Jared Longshore's Blog, page 9

Nature Is a Sister

The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. This gives to the typically Christian pleasure in this earth a strange touch of lightness that is almost frivolity. Nature was a solemn mother to the worshipers of Isis and Cybele. Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.

G. K. Chesterton

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Table of Provision

At this table we fellowship with God and that should settle all of our fears. If we commune with Him through the body and blood of His Son, how could we worry that He will not meet our every need? At this table, our Lord says, “This is my body broken for you.” And “this is my blood shed for you.” These words from our Lord call to mind the words of Paul from another place, “If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things (Romans 8:32)?

This generosity of our Heavenly Father gives birth to our generosity toward each other. He has abundantly provided and so we overflow to meet each other’s needs. He has covered our sins and so we cover each other’s sins. He has been merciful to us and so we in turn are merciful one toward another.

As the year behind us comes to a close and we look to the year ahead, it is true that we do not know the steps our Lord has allotted for us. Proverbs 16:9 says, “A man’s heart deviseth his way: But the LORD directeth his steps.” And for this we are grateful. It is one thing to plan, but thank the LORD that He executes your actual movements.

He does not do so arbitrarily, but according to His covenant with us, in which He has sworn to be our God, restore our souls, and hound us with goodness and mercy all the days of our lives. These covenant promises, He has sealed to us in this cup, the blood of the new covenant. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Beware Weak Vessels

We tend to think that salvation will come from the likely places: thrones, mountains, or kings in high places. We are not altogether wrong in this assessment. We lift our eyes unto the hills discovering that salvation comes from the Lord. Nevertheless, when salvation comes, it comes in meek Moses, left-handed Ehud, and the youngest son of Jesse who didn’t even come to the anointing, being too busy out in the field with the sheep.

Isaiah said that there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots (Isaiah 11:1). But this just after Isaiah’s prophecy that the great forests of Lebanon would be cut down. So the Branch grows out of a dried out stump much like our Savior came forth in a an uncultivated womb.

Learn from this not to despise small beginnings.

All of the rebel kings of the world, happy to have made it through the birth of the Son of David, now sit in thier banqueting halls, saying, “Are we supposed to tremble because of a little newborn?” Well, yes in fact. The widow’s mite is more than the offerings of the aristocracy. Gideon’s three hundred is more than enough actually. Five loaves, plenty. Jars of oil will be poured out only to remain full, water jugs will turn to wine jugs, and rivers will flow out of deserts.

If you try to cutoff the bread of the prophets, God will not only feed them with sourdough. He will feed them with sourdough flown to them in the beak of the raven, sourdough in the hand of a widow, in a famine, with a son, who was about to die.

When the enemy taunts you about your faith being too small, your strength to weak, and your fruit too immature. Remind him that even your Savior was tiny once, carted to Egypt by Mary and Joseph. Remind him he should be wary of weak vessels. 

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The Washing of Regeneration

Titus 3:5 says, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Baptism signifies this regeneration and renewing. When Christ blesses one with salvation, indeed all things become new. The blind see. The deaf hear. The mute speak. The lame walk. The dead are raised. So it has been for every one of us. So it is now.

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Trouble for the Minor Fauna

I don’t know if you have ever seen a tiger of the jungle drawing a deep breath preparatory to doing a swan dive and landing with both feet on the backbone of one of the minor fauna. Probably not, nor, as a matter of fact, have I. But I should imagine that a t. of the j. at such a moment would look . . . allowing, of course, for the fact that it would not have a pink face and head like a pumpkin . . . exactly as G. D’Arcy Cheesewright looked as his eyes rested on the Wooster frame.

P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit

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Unless This Wine Keeps the City

Our community is replete with people who want good things to grow and we should thank God for this. It is easy to get stuck in the mud, unmotivated to see such growth. And it is easy to be confused about what should grow and what shouldn’t. But in the main, we have a collection of saints who know what it is we are laboring for. So we pray and work for the growth of God’s kingdom in all its fullness, including the growth of marriages, children, education, business, the arts, sports, politics, culture, and every other good thing the Lord has given us. 

As we labor toward that end, consider the lesson of this table. This bread is the fundamental growth agent. Apart from this bread, everything shrivels up. Apart from this wine, the world decays with all of its projects. If this bread doesn’t build the house, they labor in vain that build it. If this wine keeps not the city, the watchmen stay awake in vain. 

