Robert J. Morgan's Blog, page 23

A Lifeline For Deep Waters

Galatians 2:20

Introduction: Only once have I thought I was drowning. I was a boy at a swimming pool, and some older fellows held me under water a little too long and scared me. The Bible describes trouble as deep waters. Job felt he was drowning in affliction (Job 10:15). Psalm 18:16 says God pulls us out of deep waters. We become overwhelmed with the issues of life. There’s a powerful lifeline for such times—Galatians 2:20: 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 (KJV).

1. Being Crucified with Christ

I am crucified with Christ is a vivid statement, but what does it mean? Paul wrote this after his first missionary journey when the church was torn apart by the question of salvation. Are we saved by faith alone, or must we also obey the Mosaic Law given to Israel? The early Christians were Jews, and they continued practicing their Jewish habits. But Gentiles were coming to Christ too. Must they adopt Judaism? On his journey in Acts 13 and 14, Paul preached salvation by grace through faith alone. At the end of the tour, Paul learned that Judaizers were following in his footsteps throughout Galatia, confusing his new churches. He wrote the Galatians sternly, saying: I am astonished you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel… Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached, let him be under God’s cursed.

 In Galatians 1-2, Paul insisted the Gospel didn’t have its origin in human imagination. It was given by revelation from God. In Galatians 2:17 he said: But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!

 In other words, “If, in being justified by grace, I say that my salvation is not found in keeping the Law of Moses, does that mean that Christ is telling me to live a lawless life? No!”

 Verse 18 continues: For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. In other words, “The Law of Moses led me to see myself as a sinner and as a lawbreaker, that I might turn to Christ by faith and live for God.”

That brings us to the powerful phrase: I am crucified with Christ. What exactly, then, does that mean? Paul wasn’t speaking in literal terms; he wasn’t nailed to the cross on Good Friday. He is speaking theologically and stressing two things:

A. Our Sins Are Nailed with Christ to the Cross

First, our sins are nailed with Christ to the cross. A few months ago, I was troubled with regrets. The next morning I was reading a book by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, which said:

You and I must never look at our past lives; we must never look at any sin in our past life in any way except that which leads us to praise God and to magnify His grace in Christ Jesus…. If you look at your past and are depressed by it, you must do what Paul did…. He glories in grace and says, “And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”

That is the way to look at your past. If you look at your past and are depressed it means you are listening to the devil. But if you look at the past and say, “Unfortunately it is true I was blinded by the god of this world, but thank God His grace was more abundant, He was more than sufficient and His love and mercy came upon me in such a new way that it is all forgiven, I am a new man,” then all is well. That is the way to look at the past, and if we do not do that, I am almost tempted to say that we deserve to be miserable. (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depress (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 75-76).

That’s what it means to be crucified by Christ. We can never be saved by keeping the law; indeed, the law simply defines our sin. But Christ lived by the law and died according to the law, in our place, and our sins were pardoned by His blood.

B. Our Lives Are Committed to the Christ of the Cross

Being crucified with Christ also implies the relinquished life. Our lives are committed to the Christ of the cross. On two other occasions Paul spoke of this. One is at the end of Galatians—Galatians 6:14. I’ll never forget this verse because of an experience Katrina and I had a few years ago. We were at an event, and in came Billy Graham. He was in a wheelchair and almost blind and nearly deaf. But someone him what Bible verse he was memorizing—he was still memorizing Scripture. He said Galatians 6:14: God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, though which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

 We are crucified with Christ in the sense that when we decide to follow Him, we die to the world. The other passage is very similar—Romans 6:5-13: We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin…. Now if we died with Christ, we believe we will also live with Him…. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus…. Offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness.

Just as Jesus gave all of Himself for us, we should give all of ourselves for Him.

When James Calvert went as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the captain of the ship sought to turn him back. “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages,” he cried. Calvert only replied, “We died before we came here.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “When God calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Someone asked George Mueller the secret of his victorious life. He replied: “There came a day when George Mueller died, utterly died! No longer did his own desires, preferences, and tastes come first. He knew that from then on Christ must be all in all.”
My pastor in college was Dr. Edwin Young. One day he told me to put 220 volts to myself every day–Galatians 2:20.
Someone once saw this sign in the window of a dry-cleaning and dying business: “We dye to live, we live to dye; the more we dye, the more we live; and the more we live, the more we dye.”

 

2. Being Channels for Christ

Galatians 2:20 continues: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me….  

 Pioneer missionary Hudson Taylor called this the Exchanged Life. After arriving in China, he nearly had a nervous breakdown from trying to do too much work in his own strength. One day he received a letter that spoke of an exciting discovery—the secret of abiding in Christ and allowing Christ to live His life and do His work through us.

“As I read,” Taylor recalled, “I saw it all. I looked to Jesus; and when I saw, oh how the joy flowed!” He wrote to his sister in England and said, “As to the work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible, or so difficult; but the weight and strain are all gone. The last month or more has been perhaps the happiest of my life; and I long to tell you a little of what the Lord has done for my soul.”

He went on to describe the truth of John 15—we’re to abide in Christ as branch in a vine. When the relationship is intimate and unhindered, the sap flows from branch to vine, just as the Holy Spirit flows from Jesus to us. He’s the one producing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives doing the work through us.  It isn’t what we do for Christ, but what He does through us that makes all the difference. I have to remind myself every day that the secret to the Victorious Christian Life is being crucified with Christ and being channels only.

  3. Being  Confident in Christ

The final portion of the verse says: …and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

A few weeks ago, I went for a walk around the northern shore of Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks and I was meditating on this verse. Schroon Lake is a wonderful lake for waterskiing in the summer time, and I thought about how I learned to waterski. I was college during a break, I went home with my friend, Bill McCoy, who lived on a lake in Orlando. He parents had a ski boat, and they put Bill and me in the water side by side and after multiple attempts I made it up and skied about a hundred feet before falling—I still remember the exhilaration of it.

The mechanics of faith are much the same. Think of the boat and the pilot as God Himself. He has unlimited power and He knows exactly where He is going. He knows the smooth water and He knows the rough water, and His horsepower is unlimited.

Think of the biblical promises as the ropes to us. For example, here in the book of Galatians is a promise I’ve gone to repeatedly—Galatians 6:9: “Let us not become weary in well-doing, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” The Bible is full of promises like that, and there is a promise for every need, for every contingency in life.

Now think of the handle at the end of the rope as faith. Here we are, thrashing around the water, wondering if we’re going to sink, wondering if we’re going to drown, but God is there in the boat and He has tossed us an unbreakable promise. We grip it and hold on. And His power conveyed through His promises, as we hold on with the grip of faith, lifts us out of our situations and enables us to virtually walk on water, as Simon Peter did on the Sea of Galilee. That is the life of faith—being confident in Christ and in His power and in His promises.

Conclusion: If you’re in over your head with the issues of life, grab the lifeline of Galatians 2:20. Be crucified with Christ, for that’s the relinquished life. Be channels for Christ, for that’s the exchanged life. Be confident in Christ, for that’s the trusting life. And this is the life that walks, as it were, on water.

