Nothing From Outside

I'm going to write about something that may offend churched sensibilities. I might even lose my standing as a Christian mom. Consider yourself warned.

Tonight my son confided something that had been puzzling him for some time. He said that about a  year ago he had been trying to tell two friends at church about the movie Napoleon Dynamite, which he is very amused by. One of the boys asked him, "Does he say s-h-i-t?"
Isaiah said, "No. What is shit?"
At this point in his story, I asked him, "Do you know what that means? Have you ever heard that word before?"
"No." He looked confused.
"The reason you haven't heard that word is because it's a word that we don't use. Most people consider it to be a bad word, and it means 'poop'. So what did they say when you asked that?"
"They didn't tell me what it meant, but one of them went to the teacher and told her, 'Isaiah said "shit".'"
"So what did the teacher do? Did you get in trouble?"
"She said, 'Don't say that!' But I said, 'I don't know what it is.'"
"Isaiah, that is a perfect case of man looking on the outward appearance, and God looking on the heart. Obviously your heart has to be dirty for a dirty word to mean anything, huh?"
He nodded and said, "It made me kind of mad that they told me that word, and I didn't even know that word, and then they..."
"They set a trap for you, didn't they?"
"Yes. And tried to get me in trouble. And I was afraid to ask you what it meant, because I thought you would get mad that someone told me that."
"Who do you think had the dirty heart: the one who tried to get you to say the word, or you for saying the word when you didn't know it?"
"They did. They wanted to talk about it."
"Son, in this world, there will be all kinds of people who try to introduce you to dirty things you don't know anything about. It's gross, and it's wrong, but it's a fact here. You have to learn to tell the difference between those things, and to know what things you should have nothing to do with. And you didn't sin because someone told you that word."

"And calling near all the crowd, He said to them, 
'Listen to Me, every one of you, and understand.
There is nothing from outside a man which entering into him can defile him. 
But the things which come out of him, those are the ones that defile the man.'"
Mark 7:14,15

Not One

This afternoon, my children and I heard a thump on the window and found outside a beautiful gray bird in its last minute or two of life. I picked it up, hoping it was just stunned, and we spoke softly to it, stroking its breast and admiring its beauty. It's been over an hour, and it has grown stiller. I think its neck is broken, and sadly, it won't be flying off again. It lies next to me on a towel in a decorative bird cage as I write this. So seemingly pointless. We weren't sure what it was, so we examined its markings and looked it up. I think it's a tufted titmouse.

I find myself thinking of what Jesus said to His friends:

"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather be afraid of God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
For only a penny you can buy two sparrows,
yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father's consent.
As for you, even the hairs of your head have all been counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows!"
~Matthew 10:28-31

My Father knows the loss of this little bird who enriches no one's life. Who makes no one grieve but us, and only because we knew of it. If he had fallen in the woods, we would not care. Every delicate feather and subtle marking is known by Him, although we have to examine them to recognize his species. And He says not to be afraid -- He's counted our hairs.

"Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints."
~Psalm 116:15

By Trusting

"Not by measuring the waves can you prevail;
not by gauging the wind will you grow strong;
to scan the danger may be to fall before it;
to pause at the difficulties, is to have them break above your head.
Lift up your eyes unto the hills, and go forward --
there is no other way.

'Dost thou fear to launch away?
Faith lets go to swim!
Never will He let thee go;
'Tis by trusting thou shalt know
Fellowship with Him.'"

~From Streams in the Desert, June 23

Who Created You

"I am the LORD who created you;
from the time you were born, I have helped you.
Do not be afraid; you are my servant, my chosen people whom I love.
I will give water to the thirsty land
and make streams flow on the dry ground.
I will pour out my spirit on your children
and my blessing on your descendants.
They will thrive like well-watered grass,
 like willows by streams of running water.
One by one, people will say, 'I am the LORD's.'
They will come to join the people of Israel.
They each will mark the name of the LORD on their arms
and call themselves one of God's people."
~Isaiah 44:2-5

My baby brother is a daddy. 
My nephew is the first of his generation.
Not the first grandchild for my parents, but the first to have my father's name.
The name carries on.

Nothing To Commit

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave Himself for our sins,
that He might deliver us from this present evil age...
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him...
The gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries...
being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions...
But when it pleased God... who called me through His grace,
to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles...
they glorified God in me."

~excerpts from Galatians 1

"To attempt to change the gospel has the effect of making it the very opposite of what it really is."

"The gospel shuts out all works."

