In God’s Care

Psalm 31:15

My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me (NIV).

We are now in the second half of the year 2020. So, here comes a stupid question. Has this year been what you anticipated it would be on New Year’s Day? I don’t think anyone seriously expected a worldwide pandemic and the medical, societal and economic consequences it has spawned. Who ever talked about “social distancing”, “shelter at home”, or the despised phrase “the new normal” prior to 2020? Who ever thought we would be required to wear masks in public places, including banks? I have had to wear a mask into my bank. I would never thought about doing that prior to the pandemic! The bank personnel would have asked me to remove it or to leave. Our times seem to be out of control, and that reality makes us all feel uncomfortable to say the least.

However, my times and your times are not out of control. They are held firmly and directed fully and finally by our Sovereign God. The living God is in absolute control. One of my college history professors used to refer to this verse many times when he prayed to open our classes. That I can recall his prayers nearly fifty years later reveals how much he must have lived by this verse. Reading God’s word and praying it back to him is a commendable practice. My professor modeled that before me in class before I ever heard that concept stated. Our examples ought to influence others (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:4-8).

My times and your times are not out of control. They might look out of control and feel out of control but they are not. We must learn this truth from this verse. My times are in your hands…. Five years ago this month, it was easy for me to feel that my life was out of control. But when I would start to think that way, God showed up through his people to assure my wife and I that our times were in his hands. We received financial help, a cabin to get away to where we could pray and talk, a day trip to the Statue of Liberty with friends, and when my mom died, two friends cut their vacation short to drive with us to go out to be with my dad and to provide other assistance. Others provided words of comfort and assurance that were just as necessary. God was with us, holding everything in his care, to bring us through the crisis that most of 2015 was for us. My times are in your hands….

It is too easy to look at the world during troubled times with eyes of despair, abandonment, and desolation. The psalmist David lived through fear and anguish for years. He had to run for his life as a cruel tyrant (his own father-in-law) pursued him in order to kill him. People he tried to help turned on him. His own men talked of killing him. Enemies killed faithful people because of him. His life was worse than the proverbial train wreck. But he learned through every situation My times are in your hands…. And then he wrote this psalm so that others could sing the same truth.

These words call us to faith and hope in God, and also to love God. Sadly, we can become proficient in talking about trusting God and waiting expectantly for God to work, while we neglect speaking about loving the Sovereign God when everything seems against us. To say, “My times are in your hands,” is an opportunity to express our love to the God who is in charge of our times. Examine your heart. Are you upset, even angry, that God is guiding the troubled world in its current direction? Do you want to tell him… to demand… that he controls all things according to your pleasure. Let us learn to pray again your will be done (Matthew 6:10 NIV, my emphasis).

My times are in your hands….

Grace and peace,
David

A Shelter for God’s Afflicted People (Part Three)

Isaiah 14:32

What answer shall be given to the envoys of that nation? “The Lord has established Zion, and in her his afflicted people will find refuge” (NIV).

What will God’s afflicted people find in Zion? They will find refuge.

Tragically, Israel under the law covenant never found this. After Isaiah’s time, they experienced seventy long years of captivity after Jerusalem fell. Read Jeremiah’s wailings over the fallen city (the book of Lamentations) to sense their anguish. When they began to rebuild the temple, they wept (Ezra 3:12), and the walls of the city were still lying in ruins (Nehemiah 1). Even when Nehemiah led them to rebuild their walls, they were never free. By the time of Jesus, a dark deception clouded the minds of their leaders. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin (John 8:31-34 ESV). They failed to bow before the Lord who offered them the greatest refuge.

Finally, great destruction came to the earthly Jerusalem, as the Lord Jesus prophesied (Matthew 24:1-3; 15-25) when the Romans destroyed their city under the command of General (later Emperor) Titus. The lament of Jesus over Jerusalem was fulfilled: Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matthew 23:38-39 NIV). Weep for all those who try to find safety in an earthly Jerusalem.

