by David Scott Robertson
1. YOUR COURAGE - Boldly accept new challenges and job assignments with zeal and without complaining.
2. YOUR MATURITY - Resist getting caught up in office gossip and limit your speech to encouragement and affirmation of your superiors and co-workers.
3. YOUR HUMILITY - Serve your boss and co-workers whenever possible. The pathway to greatness is paved with humility.
4. YOUR WINNING ATTITUDE - Be a "can do" person. If you are a Christian, God says you "can do all things through Christ who strengthens you" (Philippians 4:13).
5. YOUR PROGRESS - Learn your job well and become good at what you do. If your name is on the project, let it be done right and to the best of your ability. Take a few moments each day (even on your lunch break) for professional development. Read the manual - take the tutorial - enroll in the class.
6. YOUR TENACITY - Never give up. Never let the title "quitter" apply to you. Most difficult tasks get done only through dogged determination and perseverance. Do this consistently, and guess who will earn the reputation of being a valued employee?
7. YOUR COMMITMENT- Avoid job-hopping. Stay loyal to your company, employer, or department head. Let your boss have confidence in you that when you commit to doing something it's as good as done.
8. YOUR ABILITIES - What are you especially good at or enjoy doing while away from the job? Baking? Writing? Music? Share some of who you are with those you work with.
9. YOUR TEAM SPIRIT - Those who add value to their employers are those who accept that the sum is greater than its parts. Necessary sacrifices are not deemed as unacceptable to the team player. Team players link their success with the fruitfulness of their work group.
10. YOUR FAITH LIVED OUT - This one is for Jesus. You take care of God's business and He will take care of your business. There are many, many ways to share your faith on the job in an appropriate and respectful way that is non-offensive and very effective.
DSR
6/20/04
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Monday, June 14, 2004
Prove That God Loves Me
by David Scott Robertson
I once was asked to prove the fact
That indeed my God was real;
To analytically explain
Exactly how I feel.
I responded, "Alright then,
I'll prove that God loves me;
That His love in fact is true
Though not His face I see."
So I began with a statement
To challenge this dear soul:
"Prove to me your mother's love
That it indeed was so."
"Why naturally," he said back
"My mother's love was true.
She showed me well in many ways,
But what has that to do…?"
"But still," I said, "what does that prove,
To confirm the love of Mother?
She may have said and done nice things,
But for proof I'll need another."
"Why that's an odd request," he said,
"For she told me many times:
'Son, I love you very much,
You're a precious love of mine.'"
I said, 'the words are beautiful,
But I can't help but see a flaw.
You don't present much evidence
That would hold up in court of law."
"That's okay," he said to me,
I still believe it in my soul.
My mother's love for me was real,
I know that I know that I know."
"Now that's the way that I see God,"
I said to the frustrated man.
"On the cross Christ died for me,
And on His Word I'll stand."
"Now," he said, "at last I see,
That love you cannot prove.
It is the act of believing by faith
That we receive God's love."
(Rom 5:8 NIV) But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
DSR
6/14/04
I once was asked to prove the fact
That indeed my God was real;
To analytically explain
Exactly how I feel.
I responded, "Alright then,
I'll prove that God loves me;
That His love in fact is true
Though not His face I see."
So I began with a statement
To challenge this dear soul:
"Prove to me your mother's love
That it indeed was so."
"Why naturally," he said back
"My mother's love was true.
She showed me well in many ways,
But what has that to do…?"
"But still," I said, "what does that prove,
To confirm the love of Mother?
She may have said and done nice things,
But for proof I'll need another."
"Why that's an odd request," he said,
"For she told me many times:
'Son, I love you very much,
You're a precious love of mine.'"
I said, 'the words are beautiful,
But I can't help but see a flaw.
You don't present much evidence
That would hold up in court of law."
"That's okay," he said to me,
I still believe it in my soul.
My mother's love for me was real,
I know that I know that I know."
"Now that's the way that I see God,"
I said to the frustrated man.
"On the cross Christ died for me,
And on His Word I'll stand."
"Now," he said, "at last I see,
That love you cannot prove.
It is the act of believing by faith
That we receive God's love."
(Rom 5:8 NIV) But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
DSR
6/14/04
Sunday, June 13, 2004
Character: The Fruit of Troubled Times
by David Scott Robertson
Psalm 105:17-22 (NLT)
Then he sent someone to Egypt ahead of them-Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
[18] There in prison, they bruised his feet with fetters and placed his neck in an iron collar. [19] Until the time came to fulfill his word, THE LORD TESTED JOSEPH'S CHARACTER. [20] Then Pharaoh sent for him and set him free; the ruler of the nation opened his prison door. [21] Joseph was put in charge of all the king's household;
he became ruler over all the king's possessions. [22] He could instruct the king's aides as he pleased and teach the king's advisers. (emphasis mine)
* * *
Joseph was a great man of God who did great things for God by the great power of God. But Joseph didn't achieve greatness overnight. It took troubles, turmoil, tears, and worst of all - time - to work this greatness into this eleventh son of Jacob.
