Jared Longshore's Blog, page 26

The Table That Feeds the World

If we are to live the way God has called us to live, then we must know the relationship between this table and every other table we sit at. One man errs by living as if this table has nothing whatever to do with his dinner table, his work desk, or his conference table at work. This is the sacred-secular dichotomy error. Another man errs by equating every table in the world with this one. His whoe life is sacred in the same way this table is, so every mountain is Mount Zion, every sacrifice is the one made on Calvary, and every room of his life is the holy of holies. We can call this the “if everything is sacred then nothing is sacred” error.

The key is to see that this table feeds the world. Every table answers to and must answer to this table. Every sacrifice you make is an echo of the sacrifice remembered here. Every act of obedience is the fruit of your obedience here. You are not always eating the Lord’s Supper, but you are always having had eaten the Lord’s Supper. 

You do not continually remember Christ in exactly the same way you remember Him here before this bread and wine. But that you remember Him here and now in this sacred way orients you to remember Him always in all of your labors.

As our old hymn says, “Here He gives Himself to us as bread. Here as wine we drink the blood He shed.” And if he supplies us here on this holy mountain, will He not meet all of our needs down below? Surely He will. This is a wine that springs forth from the mountain and gives life to the world. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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All in a Tizzy

Here is your exhortation in a nutshell: Killing sin is a different thing than getting into a tizzy over it. And you must not get into a tizzy over sin. Confessing sin, yes. Forgiving sin, yes. But no tizzys allowed.

By all means, let zeal for the house of the LORD consume you as it did our Savior. If the question is, “Should we not model Jesus who turned over tables at the sight of flagrant sin?” then the answer is, “Yes, indeed, we should.” But taking it to the high and mighty who slam the door of the kingdom in people’s faces is a different thing than getting fussy because a fellow covenant member slandered you or wronged you.

Now, if Eli heard this word when he was failing to restrain his vile sons, he would be tempted to misunderstand it and  misapply it. So don’t be like Eli who failed to honor God and love his sons. And remember our options are not: Neglectful Eli on the one hand and Frazzled Freddy on the other.

If you get all worked up in disbelief over the shortcoming of a fellow Christian, you can pretty much guarantee sins will start compounding.

So here is a little test for when you are considering how another Christian has missed the mark. Whether it be a sin you simply observe or a sin that has been committed against you or your children, either way, consider the Apostle Paul’s question, “What do you have that you didn’t receive?” Answer that question honestly, and your attitude toward your brother or sister will be just right.

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The Altar and the Fire

“As one of the modern authors has told us, the altar must often be built in one place in order that the fire from heaven may descend somewhere else.”

C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

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A Proclamation of the Whole Person

Every week at this table you hear that as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. We are a witnessing people. And we must go about that declaration as whole persons.

God has given you both a soul and a body. He has given you both a heart and finger tips. And, in short, you must declare the Lord’s death with your whole person.

Men would lean one way or the other. They will be all about inward devotion to the point that they nearly forget they have a body. Or, they will be all about practicality and works of service all the while neglecting the heart of the matter. 

The former must hear that God really hates the noise of your sacred songs if you’re not proclaiming Him with your body in the world He created. And the latter must remember that there will be those on the final day that hear, “Yes, yes, you casted out devils well enough and did many great works in my name, now depart from me I never knew you.”

The goal is not to hedge your bets as if too much heart would get you in trouble or too many blisters for Christ would put you in the other ditch. The goal is to run hard in both directions at the same time. This is challenging. But nothing is impossible with God.

Sing with your lips from your heart. Labor with your hands by love. Do works with your body by faith. For the Christ you come to fellowship with now is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. He has a body and face, which you will one day see. And He is also eternal God whose face no man shall see (Exodus 33:20). So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Do It Unto the Lord

Anything worth doing is worth doing well. That is good old fashioned advice, the kind we won’t shake a stick at. But, that advice is missing a key ingredient, namely, the only way to do anything well is to do it unto the Lord.

