Throwing Back the Life Line

“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.” (Heb 10:35 AV)

A very interesting phrase. “Cast not away therefore…”  In other words, the confidence was there at one point.  But, it has been cast away.  Paul is speaking to the nation of Israel and in particular, the LORD Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham.  The confidence of which he speaks is the confidence and hope in the coming of their Messiah.  If they reject Christ, they have cast away their confidence which that have had for almost 2,000 years.  That promise which was the foundation of their endurance and there they are, at the precipice of rejecting it all.  It is quite silly and illogical.  When we place our hope in a thing and when that thing comes, we lack the faith that we had all along.  How silly.

It reminds me of a fella who was stuck in his home in the middle of a flood.  As the storm waters rose he went to the second floor of his home.  He dialed 911 for help and they told him they would be there as soon as they could.  Losing all hope, he began to pray.  “Father, if you get me out of this I promise I will walk more faithfully with Thee!  I truly have faith that You will come for me!”  Soon afterwards, he heard a voice from a bullhorn.  “Jump from the bedroom window and we will catch you and carry you to safety” came a voice from a military vehicle. “That’s ok, I am waiting for the LORD to save me”, was the reply.  A bit latter, there was a rap on the bedroom window.  Looking out, he saw men in a boat.  The same offer was made and the same response given.  Water still rising, he was forced to ascend to the rooftop.  Along comes a helicopter.  “grab the harness and we will pull you to safety” “No thank you, I am waiting for the LORD to save me.” Soon after, the man perished is the flood waters.  When he met the LORD he asked, “Father, I prayed earnestly for you to save me.  Why didn’t you come?”  To which the LORD said, “What do you think the truck, boat, and helicopter were?”

We pray for the LORD to answer and order our lives as though He will, but when He does, we lack the faith to accept it.  How ironic.

Just The Opposite

“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new [covenant], he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old [is] ready to vanish away.” (Heb 8:12-13 AV)

Chapter eight is awesome.  Paul begins to make the summation that grace is better than law.  But even more than that, God decided to show grace to the sinner while satisfying His wrath on Christ.  This chapter really moved me because Paul very adequately argues for the failure of the law.  Or rather, the failure of Israel to follow the law.  He lays the foundation that law was given as a means to solidify the promise made to Abraham.  Law is not a bad thing.  Law is a good thing.  The promise was made to Abraham of a nation and land that would live to please the LORD and by doing so, would be blessed above all nations.  The law was not given merely to control a people.  It was the means by which the promise could be practically applied.  We don’t understand that.  We think law is a bad thing.  We don’t like to be told what to do.  That is not the intent of the law.  Anyway, I digress.  The point Paul, and more specifically the LORD, is making here is that Israel could not, nor would not, keep the law even though it was for their own good.  So, rather than satisfy His wrath upon them, He satisfied it upon Christ and gave the covenant of grace to mankind!  Oh, what grace!

That phrase above is exactly the opposite of what we deserve.  Rather than taking vengeance on our unrighteousness (which He has every right to do), He is merciful upon it!  This is too wonderful for me!  This is too great for the mind!  How God can have mercy when He should have judgment, I cannot comprehend.  What grace!  What mercy!

It makes our sin all the more sinful!  Knowing that God will show grace, we sin anyway.  It is awfully humbling to know that God’s mercy is never ending.  It is always available to those who will repent and turn.  What love!  What mercy!  What grace!

Maintenance Plan

“[This is] a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.” (Tit 3:8 AV)

Salvation is not the beginning and the end of being a Christian.  Being a Christian is not only about heaven.  Yet, this is how it is often treated.  There is an expectation of good works.  There is an expectation of a life that glorifies the LORD in all that we do.  I wish that my discipleship stressed this!  I wish that the discipleship I went through had a secondary follow-up regarding separation and holiness.  Classes that included purity, financial integrity, and outward separation.  Not just what the Bible says about these things, but practical hands on exercises that re-enforces Bible truths.  This is sadly lacking in our churches today and is the reason most people have issues with sin.

I know I have used this example more than once, but it works.  Growing up a Gerwitz meant something.  In our small town, specially among the Catholic community, it meant something.  There was an expectation of a certain type of child that would come from this home.  A child who was obedient and respectful, an A student, and one that served his community.  These are the values which my father instilled in us and came to be the values which the community expected.  If we ever failed, it was a big deal.

This is exactly what is expected of the believer.  Too much is made of the grace of God to the point it is miss or over applied.  God has grace.  Absolutely.  This grace is indeed amazing.  However, grace does not relax expectation!  Grace forgives when these expectations are not met.  But it does not change the expectations.  Today, grace is presumptuous.  As though God will put up with our failures and not expect too much which results in the freedom to fail.  Not so!  We are to continue in good works!  That is our responsibility!

Always Remember that You Are Loved

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Ga 2:20 AV)

It is easy to forget that when Christ went to that Cross, He loved me.  He loved me as though I was the only one for which He died, even though He loved all.  This is something we cannot fully comprehend.  How God can love us infinitely even though there are others whom He equally loves is beyond the ability of a human relationship.  We cannot fathom it.  We cannot understand it.  Yet, He loved me when He died for me!

As every parent knows, we love our children and grandchildren equally.  We love them for who and what they are!  We think we love them as God loves them, but that is impossible.  We cannot completely and wholly love them as though there were an only child or an only grandchild.  In fact, we have to remind ourselves (albeit not too often) that we are not to have favorites.  Even though our children or grandchildren may think we have favorites, we really do not.  We love them all, individually, and completely.  However, unlike the LORD, we are limited.  We only have so much emotional capital to invest.  We only have so much strength we can spend.  This human limitation hinders us from loving one child as though he is the only child.  When it comes to the LORD, He has no limitations.