The Bible describes this process simply by saying: "the Lord tested Joseph's character" (Psalm 105:19).
We can read over those five words in scripture in less than five seconds, but that does not diminish the years of grueling trials that Joseph had to endure to "pass the test" of character development that God had in mind for him.
Before Joseph could enjoy the pleasures of the palace, he had to first endure the pain of the pit, Potiphar, and prison, in that exact order (see Genesis 37). Why did the sequence of events have to play out that way? Answer: Because God was testing Joseph's character. Nothing builds character like adversity. It separates men from boys and the mature from the immature.
There is a universal fact that God knows about the man that He made. That fact is that a man's gifts, talents, and abilities are never, ever enough to fulfill God's destiny for his life. Until an individual's character catches up with his or her special God-given abilities, they will be in real danger of embarrassing themselves, adversely affecting those they influence, and in general thwarting God's plan for their lives. Sometimes God places a large call a person's life that will require a large amount of character to pull it off. (Consider that the next time you are facing tribulation.)
The solution? And God tested [____enter your name in this blank___]'s character.
How does He test your character? Whether we realize it not, we are already very familiar with the answer to that question! God uses your kids, your spouse, your boss, the police officer, the school crossing guard or the checkout clerk to test you - anyone or anything at all will do!
Whatever causes you aggravation, frustration, stress, or that pesky thing that gives you a tension headache, well that's just the ticket for God to use to test and build your character! How long you or I stay in the pit, in slavery at Potiphar's house, or in prison, I suppose depends on how fast we learn the lesson and pass the test!
Jesus knew and experienced this truth in that He realized there would be no crown without a cross. We are no different. God will stop at nothing to test your character because He knows this quality is essential to your handling success without it going to your head. If that happens (which can be summarized in the word "pride") you are headed for destruction and a downfall. God doesn't want that and neither do you.
So what do we do when God is testing our character? Learn! Obey! Submit! Repent! Be silent! Speak up! Generally whatever it is your flesh wants you to do in that ridiculously frustrating circumstance, do the opposite! Do the right thing! Do the godly thing! Do what Jesus would do!
The sooner you and I become excellent students in passing the character tests that crop up as "pop quizzes" several times each week (or each day) the sooner, I believe, God will move us along the pathway that leads to "the palace"!
DSR
6/13/04
Psalm 105:17-22 (NLT)
Then he sent someone to Egypt ahead of them-Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
[18] There in prison, they bruised his feet with fetters and placed his neck in an iron collar. [19] Until the time came to fulfill his word, THE LORD TESTED JOSEPH'S CHARACTER. [20] Then Pharaoh sent for him and set him free; the ruler of the nation opened his prison door. [21] Joseph was put in charge of all the king's household;
he became ruler over all the king's possessions. [22] He could instruct the king's aides as he pleased and teach the king's advisers. (emphasis mine)
* * *
Joseph was a great man of God who did great things for God by the great power of God. But Joseph didn't achieve greatness overnight. It took troubles, turmoil, tears, and worst of all - time - to work this greatness into this eleventh son of Jacob.
The Bible describes this process simply by saying: "the Lord tested Joseph's character" (Psalm 105:19).
We can read over those five words in scripture in less than five seconds, but that does not diminish the years of grueling trials that Joseph had to endure to "pass the test" of character development that God had in mind for him.
Before Joseph could enjoy the pleasures of the palace, he had to first endure the pain of the pit, Potiphar, and prison, in that exact order (see Genesis 37). Why did the sequence of events have to play out that way? Answer: Because God was testing Joseph's character. Nothing builds character like adversity. It separates men from boys and the mature from the immature.
There is a universal fact that God knows about the man that He made. That fact is that a man's gifts, talents, and abilities are never, ever enough to fulfill God's destiny for his life. Until an individual's character catches up with his or her special God-given abilities, they will be in real danger of embarrassing themselves, adversely affecting those they influence, and in general thwarting God's plan for their lives. Sometimes God places a large call a person's life that will require a large amount of character to pull it off. (Consider that the next time you are facing tribulation.)
The solution? And God tested [____enter your name in this blank___]'s character.
How does He test your character? Whether we realize it not, we are already very familiar with the answer to that question! God uses your kids, your spouse, your boss, the police officer, the school crossing guard or the checkout clerk to test you - anyone or anything at all will do!
Whatever causes you aggravation, frustration, stress, or that pesky thing that gives you a tension headache, well that's just the ticket for God to use to test and build your character! How long you or I stay in the pit, in slavery at Potiphar's house, or in prison, I suppose depends on how fast we learn the lesson and pass the test!
