Morning, July 5, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Called as saints.” — Romans 1:7

We can tend to regard the apostolic saints as if they were “saints” in a more special manner than the other children of God. All are “saints” whom God has called by His grace, and sanctified by His Spirit; but we tend to look upon the apostles as extraordinary beings, scarcely subject to the same weaknesses and temptations as ourselves. Yet in so doing we forget this truth, that the nearer a man lives to God the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart; and the more his Master honors him in his service, the more also the evil of his human nature vexes and tempts him day by day. The fact is, if we had seen the apostle Paul, we should have thought him remarkably like the rest of the church family: and if we had talked with him, we should have said, “We find that his experience and ours are much the same. He is more faithful, more holy, and more deeply taught than we are, but he has the same trials to endure. Even more, in some respects he is more severely tried than ourselves.” Do not, then, look upon the ancient saints as being exempt either from shortcomings or sins; and do not regard them with that mystic reverence which will almost make us idolaters. Their holiness is attainable even by us. We are “called to be saints” by that same voice which constrained them to their high vocation. It is a Christian’s duty to force his way into the inner circle of saintship; and if these saints were superior to us in their attainments, as they certainly were, let us follow them; let us emulate their passion and holiness. We have the same light that they had, the same grace is accessible to us, and why should we rest satisfied until we have equaled them in heavenly character? They lived with Jesus, they lived for Jesus, therefore they grew like Jesus. Let us live by the same Spirit as they did, “looking to Jesus,” and our saintship will soon be apparent.

Evening, July 4, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully.”  — Psalm 24:4

Outward practical holiness is a very valuable mark of grace. It is to be feared that many who claim Christ have perverted the doctrine of justification by faith in such a way as to treat good works with contempt; if so, they will receive everlasting contempt at the last great day. If our hands are not clean, let us wash them in Jesus’ precious blood, and so let us lift up pure hands to God. But “clean hands” will not suffice, unless they are connected with “a pure heart.” True spirituality is work done in our heart. We may wash the outside of the cup and the platter as long as we please, but if the inward parts are filthy, we are filthy altogether in the sight of God, for our hearts are more truly ourselves than our hands are; the very life of our being lies in the inner nature, and hence the imperative need of purity within. The pure in heart shall see God, all others are but blind bats.

The man who is born for heaven “has not lifted up his soul to vanity.” All men have their joys, by which their souls are lifted up; the worldly minded exalts his soul in physical delights, which are mere empty vanities; but the believer loves more substantial things; like Jehoshaphat, he is invested in the ways of the Lord. He who is content with cornhusks, will be reckoned with the swine. Does the world satisfy you? Then you have your reward and portion in this life; make much of it, for you will know no other joy.

“Nor sworn deceitfully.” The believers are men of honor still. The Christian man’s word is his only oath; but that is as good as twenty oaths of other men. Speaking falsely will shut any man out of heaven, for a liar shall not enter into God’s house, whatever may be his profession of faith or his works. Reader, does the text before us condemn you, or do you hope to ascend into the hill of the Lord?

Morning, July 4, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” — John 17:17

Sanctification begins in regeneration. The Spirit of God infuses into man that new living principle by which he becomes “a new creature” in Christ Jesus. This work, which begins in the new birth, is carried on in two ways—mortification (dying) , whereby the desires of our human nature are subdued and kept under; and vivification (making alive), by which the life which God has put within us is made to be a well of water springing up to everlasting life. This is carried on every day in what is called “perseverance,” by which the Christian is preserved and continued in a state of grace, and is made to overflow in good works to the praise and glory of God; and it culminates or comes to perfection, in “glory,” when the soul, being thoroughly cleansed, is caught up to dwell with holy beings at the right hand of the Majesty on high. But while the Spirit of God is thus the author of sanctification, yet there is a visible agency employed which must not be forgotten. “Sanctify them,” said Jesus, “through your truth: your word is truth.” The passages of Scripture which prove that the instrument of our sanctification is the Word of God are numerous. The Spirit of God brings to our minds the precepts and doctrines of truth, and applies them with power. These are heard, and being received in the heart, they work in us to will and to do of God’s good pleasure. The truth is the sanctifier, and if we do not hear or read the truth, we shall not grow in sanctification. We only progress in sound living as we progress in sound understanding. “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” Do not say of any error regarding the Word, “It is a mere matter of opinion.” No man indulges an error of judgment, without sooner or later tolerating an error in practice. Hold fast the truth, for by so holding the truth shall you be sanctified by the Spirit of God.

Evening, July 3, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“If we endure [suffer, KJV], we will also reign with Him” — 2 Timothy 2:12

We must not imagine that we are suffering for Christ, and with Christ, if we are not resting in Christ. Beloved friend, are you putting trust in Jesus only? If not, whatever you may have to lament for on earth, you are not “suffering with Christ,” and have no hope of reigning with him in heaven. Neither are we to conclude that all a Christian’s sufferings are sufferings with Christ, for it is essential that he be called by God to suffer. If we are rash and imprudent, and run into situations for which neither God’s will nor grace has fitted us, we ought to question whether we are not rather sinning than communing with Jesus. If we let passion take the place of judgment, and self-will reign instead of Scriptural authority, we shall fight the Lord’s battles with the devil’s weapons, and if we cut our own fingers we must not be surprised. Again, in troubles which come upon us as the result of sin, we must not dream that we are suffering with Christ. When Miriam spoke evil of Moses, and the leprosy struck her, she was not suffering for God. Moreover, suffering which God accepts must have God’s glory as its end. If I suffer that I may earn a name, or win applause, I shall get no other reward than that of the Pharisee. It is necessary also that love for Jesus, and love for his chosen, always be the motivation of all our patience. We must demonstrate the Spirit of Christ in meekness, gentleness, and forgiveness. Let us search and see if we truly suffer with Jesus. And if we do suffer in that way, what is our “light affliction” compared with reigning with him? Oh, it is so blessed to be in the furnace with Christ, and such an honor to stand chained with him, that if there were no future reward, we might count ourselves happy in present glory; but when the compensation is so eternal, so infinitely more than we had any right to expect, shall we not take up the cross with eagerness, and go on our way rejoicing?

Some of my thoughts:

Do we in the United States in the 21^st Century really have a concept of suffering for Christ? Giving up the things that would ultimately destroy us physically and/or spiritually is not suffering.  Certainly, giving money to church causes is not suffering, by the average world citizen’s measure (the average per capita income worldwide is around $3000).

The NASB translates the word suffering, “enduring.”  The qualities spoken of in 2 Timothy include emulating a soldier disentangled from everyday life, an athlete competing within the rules, a hard working farmer, an unashamed workman… Lord, reveal to us the endurance we need, the endurance Jesus modeled.

Years ago, a parent came up to my wife in church, laughing; my wife Carole was going to be leading a summer camp for kids and one of the kids came home and said, “Mommy, Carole said we’re going to stay up way too late and eat bad stuff and she’s going to tell us about when she was a bad little girl!”

She didn’t have a lot on me, however.

I’ve shared some of the circumstances that led up to my conversion to Christianity earlier, but it puts my later experiences in perspective when you see what led up to them – when I was a BAD little boy.  I thought it might be good to share some of my history with my children and grandchildren, also…

I was actually adopted at birth; what I thought for a long time was my uncle (J.D.) on my mom’s side had been visiting his son at his ex-wife’s home and apparently they were still on more than speaking terms, because I was conceived.  They spoke with my to-be-adoptive mom (J.D.’s sister) and dad, and my biological mom moved temporarily from California to Spokane to complete her pregnancy. My adoptive parents had one son, who was in his late teenage years, and my biological parents’ son was in second grade (he came to stay with my to-be-adoptive parents that summer I was born).

When I was old enough later, my parents told me I was adopted, but I didn’t figure out the complicated relationships until well into adulthood.  My cousin was actually my brother, my brother was actually my cousin, my uncle was my dad and my aunt, my mother (and vice-versa).

My biological father was a decorated and highly ranked Air Force officer, but I was told he was a bit of a hell raiser in his youth. I was a “challenging” youngster as well.

I don’t remember all the incidents, but my mother related some stories of me as a toddler. She was having some women friends over, so I took the opportunity to strip naked and play in the muddy creek outside our house.  Another time I took my toy grader and dug up all her recently planted flowers.  On a trip to town I got a hold of the cash register at our favorite grocery store and messed it up so bad they had to call a technician to fix it. My mother had to put a harness on me because I would bolt across the street.  Now this was all before I have any memories of this (except the muddy creek), so I’ll call this mostly hearsay.

I was old enough to remember a couple years later, when I was a typical 4-year-old, impatient to go to my grandparents house (30 miles away–we lived way out in the country) and decided to hop on my tricycle and start out on my own.  When my parents went to get in the car and realized I was missing they panicked, since we had swampy bogs in which a small child could drown (more on the bog later).

I must have been determined to make the whole trip, because when I heard a car coming I would throw my tricycle into the weeds/ditch along side the road.  I’d made it over 5 miles on my way, and there was a section of road that I couldn’t hide along and so one of the neighbors picked me up and took me home. Below is a map of how far I made it:

I was raised as an only child since my only brother was nearly an adult when I was born, but his children – my nephews and nieces – were not much younger than me, but young enough that I could influence them into getting into a bunch of trouble.  We were visiting them one time where they lived in Cutbank and we walked down to the river. Instead of walking back up the safe way I convinced them to climb up the steep clay bank (which dropped into the river down below).  By God’s grace none of the three of us slipped; we would have fallen dozens of feet into the river.

And the bogs my parents were worried about?

A few years after the story earlier, I led my oldest nephew and niece into that above-mentioned bog, attempting a “shortcut” across it to the other side. All the water was knee deep, but we were trying to avoid the deeper holes when he sunk in up to his neck.  Fortunately his sister and I were able to fish him out and we made our way – carefully – back to solid ground.  Yet another time I got them in “deep” trouble…

Then there was the time I tried burning down the old shed up the hill…

My mother said she tried spanking me but it didn’t do any good, so I’m not sure what kind of discipline my parents decided upon.  To adopt a child later in life, and a family member to boot, must have been a stressful decision. I know my parents had wanted more than one child — my mother had a couple of miscarriages — but I’m not sure what dynamics having adopted an ex-in law’s child entailed.

I’ve been sitting on this blog post for years, so I’m going to post what I have so far; I’ll try to get around to later years soon (including the infamous “Smokey the Bear Badge” incident…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning, July 3, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“The ugly and lean cows ate up the seven sleek and fat cows.” — Genesis 41:4

Pharaoh’s dream has too often been my waking experience. My days of laziness have ruinously destroyed all that I had achieved in times of dedicated activity; my seasons of coldness have frozen all the warm glow of my periods of passion and enthusiasm; and my spasms of worldliness have thrown me back from my advances in the blessed life. I need to beware of lean, inadequate prayers, lean praises, lean duties, and lean experiences, for these will eat up the fat of my comfort and peace. If I neglect prayer for the shortest time, I lose all the spirituality to which I had attained; if I draw no fresh supplies from heaven, the old corn in my storehouse is soon consumed by the famine which rages in my soul. When the caterpillars of indifference, the locusts of worldliness, and the grasshoppers of self-indulgence lay my heart completely desolate, and make my soul to languish, all my former fruitfulness and growth in grace gains me nothing whatever. How concerned I should be to have no days of leanness, no wasted hours! If every day I journeyed towards the goal of my desires I should soon reach it, but backsliding leaves me far off still from the prize of my high calling, and robs me of the advances which I had so laboriously made. The only way in which all my days can be as the “fat cow,” is to feed them in the right meadow, to spend them with the Lord, in His service, in His company, in His fear, and in His way. Why should not every year be richer than the past, in love, and usefulness, and joy? — I am nearer the heavenly hills, I have had more experience of my Lord, and should be more like Him. O Lord, keep far from me the curse of leanness of soul; let me not have to cry, “My leanness, my sparseness, woe to me!” but may I be well-fed and nourished in your house, that I may praise your name.