"The other day a man said to me, 'I want to become a Christian.
I am going to try to be a little better, and if I improve, I am going to become a Christian.'
"I said to him, 'If you improve, you will never become a Christian.  
The only class that God is saving is the ungodly.
The Lord Jesus said He didn't come to call the righteous; He came to call sinners.
There is none righteous, no, not one.
The righteousness of man is as filthy rags in God's sight.
Law condemns us, and it must make us speechless before grace can save us.'"

"The gospel of grace puts us in the dust and makes us beggars before God."

"We have nothing to commit to Him...
You have nothing to commit to Him, my friend.
He wants to commit something to you.
He is the One who died, and He is on the giving end."

~excerpts from Thru The Bible With J. Vernon McGee, on Galatians 1

What stood out to me in pondering Galatians 1 this morning was Himself.  
He is the gospel.  
He is the good news.  
He is the message.  
He is the deliverance.
And He is the One we turn from when we turn from the gospel.

The good news is the work of Christ accomplished for us.
Complete in Him.
Not our advancement beyond our contemporaries in zealousness,
but the revealing of His Son in us through His grace by His will
that we might preach HIM,
that God would be glorified in us.
God is not glorified in our righteousness.
He is glorified in the work of Christ --
the righteousness of Christ.
The deliverance of Christ.

All We Have

My dear friend Conor was speaking at the church I was at today.
He talked about Mark 8:31-35 where Jesus tells His disciples He must suffer,
and be rejected,
and be killed
and rise again after 3 days.
And Peter pulls Him aside to rebuke Him.
You know what Jesus said to him:
"Get behind me, Satan."

My friend focused on Peter's mind being influenced by the things of man,
and not the things of God.
He pointed out that it was the GOSPEL -- the work of Christ on our behalf --
that Peter was trying to correct.
He was speaking the words of Satan when he corrected Jesus.
"Satan is not opposed to going to church, to praying idle prayers.
He's opposed to the gospel."
The work of Christ is central.
"The gospel is all we have! Jesus is all we have!"

I had never thought of it before.
(Peter being opposed to the gospel.)
In a sense it comforts me to see Peter, who was opposed to the gospel,
become one of the foremost instruments of promoting the gospel --
although he had to be corrected again by Paul on the very subject of legalism.

"I want God to take this blurry watercolor of the cross and show it to me in HD," Conor said.

Legalism sucks all the life out of Christianity.
It's like posting the rules of my marriage on the wall:
Eight kisses every day are required, and they must be passionate.
You must bear eight children in order to be considered remotely fruitful.
All meals must be gourmet, and the house spotless at all times.
Two hours of one-on-one conversation must take place every day at the same time.
And sex is scheduled four days a week.

How It Ends

The longest chapter in the Bible concerns God's law.
Its perfection.
Its necessity.
The blessings of keeping it.
Curses on those who don't keep it.
Walking in it.
Delighting in it.
Meditating on it.
Hiding in it.
Being lit up by its entrance.
Having our steps directed by it, that iniquity might not rule over us.
Hoping in it.
Being judged by it. 

How it ends: 
"I have gone astray like a lost sheep;
Seek Your servant,
For I do not forget Your commandments."

We have all gone astray.
And He comes looking for us.

Seek us, Lord. 
We remember You. 
We remember Your word. 
Come rescue us.

How Is It?

"Why are you so fearful?" Jesus asked His disciples.
"How is it that you have no faith?"

They were afraid of drowning when they had the Author of Life sleeping beside them.
The very One who breathed life into Adam.
And they were afraid they wouldn't be able to breathe.
I am sure you understand, because I bet you're afraid, too.

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection, and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live."
When the Resurrection and the Life says, 'You shall live,' why are you so fearful?

The Eclipse of Your Faith

'Changeful experience often leads the anxious believer to inquire, "Why is it thus with me?"
I looked for light, but lo, darkness came; for peace, but behold trouble...
Lord, Thou dost hide Thy face, and I am troubled.
It was but yesterday I could read my title clear;
today my evidences are bedimmed, and my hopes are clouded.
Yesterday I could climb to Pisgah's top, and view the landscape o'er,
and rejoice with confidence in my future inheritance;
today my spirit has no hopes, but many fears; no joys, but much distress.

'Is this part of God's plan with me?
Can this be the way in which God would bring me to heaven?
Yes, it is even so.
The eclipse of your faith, the darkness of your mind, the fainting of your hope,
all these things are but parts of God's method
of making you ripe for the great inheritance upon which you shall soon enter.
These trials are for the testing and strengthening of your faith --
they are waves that wash you further upon the rock --
they are winds which waft your ship the more swiftly towards the desired haven.

'According to David's words, so it might be said of you, "so He bringeth them to their desired haven."
By honor and dishonor, by evil report and by good report,
by plenty and by poverty, by joy and by distress,
by persecution and by peace,
by all these things is the life of your soul maintained, and by each of these are you helped on your way.
Oh, think not, believer, that your sorrows are out of God's plan; they are necessary parts of it.
"We must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom."'

