Month: December 2015

Not Involved in Great Matters – Psalm 131:1

“I do not involve myself in great matters, nor in things too difficult for me.” Psalm 131:1

When a man or woman comes to the Lord in repentance and in faith and becomes a disciple of the Lord Jesus, they give the Lord a blank check for their life. With that blank check the disciple unreservedly commits to obey the Lord in everything He commands, to go wherever the Lord sends him/her and to do whatever the Lord asks him/her to do for the rest of their lives. It is certainly true that the disciple does not know what will be involved with their specific obedience and does not know all of what it will cost them to follow Jesus, but they give the Lord Jesus a blank check nevertheless and make their commitment to obey.

Now in the course of their discipleship journey, there will be many occasions when the disciple does not understand why the Lord is working out the details of their life in the way that He is doing or does not know the reasons why the Lord is calling him to do a particular thing. In fact, rarely is the disciple entrusted with an answer to the why questions. For example, in my own life I do not know what purpose was served by my three years in Russia and I can tend to think that my years there were a mistake and that I wasted that time. It is in those times that I must remember Psalm 131:1, which says, “I do not involve myself in great matters, nor in things too difficult for me.” The Lord called me to go to Russia. Of that I am sure, and that is enough. I obeyed His call and did the best I could with the time that I had there. I tried to learn the language and share the gospel with Russians. But ultimately why I was there is not my concern. I was there to glorify God with my life and to obey His calling on my life. The details beyond that are “too difficult for me.” Those details are above my pay grade and I am not to concern myself with these “great matters.” Instead of regretting that time as if it was a mistake, I rest in the fact that the Lord knows all the reasons for all things and He will work out the details.

What are other examples of “involving myself in great matters or in things too difficult for me”? Often these are areas of life where I want to have sight and the Lord commands me to trust Him without sight. When I was 46 years old and peacefully enjoying my simple life as a bachelor, the Lord called me to marry a widow with three children. The Lord said, “Roy, marry Lisa.” Just a simple command without explanation. “Lord, You have the wrong guy.” (So the Lord came to the wrong address and did not know who He was talking to??) “How will this turn out? Lord, do You realize how risky this is? A lot of people could get hurt in this if this doesn’t work.” All my questions about the future and about the outcome of this marriage betrayed a lack of trust in the Lord. And I plead guilty to that charge! But then I must realize that I gave the Lord a blank check on my life when I came to faith in Him. I told Him I would trust Him in all things and that I would obey Him no matter what He asked me to do. And I must make the decision daily “to not involve myself in great matters, nor in things too difficult for me.” Outcomes are not my concern. Outcomes are “great matters.” Outcomes are “things too difficult for me.” Hearing, trusting and obeying – those are things that I can do, but determining outcomes or answering why questions are above my pay grade. I am to leave those with the sovereign Lord and trust Him that He will work out those details in His own wisdom, for His glory, and for my good.

Sometimes I worry about the past. That is, I have a particular tendency within my personality that causes me to regret decisions I have made in the past and to feel that they were huge mistakes. When I do this, however, I am involving myself in great matters, contrary to Psalm 131:1. The Lord is sovereign and He takes full responsibility for leading His children and for determining outcomes. That is what it means to be sovereign God. When I regret something in the past, I hint that God did not control that outcome or that He didn’t intend that to work out for my good and His glory (contrary to Romans 8:28). By “involving myself in great matters, things too difficult for me,” I have discouraged and depressed myself and have dishonored the Lord. So based on Psalm 131:1, I will banish regret from my mind. (See also Philippians 3:13-14.)

Sometimes I worry about the future. That is, I am bent toward wondering if everything will be alright in the future. When I have these thoughts, I must again remember Psalm 131:1 and not “involve myself in great matters,” like how the world and my life are going to turn out in the future. Rather, I trust the Lord and obey what He has told me to do, which is consistent with the blank check I gave Him 25 years ago.

