Unfruitful In Obedience

“For thou [art] not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, [but] to the house of Israel; Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.” (Eze 3:5-6 AV)

What I found odd here is that people who spoke a different language and who could not initially understand the prophet would harken more to what he said than those who grew up with the word of God.  The language barrier alone would have complicated any attempt to reach those who needed the truth the most.  I have found it generally true that ministry to the lost tends to be easier than ministry to the saved.  By that I mean that when a saint sows the seed, it is easier to minister to those who respond than it is to those who are around it all the time.  Yet God did not send the prophet to where he would be accepted.  He sent His prophet to where he was needed!  Ezekiel could not lament the place to which he could have been sent because he was sent to another place that would produce little to no discernable fruit.  He was sent to the rebellious house of Israel.  He was sent to an adversarial group.  Obedience is measured by our willingness to follow, not by the results that come of it.

Ministry can be discouraging if we are too focused on results.  Sometimes we pass over ministry because we do not think anything will come of it.  Today, we followed up with a few contacts.  It was in a part of town that most people would avoid.  When traversing the streets of the inner city, one would think there would be little to no fruit that would come from ministry there.  We see poverty and horrible conditions, and some would think ministry in such a place would be destined to fail.  How sad.  These are people.  They are no less human beings than those living in much better homes with well-manicured grounds.  Christ died for everyone.  Not just for those who can help the church grow, give to its ministries, and build a kingdom for the glory of God.  I saw much today.  I spoke to someone whose voice was partially paralyzed.  We went to a group home of those recovering from drug abuse or worse.  They had cats all over the place to keep the mouse population under control.  I saw a lady vomiting at a telephone pole.  Such human suffering and much to do.  Yet, who will do it?

Ezekiel was not sent to a people who would respond to his preaching.  He was not sent to a people who would learn to speak his language so that they could know the word of God.  He was not sent to a people who would come to the LORD in droves, build a nice building, and give him a good standard of living.  He was sent to a people who would not listen.  They never would.  He was sent to a place that would see no converts.  If Ezekiel were a modern-day missionary, he would probably be dropped from support of many churches for a lack of effective ministry.  That is too bad.  As long as he was doing what God asked him to do, results didn’t matter.  This is the lesson for us today.  We are to go where God calls us.  Even if no one hears, we are to go.  We are to go no matter how many are saved.  If all we see are closed doors, it doesn’t matter.  If all we get are rude comments and threats, it doesn’t matter.  What God is looking for are people who will do as he asks no matter the outcome.  That is a prophet whom God can use!

We Are All In The Same Fish Tank

“Our fathers have sinned, [and are] not; and we have borne their iniquities.” (La 5:7 AV)

This is an unfortunate reality of sin.  It affects more than the single sinner.  It often trickles down into future generations.  Sin also affects victims.  Directly or indirectly.  No one sins in a vacuum.  The words of Jeremiah resound with the awful truth that some Israelites will be born in captivity because of what their forefathers have done.  All one must do is use a bit of mental exercise, and the reality of this case will settle in.  There were those who died, or soon perished after Babylon’s invasion of Judah.  Those who died were far more guilty of the sins of the nation than those who were born in Persia.  It doesn’t require much imagination to see how those born in captivity might resent the many generations who preceded them and caused their current situation.  One can almost imagine some child born fifty years from the day they were carried away wondering what he has done to deserve such a fate.  Yet, that is the way of God’s plan.  We suffer individually.  But we also suffer corporately.  There is no perfect nation on Earth.  There never was, nor will there ever be.  As long as man lives on this planet, sin will abound.  Where sin abounds, consequences are sure to follow.  Understanding this goes a long way toward enduring life as it is.