Evening, July 2, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“I cry out to you, Lord. You are my rock; don’t refuse to hear me If you won’t talk to me,  I’ll be just like those going down to the pit.”– Psalm 28:1

A cry is the natural expression of sorrow, and a suitable reaction when all other types of appeal fail us; but the cry must be directed only to the Lord, for to cry to man is to waste our pleas upon the air. When we consider the readiness of the Lord to hear, and his ability to aid, we shall see good reason for directing all our appeals at once to the God of our salvation. It will be in vain to call to the rocks in the day of judgment, but our Rock attends to our cries.

“Be not silent to me.” Those who only follow a form may be content without answers to their prayers, but genuine petitioners cannot; they are not satisfied with the results of prayer itself in calming the mind and subduing the will–they must go further, and obtain actual replies from heaven, or they cannot rest; and those replies they long to receive at once; they dread even a little of God’s silence. God’s voice is often so terrible that it shakes the wilderness; but his silence is equally full of dread to a desperate, humble requester. When God seems to close his ear, we must not therefore close our mouths, but rather cry with more earnestness; for when our voice grows shrill with fervor and grief, he will not deny us a hearing soon. What a dreadful case should we be in if the Lord should become forever silent to our prayers? “Unless, if you become silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.” Deprived of the God who answers prayer, we should be in a more pitiable plight than the dead in the grave, and should soon sink to the same level as the lost in hell. We must have answers to prayer: ours is an urgent case of desperate necessity; surely the Lord will speak peace to our agitated minds, for he never can find it in his heart to permit his own chosen ones to perish.

Morning, July 2, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“For our heart rejoices in Him.” — Psalm 33:21

Christians are blessed in the fact they can rejoice even in the deepest distress; although trouble may surround them, they still sing; and, like many birds, they sing best in their cages. The raging waves may roll over them, but their souls soon rise to the surface and see the light of God’s face; they have a buoyancy about them which keeps their head always above the water, and helps them to sing amid the storm, “God is with me still.” To whom shall the glory be given? Oh! to Jesus–it is all by Jesus. Trouble does not necessarily bring comfort with it to the believer, but the presence of the Son of God in the fiery furnace with him fills his heart with joy. He is sick and suffering, but Jesus visits him and makes his bed for him. He is dying, and the cold chilly waters of death and passing are gathering about him up to the neck, but Jesus puts His arms around him, and cries, “Fear not, beloved; to die is to be blessed; the waters of death have their source springing from heaven; they are not bitter, they are sweet as nectar, for they flow from the throne of God.” As the departing believer wades through the stream, and the winds and waves gather around him, and heart and body fail him, the same voice sounds in his ears, “Fear not; I am with you; don’t be discouraged; I am your God.” As he nears the borders of the infinite unknown, and is almost frightened to enter the realm of spirits, Jesus says, “Fear not, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” And so strengthened and comforted, the believer is not afraid to die; no, he is even willing to depart, for since he has seen Jesus as the morning star, he longs to gaze upon Him as the sun in his strength. Truly, the presence of Jesus is all the heaven we desire. He is at once,

“The glory of our brightest days;

The comfort of our nights.”

Evening, July 1, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” — Genesis 3:8

My friend, now that the cool of the day has come, rest awhile and respond to the voice of your God. He is always ready to speak with you when you are prepared to hear. If there’s any slowness to fellowship it is not on his part, but all together on your own, for he stands at the door and knocks, and if his people will only open he rejoices to enter. But in what state is my heart, which is my Lord’s garden? May I venture to hope that it is well trimmed and watered, and is bringing forth fruit suitable for him? If not, he will have much to reprimand, but still I beg him to come to me, for nothing can so certainly bring my heart into a right condition as the presence of the Sun of Righteousness, who brings healing in his wings. Come, therefore, Lord, my God, my soul invites you resolutely, and waits for you eagerly. Come to me, Jesus, my much beloved, and plant fresh flowers in my garden, such as I see blooming in such perfection in your matchless character! Come, my Father, who is the cultivator, and deal with me in your tenderness and prudence! Come, Holy Spirit, and water afresh my whole nature, as the herbs are now moistened with the evening dew. Oh, that God would speak to me. Speak, Lord, for your servant hears! Oh, that he would walk with me; I am ready to give up my whole heart and mind to him, and every other thought is quieted. I am only asking what he delights to give. I am sure that he will condescend to have fellowship with me, for he has given me his Holy Spirit to abide with me forever. Sweet is the cool twilight, when every star seems like the eye of heaven, and the cool wind is as the breath of celestial love. My Father, my elder Brother, my sweet Comforter, speak now in loving kindness, for you have opened my ears and I will not rebel.

Morning, July 1, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter.” —  Zechariah 14:8

The streams of living water which flow from Jerusalem are not dried up by the parching heat of sweltering midsummer any more than they were frozen by the cold winds of blustering winter. Rejoice in your heart and mind, that you are spared to testify of the faithfulness of the Lord. The seasons change and you change, but your Lord remains forever the same, and the streams of his love are as deep, as broad and as full as ever. The heat of business worries and scorching trials make me need the cooling influences of the river of His grace; I may go any time and drink to my fill from the inexhaustible fountain, for in summer and in winter it pours forth its stream. The upper springs are never restricted, and blessed be the name of the Lord, the lower springs cannot fail either. Elijah found the brook Cherith dried up, but Jehovah was still the same God of provision. Job said his brethren were like deceitful brooks, but he found his God an overflowing river of comfort. The Nile is the great unfailing resource of Egypt, but its floods are variable; our Lord is evermore the same. By changing the course of the Euphrates, Cyrus took the city of Babylon, but no power, human or demonic, can divert the current of divine grace. The tracks of ancient rivers have been found all dry and desolate, but the streams which take their rise on the mountains of divine sovereignty and infinite love shall ever be full to their banks. Generations pass away, but the course of grace is unaltered. The river of God may sing with greater truth than the brook in the poem–

“Men may come, and men may go,

But I go on forever.”

How happy are you, my soul, to be led beside such still waters! Never wander to other streams, to hear the Lord’s rebuke, “Now what will you gain by traveling along the way to Egypt to drink the waters of the muddy Nile?”

Evening, June 30, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You. — Jeremiah 32:17

At the very time when the Chaldeans surrounded Jerusalem, and when the sword, famine and plague had desolated the land, Jeremiah was commanded by God to purchase a field, and have the deed of transfer legally sealed and witnessed. This was a strange purchase for a rational man to make. Prudence could not justify it, for it was buying with scarcely a probability that the person purchasing could ever enjoy the possession. But it was enough for Jeremiah that his God had directed him, for well he knew that God will be faithful to all his children. He reasoned this way: “Ah, Lord God! You can make this plot of ground of use to me; You can rid this land of these oppressors; You can make me yet sit under my vineyard and my fig-tree in the inheritance which I have bought; for you made the heavens and the earth, and there is nothing too hard for you.” This gave an impressive stateliness to the early saints, that they dared to do at God’s command things which earthly reason would condemn. Whether it be a Noah who is to build a ship on dry land, an Abraham who is to offer up his only son, or a Moses who is to spurn the treasures of Egypt, or a Joshua who is to besiege Jericho seven days, using no weapons but the blasts of rams’ horns, they all act upon God’s command, contrary to the dictates of natural reason; and the Lord gives them a rich reward as the result of their obedient faith. Would to God we had in the religion of these modern times a more potent infusion of this heroic faith in God. If we would venture more upon the undisguised promise of God, we should enter a world of wonders to which as yet we are strangers. Let Jeremiah’s place of confidence be ours–nothing is too hard for the God that created the heavens and the earth.

Morning, June 30, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one.” — John 17:22

Behold the incomparable generosity of the Lord Jesus, for he has given us everything he has. Although a fraction of his possessions would have made a universe of angels rich beyond all thought, he was still not content until he had given us all that he had. It would have been surprising enough grace if he had allowed us to eat the crumbs of his banquet beneath the table of his mercy; but he will do nothing by halves, he has us sit with him and share the feast. If he had given us some small pension from his royal treasure chest, we should have had good reason to love him eternally; but no, he will have his bride as rich as himself, and he will not have a glory or grace in which she shall not share. He has not been content with less than making us joint-heirs with himself, so that we might have equal possessions. He has emptied all his estate into the treasury of the Church, and has all things common with his redeemed. He will not withhold the key from any room in his house from his people. He gives them full liberty to take all that he has, to be their own; he loves for them to take freely his treasure, and appropriate as much as they can possibly carry. The boundless fulness of his all-sufficiency is as free to the believer as the air he breathes. Christ has put the flask of his love and grace to the believer’s lip, and invited him to drink on forever; if he could drain it, he is welcome to do so, and as he cannot exhaust it, he is invited to drink abundantly, for it is all his own. What more true proof of fellowship can heaven or earth supply?

“When I stand before the throne

Dressed in beauty not my own;

When I see thee as thou art,

Love thee with unsinning heart;

Then, Lord, shall I fully know–

Not till then–how much I owe.”

Evening, June 29, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart.” — 2 Chronicles 32:31

Hezekiah was growing so full of his greatness, and priding himself so much upon the favor of God, that self-righteousness crept in, and as a result of his security in himself, the grace of God was for a time, in its proactive work, withdrawn. Here he was left himself to account with the Babylonians; for if the grace of God should leave the best Christian, there is enough of sin in his heart to make him the worst of violators. If left to yourselves, those of you afire for Christ would cool down like Laodicea into nauseous tepidness: you who are solid in the faith would be disfigured, white with the leprosy of false doctrine; you who now walk before the Lord in excellency and integrity would stumble back and forth, and stagger with a drunkenness of foul emotion. Like the moon, we borrow our light; bright as we are when grace shines on us, we are darkness itself when the Sun of Righteousness withdraws himself. Therefore, let us cry to God never to leave us. “Lord, don’t take your Holy Spirit from us! Don’t withdraw your indwelling grace! Haven’t you said, I the Lord will sustain it; I will water it every moment: and will not let any hurt it, I will sustain it night and day’? Lord, sustain us everywhere. Sustain us when in the valley, that we don’t complain against your humbling hand; sustain us when we’re on the mountain, that we don’t get excited and unsteady when being exalted; sustain us in our youth, when our passions are strong; sustain us in old age, when by becoming conceited in our wisdom, we may therefore prove greater fools than the young and frivolous; sustain us when we come to die, unless, at the very end, we should deny you! Sustain us as we live, sustain us when we die, sustain us through our labor, sustain us through suffering, sustain us as we fight and as we rest; sustain us everywhere, for everywhere we need you, Oh our God!”

