“Nothing is too difficult for You”

“Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You”. Jeremiah 32:17

God had issued to Jeremiah a command which verse 25 shows would have seemed, to many, quite strange. Jeremiah was to buy real estate in the promised land even though Jerusalem, its capital, was about to be overrun by Nebuchadnezzar’s army. And the point of the purchase was to provide a testimony that, “although” God “[was] about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon,” yet “houses and fields and vineyards [would] again be bought in this land.”

And, as Jeremiah pondered that promise (and after he had obeyed the command!), he spoke to God in those marvelous words: “Nothing is too difficult for You”! And the fact that Jeremiah said that is evidence that, without the eyes of faith, the promise of God would have sounded “too difficult” indeed! But Jeremiah recalls that God “made the heavens and the earth”, and therefore understands and believes that “nothing is too difficult for” the Lord!

Marvelous! And true!

Do you believe it? And can you pray it, like Jeremiah?

“Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You”. 

“Nothing” – neither steering us through a global pandemic; nor the provision of “our daily bread” amidst it; nor managing the trials of loved ones who may be suffering from it; nor caring for health care workers as they work in the middle of it – “is too difficult for You”. 

“Nothing” – neither the repair of broken relationships; nor the healing of our griefs; nor the protection of at-risk children; nor the rearing of difficult children; nor the loneliness of widowhood or singleness; nor the trials of disability or chronic illness – “is too difficult for You”. 

“Nothing” – neither the salvation of our loved ones; nor the revival of the church in the West; nor the spread of the gospel to “every tribe and tongue and people and nation” – “is too difficult for You.” 

“Nothing” – neither “the resurrection of the dead”; nor the “rescu[ing of Your saints] from the wrath to come”; nor the “making [of] all things new” – “is too difficult for You”.

Oh, brothers and sisters! Let us – both in this current situation, and in every other as well – believe and pray like Jeremiah!

"The Lord opened her heart"

“And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” Acts 16:13-14

“The Lord opened her heart”. It’s a beautiful phrase that Luke uses in describing Lydia’s conversion to Christ, is it not? And what he describes, with that phrase, is how all conversions to Christ happen. Everyone who has ever rightly “respond[ed] to the things spoken” in the gospel – everyone, in other words, who has ever savingly believed on Christ – has responded in that way because “the Lord opened [his or] her heart to” do so! What Paul wrote to the Philippians is true of all Christians: “to you it has been granted^ for Christ’s sake … to believe in Him” (Philippians 1:29). And this reality – that it is God who “open[s] … heart[s] to respond to the” gospel; that it is God who grants belief in Christ – should have the following effects on us:

1. Prayer. We cannot, by all our sound, clear, and winsome sharing of the good news, actually cause anyone to believe it. We should, of course, be as sound, clear, and winsome as we can with the gospel! But we cannot open hearts! Only God can do that. And while, yes, He is gracious to use our quoting, explaining, and applying of His word to do so … it is not us, but He (by the power of His word and His Spirit), who does the opening; it is not us, but He, who grants belief to our hearers. And so we ought not only to speak to people about Jesus, but also to speak to God about these people! We ought to do what we are called to do … and pray (before, during, and after) that God will do what only He can do!

2. Humility. Since it is God who opens hearts to the gospel; since it is God who grants belief in Christ, let us be sure that we do not take credit for ourselves that actually belongs to Him. Yes, He graciously uses us in His accomplishing of His work (and He commends us for our faithfulness!) … but it is, at the end of the day, His work, is it not? When we have shared the gospel and seen someone converted to Christ through our witness, the reality is always that “the Lord^ opened [his or] her heart to respond to the things spoken by” us. So let us praise Him, and never ourselves, when people come to Christ through our witness.

3. Rest. Since it is God who opens hearts; since it is God who grants belief in Christ, we can rest in the knowledge that the salvation of our family, and our friends, and our neighbors, and the nations is not ultimately up to us … but is in the capable hands of God! Now, make no mistake – we must be engaged in sharing Christ with them! The fact that it is God who opens hearts does not exempt us from our responsibility to proclaim the good news! For “how will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14). And so the idea is not that, since it is God who opens hearts, we can therefore rest from sharing of the gospel. The idea is rather that, since it is God who opens hearts, we can be at rest regarding the outcome of our sharing the gospel; we can share the good news of Jesus restfully – taking upon ourselves only the weight of faithfulness, and able to leave the weight of outcomes with the only One who can open hearts!

4. Hope. Why did Lydia believe on Christ that day so long ago? Was it because she had the great apostle Paul sharing the gospel with her? No! “The Lord^ opened her heart”, remember? So she believed, not because she had Paul sharing the gospel with her … but because she simply had someone sharing the gospel with her, and because God was at work through the gospel to open her heart to the gospel! And so it could have been Luke or Timothy sharing Christ that day; or it could have been someone as pedestrian as you or me … and, so long as that person proclaimed the word (through which God opens hearts), and so long as God saw fit to perform that work of opening on Lydia’s her heart, she would have been converted to Christ just the same as she was through the evangelism of Paul! For it was “the Lord”, not Paul, who “opened her heart”! And that gives hope to us all these centuries later, doesn’t it? We don’t have to be great or gifted in order for to God save people through our sharing of the gospel ... precisely because it is God who does the saving; because it is the Lord who opens hearts!

^Italicized emphasis in scripture quotations has been added.

"Imperishable"

We know the difference between perishable and non-perishable, right? Bananas are perishable. So is sweet tea (as evidenced by the moldy specimen on our kitchen counter after returning from vacation Wednesday night!). Canned goods, however, are called non-perishable – because they will last a good, l o n g time in your cupboard.

And yet even things that we call non-perishable are not completely so. Because canned beans, peas, and chicken noodle soup will all eventually turn to waste. And so, also, will much longer lasting things like gold (1 Peter 1:7, 18)! For this earth and its goods will eventually be destroyed.

But there are some things, the apostle Peter reminds us, that are truly beyond perishability! Have you ever noticed this theme in his first epistle, chapter 1 – imperishability?

In verse 4, Peter speaks of the believers’ inheritance, and calls it “an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away.” The present world will eventually be no more. But we will receive an inheritance “in heaven” (and will continue enjoying it in the new earth) which will never perish. We will be in God's presence forever!

And not only is the believer's inheritance imperishable, but so also is his faith! In verse 7, Peter compares the Christian’s faith with “gold which is perishable” – and the comparison seems to indicate that our faith, unlike gold, is not perishable. It will be “tested by fire” – and will remain. If you truly trust in Christ today, then you will always do so! Praise God!

In vv.18-19, Peter makes a similar comparison between precious metals and “the blood of Christ.” “You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold … but with precious blood.” And again, the comparison seems to indicate that while silver and gold are perishable, the blood of Jesus is not. And so what Peter is getting at, with that comparison, is that the payment that redeemed God’s people was not taken from the realm of temporary things, but from a much more significant source – from the very veins of Christ, who “always lives” (Hebrews 7:25).