We can complain all we want regarding the fairness of God, but it doesn’t change a thing.  In the mind of God, corporate responsibility is a thing.  Even if we are not directly responsible, by association, we are indirectly responsible.  One of the most annoying events of my childhood was practicing for the High School JV basketball team.  There were several unpleasant drills.  The most unpleasant were suicide drills. There were two ways our coaches administered them.  There was the single accountability way.  That was, if you were the last one to finish the drill, you did it all by yourself the next time.  Then there was the corporate drill.  It was timed.  If the entire team did not finish, then the entire team did it again and again until they completed the drill in the allotted time.  For those unfamiliar, suicide drills were sprinting drills set at different distances.  Running to the quarter-court line and back to the back-line; then to the half-court line and return to the back-line, then to the three-quarter court line and back to the back-line and so forth.  At each destination, the runners had to bend down and touch the line.  Needless to say, we were not pleased with the slowest of the team.  This taught us that failure had ramifications for the entire team.  The same is true of military drills.  There are marches, obstacle courses, etc. that are done corporately.  If one is too slow, the entire platoon does it all over again.  Why?  Because failure could mean the life of your fellow soldier.

Many years ago, I pastored a church that made rules for pastors who abused their situation.  They limited vacation time to two weeks a year.  If the pastor took more than two weeks off, he had to pay for his own pulpit supply.  This came about because one of their previous pastors was away more than he was present.  There was the requirement that the pastor pay for his own utilities.  This took over half of his salary.  But this came about because one of their previous pastors was very wasteful.  This church also required the pastor to cover his professional expenses and submit them for reimbursement.   On such a low salary, not much ministry was done.  This came about because one of their previous pastors abused the church credit card.  As the pastor, past behavior impacted my ability to do ministry.  Was it fair?  Not in the least.  Did I complain?  No, it was the hand that was dealt me.  The point is simple.  Life is full of trouble.  Just ask Job.  Some of it was caused directly by our own choices.  A lot of it was caused by someone else.  That is the way God set it up.  We can complain.  But it won’t change a thing.  We can think God is unjust, but that would be a lie.  It is what it is.  All we can do is pray for God’s presence and strength.  Eternity will take care of it all.

Fear Not an Infinite God

“Thou drewest near in the day [that] I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.” (La 3:57-58 AV)

What a verse of praise!  Especially when one considers the context.  The book of Lamentations is Jeremiah’s verbalization of Judah’s response to the severe chastening of the LORD.  After hundreds of years of disobedience, idol worship, and Sabbath neglect, the LORD’s grace ran out.  He sent Assyria against the north.  He sent Babylon against the south.  He had had enough.  As Jeremiah spies the condition of the inheritance of Judah and Benjamin, he is brought to tears.  As he sees the destruction of the temple, the city wall, and the homes of all those who once resided in Judah, he is moved to despair.  But among his deep remorse over the condition of his people, he is able to see God’s grace.  He knows this condition is temporary.  As soon as Israel and Judah have learned the hard lessons of disobedience and faithlessness, God will bring them back to their land.  Even though the hand of God is heavy upon them, it is no reason to fear.  God still loves them.  He has made a covenant of grace with them.  He will not forsake them.  He we return to them as they return to Him.  He will bring them back.  He will redeem them.  He will plead the cause of their souls.

If we could begin to appreciate just who and God is to us, it would radically change our lives.  We begin by remembering who and what God is.  He is the omnipotent Creator of all things.  His being is past human understanding.  He is infinite in all His attributes.  There is no end of His power, He presence, and His providence.  His intelligence is immeasurable.  It has no limits.  There is no comparison.  We could imagine what an ameba would be to us.  But that would not even come close.  To say that God is meek would be an understatement.  With unlimited power, He keeps it under constraint so His beloved creation is not swallowed up by His mere presence.  What are we to Him?  Substantively speaking, we are less than a speck.  To bring the example of the single-celled organism back into mind would be insufficient.  Both we and the organism have a finite existence is space and time.  There is no comparison.  Even if we were to fill the known universe with one being and we the rest, it would still not come close.  We are so insignificant that there barely exists any description of note when compared to the rest of the known universe.  To say that we exist by the grace of our Creator who be a monumental understatement.