Yet the church will surely receive this refuge. We are children of the Jerusalem that is from above (Galatians 4:26). We have come to the real Jerusalem. But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22a NIV).

  • It will be a place of glory and joy. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwellingis with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away (Revelation 21:1-4 CSB)
  • It will be a place of holiness. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Revelation 21:27 ESV).

In this present age, the real church, a gathering of followers of Jesus Christ, imperfect as she still is, functions as this refuge for God’s people. The church is:

  • A place of acceptance. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God (Romans 15:7 NIV)
  • A place of encouragement. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near (Hebrews 10:25 NLT).
  • A place of comfort. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too (2 Corinthians 1:5 ESV).
  • A place of peace. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful (Colossians 3:15 NIV).

The task before us is to show to those not yet believers the glory of our Rock of Refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know Him? It matters not where you are today. We are concerned about you, that you have the hope of glory in Jesus Christ. And we want you to know joy and peace as you trust in him now. We invite you to our Shelter, the confident expectation of sharing eternal life in Christ!

Grace and peace
David

A Shelter for God’s Afflicted People (Part Two)

Isaiah 14:32

What answer shall be given to the envoys of that nation? “The Lord has established Zion, and in her his afflicted people will find refuge” (NIV).

For whom has the Lord established Zion? “His afflicted people”. The Lord Jesus knew well what kind of people he was coming to save, and it is not an attractive group to the proud of the earth. He calls us poor in spirit, mourners, meek, hungry and thirsty, and persecuted (Matthew 5:3-12). Yes, it seems like Jesus is King, but King of the misfits. Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence (1 Corinthians 1:26-29 CSB)!

So then, the Lord reaches out to a needy people. Most people don’t like to think of themselves as needy, but rather as self-sufficient. Look at their needs. They were persecuted by God’s enemies. Israel’s great enemy at the time was Assyria, which was perhaps one of the original terrorist states. The church’s enemies now are the many antichrists and other deceivers that have arisen in “the last days”. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour (1 John 2:18 ESV). Some are bent on physical destruction (2 Corinthians 11:23-25). Some are masters of deception (2 Corinthians 11:4). We also must realize that many people would like to see Christians and churches destroyed.

We must do all that we can to help those oppressed. Surely we should pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering. And we must stand for the truth when so many in the professing church put little value on the truth. Most so-called “churches” are more interested in drawing a crowd than in saying, “This is what the Lord says….”

They were harassed by sin. Israel’s tragic problem was that they could not keep the law or old covenant. It was a yoke that they could never bear (Acts 15:10). The Church’s ongoing struggle is that we rejoice in the one who has fulfilled the law and has himself become a new covenant for us—our Lord Jesus Christ! Yet we still struggle against remaining sin. The traitor within mars our sweetest moments.

We want to reaffirm that we followers of Jesus are all strugglers. You will not find any perfect people in any local church. While believers strive to follow our risen Lord, we often fail. Yet we know there is power in the blood of the Lamb, and we accept one another as Christ has accepted us (Romans 15:7) to bring glory to God.

They suffered the weaknesses of the flesh. Israel’s constant problem was a wrong way of thinking. They supposed that they could become righteous through the law (Romans 10:2-3). The Church also has a problem. We wrongly imagine that we can make progress by human effort: living by sight instead of faith, or by doing good works, or keeping laws, standards, rituals, programs, or getting involved in power politics, and even turning ministers into heroes or superstars (1 Corinthians 3). To rely on any of these reveals a reliance on the weakness of the flesh (Galatians 3:1-3).

The true Christian way of life is by faith in Christ through the power of the Spirit and according to the Scriptures. The product in the lifestyle is love for God and people. It is our privilege and duty as the people of God to reach out to all people regardless of skin tone, ethnicity, social status, educational level, economic wealth or poverty, political preferences, or religious background. We must do this now, and we begin with our closest neighbors. Start with a friendly greeting. Look for other ways to show personal concern and kindness. Please, for Christ’s sake, show others that you genuinely care.

