Lead, Laugh, Love

Living in Spiritual Poverty

In West Texas is a famous oil field known as the Yates Pool but during the Depression it was a humble sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Sadly, Yates’ ranching operation was going broke. Unable to pay the mortgage he was in danger of losing his ranch. Like many others of the time, Yates struggled to buy necessities for his family and was forced to live on government subsidies. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he lived with great anxiety and a troubled spirit as he tried to make ends meet. Then a scouting crew from an oil company came by and proposed to Yates that there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a test well and he signed a lease contract. And lo and behold, 1,115 feet below Mr. Yates troubled sheep ranch they struck a huge oil reserve! The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day (that’s about $8 million/day in today’s economy). Subsequent wells were twice as large. Even 30 years after the discovery, a government test on one of the wells showed that it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all! It was ALL HIS from the day he purchased the land! He was a Multi-Millionaire but he was living off of Government Subsidies. He owned great wealth but lived in ignorance of the resources that laid beneath his anxious feet. He owned it, but he didn’t possess it!

I want for my Christian Life to be all that it can be. I don’t want to live in despair and anxiety while deep wells of grace and peace lay untapped beneath the surface. The design of the Christian Life is for us to know the righteousness of God imputed to us and to embrace the great calling we have in Christ which flows into a Living Experience and Practical Exercise of Grace and Peace! But regrettably, the life experience of many Christians is one of spiritual impoverishment characterized by boredom, loneliness, and pride. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the thorough knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103)

Word or Deed Ministry?

Should a Church focus exclusively on the Ministry of the Word or on a Ministry of Deeds? As the news of Jesus’ authority over nature and disease spread, soon there were overwhelming crowds gathering in wonder of what Jesus would do next. As the crowds impeded His ability to preach and their needs consumed His time, He would move to another town or even into the wilderness so that He could continue to freely preach the Good News about the Kingdom. Jesus sought and found a beautiful equilibrium of word and deed in ministry. His Deed ministry was always about compassionately giving relief to people and families from their suffering, grief, misery, and distress. While His Word ministry was always about compassionately calling people and families to Faith and Repentance dealing with their deepest suffering, grief. misery and distress: their sin. In the ministry of Christ there was a synergy and integration of Deeds and Words working together so people would believe the message of the gospel. He saw ALL people as sick, all people as sinners and it was only those who admitted their need for the Doctor of their Souls who qualified for a place in his kingdom.

What to say to be forgiven…

It was the moment he had been waiting for and he was about to blow it! He must have rehearsed in his mind what he would say on the day he would get to meet Jesus, but when the opportunity came, the cat had a hold of his tongue. He tried to speak but nothing comes out. The man who was paralyzed by something in his past (cf. Mark 2:1-12) makes no requests when he finally gets into the presence of the Savior. But surprisingly, the Savior makes the pronouncement, “Son, your sins are forgiven!” Which raises the question….”How could Jesus forgive the sins of a person who hasn’t repented?”

Moments earlier Jesus read the minds of the scribes revealing their skepticism about his ability to forgive sins and now he easily hears the unarticulated inner cry for mercy from the humble heart of the paralyzed man. And Jesus forgives him without requiring a rigid adherence to a confession/repentance formula. The Savior neither requires an accounting nor full compliance with the rules, even though He has every right to make any demand He pleases. Jesus is so favorably inclined towards us and He forgives us gratuitously and invasively. We need never again believe that Christ is reluctant to forgive us. Your jumbled thoughts are like an extended series of novels to Him; your confused emotions are perfected stacked and sorted.

Paralyzed by Past Guilt

Do you ever wonder if God has forgotten you? Do you know what it’s like to feel worthless, broken and defective? Deep down do you question whether God is punishing you for a past mistake? Well, that’s how the paralyzed man in Mark 2:1-12 felt. He was paralyzed by something in his past that hindered him from coming into the presence of Jesus. There are lots of things that paralyze us so that we feel that we can’t move forward; many things that prevent us from entering into the presence of Jesus. Sometimes we find ourselves paralyzed by the guilt of the past. The problem is that our guilt has never been touched by the forgiveness that Jesus offers us in the gospel.