I know what it is like to have to share my father’s affection with siblings.  Growing up in a house of 11 children, there was no possibility of being loved like an only child!  Yet, my father made a great effort in making us feel he loved us as an individual.  It couldn’t happen very often.  But the one-on-one times I had with my father were, and still are, priceless.  With God, it happens each and every time I pray and read the scriptures.  It was also the basis of Christ surrendering to the cross!  He loved me!

The Only One Who Thinks You're a Failure is You!

“Now thanks [be] unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.” (2Co 2:14 AV)

If we feel like a failure, it’s not God’s fault!  According to Paul, where ever he has been given opportunity to share the knowledge of God, God has made him triumph.  That doesn’t mean churches with enumerable people had been planted.  What it does mean is the preaching and teaching which the LORD commanded Paul to do accomplished what God intended for it to accomplish.  Our problem is our eyesight.  We have our sight on the externals and cannot see the spiritual warfare of which we are entangled.  We cannot see the victories won.  All we see is numbers and choices.  What we don’t see is the slow growth which is often under the surface and hard to distinguish.  What we cannot do is give up and think that our ministry means little to nothing.

I will always remember my father as a math teacher.  That was what he did while I was in middle school.  He taught in a Catholic High School.  He also volunteered as a Boy Scout, and then a Girl Scout leader.  He organized our family to play music at church.  He served his family and community faithfully.  Much of it went under appreciated.  I am sure there were times he thought he was a failure.  Especially when those in whom he invested seemed to not take the same interests in life that he did.  But that is not the case.  I like to hunt.  Much of what I learned to be successful in the outdoors, I learned from my father.  How to identify trees.  How game moves.  Topography of the land.  Wilderness survival.  And my favorite – knot tying.  I still use the bowline hitch and two half-hitches.  First aid comes in handy.  Even all the music lessons came back.  I put down the acoustic guitar for thirty years.  Yet, when some friends wanted to play bluegrass gospel, all the cords came immediately back to me.

You see, it is God who makes us to triumph because it is God’s word which is going forth.  As long as we are willing to be used of the LORD, then we will triumph.  No matter what we can see.  No matter what we may think.  Being a vessel in the hand of God assures He will cause us to always triumph in Christ!

Faithless Falling

“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” (Ro 4:20-21 AV)

One might think this not a totally accurate statement.  After all, Abraham did father a child through Hagar.  Yet, one must remember that was a result of Sarah’s unbelief.  Not Abraham’s.  I believe that to which Paul is referring is the offering of Isaac in conflict with the promises God made to Abraham.  The word ‘…staggered…’ is of particular interest to me this morning.

In our earlier marriage, Lisa and I lived in the northeast.  Where the snow blows five months out of the year and walking on an icy surface was a regular challenge.  Having grown up ice skating, walking on ice was no real concern of mine.  However, to Lisa, just looking at a patch of ice would see her falling to her backside.  It was truly pitiful.  The first time it happened was understandable.  The second time, not all that much stranger.  After the second time, I gave her lessons on how to walk on the ice without falling.  It didn’t matter much.  Visiting her parents was particularly treacherous.  Their driveway is on a hill.  Getting into the car meant walking slightly downhill.  I even gave her lessons on how to approach the car and walk safely on an icy surface.  That didn’t matter much.  I then had to hold her up while she walked to the car.  Still, her feet were not settled on the ice.  Her problem was failure was predestined.  She had no faith in what I taught her even though I have slipped on ice only once in my life.  Because I took for granted the safety of a situation, I injured myself slipping on a ramp of accumulated hail.  The point is, if Lisa doesn’t believe it is possible to get to the car without falling, she will fall every time.

Being fully persuaded is the basis of walking by faith.  There may be some unanswered questions.  There may be some obscured line of sight.  There may be some dark places along the way.  But one must be fully persuaded.

Compassion Which Conquers Our Troubles

“And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him.” (Ac 28:8 AV)

It is quite impressive that even in the midst of affliction, Paul had enough faith to minister to the needs of others.  He was on his way to Rome to stand before Caesar for his life.  They had just been shipwrecked.  Even after the experts ignored the man of God and almost killed everyone.  He had every right to be pre-occupied with his own troubles.  Yet, there was someone in need of a touch from Jesus.  This takes a great amount of maturity and sacrifice.  This takes a great amount of love.   To care for another especially when their need is not a serious as one’s own is the true meaning of Christlikeness.

Internists are required to go through a time of extreme testing.   They may be asked to work 24 to 36 hours straight.  Allowed to take a nap or two they are back at it with every new patient.  Wondering why the exhaustive training is necessary, I often thought it might be more prudent to simply hire more help.  But the nature of traumatic healthcare cannot be eased with more providers.  The point of pulling such long hours is to train the perspective trauma specialist the nature of medicine might require deep self-sacrifice.  A plague or severe accident involving many victims would require doctors and nurses so save lives when they are extremely exhausted.  Getting called into surgery in the middle of the night with only a few hours sleep will happen from time to time.  One cannot think of one’s own needs first.  The nature of medicine will not allow it.

Serving in the ministry has its ups and downs.  No one other than men of your calling will ever understand the sacrifices you make or the troubles your asked to endure.  No one.  Whether we like it or not, we are asked to experience things that no other calling in life is asked to do.  Paul is an example equal to no other than the LORD Jesus Himself!  May we always be more concerned about the needs of others than we are the deep waters of which we are required to cross.