Grace and peace,
David

A Shelter for God’s Afflicted People (Part One)

Isaiah 14:32

What answer shall be given to the envoys of that nation? “The Lord has established Zion, and in her his afflicted people will find refuge” (NIV).

The last three months have been unsettling, to say the least that could be said. We live in desperate times, and not only because of Covid-19 and the many lives that have been lost to it. Most people are rightly cautious about getting too close physically to others that they do not know, or even those they do know. The economy is shaking, and now our nation is correctly reeling over the protests against oppression that has been too long ignored. Who knows where this will end? I make no pretensions to being a prophet and I shrink from making predictions.

This could unsettle us, if we should fail to think and to act Biblically. However, the Christian knows that mankind has been part of a war between God and the forces of evil since the day when Adam rebelled against the Lord God. Since that time malevolent beings (Satan and the other evil spirits, and people who gladly walk in their ways) have been seeking human destruction. In the immediate context of our text, we can see two peoples that actively sought the destruction of God’s people in Old Testament times: Assyria and the Philistines. Yet God brought both down, as he will bring down all the enemies of his people whom he loves.

The living God wants us to know is that he has established a place of shelter for his afflicted people. There is a safe haven, a place of refuge, and all those who are in saving union with the risen Christ are part of that shelter. Let us think about this together.

In our text, Zion is called the place where God’s people will find refuge. What is Zion? At the time this text was written, the days of the old covenant shadows, it was the earthly Jerusalem.

  • In one sense, Jerusalem was the joy of the whole earth. It was the place where God revealed his glory, met with his people, and protected them (Psalms 48:1-14; 87:1-3).
  • In another sense, it was a place of bondage, since Jerusalem was under the law covenant (Galatians 4:24-25). Now the law was holy, righteous and good (Romans 7:12). But since the law and its sacrifices could never cleanse the conscience (Hebrews 9:9-10), the people could not freely approach God. The laws with its rules and rituals allowed them to have come in their midst, but the people could not come near. The law demanded holiness, separateness. Exodus 19 provides good teaching on this point.

In the days of the new covenant reality, the time in which we live, Zion is the heavenly Jerusalem (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:18-24).

In the fullest sense, we still look for this city (Revelation 21:1-22:6). We are “scattered exiles” (1 Peter 1:1; 2:11) on a journey through this world to the heavenly city. Here we have no city with foundations (Hebrews 11:10). We wish that there were such a city now! But that city is impossible in a world of frustration and bondage to decay (Romans 8:20-21). Hopefully, now that we live in desperate times, we will realize that our hope is not in this world.

Yet in another sense, we are part of this city that is from above, and we are starting to enjoy its benefits now (Ephesians 2:19-22; Philippians 3:20; 1 Peter 2:4-10). And so we are caught in this tension between the “now” and the “not yet”.

Christians tend to polarize in regard to this tension. Some want to act as if the “not yet” had already occurred. The Corinthians were an example of this (1 Corinthians 4:8). Others act as if nearly all of the blessings of the new covenant are “not yet”, and so fail to experience joy and peace in believing.

Every follower of Jesus Christ and every local church should strive to reflect as much of God’s glory in the blessings that we now can experience and of the hope that is set before us. People should be able to say, “These Christians know what true joy is. They are filled with joy!” And people should also say, “And what a confident expectation flows out of these Christians. They are people who clearly have a living hope (1 Peter 1:3-9)!”

Grace and peace,
David

Mending Christians (Part Two)

Galatians 6:1-2

Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted. Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ (CSB).

