, hope — Romans 5:3-4
To produce in us joy and generosity — II Cor. 8:2

2) We suffer for the sake of God’s people:

That they may obtain salvation — II Tim. 2:10
To give them courage — Phil. 1:14
That because of death working in us, life may work in them — II Cor. 4:12; Gal. 4:13; I John 3:16
That grace may extend to more — II Cor.4:15
That our generosity may bless others — II Cor. 8:2

3) We suffer for the world’s sake:

That it may be shown what love and obedience mean — Job; Jn. 14:31; Mt. 27:40-43
That the life of Jesus may be visible in our ordinary human flesh — II Cor. 4:10

4) We suffer for Christ’s sake:

That we may be identified with Him in His crucifixion — Ga. 2:20
Suffering is the corollary of faith — Ps. 44:22; Acts 9:16 and 14:22; II Tim. 3:12; Jn. 15: 18-21; I Thess. 1:6 and 3:4
That we may share His suffering — I Pt. 4:12-13; Phil. 1:29, 2:17, and 3:8, 10; Col. 1:24; II Tim. 1:8; Heb. 13:13
That we may share His glory — Romans 8:17-18; Heb. 2:9-10; II Cor. 4:17.

There are a few I didn’t see in her list:

Deut. 8:2-3: “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”

To comfort others: II Cor 1: 3-7.

That we might know His grace is sufficient in our weakness: II Cor 12:7-10.

To spare us from a greater trial He knows would be too much for us: Exodus 13:17-18.

For our own foolishness.  There are many verses in Proverbs about the results of foolish behavior.

To show people that what they’re trusting in is not sufficient. One of the reasons God caused the events in Exodus was to get people’s attention and to show that their gods were no gods, that He alone was God. He did get their attention, and there are signs some believed. Exodus 18:5-11; Exodus 14:18; 14:31; 11:9.

To bring to repentance: In some of the calamities God will cause in the time frame Revelation tells us of are designed to get people’s attention, for He says often in that book, “Though I sent this and did that, yet you still did not repent,” indicating that that was His purpose, or at least one purpose, behind the events.

There are instances of natural disaster as judgment in Scripture (being without rain 3 years in Elijah’s time), but not every natural event is judgmental (just as sometimes individual illnesses are judgmental — Asa being diseased in his feet, Miriam being turned leprous, but not every illness is judgmental for that person [i.e., the man born blind in John 9] except in the sense that evil happens because sin is in the world).

That God’s work may be shown: John 9:1-7

“When all you have is Christ you find that Christ is all you need.” I don’t remember who said that or something like it, but I do know that times in my life where I have felt the rug pulled out from under me, so to speak, are times when I came to know by experience that Christ truly was sufficient for every need. Spurgeon has a wonderful devotional here on Hebrews 12:27: “that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”

Sorrow teaches our hearts things that could not be learned otherwise. Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 says: “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.  Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.  The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”

We live in a world affected by sin: Though I can’t think of one single passage that states this, there are several places that indicate that suffering came into the world when sin did and sin, sorrow, sickness, etc., will be eliminated for believers when they get to heaven. Rev. 21:4

Another thought is that God does not view death as we do. This was one thing that helped my son when he was troubled about why God let natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina happen. Death is in God’s hands, whether it is the death of an individual or hundreds of people, whether it happens in a car crash or an illness or a natural disaster. And, for the Christian, God looks at death differently than we do. On His side of it, He is ushering us into His Presence, and nothing could be better. To the lost and to the saved as well, these things can be a wake-up call — we all have a time limit, it is not guaranteed that we will live a certain number of years, and we need to be ready to meet eternity at any moment.

We have to accept, though, that we may never know why God allows certain particular things to happen. There’s no record that Job ever knew of the conversations between God and Satan about him during his lifetime. But as I mentioned earlier, we can cling to what we do know of God’s goodness and character, rest in the fact that He will bring good out of it, and trust that He will provide grace and strength.

Poor Suzie

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Our poor dear dog hates thunderstorms. It started raining this afternoon and Jesse put Suzie-the-dog in her cage where her doghouse is. She went straight in where it was dry and seemed fine. Then it started to thunder. I heard a little sound outside the door — and there she was. She had gotten out of the fenced area outside and come to the door of the house. So we let her in and dried her off and she sought refuge near a real live person.

