Faith
Live while you live
From Charles Spurgeon’s “The Wailing of Risca”
There are infidels on earth, but there are none in heaven, and there can be none in hell. They are convinced—convinced by terrible facts—convinced that there is a God while they are crushed beneath his vengeance, and made to tremble at his eternal power. But I pray you, sirs, be not such fools as to live as though your bones were iron and your ribs were brass. Let us not be such madmen as to run as though there were no bounds to our race; let us not play away our precious days as though days were common as sands on a sea shore. That hour-glass yonder contains all the sands of your life. Do you see them running? How swiftly do they empty out! With some of you, the most of the sands are in the bottom bulb of the glass, and there are only a few to go trickling through the narrow passway of its days. Ah! and that glass shall never be turned again; it shall never run a second time for you. Let it once run out and you will die. Oh! live as though you meant to die. Live as though you knew you might die to-morrow. Think as though you might die now, and act this very hour as though I could utter the mandate of death, and summon you to pass through the portals of the tomb.
And then take care, I pray you, that you who do know Christ not only live as though you meant to die, but live while you live. Oh what a work we have to do, and how short the time to do it! Millions of men unconverted yet, and nothing but our feeble voice with which to preach the Word! My soul, shalt thou ever condemn thyself in thy dying moments for having preached too often or too earnestly? No, never. Thou mayest rebuke thy soul, but thou canst never bemoan thy excessive industry. Minister of Christ! in thy dying hour it will never be a theme of reproach to you that you preached ten times in the week, that you stood up every day to preach Christ, and that you so preached that you spent yourself, and wasted your body with weakness. No, it will be our dull sermons that will haunt us on our dying beds, our tearless preaching, our long studyings, when we might have preached better had we come away and preached without them; our huntings after popularity, by gathering together fine words, instead of coming right up, and saying to the people, “Men and women, you are dying, escape for your life and fly to Christ;” preaching to them in red-hot simple words of the wrath to come and of the love of Christ. Oh! there are some of you members of our churches, who are living, but what are you living for? Surely you are not living to get money—that is the worldling’s object. Are you living merely to please yourselves? Why that is but the beast’s delight. Oh! how few there are of the members of our churches who really live for God with all their might. Do we give to God as much as we give to our own pleasures? Do we give Christ’s service as much time as we give to many of our trifling amusements? Why, we have professional men of education, men of excellent training and ability, who when they once get into a church, feel that they could be very active anywhere else, but as Christians they have nothing to do. They can be energetic in parish vestries or in the rifle corps, but in the church they give their name, but their energies are dormant. Ah! my dear hearers, you who love the Saviour, when we shall come before Christ in heaven, if there can be a regret, it will be that we did not do more for Christ while we were here. I think as we fall down before his feet and worship him, if we could know a sorrow, it would be because we did not bring him in more jewels for his crown—did not seek more to feed the hungry, or to clothe the naked—did not give more to his cause, and did not labour more that the lost sheep of the house of Israel might be restored. Live while you live; while it is called to-day, work, for the night cometh wherein no man can work.
Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.
The Pale Blue Dot
Last Sunday in Sunday School we watched a video. The purpose of the video was to help us understand God’s bigness and our smallness. The man who was speaking gave fact after fact about the size of our universe, the complexity of it all and quite frankly, most of it went way over my head. When you tell me that something is 5.8 million light years away, I really have no concept of that number.
But then at the end of the video he showed a picture taken from the space shuttle Voyager I as it neared the edge of our solar system. NASA sent instructions for the shuttle to turn back towards the earth and take pictures, which it did. It took months for the images to make their way back to earth, but when they did, what they revealed was breathtaking.
I sat in stunned silence as I realized that we were not, in fact, the center of all importance. This world that had seemed so large only moments earlier was suddenly reduced to the size of an insignificant speck – a pale blue dot.
Yet it was to this pale blue dot that the Lord of creation came. For the insignificant inhabitants of this speck, He did the unthinkable – He joined us in our speckness. The meaning of Philippians 2:8 “He humbled Himself” now explodes in my mind.
I feel that there are multitudes of words that want to come tumbling onto the page – yet somehow only silence seems appropriate.
