The One Thing Necessary

In his sermon, "The One Thing Necessary" from Luke 10:42, Archibald Alexander directs us to one of "things" that is necessary, namely the WAY in which believers hold their knowledge of God. "In the holy affections which flow from [such knowledge] consists the highest dignity and supreme excellence and felicity of human nature." Many today, wrongly assume that holiness is akin to a stilted, boring, some might say, stuffy, Christian. Of course, that some feel this way only makes sense if you consider that one of the dreadful results of the Fall in the Garden of Eden was the destruction of the will, leaving it jaded in its ability to discern the true value of moral qualities. Quite the opposite is the case in terms of the beauty of holiness as can be seen in Alexander's wonderful description of it! 

The excellence of holiness is so great, that the apostle Peter describes it as a participation of the divine nature. "According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him, that has called us to his glory and virtue; whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature." When holiness is manifested in the particular virtues of the Christian life, it cannot but win the approbation of every mind, not perverted by error, or blinded by prejudice. . . . Even the devils know that moral excellence is better than sin, for they have experienced the effects of both. Holiness is the glory of God, for this word expresses the sum of all his moral attributes. Holiness is the foundation of heavenly bliss and glory, the golden pavement of the city of God. Without holiness no one can enter into the society of heaven. The knowledge which the best attain here, is obscure and imperfect; but there the view of divine truth will be perfectly perspicuous [clearly understood]. "Here we see through a glass darkly; but there face to face." In proportion to our knowledge will be our love; and from this perennial fountain will flow uninterrupted happiness.

 Lord, give us ears to hear!

The above is thanks to Solid Ground Christian Books, Evangelical Truth: Practical Truths For the Christian Home.

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Eighteen Years Ago Tonight!

What? It's not Phyllis' and my Wedding Anniversary, right? Right. But it is our Baptist Church of Perry anniversary for coming to Perry, NY eighteen years ago this very day! Yep, there was 8" of snow and we parked two trucks here-one out front and the other in the back at the garage. There were two crews of helpers that got both trucks off-loaded in one and a half hours! Amazing, really! That was a long but very helpful day. I remember well a few ladies seated right here in the dining room after we had brought in a few large pieces of furniture. They plopped down in a few chairs and watched as the other stuff was put in place. That was a nice welcome.

Who knew (but God) that we'd be here 18 years later? And that so many would have gone home to be with Lord, or moved, or left for other reasons! Boy, if these walls could talk!

Let me just say thank you, Lord Jesus for calling us into the ministry wherever you chose to send us. To have been associated with this body of believers this many years has produced growth in all of us for sure. And I can say that we have seen a definite increase in Christian love and interest in the Word of God. That spells health.

May the Lord continue to bless the body of Christ here at Perry. It's been a true blessing for us to know so many of our brothers and sisters. Heaven is a wonderful place, but Perry is a great stop-off until that Day!

Amen.
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More Righteous Than God?!

That's right, we can get to the place in our lives (without saying it out loud) that we imagine we are more loving than GOD himself! What do I mean? Well, the Bible teaches election (Romans 8; Ephesians 1), a doctrine which many reject because in it God looks to them to be capricious. They fight against it because it seems to negate one's "free will," or they argue that it's "unfair to the lost," etc. But there's no question that all through the Word it is there AND in many ways that the same folks do not seem to mind so much.

Examples of Election Most Don't Mind But Should--
God chose Noah and excluded the whole earth!! Wow! Don't miss that one just because it's so familiar to us. God chose Abraham. Later, God would choose the younger Jacob over the elder Esau BEFORE they had done anything "good or bad." Some say, "Well, God did that because he knew how Esau would respond, so . . . " But that doesn't hold water. Why? Because, 1) Jacob was bad too, deceptive and conniving! Don't forget that. But more importantly, such an argument does not work because 2) God actually states that his choosing of Jacob over Esau was his own doing, and (get this) had nothing whatsoever to do with what they had done (they were still in the womb), or what they would do (anything good comes from God anyway--see Romans 9:11). Paul is very clear that God is nailing down the point that he has the right to do with his own whatever he wills (v. 15), and that he is NOT unjust in doing it (v. 14).