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.

Kingdom Couples

 

When Marriage Becomes a Ministry that Touches the World

Introduction: Good marriages don’t happen automatically. They require a lot of work and a few good models to learn by. Let me introduce you to a couple whose marriage was among the best in the Bible—Aquila and Priscilla. We run into them several times in the New Testament, but the key passage is Acts 18, when Paul arrived in Corinth on his second missionary journey. Let’s study it.

Aquila and Priscilla

Acts 18:1: After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. I don’t think Paul was in good shape. He was battered physically and emotionally. In Acts 16, he had been whipped in Philippi and escorted out of town. In chapter 17, he’d been run out of Thessalonica, then out of Berea, leaving behind his associates. Traveling alone, he arrived in Athens, but found few people interested in his message. Now he had trudged 50 miles on to Corinth, where he didn’t know a soul. He entered the city “in weakness with great fear and trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:3).

 Corinth had an excellent location for shipping, with two ports. Masses were coming and going. This city was notorious for its sexuality, sensuality, and depravity. The entire city worshipped Aphrodite, the goddess of pleasure and the patron goddess of prostitutes. Her temple stood on the acropolis looking down on a city gripped by runaway immorality. To this city of commerce and wickedness Paul came exhausted and alone.

Except he wasn’t alone. God had already placed a remarkable couple in that city. He ordained that a lonely man—a single missionary—and this incredible couple should be on trajectories that met in the wicked streets of old Corinth.

Verse 2: There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus… Aquila was from Pontus, which we remember from the Day of Pentecost. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples in the Upper Room, and some Jews from Pontus heard the Gospel (Acts 2:9). Perhaps Aquila was among the 3,000 converted that day. You can draw a line from Acts 2 to Acts 18.

Verses 2-3: …a native of Pontus who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.

This couple had their own business as leathercrafters and tentmakers. By artisan training, Paul was a tentmaker; and since he was penniless, he evidently went looking for a job. Aquila and Priscilla hired him on the spot.

Verse 4: Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

Soon Paul’s companions, Silas and Timothy, caught up with him, bringing financial gifts from Macedonia, which allowed Paul to devote himself fulltime to preaching.

Verses 5-8: When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah… Many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.

 Despite these encouraging events, Paul was still fearful, so God intervened and gave him a special message:

 Verse 9: One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”

 What an encouraging verse when we feel alone in our culture. You may be the only Jesus-follower in your school, workplace, or family. But the Lord has many people who will be coming to Himself. His Spirit is already working in their hearts. So we shouldn’t be afraid or discouraged. Rather, we must keep preaching.

 Verse 18: Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila….

 Aquila and Priscilla packed up their gear, hauled it all to the dock, joined Paul on his tour and jon his anticipated campaign in Ephesus.

 Verse 19: They arrived in Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is. God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.

 Paul left Priscilla and Aquila as an advance team. He left them in Ephesus and they began sowing the Gospel there, and they made a huge impact on one man in particular.

Verses 24-28: Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandra, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was of a great help to those who by grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.

 Notice Priscilla’s name comes first. This couple is mentioned seven times in the Bible; they are always mentioned together; and five times Priscilla’s name comes first—Priscilla and Aquila. We get the idea she was the natural leader and the primary teacher. They mentored Apollos and taught him the Gospel and turned him into one of the most eloquent preachers of the New Testament era.

This is the last we see of Aquila and Priscilla in Acts, but Paul mentions them three more times in his letters:

Romans 16:3-5: Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets in their house.
1 Corinthians 16:19: The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets in their house.
2 Timothy 4:19: Greet Priscilla and Aquila….

You and Me

Aquila and Priscilla show us how God wants us to think about marriage. It is a divinely-ordained partnership for whatever He wants us to do. We should be Kingdom Couples. We may not always live up to it, but this is arguably the Bible’s best model for a marriage that morphs into ministry. In God’s view, marriage is a mechanism for multiplying ministry. God brings people together to serve Him. He strategically partners us with someone who has corresponding interests and complimentary gifts, and He sends us to do the work He had prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

When Jesus-followers get married, they get married for Jesus. They say, “Your Kingdom come; Your will be done in our home and in our marriage, just as it is done in heaven.”

It’s as though God looks down from heaven and says, “Oh, there is that man, and he can do something significant for Me.” And He says, “There is that woman, and she can do something wonderful for My Kingdom.” But then He says, “Wow, if I put those two people together I’m going to have a Kingdom Couple. I’ll be able to do more with them in partnership than either of them could ever do alone.”

Priscilla and Aquila viewed their marriage as a partnership ordained by the Master as a ministry to whosoever crossed their pathway. Vocationally, they were not missionaries, although they did missionary work. They were not counselors, although they did counseling. They were not pastors, although they hosted the church in their home. They were not evangelists, though they spread the Gospel like crazy. They were business people and tentmakers; but whatever they did, they did for the Kingdom, for the Gospel. They did it for the glory of God.

We often think of marriage as a relationship that will keep us from being lonely, or enable us to have a family, or allow us to have children. Well, there’s no indication Priscilla and Aquila had children; we don’t know about that. But they understood there is a deeper aspiration for marriage than happiness and fellowship and procreation. God has placed us on this planet to do something for Him; if He leads us into marriage, it’s because He knows that in our case we cannot adequately fulfill that purpose alone.

You say, “But my husband (or wife) isn’t very serious about serving Christ.” Well, the Bible addresses that in other passages, and you cannot be responsible for someone else’s decisions or maturity or attitude. You can only be responsible for yours. But sometimes it helps if we’ll talk about it and say, “How do you think God wants to use us together? How can we be a Kingdom Couple?”

It helps if both of you study the Bible every day, pray together, and serve together in a church. We have to get started with the process wherever we are.

Recently a friend gave me the story of her father, Paul Schlener, who was stationed aboard a Navy vessel caught in Typhoon Cobra in 1944. This was the disastrous Pacific hurricane that capsized three Navy destroyers and cost the lives of nearly 800 sailors.

Schlener was tossed around like a rag doll and as terrified as a man can be. He wasn’t ready to meet God. But his ship survived, and as soon as he made it back to San Francisco he found a church and received Jesus as his Savior.

But Schlener didn’t know how to tell his girlfriend, Jessie, what had happened to him. One night he borrowed his brother’s 1937 Ford and took her on a date. All night, he tried to muster his courage to share his testimony. Finally about 9 o’clock, he pulled over the curb between street lights so they were sitting in darkness. As best he could, he told her what had happened. He told her he loved her, but he didn’t know what to do now that he was a follower of Christ and she wasn’t. Then he just said, “What do you think?”

Jessie said nothing, and Paul was in agony. Finally he reached for the starter, and that’s when he heard a little sniffle. Looking over, he saw a tear glisten from the glow of a streetlight half a block away. Jessie told him she would like to know Jesus.

“Hang on!” he shouted. He punched the starter of that old Ford, pressed the accelerator, and left a strip of rubber on the street. He raced through town like a NASCAR driver and got lost and drove around half the night before finally finding his brother’s house. He banged on the door until everyone was awake.

“Jessie wants to become a Christian,” he said, and “I don’t know how to lead her to Christ.” Paul’s brother did, and Paul and Jessie became a kingdom couple. They devoted forty years to extraordinary overseas service for Christ. They just started where they were and let God use them [adapted from Paul Schlener, When Sea Billows Roll (Paul L. Schlener: 2010), passim.]

We’re not all going to end up overseas or in vocational ministry, but every marriage should be a Power Partnership for Christ. Every couple should be a Kingdom Couple, for according to Luke 10, Jesus loves to send out His workers, and He loves to send them out two by two.

10 Commandments for Young Pastors

 

Never miss your personal daily devotions. Meet personally with the Lord every day, because ministry is overflow; and your Bible study for sermon preparation is no substitute for personally closing your door and talking with your Father in secret. You must have the daily refreshment of the Word. The most important thing isn’t your work for the Lord but your walk with the Lord. Include a few moments of Scripture memory each day during your Quiet Time. This will ward off burnout by replenishing the reservoir of the soul (Jeremiah 15:16).

 

Preach verse-by-verse through Scripture (2 Timothy 2:15). The current fad of typical topical sermons may be good marketing, but it will not sustain a deepening, growing church over the long-haul. Marketing has its place, but its more important to be an expositor than a marketer; and of course, the best marketing occurs when you have a quality product, which is exposition. Preaching through books of the Bible allows God’s Word to unfold as He logically gave it, and the unfolding of God’s Word gives light (Psalm 119:130). Focus on expositional-based sermons with application; not application-based sermon from miscellaneous verses based on your own concoctions. Feed the flock.

 

Keep the family together during worship services (Nehemiah 8:2-3). Don’t segregate elementary or middle school children from their parents and grandparents during the worship hour. Make sure your sermons are engaging enough for children, who need to hear their pastor.

 

Focus on the biblical literacy of the congregation. Make sure there is a layer of instructional ministry taking place in the life of your church. Remember that Sunday sermons, even when verse-by-verse, are exhortative by nature and relatively brief compared to the data flooding into our lives from the world. And small group ministries are now primarily relational. Ask yourself—where will my people learn comprehensive theological and biblical truth, such as the doctrine of the Trinity, the inspiration and authority of Scripture, the books of Daniel and Revelation, apologetics, and etc? Every church should be a miniature seminary (a lecture hall of Tyrannus – Acts 19:9), because biblical illiteracy is ruining the long-term health of churches.

 

Keep your worship contemporary and tilted toward the future. But under no circumstances leave behind some of the great hymns of the faith. Most of today’s music comes and goes like disposable razors. Much of it is high-quality and biblical and exuberant—I love it—but it doesn’t provide people with a lifelong personal canon of worshipful music and it’s very dangerous to be the first generation in the history of the church that abandons 3400 years of hymnody. Include an anchoring hymn each week without fail (Ephesians 5:19).

 

Always present the Gospel at every opportunity, and continually strive for ways to create catalytic moments when people can make decisions for Christ. Keep the cross central to your ministry (Galatians 6:14), and figure out the best methods for enabling people to indicate a response to the challenge to receive Christ as Savior and Lord (1 Corinthians 14:24-25).

 

Galvanize yourself against discouragement (Joshua 1:9). Satan uses discouragement more than anything else to rob you of your joy. Memorize the biblical promises about God’s assurance that our work is not in vain, such as 1 Corinthians 15:58; Galatians 6:9; Haggai 2:3-5; 1 Chronicles 28:20; and Isaiah 55:11. Don’t base your morale on statistics, but on the sovereignty of God. Don’t compare yourself with the pastor down the street (John 21:21). Your ministry is unique to you (Ephesians 2:10). Serve the Lord with joy, and keep stoking your enthusiasm. Remember Colossians 3:23: Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men.

 

Take breaks. Have a life outside your church through hobbies or leisure pursuits. Get away with your spouse for occasional overnight personal holidays. Tuck your children into bed with a Bible verse and prayer. Get enough sleep at night, and restrain your appetite so you don’t get overweight. Work hard, but beware the peril of fatigue (Mark 6:31).

 

Don’t try to do everything. Be an expositor and let your primary focus be on the exposition of Scripture. Make key visits to the most needy members and prospects, administer with discipline, but delegate everything you can. Only do what only you can do (Acts 6:3-4).

 

Remember 1 Peter 5: To the elders among you: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

 

 

Happily Single!

God’s Gift

Why Being Unmarried is Such a Good Thing

Introduction: Unmarried people comprise more than 45% of the adult population in the U.S. and half the workforce. These are people who have never been married; or have been widowed; or divorced; or in relationships that didn’t last. They span all ages and stages. In America, about 36 million people live in single-person households. Part of this is because of a reaction to the personal devastation caused by the sexual revolution. More people are choosing to remain celibate (not sexually active with another person) unless in a married relationship. A recent study analyzed four decades’ worth of data on the sex and dating experiences of 8 million teens. The percentage teens who have never been on a date is higher than ever, and the percentage who have had sex is at an all-time low. Our society is recognizing there are advantages to being unmarried and celibate; and the Bible says the same thing. Many heroes of the Bible were unmarried, and one of them, the apostle Paul, gave us an entire chapter on the subject—1 Corinthians 7. This chapter contains three biblical principles that, to me, are wonderfully woven into this passage.

1. The Principle of Personal Holiness – A Relationship with Christ Demands Purity (1 Corinthians 5:1 – 7:7)

Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, a city known for depravity. His message is that Christ-followers must live differently. He opened chapter 5 saying: It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you. Paul was disturbed by believers still engaged in sex outside of marriage. Verses 9-11 say: I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral…

 In the next chapter he said: Neither the sexually immoral or idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves or the greedy nor drunkards not slanders nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. That is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

 He went on in verse 18: Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

 Then we come this great chapter 7, and it opens with a surprising sentence: Now for the matters you wrote about: It I good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.

 What a strange verse! I think the Lord is telling us here it’s good to be single and celibate. As we keep reading, the emphasis on personal holiness continues: But since sexual immorality us is occurring, each man should have sexual relation with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her on body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will  not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not a command. I wish that all of you were a I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

If you are married that is a gift from God, and you must be physically active in this relationship. If you are single, that’s also God’s special gift to you. The apostle Paul was so happy being unmarried that he called it a gift. But he stressed throughout the chapter the necessity for purity.

Dr. J. I. Packer wrote about what he called, “the sidelining of personal holiness that has been a general trend among Bible-centered Western Christians during my years of ministry.” He said, “It is not a trend that one would have expected, since Scripture insists so strongly that Christians are called to holiness, and that without holiness none will see the Lord. But the shift of Christian interest away from the pursuit of holiness to focus on fun and fulfillment, ego massage and techniques for present success…is a fact. To my mind it is a sad and scandalous fact, and one that needs to be reversed.”

One of the hardest aspects of being unmarried is that it requires a celibate life, which requires the grace of God plus self-discipline.

Russell Wilson, quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, began dating Grammy-award-winner Ciara, and everyone assumed they were sleeping together. But Wilson spoke at a church event and told people the couple had decided not to have sex while dating. He said, “God spoke to me and said, ‘I need you to lead her’…and I told her right then and there, what would you do if we took all that extra stuff off the table, and just did it Jesus’ way? For me, I knew God had brought me into her life to bless her, and for her to bless me.” The media couldn’t believe it, but the couple evidently remained true to that commitment.

At some level, they understood this principle—a relationship with Christ demands purity. We’ve got to do things Jesus’ way. Perhaps you’re saying, “Well, it’s too late for me. I’ve ready violated everything you’re talking about.” Then start where you are and as you are. There’s room for that in the Gospel. In fact, that’s what the Gospel is all about. But start today.

2. The Principle of Perilous Times – These are Difficult Times in Which to Raise a Family, and There Are Advantages to Being Exempt from This Burden (1 Corinthians 7:25-31)

The second principle is found in 1 Corinthians 7:25: Now about virgins, I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. As you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in life, and I want to spare you from this.

 What was the present crisis? We don’t know, but perhaps Paul was thinking of looming persecution. Others believe Greece was suffering riots caused by a terrible drought and famine and that the city of Corinth was being torn apart by violence. In terms of the application today, I’ll just say it’s a difficult time in which to raise children. There may be terrible times of persecution ahead. The nature of the times have something to do with the advantages of being unmarried.

Paul continued in verse 29: Time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as though they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For the world in this present form is passing away.

 The last days will be difficult. We will have to base all we do on our commitment to Christ, and the cost is high. If you’re married, don’t let it dilute your focus on the Lord. If you’re sad, get over it. If you’re happy, don’t be carried away. If you buy something, remember that it’s not yours for long. Christ is coming and the world is fading. It’s easier for a single person than those responsible for a family.

3. The Principle of Passionate Service – Nothing is More Fulfilling Than Making a Difference in this World for Christ (1 Corinthians 7:32-40)

That leads to the last emphasis—passionate service. Verse 32 continues: I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife—and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.

  If anyone is worried he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if his passions are too strong and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married. But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin—this man also does the right thing. So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does better.

  A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord. In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

 Marriage is a sacred relationship, established by God as the place for sexual intimacy. But marriage takes a lot of time, work, energy, and emotion. Unmarried adults can pour their time and energy into the Lord’s affairs and devote themselves completely to what God wants them to do.

John Piper wrote, “I would just encourage Christian single people to ask, ‘For this chapter in my life, while I am single, what is it about my singleness that could make me especially fruitful for Christ?’ And then I would encourage them to give themselves to that.”

Conclusion: As a young adult, I was introverted and never dated much. During my freshman in college, I asked a girl on a date and we went to see Love Story, the most depressing movie ever made. My date was so depressed she never wanted to see me again.

My senior year of college, I walked into an office and there a new secretary there. I remember that moment like yesterday because Katrina had a nice smile. That year we worked together on the itinerary for our traveling teams. I was in her office nearly every day, but we never dated. I moved to Chicago for graduate school, and there was little way to stay in touch.

One day as I drove through the Illinois countryside, I had this thought. What if God doesn’t want me to be married? What if He wants me to be single all my life? There behind the wheel, I said something like this: “Lord, I would like to get married, but if You don’t want me to have a wife, then… well, I’m not sure I’m willing; but I’m willing to be willing if You will help me.” That seemed to settle it and I had peace. I enjoyed my years of unmarried-ness.

Meanwhile Katrina and I kept writing to each other. Our letters weren’t love letters; they were friendship letters. I was pretty lonely at Wheaton, and Katrina wrote and kept my spirits up. Finally one day I stumbled into the most awkward proposal ever. I said something about needing to marry Katrina to be able to spend enough time with her to get to know her. Surprised, she said, “Is that a proposal?” I said, “I guess.” She said, “Well, it’s the funniest proposal I’ve ever had! When do you want an answer?” I said, “Expeditiously.” She laughed and said, “Well, the answer is yes.”

My point is that God has a plan for each of us. Most of us will, at some point, be married; but all of us will spend time unmarried. Marriage is wonderful, but marriage is not God. Sex is not God. It isn’t our ultimate goal. Our ultimate goal is to know Jesus Christ. God is God, and He is best able to guide us when we commit ourselves to personal holiness, follow Him through perilous times, and devote ourselves to Him in passionate service.

 

 

 

 

Life’s Unanswerable Questions — Homemaker Edition

 

With the progression of Katrina’s disability, I’ve become the primary housekeeper at our place. I enjoy it good enough, but even after years of practice I still have some lingering concerns:

Why do I put a single softener sheet in the dryer, and take five out?
Why do I put two socks in the washing machine, and only one comes out? (for a partial answer, see # 8 below).
Should I count vacuum-cleaning around the exercise equipment as exercise?
How does my pantry turn into a time warp? Just when I start to use something I thought I recently purchased, I notice that it expired in 2006.
Why do they put shaving cream in cans that rust and leave permanent rings on the bathtub ledge?
Who knew that hair conditioner does a better job for shaving anyway?
Why does the bedspread always end up sideways when I’m making the bed? The law of percentages should give me a half-chance of being right.
How can the corners of fitted sheets catch so many washcloths, towels, t-shirts, undergarments—and some of those wayward socks?
After pulling all the lent off the strainer in the dryer, how can I have any clothes left?
Why do we all have 946,149 separate household items, from thumbtacks to davenports, but if even one thing is out of place the whole house looks like a disaster zone?
Why can I never toast nuts without burning them?
Why don’t we ever track dirt out of the house?
Why do my best t-shirts get oil stains on front of them while my ratty ones never do?
Why do shirt-makers use the phrase “Wrinkle Resistant” instead of saying “This Shirt Will Wrinkle”?
Why is my iron so good at permanently creasing the wrinkles into my shirts — and how do you fold up those ironing boards anyway?

I’d list a few more questions, but the trashcan is starting to smell and, well, duty calls….

Living among the Pagans

A Study of 1 Peter 2:11 – 3:7

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us — 1 Peter 2:12

Introduction: Jesus-followers are pilgrims among pagans. First Peter describes Christians as cultural exiles who live as spiritual expatriates in a heathen world. Following Christ is not an easy thing; it is not safe. But every section of 1 Peter unfolds a new dimension of the adventure. For example, 1 Peter 2:11 to 3:7 is a critical passage that sets forth a principle and applies it in three arenas of life.

The Peter Principle (1 Peter 2:11-12)

Peter wrote: Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.