You and I are simple people and we are simply people. We have been given the humble task of obeying the word of the Lord and loving the Lord of the Word. If we do these things and do not concern ourselves with things too great for us (Psalm 131:1), we will be peaceful and blessed.  SDG rmb 12/31/2015

The Grace of Affliction – Psalm 119:67

“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.You are good and do good; Teach me Your statutes.” Psalm 119:67-68

In these two verses, the psalmist is thanking the LORD for the affliction because of the results of this God-sent affliction. Therefore, the affliction (67) must be from the LORD (YHWH) or there would be no corrective, directive or instructive power or intent in the affliction and so there would be no one to thank. In other words, it is clear from these two verses that the affliction was necessary in order to bring the one who was going astray into the blessing of obedience. It is also clear that the psalmist is thanking the LORD for the benefits that he has received from the affliction.

By the way, it is both implicitly and explicitly clear that the one who goes astray and who does not obey the LORD is not blessed, but is rather under the LORD’s wrath and displeasure. (Read Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 to see this truth.). So to go astray (67) subjects the person to the LORD’s judgment and assures them of an absence of blessing, whether they are aware of this condition or not.

In the Bible, there is the place of blessing and there is the place of wrath, but there is no neutral place in between. This verse states that the LORD has purposefully, graciously and actively brought affliction into the psalmist’s life for the express purpose of moving them into the blessings of obedience. Thus the affliction is an act of God’s grace, a grace that drives the person from their place of disobedience to the place of submission and repentance.

“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.” (67)

Consider Titus 3:3 now in light of this verse. (See also 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Ephesians 2:2-3; others) “For we were once foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” These people to whom Paul refers were going astray similarly to the psalmist in Psalm 119, and Paul gives the sordid details of this “went-astray” lifestyle. Many of us are too familiar with this pattern of life. (“And such were some of you.” 1 Cor. 6:11) But now the Lord has brought us to repentance and “the kindness of God our Savior has appeared . . . and He has saved us (Titus 3:4-5).” We see from these that the Lord is actively involved in bringing the means of repentance and salvation into a person’s life.

The psalmist is saying the same thing here in 119:67-68, although he is much more economical with his words and more discreet in his details. He is saying that the LORD has used affliction as His tool of grace and guidance. The LORD has used affliction to bring the straying sinner into the fold and to teach him the blessings of obedience, so that the psalmist knows by personal experience that “the LORD is good and does good (68).”

Thus we see the beauty and the blessing of the affliction of the Lord. (Consider also “the discipline of the Lord” in Hebrews 12:5-11.) The Lord brings affliction; indeed, He ordains affliction in the lives of His chosen ones to bring about His divine purposes for salvation, for correction, for direction and for instruction.

So when we are experiencing a time of affliction, we must turn to the Lord and ask Him what His purpose is in the affliction. We accept the affliction as from His hand, as given by Him for His purposes, and as intended for our good, and then submit to the affliction and allow it to have its intended effect. If we do this, in the end we will cease from going astray and will obey His word and will know Him as the good God.   SDG  rmb 12/30/2015

Daniel 3: Deliverance from the Fire – A Narrative in Three Parts

And the king said to Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, “If you do not worship the idol I have made, you will be cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?”

In the prophecy of Daniel, in the third chapter, is one of the most radical narratives in all the Bible. These three men of God had refused to bow down to the king’s idol and now they faced the terrifying consequences. To obey the Most High God, the one true God, the God of Israel, and to defy the idols and the gods of this world will often result in an experience of the fiery furnace. Now with the awful cost of their boldness staring them in the face in the furnace of blazing fire, the question is how the children of God will respond. Will they compromise or will they stand firm?

Boldly they say, “We do not need to give you an answer in this matter, O king. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and He will deliver us, O king. But even if He did not choose to deliver us, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to bow down to your idol.” The men literally risk their lives and put all their trust in the Most High God, believing that the LORD will be faithful to deliver them from the furnace. (By the way, to trust in this manner is the normal response of the Christian to this kind of persecution.)