Poor Suzie

We let her in at night and set up a partition between the sunroom and the rest of the house (there is tile out here, so it’s not so much a problem for the doggy smell and occasional accidents, but carpet everywhere else). But if there is any kind of storm, she pushes through and looks for somebody.

I can’t blame her. I don’t like thunderstorms either.

I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Psalm 55:8

I wish I could tell her in a way she would understand that it will all be over in a little while.

For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.
Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psalm 107:25-31

Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. Psalm 57:1

Freedom and discipline

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It doesn’t seem like those two words would go together, does it? People who want freedom in their personal lives usually don’t want discipline. Today’s e-mail devotional from Elisabeth Elliot’s writings, sent out by Back to the Bible, shares some intriguing thoughts along these lines. Here is just an excerpt from the longer article, which is an excerpt from her book All That Was Ever Ours.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man who epitomized true freedom in his acceptance, for God’s sake, of the prison cell and death, wrote: “If you set out to seek freedom, then learn above all things to govern your soul and your senses. . . . Only through discipline may a man learn to be free.”

Freedom and discipline have come to be regarded as mutually exclusive, when in fact freedom is not at all the opposite, but the final reward, of discipline. It is to be bought with a high price, not merely claimed. The world thrills to watch the grace of Peggy Fleming on the ice, or the marvelously controlled speed and strength of a racehorse. But the skater and horse are free to perform as they do only because they have been subjected to countless hours of grueling work, rigidly prescribed, faithfully carried out. Men are free to soar into space because they have willingly confined themselves in a tiny capsule designed and produced by highly trained scientists and craftsmen, have meticulously followed instructions and submitted themselves to rules which others defined.

I spent some time living with a jungle tribe whose style of life looked enviably “free.” They wore no clothes, lived in houses without walls, had no idea whatever of authority, paid no taxes, read no books, took no vacations. But they had a well-defined goal. They wanted to stay alive. It was as simple as that. And in a jungle, which can look very hostile indeed to one not accustomed to living there, they had learned to live. They accepted with grace and humor the awful weather, the gnats, the mud, thorns, snakes, steep hills, and deep forests which made their lives difficult. They never even spoke of “roughing it.” They didn’t know anything else. They’d walk for hours with hundred-pound baskets on their backs and when they reached their destination, perhaps in a tropical downpour, they did not so much as say, “Whew!” They knew what was expected of them, and did it as a matter of course. None asked, “Who am I?” They asked only, “What am I to do this next moment?” If it were to hunt or to make poison for darts, a man did that, or if it were to go out and clear new planting space, a woman did that. Their freedom to live in that jungle depended on a well-defined goal and on their willingness to discipline themselves in order to reach it. No one could “give” them this freedom.

I lived with these footloose people in their “jungle” environment–a nonproductive member of their community–and enjoyed a kind of freedom which even hippies might envy. But I was free only because the Indians worked. My freedom was contingent upon their acceptance of me as a liability and, incidentally, upon my own willingness to confine myself to a forest clearing where all I heard was a foreign language.

Having devotions when you’re not feeling very devoted

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Several days ago, I was starting out my devotional time as I usually do by reading the day’s passage from a book called Daily Light for the Daily Path. The verses for that day were mostly about attributes of God. As I got to the end of the page, instead of being thankful and full of praise or uplifted and inspired, I merely thought, rather tiredly, “Yeah, I know that already.” I was immediately rebuked by the coldness of my heart, asked the Lord to forgive me and quicken me, and went back though the verses, praising the Lord for each of the attributes I read there. Then I was thankful, full of praise, uplifted, inspired…and humbled.

There are a few thoughts from this experience I’d like to share:

First, sometimes we feel that “deadness of spirit” when we’re tired or not feeling well. Sometimes it actually works better to go ahead and take a little nap and come back to devotions later. Sometimes we’re just distracted and need to ask the Lord to help us focus. Sometimes we need to ask Him to show us any sin in our lives that needs to be confessed. Sometimes we need to ask Him to forgive us for our coldness and quicken us — a visiting preacher during one summer had an excellent message on the phrase “quicken me,” which recurs nine times in Psalm 119. For example, verse 25 says, “My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word” (the NKJV and the NASB use the word “revive”).