Morning, June 29, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.” — 1 Thessalonians 4:14

Let us not imagine that the soul sleeps unconscious. “Today you shall be with me in paradise,” is the whisper of Christ to every dying believer. They “sleep in Jesus,” but their souls are before the throne of God, praising him day and night in his temple, singing hallelujahs to him who washed them from their sins by his blood. The body sleeps in its lonely bed of earth, beneath the bedspread of grass. But what is this sleep? The idea connected with sleep is “rest,” and that is the thought which the Spirit of God would communicate to us. Sleep makes each night a Sabbath rest for the day. Sleep shuts closed the door of the soul, and bids all intruders wait for a while, that the life within may enter its summer garden of peace. The work-weary believer quietly sleeps, as does the weary child when it slumbers on its mother’s breast. Oh! happy are they who die in the Lord; they rest from their labors, and their works follow them. Their quiet rest shall never be broken until God shall rouse them to give them their full reward. Guarded by angelic watchers, concealed by eternal mysteries, they sleep on, the inheritors of glory, till the completion of time shall bring the completion of redemption. What an awakening shall be theirs! They were laid in their last resting place, weary and worn, but as such they shall not rise. They went to their rest with wrinkled brow, and aged features, but they wake up in beauty and glory. The shriveled seed, so lacking of form and loveliness, rises from the ground a beautiful flower. The winter of the grave gives way to the spring of redemption and the summer of glory. Blessed is death, since it, through divine power, disrobes us of this work-day garment, to clothe us with the imperishable wedding garment.  Blessed are those who “sleep in Jesus.”

Evening, June 28, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.” — Exodus 7:12

This incident is an instructive image of the sure victory of the divine handiwork over all opposition. Whenever a divine principle is cast into the heart, though the devil may fashion a counterfeit, and produce swarms of opponents, as sure as ever when God is in the work, it will swallow up all its adversaries. If God’s grace takes possession of a man, the world’s enchanters may throw down all their staffs; and every staff may be as devious and poisonous as a serpent, but Aaron’s staff will swallow up their staffs. The sweet attractiveness of the cross will woo and win the man’s heart, and he who lived only for this deceitful earth will now have an eye for the heavens, and a wing to mount into celestial heights. When grace has won the day the earth dweller seeks the world to come. The same fact is to be observed in the life of the believer. What a multitude of adversaries has our faith had to meet! Our old sins–the devil threw them down before us, and they turned to serpents. What hosts of them! Ah, but the cross of Jesus destroys them all. Faith in Christ makes short work of all our sins. Then the devil has launched forth another host of serpents in the form of worldly trials, temptations, unbelief; but faith in Jesus is more than a match for them, and overcomes them all.

The same absorbing principle shines in the faithful service of God! With an enthusiastic love for Jesus difficulties are surmounted, sacrifices become pleasures, sufferings are honors. But if true religion is thus a consuming passion in the heart, then it follows that there are many persons who profess religion but don’t have it; for what they have will not bear this test. Examine yourself, my reader, on this point. Aaron’s staff proved its heaven-given power. Is your religion doing so? If Christ be anything he must be everything. Oh, do not rest until love and faith in Jesus be the master passions of your soul!

Notes on my editing:  I have a decent vocabulary but many of the terms Spurgeon used centuries ago have fallen into disuse.  As I read his devotions, challenged oft am I (I mean, I am often challenged) by some of the archaic words and the sentence structure. Some may find my editing a travesty, but hopefully some will find it clarifies the message he brings to us after so many years.

Here is a Google analysis of some of the words I have edited in the past few days by time and frequency …

Morning, June 27, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.”  –Hebrews 12:2

It is always the Holy Spirit’s work to turn our eyes away from ourselves to Jesus; but Satan’s work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us focus on ourselves instead of Christ. He insinuates, “Your sins are too great for forgiveness; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you don’t have the joy God’s children have; you have such a wavering hold of Jesus.” All these are thoughts about self, and we shall never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from ourselves: he tells us that we are nothing, but that “Christ is all in all.” Remember, therefore, it is not your hold of Christ that saves you–it is Christ; it is not your joy in Christ that saves you–it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that is the key part–it is Christ’s blood and excellence; therefore, don’t look so much to how you are grasping Christ, but look to Christ; don’t look at your hope, but to Jesus, the source of your hope; don’t look at your faith, but to Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.

We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our labor, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives our soul rest. If we want to overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by “looking to Jesus.” Simply keep your eyes on him; let his death, his sufferings, his worthiness, his glory, his intercession, be fresh in your mind; when you wake up in the morning look to him; when you go to bed at night look to him. Don’t let your hopes or fears come between you and Jesus; pursue him, and he will never fail you.

“My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness:

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”

Evening, June 27, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called.”  — 1 Corinthians 7:20

Some persons have the foolish notion that the only way in which they can live for God is by becoming ministers, or missionaries. It is a pity how many would be shut out from any opportunity of magnifying the Most High if this were the case. Beloved, it is not the office held, it is earnestness; it is not position, it is grace which will enable us to glorify God. God is most surely glorified in that factory job, where the godly worker, as he works simple tasks, sings of the Savior’s love. Yes, God is  glorified far more there than in many a staff pastoral role where official religiousness performs its meager duties. The name of Jesus is glorified by the poor unlearned deliveryman as he drives his truck, and blesses his God, or speaks to his fellow laborer by the roadside, as much as by the popular preacher who, throughout the country, like James and John, is thundering out the gospel. God is glorified by our serving him in our proper vocations. Take care, dear reader, that you do not forsake the path of duty by leaving your occupation, and take care you do not dishonor your profession while in it. Think little of yourselves, but do not think too little of your callings. Every lawful trade may be sanctified by the gospel to noblest ends. Turn to the Bible, and you will find the most menial forms of labor connected either with most daring deeds of faith, or with persons whose lives have been illustrious for holiness. Therefore, be not discontented with your calling. Whatever God has made your position, or your work, rest peacefully in that, unless you are quite sure that he calls you to something else. Let your first care be to glorify God to the utmost of your power where you are. Fill your present sphere to his praise, and if he needs you in another he will show it you. This evening lay aside vexing ambition, and embrace peaceful content.

Morning, June 27, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Only you shall not go very far away.”  –Exodus 8:28

This is a devious word from the mouth of the slave driver Pharaoh. If the poor enslaved Israelites must have a need to go out of Egypt, then he bargains with them that it shall not be very far away; not too far for them to escape the dread of his army, and the observation of his spies. In the same way, the world does not care for the nonconformity of the Christian, or his refusal of the world’s ways; it would have us be more charitable and not carry matters to extreme. Death to the world’s ways, and burial with Christ, are experiences which minds centered on this existence treat with ridicule, and so the Scripture which sets them forth is almost universally neglected, and even condemned. Worldly wisdom recommends the path of compromise, and talks of “moderation.” According to this temporal policy, purity is admitted to be very desirable, but we are warned against being too specific; truth is of course to be followed, but error is not to be severely denounced. “Yes,” says the world, “be spiritually minded by all means, but do not deny yourself some indiscriminate relations, an occasional party, and the neglect of religious observation. What’s the good of crying down a thing when it is so fashionable, and everybody does it?” Scores of Christians yield to this crafty advice, to their own ruin. If we would follow the Lord wholly, we must go right away into the wilderness of separation, and leave the Egypt of the carnal world behind us. We must leave its maxims, its pleasures, and its religion too, and go far away to the place where the Lord calls his sanctified ones. When the town is on fire, our house cannot be too far from the flames. When the epidemic is abroad, a man cannot be too far from its center. The further from a viper the better, and the further from worldly conformity the better. To all true believers let the herald sound, “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord.”

Evening, June 26, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”  2 Peter 1:4

Give up forever all thought of indulging your carnal nature if you would live in the power of your risen Lord. It’s wrong that a man who is alive in Christ should dwell in the corruption of sin. “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” said the angel to Mary. Should the living dwell in the tomb? Should divine life be imprisoned in the morgue of worldly lust? How can we drink of the cup of the Lord and yet drink the cup of Belial (Worthlessness)? Surely, believer, from obvious lusts and sins you are delivered: have you also escaped from the more subtle and misleading snare of the Satanic bird trapper? Have you fled far from the lust of pride? Have you escaped from laziness? Have you made an escape from the false security of your self-efforts? Are you seeking day by day to live above worldliness, the pride of life, and the ensnaring vice of greed? Remember, it is for this that you have been enriched with the treasures of God. If you are indeed the chosen of God, and beloved by him, do not tolerate all the lavish treasure of grace to be wasted upon you. Pursue holiness; it is the Christian’s crown and glory.

An unholy church! it is useless to the world, and of no recognition among men. It is an abomination, bringing hell’s laughter, and heaven’s loathing. The worst evils which have ever come upon the world have been brought upon her by an unholy church. Oh Christian, the vows of God are upon you. You are God’s priest: act as such. You are God’s king: reign over your lusts. You are God’s chosen: do not associate with Worthlessness. Heaven is your portion: live like a citizen of Heaven, so you shall prove that you have true faith in Jesus, for there cannot be faith in your heart unless there is holiness in your life.

“Lord, I desire to live as one

Who bears a blood-bought name,

As one who fears but grieving You,

And knows no other shame.”

Morning, June 26, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Even you have been made weak as we, you have become like us!” — Isaiah 14:10

What must be the backsliding person’s doom when he finally appears before God? How will he bear that voice, “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.; you debased yourself with the world, and departed from me: I also have banished you forever from my presence, and will not have mercy upon you.’”

What will be this miserable person’s shame at the last great day when, before assembled multitudes, the backslider shall be unmasked? See the irreverent, and sinners who never professed religion, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at him. “There he is,” says one, “will he preach the gospel in hell?” “There he is,” says another, “he criticized me for cursing, and was a hypocrite himself!” “Aha!” says another, “here comes a psalm-singing churchgoer–one who was always at his meeting; he is the man who boasted of his being sure of everlasting life; and here he is!” No greater enthusiasm will ever be seen among Satanic tormentors, than in that day when devils drag the hypocrite’s soul down to hell.

Bunyan (in Pilgrim’s Progress) pictures this with massive but awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the backdoor to hell. Seven devils bound the miserable person with nine cords, and dragged him from the road to heaven, in which he had once claimed to walk, and thrust him through the backdoor into hell. Mind that back way to hell, you who profess Christ! “Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith.” Look well to your state; see whether you reside in Christ or not. It is the easiest thing in the world to give a lenient verdict when you yourself is to be tried; but at all cost, be just and true here. Be just to all, but be rigorous to examine yourself. Remember that if you fail to build on the Rock, when the house shall fall, great will be the fall of it. May the Lord give you sincerity, faithfulness, and steadiness; and in every day, no matter how evil, may you not be led to turn aside.