And then, too, Peter speaks of the Scriptures as “imperishable” (v.23). “You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” The word of God will never go to rot; it will never cease to be true, living, powerful, and relevant. We are still feeding, in 2018, on the same word of truth that sustained the ancient Israelites millennia ago! And God’s people will continue to feed on it until the end of the world, and on into an endless eternity! The word of God is imperishable! And because the seed is imperishable, is it any wonder that the faith (v.7) which springs from that seed is imperishable as well?

Imperishable! Remember this theme from 1 Peter 1 the next time you find mold on your bread, or rottenness in a piece of fruit. Think of it when you see rusted metal, or a rotting tree, or something reduced to ash in a fire. So many things all around us are turning to waste – or someday will. But, praise God, there are some things that really are imperishable!

"Lift it up, do not fear"

"Get yourself up on a high mountain,

O Zion, bearer of good news,

Lift up your voice mightily,

O Jerusalem, bearer of good news;

Lift it up, do not fear.

Say to the cities of Judah,

'Here is your God!'"

Isaiah 40:9

Some of you will know, and others of you may be surprised to know, that I sometimes struggle with significant fear in the matter of lifting up my voice to speak God’s word. Sermon preparation can, at times, be quite nerve-wracking as I agonize over whether I am getting this or that item right. Second-guesses (not of the Bible, but of myself) also occasionally come into my mind, mid-sermon: ‘Did I say that right? Is the way I phrased that sentence misleading? Did I cite that commentator correctly?’ And then, even after my voice has been lifted up, and the sermon is done, there is the further challenge of putting the sermon online, and wondering the above sorts of things all over again. Pray for me! For, though such fears may sound absurd, they seem very real when I am in the midst of them.

Maybe you are sometimes afraid of (or afraid while) lifting your voice, too. Maybe, when sharing the gospel, or teaching a Bible class, you worry about whether you are getting it right – not because you don’t know the Bible well enough (which is a legitimate reason to second-guess yourself!), but because you’re a worrier, like me. Or perhaps you have a fear of speaking God’s word to people because of the potential of getting a poor response from them. ‘Will they mock me? Will they become angry with me? Will they distance themselves from me, relationally?’ And then there is just the plain old fear (regardless of the content spoken) of speaking in front of a group, or to someone we don’t know well – a fear which can weigh heavily upon us in various situations, including those in which we are called to speak for our God.

How do we overcome such fears? Well, I’m no expert. I often struggle mightily. But one strategy I’ve found helpful is to quote or paraphrase to myself, just before going into the pulpit, those words from Isaiah 40:9 – “Lift up your voice … Lift it up, do not fear.” These words, of course, remind me that I must not fear. But they also imply, it seems to me, that I need not fear; that the God who has called me to speak for Him will be with me in that speaking, so that I can be confident, rather than afraid. And maybe Isaiah 40:9 will be helpful to you in that way, too. Store it in your memory bank, and remind yourself of it when it’s time to speak for the Lord.

Remember, too, that your opportunities to speak “the good word of God”, and any specific gifting you have for doing so, are among the talents (Matthew 25) that God has entrusted you to steward. And you mustn’t hide them in the ground. You must use what God has given you, my friend! You must “lift up your voice”! “Lift it up, do not fear.” You won’t do so perfectly. You won’t always do so painlessly. But, with God at your side, you may do so confidently!

Wait, What?

The LORD had just delivered His people from the madness of Pharaoh … parting the waters of the Red Sea, bringing them safely across, and then letting gravity resume its course when Pharaoh and his hoards ventured onto the seabed. “Then they believed His words” we are told in Psalm 106:12. And then “they sang His praise.” And rightly so! They had doubted Him (v.7) when their backs were against the wall of the Sea, with Pharaoh in hot pursuit. But God had saved them anyway, “for the sake of His name” (v.8)! And rightly did they sing! And rightly did they now believe God’s promises to them! It must have been a marvelous scene!

And they all lived happily ever after, right? They went right on their way from the Red Sea, singing with faith, right? Surely that’s what the psalm will tell us! So let’s keep reading this story of triumph:

Then they believed His words;

They sang His praise.

They quickly forgot His works;

They did not wait for His counsel

Psalm 106:12-13

Wait, what?

Did I miss something between verses 12 and 13? They believed God? Yes. They sang? Yes, and rightly so! And the very next thing we read is that these same people forgot the mighty deeds, and “did not wait for [the] counsel” of the very same God who had just rescued them? Yes!

I know, I know. Most of us know the details of these events well enough that verse 13 doesn’t actually surprise us. We know about the Israelites’ backsliding. But it still ought to startle us to read about the rapidity of it! “They believed His words; They sang His praise” … and, without missing a beat, the very next words of the psalm are: “They quickly forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel”? Not to say that they forgot and became impatient as rapidly as we can read about it in Psalm 106. But it did happen “quickly”! And the rapidity of the about-face between vv.12-13 is startling. And so are the sad details of that about-face, rehearsed for us as we read on in the psalm.

How quickly Israel forgot the kindnesses and promises and mighty acts of their God! And how rapidly they began doing things their own way! And aren’t we glad that we are not like that? Except that, sometimes, we kind of are!

Now it’s true, the New Covenant people of God (all of whom are truly converted, Jeremiah 31:31-34) will not usually turn as far, and forget as deeply, as Old Testament Israel sometimes did. And we praise God for that! But, even though we who have been born again may not typically fall as hard or as far as the Israelites, we still often find ourselves fairly rapidly forgetting the promises of God, and the mighty deeds that He has done, and the prayers He has answered. And we still often find ourselves doing things our own way, don’t we? We still find ourselves, sometimes, moving fairly quickly from faith to forgetfulness, and from singing to self-direction! We still sometimes find ourselves doubting, sulking, murmuring, despairing, disobeying, and taking matters into our own hands.

Sometimes the testimony of our lives can read: ‘They believed! They sang! They forgot! They turned to their own ways!’ So let us be warned by the rapid backsliding of Israel. By God’s grace, let us cultivate better memories! And by His grace, let us dig deeper wells of faith! And the better those memories, and the deeper those wells, the more consistent will be the songs and the obedience which flow from them!

The Sky is not Falling

When Wednesday morning comes, a good many of our co-workers, neighbors, and friends will be speaking as though the sky were falling. Whichever way the presidential election turns out, there will be millions upon millions of Americans with serious concerns about our country’s future. And rightly so. We are in a sad time as a nation, make no mistake. The American experiment, barring a revival of true religion, has been heading toward its sunset for some time now – well before Election 2016. The present state of political affairs is a reflection of America’s soul, not an intrusion upon it. And so maybe the America sky is indeed going to fall, or just slowly continue morphing into a much darker shade of blue. May God help us.