And Israel. What of Israel? He chose them out of all the nations of the earth, and NOT because they were worthy of his choice either. Deuteronomy 7:6-8 makes this abundantly clear. He chose David and Solomon though neither were the eldest among their peers. Check it out, the nations heard the truth through Israel, but God did not choose them. Somehow, those who attack this doctrine (and God) imagine that they have a better handle on what true justice is than God who IS the Just and Holy One!! Election occurs throughout the entire Bible not in just a few choices verses in the New Testament. Question is: when we see a doctrine like election (or future punishment, hell, etc.) that we do not like, do we reject it and by so doing impugn the wisdom and justice of God?

Point?
When we come to a doctrine of Scripture, ANY doctrine, it is always our wisdom to determine first what the Bible says about it, to determine the limits of the teaching. Then, and only then, can we ponder its implications. What has through the ages been the bane of so many is that they read the Bible with their personal "fairness" filters firmly installed and therefore, cannot SEE what's in front of them. That's terrible exegesis (interpretation of the text). Read with brain engaged, but bias in neutral.

Learn First:  1) That we don't understand God; His wisdom and knowledge are "unsearchable," and "past finding out" (Romans 11:33). Further, know that 2) His ways are so much higher than our ways--infinitely (Isaiah 55:8-9), and 3) that the more we learn the more there will be to understand (because God IS infinite). And learn 4) That God is and always will be mysterious. You will not "wrap your mind around God." You cannot contain him or restrict him, or even accuse him. When you think you've "figured him out," you haven't even begun! You've only succeeded in showing your own foolishness. Say rather with Job, "I spoke of things I did not know" (42:3), therefore "I lay my hand on my mouth" (40:4). Learn with Job to shut up in God's presence. He is loving, therefore we do not die; but he is JUST therefore, we must fear.

Learn Second to bow before the revealed Word of God, and NOT TO SIT IN JUDGMENT ON IT! Scripture truth takes precedence over systems of belief. I believe in the Reformed doctrines (what is sometimes labeled Calvinism). If you do not believe specifically this way, my thought is, you're a Christian if you trust only in the shed blood of Jesus Christ to save you and live a holy life consequently. It's more important that we honor the common blood of Christ in one another than to separate over a system of belief, even though the beliefs are vital. If I wave a banner, it is Scripture only, Jesus only, glory to God alone! It is also vital that we insure our faithful adherence to the written Word of God and honor it even if, or especially when we do not initially understand it or--can I say "agree"--with it. God's Word judges me, not the reverse.

More Righteous Than God?
So, I close how I began, "Do we imagine that we know better than God how to run his universe? We think--do we?--that if we were God, we would save everybody, that we would be "fair," and loving!! OK, so what we are saying is that we are more righteous and holy and just than God himself! God warns, "Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be right?" (Job 40:8). That is so scary, there are no words strong enough to describe it!

Walk humbly before God. He is righteous, holy, good, and just. He holds all his attributes with equal value for they are--like Himself--perfect. God help us to see him truly that we may fear him duly. Amen.

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What Alcoholics Can Teach the Church

Philip Yancey, in Church: Why Bother? writes:

Alcoholics Anonymous meets needs in a way that the local church does not--or at least did not for my friend. I asked him to name the one quality missing in the local church that AA had somehow provided. He stared at his coffee for a long time and then he said softly this one word: dependency.

"None of us can make it on our own--isn't that why Jesus came?" he explained. "Yet most church people give off a self-satisfied air of piety or superiority. I don't sense them leaning on God or each other. Their lives appear to be in order. An alcoholic who goes to church feels inferior and incomplete." [I might add that the phobic reactions of some alcoholics seems to issue from their self-judgment which they in turn pass on unjustified to those around them. His point, however, is well made, for many so-called Christians are well-dressed legalists. Let's pray against such a proud attitude.]

Yancey friend continues, "It's a funny thing, what I hate most about myself, my alcoholism, was the one thing God used to bring me back to him. Because of it, I know I can't survive without God. I have to depend on him to make it through each and every day. Maybe that's the redeeming value of alcoholism. Maybe God is calling us alcoholics to teach the saints what it means to be dependent on him and on his community on earth."

Yancey then points out several necessary character traits: "humility, total honesty, and radical dependence--on God and on a community of compassionate friends." As I thought about it, these qualities seemed exactly what Jesus had in mind when he founded his church.

Alcoholics Anonymous came out of a discovery by Bill Wilson. On his own, Bill had stayed sober for six months until he made a trip out of town, where a business deal fell through. Depressed, wandering a hotel lobby, he heard familiar sounds of laughter and of ice tinkling in glasses. He headed toward the bar, thinking "I need a drink."