My thoughts on this sober devotional:

I’ve been editing these excerpts primarily to clarify Spurgeon’s 1800’s language. Obviously, this devotional is unsettling to those who subscribe to “eternal security.” Let me put it in context with some scriptures. 

We are indeed secure in Christ:

“And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” — John 8:28

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39

But there is a warning to those who turn back to the world and life from which they were delivered:

“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.  Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.  How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”  It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  — Hebrews 10:26-31

A prayerful reading of Hebrews 6 would be valuable also. 

“For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance,]since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame… But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.  For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.  And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

I believe indeed, that no external force can separate us from Christ.  I do believe, however, that some Christians are seduced away (aided by their pride) into denying Him for other philosophies which better suit their chosen manner of life, and may have a form of godliness, but reject its power to transform them.

My prayer for you and me (and the passages that inspired me to read Spurgeon this year) comes from Ephesians:

Eph. 1:17-19 …that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.    I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.

Eph. 3:14-19 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Eph. 6:18-20 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Evening, June 25, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark.”   — Genesis 8:9

Can you find rest apart from the ark, Christ Jesus? Then be assured that your religion is in vain. Are you satisfied with anything short of a conscious knowledge of your union and investment in Christ? Then you are in a miserable state. If you profess to be a Christian, yet find full satisfaction in worldly pleasures and pursuits, your profession is false. If your soul can be at rest, and find the bed comfortable enough, and the bedspread broad enough to cover you in the midst of sin, then you are a hypocrite, and far from any right thoughts of Christ or perception of his great value. But if, on the other hand, you feel that if you could indulge in sin without punishment, that same indulgence would be a punishment in itself; and that if you could have the whole world, and abide in it forever, it would be miserable to stay in it apart from God; for your God is what your soul craves after; then be encouraged, you are a child of God. With all your sins and shortcomings, let this comfort you: if you have no rest in sin, you are not as the sinner is! If you still cry after and crave for something better than the world, Christ has not forgotten you, for you have not quite forgotten him. The believer cannot do without his Lord; words are inadequate to express his thoughts of him. We cannot live on the sands of the wilderness, we want the manna which drops from heaven; however confident in our bodies we are, they cannot yield us a drop of moisture, but we drink of the rock which follows us as it followed Israel in the wilderness, and that rock is Christ. When you feed on him your soul can sing, “He has satisfied my mouth with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the eagle’s,” but if you do not have him, your well-stocked wine cellar and kitchen cannot give you any sort of satisfaction: rather lament over them in the words of wisdom, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!”

Morning, June 25, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Get yourself up on a high mountain.”  – Isaiah 40:9

Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing in the Welsh mountains. When you are at the base you see hardly anything: the mountain itself appears to be only half as high as it really is. Confined in a little valley, you discover scarcely anything but the rippling brooks as they descend into the stream at the foot of the mountain. Climb the first rising knoll, and the valley lengthens and widens beneath your feet. Go higher, and you see the country for four or five miles round, and you are delighted with the widening vista. Keep on climbing still, and the scene enlarges; until at last, when you are on the summit, and look east, west, north, and south, you see almost all England lying before you. Over there is a forest in some distant county, perhaps two hundred miles away, and here is the sea, and there lies a shining river and the signs of a city, or the ships in a busy port. All these things delight you, and you say, “I could not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation.” Now, the Christian life reflects the same progression. When we first believe in Christ we see just a little of him. The higher we climb the more we discover of his beauty. But who has ever gained the summit? Who has known all the heights and depths of the love of Christ which passes knowledge? Paul, when grown old, sitting grey-haired, shivering in a dungeon in Rome, could say with greater emphasis than we can, “I know whom I have believed,” for each experience had been like the climbing of a hill, each trial had been like ascending another summit, and as he neared his death he seemed to be gaining the top of the mountain, from which he could see the whole of the faithfulness and the love of him to whom he had committed his soul. Get yourself up, my friend, into the high mountain.

Evening, June 24, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods.“ – Daniel 3:16-18

The story of the manly courage and spectacular deliverance of the three devout youth, or rather champions, is well calculated to inspire in the minds of believers resolve and determination in upholding the truth in the teeth of tyranny and in the very jaws of death. Let young Christians especially learn from their example, both in matters of their faith in Christ, and matters of honesty in business, never to sacrifice their consciences. It is better to lose all rather than lose your integrity, and when all else is gone, still hold fast a clear conscience as the rarest jewel which can adorn the heart of a mortal. Do not be guided by a flitting firefly of policy, but by the ever steady northern star of divine authority. Follow the right choice no matter the consequence. When you see no advantage to your actions, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle. See whether he will be in debt to you! See if he doesn’t even in this life prove his word that “Godliness, with contentment, is great gain,” and that they who “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, shall have all these things added to them.”

Should it happen that, in the wisdom of God, you suffer loss by following your conscience, you shall find that if the Lord pays you not back in the currency of earthly prosperity, he will discharge his promise in the gold of spiritual joy. Remember that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. To wear a spirit without deceit, to have a heart void of wrongdoing, to have the favor and smile of God, is greater riches than the diamond mines of Africa could yield, or the markets of New York or Hong Kong could win. ” Better is a dish of vegetables where love is than a fattened ox served with hatred.” An ounce of peace in your heart is worth a ton of gold.

Morning, June 24, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.’ ²⁸ But He said, ‘On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.’”   Luke 11:27-28

Some have — with much affection — imagined that it must have involved very special privileges to have been the mother of our Lord, because they supposed that she had the benefit of looking into his heart in a way in which we cannot hope to do. There may be an appearance of plausibility in the idea, but not much. We do not know that Mary knew more than others; what she did know she did well to treasure in her heart; but she does not appear from anything we read in the Gospels to have been a better-instructed believer than any other of Christ’s disciples. All that she knew we also may discover. Do you wonder that we should say so? Here is a text to prove it: “The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.” Remember the Master’s words–“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” So graciously does this Divine Revealer of secrets tell us his heart, that he keeps nothing back which is profitable to us; his own assurance is, “If it were not so, I would have told you.” Doesn’t he today reveal himself to us as he but not to the world? Indeed; and therefore we will not ignorantly cry out, “Blessed is the womb that bare you,” but we will intelligently bless God that, having heard the Word and kept it, we have first of all as true a communion with the Saviour as Mary his mother had, and in the second place as true a familiarity with the secrets of his heart as she can be supposed to have obtained. Happy are we to be so privileged!

Evening, June 23, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons…” – Romans 8:23

Even in this world Christians are God’s children, but men cannot discern it, except by observing behavior and morality. The adoption is not completed, the children are not yet openly declared.

Among the Romans a man might adopt a child, and keep the adoption private for a long time: but there was a second adoption in public; when the child was brought before the constituted authorities his former garments were taken off, and the father who took him to be his child gave him fine clothing suitable to his new condition of life. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be.” We are not yet arrayed in the apparel which befits the royal family of heaven; we are wearing in this flesh and blood just what we wore as the sons of Adam; but we know that “when he shall appear” who is the “first-born among many brethren,” we shall be like him, we shall see him as he is. Cannot you imagine that a child taken from the lowest ranks of society, and adopted by a Roman senator, would say to himself, “I long for the day when I shall be publicly adopted. Then I shall leave off these commoner’s garments, and be robed as becomes my senatorial rank?” Happy in what he has received, for that very reason he cries out to get the fulfilment of what is promised him.

So it is with us today. We are waiting till we shall put on our proper garments, and shall be manifested as the children of God. We are young nobles, and have not yet worn our crowns. We are young brides, and the marriage day is not yet come, and by the love our Spouse bears us, we are led to long and sigh for the bridal morning. Our very happiness makes us cry out after more; our joy, like an overflowing spring, longs to well up like an Icelandic geyser, leaping to the skies, and we feel like bursting within our spirit as we desire to be changed in our body in public display to match our transformation within.

Morning , June 23, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Ephraim is a cake not turned.” -KJV

“Ephraim, he mixes himself among the nations. Ephraim is a pancake not turned over.” -NHEB, Hosea 7:8

A pancake not turned is uncooked on one side; and so the tribe of Ephraim was, in many respects, untouched by divine grace: though there was some partial obedience, there was very much rebellion left. My friend, I encourage you to see whether this is your case. Are you thorough in the things of God? Has grace gone through the very center of your whole being so as to be felt in its God-driven operations in all your powers, your actions, your words, and your thoughts? To be sanctified, to be set aside to holiness, spirit, soul, and body, should be your aim and prayer; and although sanctification may not be perfected in you in any specific area, yet it must be universal in its action; there must not be the appearance of holiness in one place and reigning sin in another, else you, too, will be a pancake not turned.

A pancake not turned is soon burned on the side nearest the heat, and although no man can have too much religion, there are some who seem burned black with narrowly focused enthusiasm for that part of truth which they have received, or are charred to a cinder with a self-important Pharisaic pretentious  display of those religious performances which suit their state of mind. The assumed appearance of superior sanctity frequently accompanies a total absence of all vital godliness. The Christian in public is a devil in private. He deals in pure white flour by day and in ashes by night. The pancake which is burned on one side, is cold dough on the other.

If it is so with me, O Lord, turn me! Turn my unsanctified nature to the fire of your love and let it feel the sacred glow, and let my burned side cool a little while I learn my own weakness and the chill when I am removed from your heavenly flame. Let me not be found a double-minded man, but one entirely under the powerful influence of reigning grace; for well I know if I am left like a pancake unturned, and am not on both sides the subject of your grace, I must be consumed forever amid everlasting fire.

Evening, June 22, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“That those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”  – Hebrews 12:27

We have many things in our possession currently which can be shaken to pieces, and it is a poor choice for a Christian to put much trust in them, for there is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written upon all things. Yet, we have certain “things which cannot be shaken,” and I invite you this evening to think of them, so that if the things which can be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken, which will remain. Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you presently enjoy salvation. You are standing at the foot of his cross, trusting alone in the merit of Jesus’ precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in him; no collapse of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that. Consider also that you are a child of God this evening. God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although you may lose your wealth and be brought to poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, “He is my Father still. ‘In My Father’s house are many dwelling places;’ therefore will I not be troubled.” You have another permanent blessing — namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He who is God and Man loves you with all the strength of his affectionate nature–nothing can change that. The fig tree may not blossom, and the flocks may cease from the field, it does not matter to the man who can sing, “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.” Our place with him and richest heritage we cannot lose. Whatever troubles come, let us respond like men; let us show that we are not such little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this short time we walk the earth. Our country is Immanuel’s land, our hope is above the sky, and therefore, calm as the summer’s ocean; we will see the wreck of everything earthborn, and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.

Morning, June 22, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the LORD, and He who will bear the honor.” Zechariah 6:13 NASB

Christ himself is the builder of his spiritual temple, and he has built it on the mountains of his unchangeable affection, his all-powerful grace, and his unfailing truthfulness. But as it was in Solomon’s temple, so it is in Jesus’ temple; the materials need preparation. There are the “Cedars of Lebanon,” but they are not framed for the building; they are not cut down, and shaped, and made into those planks of cedar, whose fragrant beauty shall bring rejoicing to the courts of the Lord’s house in heaven. There are also the rough stones still in the quarry, they must be cut from the quarry, cut to fit exactly. All this is Christ’s own work. Each individual believer is being prepared, and polished, and made ready for his place in the temple; but Christ’s own hand performs the preparation-work. Afflictions cannot purify and free us from sin, except as they are used by him to this end. Our prayers and efforts cannot make us ready for heaven, apart from the hand of Jesus, who molds our hearts exactly right.