But having said all of that, I remind you that, if we are in Christ, we do not live under the American sky only. Yes, the decline of our national morals, civility, government, and sanity will profoundly affect us. But even if the American sky should fall, isn’t it true that we are citizens of an entirely other kingdom – “a kingdom which cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28); the kingdom of Christ? This kingdom was flourishing with great glory well before the words Plymouth, and Washington, and Lincoln were woven into the tapestry of world history. And this kingdom will still be advancing long after Clinton and Trump have finished writing their part of the American epic. Indeed, the kingdom of Jesus will thrive even if America as we know it should someday cease to exist. “His kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:33).

And so, for the Christian, a sky may be falling … but not the sky! Christ is still on His throne. As Handel reminds us every Christmas (from Revelation 19:6, KJV), “The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

Let that be your anchor, no matter how disappointed you wake up on Wednesday morning. And let it be your ballast, even when you are elated with political victories or turnabouts.

And just to remind you of who is ultimately on the throne, have a look, on Wednesday morning, at the burnt orange reminders of God’s faithfulness dangling from the tree branches against the backdrop of the American sky. God promised, six millennia ago, that the earth would always cycle through its seasons (Genesis 8:22):

“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
And cold and heat,
And summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”

And the autumn leaves, on Wednesday, will remind you that God is keeping that covenant! And that is enough, brothers and sisters. That is enough. God is still God. God is still faithful. God still reigns. And the future is secure in Christ. So pray for America; cast your vote for the good of America; “seek the welfare of” America. But put your trust in Christ!

Sermons from Galatians

Listen in to our latest series of sermons from Paul's letter to the Galatians.

Gal 1:1-5 - “To the churches of Galatia” - mp3
Gal 1:6-9 - “A different gospel” - mp3
Gal 1:10-2:10 - “Not according to man” - mp3
Gal 2:11-16 - “Justified by faith” - mp3
Gal 2:15-21 - “Crucified with Christ” - mp3
Gal 3:1-18 - “The righteous man shall live by faith” - mp3
Gal 3:19-24 - “Why the Law then?” - mp3
Gal 3:25-4:11 - “Sons of God through faith in Christ” - mp3
Gal 4:11-20 - “My children, with whom I am again …” - mp3
Gal 4:21-5:12 - “Do not be subject again to a yoke …” - mp3
Gal 5:13-26 - “Walk by the Spirit” - mp3
Gal 6:1-10 - “Fulfill the law of Christ” - mp3
Gal 6:11-18 - “May it never be that I would boast ...” - mp3

"Faith comes from hearing" (part 2)

Last week we thought about the irreplaceable value of God’s word in the birth and blossoming of our faith. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). And I said, in that column, that this hearing includes both reading and listening. But then I also said that there is a special place for listening – for hearing the word audibly – whether when it is read aloud, or faithfully preached. Some of my best experiences in the word – and perhaps some of yours as well – have been listening to it proclaimed by a man of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so our first duty; the greatest thing we can do for the spiritual health of ourselves and our families, says Terry Johnson, is to commit to the regular Sunday services of our local church; to be with God’s people, on God’s day, listening to God’s man proclaiming God’s word. That is priority number one in terms of our spiritual growth.

But then it is also a blessing if we find ourselves asking if there is more where that came from; if there are other pulpits (to which we have electronic access) from whom we might receive the bread of life all week long. And I promised, last time, that I’d give a small catalog in this week’s column. So here it is – some faithful men from whom you might learn and grow as you drive to work in the workings, or as you settle into your armchair at night, and in a dozen other places in between.

The Obvious:

Alistair Begg, Greater Cleveland

John Piper, Minneapolis

John MacArthur, Greater Los Angeles

The Men of Old:

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, London

James M. Boice, Philadelphia

The Scotsmen:

Sinclair Ferguson, Dundee, formerly of Columbia, SC

Kenneth Stewart, Glasgow

These men are all just men … but godly ones, and faithful expositors of the Bible who will do good to your soul. So listen in, and find your faith blossoming more and more and you take in the word by means of “hearing”!

"Faith comes from hearing"

So says the apostle Paul in Romans 10:17. “Faith comes” – not from seeing, as in the icons of Eastern Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism – but “from hearing, and hearing by the word.”  And so faith is born, and blossoms, by means of God’s word, not the church’s artwork. A good reminder for churches today who are over-reliant upon visual aesthetics, artwork, video, and so on. But also a good reminder to those of us who are died-in-the-wool, Bible-believing Protestants as well – the life of our faith really does flow from God’s words, and from our hearing of them.

And I don’t think it stretches the meaning of the text to say that biblical “hearing” also includes the listening that we do, inside our own heads, when we read the word of God silently ourselves. Reading, in other words, is a kind of hearing, too … because faith is still being placed in the word, not in a series of religious sights and rites.

But I also think that there is something special about the actual, audible listening to the scriptures – whether as they are read, or faithfully preached. Some of my best times in the word seem to come when I hear it faithfully, spiritually, and powerfully proclaimed from a pulpit. And so I do myself a favor when I make use of every opportunity for hearing the word in that way. And so do you!

Now, of course, your first priority must always be a commitment to regularly hearing the word preached in your own congregation, from your own shepherd, in your own local setting. Nothing can replace that! And, of course, it is very much true that, if you’ll only avail yourself of every opportunity of hearing the word from your own local pulpit (and if that pulpit is a faithful one), then you will have enough. And so I cannot stress that strongly enough to you. Terry Johnson, in his book Family Worship, rightly points out that our attendance on the normal Sunday services of our local church is the single most important thing we can do to promote our own and our family's spiritual health. And I echo his thinking as loudly as I can on this point! Do not miss the opportunity to be fed by your own local shepherd(s) at every possible occasion!

But then, even after we have done this most vital thing, some of us (happily!) still long for more! The word on Sundays and mid-week is so good that we want to know where we can find more such preaching, more such exposition of Christ and His word. And (again, happily!) we have access to biblical preaching like no generation has ever had. The internet, smartphones, mp3 players, and podcasts have put the world of preaching (both good and bad) at our fingertips. And I heartily rejoice, as I have occasion to do recently, when someone comes and asks me “where the good way is”; where they may glean among “the finest of the wheat”; where, in short, they may find more of the spiritual food that good preaching provides for us.

And so, next week, I hope to provide a brief catalog of some of the fields in which we may glean the good wheat – a few of the preachers and pulpits which, coming into our hearing, might increase our faith. But for now let me just commend to you the goodness of the word preached by faithful men – whether in the flesh in your own pulpit, or across the airwaves by means of the worldwide web. “Faith comes from hearing.” So make sure that you find your seat in places of good, gospel acoustics.

Judas, Peter, Remorse, and Repentance

This past week, as our adult Sunday School classes studied the person of Judas Iscariot, a common question was raised: Did Judas, at the end, finally repent of his sin? Did he, in spite of all his sins against Jesus, ultimately turn back so as to be finally saved from those sins? That’s an important question, because it gets to the root of a very important gospel issue.

So then … Was Judas saved in the end?