I grant that pride and some natural stubbornness can motivate a man to climb Mount Everest or put in more hours at the gym than the next guy. But these sources of energy will fail you, deceive you, and at the end of the day, they don’t provide the horsepower that devotion to the Lord provides. 

Paul said, “whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). “Whatsoever ye do” means nothing is excluded. Whether you change diapers, plow driveways, run suicides, shoot jump shots, complete math homework, shuttle children from one end of town to the other, cook dinner, or answer e-mail, you must do it unto the Lord.

And this is no sentimental statement. You can’t do a lousy job and then claim to fix it by singing the doxology over it. “There is my lame work,” we say. “And now I will sanctify it with a benediction.” No, you may not do that. A benediction is not a bit of hocus pocus that turns the fruits of our laziness into the fruits of the diligent. “But I sang the doxology unto the Lord,” comes the reply. OK, fine and good. But the text said that your work was to be unto the Lord.

This kind of life is not like the one Israel lived when making bricks without straw for Pharaoh. We server our Father who loves us and gave His Son for us. He accepts C+ offerings so long they are offered up in faith. He then sends us back out with training to do greater works than before. And those works must be unto the Lord.

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Child Communion: Examine Yourself, Indeed

 Scripture plainly teaches that a man ought to examine himself and so eat of this bread and drink of this cup (1 Corinthians 11:28). On the basis of such a text, some people object to the practice of covenant children communing with the Lord and the saints at the Lord’s Table. Can these little ones truly examine themselves? My short answer to that question is, “Why, yes, they can . . . and as John the Baptist, they can even be filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb (Luke 1:15). While we are on this subject, we really should consider the context of that command to examine oneself. That context involved people grabbing their own bread while others went hungry (1 Corinthians 11:21). It involved people despising the church of God (1 Corinthians 11:22), causing divisions (1 Corinthians 11:18), and not discerning the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:29).
 
Interestingly, this is the very error the disciples fell into when they prohibited children from coming to Christ. Jesus said, “Forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14). If the disciples had discerned that the little ones were of the kingdom of heaven, then they would not have been in need of the rebuke. In prohibiting the children to come to the Lord, what were they doing? They were causing divisions. They were not discerning the body of Christ.
 
Imagine this turn of events, when the man who would prohibit children coming to the Lord’s Table discovers that the Lord Himself is discerning the body, the children also are discerning the body. But he himself has failed to discern the body. In a great attempt to examine the least of these. He has forgotten to examine himself.
 
So examine yourself, indeed. For that is the command, and it goes for the least of us to the greatest.

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Little by Little

 The temptation to go for the quick fix is nothing new. But it is certainly heightened in our day. We put a premium on rapid solutions. We have become accustomed to buying and selling with the click of a button. In such a climate, we must be aware of God’s standard pattern for growth. His normal way is little by little. He made Israel gather just enough manna for the day, any more would spoil. Christ teaches us to pray each day for daily bread. God told Israel that He would drive out the nations before them “little by little,” and this for good reason, so that the beasts of the field would not increase upon them.
 
We often want things the other way around. We would like to ask the Lord one day a year for yearly bread, or, better yet, once in a lifetime for life-long bread. We want to see the Philistines driven out in one battle. And you shouldn’t put it past us to try our hand at alchemy because turning base metals into gold seems to be easier and faster than working hard to earn the gold.
 
But Proverbs says, “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: But he that gathereth by labour shall increase” (Proverbs 13:11).
 
We have a tendency to overestimate what can be done in one year, and to underestimate what can be done in twenty. So whatever field you are currently cultivating, be sure to do so with a steady hand, with patience and resolve. Don’t cut corners. Don’t give into envy or covetousness. Don’t despair when the wheat doesn’t pop out of the ground the day after your sowed the seed. The Lord calls you to labor with Him, and you must do so being steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

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It’s Coram Deo or Bust

One of the very wise things that Moses said when he and Israel were soon to go out from Mount Sinai was, “Lord, if you will not go with us, don’t send us away from this place.” Here we are assembled before the presence of God at the Lord’s Table, and our sentiment ought to be the same as that of Moses, “Lord, we must stay right here if you will not go with us.”