Secondly, when we come across passages that are familiar to us, we can try to read them with new eyes, as if we’ve never seen them before. If it is a story, like David an Goliath, we can try to picture it happening before our eyes. We can ask the Lord to help us get the lessons from it He has for us.

Thirdly, we need to remember we won’t always find something “new” in the Bible if we have been reading it for a while. We’ll never exhaust it — there will always be new things to learn. But we also need the repetition of the old truths we have learned so we don’t forget them. Over and over in the Bible we see God repeating Israel’s history to them, reminding them of things He had told them before. We see how people drift away from Him when they forget His truth. Sometimes the repetition is a deeply needed blessing. But if it seems “old news” to us, we can ask God to help us appreciate it anew. We can praise Him for it. We often don’t praise the Lord as we should. I’ve wondered at the phrase “the sacrifice of praise” in Scripture, wondering why the Lord called it a “sacrifice.” It may be because it is a “sweet smell” unto Him, or it may be that we have to give up thinking about ourselves and our problems for a while to focus on Him.

Sometimes we think we have to compartmentalize our devotions into reading, confessing, praising, and requesting. There is nothing wrong with that, but we can also let the confessing, praising and requesting flow as we read. When we come to a verse about an attribute of God or a promise, we can praise Him for it right then reflecting back to Him what His Word says. In fact, there is a Hebrew word that can be translated “confession,” “praise,” or “thanksgiving.” When we confess our sin, we say the same thing about it God does. So, too, when we praise Him, we say the same things about Him that His Word does, and as we do, we come to know Him as He truly is, love Him more, and align ourselves more closely with what He wants us to be.

Sometimes it helps to take a break in our usual routine and spend time is the Psalms or in favorite passages or in a Bible study book or do a word study we’ve been wanting to do.

Proverbs 27:7 says, ”The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.” Sometimes we are too full of other things to hunger after God’s Word as we should. We can ask Him to show us what “junk food” we’ve been filling our souls with so we can replace it with His truth, and to create a hunger in us for Him.

Above all, I think, we shouldn’t wait until we’re “feeling” more “devoted” to sit down with the Bible. A former pastor of ours once said that one of his best times of prayer occurred when the last thing he felt like doing was praying, but he went ahead and just started out by confessing that to the Lord. Somehow in the process the Lord melted his heart. As I mentioned in the beginning, just going back through some verses I had just read and asking the Lord to forgive me and quicken me opened them up to me in a new way, and my heart was completely different afterward than it was the first time through.

In John 6:63 Jesus said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” It is His very Word that the Holy Spirit uses to quicken us. The last thing we need to do when we’re feeling low spiritually is to avoid the Bible. That’s exactly what we need to revive us.

Why are we so surprised?

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I am going to be very discreet with details for privacy’s sake, though the family I am thinking of doesn’t have computer access and doesn’t read my blog. Some folks I know are in counseling for a serious family situation. When a very glaring, obviously wrong way of handling something was pointed out to one of them, she couldn’t see the correction needed over hurt that someone would say she did something wrong.

Another friend who was acting in a very petulant manner over an issue went into an enraged fit when someone commented on her anger.

Why are we so surprised when someone points out to us that we’re doing something wrong? We’re sinners — we naturally do wrong. We’d be the first to admit that we don’t have it all together yet. We probably know deep down that we have blind spots to some of our character flaws and that we tend to excuse or justify negative traits in ourselves that we see as faults in others (i.e., I’m determined but another who acts the same way is stubborn.) But let someone try to correct us, and they are being hateful, petty, or, one of the favorite adjectives in today’s Christianity, judgmental.

True, some people are judgmental. Some are busybodies. Some correct too much or too easily. Some people who mean well can correct in an unkind or hurtful way.

I have to admit, when someone points out something in my life that needs correction or attention, my first response is not, “Thank you! I am so glad the Lord laid that on your heart to share with me.”

But it probably should be.

The only reason I can think of that I don’t respond that way is pride.

Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. Proverbs 9:8-9.

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. Proverbs 12:15.

A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise. Proverbs 15:12.

The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. Proverbs 15:31-32.

As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. Proverbs 25:12.

I used to tell one of my sons who had trouble receiving correction in his early teens that if he didn’t acknowledge that a certain action or attitude was wrong, he could not correct it or change it. I often shared with him Proverbs 28:13: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

If we can get past the sting of hearing criticism and prayerfully examine it to see if it is just, then we can confess it to the Lord (and to whomever else we might need to confess it) and correct it and grow in wisdom and character — and stop causing a problem in other people’s lives by continuing on in the fault.