In our last post we saw that we need to be gentle restorers of believers that have been overtaken in any wrongdoing. Second, we need to be cautious restorers (6:1b)

The cautious restorer realizes that vigilance over one’s own soul is a crucial part of helping someone else. This is important for at least two reasons. First in seeking to help someone up, we watch out that we do not fall. When we seek to restore someone, we will come into contact with their sin to some extent. Sin spreads. Evil seeks ways to corrupt others, perhaps by taking advantage of a casual or overconfident attitude. We all should learn from the lifeguard’s method of rescuing a drowning swimmer. Keep your heart a safe distance from exposure. In this Covid-19 era, we can illustrate by saying, “Use the mask of the shield of faith.” Keep your spiritual armor on. Second in seeking to help someone, be careful that you do not complicate their problem. Physicians of old time who did not know about bacteria would treat wounds with unclean hands. If you try to treat someone else’s heart with spiritually unclean hands, you could introduce another serious infection into the person you’re attempting to help. For example, if you lack joy in the Lord, you might inject a gloomy outlook or cold discipline into them as a supposed new normal.

The cautious restorer considers the danger of temptation. Immature believers have poor spiritual vision. They see the evil of sin but fail to perceive the dangers of events that lead to sin. They suppose restoration is an easy matter, grow careless in spiritual duties like private prayer and self-examination, and are suddenly entangled in the sin themselves. The mature believer clearly sees where temptation can lead, and so they strive to avoid it (Matthew 26:41). As medical people in our day face great danger from disease in helping the sick, so spiritual restorers face all the evils of contamination from the new paganism of our day.

Third, we need to be burdened restorers. (6:2) Restoration is a difficult work. It is not a job for those who confuse Christianity with a life of ease and pleasure, which is free from pain and suffering. Satan’s great lie to the church has been that salvation is a vacation from service to God and others.

The burdened restorer accepts the burdens that must come on them when they help someone. Frankly, the task can be wearisome, because you find that when you lift the load off your brother or sister’s back, you must carry it on your own. It will cost you time and pain. Some of these burdens, besides being heavy, are also distasteful. Think of a nurse who must change dressings on wounds. It is ugly when you discover that the person whom you have been serving in love has fallen into the sin again and their situation has moved from being complicated to complex. Note very well: We do not overlook the burdens of the fallen, but we try to unburden them, so that they can stand again.

The burdened restorer finds that in doing this, he or she fulfills the law or instruction of Christ. They imitate Christ and discover that Christ’s ideas, attitudes, words, and actions have been learned by them in a new way. They make progress and learn more of the Lord’s joy in serving others. They see his peace “flowing through their fingertips” as their burden lifting touch brings restoration. Through faith they learn obedience to the Lord.

Christ’s law or “binding instruction” emphasizes love for one another. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (John 13:34 NIV). My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you (John 15:12 NIV). This verse “shows that to love one another as Christ loved us may lead us not to some heroic, spectacular deed of self-sacrifice, but to the much more mundane and unspectacular ministry of burden-bearing” (Stott).

It is time for the church to stop wishing things were better and to begin to follow God’s plan for change. This means we must be gentle, cautious, burdened restorers of our fallen brothers and sisters. We must help them recover the strength to stand by faith in Christ, to walk again, and then to become those who can help others.

Grace and peace,
David

Mending Christians (Part One)

Galatians 6:1-2

Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted. Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ (CSB).

This world is a place of where everything continually needs repair. Oh, that everything would stay in a “brand new” condition! But cars, clothes, furniture and homes all require repair work.

People, yes, Christian people, need restoration, too. And as a faithful servant of God, the apostle Paul sought to mend the broken churches of Galatia. John Flavel said the following well. “And indeed it is not so much the expense of our labors, as the loss of them, that kills us. It is not with us, as with other laborers: they find their work as they leave it, so do not we. Sin and Satan unravel almost all we do, the impressions we make on our people’s souls in one sermon, vanish before the next. How many truths have we to study! How many wiles of Satan, and mysteries of corruption, to detect! How many cases of conscience to resolve! Yea, we must fight in defense of the truths we preach, as well as study them to paleness, and preach them unto faintness: but welcome all, if we can but approve ourselves Christ’s faithful servants.”

In pursuit of this goal, Paul gives some positive, practical steps the church, meaning the people of God and not an institution, must take, as it seeks to keep in step with the Spirit.