When these believers are then thrown into the furnace of blazing fire, the pagan king is amazed to see the three Hebrews not consumed by the flames, but rather loosed in the furnace and joined in the fire by a fourth man whose appearance is like the son of the gods. Of course, this is the pre-incarnate Christ, the Son of God who delivers them unharmed out of the fire.

And so it is for all believers. To be a believer and a true follower of Jesus means that you will experience the Lord in the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. The believer will be in the flames and there in the midst of the fire, the Lord Jesus will join him and will deliver him. In this light, I want to consider three furnaces from which the believer is delivered: the furnace of testing; the furnace of persecution; and the furnace of eternal condemnation. And we begin with the furnace of trials and testing.

SDG  rmb  12/23/2015

Susan’s Mother’s Death

It was ten minutes before four o’clock on Wednesday afternoon. Five minutes ago, the guys in the lab had come to me and said, “We need to have this sample in tomorrow morning!” “Not only is this a ridiculous request, but it is also impossible. No one can get you a sample the next day if you make the request at a quarter till four.” Despite the absurdity of the request, I said I would make the phone call and at least ask the question. So I called the Customer Service person at the supplier, knowing my mission was hopeless. But I knew Susan and knew that she was very good at what she did, which was to get samples to their customers, so I called her up.

I gave a pleasant hello when Susan answered the phone, then identified myself and my company. She recognized my name and my company, mostly because we have made a lot of sample requests, and she replied in a likewise pleasant way. “Susan, I know this is probably impossible, but we need to have a sample overnighted to us for delivery tomorrow. Can you help us out?” In a courteous, professional way, Susan explained to me that I had not given her enough time and the best she could do was a Friday delivery. “Besides,” she said, “the office Thanksgiving party is going to start in ten minutes and everyone is really already off for the day.” I asked if she was going to the party as well, and she said, “No. I don’t feel much in a party mood. This is actually my first day back in the office this week. My mother died this past weekend.” “Were you close to your mother?” “Yes,” she said, “very close.” Had her death been sudden? No she had a stroke about ten years ago and had been declining steadily since then. Five weeks ago she stopped eating and so the end was anticipated. “I am sorry to hear about your mother, Susan. I am sure it is a great loss.” We exchanged a couple of other pleasantries and then ended our phone call.

But I thought about Susan’s mother and about what her life had been like. It sounded like there was no “Susan’s father” in the picture. Had her mother and father divorced? It seemed to me more than likely that Susan’s mother had lived a quiet, fairly uneventful life, and then, when she was sixty or sixty-five, she had a stroke and just sort of faded away, quietly dying in her home under hospice care. Then, because I am a follower of Jesus Christ, I asked myself the ultimate question: “Was she a believer when she died?” Susan had given me no reason to believe that her mother had been a woman of faith. And if she was not a follower of Jesus, then she had already stood before the Lord, the Holy One, and been forever condemned for her sins. If she was not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, she was right now in the agony of hell forever.

I frankly recoiled from that idea. What could this harmless, anonymous woman have done to deserve the wrath and eternal condemnation of almighty God? Is it really true that those who do not place their faith in Jesus Christ are forever damned? What evidence do I have that this could actually be the case? Is there something somewhere in the Bible that would convince me that all people deserve condemnation for their sin and that all men and women, even kindly, harmless women who have had strokes, must repent of their sins or they will perish?

Yes, there is evidence that this is the case. Yes, there is something in the Bible that proves conclusively that my sin and your sin and Susan’s mother’s sin must be punished by our holy God. What proves the horror of sin is the horror of the cross of Jesus Christ. Sin is horrible because the sinless Son of God came to earth for the express purpose of dying on the cross to satisfy the holy demands of God. This means that Susan’s mother did not need to murder someone to deserve hell and she did not need to steal a car or bow down repeatedly to some pagan idol. One sin was enough to guarantee this woman’s eternal condemnation and it is only by placing one’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that a person can be rescued from the eternal punishment of hell.

As I thought about it, the only thing that convinces me that my sin is horrible, and that Susan’s mother’s sin is horrible and that we must all be delivered from our deserved condemnation, is a steady gaze up Calvary’s hill to the One who died there on the cross. The glorious Son of God wore a crown of thorns and endured huge spikes nailed through His flesh, and suffered for hours on the cross before accomplishing His goal, the redemption of all His elect by the shedding of His blood as an offering for sin. Sin is horrible because it made the crucifixion of Jesus Christ necessary. Consider Romans 3:19-26. SDG rmb 12/15/2015

Who Is Changing Whom?

As I left to go to lunch with a friend of mine, with a man who did not have the greatest reputation in terms of his character, a couple of the folks in the office joked with me about my lunch companion: “Better be careful, Roy. He’s going to be a bad influence on you.” “Hey, Roy! Watch out or he will change you.”

Even though these were just idle, funny comments, just office banter, I still felt obligated to say, “You need to know who is influencing whom. What if I’m the one changing him?”

You see, I was the one who invited him to lunch, and I did so for the explicit and premeditated purpose of influencing him. He is the one who must change. He is the one who must repent and come to faith in Jesus. Now the Lord Jesus Christ has called me to be His change agent in the world. Because I have been forever changed, I make it my goal to be a change agent for Jesus.

“Who is changing whom?” Will I be the one who is changed? Not when my feet have been firmly planted on the solid rock of Jesus Christ (Psalm 40:2). I will not be moved (Psalm 125:1), but I will instead attempt to move the wicked in the direction of repentance. “Who is changing whom?” I have already been changed by Jesus Christ and therefore can never be moved back into the place where evil controls me. “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).” So since I have His power at work within me (Ephesians 3:20), I can boldly try to change others. “Who is changing whom?”

The LORD said to Jeremiah, “If you extract the precious from the worthless, you will be My spokesman. They for their part may turn to you, but as for you, you must not turn to them (Jeremiah 15:19).” The LORD is telling His prophet that he is to be a spokesman and an influence, a change agent for the LORD, but that he must not turn to the wicked and take up their wicked ways. And this is exactly what we are called to do. We are called to be change agents for the Lord. “Who is changing whom?”

So who are you influencing? Who are you changing by your godly life and by your telling others about Jesus Christ? Are your feet firmly planted so that the world’s influence does not move you, but instead you stand steadfast and immovable on the Rock? “Who is changing whom?” SDG rmb 12/14/2015

Matthew 12:30 That Big Group in the Middle

As Jesus was ministering among the multitudes and also dealing with His opponents, the Pharisees, He said to the crowd, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” In so saying, Jesus answers one of the questions that many people subconsciously hold in their mind: “What about that big group in the middle?”

I want to do a series of posts that talk about the subject of “that big group in the middle.” This idea holds that, on one end of the spiritual spectrum there is a relatively small group of those who seriously follow Jesus. These are the righteous. Then on the other extreme end there is another relatively small group of those called “the wicked” or “the ungodly.” These are the bad people who need to be saved. But then in between these two extreme groups there is “the big group in the middle” who have not yet made up their minds. They are still on the fence and have time to think about which way they will eventually vote. So in this series of posts I want to talk about what the Bible has to say about this “big group in the middle.”

So let’s see what Jesus has to say about this topic in this verse that we cited from Matthew 12:30: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” The interpretation of the verse is fairly simple. The verse is divided into two parts and both parts talk about two, and only two, groups of people. The first part of the verse says that the person who is not with Jesus is against Jesus. Thus in this first part there are only two groups; those who are with Jesus and those who are against Jesus. It is apparent that there is not a big group in the middle. There is no middle group at all. There are only two groups and you are either in the one or the other. Also the two groups are exclusive of one another. You are either with Jesus or you are against Jesus, and you can’t be both. It is also striking that a person can think they are not against Jesus, but Jesus knows that they are against Him. A person can say, “I am not against Jesus and I am not against Christians. I am sure that Jesus was a nice guy and a wise teacher and a sincere religious man. I admire Jesus for what he did and said. So I am definitely not against him. Now, am I a ‘born-again’ follower and am I some kind of religious nut? No. My religion is a personal thing. But I am definitely not against Jesus. I am part of that middle, moderate group.” But Jesus Himself says you are wrong. Jesus says that if you are not 100% sold out to Him and are not willing to follow Him to death, then you are against Him. “He who is not with Me is against Me.” So if you are not a committed and zealous follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus says you are against Him and you have Him as your adversary, whatever you personally may believe. You are definitely NOT in “that big middle group.”

Let me give a brief piece of theology before we look at the second half of this verse. Every person is born as a sinner and therefore is also born as an enemy of God. We may believe that we come out of the womb as innocent babies in a neutral spiritual position and then we take our place in “that big group in the middle,” but the Bible declares that we are born as sinners, that our default position is ‘unrighteous,’ that we are enemies of God and are against the Lord Jesus. Unless we have been rescued from that spiritual place, we remain sinners and are therefore under the condemnation and wrath of our thrice holy God (Isaiah 6:3).

Taking a look at the second part of this verse, we read, “. . . and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” In the first part of the verse we found there were two groups (and only two groups) of people, those with Jesus and those against Jesus. Now we read again that there are two (and only two) groups of people, those who gather with Jesus and those who scatter. Everyone who does not actively gather with Jesus is one who scatters. As in the first part of the verse where the default was being against Jesus, so here in the second part the default is to be one who scatters. The one who is not actively, intentionally gathering souls or worshipers or disciples for the Lord Jesus is scattering people from Him. Again our Lord is saying that if you are not intentionally doing His will, then you are disobeying His will. But in any case, there is no “big group in the middle.” When it comes to your spiritual condition, the Bible speaks of two and only two groups. There are those who have been saved and there are those who remain condemned. There are those who are for Jesus and there are those who are against Jesus. There are those who gather with Jesus and there are those who scatter.

But it is crystal clear that there is no big group in the middle. There is no middle group at all. There is righteous or there is unrighteous. There is saved or there is lost. There is heaven and there is hell. There is life and there is death. There are two groups: Those who know Jesus and those who will be judged by Jesus. Which are you? SDG rmb 12/12/2015

Managing Risk By Retreat? Heb. 10:39

As I was spending time with the Lord on Saturday morning, I had a growing awareness of all my areas of weakness and dependence, of all the ways that failure threatens my life. I think about my marriage and about parenting, about my job and my finances, about relationships and about witnessing for the Lord Jesus Christ. On a larger scale I think about my purpose and about eternity, about sin and evil and death. I think about all these areas of my life where stumbling and failure are ever-present risks, and I realize how much I depend on the Lord every day.

When these threats begin to overwhelm me, my tendency is to seek fleshly ways to manage these risks. One way to manage risk is to limit activity and to limit involvement, the strategy of managing risk by retreat. While there is some initial appeal to this idea, this option is not open to the believer. The believer is commanded to be courageous and act (1 Chronicles 28:20) and is forbidden from shrinking back (Hebrews 10:39). The author of Hebrews declares that “we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” So I cannot shrink back or retreat or withdraw or disengage because I want safety or simplicity, but instead I must choose to act boldly and without fear on the basis of my trust in the Lord (Psalm 40:4; 84:5, 12). Therefore the believer takes obedient action and presses forward toward the goal, aware of the risks and the challenges and the dangers, aware of the possibility of failure and even the possibility of death, but infinitely more overwhelmingly aware that the Lord is with him as a dread champion (Jeremiah 20:11) and that if God is for him, who can be against him (Romans 8:31-39). Other verses to consider are Psalm 46:1-2; 91 (all); 142:3; 143:3-4.

When the challenges of life press down hard and the fears of failure seem to overwhelm, then continue to press into Jesus Christ and remember that He will never leave you or forsake you, and that it is our calling to be dependent on the Lord, weak in ourselves and faithful in the face of threats, so that God receives the glory when He displays His power.  SDG rmb 12/6/15