Isn’t that much better than hanging on to our hurt and indignation?

When there is no hunger for God’s Word

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In something I read online recently, a new Christian wrote of his intense love for the Word of God, taking it with him to work and on vacation and making every attempt to read it every day. He continued, “I cannot for the life of me understand people that say that they are saved [and] never open the book. Can we truly be living our lives for Jesus Christ and not (or rarely) open the word of God? How does a Christian learn to know God just by going to church or praying? I have a Christian friend that told me, ‘I already read the whole Bible once.’ Does the average newer Christian read the Bible for a few years and then put it up? Am I just a Bible nut? I hope and pray that 25 years from now, I still hunger to read his word (God willing I am still here).”

New Christians can really put us to shame, can’t they?

If a professing Christian has absolutely no appetite for God’s Word, it would indeed be good for him to check his heart and make he truly does possess new life in Christ.

Yet there are things that can affect spiritual hunger just as there things that can affect physical hunger.

1) “Spoiling our appetite.” Moms throughout the ages have told children they can’t have a treat before dinner because it would spoil their appetite. When we’re full of other things, we won’t hunger for God’s Word. Proverbs 27:7: “The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.”

2) Illness. Many physical illnesses can cause a loss of appetite. We need to ask the Great Physician to examine us, search our hearts, and see if there is anything in our lives quenching our hunger for Him and His Word. Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 119:25: My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.

3) Service. “But I thought service was a good thing!” It is, but not when it causes us to replace time with Him with our service. Mary and Martha are our classic examples of the difference between busy (and frustrated) service vs. choosing “that good part” of giving time and attention to sitting at our Lord’s feet. (Luke 10: 38-42).

4) Distraction. Sometimes people can get so busy they forget to eat. Mark 4:19 lists three “distractions” which “choke” the Word: cares of this word, deceitfulness of riches, and lusts of other things (Luke 8:14 calls that last one the “pleasures of this life.”) We need to “cast our cares on Him” (I Peter 5:7) and remind ourselves of what the Word says about the deceitfulness of riches and keep pleasures in their proper perspective.

5) Hardness of heart. I don’t know that there is a physical parallel with this one, and I am in danger of mixing my metaphors, but the parable of the sower speaks of one whose heart is “stony ground.” I think the parable is likely referring to an unsaved person, but throughout the Bible God’s people are told to “harden not your hearts.” Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”

6) Enemies. People can neglect or abuse their responsibility to feed others under their care. Prisoners of war have been given very little to eat, and then found themselves eating loathsome things because they were so hungry they’d gladly eat anything. Satan can use some of the other things already mentioned, but the parable of the sower mentions that, “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart” (Matthew 13:19). Again, this is referring to a lost person (Luke 8:12), yet there is a parallel for saved people. When we hear or read the Word inattentively, sleepily, or hurriedly, we won’t understand it and whatever truth we were supposed to have gotten is caught away.

What’s the best way to develop (or redevelop) an appetite for God’s Word? Seek God’s help to diagnose and deal with any issues that are quenching our hunger for it. Then just start partaking of it. I used to hate to drink water, but due to health problems with caffeine and sugar (not to mention calories), I began to drink water rather than soft drinks with meals when we were out. I came to not mind it so much, then to actually like it. I grew up not eating broccoli, but developed a taste, and then a love for it in college just by continuing to try it. We need to set our priorities and put everything else in its proper perspective. We need to partake of it even when we don’t feel hungry for it, just as we need to eat to keep up our health and strength even if we don’t feel physically hungry. Perhaps a reading of Psalm 119 would whet our appetites by reminding us of how great and good the Word is and of what we’re missing when we neglect it.

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. I Peter 2:2.

Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Job 23:12

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16

The community of believers

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Catez at Allthings2all asked recently about examples of loving Christian community.

I have known many people who have said, “I don’t know how people make it without a church family” after being abundantly ministered to. Let me hasten to say that I know all churches are not perfect. In fact, I know no church is perfect. How could any be when they are all made up of sinful human beings? I want to say more about that later, but first I want to focus on the positive.