In this post we will consider the first of three qualities of a Christian who mends other Christians.

We need to be gentle restorers (6:1a). The atmosphere in the Galatian church had been that of “law keeping for acceptance”. This produces a harsh and judgmental attitude among people. “It is easy for certain types of religious people to sit in judgment on one who has suddenly yielded to some moral temptation, to make their disapproval manifest, but this is not the way of Christ” (Bruce). Let me be so bold as to put it this way. I wonder if some pastors and teachers have real difficulty understanding why the Holy Spirit directed the apostle to write the last two chapters of Galatians. Patience requires much more than talking to a person once about their “sin problem” and then demanding immediate change. If you truly want to help restore others, you must learn a few “four letter words”, like love, time, hear, care, wait, feel, and pain. This is not a task for someone who wants to resolve everything in thirty minutes like TV sitcoms.

How can people be helped properly (and therefore best) in such a situation?

The gentle restorer recognizes that other believers struggle with sin. His own sins and failures remind him that other saints stumble also (cf. Matthew 7:2-5). “Sin” is a trespass, a stepping aside out of the way, rather than keeping in step with the Spirit (cf. Galatians 5). Shocking as it might sound to the self-righteous and those pleased with themselves, the Lord’s followers can find themselves “caught” in a trespass. It is easy to wander off the right way.

The gentle restorer knows who can help and how they can help. Let’s think of both aspects.

All Christians (“you who are spiritual”) can help (Romans 15:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:14). Certainly, those who are most skilled can help the best. I would not disagree with the concept of training Christians to help others. I have been trained and constantly help train others in my teaching ministry. The idea is not to do an end run around the pastors and teachers that Christ has placed in his church. And we have different spiritual gifts that enable some to do what others can’t do. But too often in a professional therapeutic culture we can miss the big idea that restoration is much more than giving “expert” advice or counsel. It is not a simple matter of the pastor and elders meeting with the one in need of restoration. (By the way, in our time, pastors and elders have more training and interest in leading a “church” in numerical and financial progress than in the wise restoration of believers.) Full restoration of those overtaken by wrong doing requires the input of the whole body of believers. Kind words and actions from new or unskilled believers can be used by the Spirit of God to bring healing to the heart of the one in need of restoration.

Mending is a work for gentle hands. “To gain this object he explains the purpose of godly reproofs, which is, to restore the fallen and make him sound again. This will never be accomplished by violence or a spirit of accusation, or by fierceness of countenance and words. It remains that we must show a calm and kind spirit if we want to heal our brother” (Calvin). In my years of ministry I have encountered many who were grievously injured by harshness when gentleness could have brought about restoration.

It has been said that the church is the only army that shoots its own wounded. Needless to say, this ought not to be. Our model is the Lord himself, not self-righteous leaders who suppose they have some cause or movement or their own reputations to protect. We need to follow the Lord very closely in this matter. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young (Isaiah 40:11 NIV). A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out (Isaiah 42:3a NIV).

Grace and peace,
David

After the World Changed (Part Three)

John 21:1-14

The disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him (for he had taken it off) and plunged into the sea. Since they were not far from land (about a hundred yards away), the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus told them. So Simon Peter climbed up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish—153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. “Come and have breakfast,” Jesus told them. None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead (21:7-14 CSB).

After God changed the whole world at Christ’s resurrection from the dead, his disciples had to adjust to living in this new reality. They had already seen Jesus a couple times, and Peter himself had seen Jesus already at least three times (on Resurrection Sunday morning or early afternoon after Mary had met the risen Lord, on that Sunday night, and one week later.) When Peter dived into the water, he was very excited to see the Lord Jesus for the fourth time! Think how you would be in his situation. He had failed the Lord, because of his pride and prayerlessness. But Jesus had been ready to receive him back along with the others and had already recommissioned them (20:19-23). That included Peter. Whatever sorrow Peter still had, and a tragic failure like his would take time to recover from, he still had a great desire to be with his Lord. We should learn from his example. Do not allow your sins to hinder you from returning to the Lord Jesus for forgiveness. He died that we might be forgiven. It is one of the great blessings of the new covenant sealed with his shed blood. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more (Hebrews 8:12 NIV).