As in the building of Solomon’s temple, “there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house,” because all was prepared and brought perfectly ready for the exact spot it was to occupy–so is it with the temple which Jesus builds; the preparation is all done on earth. When we reach heaven, there will be no sanctifying us there, no grinding us to shape with affliction, no honing us smooth with suffering. No, we must be made fit here–all that Christ will do beforehand; and when he has done it, we shall be ferried by a loving hand across the stream of death, and brought to the heavenly Jerusalem, to abide as eternal parts of that building, the temple of our Lord.

“Beneath his eye and care,

The edifice shall rise,

Majestic, strong, and fair,

And shine above the skies.”

Evening, June 21

Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands…  2 Timothy 2:19 NASB

The foundation upon which our faith rests is this, that “… God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not charging men’s transgressions to their account.” The absolute truth on which genuine faith relies is, that “the Word became human and made his home among us,” and that “Christ also has suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God”; “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross”; “the punishment that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.”

In one word, the great monument of the Christian’s hope is substitution. The punishment that made us whole was placed upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. The sacrifice of Christ taking the place of the guilty, Christ being made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, Christ offering up a true and proper sacrifice for the cleansing of our sin and taking upon himself our death penalty through his sacrifice in the room, place, and role of as many as the Father gave him, who are known to God by name, and are recognized in their own hearts by their trusting in Jesus–this is the fundamental fact of the gospel.

If this foundation were removed, what could we do? But it stands just as firm as the throne of God. We know it; we rest on it; we rejoice in it; and our delight is to hold it, to think continually upon it, and to proclaim it, while we desire to be motivated forward by gratitude for it in every part of our life and behavior. In these days, a direct attack is made upon the doctrine of the atonement. Men cannot bear substitution, or even see their need for atonement. They reject and refute the thought of the Lamb of God bearing the sin of man. But we, who know by experience this invaluable truth, will proclaim it in defiance of them confidently and unceasingly. We will neither dilute it nor change it, nor squander it away in any shape or fashion. It shall still be Christ, a positive substitute, bearing human guilt and suffering in the place of men. We cannot, dare not, give it up, for it is our life, and despite all opposition we feel that “Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure.”

I’ve been reading Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening this year, and the referenced verse’s Bible chapter. The old English has been a bit of a challenge, and though I’ve wanted to post some of the devotionals I’ve hesitated. I decided to slightly edit this one to more understandable English.

Morning, June 21, adapted from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“You are fairer than the sons of men; Grace is poured upon Your lips; Therefore God has blessed You forever…” Psalm 45:2   -NASB

The entire person of Jesus is as a great gem set in a King’s signet ring, and his life is all along but one impression of its seal. He is altogether complete; not only in his many parts, but as a gracious glorious whole. His character is not a mass of beautiful colors mixed without order, not a heap of precious stones carelessly assembled; he is a picture of beauty and gloriously jeweled armor. In him, all the “things of good reputation” are in their proper places, and assist in completing each other. Not one feature in his beautiful glory attracts attention at the expense of others; but he is perfectly and completely lovely.

Oh, Jesus! Your power, your grace, your justice, your tenderness, your truth, your majesty, and your unchangeable nature make up such a man, or rather such an incarnation of God, as neither heaven nor earth have seen elsewhere. Your infancy, your eternity, your sufferings, your triumphs, your death, and your immortality, are all woven in one gorgeous tapestry, without any seam or tear. You are music in total harmony; you are many, and yet not divided; you are all things, and yet not dissimilar. As all the colors blend into one resplendent rainbow, so all the glories of heaven and earth meet in you, and unite so wondrously, that there is none like you anywhere; no, if all the virtues of all the best were bound in one bundle, they could not rival you; you are the mirror of all perfection. You have been anointed with the holy fragrant oils of myrrh and cassia, which your God has reserved for you alone; and as for your fragrance, it is as the holiest perfume, the like of which none other can ever mingle, even with the art of the greatest perfumer; each spice is fragrant, but the compound is divine.

“Oh, sacred symmetry! oh, rare connection

Of perfect things, combined to perfection!

Oh, heavenly music, where all parts do meet

In one great chorus, perfect and sweet!”

 

My Bible reading today included Jeremiah 19 and 20.  Jeremiah is called the “weeping prophet,” and earlier in the book (chapter 9) he bemoaned that he didn’t have enough tears to cry for his beloved people.

If anyone had good reason to be depressed, it was Jeremiah. Israel had been one of the preeminent nations, with vast riches, wise rulers, the blessing of God Himself, and a temple (Solomon’s) that was incomparable.

Now the nation was oppressed by those surrounding it, many had already gone into captivity, and  Jeremiah had the duty to prophesy the imminent captivity of the remaining tribe of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem, because of their abandonment of their God in every way, even to the point of offering their children as sacrifices to other gods.

God even instructed Jeremiah not to take a wife or have children, because of the upcoming desolation for the nation.

Here he goes from praise to utter despair (in 20:13-14):

Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord!
For He has delivered the soul of the needy one
From the hand of evildoers.

But then:

Cursed be the day when I was born;
Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!

All sorts of bad things were still to come for Jeremiah… he had a pretty good reason to be depressed.

It’s a bit puzzling that the US ranks the highest in the world for “lifetime prevalence” of depression. Most of the other top 10 nations are poor, war-torn, or both. One possible cause is the widespread use of hormonal contraception here (see the recent study cited below).  But to me the 17% percentage rate quoted by Wikipedia for the US (also see below) might even seem low.  I know close family members that suffer from it, and I sometimes suffer myself.

The one sure thing I know from experience is, “This too shall pass.”  (I know, that’s not a Bible quote.)  I have learned that a “dark night of the soul,” while it seems at the time will last forever, is always followed by daybreak.

The prophet Jeremiah noted this in Lamentations 3:

Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

Surely my soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.

This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.

The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
To the person who seeks Him.

It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the LORD.

And later in the book of Jeremiah he speaks of the “Branch” (Jesus) who would rule over and restore the kingdom.

No matter how dark it is, the Light of the World is still there, still cares, still saves.

When I experience that “dark night of the soul,” I try to remember:

• I’ve been there before
• I’ve come out of it before
• God is sufficient to carry me through it
• God is good to those who wait for Him.

All that being said, we are not an island unto ourselves.  Take advantage of the community that God has provided for you (that Jeremiah didn’t have), and especially if your depression leads to feelings of self-destruction.  There is pastoral and medical help for those feelings, and in less serious instances your communication with your immediate church family/small group will likely encourage others as much as they encourage you.

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After reading Jeremiah I was perusing music on my phone and chanced to play “Eleanor Rigby,”  perhaps one of the Beatles’ most depressing songs. Better to listen to Loreena McKennitt’s interpretation of this poem…

 

Wessel Skovlund, Charlotte (September 28, 2016). “Association of Hormonal Contraception With Depression”. JAMA Psychiatry. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.2387. Retrieved October 7, 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_depression

 

Nearly 40 years ago Carole and I embarked on a trip from Polson, Montana to Salem, Oregon, stopping in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to get married. We were without a clue as to what we were doing, had no concrete plans, had no work waiting for us…  We just knew that we had to change our environment if we were to survive as (relatively) new Christians.

The first weekend we went to a church that was recommended to us, New Covenant Chapel in Salem. A couple — Rollie and Betty Rogers — introduced themselves to us immediately. We really didn’t fit in the scheme of things there — my long hair  being one thing quite out of place — but they immediately invited us to dinner after church.  I don’t recall if we accepted that first week, but that invitation initiated the first of many after-church dinners at their house over many years.  They had children at home that were close to our ages, and they lived in a humble little house they rented a couple blocks from the church. While their house was small their hospitality was as expansive as their hearts were,  and they became friends with us and extended hospitality that transformed our lives.

They began by helping arrange an after-the-fact wedding shower for us, and their acts of kindness stretched over decades.  We became close friends with some of their children. Rollie was a church elder, and taught us on Sundays and eventually in a Bible college the church started. Rollie invited me to play basketball, and we competed in table tennis (where I eventually became good enough to finally beat him — at least a couple times).

Without their hospitality, friendship, and care I don’t know how we would have turned out… John Maxwell says, “Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.” Just a few weeks ago I attended a life study at our church in Florida by John Ortberg on Soul Keeping.  In one of the sessions he spoke about the parable of the sower, and how we have to monitor our soul, which he paralleled to the soil Jesus spoke of.

My Bible reading included Mark 4 this morning, and it struck me that God placed Rollie and Betty in our lives to be that good soil Jesus spoke about. Rollie’s friendship helped me when I was being mocked at my work because of my faith (“In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;  and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.”)

Their example of how they lived humbly affected our view on wealth and prosperity (“And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,  but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”)

Their (relatively) large family and love of children impacted us also, in a culture that was critical of us as our family grew over the years. I will be eternally grateful for their friendship, and for the Grace that placed our paths together.  Rollie passed away to be with Jesus (and Betty) recently but I know that departure from this life does not end a friendship that was so critical to my life and that friendship can extend eternally.

Michael W. Smith says it so well:

Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
I can’t believe the hopes He’s granted
Means a chapter of your life is through

But we’ll keep you close as always
It won’t even seem you’ve gone
‘Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord’s the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
‘Cause the welcome will not end
Though it’s hard to let you go
In the Father’s hands we know
That a lifetime’s not too long
To live as friends

And with the faith and love God’s given
Springing from the hope we know
We will pray the joy you live in
Is the strength that now you show

One of the Scripture passages that sort of troubled me (for years) was this one in the end of Mark 3: “31 Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. 32 A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” 33 Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” 34 Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, ” Behold My mother and My brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.” (NASB)

It sounds like Jesus wasn’t honoring his mother or respecting his brothers. Why did he reject their call to Him? Pretty rude, isn’t it?

Today when I read through Mark I was reading in the English Standard Bible and I caught something I hadn’t before in multiple readings of the chapter.  In verse 21, it says, “When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”  (NASB)  The ESB uses the word “family” instead of “own people” in that verse, and the NASB has the footnote that the word is alternately “kinsmen.”

In this context Jesus was performing miracles and the religious leaders were saying he was performing miracles in the power of Satan, casting demons out because, really, he was demonized himself.

Even Jesus’ family bought into the evaluation that the scribes (the experts) brought forth — that Jesus was crazy.

Have you ever done something that you believe the Lord was leading you to do only to be declared nuts by those closest to you?  I’m visiting Oregon this week, where many years ago we decided to host a large Russian immigrant family.  We were broke, had a large family of our own (5 at the time), a house close to foreclosure, and were counseled against doing such a crazy thing. I’m here in Oregon, where we began our journey of bearing and raising 10 children, and where often we were declared to be unwise–foolish even–and crazy. (I should add that many in Oregon were very supportive, and some emulated us… but there were definitely some that thought and told us we were off our rocker!)

