Pretense

Jeremiah 3:10 ESV

“Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

This section of scripture begins in verse six with “The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah”. The rebuke of God does not happen during what would be called a “back sliding” period in Jewish history. Rather it occurs during one of the greatest revivals, under the leading of one of the nation’s greatest kings! As the Passover is being reinstituted, high places are finally being torn down, and missions are going into the war-ravaged north, Jeremiah records this rebuke by God “but in pretense”.

The God of heaven looked at the heart of the people and saw it was “but a pretense” dependent on his continued earthly blessing to maintain. He already knew what would be recorded later in Jeremiah 44, that this peoples God was their stomach (Philippians 3:19), and they had never really left their idols, that they still looked with longing and nostalgia on the former times of sin. Much like men and women who have not repented of sin but rather have simple grown too old to enjoy it anymore.  So also, is the nation that glosses over their sin with laws rather than attacking the hearts of the people.

Christ crucified is the life breath of the Church. Not a social program, a street ministry, a slick new worship leader, a nice web page or app. The Church of Jesus Christ lives and breathes based on his death burial and resurrection. So much so that the story is told over and over and over again and it never gets old or boring to those that love it. The truth that we are heirs with Christ propels us to do many of the things listed above, to tell the story. Not to gain social standing, converts, or bigger congregations, but simply because we love to tell the story in any and every way possible.

In the life and times of Josiah you see that reality played out. The king is overwhelmed by God and leads all those endeavors, but when he dies the people quickly and easily slipped away from God because they were living on another’s passion. As churches, we have to live on our own passion for the spread of the Gospel, not the passion of the Pastor or any other person. This propels the Gospel through the generations as each generation has heard the story told passionately over and over. The most dangerous place to be, in your spiritual life, is when the Gospel is no longer exciting and convicting. When you need more programs or better music for church to be enough on Sunday. When the Gospel preached and the fellowship of other Christians is no longer enough to sustain you.

Do you still find the “ordinary” means of grace (the word preached/read, sacraments, and prayer) to be enough to sustain your faith or perhaps you like me have been prone to wander into thinking more is needed? Into making the adornments (good music, good programs, and comfortable chairs) central to my worship experience rather than peripheral?

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Humor

Job 19:23-25 (ESV)

Oh that my words were written!

                Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

Oh that with an iron pen and lead

                They were engraved in the rock forever!

For I know that my Redeemer lives,

                And at the last he will stand upon the earth.

It is always interesting to see what God chooses to include in the bible. The plight and peril of Job is almost universally known. A righteous man with everything going for him is suddenly ruined and has his righteousness questioned by all those around him. A tremendous and compelling account of how the idea of God blessing the righteous and condemning the wicked, on earth, the former with good things and the later with trials, plays out when “bad things happen to good people.”

Not wishing to “beat a dead horse”, turn instead to the ironic humor of God in this passage. What the Lord chooses to add to his book often brings a smile to my face as sure as the oddity of the rest of his creation does. At this point Job is defending himself to his friends and not making any headway. He has called them a few things and they responded with more accusations against him. Then comes God’s since of humor. As Job is bewailing his hardships he says “Oh that my words were written in a book!” Here we are reading in a book the words of Job throwing his fit, begging to have his words recorded that they would testify for him throughout time and God does!

This moment of irony is followed by the greatest hope of all who trust in God for salvation; “For I know that my Redeemer lives”. As I often want to start complaining about how hard life is. It is easy to sink into a toddler tantrum about life. Yet, what peace holds to our souls when we cling to the old rugged cross. Not only because our sin has been paid for but also because the tomb is empty. He got up and walked out, our redeemer lives!

Maybe I am the only one but I also take great joy in the fact that the Canon of Scripture is closed and finished. There will be no other books added to it. I say this because I don’t have to worry about God choosing to record my pity parties for all to see! That is a final comfort to me from the great comforter.

As we read scripture do not be afraid to see the smile and humor of God in the situations he shows us and in the words he has recorded. This is part of his face. His eye often holds twinkle given to the humorous.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Endurance

2 Timothy 2:24-25

“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,”

So often people want to believe that they are completely rational beings. Able to, with correct information, make good and appropriate decisions. The biblical narrative tells us something completely different. In the bible, all mankind sees the face of God and their own foolishness. This is why so many do not enjoy reading their bibles. As they come face to face with their maker they are faced with the decision to repent and change or rebel once more.

This particular verse speaks to how the servants of the Living God are to interact and approach others. This particular paragraph begins with the charge to pursue faith, love, peace and a pure heart (verse 22). Why then does the apostle speak of not being quarrelsome? Is not the answer that in pursuing these things the Christian will find himself in conflict with this world? There is nothing new under the sun what was true is true. As Christian men and women seek to pursue Godliness they find themselves in conflict with the sensuality and base passions of this world. How are they to handle this conflict?

The Christian should breathe a sigh of relief. God does not charge them to know the best argument, to be able to orate circles around their opponents, or debate the issue until both sides are weary of the conversation! His charge to the believer is to patiently correct his opponents with gentleness! That means over and over speak truth into the life of those that oppose it. There are those God has given great intellect to that are able to stand on stage and debate the latest issues with finesse and wit, but that is not everyone’s gift! All, however, are charged to simply endure again and again the false arguments of opponents and speak truth gently in return.