As Peter swam quickly to the shore, his friends followed in the boat, bringing the net full of fish. The Spirit has not recorded what quick conversation happened between Jesus and his learner (disciple), but can you picture the scene. Peter comes up out of the water dripping wet to appear before the Risen Lord of Glory! It has to make you smile. We can come as we are to Him who sits at the right hand of the Father. We ought to have a bold faith.

When the disciples were on the shore together, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. The Lord Jesus had already started breakfast for his hungry followers. Jesus told them to bring other fish that they had caught that he had provided (both sides were true). Their meal was to be a joint endeavor. This is what the Christian life is like: the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake (Romans 1:5 NIV). We trust the Lord to provide, as we do what his word directs us to do.

After the fish were cleaned and cooked, Jesus invited them to the meal. “Come and have breakfast.” Fellowship with the Lord and one another is a great blessing. Like any other men at such a time, they would have enjoyed the food, talked and joked and laughed, as they shared life with each other. Christ wants us to share and enjoy our lives with him. There are times to celebrate in the life of faith, and we ought to join in the celebration! Having dinners with your whole church or with your small group is not a gimmick to enlarge your group. It is sharing our common humanity to the glory of God.

Notice also that Jesus gave them bread. This would have sent off echoes in their hearts about how he had done this on other occasions (cf. Luke 9:16-17; 24:30-32). This whole incident proclaims that the Risen Jesus they ate breakfast with that morning was the same Jesus they had always known. Christ is risen indeed! Life after the world changed ought to be sharing our lives with our Risen Lord!

Grace and peace
David

After the World Changed (Part Two)

John 21:1-14

After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (called “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples were together. “I’m going fishing,” Simon Peter said to them. “We’re coming with you,” they told him. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus. “Friends,” Jesus called to them, “you don’t have any fish, do you?” “No,” they answered. “Cast the net on the right side of the boat,” he told them, “and you’ll find some.” So they did, and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish. The disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” (21:1-7a CSB)

Sometime after Thomas’ confession of faith, we have this post-resurrection appearance that is recorded only by the apostle John. Because they had experienced that Jesus their Lord and Teacher was risen from the dead, they now had two major items on their immediate agenda: to meet Jesus in Galilee and then to return to Jerusalem, where the Holy Spirit would be poured out on them. However, they did not know the details of either meeting. They had to wait in obedient faith for both. Waiting in faith is always difficult, even to people who have demonstrated great faith in the Lord. Plenty of examples are available from the lives of people like George Mueller and Hudson Taylor, both of whom daily depended on the Lord to meet their needs. We live in tension between confidence in the living God to supply our needs and anxiety about when or how or even if God will act for our good this time. If you are finding it difficult to wait for God’s answer to your prayers, know that you have many brothers and sisters in Christ that are in the same situation. I hope that does not sound like “misery loves company”; instead, I hope it sounds like this is a normal experience of the life of faith.

While they were in Galilee, apparently waiting to meet the Risen Messiah, Peter and some of his friends decided to go fishing. We are not told why he wanted to go fishing. Nor are we told the reason the others agreed to go with him. They are not blamed for this action. Men have things they like to do, just as women do. It is really okay to the Lord that we act like humans because he made us to be humans. There might have been any number of reasons for their choice, from the simple “they needed food to eat” to “they wanted to lend a hand to the family fishing business” (this is often overlooked by the critical) to “they wanted to relax out on the lake.” This is only to suggest three possibilities. The last is quite human, considering all the turmoil they had been through. If God gives me grace to get through this pandemic safely, I might either want to go for a hike in the nearby mountains (Mt. Joy and Mt. Misery) or go fishing myself. After a time of instability and upheaval, people need time to recover, to return to a normal routine of life, to rekindle relationships. Let us not give those early disciples a hard time, when the Holy Spirit does not in the written word.