Well, some time ago, my friend Jonathan and I shared in a one-on-one Bible study of Matthew 26-28 (One-2-One: Book 2) by a man called Andrew Cornes. And, when he comes to the portion in Matthew 27, on the sad end of Judas Iscariot, Cornes asks a very perceptive question – one that I am not sure I had ever pondered before:

Peter ‘wept bitterly’ after his betrayal of Jesus (26 v 75); Judas hanged himself after his (27 v 5). Why the difference?

That’s a very good question, isn’t it? Peter “wept bitterly” when he came to his senses in v.75; when he realized what a great sin he’d committed. And rightly so! But Judas responded far more drastically, didn’t he? Far more drastically! And Andrew Cornes urges us to consider: “Why the difference?” Why the two different responses of these two men?

Well, there are a few things at play here – among them the severity of their respective sins and the sovereignty of God. But, when we were studying this passage, using Andrew Cornes’ booklet, Jonathan made an interesting observation which I am going to borrow, and upon which I want to piggy back in the rest of this article. When he was answering, “Why the difference” in the responses of Peter and Judas, Jonathan pointed out that there is a big difference between mere remorse and true repentance!

There is a big difference between mere remorse and true repentance!

"Judas … felt remorse” for what he did!* We are told as much in Matthew 27:3. And the remorse that Judas felt might at first look like repentance! After all, Judas felt bad about what he had done; and he evidently felt bad for the right reason – not because of any disadvantage his sin might bring to him, but because of the ugliness of the sin itself. “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood” he said. And he even returned the betrayal price that he’d received, which was at least a small way of trying to right his wrong. And so the way Judas initially responds to his sin may look like repentance. Remorse … for the right reason … and with some effort to make right what he could.

And yet, what happens next seems to demonstrate that his remorse did not lead him to true and ultimate repentance. The fact that Judas hanged himself, in v.5, is evidence, it seems to me, that Judas did not repent.

‘Really?’ you might ask. Because we might almost be tempted to think that suicide, in this case, might have been the ultimate sign of repentance; the ultimate show that Judas was really sorry for what he’d done. And perhaps he was. But true repentance, while it begins with sorrow, does not end there. True repentance always ends up at the feet of Jesus, trusting Him in faith. Repentance and faith! The two are not the same thing, but they always go together in the gospel. And so any supposed claim of faith in the Lord Jesus, if it is not accompanied by repentance, is not genuine faith! And, more to the point of this article, any hopeful signs of repentance (such as those which Judas at first showed), if they are not accompanied by a turning to Christ in faith, are not genuine, biblical repentance!

You can feel remorse without ever turning to Christ in faith, can you not? And Judas is a most obvious case-in-point! But you cannot truly repent without also placing your faith in the Lord Jesus! Repentance is a hatred of, and a turning away from, our sin! But when we truly turn away from our sin, we also assuredly turn to the Lord Jesus who alone can truly deal with it (both in terms of its guilt, and in its ongoing power)! So that the way to tell if someone has truly repented is not only to observe their level of sorrow over, and attempts to turn from, sin … but also to keep your eye fixed upon them, to see if they also turn to Christ who alone can deal with it! And there is no evidence that Judas ever did the latter (either before or after his betrayal). At the end of his life, he sorrowed over sin, to be sure … and rightly so! But his sorrow drove him to suicide, rather than to the Savior. “Judas … felt remorse” (v.4, emphasis added), but he did not possess repentance!

Now, do not misunderstand me as saying that suicide is an unpardonable sin. That is not what I am saying. Nor is it what the Bible teaches, it seems to me. There surely are people who have genuinely believed upon Christ and repented of their sins who, in a moment of terrible weakness, do the unthinkable. And even this is covered by the blood of Jesus. And so my point is not that Judas’s suicide sent him to hell, but simply that it serves as the final evidence, in this particular case, that Judas was not a true believer. Judas’s suicide was not an aberration in the life of a true believer … but the culmination of a life lived without ever truly turning to Christ. Judas’s actions before the betrayal do not evidence any saving faith in his soul (since the disciples let us in on what he was like behind the scenes). And then his actions at the end of his life do not bespeak a last minute conversion to the hope that is in Jesus, but rather a life snuffed out in the despair of un-dealt-with guilt. The suicide, in this particular case, seems to simply be the final piece of evidence that, while Judas was remorseful, he never seems to have come to Christ in real repentance.

It’s actually hard for me say that, because I genuinely feel sorry for Judas … and for people like him. But given all that we know about Judas, it seems to be the right conclusion. This particular suicide was just further sad evidence that Judas could not bring himself to really turn to Christ. He lived according to his own schemes, and he died in the same way – taking the (supposed) remedy for his anguish into his own hands, rather than placing it into those of Christ.

Peter, on the other hand, seems to have possessed more than mere remorse! Peter surely felt remorse. “He went out and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75) when he realized what he’d done! But Peter evidently possessed more than just remorse! Because, while it’s going to take a few days to see it, Peter did turn back to Christ! Peter didn’t simply weep for sin. He went back to Jesus! And this is what true repentance looks like – turning from sin to Christ!

And so Jonathan was correct! Why the difference between the responses of Judas and Peter? It is the difference between mere remorse and true repentance. Perhaps his faith in Jesus took a few days to find its feet again, but Peter did eventually see a way back to the Lord! He did eventually believe in the pardoning love of God! But Judas could evidently not believe such a thing.

And the upshot of all of this is that we must not be content with (or think we have truly repented because of) a mere feeling of remorse over our sins. We should feel remorse! But that alone is no true sign of grace or salvation. No! The man whose heart has been truly changed by the Holy Spirit will not only sorrow for sin, but do so in such a way that he brings his sin, and his guilt, and his sorrow, and his need for change all to the feet of Jesus. Remorse can lead only to feelings of guilt and despair. But true repentance is always accompanied with faith, and thus with hope, in Christ.

______________________________

*Some translations use the word “repented” to refer to Judas’s feelings in Matthew 27:3, but commentator R.T. France points out that the Greek word used in Matthew 27:3 is not the same word that the New Testament normally employs for repentance that leads to salvation, but rather a word that refers to something more akin to regret.

Leaving off in the Middle

One of the delights of our family’s Lord’s Day evenings (and other evenings as well) is to spend time reading to our children. And one of the sources of greatest joy and blessing has been in reading bits and pieces from a series of books called Building on the Rock, developed by Diana Kleyn and Joel Beeke. Each of the five books contains between two and three dozen brief anecdotes (some real-life, and others fiction) that reinforce scriptural truth and remind us of how God is at work in all sorts of everyday circumstances.

So this past Sunday evening we found ourselves reading the brief account of a little girl who, while awaiting her train in a railway station, spotted a particularly fierce looking man in the corner. He was a convict, in police custody, and being transported to the location where he would serve a twenty-year prison term. And the lass felt sorry for him, and ventured to speak a very brief word to him about Jesus – but with no forthcoming sign that the man had any place in his heart for her kind words. And then the train arrived, and the girl and her father boarded one railcar, and the prisoner another, and she never saw the man again.

And I paused the story at this point, and made like this was the conclusion of the story. And, of course, the children – understanding both the nature of story-telling, and the nature of their teasing dad – knew that I was just pulling their legs. Stories don’t end in the middle like that! And so, of course, there must be more – more about what happened to the man, and more about how the little girl’s tiny witness made a difference in his life. No! Her departure simply could not be the end of the story!

Except that it suddenly occurred to me that … well … from the little girl’s (earthly) perspective, this was the end of the story. She boarded her train and never had any idea if perhaps the small seed she’d planted had found any little crevice in that poor man’s hard heart. And I reflected on that fact with the kids. Because this is so often the way our own stories unfold. We speak a word for Jesus here, or serve someone in His name there … and then the train leaves, or the flight lands, or the children leave the Bible club, or the homeless person shuffles off into the sunset, or the neighbors move away … and we never know what God did with our attempt to sow the good seed. It’s like stopping a good story before the ending!

Real life doesn’t always unfold quite as neatly or quickly as the stories, even in a non-fiction book – which are written down at a distance of years, by an outside observer who knows how everything turned out, and who is going to tell you all you want to know in just a few more pages or paragraphs. More often than not, when it comes to the various real-life stories in which we find ourselves as characters, the book seems to close before we ever find out how God worked the ending. It’s not that the various stories have no ending, but simply that our Father doesn’t always choose to tell us what it is! And we have to be okay with that. We have to be content to await the great day when (perhaps) our heavenly Father will complete many of the stories which, in this life, He chose not to read us all the way to the end.

And, if you’re wondering what happened to the prisoner after the little girl went on her way … well, you’ll either have to buy the book, or just allow my strategic leaving off in the middle to help you learn the lesson that I’m aiming to teach in this article! Be content to sow the gospel seed … and trust that God will bring in His harvest, even if you are not chosen to be there at the reaping.

"Do not lean on your own understanding"

One of the memorable features of my boyhood home was that giant set of books, stretched neatly across a book case that seemed tailor-made for its girth, called the World Book Encyclopedia. Enclosed within brown and beige covers, the set must have run to something like 20 volumes. And blessed is the child who grew up with such a resource at his fingertips! For, if fancy or curiosity posed questions about JFK, or the Ming Dynasty, or the North American Moose, one could simply pull down the appropriate alphabetical volume, thumb through the pages, and read a well-written article to slake the thirst.

But the book case, and the earth tone binding, and all those thousands of pages seem a bit superfluous today, don’t they? After all, I have access to far more data, about many more subjects, in the tiny cell phone in my right-side pants pocket! And, should any research be required for an article such as this one, I can simply click over to my internet browser … and voila, my laptop becomes an encyclopedia par excellence!

And again, blessed is the person who has such easy access to learning of all kinds. Wikipedia is one of my go-to browser bookmarks! And, what with Google, and various newsfeeds, and message boards ... one can instantly find out all sorts of information about almost anything! And so you might find me sometimes tossing into the conversation some out-of-nowhere fact about the Prime Minister of Iceland, or the sheep industry in New Zealand. Information is everywhere! And it’s often quite interesting … and occasionally, even helpful!

But having access to so much information comes with an inherent danger. Because, as we have access to more and more understanding, there is a natural tendency to begin to "lean on" that understanding (Proverbs 3.5); to begin to think that knowledge really is power – that if we simply know enough about X, Y, or Z, then we can handle it. And, if you need an example, ask yourself how many times you have noticed some possible little symptom of ill-health (either in yourself, or in a loved one) … and immediately run to the computer to read half-a-dozen articles (and, even worse, message boards) on the subject. As if reading a few pages enables you to accurately diagnose what physicians have spent years studying! And (more to the point of this article) as if understanding your disease will invariably help you better cope with it. Sometimes that may be true (especially when an actual doctor, or maybe a fellow sufferer, helps you understand it). But it seems to me that, when we go a-researching on our own; when we feel this compulsion to find out all the facts about why there might be a lump on the roof of our child’s mouth … we usually end up working ourselves into more and more of a tizzy! Haven’t you found that to be so? And the same is true when we begin researching tax laws, or trying to privately investigate someone online, or even going into all sorts of deep queries about Bible prophecies. When you give yourself over to these things, you can begin, perhaps subtly, to “lean on your own understanding" ... which is a very faulty prop indeed!

Because “your own understanding” cannot rescue you, can it? First of all, as I have already alluded to, “your own understanding” is often woefully limited! Neither Wikipedia nor World Book qualifies you (or me) as an expert on anything! And second, even if you do have a good grasp of some subject, that knowledge alone will not save you, will it? Knowing all about cancer won’t cure it. Being able to chart your own version of the end-times chronology is no guarantee that you’ll actually be safe when Jesus comes! And knowing more about your co-worker’s life by scouring through her Facebook posts will not usually help you love her with the love of Christ.

For all these things, we must ultimately turn to God … not to research! He is the one who cures cancer, and makes us ready for eternity, and places love in our hearts. He knows more about where America is headed than any political prognosticator ever could. He is the one who can give us peace when our country’s convoluted tax laws have us turned inside out with frustration and fear. And so it is to Him, and not to the internet (or the 20-volume encyclopedia), that we must ultimately turn our attention!

Do not misunderstand me. I am not decrying education, or knowledge, or understanding. I wouldn’t have Wikipedia bookmarked if I thought that were the case! And I’m incredibly thankful for doctors, and accountants, and theologians, and engineers, and lawyers who really do understand certain things in ways that are actually helpful! But Solomon is so wise when he urges us to:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart

And do not lean on your own understanding”

Proverbs 3.5

Understanding is not a bad thing. But leaning on that understanding, instead of on God, is! Trusting in your own understanding is dangerous. And I am simply saying that, the more information we have at our fingertips; and the quicker our knee-jerk reaction to turn to Google when faced with a dilemma, the more prone we are, not simply to understand, but to think that understanding will solve all our problems. But it won’t. In fact, it often just makes us more neurotic! I know from experience!

So the next time you are worried about a lump on your breast, or some snag in your taxes … call your doctor or accountant, yes. But resist the urge to try and be a doctor or accountant yourself. And, above all, resist the idea that the information you might turn up on the search engines and the message boards is the key to calming your heart’s anxieties. Turn, rather, to the book of Psalms, or to the gospels, or the epistles, or any one of the 66 books in which we hear the voice of God. Engage your mind and heart in an attempt to trust Him! “And do not lean on your own understanding.”

Privilege

This week our family took our customary summer trip to The Berry Patch across the state line in Indiana. Every year the children delight to climb under the enormous netting and into row upon row of blueberry bushes … picking and picking to the heart’s content, and enjoying the fruits of their labor, too, of course!

But this year we got a surprise treat. Perched atop one of those bushes, maybe 4 feet off the ground, was a little brown nest with three tiny baby birds wedged inside. 

What a beautiful little surprise! What a delight to hear their wee little chirping voices! And, I thought out loud, what an amazing place to be born! Somehow their mother must have spied an opening in the netting, and ducked inside the berry patch to "lay her young". And, judging from her chosen location (and from the little peck marks found here and there in the produce) I am assuming that berries are perhaps standard fare for this sort of bird. And so I say again, what a place to be born! Sweet, delicious, fresh produce everywhere, as far as the little bird’s eye can see. It would be like being born to the owner of Findlay Market, and having immediate access to all the treats inside! What a privilege!

And as I sat down to peck out the few lines that weekly fill this space, it occurred to me that this is how some of us were born, when we think of our spiritual privileges! What a blessing to born into a Bible-believing, God-fearing, Jesus-loving family – one that nurses you on “the pure milk of the word”; one that nourishes you on the fine wheat of the gospel, spoon-feeding you the message of Jesus, who is “the bread of life.” What a privilege to grow up knowing “the joyful sound” of “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” … and to be raised in the shade of the “oaks of righteousness” that make up “the church of the living God.” It’s like being born into royalty, the privileges are so great!

Not everyone who reads these lines will have been born with such spiritual advantages, I know. And I don’t intend, by emphasizing them, to minimize God’s power to save people from every strata of life, and to redeem us even when our parents hand down to us a “futile way of life” instead of a godly example. Not in the least! But I do say to those of you who have been given a godly heritage … please, please do not take it for granted! Rather, eat your fill!

There’s only so long that the mother bird in the blueberry patch will feed her children from her own beak. Eventually they will have to learn to gather berries for themselves. And what a sad sight if they should never learn, or should be too lazy to put forth the effort to do so – and exponentially so since they were born on top of a gastronomic goldmine! Let us not make the same mistake! No! Rather, let us fill our bellies with all the nourishment and delights that are available to us in this “land flowing with milk and honey” that is the Church of Jesus Christ!

Being born to Christian parents and brought up in the fruitful fields of the church doesn’t automatically make us Christians, of course … nor even members of the church. These things happen when we take in Jesus, “the bread of life”, for ourselves. But, O, if the swallows are blessed (Psalm 84) to make their nests inside the temple … how much more those humans who are born with a bird’s eye view of the things and people of God, and with such ready access to “the bread of life”! Let us be sure we join with those people, by feeding on Jesus for ourselves … and on all the other spiritual delights that sprout in clusters all around us!

20 Years a Christian

It occurred to me today that 2014 marks twenty years since I came to Christ at the age of 17. Praise God I had parents who took me to the house of God while I was still in the womb. In fact, if I have the story right, it was not long after the conclusion of a midweek service that my mom went into labor with me. But it wasn’t until 1994, in the summer before my senior year in high school, that Christ and the gospel and salvation became real to me – 20 years ago this summer!

Because of my upbringing, I had understood the basic gospel message since childhood. And in early elementary school I ‘walked the aisle’ and made a ‘public profession of faith’. But time proved that it wasn’t real. I was following through on an outward mechanism for professing faith (and not a biblical outward mechanism, mind you!), but the faith that the mechanism was supposed to symbolize was absent. And I suspect that many who read these lines will identify with that incongruity. We were coaxed to profess our faith before we really ever had it. And in many cases, we were assured that, because we professed it, we surely had it! And so all was well.  Except that it wasn’t. Adolescence, high school, and the temptations that came with them began rapidly to prove what was really inside. And, of course, I didn’t even need the temptations. The junk was inside me with or without them!

But then one Sunday evening I sat in church, and something changed. There had been significant turmoil in our congregation – turmoil of which I was mostly unaware, since I wasn’t all that interested in what went on at church (another sign I didn’t yet really know the Lord!). Apparently a number of people were rankled over some church issue or other … and in recent days harsh, ugly words had been spoken, and relationships fractured. And the pastor, on this particular Sunday evening, gently and straightforwardly addressed the sin, and called for confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation. In fact, he called for these things to take place that very night! And what an amazing thing it was to see people begin to spontaneously arise, crisscross the church auditorium, and with tears begin asking one another for forgiveness!  At least one man stood before the whole congregation and confessed his ugliness. And there I sat, head down and a little unnerved by it all.

I had never seen anything like this before – a church full of people really broken, and taking the implications of the gospel this seriously. And I began to realize, that night, the difference between a real faith, and a merely professed one ... because these people clearly had something I did not have. I’m not even sure if I could have pinpointed what it was … but there was something in them (the Holy Spirit, I now know!) that would not allow them to keep on sinning; something that drove them to real love, and to real confession and repentance, however embarrassing it might have been to make it in public. And I knew I needed what they had.  I realized that my prior profession faith was a profession only.  And in God's mercy, I came at last to a living faith in Jesus!

And I learned something incredibly important that night. Over the next few weeks, I hope to write about several lessons I have learned in my nearly 20 years as a believer in Jesus. And the very first of those lessons was that Christianity is about the heart! I learned that night that faith is more than just mental agreement with the facts about Jesus, and a desire not to go to hell, and an ability to walk an aisle or sign a ‘decision card.’ Many a lost person can rehearse the facts about Jesus for you. And, as Iain Murray has pointed out, one need not be spiritually awakened to perform the merely physical act of walking an aisle. And I can’t think of many people who actually want to go to hell!  But conversion to Christ is something more! Conversion is when the heart – and not just the head, or the feet, or the signature – turns to Christ! And conversion is when the heart truly turns to Christ, not just to a new form of religion (or away from hell)!  I don’t know that I could have articulated these things very well on that first night in the kingdom. I don’t know that I’ve articulated them all that well these twenty years later! But this was the very first lesson I learned after (or while!) becoming a Christian – and it was a vital one: Christianity is about the heart!

The rest of the series can be followed here.

Peace

Peace. It seems that I am constantly longing for it – a peaceful evening or Lord's Day afternoon – where all is well, and the chores are done, and my mind is at rest, and the house is quiet (yes, even with six kids at home!), and I have a good book in my hands, and maybe even a fresh batch of sweet tea is on the brew. Peaceful surroundings. That is often my definition of peace. And there is nothing inherently wrong with that desire, I suppose. I think heaven will be a lot like that – perfect rest and peace and contentment!

But I am reminded that there is more to peace than just peaceful surroundings. In fact, if I am in Christ, there are a number of ways in which I have peace (or can have peace) even in spite of my surroundings. Think about it. If I am in Christ, I have …

Peace with God. “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5.1). Once I was a self-made enemy of God. Once I was alienated, and estranged, and at odds with him. Once I was a renegade whose life was a constant kicking against the goads. But now, because Christ died for me, I who was once an enemy of God have become His friend! So, while there may not always be perfect calm around me; in the midst of it all, there is peace … with God (which is most important).

Peace with one another. “For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall” (Ephesians 2.14). Paul wrote those words about how, in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles now belong to one family because of the work of Jesus. But the same principle is true of all sorts of folks who might have once kept one another at arm’s length – black and white, upper and lower social classes, various nationalities, and so on. There are people with whom, before we knew Christ, we may have thought we could never identify; but who are now our family in the Lord, “who made both groups into one;” and who “is our peace.” What a blessing it is to see that working itself out even in our own diverse little congregation!

Peace with myself and my surroundings. This may be the most difficult kind of peace for me, sometimes, to lay hold of. If I am in Christ; if am I right with God; if my past is forgiven; and if my present and future are secure with Jesus (and all of these things are true, by the way, if I am in Christ) … then why should I be so often worried, or nervous, or uneasy, or edgy, or irritable? My circumstances may tempt me to be this way. But I don’t have to give in to the disquiet … if I remember who holds me in His hand; who is in control of my life, causing “all things to work together for good” (Romans 8.28). My problem is that I am so often looking at my circumstances, instead of at my Father! But if I’ll reverse that trend … there will be peace. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee” (Isaiah 26.3, KJV).

That is the solution when the evening falls apart, or the phone won’t stop ringing, or the to-do list just doesn’t seem to end, or the house is a wreck, or … you name it. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee” – on the Lord, not on the circumstances! Easy to type onto the page. Not so easy to do. But definitely possible! Pray for me that I would find this often elusive peace … and find it yourself, by staying your mind of the God who alone can grant it.

"You proclaim the Lord's death until He comes"

This morning we, once again, have the distinct privilege of remembering the Lord Jesus through the bread and the cup of the Lord’s Supper. What an honor it is! And what a blessing that God has ordained for us these visual, touchable, smell-able, taste-able aids to remind us of how Jesus died … having His body broken, and His blood shed for His people. “Do this,” He said … “in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11.25).

But sometimes we may overlook the fact that the Lord’s Supper is not only intended to help us look backward to Jesus’ cross … but also forward to His coming! Isn’t that what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11.26? “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”

Did you hear it? In addition to the primary pattern of “remembrance,” the Lord’s Supper also has a future element to it. Somehow, while looking mostly backward, we are still to have one eye, as it were, looking forward, too! We are to remember, not only that Jesus came, but also that He is coming. Just as we now hold these hallowed symbols of Christ in our hands … someday we will hold Him, too! Just as we see this visual sermon today, someday we will see Him – “face to face”. And we are to “proclaim His death”, by means of the Lord’s Supper, until that day!

And there – in that word “proclaim” – is another aspect of the Lord’s Supper that we may sometimes forget. The Lord’s Supper is not only a remembrance of Jesus’ death … but a proclamation of it; a visual sermon, if you will. By taking up the elements in public worship, we are reminding one another what Jesus has done. We are, in essence, preaching Christ to one another! And not only to one another, but also to those in our midst who have not yet taken Jesus in by faith – to our children and grandchildren; to friends and guests who do not yet know the Lord. To all these, we “proclaim the Lord’s death” by means of the communion bread and cup!

And, though the New Testament writers do not spell this out, I also wonder if, by taking the bread and cup into our hands, and especially by placing them onto our tongues, if we aren’t also preaching not only Jesus’ death, but the necessity of our own faith in Him, as well. Most importantly of all, yes, the elements symbolize what Jesus did … but maybe our taking them into our mouths symbolizes what we have done, too – namely, taking Christ Himself in by faith! And anyone who wishes to be saved from sin, and made right with God, must do so – take Christ in by faith!

So, if you are here without Christ, this morning … that is what I hope you will see as you watch us take the bread and cup into our hands and mouths – mostly a reminder that Christ’s body was broken, and His blood shed for sinners; but also a prompt that, like the bread and cup, this Jesus must be taken in, and not merely observed!

And if you are a believer in Christ, and will be taking the Lord’s Supper yourself today … I hope you’ll also remember that Jesus is coming soon; that the Lord whom you hold in your hands today, in symbol form, you will soon embrace in the flesh, and see “face to face.” What a day that will be!

Remembering, preaching, and enjoying Christ with you … “until He comes.”

Be Still

“Cease striving and know that I am God.” Psalm 46.10

Some time ago I had a problem with my eye-glasses. The screw that holds the right lens in place was loose. What I should have done from the beginning was to take my glasses to the eye-care center to be repaired. But instead I used a kitchen knife day after day to ‘fix’ the loose screw. But it kept coming loose (surprise, surprise). So, One day I decided to superglue it in. Resourcefulness, right? Except that the glue dried faster than I anticipated … and I ended up sealing the screw out of the socket instead of into it. Big mistake! Why did I not just take it to the expert to begin with?

The sad truth is, many of us handle life’s problems this way. Instead of going to God, our problem-solving expert and all-wise Father, we strive to fix things in our own ingenuity – super-gluing and duct-taping things together, so to speak – and end up making our problems worse, many times! If only we could all learn to obey Psalm 46.10: “Cease striving and know that I am God” (or, as the King James rendered it famously, “Be still, and know that I am God”). This command is to be applied in day-to-day situations like broken glasses, and aching bodies, and empty bank accounts, and uncertainties of every kind. It is also to be applied in big-time problems like wayward children, dying parents, and broken homes. And it is to be applied when it comes to personal salvation, too. “Cease striving and know that I am God.”

What a theme verse this seems often to have been for the men and women of the Bible! I don’t know if they were thinking of Psalm 46.10, specifically … but Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego survived the fiery furnace by doing what it says! We might say the same about our Lord Jesus Himself. He had silent confidence under the fiercest accusations and harshest physical punishments because He understood how to “cease striving” and put His hope in God. And when Paul and Silas were thrown in prison for their ministry in the name of Jesus, their response was not moaning or fretting … but singing! Why? Probably because they had learned to be still, and to trust the Lord!

Through the ages, obedience to Psalm 46.10 has brought peace, and hope, and holy character to the church. The persecuted early church maintained a godly testimony under trial by being still and trusting God (1 Peter 2.20-23). Mistreated African Americans endured the cruelty of their oppressors with great hope by singing songs like ‘Be still, be still, God will fight your battles.’ And beat-down believers in places like Sudan and China endure hardship and trial even today … not by taking matters into their own hands, but by waiting on the Lord.

Do you face issues tin which you are tempted to strive in your own strength instead of waiting on the Lord? I pray that you will “cease striving,” and lay your concerns at the Savior’s feet … and be still while God fights your battle!

Psalm 131

A trusted friend recently recommended Psalm 131 to me ... and I thank her for it! I have been grazing in these fields in recent days, and wanted to pass along just a few snippets. But first, the psalm in its entirety:

A Song of Ascents, of David.

O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;

Nor do I involve myself in great matters,

Or in things too difficult for me.

Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;

Like a weaned child rests against his mother,

My soul is like a weaned child within me.

O Israel, hope in the LORD

From this time forth and forever.

A couple of things have stood out to me in this simple little poem.

First is that, so often, our anxiety stems from the fact that we involve ourselves in matters that are too difficult for us (v.1). We take as our sole responsibility things that ought to be handed to other, more capable, people; and, even more so, that ought to be cast as burdens upon the Lord. The internet is a great problem in this regard, it seems to me. With so much information at our fingertips, it is easy to search, and read, and end u tangling ourselves in matters that are beyond our competency and/or emotional wherewithal. Does that sound familiar?

Instead, David says, we should lay these things down. We should not dig into matters which are beyond our abilities. Is this an excuse to be irresponsible? To just drop subjects that really do need dealing with? Of course not. The point that David is making is that he has learned that there are some things that he must simply put into someone else’s (or Someone Else’s) hands, rather than into his own. I haven’t often been very good at that. And I need to learn to trust – especially to trust the Lord; to cast my burdens on Him. There are so often decisions that seem too big for me; tasks that seem too difficult; obstacles that seem too high to hurdle. And there has to be a way in which, without shirking responsibility, I can yet say: “Nor do I involve myself … in things too difficult for me.”

The second thing that has grabbed my attention in recent days is the picture of the weaned child resting against his mother (v.2). “A weaned child” (emphasis mine) – a child that no longer needs its mother’s milk. A child that can crawl or toddle around the house on his or her own. A child that can get into all sorts of things and has achieved some level of independence. Yet in this case, the child chooses to rest against his mother. He decides to compose and quiet his soul … even though he could be bouncing around, doing other things.

Here, I think, is part of the cure for anxiety. We could be doing other things, with the measure of independence that we think ourselves to have achieved. We could be fretting, calculating, internet searching, or fixing. But, like the child in David’s mind eye, we deliberately choose to quiet our souls before the Lord; we deliberately set aside the “things too difficult” in favor of climbing in our Father’s lap; we intentionally go to God instead of the internet, the telephone, the calculator, the anxious thoughts, and so on. This, too, is a challenge for me. I seem spring-loaded to try and fix things myself; and therefore to fret when I don’t seem to be able. But I must be “like a weaned child.”

“I do not involve myself … in things too difficult for me,” says the king. Instead, “I have composed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child rests against his mother.” And if the incredibly competent king of Israel could say those things, how much more must you and I! But, O, how often I have failed! And how often David’s example seems to go against everything inside of me. Even as I type these words, I feel the tension in my heart (‘surely it’s not really this simple, is it?’). Yet there is wisdom – profound wisdom – in the simple faith of Psalm 131. Let us seek the Lord’s help in applying it.  "O Israel, hope in the LORD."

Ducks, Dots, and Rest in God

Anyone who knows me at all will say that it is no secret that I like to have all my ducks in a row; all my i’s dotted and t’s crossed. It’s a serious enough felt need that I used to organize the church’s coat hangers by color (until I replaced them with all white to save myself the trouble and annoyance!).

I like all my books to be in the right places; all my bills to be paid well ahead of time; all the items checked off my to-do list at the end of every day. It doesn’t always happen, of course. But I do my best to leave myself with as few loose ends in my life as possible. And, sometimes, that can be a good thing. It can help me be reliable for other people; give me a decent credit score; and help me sleep at night, feeling that everything is under control.

But control can also be an idol – a kind of drug which, when we are unable to get it, drives us to irritability, irrationality, and sometimes great anxiety. And I don’t know that I ever realized how hooked a person can be until the last few weeks.

Recently – I trust through the wise providence of God – I have discovered that a number of my ducks have gotten out of line. In a handful of areas of proper paperwork and record-keeping, I haven’t crossed all my t’s or dotted all my i’s. But I didn’t realize it. It’s almost like the unruly ducklings were hiding under the bed so that, though they were out of place, I didn’t even know they existed! The details are unimportant (and relatively minor in the grand scheme of things), but suffice it to say that I have realized in recent weeks that there were a number of loose ends that needed tying up; a number of situations over which I had not exercised my patented system of checks, balances, and (most of all) control. And sometimes, when the ducks have wandered so far afield, it is very difficult to get every last one of them back into single file again – perhaps impossible.

That realization has really thrown me for a loop. You mean there are actually areas of my life which I thought I had under control, but which were actually botched and confused? I understand not being able to control car wrecks, and sickness, and world politics … but these are things that I had a firm grip on (or so I thought). And now I feel like I’ve woken up in the middle of a gigantic mess … one whose far flung splatters cannot possibly be all cleaned up to my satisfaction. I don’t have ultimate control!

Some years ago, a friend of ours walked down the stairs to discover that her sons had turned the basement floor into a makeshift Slip-and-Slide … using blue paint as a substitute for water! Years later, and after a great deal of clean-up, she was still discovering little splatters of blue pigment hiding here and there in various corners and crevices! That’s how I feel about my paperwork ducklings. I’ll never get everything fixed the way I want it; the way I think it must be.

But why must it be a certain way? Why must I be able to cross all the t’s? Why must I dot all the i’s? There are some good, and I hope, honorable reasons for wanting to do things the right way. And doing things the right way is not at all to be set aside as unimportant. But perhaps as much as anything, I am realizing that my thirst for control and order and detail has become a mechanism for not needing to trust God. If I have everything in order, I can go home at night, prop my feet up on the couch, read a good book, and have not a care in the world … and all of that with or without God.

Now, of course, I wouldn’t normally say it to myself quite like that: ‘I’m doing all these things and tying up all these loose ends so that I don’t have to trust the Lord.’ And I certainly haven’t taken up that pattern as a way of intentionally avoiding Him. But the root of having to have control over so many different details is a desire to trust someone I know I can count on – namely myself! And that has become painfully obvious as I’ve discovered more and more splotches of splattered paint that I’m finding nearly impossible to get cleaned up to my satisfaction. It all feels so, well, out of control … and it’s tied me in knots at times.

But are things out of control, really? Don’t I preach that God is sovereign over all things? That He not only turns all things for good, but actually means, and works, and designs them according to His own wise plans? I do. God is in control. And I believe that … in my head at least. But am I, on the strength of God’s control of my life, able to come home at night, prop my feet on the couch, and enjoy my wife and children without worries and fears? Am I able to rest in God … or only when I myself am in control?

These are hard questions. I know that I have not fully worked my way to the bottom of them yet (and may never, fully, in this life). I’m not even certain that, in these few lines of typeface, I am adequately communicating all that is in my heart. But I’ve been realizing, and wrestling with, and needing to repent of these things for several weeks now … and I thought it might be helpful to me (and maybe to a few of you) for me to allow my various thoughts to spill out onto the page – even if, like blue paint, I don’t have them all quite lined up in the right places yet.

The summary, I think, is just this: Very often – at least in my own experience – the desire for control; the insatiable quest to have all the ducks in single file is actually a mechanism for not having to trust in a God who knows and does far better than I … but whom, alas, I cannot see; and whose wise ordering of my affairs must be taken by faith, not sight.

I wish I could have learned these things without the recent set of unsettling circumstances. I wish, in other words, that I could have controlled the timing and severity of this lesson! How’s that for irony? But, ah, God is a better teacher than me. May we all learn to trust, more and more, in Him.