Suddenly a brand new thought came ot him: "No, I don't need a drink--I need another alcoholic!" Walking instead toward the lobby telephones, he began the sequence of calls that put him in touch with Dr. Bob Smith, who would become AA's cofounder.

Church is a place where I can say, unashamedly, "I don't need to sin. I need another sinner." (Church, Why Bother? 51-52).

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The Attraction of the "Path of Righteousness"

"He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake." I hardly need to give the reference to this verse, do I? OK, well, you know it's Psalm 23. And it's verse 3. It's the "path of righteousness" that has caught my eye and now my "pen." What is it? How is it that the Lord actually leads us into it? Then, a word about "for his name's sake."

Path = Progression => Pilgrimage
A path is more than a fact, a point of knowledge. We learn many facts in our lifetimes, but they don't necessarily change the way we live. Yet it is precisely this point which the Bible repeatedly gets across. The Psalmist cries out, "Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths" (25:4). Even the well-worn Psalm 23 provides the same: "He leads me in paths of righteousness" (v. 3). And Psalm 86:11 prays: "Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth" (86:11). And Psalm 119:33, "Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end." Notice in this last verse, that the antecedent to "it" is "way." He doesn't pray, "Teach me your statutes" which is fine in itself. But teach me "how to live by your statutes." Help me to embrace them as my everyday lifestyle. We could multiply verses, but I don't think that would enforce what has already been laid down. It's biblical, that's the main thing we need to know.

I suspect much of our teaching style in Sunday School, Small Groups, and in our pulpits may have accurately displayed the truth, but it will not necessarily have communicated the need for a worldview change, a divinely empowered new way to think and to live. (Of course, it could be argued that IF we are not teaching life change, then we really are NOT teaching accurately) So, what should we do?

Hitting the Path
First, recognize the larger issue of pathway living (read pilgrimage?), confess where we have kept God at arm's distance this way, then repent (which means a change of heart, moving in the right direction).

Second, make note of the numerous places that "way" and "path/pathway" are used in relationship to spiritual growth. Become familiar with their broad-reaching effect, so that your thinking is larger and more God-encompassing, and therefore, worldview altering.

Third, and probably most vital after the above are in place, is PRAY specifically that you'll think this way. DAILY! The Psalms do that; they pray for this change. We need to do the same, . . . and keep on doing it!

Example: John Bunyan's Christian
John Bunyan became well known for his book, Pilgrim's Progress. The classic attraction of his book is not found when Christian loses his burden at the foot of the cross, as wonderful as is that moment. The weight of the book is found in the way in which Christian and his traveling partners progressed down the path of the Christian life. Pilgrims stay on the move, and toward the right goal--though not entirely without the occasional detour, to be sure! Christianity is all about movement toward God, knowing him, obeying him, embracing him. Our churches need lifestyle Christianity, which emits a categorical change, such that every day, all day long believers experience everything through God's eyes, not by force but willingly.

May God direct our path.

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Why We Can't See For Looking?

"Amazing! I know I've read it many times before, but I never SAW it!" Expressions like this erupt from many Christians who have made it a habit of reading their Bible. We seem to be blinded to stuff in Scripture that seems so obvious -- once we've seen it! It's the "once we've seen it part" that blows our minds.

Once such portion came out today in our Men's Study Group, the reference to the graves being opened after Jesus' resurrection and from them came "many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep . . . and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many" (Matthew 27:52-53). Jesus' resurrection was a categorical miracle calculated to reinforce his claims to deity and to being the Savior of the world. Anybody can claim anything. That's a fact, a truism. But not just anybody can support their claim. The resurrection was the most momentous demonstration in history verifying a most outlandish claim of someone claiming that he was MORE than a mere man. Such a claim was not likely to win adherents, at least humanly speaking. Gentiles deemed it foolish beyond belief, and the Jews considered it sacrilege, a stumbling block to their religious paradigm (1 Cor. 1:23). And when Paul astutely proclaimed the gospel on Mar's Hill in Athens, the intelligentsia gave him a condescending ear UNTIL he grounded his statements in the resurrection! The "unknown god" is the God of the Bible, who doesn't need praise from any man especially since he created them and they owe HIM their life and breath and everything else! He reached down to man via "a man" whom he verified as more than just a man by raising him from the dead! This is no small feat, no matter how used to the doctrine of resurrection we may have grown.