When Peter and the others went fishing, I am sure they expected a successful night catching fish. But even the best fisherman does not always catch fish. I have never been a skilled fisherman, although my dad’s nickname was “Fishhook”. How he loved to fresh water fish! Anytime anyone would go with him, he was ready! (Ah, the memories! Excuse me while my eyes tear up for a moment.) He usually caught some fish, even if they were not keepers. My brother and I went fishing one day up in New York. We rented a boat for sixty dollars. We caught one fish. I assure you we had that fish for supper that evening. It was the most expensive fish dinner I have ever had. Anyway, the disciples, some of whom were professional fisherman, caught nothing that night.

But a man stood on the shore of the lake. He had been a carpenter by trade. From the shore he called out to the unsuccessful fisherman. Most English translations are rather formal and say something like “Friends”, as the way the man addressed them. To be more colloquial, we could translate, “Hey guys, you haven’t caught any fish, have you?” A line like this never makes any fisherman happy, but they politely answered, “No.”

The man then gave them some advice that was about to resonate in their hearts. For the same man had said similar words to them a couple years previously (cf. Luke 5:4-7). They did what he said, and immediately their nets were full of fish! Immediately, the disciple that Jesus loved (John) knew it was the Lord. What exciting news! The Lord over all creation had come to be with “his guys”!

After the world changed, Jesus kept his word. The same Lord Jesus they had known and loved for years had come to meet them in Galilee. And he meet them where they were, doing something that they loved to do, and providing for their needs and wants. Hey guys, Jesus loves his people, even after the world changed. He still loves us today.

Grace and peace,
David

After the World Changed (Part One)

John 20:24-29

A week later his disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be faithless, but believe.” Thomas responded to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (20:26-29 CSB).

After the world changed? No, I’m am not referring to Covid-19 or predicting how the world will be different following it. This is a blog about the Scriptures, and our focus is on what is far more important: the story of God’s glory in Jesus Christ by salvation through judgment. I leave speculation to those self-assured of their own insights. Yesterday, we remembered Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead. Now we want to think about how the world changed for his followers in the days and weeks following that great redemptive event. It marked the end of the old or law covenant and the old age. It brought about a new age with Christ’s new and better covenant. Now we live in a time of better promises and brighter hopes. However, it took a while for his followers to sort things out.

In today’s text, we read of the doubts of one of the struggling apostles, Thomas. His former hopes had been smashed by the cruel crucifixion of Jesus, because he did not listen to all the words of Jesus and the Scriptures that Christ would rise again the third day. After the resurrection, Thomas heard the testimony of the other apostles but he wouldn’t accept their words. He wanted to experience the resurrected Lord Jesus himself. It was good that he wanted proof, because the Lord does not call us to trust him apart from evidence. Thomas’ problem was setting the terms for what evidence he would accept. This is a continuing problem among unbelievers. They set themselves up as judges over what they want to accept about the world. They fail to realize that they are too small to take in all reality and that they at best can only achieve very limited experience and knowledge. Nor do they wish to accept the dreadful effects of sin on human ability to reason. Pride runs large in human hearts. We all encounter prejudice and anti-God anger, but fail to consider that we have been infected with the spiritually deadly virus.

Thomas suffered from this spiritual malady, and he was unaware of his condition. But suddenly Jesus appeared and transformed his world and life view. He entered the room where the apostles had sequestered themselves, even though the doors were locked to keep out unwelcome visitors. What were the apostles doing after the world changed? They hid. They had a message to proclaim (Luke 24:45-49), starting in Jerusalem. But they hid. They lacked something to be able to witness: the power of the Holy Spirit!

Please do not imagine that we would have acted differently. None of them did, and they were people that would one day, excepting John, who would die for Christ. They were new people in a new world, but they lacked the outpoured Spirit of God to help them in their witness.

Jesus had already told them that they needed the Spirit, but the Lord did not let this teaching opportunity pass. First, he corrected Thomas. This apostle had been faithless when they others testified to him. So Christ himself provided clear evidence to lead Thomas to a new vibrant faith in his Lord. Thomas joyfully responded to it and proclaimed his belief in Jesus as his Lord and God. Second, the Lord Jesus provided encouragement for those who would later believe that Jesus had risen from the dead, apart from actually seeing and/or touching him. He gave all us a special blessing! So then, what we lack in experience is more than made up by what we receive through faith. And like the early apostles, all believers in the Lord Jesus receive the promise of the now poured out Holy Spirit. He is a great blessing indeed!

Grace and peace
David

A Verse for Our Times

Psalm 56:3

When I am afraid, I will trust in you (CSB).

People can have many fears at all times. At times, a relatively few people share the same fears. Those who share the same fears probably don’t have the same degree of fear. For example, some people have a tiny fear of heights; in fact, they’re simply cautious as all sane people are. Others are terrorized by heights, almost sure they are going to fall and die. Others might get paralyzed by their fears. Once in my construction days, I had to help a carpenter with forty years’ experience down off a roof, because he became paralyzed with fear. Yes, I, who have a rather healthy respect for heights, had to do this. (My wife and children are no doubt laughing as they read this!) Yet, I had to help him, and after about fifteen minutes, he was able to inch himself over to the ladder, and I held it securely for him, as he came down under his own power. Needless to say, it was the last time we allowed him to go up on a roof.

I don’t know where you are on “the fear spectrum” concerning Covid-19, the latest corona virus. Some people need to gain a healthy respect for it and act circumspectly. Others might be terrorized or paralyzed by fear. Many are in the middle or at some other point on the spectrum. No one can simply tell another person not to fear. We need to confront our fears with truth, and then replace them with faith in God.

David wrote this psalm. He had experienced strong, serious fears nearly his whole life. Many enemies tried to kill him. Yet escapes from possibly fatal encounters did not make him arrogant. Some people have that reaction after a brush with certain death. Arrogance is never wise.

The condition of his heart was complex. He was afraid, yet he trusted at the same time. He did not allow his fear to immobilize his soul. “It is possible, then, for fear and faith to occupy the mind at the same moment. We are strange beings, and our experience in the divine life is stranger still. We are often in a twilight, where darkness and light are both present, and it is hard to tell which predominates. It is a blessed fear that drives us to trust” (Spurgeon, Treasury of David, on this verse).

If you are afraid of what consequences Covid-19 might wreak in our nation and world, you are thinking. But don’t let your fears stop you from an active, growing, vibrant trust in the Lord. At the very moment you feel overwhelmed with fear, remember that God is in our situation. He is not far away and unconcerned. He is sovereign and ruling for the good of all believers in one way or another.

What David does is to encourage himself in the true and living God. If he had put his trust in idols and false gods, his faith would have been futile. But it was not. His faith was in the Lord of the covenant, in Yahweh (56:10-11), in the Great I Am Who I Am. His name, the Lord, is the hope of his people, the brightest star during the darkest night, the refreshing breeze on the hottest day, the one who is able to supply all our needs in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). Let us not be like the unbelievers in the wilderness. They demanded food from God, but immediately questioned if he could provide (Psalm 78:17-22).

To trust God, you need correct ideas about him. The right beliefs come from his word. Read Isaiah 42-55, Mark 1-8, and the Gospel of John to fill your soul with the truth about our God. Then you must replace your fears with faith in the true and living God, the Almighty, the Ruler, the Sovereign God over all. Where is your heart today? Are you filled with fears? Or are you filled with the Holy Spirit, who makes Christ present in your heart, the same Christ who healed the sick and calmed the troubled seas. If the Lord can do that, he can be with all of us through this pandemic.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV).

Grace and peace,
David