I am not, of course, simply saying that you should be nourished by Christ in your labors. That is true enough but not the central point. The central point is that this bread will rebuild all things. This wine will surely do it. What our Lord said to David is just as true today. He bends down low so we can hear and says, “Will you build me a house to dwell in?” No, “I will build you a house.” 

You find yourselves today in the heavenly tabernacle formed by no human hand. You’re in a growing kingdom like a rock carved by no human hand. Even the womb which our Christ took to as His first earthly home was a virgin womb. Put not your trust in any Joseph, for He will die and His plans will perish. But do trust the virgin’s Son, the will of the LORD will prosper in His hand. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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So Shall Ye Be Established

The virgin birth is not only a miracle, it is a miracle with a purpose. In it God winks at you when you’re tempted to unbelief. He is delighted to test your faith. And He will not permit your unbelief. He’s more than happy to put you in that precarious position of having to trust His promises in the face of encroaching enemies. But He does not leave you in that position without potent signs.

Isaiah is the one who announced “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” But we forget that God made the virgin conceive as an explicit sign connected to a test of faith. In Isaiah’s day, King Ahaz had heard that the King of Syria and the King of Israel were advancing against him at Jerusalem. This news set the hearts of the people shaking like tree branches in the wind. God did not say to them, “All will be well no matter what you do.” He said, “Fear not, their attack will fail.” And He added, “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established” (Isaiah 7:9). Make no mistake. Believe not, be established not.

Amid that test, God said, “Your faith is weak? I’ll tell you what: I’ll make a virgin conceive. Do you believe me now?”

The promises of God are abundant and before you for the believing. These promises include blessing for you and your household to a thousand generations, including sanctification, holiness, maturation, dominion, victory, resurrection, and glory. You will be established in all of that by faith. And if you will not believe, then you will not be established. If you say, “How can I know?” God is happy to answer His Gideon’s with a fleece. And that fleece is virgin born, named Immanuel.

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Christmas Is Not Modern

Christmas is an obstacle to modern progress. Rooted in the past, and even the remote past, it cannot assist a world in which the ignorance of history is the only clear evidence of the knowledge of science. Born among miracles reported from two thousand years ago, it cannot expect to impress that sturdy common sense which can withstand the plainest and most palpable evidence for miracles happening at this moment. . . .Christmas is not modern; Christmas is not Marxian; Christmas is not made on the pattern of that great age of the Machine, which promises to the masses an epoch of even greater happiness and prosperity than that to which it has brought the masses at this moment. Christmas is medieval; having arisen in the earlier days of the Roman Empire. Christmas is a superstition. Christmas is a survival of the past.

G. K. Chesterton

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Table of the King

As you come to this table you should be aware of the loyalties involved. This is the table of a King, and not just any king. It is a table of the King of Kings. No one is tricked into participating. And participating should not be taken lightly. Christ gives orders here. Those orders are “Take and eat.” And “drink of this cup.” But this cup is the blood of the new covenant. As you drink, you drink covenant blood. And it is not only Christ’s blood on the line. Those who drink of this cup and forsake our Lord, forsake him at their peril, at the cost of their lives in this world and the next.

The call of Christ is a call of obedience. It is a call to listen to the Master’s voice, believe His words and obey them. Do not be so foolish as to think He will have you enrolled into His ranks and then not command you. Yes, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. But the commands of the Lord are not abtract rules that you can take or leave. The Lord’s standard was born in Bethlehem. His command-word meets you in your daily life and trials. You must obey Him in the particulars, not simply in theory. 

What makes Christ’s yoke objectively easy is that all of His commands are good. And what makes His yoke subjectively easy is your faith that sees them as such. Any attempt to obey the commands of Christ while begrudging them is not only doomed to fail, it is downright laughable. His command has always been to follow Him and live, to “do this” and “live.” Yes, He might be pulling you into more life than you bargained for, but life it is, world without end. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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The King’s Conquest

Christ was born in Bethlehem that He might rule the world. For two thousand years, His kingdom has spread as saints have been gathered into His church, receiving the Triune name of our God on their heads. Before us today is yet another instance of this great conquests. In baptism, God the Father seals His saints in His son and by His Spirit. It is a witness of His good purposes for us, that He Himself has sword will come to pass. And if one wonders how we can know His covenant word will indeed come to pass for this little one. We point to the virgin’s little one.

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