This is not the end of the battle for our opponent’s hearts though! This is actually when the battle begins! As the truth lights up the darkness of their soul and the darkness is not able to overcome it God may perhaps grant repentance. This then is our goal, not to when arguments in the public sphere, but to be the instruments of God for salvation in someone’s life. This is something that only God can do, no matter how polished our delivery may be. This is why we pray for those whom we speak truth to. Only God is able to change the hearts of those we love. No argument on our part, no slick delivery, or jovial nature, will save a soul from hell. Only truth lovingly spoken with the spirit of God GRANTING repentance will save, we must pray God will grant repentance.

Speak Truth and Pray. It is not fancy but it is hard to do. To not give in to frustration but simply speak truth gently over and over. To not give in to despair, but continue praying for the impossible, that the dead would be made alive to eat the spiritual fruit laid before them.  To beg God over and over that he would quicken the dead spirit inside them. Patiently enduring, it is hard, it is your calling. Speak Truth often, pray for those that hear it, be the widow who goes time and again the judge until he grants her request.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Adverse Winds

Adverse Winds

Psalm 119:32 (ESV)

I will run in the way of your commandments

          When you enlarge my heart!

What is to be done with a fifteen-minute drive? This question is a peculiar one? Yet it is one that Christians have to answer every single day. As fifteen minutes of “down-time” are often given. It may be in the car, waiting outside of a school, walking someplace, waiting for dinner, or a mechanic to finish his work. What will a Christian do with the small portions of time he is given? In one of William Wilberforce’s journal entries, he notes quoting the ENTIRE 119^th Psalm on his walk from Hyde Park (approximately 15 minutes) and being greatly blessed by it. As Wilberforce was in the midst of the greatest battle for the sanctity of human life the world had ever known he found it necessary to commit to memory the longest chapter in the bible. To press the words of this chapter on his heart to bless and mold his heart.

The composition of Psalm 119 is a major work of mind, soul and strength in and of itself. (If you don’t agree attempt it an acrostic poem of this magnitude devoted to God and his scripture, and see how soon your mind is pushed, your will wanes, and your body wants to stop sitting!)  The author fulfilling the greatest commandment in his composition then hands the baton to the reader and asks the reader if they would dare to commit their mind, body, and will to the memorization of it.

As the reader walks through the text he finds that all his ability depends on the hand of God. This section of the acrostic, the Daleth portion, overwhelms with the persistence of our inability apart from God. Notice that in seven of the eight verses in this section the petition to God (give me, teach me, make me, strengthen me, teach me, let me, when you). The Author accepts his in ability apart from God to please him. He also is sure of God’s goodness and sovereignty so he petitions him. Coming into his throne room to change his mind! Asking him to change the way things are and to do something miraculous! Giving the sinner the strength to please God! This complete inability to please God apart from God granting the ability is what some call Total Depravity. We need God to “enlarge our heart” to make us able to desire him! The question for everyman woman and child is will they recognize their inability to please God apart from Christ, or will they persist in rebellion to reality?

William Wilberforce found memorizing this Psalm necessary to fight the political and economic realities of Slavery in the empire on whose land the sun never set. The reality that God was sovereign over every situation provided him with the strength to persist in his battle for the destruction of the slave trade over two decades and slavery itself another two and a half decades. As life seems to overwhelm rest in the Psalms. Try and fail to commit them to memory. Trial and fail again, and again and again step by wearied step you draw closer take a breath and join dear Christian traveling up The Hill Called Difficulty. When the adverse winds of life are set against you these treasures of God will sustain you. Recognize that the most valuable things in life require the greatest struggle to achieve.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Deaf and Dumb

Psalm 115:8

Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

The section of this psalm immediately prior to this tells of those who make idols. How the idols have mouths but do not speak; eyes, but do not see, ears but do not hear… this immediately brings to mind the prophet Isaiah when he declares this of the nation of Israel. This theme however is not confined to his prophetic book it also is carried through Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Isaiah 6:10, Jeremiah 5:21, Ezekiel 12:2) with it finally having its fulfillment in Christ.

This Psalm brings Christians to the truth that they become like what they worship. Those that worship things that are not living become like them. As the people in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel’s time were constantly faced with reality of seeing an image that was as dead as the wood they threw on the fire (and sometimes made from the same wood) this line of reasoning should have shocked them into reality that they needed to repent and listen to Yhwh yet instead of this they would chose to make an image of Yhwh as a bull! (Exodus 32:4, 1 Kings 12:28) Seeking, instead of worshiping the living God, to make the living dead! Coming face to face with the foolishness of their sin they chose to reject rather than repent!

As more and more of those who come to church have harder and harder hearts the question must come, what are we worshiping? Taking this passage to heart what dead things are inhabiting the place of greatest reverence in seat of worship, our hearts? How many times have I not been moved by the humble petitions of the Lord’s prayer? How many times has my heart not melted when I read the sacred text and see how much God has done for me? What could the only cause of this be but idolatry creeping in? How often have I panicked when finances were low, and had my greed revealed to me? How many times has God been faithful to reveal those things in which I trust rather than in he who has provided them? When I am more like the foolish Israelites in Egypt (Jeremiah 44:17-18) thinking that hard work and wise financial decisions have given me the blessings I have rather than God?

What then can Christians say to these things? We must constantly pull our vision away from the dead thing God is using to provide for us and focus our vision on the provider of all our needs. He who has given us our daily bread! And he who will do it tomorrow, but who might choose another means? We must engage in the constant battle to not confuse the means of grace with God himself. The job, 401k, pension, spouse, are all means that God uses to provide for a time. When fear starts to creep in when someone mentions those things being taken, know that you have turned your eyes a little and refocus on the provider of all good things.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO