Endurance

 

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

—Hebrews 12:1

“Life is not a sprint. It is a marathon.” You’ve no doubt heard that quotation. I would like to think that “Oftentimes, trials are not a sprint, but a marathon.” Some trials God gives us in our lives last a day or two. Others go on far longer than we could ever imagine and demand much more of us than we could have ever thought.

In fact, some troubles take far more strength and endurance than we would naturally have available. Don’t believe the idea that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle—by ourselves, alone. In fact, He often gives us more than we can handle just for the purposes He has of causing us to rely totally on Him to carry us beyond our own strength.

We can find comfort in the Sovereignty of God: His supreme, unlimited, wise authority over everything that happens to us gives us assurance that we are in His hands. Yet, does that mean we have no responsibility at all? Whereas some people think they have to manage everything in their lives, others think that submitting to, and waiting on, God alone, getting out of His way, allows Him to perform His will in us and through us.

I love the way that Carolyn Curtis James writes about this subject: ¹

[The writer of the Hebrews] put both ideas side by side without diluting either of them when he charged his readers to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” God marks out our race, and we are commanded to run. If we follow logic, sovereignty doesn’t remove human responsibility. It actually increases it. Human responsibility depends on an ordered world in which God is sovereign. You can’t be responsible in a world of chaos, chance and blind fate. Sovereignty frees us to act because we know God has a plan. We are part of that plan, for we are the agents through whom he accomplished his purposes… God calls us to full-throttled, active, and creative living.

Sometimes, God allows us to feel exhausted, to press us beyond our limits. As anyone who has taken athletic training, or even physical therapy, knows—if you have invested yourself fully in this experience—you will feel exhausted and pressed beyond your limits. But, the payoff comes from that pressing forward in strengthening your own self.

God wants to make us into marathon runners and warriors for His glory. In the end, we will not celebrate our great skill, but our great God. Only by our cooperation with His power and His loving wisdom, will the race be run. All glory to Him!

______________________

1 James, Carolyn Curtis. When Life and Beliefs Collide. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Company, 2001. (Amazon Kindle) Pp. 128-129.

 

 

Refresh

 

“You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance.”

—Psalm 68:9

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

—Acts 3:19

Without water, we would all die. We rely on God to supply the rain in order for us to live. I am amazed at how quickly my drooping indoor plants revive once I pour a little refreshing water on them.

We humans can live in a dehydrated condition for a while. But, without natural water and without God-given spiritual water, we cannot live with the vigor, joy, and beauty that God intended when He made us.

A deficiency in the electrolytes that keep our bodies’ electrical systems in balance shows up in lethargy, fatigue, heart rhythm problems, dry skin, and a host of other dire consequences that appear when we have not had enough water. Our bodies only become refreshed with a return to proper hydration.

Let me ask each of us this question: How are our “spiritual electrolytes”? Those of our churches? Can we detect a loss of spiritual hydration there? Sometimes, we hardly know when our spiritual posture sags from lack of the refreshment that God wants to provide for us.

In fact, Jesus addressed this problem with the Samaritan woman in John 4:1-45 and called Himself the “Living Water.” Once she drank of His life-giving spiritual water, she left her water jug, ran rejoicing, and called her neighbors to come at once to meet with Jesus.

In John 7:1-24, we read of Jesus preaching to the crowds at the Feast of Tabernacles, and calling them to come to Him for living water. Like those in that long-ago crowd who responded to Jesus, once we learn to rely on this “Water of Life,” we will need the refreshing and the life-giving health it gives in order to serve Him well.

When we fall into patterns of mundane worship, when we droop in our service to God, when our hearts do not beat with vigor for Christ, and when our tired service yields no fruit for others, we know that we need to stop and ask God for a refreshment of the “Living Water” that only He can give us through His precious Son. Fortunately, we only need to ask Him and He will surely supply us with this “Living Water.”

Let us pray that we will clearly see our weariness and, in response, ask God for “rain in the springtime” before we dry up and blow away. Let us ask God for showers of refreshing and a renewal of life, so that we can serve Him effectively.

I particularly like the way this hymn describes such a prayer:¹

Refresh Thy people on their toilsome way;
Lead us from night to never-ending day;
Fill all our lives with love and grace divine;
And glory, laud, and praise be ever Thine. Amen.

______________________

1 Roberts, Daniel C. God of Our Fathers. Public Domain.

 

 

The Sting

 

“Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

—1 Corinthians 15:55-56

Whether you have an allergy to bee stings or not, the experience of being stung causes a pain that you will not easily forget. Two aspects of a bee sting cause the pain. First, the stinger itself, like a tiny sword, contains a sharp barbed point that stays in the skin until you remove it. Secondly, the venom causes a chemical reaction within one’s body producing pain and swelling.