~From Morning and Evening by C.H. Spurgeon

Without a Sail

We used to sing:

Without You I am nothing
Without You I always fail
Without You I am drifting
Like a ship without a sail

No Credit For It

 
I found this quote written down in my journal from last October:

"Their heart was upright before the Lord,
though men gave them no credit for it,
but even censured them:
they were righteous,
though those about them denounced them as censorious.
Courage, brothers!
We need not be in a hurry..."

~ C. H. Spurgeon, The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith

To Get Better

"Dear Jesus, please help the economy to get better,
even though I don't even know what the economy is,"
Talia prayed.

Weightier

David's Tomb

#1 For shutting up the kingdom of heaven against men -- not going in or allowing anyone else to, either.

#2 For devouring widows' houses, and making long prayers for a pretense.

#3 For traveling long distances on mission trips and converting men into even worse sons of hell.

#4 For teaching others to swear by the gold of the temple, and counting the temple as nothing, and for valuing the gift on the altar and not the altar itself.

#5 For paying tithes on spices and neglecting the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.

#6 For washing the outside but being full of extortion and self-indulgence.

#7 For looking like beautiful tombs, all white and sparkling -- but being full of all uncleanness and dead bones. (Appearing righteous, but being full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.)

#8 For building monuments to righteous men when you are the sons of their murderers. 'How can you escape the condemnation of hell?'

Woe.

Then He said, "I send you prophets, and you kill them. All their blood will come on you."

And yet:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you persecuting murderer --
how I have wanted to gather you to Me.
But you were not willing.
You won't see me again
until you say,
'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'

This is not a chapter I usually enjoy reading or thinking about. But a few things stood out to me from it this morning.

Jesus indicts the Pharisees.
I, too, have been indicted by the word of God.

We all fall short of the glory of God.
But pretending to be clothed in it is asking for woe.

They barred the gates of heaven
against men they deemed to be unworthy of it.
Refusing to enter by grace through faith,
they held back others who might enter
by grace through faith.
'Conform to our brand of holiness, first.
Wear our kind of clothes.
Eat our kind of food.
Drink only approved beverages.
Only dance our dances.
Listen to our music.'

But those things do not address holiness.
They are straining out gnats, but swallowing whole camels.
Being outwardly righteous by conformity does not wash the inside.
And the inside is what God looks at.

I think what I saw that I haven't seen before
is that Jesus was not barring the kingdom from the Pharisees.
His heart leaked out even in these woes.
'How can you escape the condemnation of hell?'
Seeing you won't enter by grace through faith,
how will you enter?
He reasons here with them.
You are guilty.
You.
You teacher of the law.
It judges you.
Justice. 
And until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,'
you won't see Me.
Faith.
There is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved.
Mercy.

Location, Location, Location

I hate that real estate saying. --But it is true.
Nobody cares how sweet the house is if the entire street is full of garbage.

As we search for our new home, ruling out this one, and ruling out that one,
I sometimes find myself thinking about Him.
How He left glory to live in a bad neighborhood.
To dwell among the undesirables.
To eat what we eat.
To drink what we drink.
To be touched by the people who touch us.
To be interrupted day and night by the crying of people in pain and in need.
To be assaulted by the chaos of the streets.
And to be assaulted by His neighbors.
To be spat upon and mocked.
To be murdered.

And so: Lord -- where do You want us to live?

'Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, being in the form of God,
did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
but made Himself of no reputation,
taking the form of a bondservant,
and coming in the likeness of men.'

Where Could We?

Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."

Then His disciples said, "Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?"

He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"

And they said, "Seven, and a few little fish."

So they all ate and were filled... 
Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.

Our Jesus, who said He had nowhere to lay his head, had compassion on those who needed a meal. He didn't want them to leave Him empty and hungry. He was concerned that they might faint on the way.

But of course, there are practical considerations involved.

Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness?
It's the wilderness.
This is no place for the provision of meals.

Where could we get enough money in a recession?
Where could we get enough for our great need?
The economy can't support us.
Our needs are too expansive for this pinched place.

And Jesus asks, "What do you have?"
Practically nothing, Lord.
I have not enough.
I have less than enough for my own -- certainly not enough to share.

Our resources are irrelevant to Him.  
He is where we can get bread in the wilderness.
Water from the Rock.
And when He sees us continuing with Him,
He has compassion on our needs.
He doesn't want to send us away hungry.
He doesn't want us to faint on the way.
Sitting down with Him will feed you
where all your scrambling for food will fail.