The Walking Dead
The multitudes, the crowds of people
Nameless sea of humanity
Undone by sin, the walking dead
The heart of Jesus longs for these
Deceived and loving their deception
Plunging deeper into sin
They think not that the Lord is watching
They feel no need to repent
Death approaches yet they mock
No fear of God before their eyes
But judgment waits beyond this life
Before the Christ they have despised
As I look into each face
Their countenance shows forth no life
And my heart breaks, they are so lost
And yet they see no need for Christ
My heart is deeply stirred within me
I can sit no longer idly by
As precious souls that Jesus loves
Are doomed to the eternal fires
So let me be an instrument
A vessel for the Master’s use
A life surrendered to His plans
To be used as He would choose
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” Isaiah 6:8
I was made for this
I recently took some time off from work to be alone with God. I went away to a place near the water and spent a lot of time outside, reading my Bible, praying, loving Jesus.
In the evenings I would eat supper outside, watching the beautiful colors of the sunset. Each evening a group of about five birds would appear and they would fly above the tree tops. They would flap their wings a few times and then catch a current of air and be lifted and soar. There didn’t seem to be any purpose to their flight. They weren’t going anywhere, but seemed to just circle around and around, as though they were enjoying the ride.
And as I watched them I thought “They were made for this and look how great a delight they take in it.” And I imagined that this brought God much pleasure.
There are things that God gives me opportunity to do, and in the doing I realize “I was made for this.” In these things my heart is lifted and I feel as though I could soar there forever. And my delight in God nearly explodes in my soul and I sense His pleasure in it.
Delighting in Him today…….
Mercy on display
The cross
Not just a piece of wood
Or a moment in history
But the ultimate reality
Stained red with blood that makes white
Horridly beautiful
Mercy on display
The plan of all the ages
Acted out upon the stage of earth
Grace triumphant in brutality
Man shakes his fist at God and says, “You must die.”
God extends His hand to man and says “You shall live.”
“Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:36
Waterpots of religion
“Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews….: John 2:6
Jesus is in Cana and there is a wedding taking place, but our attention is directed not to the ongoing festivities but to the waterpots. These waterpots were used by the Jews for their ritual washings. Always washing, always trying to make themselves clean. And now the waterpots stood empty. Had their contents been exhausted by the washings of the wedding guests? There they stood waiting for a man to refill them. Always needing a man to refill them so there could be more washings. If someone had come needing that water of purification, what would he do? There was no more.
Into this scene, Jesus speaks – fill them up. And man once again fills the waterpots with water, for this is all he can do. But Jesus does what man cannot do, and changes the contents to wine. “Draw some out now, and take it” He says.
In our human tendency to try to cleanse ourselves and make ourselves acceptable to God, we have filled and emptied the waterpots of religion times without number. Always washing, yet never clean. But in a moment, Jesus frees us from the endless self-washings by one washing in His blood and He changes the water of dead religious activity into the living wine of His Holy Spirit. This truly is the “wine that makes glad the heart of man.” (Ps 104:15) And now we have something suitable to offer the world as Jesus says to us “draw some out now and take it.”
How I cheat not only myself, but the world as well, when I will not be filled with the Holy Spirit. For then I have nothing to offer but the water of religion, a bland and tasteless thing that they can find on every corner. It is only the wine, which is only given by Jesus, that is fit to be drawn out and given to the world.
So let us be filled and then, from the abundance of what He has given, let us draw out and give to the world.
Taking it to the streets
One of the youth in our church felt led by God to organize a group to go downtown street witnessing. Yesterday about 20 of us paired up and walked the streets of downtown Baton Rouge to see what the Lord would do as we sought to share the gospel. I was paired up with Shana, an absolutely delightful young lady with a real heart for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. The first man we encountered was on the levee, sitting on the concrete steps that descended into the Mississippi river. We sat next to him, one on either side, handed him a gospel tract and began to share the gospel with him. Tears began to flow down his face as he told us that he was recently homeless and had been feeling so much despair that at that moment he was contemplaing jumping into the river to drown. He felt like God had sent us to him. We spent a long time with him, encouraging him to trust Jesus and just being with him while he cried. We prayed for him and could see a visible change in his countenance when we left. We are continuing to pray for him – Paul – and believing that the Lord will water and give increase to the seeds that were sown into his heart that day. Shana and I walked away from him feeling very joyful to have been able to share the gospel with him, yet sorrowful that we had not been prepared to help with any practical needs or direct him somewhere he could obtain food and shelter.