Let me just share ways that I have seen people being ministered to by their local churches over the 32 years I have been a Christian. In many of these examples, I was on the receiving end, but others I have just seen or heard of. When I was a teen-ager, someone picked me up for church until I got my driver’s license. Someone paid my way to a Christian school for two years. People “took me in” and made me feel part of the family of God. One family in particular exercised hospitality, invited me often into their home, and just by their love and example greatly influenced me and demonstrated what Christian family was all about. Some invited me to come along and paid my expenses when they took a group to visit a Christian college. One family continued to pick up my sisters for church after I went away to college. Some anonymously contributed to my college education and showed love and interest in me whenever I came back home. The ladies gave me a bridal shower before I married. My pastor married us without charging us anything for his services or the use of the church (he also sang a solo and a duet with another lady at my wedding. 🙂 ) His wife assisted me and helped me with the rehearsal dinner. His daughter had helped me get ready for college, making a list for me of what to take, answering questions, showing me how to register when we got there, introducing me to her friends, etc. Though my family members were never members of the church, and though I moved away from that area when I got married at 22, in the 27 years since, I have been able to call on that pastor in any crisis my family has gone through, and he has visited, prayed for, and witnessed to them. Even after he retired, I called on him when my mother passed away, and he graciously and gladly preached her funeral.

In the years since then my husband and I have been a part of three different churches, changing churches only when a job change necessitated a move to another city. We’ve had pastors, pastors’ wives, and older believers who we felt we could call on at any time to ask questions or counsel of. We’ve had people who prayed, visited, brought meals, watched children, cleaned homes, and other things when people have been sick or just had a baby. Two instances of that especially touched my heart. When I came home from the hospital after encountering TM, along with all of these other ministrations, one lady came over with a puzzle and just spent time with my children putting it together. They had been run through the mill being carted to different people’s houses and back and forth to the hospital, and this dear friend, in her sweet quiet way, came over and just spent some unhurried quiet time with them at our home. Then, I was unable to walk without aid for a long time, and I couldn’t get up and down the stairs without help, so I was confined to one floor (we lived in a split-level) unless my husband was home to help me. He got the equipment to put hand rails along the stairways and called a friend at church who was a …well, I don’t remember if he was a contractor or had a home improvement business or what exactly. But he worked on homes, anyway, and my husband called to ask if he had a stud-finder that he could borrow. This man wasn’t home when my husband called, but his wife took the message. That evening as were eating dinner, this man brought his crew to our home and put up handrails along both stairways and also in the bathroom. Something that practical was such a blessing. Jim could have done it, but it would have taken longer and been a lot more trouble: this man and his crew were able to do it all in no time.

Recently at our current church, an older man passed away. His disabled daughter was in a nursing home, unable to attend the funeral. One lady from church went to stay with her during the funeral; several people called her from their cell phones during different parts of the funeral to see how she was doing; someone called from their cell phone during the message at the funeral and let her listen to it over the phone, and somehow it came through clearly enough that she could hear the whole thing.

Other types of ministries I’ve seen are sending care packages to college students and servicemen from our church; an older lady who went to visit all the new moms from church in the hospital when they had their babies; collecting and sending gifts to missionaries; the teens doing yard work at an elderly neighbor’s home; a group painting a widow’s house; bridal showers and baby showers.

Another personal example just came to mind: a couple of years ago I ended up needing to go to the ER in the middle of the night when my husband was out of town. I called on a friends from church who lived nearby: the wife was a nurse, and I asked her some questions to ascertain what to do, but it was something I had dealt with before, and we agreed I needed to go to the hospital but didn’t need to call an ambulance. I asked if she could take me, and she readily said yes. My younger children were asleep; my oldest was of age that he could stay with them. This lady’s husband, if I remember correctly, offered to come and stay with the boys, but I felt that wasn’t necessary. I did ask him, however, if he could be “on call” for them to call him if they needed anything, and he agreed. This lady took me to the ER, and then came back to stay with me. We ended up getting home in the wee hours of the morning, and she had to work the next day. But from this and many other instances where I have seen them graciously and willingly help others, I feel that I could call on them in any time of need. When my mother passed away and we had to make a quick trip to TX, my oldest son was facing college finals and just didn’t feel that he should come with us. This couple again agreed to be “on call” for him while we were gone and had him over for dinner one of the evenings we were away. Another friend, upon hearing that my my had died, brought us over a couple of batches of muffins to help with breakfast the next couple of mornings as we packed and then left, and she brought a meal over the night we got home.