The Apostle Paul used the “sting” to illustrate the experience of sin and death in the passage of Scripture quoted at the beginning of this blog post. Then, Paul continues with this theme, offering the ultimate resolution in Romans 6:23, when he wrote:

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We can easily see how death carries a “sting.” No one can dispute that this ending point comes to us as the ultimate battle that we face. As believers in the Lord Jesus, however, we are assured of the absence of the “sting” of this tool of the enemy.

If you have experienced the death of a loved one who lived as a follower of, and believer in, the Lord Jesus Christ, you know that the terror, no matter how terrible the death, has been softened as a result of the sacrifice Christ made for us on the cross. Jesus dealt with the victory over death when He died on the cross and rose again from the dead.

We, as humans, experience many other kinds of “stinging” events in our lives. We know the pain of scary medical diagnoses, the loss of jobs, difficult financial straits, legal battles, broken relationships, and numerous other kinds of disappointments.

Sometimes, we have faith to believe all that God has told us in His written Word concerning our experience with death. But, in the midst of our particular trials, we fail to realize that He has also removed the “stinger” from these lesser struggles, too.

Reason with me: that the God who has power over death, also has power over all other events in our lives. In response, let us resolve today to face all of life and death by trusting our God to remove the venom from each powerful heartbreak. We must remember that God has removed the sting!

 

 

Accomplished

 

“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

—Isaiah 40:1-2 NKJV

“Hold on,” you say. “That’s a Scripture passage that we heard preached during Advent!” Or even, “Isn’t that passage referring to the exiled Jews in Babylon? Are you saying they could now come home to Israel? And, are you saying this is an Easter passage?”

Think about it. Couldn’t this announcement refer even more to the work Christ accomplished on the cross? And, couldn’t this be the rightful message He could proclaim to His disciples on that Resurrection Sunday? Jesus ended the warfare that has come against us because of our sin. He died in our place and God brought Him back to life.

Jesus’ last words from the cross can be heard in this passage when He spoke, “It is finished.” To respond, we need only to accept that pronouncement over our sins and accept the work that He has already accomplished for us. We can stand in the wonderful position of peace with God through Jesus. Romans 5:1-2 tells us:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

This Easter, may we bask in the glory of the accomplished work of Christ, and sing with thanksgiving this now-accomplished Advent hymn:¹

Comfort, comfort ye my people,
  speak ye peace, thus saith our God.
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
  mourning ’neath their sorrow’s load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
  of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover,
  and her warfare now is over.

Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
  blotting out each dark misdeed.
All that well deserved his anger
  he no more will see or heed.
She hath suffered many a day,
  now her griefs have passed away;
God will change her pining sadness
  into ever-springing gladness.

______________________

1 Olearius, Johannes (1671). Tr. by Winkworth, Catherine. Comfort, Comfort Ye My People. Public Domain.

 

 

The Brook Kidron

 

“The whole countryside wept aloud as all the people passed by. The king [David] also crossed the Kidron Valley.”

—2 Samuel 15:23

“When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley.”

—John 18:1

Even today, as the photo above shows, the Brook Kidron carries the foul waste from the city of Jerusalem. King David—in fleeing from his son, Absalom, who had usurped King David’s power and proclaimed himself king—sorrowfully crossed this brook into the desert in order to mourn. David prayed that God would allow him favor to let him again see his beloved city of Jerusalem and the Tabernacle of Jewish worship.

The King of Kings Himself took the same path on His way to the cross. He left, with Peter, James, and John, to spend the night in prayer on the Mount of Olives. Mark 14:33-34 describes Jesus’ spirit:

He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them.

Jesus gives all of His followers a “Brook Kidron” to cross. Sometimes, He give us many such “Brooks.” Just as our Savior had to suffer, He gives us a path of suffering. Philippians 3:10 offers us this testimony of the Apostle Paul:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing His suffering.

As God did with King David, and also with our Lord Jesus, He uses our “Brook Kidrons” to achieve His good and perfect will in us. I like the way that Charles Hadden Spurgeon describes it: ¹

The King of Kings himself was not favored with a more cheerful or royal road. He passed over the filthy ditch of Kidron, through which the filth of Jerusalem flowed. God had one Son without sin, but not a single child without the rod. It is a great joy to believe that Jesus has been tempted in all points like as we are. What is our Kidron? Is it a faithless friend, a sad bereavement, a slanderous reproach, a dark foreboding? The King has passed over these. Is it bodily pain, poverty persecution, or contempt? Over each of these Kidrons the King has gone before us.