Later that day we came across 2 men who were leaning against a fence leading to an event center. They looked like they may have been security guards. Shana and I both felt led to stop and talk to them. As soon as I began to share the good news with one of them, his attention was immediately focused on what I was saying. So much so that it was startling. He had just lost his wife and child due to a divorce and seemed to be reaching out to God as best he knew how. We encouraged him to continue all the way to salvation and a full surrender to Jesus.
At the appointed time we assembled with everyone else to prepare to leave. As we were waiting for the last few stragglers from our group to reappear I noticed a man walking towards us on the sidewalk. As he passed I handed him a gospel tract and when I looked into his face I realized that I knew him. Three years ago he was one of my clients, a business owner with a beautiful wife and he was on fire for the Lord. He would come to my office to drop off information and we would have a wonderful time sharing about what the Lord was doing. Now he had lost everything and was homeless. And away from the Lord. He stood and talked with me for about 15 minutes as I reminded him of what he had lost by walking away from Jesus. As he walked away I broke down in tears over this fallen brother.
As we drove back to the church, Keith Green’s “Asleep in the Light” was playing. I thought my heart would break.
Do you see, do you see, all the people sinking down,
Don’t you care, don’t you care, are you gonna let them drown,
How can you be so numb, not to care if they come,
You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done.
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Oh Bless me Lord, bless me Lord, you know it’s all I ever hear,
No one aches, no one hurts, no one even sheds one tear,
But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds, and He cares for your needs,
And you just lay back and keep soaking it in, oh, can’t you see it’s such sin?
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Cause He brings people to your door,
And you turn them away, as you smile and say,
God bless you, be at peace, and all Heaven just weeps,
Cause Jesus came to your door, you’ve left Him out on the streets.
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Open up, open up, and give yourself away,
You’ve seen the need, you hear the cry, so how can you delay,
God’s calling and you’re the one, but like Jonah you run,
He’s told you to speak, but you keep holding it in,
Oh, can’t you see it’s such sin?
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The world is sleeping in the dark,
That the church can’t fight, cause it’s asleep in the light,
How can you be so dead, when you’ve been so well fed,
Jesus rose from the grave, and you, you can’t even get out of bed,
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead, come on, get out of your bed.
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How can you be so numb, not to care if they come,
You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done,
You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done,
Don’t close your eyes, don’t pretend the job’s done.
Come away, come away, come away with Me, My love,
Come away, from this mess, come away with Me, My love.
What Jesus is to me
In the darkest night He’s comfort
In the raging storm He’s peace
In my need He is provision
That’s what Jesus is to me
When I’m fearful He’s my boldness
When I’m weak He is my strength
In my sorrow He is all joy
That’s what Jesus is to me
In questionings He is the answer
A shepherd to this wandering sheep
A sure escape in all temptation
That’s what Jesus is to me
In failures He is my forgiveness
In trials He is my relief
A faithful friend when I’m forsaken
That’s what Jesus is to me
In the end He’ll be my guide
To lead me to eternity
In death He’ll be my resurrection
That’s what Jesus is to me
Taking His Name in Vain
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold Him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” Exodus 20:7
I had always associated taking His name in vain with words – whether profanity or a carelessly tossing around of His name in casual conversation. However, something different is beginning to appear from this verse.
When we speak of taking someone’s name, we think of marriage. Of a woman taking a man’s name. This is an outward acknowledgement of the legal covenant she has entered into. But this covenant involves much more, because after the taking of the name, the identification of the two as now one, there must be a continued investment in the emotional/relational aspect of the commitment. Otherwise she has taken his name in vain because there is no substance to the union. It is a mere outward form. Something that gives her a measure of comfort and security, but provides no real or lasting joy for either. This is not commitment, it is convenience.
This indeed is a danger we must be aware of. We who are believers have taken the name of Christ. We have identified ourselves with Him and as His. But this becomes empty and worthless if there is not a cherishing of His Person, a delight in His Presence and a longing to know Him even as we are known. A daily communion is needed and should be desired.
Lord, please do no ever let me get to the point that I have taken your name in vain, merely as a convenience, a balm to soothe my conscience. But may my heart be fully engaged in a lifelong pursuit of ever deepening fellowship with You.
He is my Delight 