This is Peter’s grand thought. By pagans, he means non-Jesus-followers. We believers are like visitors on this planet, sent here on assignment. We have a responsibility to turn away from sinful patterns and to live such good lives that, even though the pagans may accuse us of doing wrong, when Christ returns they will have to praise Him for the testimony we were to them. In the following verses, Peter applies this, generally, to three areas. I say “generally” because we have to keep Peter’s purpose in mind. In the verses to come, Peter is not trying to establish a comprehensive theology about the three areas he mentions. He is simply telling us how the Peter Principle should work in these three situations.

1. Live a Good Life in the Political Arena (1 Peter 2:13-17)

The first is in the political arena. Verse 13 says: Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, who are sent by Him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil: live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the king.

This is difficult for Christians. Last Sunday I was at Reagan Airport in Washington sitting beside a man who was making copious notes on a stenographer’s pad with three different colored pens and two highlighters. I said, “Excuse me. You have very fine way of recording your notes. I’m curious about it.”

“I’m a reporter for the Washington Post,” he said. So I told him (nicely) I was frustrated because there is so little objective reporting now. Everything in opinion, on all sides of the aisles. He replied, “I hate it now. I’ve never seen this nation the way it is. I’ve reported from Iraq and Afghanistan, but I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve taken my frustrations home with me like I am doing now.”

We are a divided nation, and Christians are in a difficult place. On the one hand, we must stand up for moral issues that represent a biblical perspective. We have a right and a responsibility to speak biblical truth in the public square. On the other hand, we don’t want to alienate the very people we need to win to Jesus. This is the tightrope we’re walking. According to 1 Peter, we should be respectful. We should respect authority, whether it’s the President of the United States or the TSA workers at the airport, or the U.S. Army or the Metro police. We should speak respectfully and be as cooperative as possible. Verse 17 says: “Show proper respect for everyone… fear God, honor the emperor.” And remember, Peter lived during the days of Nero.

We should live such good lives among the pagans in the political arena that, though they accuse us of being wrong, they’ll have to praise God for us when Jesus comes again. But Peter is not crafting a comprehensive philosophy about politics. For example, you might ask, is there a time when we should not submit to governing authorities? Yes, there is. Who told us that? Peter himself, thirty years before. In Acts 5, Peter was hauled before the Counsel in Jerusalem and ordered to cease preaching Christ. He promptly disobeyed. The authorities were livid, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.” Peter’s answer has rung through the ages: “We must obey God rather than men.”

Thirty years later, he wrote, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority.” Had he changed his mind? No. He was simply showing us the balance. We’re to respect authority, but we must obey God rather than man. Many Christians throughout history today are persecuted because of this balance. It’s important to study Peter’s words and know how the Lord wants us to act as citizens of heaven who, in a lesser and temporary sense, are citizens of a nation like America.

Live such good lives among the pagans in the political arena that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.

2. Live a Good Life in the Workforce (1 Peter 2:18-25)

There’s another area in which we must exercise Christian decorum—the workforce. Since in Peter’s day the workforce was made up of slaves, he addressed them in verse 18:

Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps. H e committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.  When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by His wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Peter was not giving us a comprehensive view on slavery. Bible-based Christianity has historically and adamantly fought slavery and human trafficking in all its forms. The New Testament provided truth leading to the abolishing of slavery. Paul told slaves to seek their freedom in 1 Corinthians 7 and he told Philemon that the slave Onesimus was their brother and should be treated like Philemon would treat Paul. Peter was simply telling slaves who had become Christians to represent Christ, even under hard conditions. He was telling them to apply his Peter Principle to their situation: “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.”

We have to understand Peter’s purpose, because slavery demands civil disobedience. Remember the famous story of Frederick Douglass, 16, who rose up against his sadistic master and fought hand-to-hand for two hours. The man never again raised his hand against Frederick; and when the teenager found a chance, he fled to the north, became an AME preacher, and stirred the world with his oratory. Thank God for that. Peter wasn’t telling Roman slaves to perpetuate the institution of slavery. He was saying, If you are slave, as so many of you are, live such a good life among the pagans that even if they abuse you, they will be unable to deny your Christian integrity.

In our setting, we could transfer this principle to the workforce. Be the best employee possible. Don’t be difficult or hard to manage. Don’t do shoddy work. Represent the ethics and personality of Jesus on the job. Live such good lives among the pagans, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God when Jesus comes.

3. Live a Good Life at Home (1 Peter 3:1-7)

Finally, Peter applies this principle to marriage in chapter 3: Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the Word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

In Peter’s day, many women were coming to Christ; but what about their husbands? How to win them? Here again, Peter is not speaking comprehensively. He was not telling wives to never verbally share the Gospel. He was saying: You cannot nag your husband to Christ, and if you’re mean of spirit you may never win him. He must see the beauty of Christ in you.

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Here again Peter was not speaking in comprehensive terms. He was not forbidding jewelry, but saying that husbands cannot be won to Christ by bracelets but by the inner beauty of Christ. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

Peter is not telling women to tolerate abuse. He is simply applying his Peter Principle to marriage: Live such good lives among your family members that, even if they accuse you of wrongdoing, they may see your good deeds and glorify God. Peter ends with a word for husbands: Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

In in the days of the Roman Empire and even now, men are often physically stronger than women. But husbands must use their use their strength to care for their wives, who are equal partners as heirs of the gift of life. And if a husband doesn’t treat his wife with true respect, it will damage the ability of his prayers to get through to God.

Conclusion: Peter is telling us how to leave a lasting legacy for the Lord, in the political arena, in the workforce, in the home. We want lives of enduring quality. As the Bible says, we come into this world with nothing and will leave with nothing. But our influence for Christ will endure through the generations. It’s easy to get caught up in the emotions of the moment and speak or act in an ugly way.  But Peter’s word is: In your nation, in your workplace, in your home—live such a good life among the pagans that even if they accuse you of being wrong or doing wrong, they will see your good works and praise the Lord Jesus for you when He returns.

In other words — we must be winsome to win some.

 

3 Critical Things to Do When You’re in Trouble

 

“All Kinds of Trials”

A Study of 1 Peter 1:3-9

Introduction: Perhaps you’ve been following the story of Pastor Andrew Brunson in the news. Thanks to Turkey’s brutal dictator, Erdogan, Brunson has become the most recent global face of persecution against Christians. Interestingly, 2000 years ago the apostle Peter wrote to believers in the very same place—the provinces of Asia Minor/Turkey (1 Peter 1:1-2), telling them how to respond to persecution and to all the other kinds of suffering in life. First Peter 1:3-9 is arguably the Bible’s most practical passage when it comes to bear up to trouble, trial, and tribulation in life. This is one of my go-passages and I quote it to myself frequently. It’s perhaps the best explanation for human suffering in the Bible, for here the Lord tells us to do three things when we find ourselves in trouble

1. Praise the Lord for All of His Blessings (verses 3-5)

Verses 3-5: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His great mercy He has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

 What a paragraph! There is a sermon in every word. The first word of verse 3 is “Praise!” Here was a man—Peter, who may have been writing this in prison—and the theme of his letter is suffering. Yet he opened the body of his letter with: “Praise!” When the walls close in around us, we have to look up. We have to learn to say, “Praise the Lord anyway.” We have to train ourselves to focus on the positive power of our omnipotent God. We have to praise Him for all His blessings.

Notice how Peter spotlighted the resurrection of Christ. For Peter, this was a most energizing moment of his life. On that Passover weekend, he fell into the darkest hour of his life. Then suddenly, he heard a report that the tomb of Jesus was empty. Shortly thereafter Peter met the risen Lord face to face. That experience changed Peter’s perspective forever. From that moment, Peter was on fire, full of praise and power. Thirty years later, even in a time of panic and persecution, he could say:  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His great mercy He has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you,

 Notice how he described the eternal life that is ours in Christ—an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in heaven for us. I’ve been thinking about the longevity of the USA. Somehow we think this nation is going to be on earth forever, but one day its laws will implode, it monuments will collapse, and America will go the way of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Rome. The kingdoms of this world are transitory. Everything in the world is transitory. But we can say: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His great mercy He has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you…

 Peter continued: …who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

At the moment we make our minds to be followers of Jesus Christ, we’re in mortal danger from Satan, whom the Bible describes as our adversary, the god of this world, and the prince of the power of the air. But at that moment of our conversion God clamps a shield around us. Do you remember how Satan complained about the fact that God had put a hedge around Job? Psalm 125 says, “Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed but abides forever. As the mountains surrounds Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and forevermore.”

In some way I don’t fully understand, we’re hated by the enemy but we are shielded by God’s power until Jesus comes again. For these things we should praise Him. First Peter 1:3-5 tells us the first way to deal with the sufferings of life is to praise God for all His blessings.

2. Trust the Lord With All Your Burdens (verses 6-7)

But now, Peter shifts gears and tells us we must trust God with all our burdens. Verse 6 says: In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come to that your faith—of much greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may prove genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

 This might be the Bible’s most definitive passage about personal suffering. It explains the concept of suffering in a way that is unique to the history of human literature and psychology. There are six pillars of understanding here.

First, even in the midst of suffering we can rejoice in God’s blessings. Notice how verse 6 begins: In all this you greatly rejoice, though…. The hard times of life do not prevent us from counting our blessings and praising the Lord. We have to remind ourselves that worship and praise and thanksgiving can get us through the difficult times.

Second, suffering, though common, is not necessarily continual. Notice the phrase, You may have had to suffering grief. Peter did not say, “You are always suffering grief.” He says, “You may have had to suffer grief.” We have a lot of days in which the good outweighs the bad. By God’s mercy, we typically have more sunny skies than stormy ones.

Third, suffering, when suffering does come, it arrives in many forms: You may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. Peter didn’t limit his discussion to suffering from persecution. His letter tells us how to respond to grief in all kinds of trials. Worries and pressures can come from a thousand different directions. There are all kinds of trials.

Fourth, the process of suffering is a short-term experience. It is temporary, passing. Our inheritance in heaven will never perish, spoil, or fade; but our suffering only lasts a little while: In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. To make sure his readers didn’t miss this, Peter repeated it at the end of his letter (see 1 Peter 5:10-11). Twice—in the first chapter and in the last—Peter describes our suffering as lasting only a little while. Not a while. But a little while. They are light and momentary (2 Corinthians 4:17). Have you ever heard the phrase, “This too shall pass”? All our problems are temporary; all our blessings are eternal. The opposite is true for non-Jesus-followers. Their blessings are temporary; their problems are eternal. But for us, whatever negative energy is happening in your life, is fleeting, passing, temporary, ephemeral.

Fifth, suffering grief in all kinds of trials is redemptive. It has purpose and meaning and good comes from it. Verse 6 says: These have come to that your faith—of much greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may prove genuine. There are core values and strengths, which can only be developed by pressure. You can’t play a violin without pressure on the string. You can’t develop your muscles without pressure from the weights. Romans 5 says, “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

Sixth, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. The passage goes on to say: These have come to that your faith—of much greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may prove genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. So in a period of struggle, we have to praise God for His blessings and trust Him with our burdens. We have to surrender them to Him. There is a surrender involved in suffering. You have to say, “Lord, I cannot resolve this area of suffering in my life, so I surrender it to You by faith and ask You to turn the burden into a blessing.” The great poet of Berlin, Paul Gerhardt, said: “Commit whatever grieves thee into the gracious hands / Of Him who never leaves thee, Whom heaven and earth commands.”

3. Love the Lord with All Your Being (verses 8-9)

Finally, to deal with the tough times in life, we have to love the Lord with all our being. Peter ended this passage saying: Though you have not seen Him you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The man who wrote this had seen Jesus Christ, but he was writing to people who had not seen Jesus face-to-face, but who nonetheless loved Him and believed in Him. Peter encouraged them to keep their eyes focused on Christ.

I recently read of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Her father was a pastor, and one day when Harriet was fourteen-years-old, he preached a sermon that brought her to a personal commitment to Christ. She became a zealous Bible student. But as she went through her life, she encountered much suffering. Her youngest child died of cholera. Her eldest drowned. Another son was wounded in the head at the battle of Gettysburg. But we find the secret of her resilience later in her life, when she endured a long, dark Northeast winter, she wrote to a friend and said, “This winter I study nothing but Christ’s life…. It keeps my mind steady, and helps me to bear the languor and pain.”

The is the only way I know to deal with the sufferings of life. Praise the Lord for all your blessings. Trust the Lord with all your burdens. And love the Lord with all your being. According to 1 Peter 1:3-9, those are the three moment important things to do when you fall into a season of suffering.

Thriving – A Study of Psalm 1

Prospering at Whatever You Do:  How to Turn Each Day into a Blessing & Your Life into a Legacy

Introduction: Many years ago, a wise woman told me to memorize Psalm 1, saying, “It is the door to the entire book of Psalms.” I did memorize Psalm 1, and most days quote it to myself. It’s one of my go-to passages in life:

Blessed are those who do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, not sit in the seat of mockers. But their delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in this Law they meditate day and night. They will be like trees planted by rivers of water that bear their fruit in season. Their leaves also will not wither, and whatever they do shall prosper.  Not so the wicked. They are the like the chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly will perish.

BLESSED!

The first word of Psalm 1 is Blessed, which is also the way Jesus began His first recorded sermon in Matthew 5. We call these biblical “Blessed are” statements “beatitudes” because in the Latin the word Blessed is Beati. I’ve found 82 of them in the Bible. God specializes in blessing us. That word Blessed (‘Ashar in Hebrew and Makarios in Greek) is like a golden sphere around us into which are poured all of God’s infinite grace, gifts and goodness. This is the atmosphere of Christ-followers. It’s the climate of our souls. It means enviable, in a great place, fortunate, happy, to be congratulated.