What results did God plan in the face of all these sorrows? David returned in triumph to his city. Christ arose triumphant from the grave. Thus, we have Spurgeon’s encouragement to us: ²

Courage, soldiers of the Cross, the King himself triumphed after going over Kidron, and so shall you.

______________________

1 Spurgeon, Charles Haddon. Morning and Evening. McLean Virginia: MacDonald Publishing Company, Public Domain. p. 304.

2 Ibid.

 

 

With Passion

 

“The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”

—James 5:11

Christ was full of compassion—“com - passion”: with passion. What a wonderful picture of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, as He faced the cross. How many times does Scripture indicate that Jesus had compassion? So often we find the phrase: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion.” ¹ And, of course, compassion motivated Jesus, along with His love, to die in our place in such a horrifying manner.

In the Old Testament, compassion was symbolized by the Mercy Seat within the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle. Once a year, the High Priest entered this sacred place to offer a sacrifice for the sins of God’s people. The Mercy Seat—the “hilasterion”—indicated to the people of God that He fully sympathized with their sin, their pain, and their sorrows. The New Testament Greek text of Romans 3:25 KJV reads: ²

[Jesus Christ] Whom God set forth to be a propitiation [mercy seat] through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

The moment Jesus took His last breath, Scripture records that the veil in the temple was torn in two, so that we all now have access to the mercy and love of Christ.

When we show compassion to others, we reflect Christ to them. When we take on someone else’s suffering, we put ourselves in their place, just as Christ did for us. When we invite others into our lives, we show the hospitality of Christ.

The mercy of God should flow through His people to others, just as it flowed constantly through Jesus’ earthly life. God the Father has compassion, Jesus the Son has compassion, and through the Holy Spirit, we can have compassion for others.

I am reminded of an old hymn that talks about the mercy seat. The mercy seat being a place of prayer, or a place of congregated believers who show forth Christ’s compassion.³

Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish;
Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel;
Here bring your wounded hearts,
Here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that heav’n cannot heal.

Joy of the desolate, light of the straying,
Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure,
Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying,
“Earth has no sorrow that heav’n cannot cure.”

Here see the Bread of Life; see waters flowing,
Forth from the throne of God, pure from above;
Come to the feast of love; come, ever knowing
Earth has no sorrow but heav’n can remove.

______________________

1 To name just a few: Matthew 9:36, 14:14, 15:32, and 20:34

2 Quoted by Beth Moore in Moore, Beth. A Woman’s Heart. Nashville: LifeWay Press, 1995. p. 181.

3 Moore, Thomas and Hastings, Thomas. Come, Ye Disconsolate. Public Domain.

 

 

Dead Flies

 

“Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor.”

—Ecclesiastes 10:1 NKJV

Something ruined! And, it was something with such an intentional, pleasure-causing purpose as an expensive perfume. Now it’s ruined! And, by what? A stray fly coming through the palace window into the boudoir of a wealthy maiden. The perfume—created with such skill by a talented expert artisan, skilled in the art and science of perfumery—totally spoiled by the ugly presence of a filthy, common fly.

When compared to the witness of a fine Christian, we are reminded that even this witness can be spoiled by the entrance of a foul, habitual sin. I appreciate the way that Charles Haddon Spurgeon describes it:

No matter though the vase be alabaster, and the perfume the most delicate, dead flies would destroy the precious nard, and even so minor faults will spoil a fine character. Rudeness, irritability, levity, parsimony [stinginess], egotism, and a thousand other injurious flies have often turned the exquisite perfume of a Christian’s life into a pestilent odor to those who were around him. ¹

In comparison, the Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 2:14-15, expresses God’s intent for us to live in such a way so that those around us effectively “smell” the sweet aroma of Christ. The Apostle offers this declaration:

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are perishing.

God’s intention for us—to live in such a way that we spread His Presence like a fine perfume—can be ruined by the entrance of our sinful sloppiness, as though we left the lid off the bottle of perfume and flies entered, ruining the liquid. We can only remedy our sin by coming to Him with confession and repentance, so that we may receive His forgiveness and His restoration, thus giving us a new start under the power of His Holy Spirit.

During this time of Lent, let us examine our lives for those “dead flies” that mix in the stench of sin with the life-giving perfume of Christ that He created us to exhibit. May He spread abroad His love through the fragrance of our lives, purified by His precious blood.

______________________

1 Spurgeon, Charles Haddon. Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1964. p. 325.