Now each Christian community has its own sin. And the sin which plagues many Christian communities in our day is that they are set on turning the dominion mandate into the sedentary mandate. But, we must repent of our own sins, not the sins of others. Martha had to deal with her own heart before she was to help Mary with whatever was going on in hers. And Martha’s heart was looking to serve the Lord rather than listen to His teaching and take it to heart. 

Given the great work that is going on in our midst, it would be easy to fall into a similar temptation. As in Moses’ day, there are battles to fight and an endless number of good works out there for the taking. So learn from the meekest man on earth. He wasn’t budging if God wasn’t coming with them and going before them.

You can stay up as late as you’d like and get up before the sun rises in July. But you will accomplish nothing this year if the Lord is not with you and you Him. The One we commune with has promised to go with us, so we can and must go from this place to be fruitful. But ensure as you do that the Lord goes with you and your heart remains set on Him. It is Coram-Deo or bust. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Feelings Make Terrible Gods

Calvin was absolutely right that man’s heart is an idol factory. And the men and women of our day seem hellbent on setting up their feelings as little deities. They offer pinches of incense to them on nearly every street corner. Even so, feelings make terrible gods. You would be far better off worshipping the gods of the Roman Pantheon. If you’re really going to turn your back on the Living God, go for Zeus, Aphrodite, or Apollo. At least then, you might have an interesting story to tell, albeit a tragic one. At least then, you could pretend to be reaching outside of yourself. All of this talk about following your heart is not only worthy of the flames of hell, it is also remarkably boring.

Your feelings are meant to be commanded. They should line up and follow you along the way. If they are being unruly, that is no worry. That is what feelings often do. Just give them a spanking and tell them to sit up straight, shut their mouths, and act right. But, says an evangelical who has joined the Philistines of our age, “What then could I write in my journal if indeed I tell my feelings to hush?” Well, you don’t have to throw the journal away. But if you are going to keep it, you should start writing Bible verses down and then use your pen to describe how you are going to trust those words more fully and obey them more diligently. As Martyn Lloyd Jones once wisely said, “Most of our problems in life come from the fact that we are listening to ourselves rather than talking to ourselves.” Control your emotions. Discipline them. This work is not too hard for you. This self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, and He has been poured out in your hearts.

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Jehovah-Jireh

After Abraham obeyed the Lord, taking his son Isaac up Mount Moriah to sacrifice him, he saw a ram caught in a thicket. This was God’s provision for the sacrifice. Abraham, who knew that the Lord was going to provide such a sacrifice when he headed up the mountain, called that place Jehovah-Jireh, saying, “In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen” (Genesis 22:14). That statement from faithful Abraham has proven true time and time again. 

Eden was a mountain, and there the Lord provided life to our father, Adam. Even after our rebellion, our Father provided a sacrifice on that mountain, clothing our first parents with garments of skin. He did the same at Mount Sinai. There the Lord’s faithfulness was seen as sacrificial blood was sprinkled upon the people and the book of the covenant. In David’s day, the LORD’s provision was seen on Mount Jerusalem as God swore an oath to give David a son who would rule, and that son Solomon came forth on that mountain. And it was on that same mountain that our Lord gave His life and instituted this Supper in which He says, “This is my body broken for you.”

This table reduces all of our sin to a singular point. That point is our doubt that on the Mount of the Lord His provision shall be seen. Our anxieties, complaining, covetousness, sour attitude, biting and devouring, you name it; all of it boils down to our disbelief in what is richly displayed before us now. We must learn to see every sin for what it is: an attempt to strip the LORD of His rightful name—Jehovah-Jireh. Likewise, we must look to whatever difficult terrain faces us in the coming year and say with Abraham, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be seen.” And have come to that heavenly mount Zion. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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