Category: Faith

Thanksgiving Five

It is part and parcel of our nature to find ourselves wallowing in the problems we face and the struggles that confront us. Just as Jesus promised, we have more than enough trouble to go around in this world. And yet, we are to be people of thanks for we have received the greatest gift possible, life. We have been restored from our exile in darkness and given the ability to walk in the glorious light. We have been restored into kingdom of the King who matters. Our thanks should mirror God’s people who were once also restored from exile:

When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

“He is good; his love to Israel endures forever.”

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away. (Ezra 3:10-13) 

Give thanks today for your struggles. Give thanks today for your restoration and return from the darkness. Give thanks for your family and friends, your wealth or poverty, your sickness or health. Give thanks that God has everything under his control…and that you don’t have to. Give thanks for your trust in that idea.

Be blessed. Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Four

In our little corner of the world, we awoke to the first meaningful snowfall of the season with three or four inches blanketing the grass that I just cut a few days ago. There is an interesting anomaly that occurs when it snows at night; the normally pitch dark early hours of the morning are transformed into a bright-as-day panorama by the reflection of the available light. Looking out the window, one can see everything that is normally hidden under the cover of darkness. Many a nocturnal creature has revealed themselves to me as they padded across the snowy landscape.

The clean, white snow is a common metaphor in the scriptures but one comes to mind for which I am continually thankful:

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord.

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land;

but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” (Isaiah 1:18-20)

To know that the blood of my Savior, dark and crimson washes me as white as the freshly fallen snow is that for which I am most thankful. To have the Holy Spirit in me reflects the glory of the Lord, pushing aside the darkness in the world wherever he leads me, a humbling task to which I am gratefully called. In the purity of the snowfall, there is much to appreciate…

Thanksgiving Three

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me,

I once was lost, but now am found

Was blind, but now I see.

Only the most calloused heart can hear these words sung to those familiar chords and not be thankful for the Hand that extends the grace necessary to pluck the sinking from the waves that threaten at any moment to permanently take them under. When Jesus announced his ministry to those enslaved by the burdens of the law, He gave meaning to the “good news”;

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:17-18)

As Arlo says here, “we can’t be afraid to turn around…and do the right thing.”

 

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=i38B2uxaKhQ

Thanksgiving Two

3 A.M. is a lonely hour. There is little to sway your thoughts as you peer into the darkness outside to try to determine what that howling wind is doing to the trees in the neighborhood. You look over and notice that the lights are on in a neighbor’s house and you wonder what they might be doing up at this hour. Mostly, you are alone with your thoughts, undeterred by the work of the day ahead.

You examine your life and reflect upon how you come to find yourself precisely where you are. The struggles and heartbreaks that you have endured have not always been welcome companions. As a follower of Christ, perhaps you thought that things would be different. Maybe things would be easier and a certain level of comfort and success might be yours. As your mind looks out into the early morning blackness you wonder why things couldn’t be different. Your Bible opens to James and you read a well known passage…

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4)

This may be one of the greatest challenges that the Christian faces on their journey through this world. The message that bombards us is that trials are not what we should be facing, the road should be smooth and wide. When travails become the norm, well-wishers ask us to look at what we might have done to bring this on ourselves. “Are you being punished for something?” they unknowingly ask. The Bible reader, on the other hand, discovers that these things are from the hand of God for the benefit of his sons and daughters.

James says to consider it PURE JOY when trials come into our lives because this means that our Father is strengthening us and maturing us for what comes ahead. When we begin to  look at things in this way, suddenly our perspective on everything that comes our way shifts. Our reflection on struggle A or trouble B moves from the woe is me, why is this happening stage to the thank you God, what should I be learning from this stage in life vantage point. When each trouble, big or small, increases our trust in the ultimate goodness of God we become more and more aware of how thankful we should be for these troubles. And thanks we will give…

Thanksgiving One

As the week counts down toward the day of our feast, it is a good period in which to reflect on the multitude of things for which we are or can be thankful. This quiet reflection can be a counterpoint to the ever-deafening roar of THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING SEASON!!! It seems as though all eyes have already peeked beyond Thanksgiving to the altar of consumerism commemorated on Black Friday. I begin with the root of all of my thanks…

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8)

How can we not be thankful for this sacrifice? Sooner or later, we all realize that there would be no way for us to earn the great gift that is offered us; we are totally incapable of purifying ourselves enough to be in presence of the Holy. The righteousness that allows us to be called ‘friends’ of God came by the sacrifice of one who looked beyond our pitiful state and gave the ultimate reason for thanks.

Stones in Our Fields

I came upon this downed Pine tree this weekend while hiking. At about 11,000 feet, the growing season is short and the conditions are hard. The soil in which the seed had HoldingtheRockto germinate was composed mainly of crushed granite and rocks that had yet to decompose; not exactly fertile ground for growth. And still, this tree had managed to attain a height of 35 or 40 feet until it expired and was toppled by the wind or some other natural force. As its shallow root system was exposed, the rock that was lodged within it also came to light. If you look closely at the roots, rather than moving off into an alternate direction when they came in contact with the impediment, the roots grew right around the boulder, conforming to it and making the unfertile, unsupportive rock a part of the tree itself. An already fragile life was made even more challenging.