We Must Wait

My husband and I grew up singing this song:

We must wait,
wait,
wait on the Lord
We must wait,
wait,
wait on the Lord
Learn our lessons well
And in His timing He will tell us
What to do
Where to go
What to say

Learning to wait on the Lord is uncomfortable. Other people press you to know what you're going to do. And you don't always know. But He does answer. And we are always better off waiting on Him than going on without Him. Because the Bible says He waits on high for those who will wait on Him.

It Was Necessary

"Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary
for the Christ to suffer
and to rise from the dead the third day,
and that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem."

Without His suffering, all our repentance could never bring about remission of sins, because without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. 

But because of His suffering, remission of sins is free to the repentant. 

Thank You, Jesus.

Sons of Your Father

Do you ever wonder about whether you are growing as you should?
I have a tendency to think evangelism is the yardstick to measure by.
(Probably as a result of faulty something.)
I was thinking about it this morning -- asking the Lord about fruit.
Do I have any?
Am I healthy?

My mind drifted here:

'Love your enemies, 
bless those who curse you, 
do good to those who hate you, 
and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven...'

'...And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors...
For if you forgive men their trespasses, 
your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses...'

'Now the fruit of the Spirit is
love,
joy,
peace,
longsuffering,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
gentleness,
self-control.'
The mark of sonship is love.

Will I exact revenge on my persecutors?
Will I demand payment of all I am owed by trespassers?
Can I pray for those who abuse me?

Jesus, hanging in agony on the cross,
used His breath to pray, "Father, forgive them."
He pitied His tormentors.

There is a precious promise in there.
If I forgive, He'll forgive me, too.
Because I am a debtor.
I have offended.
I have stepped on people.
I have looked past their pain and blamed them for their grimace.
I have forgotten them when I should have remembered.
I have been calloused when I should have been crying.
I have pointed my finger when I should have applied salve.
And I can't pay it back.

But I can forgive when it's done to me.

To Meet Every

A song came to mind this morning as I listened to the birds while I read and prayed. The song is from Lamentations, and I learned it when I was small.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
His mercies never shall come to an end
They are new every morning
New every morning
Great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord --
Great is Thy faithfulness

I turned to Lamentations because I intended to just share that verse. I looked it up on eSword to pick a version to share. And my attention was arrested as I looked a little earlier in the passage. I did not intend to say anything on this subject, but it's in the text, and it astounds me. Look at this:

"And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
And I said, My strength and my hope hath perished from the LORD:
Remembering my affliction and my misery, 
the wormwood and the gall.
My soul hath them still in remembrance, 
and is humbled in me.
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, 
because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; 
therefore will I hope in him.
The LORD is good to them that wait for him, 
to the soul that seeketh him.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait 
for the salvation of the LORD."

He says he had no strength and no hope.
One of the versions I read said 'my hope in the Lord is gone'.
It seems almost blasphemous.
But this man could remember only his affliction, his misery,
wormwood and gall.
His lot was bitter and poisonous and painful.
It was so horrible he lost all hope.
And in that place, the Lord's mercy reached him.
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning.
To meet every bitter expectation,
Every painful affliction,
Every miserable grief.
He is faithful.
If He is my portion, there is hope.
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him --
To the soul that seeks Him.

And I can't help but remember this:

"All these died in faith,
not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off
were assured of them,
embraced them
and confessed that they were strangers 
and pilgrims on the earth.
For those who say such things
declare plainly that they seek a homeland."
~Hebrews 11:13

His Unchanging Grace

We were singing an old hymn last night. As has so often happened, the words of a brother long gone from this world remind me of my Hope.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Refrain:

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Refrain

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

Refrain

That second verse (after the refrain) is so... real. 

Darkness does seem to hide His face. 

But His grace is unchanging, and we must rest in it. 

We do get beaten on by high and stormy gales (think 'hurricane force winds'), but our Anchor holds.  

Christ is our anchor. 

And He is within the veil -- in the very Presence of the Father making intercession for us. 

Our Advocate. 

Our Propitiation.

His oath, His covenant, His blood 

support me in the whelming flood.

Not my oaths,  

my covenants,  

my blood. 

My oaths make me a liar. 

My covenants make me a failure.

My blood is stained with sin.

When all around my soul gives way 

He then is all my Hope and Stay

Here is no delusion of grandeur: my soul gives way. 

I do not stand the flood. 

But my Jesus does. 

My Anchor. 

My Rock of salvation. 

My High Tower. 

My Shield. 

My Hope and my Stay.

When He shall come... 

let me be found in His Righteousness, and in nothing else. 

Not in my self-righteousness.

Not in my own garments. 

I want to be wearing Him.

Dressed in Him, I'm faultless. 

Before even the throne of God. 

In Him.