So, when the LORD tells us to fear not, that is a big deal!  It is a challenge to us.  But it is a condescension for Him.  For the Creator so say that His being is under restraint so as to have a relationship with those whom He has created is a hard concept to grasp.  Add to that our rebellion against so great a Creator and we can begin to understand just how hard it is to be free of fear.  Yet, He tells us to fear not.  How amazing is that?  Further, to know that a Creator as infinitely great as He can manage such delicate and frail beings as the human soul boggles the mind.  He does!  He is infinitely more skilled that the best nano-surgeon to ever live.  He operates in such finite details that no computer ever created can compute all the variables involved.  As I sit and write this, my mind is short-circuiting over just how miraculous a God-to-wicked-man relationship truly is.  If He tells us not to fear, it is because He has it all under control.  If He tells us not to fear it is because an infinite God loves a finite soul more than he could ever appreciate or understand.  Praise be to God!

He Never Forsakes

“For Israel [hath] not [been] forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.” (Jer 51:5 AV)

Those who wish to segregate secular apostate Israel from spiritual Israel in order to cancel God’s covenant with that nation forget one thing.  If God would cancel His covenant with Israel, what is to stop Him from canceling His covenant with backslidden saints?  If He does, then at what point does He do that?  After one sin?  After a thousand sins?  Where is the cut-off?  That is the problem with rejecting eternal security.  No one can tell you the exact infraction or timing when one could lose their salvation.  The whole application of eternal security is in that second word.  Security!  Israel will enjoy to covenants made to Abraham, Isaac, and David.  It will be limited to those individuals who accept Jesus as their Messiah.  But the nation will indeed enjoy those covenants.  Where those who are anti-Israel err is misunderstanding their ability to judge who those individuals may or may not be.  Or, how many of them will turn to Christ.  The secular Israel they condemn today just may be the redeemed Israel that emerges during the tribulation.  The nation they wish to hate today will turn to Christ.  How many of them?  We don’t know.  But enough so that the covenants can and will be honored.

But what of the New Testament saint?  What can we take away from the above verse?  The God who told Israel,  “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he [it is] that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” (De 31:6 AV) is the same God who tells the church, “[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Heb 13:5 AV) This is of great comfort to the saint who battles sin.  We hate sin.  We wish the LORD would call us all home and perfectly transform us into the image of His sinless Son!  We look for the day of our glorification!  It cannot come soon enough.  What we have to fight is the doubt which arises in the meantime.  We struggle over sin each and every day.  We often fail.  If the above-mentioned heretics had their way, then none of us could be guaranteed God’s love or salvation.  We would all be condemned no matter how deep our faith.  Rather, we must trust in the eternal grace of God!

Children have a way of trying to earn the love of their parents.  Sometimes they have to.  The immature mind cannot comprehend unconditional love.  In their immature relationships with one another, behavior determines love.  If a toy is not shared, they are enemies.  If a rivalry over a relationship happens, dislike is the result.  It isn’t until a child approaches adulthood that he or she begins to understand this concept.  In many ways, we are like children who are still trying to earn the love of the Father.  We cannot, because it is given by grace.  The more we try to earn it, the more sin becomes an issue.  Once we realize and trust that God will not forsake us no matter how poorly we have lived for him, our motive changes.  We will begin to live right before God because we have a grateful heart.  Not because we want something from Him.  We love Him because He first loved us!  So, take the verse above as an encouragement and a challenge.  God will never forsake His children.  No matter how much sin has mounted up, God is always there.  He is not leaving.  He loves You too much to turn His back on You.

Remember Your Restingplace

“My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away [on] the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.” (Jer 50:6 AV)

It’s that phrase, “they have forgotten their restingplace” that speaks extra loud this morning.  Jeremiah is referring to Judah and Israel as they return to Palestine.  They had suffered a number of years removed from their land.  Assyria invaded Israel, or the ten northern tribes, in 723BC and carried away the vast majority back to modern-day Iran.  In 586BC, 137 years later, Babylon would carry Judah and Benjamin back to modern-day Iraq.  It would be 207 years of captivity for Israel and 70 years captivity for Judah and Benjamin, which they were given liberty to return to their land.  By decree from Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians that people were allowed to return to their homelands so that houses of worship might be repaired or rebuilt.  Jeremiah alludes to this time.  They are returning after generations of absence.  Their shepherds, or their leaders, failed to prepare them for this return.  They failed to keep alive the idea of their resting place.  They had not only forgotten the way to their resting place, but they had forgotten the idea of their resting place.  Forgetting a resting place can be caused by sin.  But it can be caused by many other factors.  Remembering the resting place is the point.