I could go on and on with these many practical areas of ministry. Some of them have been through an organized church committee (most meal situations come through that vein — many churches have found it helpful to make up some kind of committee of folks willing to do this that they can call on during times of need so that these efforts can be more organized and the recipient doesn’t end up with 3 meals on one night or something); other instances have been the result of an individual or a couple’s thoughtfulness, sensitivity to God’s leading, and willingness to pitch in and have their gifts, talents, and time be used of the Lord.

But besides the practical, there is a wealth of spiritual benefits. I don’t know how many times the church family has prayed someone through a crisis. I can’t tell you what it means to know that I can share a prayer request with the church or with individuals there at any time, people who will not only pray that one time, but will continue to pray and show an interest. This was a testimony to my mom when she was experiencing a health crisis — problems from diabetes that looked like it was going to lead to some kind of amputation of her foot. I sent out an emergency e-mail to just about every Christian I knew, both friends from church here, previous churches, college days, online friends, etc. Many of them wrote back that they were praying; some even wrote out a prayer for her. I printed all of those out and sent them to her. It meant so much to her that people who didn’t even know her were praying for her. She credited God’s answering their prayers with the fact that she only lost three toes and not her whole lower leg. This was one of the factors in her heart softening towards the Lord.

There are people who have taken an interest in us and in our children, who have invested time to teach, preach, watch the nursery, head up children’s ministries, ladies ministries, men’s prayer breakfasts. Although I have benefited greatly from hearing sermons on the radio or a CD at times, especially when I’ve been home sick or home with sick children, there is something special about the whole church being taught and instructed along the same lines each week that you just don’t get at home alone with the radio.

Then there is the blessing of seeing examples of living the Christian life, of marriage, of parenthood in others at church. As a single college student, then a young wife, then a young mother, then having preschoolers, elementary-aged children, then teens and college students — all along the way I have been able to observe godly people in my own stage of life as well as the next stages. I’ve had people I could ask questions of whose lives and “track record” I had witnessed with my own eyes.

Again — I could go on and on. God set up the Christian community called the church for all of these reasons and more. It’s a place where people can practice the Bible “one anothers”. It’s a place where older men and women are instructed to teach the younger. The church has been compared to a building, a body, a family. It’s a community that God gave gifts to and that God wants us to exercise our spiritual gifts in. Sure, many of these things take place in the larger community of believers as a whole, but these epistles were originally written to individual local churches.

It’s also, as I said at the beginning, a place of fallen human beings. So there will be failures. There will be people who slip through the cracks and get missed by some of these ministrations. There will be people who fail to do their part. There will be people who not only fail their brothers and sisters in Christ but who actually hurt them. What then? Is that a reason to forsake the church? Is that a reason to be bitter?

You know, I don’t ever see a justification in Scripture for bitterness. People will fail us; God never will. If other people don’t see our need, He does. We can appeal to Him to either meet the need or send someone who will. And what then about those fallen humans? Well, we remember that we are fallen and that we fail, too. We do unto others as we would have others do unto us when we fail — we exercise compassion and grace. We forgive as we have been forgiven, knowing that we have been forgiven so much more than what anyone else has done to us. Sometimes we confront the Christian brethren who have wronged us. Sometimes God wants us to take it, to suffer wrongdoing as graciously as Christ did, with the love that covers “a multitude of sins“.

So what do you do if your church is not an actively loving community that ministers to its members?

Well, first of all, pray. God may want you to go somewhere else, or He may want to turn your church around.

Then be patient. Likely it will take time: everything won’t change overnight.

Then, as God directs, speak up. The first deacons were ordained when one part of the church felt like ministry to them was neglected and they told someone.

And then, be willing to be the first to step out, the first to minister to others. Maybe it will catch on. If you have seen a need that God has burdened your heart about, maybe He is directing you to do something about it. Don’t panic, He will give the direction and grace and everything else as it is needed. Many ministries have been started because one person saw a need. Don’t be the one to sit back and say, “Somebody should…..” without being willing to be that somebody.

“Christ …loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:25) to redeem it from sins and to manifest Himself through it to its members and to the world at large.