Back to my initial point. Not only did JESUS rise from the dead (which is a game stopper), but "many saints" went into Jerusalem at the same time. Really? Yes. Come on! A bunch of formerly dead saints came out of the tombs and walked right into town and appeared to many friends and strangers. Can you imagine what that must have done? Jerusalem and the surrounding areas boasted at certain times of the year hundreds of thousands of people!! This is amazing in the least! And so widely known was Jesus' resurrection that the Emmaus road disciples (Luke 24) could not believe that their traveling companion (Jesus himself though they had not yet figured that out) had not heard! How could you NOT have heard? Nothing has been more broadcast!

OK. So, Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection took place among multiplied thousands (perhaps over a million) who HAD heard the news. And now, word was getting out that not only Jesus but many, many dead people ("saints") also had been seen walking about town talking to friends and relatives. We've seen strange things before, but NOTHING like this!

That defies belief. Or, . . . DEFINES it. . . . See the unseen in order to know the unknown. Lord, open our eyes to behold wondrous things out of your Word.

Amen.

Honesty in Prayer

I found the following A. W. Tozer article very enlightening! If we would pray rightly then we must pray honestly like the Bible characters, especially the Psalmist. I am copying the whole article. It is worth it.

The saintly David M'Intyre, in his radiant little book, The Hidden Life of Prayer, deals frankly, if briefly, with a vital element of true prayer which in our artificial age is likely to be overlooked.

We mean just plain honesty.

"Honest dealing becomes us," says M'Intyre, "when we kneel in His pure presence."

"In our address to God," he continues, "we like to speak of Him as we think we ought to speak, and there are times when our words far outrun our feelings. But it is best that we should be perfectly frank before Him. He will allow us to say anything we will, so long as it is to Himself. ‘I will say unto God, my rock,' exclaims the psalmist, ‘why hast thou forgotten me?' If he had said, ‘Lord, thou canst not forget. Thou hast graven my name on the palms of thy hands,' he would have spoken more worthily, but less truly. 

"On one occasion Jeremiah failed to interpret God aright. He cried as if in anger, ‘O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived.' These are terrible words to utter before Him who is changeless truth. But the prophet spoke as he felt, and the Lord not only pardoned him, but met him and blessed him there." 

Another spiritual writer of unusual penetration has advised frankness in prayer even to a degree that might appear to be downright rudeness. When you come to prayer, he says, and find that you have no taste for it, tell God so without mincing words. If God and spiritual things bore you, admit it frankly. This advice will shock some squeamish saints, but it is altogether sound nevertheless. God loves the guileless soul even when in his ignorance he is actually guilty of rashness in prayer.

The Lord can soon cure his ignorance, but for insincerity no cure is known. 

The basic artificiality of civilized human beings is hard to shake off. It gets into our very blood and conditions our thoughts, attitudes, and relationships much more seriously than we imagine. A book on human relations has appeared within recent years whose underlying philosophy is deception and whose recommended technique is a skillful use of flattery to gain desired ends. It has had an unbelievably wide sale, actually running into the millions. Of course its popularity may be explained by the fact that it said what people wanted to hear. 

The desire to make a good impression has become one of the most powerful of all the factors determining human conduct. That gracious (and scriptural) social lubricant called courtesy has in our times degenerated into a completely false and phony etiquette that hides the true man under a shimmery surface as thin as the oil slick on a quiet pond. The only time some persons expose their real self is when they get mad. 

With this perverted courtesy determining almost everything men say and do in human society, it is not surprising that it should be hard to be completely honest in our relations with God. It carries over as a kind of mental reflex and is present without our being aware of it. Nevertheless, it is extremely hateful to God. Christ detested it and condemned it without mercy when He found it among the Pharisees. The artless little child is still the divine model for all of us. Prayer will increase in power and reality as we repudiate all pretense and learn to be utterly honest before God as well as before men. 

A great Christian of the past broke out all at once into a place of such radiance and victory as to excite wonder among his friends. Someone asked him what had happened to him. He replied simply that his new life of power began one day when he entered the presence of God and took a solemn vow never again to say anything to God in prayer that he did not mean. His transformation began with that vow and continued as he kept it. 

We can learn something there if we will.