Guilt comes to us in two ways: 1) a legal guilt before the Holy Judge that comes from the violation of His law and 2) the guilty feelings of remorse that result from what we’ve done. The legal guilt is the real problem but the heavy burden of carrying guilt or the feelings of being dirty, unwashed and defective is often the experience. Thankfully, the Cross takes care of the legal guilt and the guilty feelings. Jesus invites you on a journey back into the ruins of your past to pronounce over you, “Not Guilty” before the Judgment Seat. Hear His strong voice say with authority to you, “There is now no condemnation for you because you are MINE.” After His declaration, He takes off the Judge’s robe to reveal the clothing of a servant grasping a basin and a towel. As He washes you, hear His tender voice say to you, “I wash you with my blood and you shall be whiter than snow. You will have a clean heart and your sins I will see no more. You can now live in joy and gladness in my presence. I will never leave you or turn my back on you. Let the joy of My Salvation be restored to you and may you walk with confident support into future obedience through the power of my Spirit” (Cf. Romans 8:1-4; Hebrews 13:5; Psalm 51:7-12) Our only hope to walk again is to encounter the Savior who gives us Grace to Live Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow.

Jesus, please numb my pain!

“Do you want to heal it or just numb the pain?” That’s what the Pharmacist asked a 12- year-old John Estorge in response to complaints of burning mouth ulcers. Not being a fan of pain, I contemplated the question for a moment thinking, “Who cares about healing, I just want it to stop hurting… I’ll take the topical anesthetic please!”

I’ve discovered this same principle working in my children who don’t care for healing treatments for their skinned knees, or to endure the necessary pain associated with the extraction of a splinter, they just want band-aids. Sadly, this is often our typical response to the difficulties in our lives even as we pray. We don’t typically think that our real problem is the principle of sin living within us. Instead we blame circumstances or find fault with others as the real problem. We pray, “God, please change these circumstances, give me relief to my pain, and please change the way this other person acts.” While we anticipate that the remedy will come by a relief of our pain, a change in circumstances or the repentance of others, we fail to identify the real issue: our own personal sin and miss the real cure: forgiveness of our sins and getting closer to Jesus.

We are often like children who just want the punishment to end, rather than seeking forgiveness for the offense. Or we’re like the paralyzed man and his friends who sought the healing of a physical limitation instead of the greater need, the forgiveness of His sins and drawing closer to Christ (Cf. Mark 2:1-12). The paralyzed man was surprised by what His encounter with the Savior delivered to him. Jesus went beyond everyone’s expectations to give more than what was requested to get to the root of the problem: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.'”

Jesus bestows health to the body, beginning with not only the removal of the cause and origin of disease, but in meeting his and our REAL NEED. We all need this ongoing inner healing of our hearts so we can experience the forgiveness of our sin, the resolving of our guilt and shame, the mitigation of our our anger, and the settling of our minds in the midst of fears. This only happens as we get closer to the Lord who through His Son, has healed you of the only disease that can really kill you, your sin. He is the Only One who has the authority and power to provide the only real cure, forgiveness. What we need so much more than a numbing of the pain or a change in circumstances is getting our hearts closer to a God who has declared us Right with Him through the work of His Son.

Once Saved Always Saved?

Perseverance is the key virtue in the Christian Life because without it, one has no guarantee of a future inheritance with God in heaven. The Scriptures give us guarantees like, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Php 1:6) and at the same time they give us strong exhortations like, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Php. 2:12-13). In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus teaches us that only one of the categories of hearers bears fruit and perseveres. All the others are eventually swallowed up and destroyed by malignant influences which militate against Christian perseverance. There are also many warnings in the New Testament about falling away (Cf. Hebrews 6:1-12, etc.). Does a person have a carte blanche (blank check) once he professes faith in Christ? Can he do anything he wants while maintaining blessed assurance in a secure salvation? In his book, The Christian Life, Sinclair Ferguson puts this in perspective,

“Perseverance and faith, therefore, or perseverance and the Christian’s duty to battle on in the fight of faith are never separated and polarized in the Bible. It is never a case of ‘either/or’ always one of ‘both/and.’ In fact we persevere through faith and never apart from it. The picture is one of a dynamic, living trust in a God who actively holds on to us so that we may persevere. There is no blanket guarantee of perseverance. There is no mere doctrine of ‘the security’ of the believer, as though God’s keeping of us took place irrespective of the lives we live. Indeed there is not such thing in the New Testament as a believer whose perseverance is so guaranteed that he can afford to ignore the warning notes which are sounded so frequently.”