When I saw this I was immediately aware of a message greater than the natural anomaly. For many Christians, the stone represents a sin – past or present – that inhibits our growth in holiness. Failing to confess a sin and releasing it to the Holy Spirit can allow it to be subsumed into our lives forcing us to grow around it. The danger of not pushing away from it is obvious. We are unable to develop a strong connection to the vine with this impediment in place. The connection that is made is weakened by this foreign body until one day, when forces buffet our faith and damage our link to the vine.

If there is a stone polluting your otherwise fertile ground, dig it up and discard it to the border fence. The roots of your faith will be stronger, deeper, and will find ever deeper and cleaner sources  of living water without having to invest their growth energy in pushing around the rocks.

Kicking and Screaming

One of my students submitted this poem by Ruth Harms Calkin as a part of the discussion of surrender in the relationship with God

Change me,
God please change me.
Though I cringe
Kick
Resist and resent
Pay no attention to me whatever.
When I run to hide
Drag me out of my safe little shelter.
Change me totally
Whatever it takes
However long You must work at the job.
Change me — and save me
From spiritual self-destruction.

Spurgeon on Assurance of Salvation

Charles Spurgeon“I can understand a man doubting whether he is truly converted or not, but I cannot countenance his apathy in resting quiet till he has solved the riddle…How can you give sleep to your eyelids till you have known it? Not know whether you are in Christ or not; perhaps unreconciled, perhaps condemned already; perhaps on the brink of hell, perhaps with nothing more to keep you out of Hell than the breath that is in your nostrils, or the circulating drop of blood which any one of ten thousand haps or mishaps may stop, and then your career is closed–your life story ended…I entreat thee, I beseech thee, shake off this sluggishness. Ask the Lord to say unto thy soul tonight, “I am thy salvation.” He is able, and He is willing;…He will do it for you when you eagerly seek if from Him.” (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol 63)

Perhaps we all need to entreat and beseech a little more…

Stott and Ervin on Spirit Baptism Part Three

(Part Two Here)

In this final post examining how John Stott and Howard Ervin contrast the different doctrines of Spirit Baptism, our attention turns to the idea of being filled with the spirit. The question at hand is whether this is a single event or series of fillings. Stott conservatively separates the baptismal event and subsequent episodes of being filled with the spirit.  As stated in my second posting, Stott does not hear Scripture speaking of a secondary Baptism but he does take an interesting stance on the fullness of the Spirit when he says “that this gift needs to be continuously and increasingly appropriated.” He sees this infilling taking three forms. First, the normal condition of the Christian is to be “filled” with the Spirit (ie: Acts 11:24). The second form is a unique to an event or ministry. As an example, we are pointed to John the Baptist who was “filled with the Holy Spirit” in advance of his prophetic ministry. Similarly, in advance of Paul’s ascension to apostolic office (Acts 9:17) Ananias prays for him to be “filled with the Holy Spirit.” The third form of infilling, according to Stott, is a more temporal filling unique to an immediate task or emergency. Zechariah was filled prior to prophecy and Stephen prior to his martyrdom.

Dr. Ervin’s Pentecostal position is much easier to enumerate as he associates the full infilling with the Spirit Baptism. Viewing them as inseparable, he posits that for subsequent infilling events to occur, one must experience re-baptism, certainly a non-biblical notion. We must be mindful that this doctrine is developed predominantly from within the Lukan corpus and lies at the heart of the Pentecostal position on Spirit Baptism. When he turns to the Pauline instance in Ephesians 5:18:

Do not get drunk on win, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

Ervin points out that the word for “be filled” is in the present tense, imperative mood, and passive voice. This leads the interpreter with a choice of a repeated action (be filled again and again) or a continuous action (be continuously filled with the Spirit). Good exegesis points us to the immediate context for guidance and in doing so we find a parallelism in the verse between the warning against getting drunk on wine and the encouragement rather, to be filled with the Spirit. The present imperative is used in the first component of the comparison (do not get drunk), consistent interpretation calls for the present imperative in the second half of the parallelism as well. As Ervin paraphrases the verse “Stop being habitually drunken with wine but be continuously filled with the Spirit.”

Conclusion

This is a secondary issue to a secondary doctrine but one that calls for greater consideration by all Christians. Brother Stott points our attention to John 7:37-39:

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to received. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

Bishop J.C. Ryle wrote of this passage “It has been said that there are some passages in Scripture which deserve to be printed in letters of gold.” The Lord refers to a ritual of the Feast in which water from the pool of Siloam was poured out in prescience of the coming of the Spirit and that Jesus would provide this water to all who thirsted and came to Him to be relieved. As we meditate on this passage we can see that the empowerment of the Spirit is directly tied to our penitent approach to the Lord. Not only that, but this living water will stream from us to others infusing our ministry with power. Whether the Christian views this as a fresh filling of the power of the Spirit or a further releasing of the pent up power within us, we do well to continue our repeated approaches to the throne so that the streams might flow into and out of us all.