By the way, that Russian family (actually, Ukrainian) have prospered and been a blessing here in Oregon.  And our 10 children serve the Lord and bless their communities, as well as our 19 grandchildren.

So when Jesus declared that His family were those that did the will of His Father, his earthy family was probably there, not to believe, not to follow Him, but to have Him committed… So if they thought the Lord of Creation was crazy, some of the things the Lord might have us do might come across the same way.

 

 

The adjective “ephemeral” means “lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory;” an alternate meaning is “lasting for just one day.”

Sand sculpture is one of those “ephemeral” art forms I find fascinating.  Sculpted at low tide the art only has a lifespan of a few hours, and its three dimensional nature dictates that we view it in those few hours it exists.  We visited a great show in Hollywood (Florida) a few years ago, and perhaps will sometime make the national competition in Fort Myers, Florida.

Another art form — street painting — has a notable festival just a few minutes away from our home in Lake Worth, Florida.  This last weekend was that annual fest, and I made my annual visit…  Apparently it’s one of the biggest events of this kind in the country.

Street painting is somewhat easier to capture for posterity than sand sculpture since it’s not three dimensional, but the perspective (viewing at an angle) and the medium (asphalt and/or concrete) make it –like sand sculpture — necessary to view in person.  In one sense the art is even more transitory than sand art, in that a thunderstorm can wipe out an artist’s efforts in a few seconds…

Weather was favorable this year, and I captured some images from this year’s festival — my favorites, but a fraction of the total — and I hope they communicate the beauty of the art (you can click on images to view full screen) …

Creatures are a popular subject…

Even many odd creatures…

 

And characters….

There’s a fixation (and probably rightly so) on the feminine form…

There’s the famous and the dead….

Rock and Roll….

One thing quite apparent to me was how the distraction of surroundings destroys the sense of perception the artist wants to portray…

With distraction:

And without:

Just as I had to focus to see the art in the intent these artists had planned,  I wonder at how often daily I let the distractions and surroundings take my focus off the intent of the Artist of the World….

Here’s some more art from this year’s show:

This is just a sampling of the wonderful art at this festival, but at the end of the day — and even as I write — the beauty is being ground away by the tires of the cars and the eventual rain that came…   My daughter works in Lake Worth, and the pictures above were taken after I dropped her off in the afternoon, and at the height of the festival.  A few hours later we both walked down the streets (the barricades were down, the crowd gone) so she could see the art, which was still fairly intact.  The drivers were barreling down the street, oblivious to the art and the days of work represented under their tires…

The apostle James tells us that our lives are as a vapor, a whiff of smoke, that’s there and then gone.  Only what has been recorded — in the lives of those we impacted — will continue on (at least in this earth).  We bear some semblance to the art we create….

“Two little lines I heard one day,
Traveling along life’s busy way;
Bringing conviction to my heart,
And from my mind would not depart;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one,
Soon will its fleeting hours be done;
Then, in ‘that day’ my Lord to meet,
And stand before His Judgement seat;
Only one life,’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, the still small voice,
Gently pleads for a better choice
Bidding me selfish aims to leave,
And to God’s holy will to cleave;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, a few brief years,
Each with its burdens, hopes, and fears;
Each with its clays I must fulfill,
living for self or in His will;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

When this bright world would tempt me sore,
When Satan would a victory score;
When self would seek to have its way,
Then help me Lord with joy to say;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Give me Father, a purpose deep,
In joy or sorrow Thy word to keep;
Faithful and true what e’er the strife,
Pleasing Thee in my daily life;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Oh let my love with fervor burn,
And from the world now let me turn;
Living for Thee, and Thee alone,
Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne;
Only one life, “twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one,
Now let me say,”Thy will be done”;
And when at last I’ll hear the call,
I know I’ll say “twas worth it all”;
Only one life,’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last. ”

— C.T. Studd

I was helping my dad move some sheep from one pasture to another, and I didn’t see the wire, chest high across my path. I don’t even remember how old I was – probably preteen.  It was dusk, and I was running behind the sheep as we drove them down the road and into a pasture.  I thought the gap in the fence was a regular gate, and I didn’t see that there were strands of barbed wire set about 3-4 feet above the ground, above the height of the sheep. And I didn’t hear (or pay attention to?) my dad warning me about them.  One second I was running full out behind the sheep, the next I was laying on the ground.   I felt more surprised than hurt, but then I saw the gash on my left arm – better than 3 inches long – and deep enough that I could see muscle (and tendons, and perhaps bone if I cared to look deep enough).  Fortunately the wire had missed my artery, and any bleeding was superficial.

We lived 45 minutes from the nearest town, and we were at least a half mile from home in walking distance (across the field — to take the road probably doubled that). There were no cell phones in those days, and I recall that my dad had to run home, call the doctor and get the car to drive me to get stitched up.  I was bearing that open wound for the better part of two hours, at least.  Many decades later, I still have that v-shaped scar.

I was recently reading from John 20, the passage addressing Thomas’ lack of belief and demand for evidence. Something other than the emphasis on faith and unbelief struck me; it’s sort of my revelation of 20/20 vision.  The 20^th verse says, “And when He had said this [‘Peace be with you’], He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.”  He showed them.  They saw.

He showed them His hands and His side.   He showed them the open wound in His side.  Not a scar. An open wound.  It was a wound that Thomas could put his hand into; the Roman’s sword didn’t make a small wound.  The resurrected Jesus, in His glorified body, carries  – present tense – an open wound. I’d never thought that through before, that when I see Jesus, he’ll still have that open wound.  And if I want to see clearly – to see with 20/20 vision – I need to see everything in context of Jesus’ wounds.

That scar on my arm was my first, but not my last. I’ve got others, some from other barbed wire fences, some from accidents, some from the surgeon’s knife, but I don’t carry any open wounds. Not physically, at least.

I do carry other kinds of open wounds, though.  Or ones easily opened. I’ve found that just a word – and usually, one uttered in innocence at best, or carelessly at worst – can open old wounds within me.  A mistake on someone else’s part can convince me of malevolence aimed towards me (anyone else drive I-95?), and evoke a reaction from me, sometimes because of past wounds.

Bruce Hornsby has a song called “Sticks and Stones:”

The chorus:

“Oh sticks and stones can break my bones
But your words always hurt me the most
My scars will heal but the slurs won’t
Blow up and lose my head well I hope I don’t (I hope I don’t)”

Here’s a link to the whole song:  http://youtu.be/kOOVFjUreCM

I’m sure many or most of us will have suffered at the hands of our peers, whether in school, work, or life/relationships in general.  I may or may not have suffered from childhood slurs more than others; I don’t know.  I do know that when I had the opportunity I would join in and mock/degrade others, so I inflicted wounds as well as received them.

I can say that, even as a Christian, I’ve been falsely accused at times, deeply wronged at other times.  And I’ve also wounded and wronged many of those close to me. Whether it’s wounds inflicted on me, or wounds inflicted by me, I don’t have the memory, intellect or judgment to catalog all of them and weigh them.  I’m more concerned about those I inflicted than those inflicted upon me, and I’m sure that I’m not aware of some of those.

But one wound weighs on me too heavily to bear, a mortal wound I can’t ignore.

Charles Spurgeon said of the end of the age, “A crucified Christ with his wounds still open will be a terrible sight for an assembled universe.”

He continues: “The death of Christ was wrought by the hand of manhood, of all and entire manhood. Others did it for you, and though you gave no consent verbally, yet you do assent in your heart every day.”

And I stood with those unbelievers in past days, but the wounds that Jesus carries, the wounds He received on my behalf for my redemption, are too heavy to bear, and too deadly to endure.

But I don’t have to bear the weight of those mortal wounds; Jesus did, and Jesus does.

As Isaiah says:   “One look at him and people turned away.  We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!

“He took the punishment, and that made us whole.”

So the wounds I have that occasionally reopen, the scars, are in His care, His concern.  He, however, bears an open wound so that I might not suffer the wounding and death I deserve from a righteous God.

It makes the wounds that others have inflicted on me seem pretty small.  Can I judge anyone for the wounds inflicted on me, when Jesus’ wounds delivered me from judgment?  It’s no inconsequential thing that Jesus, in His transformed, redeemed, resurrected body chose to carry these wounds forward.

So that’s the 20/20 vision I want to have.  I want to have a vision for what’s been done for me, not what’s been done to me.  And when something triggers an old wound, I want to remember that all wounds will be healed.

Except those in His hands, His feet, His side.

 

A passage of scripture that has bothered me over the years is Matthew 5:13:   “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”

In my morning devotional today the parallel passage in Luke 14:34 was included in the reading, so the problematic question came up again:  How can salt lose its taste?

Common Table Salt (sodium chloride) is by its nature one of the most stable compounds in existence.  I grew up on a cattle ranch in Montana, and we would place blocks of salt (with other minerals) out by where we would feed the cattle in winter, as sort of a vitamin supplement.  Those salt lick blocks could sit through blizzards, through rain storms, through scorching sun, and I could still break a piece off and it would still taste as salty as the day we put it out there.

Is Jesus confused here?  The positive attributes of salt have been discussed in countless sermons (preservative, flavoring, etc.) and applied in analogy in countless ways, but this negative attribute — losing its flavor — apparently isn’t possible.

I know it’s probably strange how much this bothered me… but it did.

As I was pondering the context in Luke around this verse, I began to see something, however. Jesus talks about a dinner leading up to this verse. (And food and salt go together, right?  He knows how readily I combine the two.)  The picture is of Jesus inviting the successful, upright people to dinner, but those people find they have more important things to do; they’re buying property, they’re focusing on their business, they’ve got a dinner date with the wife.  So Jesus sends out for the “street people,” who are more than willing to come.  He then talks about wisdom in planning to build, or planning to fight, and immediately precedes the “salt” verse with this:  “Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple.” (The Message.)

And so if we are disciples, he says we are salt.  But, how do we become tasteless?  So I looked at that word — “tasteless” in English — and found that the Greek word is “moraino,” which means “to be foolish.” It comes from the root “moros,” where we get our English word, “moron.”   Variations of that word are used in Romans 1 (“professing to be wise, they became fools”) and in 1 Corinthians 1 (“God made foolish the wisdom of this world”).

So if we become foolish, we lose the transformational effect that accompanies our nature we have as disciples. And what “foolish” things does Jesus talk about preceding this?

• Letting religious rules supplant showing mercy (Luke 14:5)
• Grasping for preference and exalting ourselves (Luke 14:11)
• Showing preference for the rich instead of the poor (Luke 14:13)
• Placing our own plans and projects ahead of the Kingdom (Luke 14:16-33)

The only way that I can see salt becoming useless for flavoring is if it becomes contaminated with dirt, or other foreign substances. Do we contaminate our saltiness with foolish, foreign things?

Since Luke didn’t write in chapters and verses, the passage immediately following the “salt of the earth” statement is relevant also.

Luke 15:1-3 from The Message:  “By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, ‘He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.’ Their grumbling triggered this story.”

In the stories following Jesus speaks of seeking, receiving, and celebrating the lost:  The Lost Coin, the Lost Sheep, and the Lost Son.