Packed into Blessed is the kind of life described in Psalm 23. Packed into this term is John 10:10, when Jesus said, I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly. Chocked into this one word is Ephesians 1: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

 Packed into this word is all of 2 Peter, chapter 1: His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has also given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

 You can almost open your Bible randomly and find in verses that are an exposition of this word. That’s what Psalm 1 is about. The kind of person God blesses. And as you read through Psalm 1, you notice four different emphases.

1. Our Separation (verse 1)

Blessed are those who do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, not sit in the seat of mockers.

In other words, we are to separate ourselves from certain people, or, at least, live a separate life. “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:17). One evening I spoke from this verse, and a teenager came to me afterward, quite troubled, saying, “I have few Christians where I live. Most of the students are not Christians, and can I not be their friend? Do I have to keep all of them at arm’s length?” The thought of that quite troubled her.

Here’s the answer: We shouldn’t sever all our friendships, but we must make sure they don’t pull us down and that we remain distinct. There are four stages of separation that are critical to us. The first is in our allegiance. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). That makes us different from everyone else.

Second, we should be separate from the world in our attitudes. The world is oud and angry and sensual, but the Bible says, “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Third, we should be separate in our actions. All the New Testament letters were written for one purpose. The apostles had gone through the land preaching the Gospel, but the new believers didn’t know how to live as Christians. They had grown up in a pagan culture. Paul and Peter and James and John and the others wrote letters to them, telling them how they should now live. They were to be very different from the culture around them, and sho should we.

Fourth, we have to be separate from the world in our availability. The Bible says, “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not” (Proverbs 1:10). If a friend or family member tries to get you to do something that goes against your better judgment or your conscience, you need to say no.

2. Our Meditation (Verse 2)

Verse 1 begins with the wonderful word “blessed” and immediately tells us about our separation, but verse 2 tells us about our meditation: But their delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in this Law they meditate day and night.

If you want to be blessed, you have to study the Book that’s full of blessing. You have to delight in it and meditate on what it says day and night. David wrote Psalm 1 after spending time thinking about Joshua 1:8: This book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.

As I say in my book, Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation, meditation is the powerful habit of pondering, personalizing and practicing Scripture. I love to begin quoting Scripture to myself when I awaken in the morning. Then I get up and brew a cup of coffee and sit down for my daily time of Bible study and prayer. I start reading where I left off the day before, and I try to study and ponder and think about every verse. I mark passages I like. I memorize verses I come to. Later in the shower I train my mind to mull them over. All day I ponder them. At night, my work behind me, I open my Bible and read a comforting passage. I try to fall asleep thinking about a verse of Scripture, and if I awaken during the night I’ve found that quoting passages like Psalm 1 is a great way to relax and go back to sleep.

Those are the habits that lead to the next verse—our maturation.

3. Our Maturation (Verse 3)

Verse 3 says: They will be like trees planted by rivers of water that bear their fruit in season. Their leaves also will not wither, and whatever they do shall prosper.

My home in Roan Mountain, Tennessee sits alongside Doe River, which is formed by the melting snow and underground springs of Roan Mountain, one of the highest elevations in the Appalachians. Sometimes it’s terribly hot in the summer, because the valley traps the heat and humidity. But the trees along the riverside never fade or falter because they are planted by the river, which never runs dry. In fact, I have an oil painting in my kitchen of a grove of trees leaning over Doe River not far from our home. The roots spread out through the soil and soak up the cold mountain water and are perpetually refreshed.

According to the book of Colossians, we’re to be rooted and grounded in Christ; and according to Christ, the rivers of the Holy Spirit should be flowing within us and through us. That happens as we cultivate this habit of continual separation from the world and meditation on the Word.

This is a recurring theme in the Bible. Jeremiah 17 says, Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like trees planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

One morning at a retreat where I was speaking, I woke up thinking about this passage. I walked from my cabin to the dining hall to get some coffee. One of the staff came up to me, a 20-year-old named Alec. He knew my wife, Katrina, suffered from multiple sclerosis. He told me when he was seven, he was hit by a convergence of three serious infections and almost died. During his prolonged recovery he had to work hard to regain strength. His favorite biblical character is Job, he said, because Job had a lot of trouble in life but ended up twice as strong at the end of it than before. Alec said, “I came out of that illness twice as strong in my body and heart. Then when I was fifteen I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The vision in my right eye comes and goes and I have other of the classic MS symptoms. But the Lord is helping me and I’m determined to be twice as strong and twice as blessed through this process.” I watched him work and realized he was determined to thrive alongside his fellow workers at the retreat center, despite his disability. That 20-year-old had developed the spiritual maturation of Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17, and it’s a process that keeps going all our lives.

Psalm 92 says, The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in Him.”

If we separate from the world and meditate on the Word, whatever we do will prosper—that is, we will joyfully fulfill the plan God has laid out for us. We will fulfill it successfully in His eyes, joyfully, and productively and by His grace. We will mature. We are not people who think in terms of failure. We may not always see all visible success, but the same God who knows how to turn curses into blessings also turns blessings into benefits that compound from here to eternity for His glory.

4. Our Destination (Verses 4-6)

And speaking of eternity, the last three verses describe our destination: Not so the wicked. They are the like the chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly will perish.

Most of us are not farmers and don’t know much about chaff. But think of little bits of straw caught in wind. Now picture a huge cherry tree, planted in a will-irrigated zone by a river. A stiff breeze blows the stray piece of straw to oblivion. But the tree simply sways gracefully in the wind.

That represents the difference between a Jesus follower and those without Christ—no matter how rich or powerful or successful or arrogant they are.

 Conclusion: I sometimes wonder if Jesus modeled His Sermon on the Mount after Psalm 1. Both portions of Scripture begin with the same word—blessed. Both go on to describe the righteous life of a believer, and both end by contrasting two roads leading to different destinations. Here in Psalm 1, we’re told that God watches over the highway of the righteous, but those on the highway of the wicked will perish. Which road are you on? Psalm 1 is the foundation of the Psalms because it is foundational to the prosperity of blessings unlimited.

Two roads converged in a wood, and I—

I took the Jesus Road, less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Phoebe Hinsdale Brown–A Remarkable Life!

Plus the Story Behind the First American Missionary to Japan…

One of the women I want to meet in heaven is Phoebe Hinsdale Brown, who has a small vignette of a story in American history that is deeply meaningful to lovers of hymns. Hymnologists call her the first notable American woman hymnwriter. Her unlikely story is part of her legacy.

Phoebe was born in 1783 in Canaan, New York. Her father died when she was an infant and her mother died a year later, leaving her an orphan. Her grandparents took her in, and she lived with them for seven years before they died. Then she was orphaned again. Her next home was with an older sister, whose husband was a harsh man and the keeper of the local jailhouse. She was treated almost like a slave, and she wasn’t able to go to school until she was eighteen, and then had but three months of training. That’s all the formal education she received, but during those months she learned to read and from there she educated herself.

At about the same time, she committed her life to Christ and joined the church. At age 22, she married a house-painter and carptenter named Timothy Brown. They nearly starved to death and lived in terrible poverty. To make ends meet, Phoebe began writing poetry and short stories, which were published by local papers.