There are a few places that are special to us.  These places often brought the deepest tranquility and the obvious presence of God that we remember them for the rest of our lives.  For me, two of them were at the lakeshore of Geneva Lake and Lake Michigan.  There was also my father’s pond at Fillmore, NY.  Lake Remick in Phelps, NY.  But there were other places as well.  There were the dried marshlands of Necedah Wildlife Refuge.  There was The Widewaters of the Erie Barge Canal.  Several of these places involved Boy Scout camping.  There was one place that I will never find again.  It was on the shores of Lake Ontario.  We had a weekend of camping, and it must have been in the spring or fall.  I remember because it was particularly cold and gray on Friday and half a day on Saturday.  I remember it because the drizzle and cold made for a quiet experience on the lake.  There were few scouts who came out that weekend.  The weather was not agreeable.  But my dad and I went.  It was alone on the shores of the lake, and other than a few seagulls, there wasn’t much else.  A few rowboats scattered here and there.  The water was still, but moving.  The wind was a very gentle breeze.  The drizzle and fog mixed.  It was quiet.  It was peaceful.  For those few minutes I stood there, life was as complicated as the breeze in my face.  Gone was the peer pressure.  Gone were the anxieties that all teens face.  It was a resting place.  I cannot find that again.  I don’t know where it might be.  Life took over.  I got married.  Had children and grandchildren.  I found my calling.  The business of life is what took me away from my resting place.

It is sad that we tend to allow the things of this life, whether simple business or sin, to rob us of the memory of our resting place.  There should be a place where we can spend some time with God in quiet rest.  The activities of life have not yet begun, or they are done for the day should draw us to that resting place.  It is so sad that, like the Israelites, the things of life have robbed us of the memory of finding our resting place.  We have forgotten what it was like.  It has lost its value.  We don’t seek it as we once did.  No problem.  We can always find a new resting place.  But finding that resting place is absolutely necessary, lest we forget that one exists at all.

Accepting Our Times

“And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek [them] not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.” (Jer 45:5 AV)

These words are spoken to Jeremiah’s secretary, Baruch.  Baruch was tasked with writing down the words of Jeremiah and publishing them to the leadership of a failing nation.  Jeremiah was a celebrity, so to speak.  He lived in the favor of a few kings.  He was also treated well by the Babylonians.  Jeremiah was the premiere prophet at the time of Judah’s fall.  He was the go-to man for the word of God.  As such, it might have been expected that some perks would trickle down to the scribe who served him.  Or, at the very least, some of life’s necessities.  The ‘great things’ Baruch sought would be normal things to us.  The ‘great things’ are not luxuries or things of social status.  All Baruch wanted was a home and a life of relative stability.  These are not necessarily wrong things to desire.  We should all work to that end.  However, in the case of Baruch, Babylon was coming, and when they came, everything would be burned to the ground.  The people of Judah and Jerusalem would only possess the body in which they inhabited.  Baruch was promised more than most would receive.  When the enemy comes, most will lose everything, including their lives.  At the very least, Baruch would be spared a horrible death.  He was not covetous.  Baruch did not desire what others had because he was envious.  He simply didn’t comprehend the full implications of his times.  It wasn’t that God would deny Baruch the necessities of life while others prospered.  No.  All would suffer.