The passage that bothered me for years regarding Jesus’ knowledge in chemistry and culinary skill still bothers me — perhaps even more — with my understanding of the root meaning of the word “tasteless.”

• Do I let the religious disciplines I’ve implemented in my life suffice to salve my conscience regarding my obligation to the lost?
• Who would I prefer to hang with and have respect from; the “street people” or church leaders?
• Who do I show deference toward: The respected or the rejected?
• Do my goals and aspirations, my acquisitions and my projects, conflict with Jesus’ plans to reach the lost?

Am I the salt and light that Jesus said I would be?  Or am I a fool?

In today’s chapter of the devotional I’ve been reading, Eugene Peterson challenges me to compare my earthly affections to the “Rich Young Ruler” in Mark 10.

This story has always troubled me; even though I’ve never been “rich” in the eyes of the (western) world, I still have things I cherish. (Of course, the most meager income in the United States dwarfs two-thirds of the rest of the world.)

I’ve collected drums, keyboards, drums, guitars, drums, PAs, and drums over the years. I’ve given up my musical gear before; I’m sure I would do it again. But, it pulls at my heart…

I’ve got a more luxurious vehicle than I’ve ever had before; not an Audi or Lexus, but this F150 truck has more room and features than anything I’ve had… Shouldn’t I put function over form? Though it has features I may soon need (the towing package) I should be able to find an alternative.

Anyway, while I make my mind up on these things and test the strings that pull on my heart I’m going to continue to give as much as possible, hopefully above the norm, and ponder, and pray on these things.

The material possessions any of us have don’t hold a candle to what God’s grace has provided. Personally, I am so glad to have a couple of generations of godly offspring — full of joy, and light — by the Grace of God. By His Grace what seemed to be at best, misfortune, and at worst, evil (my conception subsequent to the divorce of my parents) put me in a life track that brought me to the Cross. I was adopted and raised by my aunt and uncle in rural Montana, rather than in California culture like my natural brother and his children were…

While I don’t have much contact with his family (he recently passed on) I’ve never seen evidence of a serious God-consciousness in his family.   I think that the more modest (and somewhat more trying) circumstances I found myself in helped lead me to faith in God.

Back to the story of the Rich Young Ruler… At the end of Jesus’ discussion of riches with His disciples, and following the “camel through the eye of a needle” example,  they respond, “Then who has any chance at all?”

“Jesus was blunt: ‘No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it.'”   The Grace Jesus offers us, is “Trip over your own feet, and fail; trip and fall at My feet, follow Me, and My fortune will be yours.”

I’ve certainly found many ways to trip over my own path I set in my own “wisdom.” Thank God for His inexhaustible Grace!

I can’t say I “like” the devotional I’m reading (it’s pretty challenging) but it is very good… It’s called the The Message: Solo, by Eugene Peterson, from NavPress, and utilizes the lectio divina method.

The Message SOLO New Testament Brown Leather-Look: An Uncommon Devotional

I watched the sweat dripping from my brow darken the carpet below my face, as I suspended myself, trembling, from the chairs beneath the banquet table. The tablecloth hid me from the men searching the building.  I could see nothing but their feet and the shotguns some were carrying as they walked past the table.  Dave, who had the idea to hide beneath the tables, made no sound beneath the adjoining table.  The minutes seemed to stretch to hours, until someone noticed the chairs I rested on in tight alignment to the table, unlike the others.  He pulled the chair out and I fell down clumsily onto the floor.

The police, wary from having an officer shot just a few days previously, trained their weapons on me as one dragged me from under the table. The restaurant owner, who had let the police into his restaurant after the silent alarm went off, ran up and kicked me before the officers could restrain him.  The police discovered Dave and cuffed him a few seconds afterward.

Busted!  And all because someone was praying for me…

All we wanted to do was break into the restaurant (Dave had cooked there before) and steal a few bottles of liquor and some steaks.

They hauled us off to the Marion County (Salem, Oregon) jail for booking and incarceration.  I sat in there for quite a few days, since the authorities “misplaced” my bail money.  Finally, they let me out.  I realized much later, in retrospect, that the authorities were keeping me in jail as long as possible because they had been watching my other (much more seriously) illegal activities for quite some time.  (My entrepreneurial efforts in reselling certain illegal herbal products hadn’t been that profitable but had obviously been noted by the authorities, and they were surely delighted to finally catch me doing something indictable.)

All because someone was praying for me – a former girlfriend, a new Christian, had been asking prayer for me in her youth group…

Though I’d had run-ins with the law before, I’d always avoided any serious charges or any jail time, and I found even my few days in jail terribly unsettling. I endured the next few weeks anticipating my sentencing, which should have resulted in mere probation. After all, I had no previous record.  Dave, however, skipped bail and fled the state, leaving me to face the judge alone.

“One year in the county jail,” the judge decreed in a booming voice. I was devastated. This sentence put a serious crimp in my ill-formed short-term plans.  They immediately took me to the Marion County jail.

And all because someone was praying for me, a young lady named Carole with whom I’d debated the merits of Hinduism (my worldview) and Christianity (her new guiding principle).

County jail? One year? With no priors? I freaked.  After just a few days, I started to make every effort I could to convince my jailers that I was mentally unstable (a friend had told me that the mental hospital was much more luxurious than the county jail, and that they would give you drugs there.)   No luck.  And after a few days in the Marion County, Oregon jail (then on the top floor of the courthouse, with a 360 degree view of the city), they transferred me to the older, even more claustrophobic Polk County jail.  (Unlike state prison, the county jails had nothing for recreation, just a common area with a TV in the corner.)

County jail.  One year.  A jailer at the Polk County jail, seeing my distraught and unbalanced condition, called a friend to come down and talk to me.  Ida Nelson, then in her sixties, had been a Christian for many decades.  She had ministered to inmates in the local jail before, and she was more than willing to come down as often as I would talk to her.  Her quiet, confident, grace-filled demeanor spoke volumes to me, and when she asked me if I wanted to accept Christ, I was more than willing to pray with her.

An uncanny, inexplicable peace descended on me the minute I put my trust in Christ.  My Bible began to start to make sense.  I ended my self-imposed hunger strike and no longer spent the days in anguish over my anticipated months of imprisonment. And all because someone was praying for me, someone who was delighted to hear that I’d made a commitment to Christ.

After just a couple of weeks in jail, they decided to transport me back to the Marion County jail.  In a straitjacket.   My efforts to convince the authorities of my insanity resulted in a hearing with a board of psychiatrists, to whom I got to give my  testimony in public for the first time.  Surprisingly enough, they considered me sane and didn’t commit me to the local mental hospital (where they filmed One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest — really!).

Surprisingly soon after authorities determined that I was “rehabilitated,” and released me from jail.  I moved back to my hometown in Montana, where I was baptized in water by a local Assembly of God pastor, baptized in the Holy Spirit, and I eventually married the former girlfriend who had been praying for me. We moved to Oregon, and met up with Ida again, who let us stay there and pointed us to a church. Space and time prohibit me from detailing much more, but my new wife and I joined that charismatic church in Salem, Oregon and were some of the first Bible college students in the school at New Covenant Chapel there, anticipating future ministry.  We took classes in everything from Genesis to Revelation, and from Bible Research to Preaching (we have about the equivalent of three years of courses, before the small college folded when our church merged with another church in Salem).

We put our ministry aspirations on hold while raising our family of ten children, moving back to Montana, and hosting three foreign exchange students, a Russian immigrant family of eight, and many short- and long-term foster children, both through the state and through our local church.

And, for me, it started in a little jail in Oregon…

 

I’m going to expand later on what I believe the Bible says about family in the Old Testament and New Testament — that I believe it’s the PRIMARY Biblical message and God’s priority for His Church.  (See Malachi 2:15: “And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring.”)

A few years ago I began a manuscript on the state of the Church because I felt there were some vital issues my fellow believers were missing in applying Scriptural principles to real life issues.

A lot of these issues were very real to me, because of life decisions my wife and I had made regarding family and faith.  One related to a primary attitude that many Christians have adopted from secular society.

“Only have as many children as you can afford.”

For the majority of our marriage I was the main source of income for our household.  While aware of some of the tools in the Christian community for money management, I was  discouraged by the presuppositions regarding money and children I’ve found in almost every course, and never really implemented them.  Lately, though, I’ve found Dave Ramsey’s Peace University to be valuable… however…

The undercurrent of most money-management programs is that you have all your resources lined up and life planned out before you make a decision regarding your family and children.  If we’d made any decisions on starting and continuing to increase our family size based on all the financial programs we’ve explored, we wouldn’t have half these kids we cherish.   If you’re reading this, you probably know at least some of our  children… there’s not one I would “turn back in …”

In addition, we’ve been quite open to hosting guests in our home – consisting, on and off, over a third of our marriage — including foster children, exchange students, foreign immigrant families, street people, and many others (see endnote).

My philosophy, perhaps erroneous, to some degree presumptuous, has been to trust in God’s provision when we have decided to do the seeming impractical (add another baby, host an immigrant family, etc.).  (I only say my philosophy was erroneous, in that I didn’t have a budget or good financial administrative skills.)

Our Christian service hasn’t been limited to that in our home over the years.  I’ve assisted in worship teams for nearly all the years of our marriage, played in Christian outreach bands, and served as deacon, elder, church treasurer, private school board member, co-pastor, and administrator at different times.  Both Carole and I have led youth groups, school groups, prison ministries; taught Sunday School, children’s church, Bible Studies, Bible College classes, private school classes, and more.  We’ve also helped (physically) in at least three church/school building programs.   All while raising 10 children (and exchange/foster children, etc.).

During these many years we’ve had significant struggles with finances and money.  We’ve always tried to be consistent tithers and givers, but we’ve lost a house in foreclosure, and turned two homes over for the equity only, sold another home we had inherited and sold two other building sites we had purchased… with the final deed turned back on a church building we had renovated (this just before we moved to Florida).  While I had hoped our financial fortunes would change in Florida, the job here I had hoped for never materialized, and I wound up working for fairly low wages at Home Depot for the first few years.

So we now rent, don’t have big retirement accounts, don’t have big portfolios of real estate or stocks…

But we have an priceless treasure in our ten children (and 17 grandchildren — so far).  And God has been ever faithful to provide our basic needs at every turn.

All our children boldly confess their trust and faith in Christ.  Many currently lead or have previously led in their local churches.   Three sons serve in the service:  One in the Air Force and two in the Navy.  While many have experienced “bumps in the road,” and significant life challenges (one daughter is raising her children alone after her “minister” husband picked up a girlfriend and started another family with her), every one is committed to following and serving Christ in their walk.

It’s not been an easy walk — Carole is currently staying in Washington state to help out with the single mom and another daughter raising a new baby alone — but God’s glorious Grace has been ever-present in every situation and circumstance, and will continue to be so.

A number have come to Christ through our ministry one-on-one, and many have been influenced to (what we consider) Godly decisions regarding their lives and families.

Eleven years of “Guests” in our years of marriage:

1977 Forest (Carole’s brother) 12 mo.

1978 Cindy (Carole’s sister) 1 mo.

Bud (Carole’s brother) 3 mo.