By 1818, four children lived under the Brown roof, on the edge of the village in a very small unfinished house. Phoebe’s sick sister also lived with them, and they suffered greatly from their inadequate house and funds. But one thing kept Phoebe going. She met with the Lord every day and maintained her daily devotions. For her, the best time of day was twilight, after the bulk of her day’s work was done.

A wealthy family lived down the road in a large house with extensive gardens and grounds. Phoebe found a little grove at the end of the estate where she could meditate on Scripture and pray. She later wrote that each night at twilight, she “used to steal away from all within doors, and, going out of our gate, stroll along under the elms that were planted for shade on each side of the road. And as there was seldom anyone passing that way after dark, I felt quite retired and alone with God. I often walked quite up that beautiful garden—and felt that I could have the privilege of those few moments of uninterrupted communion with God without encroaching upon anyone.”

But one August evening, she was visiting with friends when she bumped into the wealthy lady who owned the land. The woman confronted her and asked, “Mrs. Brown, why do you come up at evening so near our house?” There was something unfriendly about the woman’s tone, and it terribly upset Phoebe. She went home grieved and, after the older children were in bed and as she was holding her baby girl, she sat down in her kitchen and burst into tears.

Taking pen and paper, she wrote a letter to the woman and put her thoughts in the form of a poem, which she called “My Apology for my Twilight Rambles, Addressed to a Lady.” She sent the letter but never received a response.

Phoebe found somewhere else to pray; and, in any event, the family soon moved to Monson, Massachusetts, where Phoebe began teaching young children in Sunday School. But she she kept a copy of her poem hidden among her private papers, and one day she showed it to an editor who liked her poems. He was delighted with it, had it set to music, and it became one of the most popular hymns of the 1800s. It’s been published in 595 hymnbooks (though not in recent years). You can hear several renditions of it on youtube. Phoebe Brown is known today as the “first female American hymnist whose work endured.”

Here is a portion of her poem, which became known as the “Twilight Hymn.”

I love to steal awhile away

From every cumbering care,

And spend the hours of setting day

In gratitude and prayer.

 

I love in solitude to shed

The penitential tear,

And all God’s promises to plead

Where none can see and hear.

 

I love to think on mercies past,

And future ones implore

And all my cares and sorrows cast

On Him whom I adore.

 

I love this silent twilight hour

Far better than the rest;

It is, of all the twenty-four,

The happiest and the best.

 

Phoebe labored for the Lord all her life. She also wrote two novels and an autobiography. Two of their daughters became preachers’ wives, and the third daughter and her husband served the Lord in their local church as lay workers. Her son, Dr. Samuel Robbins Brown, sailed off as a pioneer mission to Asia and became the first American missionary to enter Japan, laboring with great success in Yokohama on behalf of the Reformed Dutch Church.

Dr. Brown later said of his mother: “Her record is on high and she is with the Lord whom she loved and served as faithfully as any person I ever knew; nay, more than any other. To her I owe all I am; and if I have done any good in the world, to her, under God, it is due. She seems even now to have me in her hands, holding me up for work for Christ and His cause with a grasp I can feel.” (The Sunday School Times, July 15, 1889, 373).

Interestingly, Dr. Brown wrote the hymn tune, MONSON, to which his mother’s hymn was sung for many years. When she grew old and was widowed, she moved into her daughter, Hannah’s, home in Henry, Illinois, and continued writing hymns right up until her death age age 79 in 1861.

When grief and anguish press me down,

And hope and comfort flee,

I cling, O Father, to Thy Throne,

And stay my heart on Thee.

–Phoebe Hinsdale Brown

 

Other sources:

The Sunday School Times, July 15, 1889, 373.
Rev. Augustine Jones, “The Story of a Famous Hymn and How the Friend Preserved It,” in The Friend, Volume 91; November 1924, page 267-268.
Edward S. Ninde, The Story of the American Hymn (New York: The Abingdon Press, 1921), 177-184.
Naomi Lucretia Brong, “Some Famous Women in Hymnology,” a Master of Arts dissertation for Boston University Graduate School, 1929.

“Now Thank We All Our God”

 

The Greatest Thanksgiving Hymn in History

Nothing helps us with our attitudes and emotions more than cultivating a habit of being thankful, continually, in all situations. A good hymn can help with that. I urge you to look up a video recording of “Now Thank We All Our God” and come to know it as well as any song you sing. Except for biblical passages like Psalm 100, it’s the greatest hymn of thanksgiving ever written–at least, in my opinion. The words say:

Now thank we all our God,

With hearts and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things has done,

In Whom this world rejoices;

Who from our mothers’ arms

Has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love,

And still is ours today.

The hymn has three verses, all of equal depth and delight, and its musical score is almost as old as the hymn. But our appreciation for “Now Thank We All Our God” increases when we realize it was likely written during the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War.

Martin Rinkart, a brilliant musician and theologian, became pastor in the Saxony town of Eilenburg just as the War was starting; and his ministry there ended just as the war was ending. His entire ministry, then, was spent against the backdrop of war, famine, depression, and plague. Listen to this old biographical sketch:

“Rinkart was the son of a poor coppersmith, who got his education at the University of Leipzig, after a hard struggle, in which he was successful by reason of his musical gifts and decided industry. At the age of 31 offered the position of archdeacon (pastor) at Eilenburg in Saxony, his native place. Thither he went as the war broke out, and there he remained through all the thirty-one years of its continuance. He shared with his people the hardships of the period; the quartering of troops in the houses; the distress of poverty, and the uncertainties of conflict. In 1637 the plague ravaged Eilenburg, and in one year 8,000 persons died. But Martin Rinkart stood to his duty, doing the work of three men, in ministering to the sick, waiting on them, and even burying them when they died. It is said that he actually interred with his own hands 4480 bodies. The famine following the plague was as terrible as the disease. Starving wretches fought in the open streets for a dead cat or a crow. And then, to crown all, back came the Swedish army and the town was ordered to pay 30,000 thalers. The general refused to hear Rinkart when he ventured to the camp to plead for his impoverished fellow-citizens, and the good man, turning to the others who were with him, said: ‘Come, my children, we can find no mercy with men, let us take refuge with God.’ He fell on his knees, and uttered such a fervent and touching petition that the general relented and lowered the demand….”

Somewhere during these difficult years, Rinkart wrote this great anthem of thanksgiving to remind ourselves that even in the worst of times we have the highest of blessings, if we will but see and receive them. His hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God,” has been called the German Te Deum.

 O may this bounteous God

Through all our life be near us,

With ever joyful hearts

And blessed peace to cheer us,

And keep us in his grace,

And guide us when perplexed,

And free us from all ills

Of this world and the next.

Amen and amen!

PS – Check out other stories of the great hymns in my series of book, Then Sings My Soul.

Samuel Willoughby Duffield, English Hymns: Their Authors and History (New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1886), 393.