While we remain in the fight of faith to persevere the Christian can take great comfort and courage from his Good Shepherd who says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30)

God is good and terrible at the same time

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch ... — Image via Wikipedia

Before the children encounter Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mr. Beaver is trying to describe what Aslan is like when he is interrupted by Susan, who seems to have an exaggerated need for her personal security, asks “Is he—quite safe?” To which Mr. Beaver replies, “Who said anything about safe”? “Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” Later in the narrative when the group finally meets Aslan, C.S. Lewis’s narrator tells us, “But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn’t know what to do or say when they saw him. People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time.”

This image of Aslan, who is both good and terrible at the same time, is particularly challenging for Christians who think of God as their safe, huggable bestest buddy. While the Lord is certainly good, compassionate and approachable, He is also fear-inspiring and awesome!

And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”John 2:15-17

Jesus demands First Place

If I make the claim that my wife is prominent in my earthly affections, that’s not saying very much. All I would be saying is that within my heart’s desires, she is noticeable and easy to see among all of the other competing passions in my life. In my earthly affections, my wife should reign as preeminent, surpassing all others and without peer or rival. As Christ should be preeminent over all in my heart! Jesus comes to us passionately and jealously because His Father’s Preeminence consumed Him (Cf. Psalm 69:9, 119:139; John 2:17) Christ was so zealous that His Father would have First Place in our hearts that during at least one scene He became an Army of One driving the idolaters from His Father’s house. He was so jealous for the honor of His Heavenly Father and His Temple that it ate Him up. Paul reminds us of the Majestic Supremacy of Christ who is entitled to have First Place in our hearts,

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:17-20)

So just as a newly married bride is given a new name and an accompanying identity, the new identity is the only incentive she needs to live a life which her affections are set exclusively on her husband. Before she may have felt some affection for others but now her husband is the preeminent affection of her heart so that anything which would distort or destroy that affection must be insistently refused. So with us who are united to Christ.

Prayer for a Focused Heart

Do you find it easy for your heart to lose its focus on Christ and doing His Will? I think there is natural drift in all of our hearts especially when our little worlds feel chaotic and our eyes attend to circumstances rather than remembering the generosity and grace of our Lord. And sometimes we forget that Christ’s design in coming into the world was to reform the world and in doing so, He expects that His followers would be radically identified with Him. As we identify with Him and follow Him, we seek to cooperate with the work of His Spirit in the reforming of our hearts and lives. Thankfully even as we make a mess of things, He still remembers His gratuitous covenant which He has made with us through His Son.

The prophet Malachi writes, “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.” Take a moment with the following prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as Satan strives to draw me away from my full attention in serving You through the circumstances of disorder and confusion in my world; — O grant, that I may know that You still have a tender affection for me; and if I perceive that you don’t by what I find in my world, may I rely on Your Word, and not doubt that You always watch over my safety; and being supported by this confidence, may I always continue in the path of my calling: and as You have designed to make me a partaker of the greatest evidence of Your favor in being reconciled to You through Your only-begotten Son; and being made one with Him, may I never hesitate to cheerfully offer my services to You, however defective they may be, since You have once promised to be a generous Father to us, so as not to rigidly test what I offer to You, but so graciously to accept it, that we may know that not only my sins, which justly deserve condemnation, are forgiven and laid aside, but that You also bear with my infirmities and my defects in my imperfect works, that I shall at length receive the reward which You have promised, and which I cannot attain through personal merits, but through the sanctification of Your Spirit, and through the sprinkling of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. — Amen.

(paraphrased from Calvin’s prayer at the end of his commentary on Malachi)

An Encouraging Word

Remember all the patterns of grace that are in heaven. You think, oh, what a monument of grace you would like to be! There are many thousands as rich monuments as you can be. The greatest sinner did never pass the grace of Christ. Do not despair. Hope still. When the clouds are blackest, even then look towards Christ, the standing pillar of the Father’s love and grace, set up in heaven for all sinners to gaze upon continually. Whatever Satan or conscience say, do not conclude against yourself, Christ shall have the last word.

From Honey Out of the Rock

by Thomas Wilcox (1621-1687)

“But I would feed you with the best of foods.
I would satisfy you with honey from the rock.”
Psalm 81:16