Mary (homeless 15 yr. old) 15 mo.

1979 and 1984 Forest (Carole’s brother) 9 mo.

Tami and Jerry (and 1 daughter, 1 sister) 2 mo.

Gary (ex-con) 6 mo.

Gordon (gay homeless man) 1 week

Joanna’s mom (mentally challenged pregnant homeless) 1 mo.

Beatrice (mentally challenged elderly homeless) 1 mo.

Alice (pregnant single teen) 4 mo.

1980 Cindy (Carole’s pregnant sister and child) 3 mo.

Bill (Cindy’s friend) 1 mo.

1985 Cindy (estranged from parents) 4 mo.

1987 J.J. (foster care, pregnant teen prostitute) 10 mo.

1988 Ellen (J.J.’s sister, Foster Child) 6 mo.

1987 Shelly (single young adult) 18 mo.

1989 Makarenkos (Russian refugee family of 7) 4 mo.

1992 Tina (homeless adult dancer) and Louie and 2 children, 2 mo.

Bobbie and Chuck (homeless, pregnant adult dancer) 6 mo.

2000 Brittany (niece) 3 mo.

2000 Carole’s Sister’s 4 small children (temp. foster care) 2 weeks

2001 Stacey (daughter estranged from parents) 4 mo.

2001 Stacey’s family (mom and I siblings, 7 members) 1 mo.

2001 Kiril and Eva (Foreign Exchange, Georgia and Bulgaria) 9 mo.

2002 Nickita (Foreign Exchange, Russia) 5 mo.

2006 Leena and four kids 2 weeks

And a number of others I forget…

Carole’s “daycare” over the years:

Ryan, Jennie, Anna, Bethany, Kevin, Tori, Tony, Stephanie, Julie, Issac, Joseph, Bobbie, Cassie, Stacey, Daniel, Eli, Dustin, Melanie, Casey, Aaron, Ben, Karen’s 3 girls,  Sheena, Methenia, Reese, Shelly …  And many more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the first section of a article I began penning a few years ago, about the state of the Church (in the United States, at least). My premise: My belief that the Church today has a misunderstanding of God’s purpose regarding Her…

“Prior to 1990, the popularity of Christianity had been stable in the U.S. About 87% of adults identified themselves as Christians. The country then experienced a major change. Significant numbers of American adults began to disaffiliate themselves from Christianity and from other organized religions. By 2008, the percentage of Christians had reached 76% and is believed to be continuing its decline.”  (As stated by ReligiousTolerance.org — decidedly not an evangelical source — but confirmed by other studies — see this NYTimes opinion by John S. Dickerson.)

Subsequent to the most significant Pentecost that the Christian world ever experienced, a small group of believers (beginning with twelve disciples) transformed the world in a generation. Even the world-dominating empire of Rome eventually succumbed to the influence of Christianity. Just a handful of Christians evangelized much of the known world.

Here in the 21st century, we have a greater number of “professing” Christians than all the people living on the planet only a century ago. However, the transformational character of today’s Christianity pales in comparison to the power present in the early church.

Why?

Prior to that above-mentioned Pentecost, another small group had shaken the world to its core; the twelve sons of Israel. The current nation spawned by those twelve still dominates much of the political and social context of contemporary culture.

Why?

Why did both these groups of twelve grow to dominate the political and social fabric of society?

And more importantly, why are they now seemingly in decline?

The Westminster Shorter Catechism (to which many churches abide) states that, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.”   While that is indeed a grand and expected end for man, I have been taught more than once that this is God’s highest and single purpose for man.  But I believe that man’s purpose — on earth at least — is to … procreate.

Most in the western world are familiar with the Biblical account of Adam and Eve, whether as a myth, a fable, or a tenet of faith. In Genesis 1:28 we find the first commandment (and perhaps the highest): God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Be fruitful and multiply… This couple, Adam and Eve, were instructed to be a family, the first family, and to raise a family that would fill the earth. If you believe the account in Genesis 10, all the nations of the earth, including Israel, descended from that first family.

We use that term – family – to describe all of mankind: The Family of Man. We use it to describe large biological groups. We use it to describe the Church. Many conservative and Christian groups incorporate it in their name. And many want to redefine the term to represent relationships other than the traditional heterosexual application of family (which implicitly includes marriage).

We all agree “family” is an important thing. But not only is “Family” an important thing; I believe it is the most important thing.

And if it’s the most important thing, to refuse to propagate is to go directly against the purpose of God in the earth, in the natural and the spiritual…

You may be reading this, or be flipping through it, because the title caught your eye.  There are already plenty of articles on abortion; there are plenty of articles on the Church, and its growth or decline.  No one declares, “I think abortion is, in and of itself, a good thing.”  They may think it a necessity or they may think it a sin, but no one thinks it’s a good thing.  But abortion is just an action; it’s a procedure.  But however you feel and think about abortion, how you feel and think about church, the key is the attitude you have about abortion, about church.

Attitudes shape our actions.

Attitudes shape other attitudes.

We’ve all seen and experienced (and been) people with a “bad attitude,” if we have children, or a job, or drive a car, or go shopping, or…   We know a bad attitude when we see one, because we see the actions the attitude spawned.  We see the facial expressions and body language, and we hear the comments; and thus we can get a sense of the heart.  Jesus pointed at the heart, the attitude of his listeners when he trumped the Old Testament system of judging actions with the New Testament self-judgment of thoughts and intent. “You have heard…shall not commit…but I tell you… anyone who looks…”

So what is the attitude that leads to abortion?

Many in the church, and many in socially conservative politics consider abortion to be the most important issue in society today.  Many at the opposite end of the spectrum are just as vociferous in their support of abortion “rights.”  We’ve even coined a term – “litmus test” – as a ultimate test of our support or opposition based on a candidate’s stand (or a judge’s) on this single issue.

So this procedure, this act, that makes even the most liberal of politicians say, “I’m personally opposed to abortion…” even while doing everything in their power to insure its legality and continuance, this procedure, this act, that creates firestorms in the halls of legislative and judicial bodies and — literally — in the clinics that perform them, is still just the result of … an attitude.

So what is the attitude that leads to abortion?

If family is “the most important thing,” then our attitude towards family becomes our most important attitude. The attitude that the individual is the most important thing is the attitude that leads to abortion.

Two differing attitudes, begetting two different sets of actions:

The family is the most important thing.

The individual is the most important thing.

What difference does what we think about this, make?

None.  Really.

What God believes about these statements makes all the difference.

Now in practical application, having a wrong viewpoint and attitude can seem to make a significant difference.  In the Biblical account of the Tower of Babel, the whole population of earth was aligned with a wrong attitude (“it’s about us“) – “let us …make a name for ourselves… reaching to the heavens” – and God recognized that they could make a difference acting on a wrong attitude (“nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.”)  But God is, after all – God – and we are not, so His action to confuse language and scatter the population all over the earth made their attitude and action of no effect at all…

So what God really thinks, really counts, and what we really think, doesn’t.

So, can we figure out what God thinks about all this?  Isaiah says, “Who can fathom the Spirit of the LORD, or instruct the LORD as his counselor?”

But the Apostle Paul says, “No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began…  What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived…these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. [Quoting Isaiah]   ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?  But we have the mind of Christ.”

So we should be able to figure out what God’s attitude about family (and abortion) really is, just by looking at what He’s chosen to reveal to us, through His Word.

 In His Word, He establishes a foundational principle:  First, the natural, then the spiritual.  “So also it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.”  So we have this parallel:  Adam, then Christ; the natural, then the spiritual; from the earth, then from heaven.

 Our parallel we’ll look at?  The Old Testament family (Israel) and the New Testament Family (the Church.)  More is said about family (of Israel, and others) than just about any other issue (by context) in the Old Testament.

 We talk about the Abrahamic Covenant — that promise that was given to Abraham — which extends well into New Testament commentary.  God chose to focus on a family – Israel – starting in Genesis and extending to Revelation.  Abraham (first mentioned as Abram), who we meet in Genesis 11 has his family’s name written on the walls of the City in Revelation 21.  This idea of family must be a “big deal” to God.

 The Old Testament Attitude?

 “Be fruitful and multiply,” Adam was told.  And so he did.  We don’t have a lot of information regarding the number of Adam and Eve’s offspring in the Biblical record, but it wasn’t too long until cities were being built (Genesis 4). Henry Morris points out that using the same rate of population increase from 1650 to 1800 (without modern medicine and life-extending amenities) the current population from Noah to the present would actually exceed the current population.  With a higher birth rate, the earth at the time of the flood could have had a population not only in the millions, but in the billions.

 After the flood, God repeated his “be fruitful” command to Noah.  And generations to follow were obviously faithful to that command.

 The “nation” of Israel, numbering just 70 when relocating to Egypt in Genesis 46, numbered over 600,000 just over four hundred years later when returning to Canaan (not counting women and children).  Exodus 1:7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.

The secular society (Egypt) was being “out-populated” by the people of God, which greatly concerned Pharaoh and his leaders.

Large families were commended by Old Testament scripture:

Don’t you see that children are God’s best gift?
the fruit of the womb his generous legacy?
Like a warrior’s fistful of arrows
are the children of a vigorous youth.
Oh, how blessed are you parents,
with your quivers full of children!
Your enemies don’t stand a chance against you;
you’ll sweep them right off your doorstep.   — Psalm 125 (Eugene Peterson, the Message)

 There are numerous other passages relating to the positive effects of many children and large families.

On the flip side, one of the greatest curses in the Old Testament was the inability to propagate.   Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Hannah are profiled in the Old Testament; others are mentioned, and the state of childlessness is addressed over a dozen more times.

Jesus said there would be a day where it would be said, “Blessed be the barren womb.” In one prophetic sense, this is that day, when childbearing is frowned upon by those “progressive” in our culture.

If current trends continue, Japan’s population will sink from its peak of 130 million to 50 million at the turn of the century.   While the West’s birth rate drops, the birth rate of Muslim populations continues to create an increase in population (nearly doubling in some European nations from 1990 to 2030). In 1990 Muslims accounted for less than 20% of world population; in 2030 they are projected to exceed one quarter of the world population;  from 2010 to 2030 their population will increase 35%.  In contrast, evangelical birth rates, while slightly over the general population, don’t come close to rivaling the Muslim communities.

God’s command was to “be fruitful;”  in the Old Testament, that was by having lots of kids, by having a family.

It appears the Muslim world is doing better at this than the Christian one…

Have we, as evangelicals, exalted our own individual well-being — our status, our wealth, our freedom —  over that of raising a family?

Some of the questions that drive one to have an abortion are, “How will having a baby affect me?”  “Will it inconvenience me?” “Will it be expensive for me?” “Will it reduce my options, restrict my freedom?”  These are all focused on “me” and “mine,” a “Me-Attitude.”

Are we, as Christians, mirroring that attitude in our decisions regarding the size of our family?  Are we contributing to the decline of the Church by deciding to limit our natural family?

^“God made husbands and wives to become one body and one spirit for his purpose—so they would have children who are true to God.”  Malachi 2:15 NCV (Emphasis mine.)

What’s God’s New Testament command for fruitfulness?  And a perfectly good reason to not have a large family? More to follow …

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