There is a great societal change occurring.  One that our current generation is unaware and one that my generation is having a very difficult time adjusting to.  I have a good friend who worked for the railroad for decades.  He retired a while back and is living off Social Security and a very good pension.  My father retired from a global company many years back.  He received a severance package and partial retirement.  I had a brother who served in law enforcement and was looking to retire on a full pension in middle age and start a carpentry business afterward.  Still another friend of mine is drawing several pensions from global companies he worked for as well as a military retirement and healthcare.  This has all changed.  There used to be a day when companies vied for your labor by offering benefits packages that one could plan on for their old age.  You would learn a trade or go to college and remain with the same one to three employers for your entire working age.  Stability in old age was a given.  Not anymore.  We can argue about why this changed and who is to blame, but that is not the point.  The point is that times change.  They always will.  Before our modern age of medicine, it was far more common to pass away in one’s working years than to retire and live several decades afterward.  Times change.  Expectations must, too.

Serving the LORD in full-time Christian service means that more than likely, full retirement is not possible.  Most preachers have to work well beyond their years of effectiveness.  Most step away from important responsibilities and take on positions of support.  But to walk away from earning a living wage is simply not in the cards.  Most of us pastor small churches that cannot supply any kind of retirement planning.  Some serve in churches that cannot provide basic healthcare.  We could lament what we don’t have.  We could desire what is not possible.  Or, we could be grateful that God uses us for His glory.  We could stop and understand that what was the norm in days gone by is not the norm today.  We can admit that our best-laid plans may not come to pass because there is no way to predict the times in which we find ourselves.  Eternity will even the scales.  What we do have in this world, which we will never have in eternity is opportunity.  Last week, we had a soul saved!  Glory!  As long as we have breath in our lungs, we have opportunity.  Baruch would scribe the largest (per word) book of the Bible.  Baruch would see miracles provided from himself and his boss.  They would never starve.  They may not have had a permanent address, but they always had food on the table and a roof over their heads.

No Need To Fear Sin

“Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, [when] the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?” (Ps 49:5 AV)

This may seem like an odd question.  But I understand exactly what David is asking.  Of course, the saint and sinner alike should fear our Creator when sin is our desire.  David is not professing boldness in the day of sin to continue therein.  Absence of fear while in the act of sin is not his pursuit.  Rather, those who hate sin and wage a never-ending battle against it understand exactly what David is saying.  Those who hate sin understand the captivating force that it can be.  Sin is enslaving.  Sin is a pit from which it is impossible to escape.  It is a monster residing just outside our hearts that we cannot tame.  The power of sin becomes more frightening than the consequences from it.  So, David asks a question to put into perspective the power of sin compared to the power of God.  There is no sin from which our God cannot deliver.  Period.  We are not hopeless.  We are not helpless.  Our God can and will deliver!  This is David’s point.

Last night I had a dream.  A rather vivid one.  I walked into what I thought was an elevator, and the elevator was below my feet.  It was quickly descending, and I was falling after it.  I had the thought to stretch out my body to slow my descent. (Hey, it’s a dream.  Don’t judge!)  I slowed myself enough to grab a ledge and pull myself into a room.  There were a few people in that room, so I yelled for them to help me.  They pulled me into a room only to discover it was a zero-gravity room.  The more the dream progressed, the more I was pulled into circumstances which I could not control.  The odd thing about the dream was I never panicked.  There was no fear.  It was an experience where one circumstance was replaced by another impossible situation.  But there was always a way out.  I could do very little to actuate my deliverance.  The only thing I could do was to react with that which was provided me.  There was no terror.  There was no anxiety.  It surprised me how logical I was and how calm my demeanor.  It was a situation that was completely out of my control, yet all things were in control.

That is how we need to see sin.  Every night I go to bed begging the LORD to deliver me from sin.  That is my number one wish!  I want to be rid of the old man once and for all.  I want to be free from temptation.  God will provide a way.  We simply have to look for it.  Sin is a horrible enemy.  Far worse than the devil himself.  More damage to mankind has been done because we ate the forbidden fruit than could have ever been done by Satan and his demons.  Sin should be feared.  But it should not be feared to the degree that our joy is gone and our fortitude to fight it is absent.  David was asking a great question.  In that question, he was also making a statement.  We can hate sin.  We can fear sin.  We can wish for the day that sin no longer has any presence in our existence.  Our hope is not in our ability to resist.  Our hope is in the God who desires to deliver us from it more than we want to be delivered!