Jesus knew and experienced this truth in that He realized there would be no crown without a cross. We are no different. God will stop at nothing to test your character because He knows this quality is essential to your handling success without it going to your head. If that happens (which can be summarized in the word "pride") you are headed for destruction and a downfall. God doesn't want that and neither do you.
So what do we do when God is testing our character? Learn! Obey! Submit! Repent! Be silent! Speak up! Generally whatever it is your flesh wants you to do in that ridiculously frustrating circumstance, do the opposite! Do the right thing! Do the godly thing! Do what Jesus would do!
The sooner you and I become excellent students in passing the character tests that crop up as "pop quizzes" several times each week (or each day) the sooner, I believe, God will move us along the pathway that leads to "the palace"!
DSR
6/13/04
Monday, June 7, 2004
The Telemarketer
by David Scott Robertson
I got the call at an inconvenient time. I checked the caller I.D., didn't recognize the number, but decided to pick up anyway just before the call went to the recorder. Within two seconds I winced, realizing that I had been caught in the crosshairs of a telemarketer.
Now, I'm not one of those "just hang up on the telemarketer" kind of guys. I mean, there's a human being on the other end of the line. And please understand, I don't want to unfairly lump all telemarketers into one negative, stereotypic category. Some are excellent communicators offering a valuable product or service, and they do so in a respectful and conscientious way. Others are, well, like the call I got last night. Maybe he's called your house too.
This poor guy was peddling long distance phone service. He probably had a long shift to work, a car payment due, rent to pay, a cable bill looming, a script to read, and he had me on the line.
This man was bound and determined to get through his script. Each polite refusal only took him to another section of his script. Each objection I raised only seemed to add fuel to his fire to make a sale. Each additional minute I stayed on the phone was an enticement to him to go for it. This guy just wouldn't take "no" for an answer.
Finally, mercifully, when it became obvious that we were entangled in an epic battle of right and wrong (he was right and I was wrong), of good versus evil (he was good and I was evil), and he dejectedly began to realize that the thrill of victory was not going to be experienced in this call, then and only then did he begin to wind down the sales pitch. In discernable disgust, he at (long) last ended the conversation and released me from the surly bonds that had tethered me to my phone. Surely, given the sound of his sad voice, after ending the call he would excuse himself from his workstation and hands-free phone set and retreat to the restroom for a good cry. Yeah, right.
Now I understand the man had a job to do and he was only trying to make a buck. He was just what his employer was looking for when he posted the ad in the classifieds:
"Wanted: Growing Fortune 1000 company seeks energetic, aggressive person with excellent communication skills for telemarketing position. Must be able to handle rejection well. Work part-time from your home. Day and evening shifts available, excellent benefits, pay commensurate with experience. Call…"
The boss found a guy that could handle a conversation like this:
TELEMARKETER: "Good evening sir, are you busy?"
AVERAGE JOE: "Why yes, I'm giving CPR to a man right now."
TELEMARKETER: "I understand sir, but this will only take a few minutes. May I interest you…?"
The kid got the job and now he was calling me. His trainer more than likely had told him the longer you keep them on the phone the higher percentage of your closing the deal.
All this to say that this young man, all humor aside, reminded me of me. He reminded me of me in my early days of witnessing to sinners about Jesus.
A pagan could have very well written a similar article about me back in my early days of "evangelizing" substituting "the gospel" for the product or service and me in the place of the telemarketer. He could have entitled the article "The Evangelist."
For if the truth were known, I have been rude, crude, and socially unacceptable in "sharing my faith"--all in the name of the Lord, mind you! And I did it "in love"!
Actually, I did NOT win friends or influence people when I was trying to ram and cram my belief system down another citizen's throat. I did not populate heaven with another soul for whom Christ died by tactfully forcing them to listen to my religious script. What I did do was soothe my religious conscience by "witnessing" and doing my "evangelism thing." I was caught up in "cold calling" on obvious sinners who obviously needed eternal life through Jesus, and I was the conductor passing out tickets to heaven.
Now, on the other hand, if a friend of mine were to call one day and tell me he or she had discovered a product or service that had benefited them and they wamted to recommend that I try it, I probably would. But the operative word in the previous sentence is the word "friend."
Friends have influence; friends have relationship; and sooner or later, friends tell friends about Jesus.
Food for thought: Why not consider laying aside memorized "scripts of evangelism" and be real instead? Be yourself. Or better yet, try to be like Jesus, the Friend of sinners.
DSR
6/7/04
I got the call at an inconvenient time. I checked the caller I.D., didn't recognize the number, but decided to pick up anyway just before the call went to the recorder. Within two seconds I winced, realizing that I had been caught in the crosshairs of a telemarketer.
Now, I'm not one of those "just hang up on the telemarketer" kind of guys. I mean, there's a human being on the other end of the line. And please understand, I don't want to unfairly lump all telemarketers into one negative, stereotypic category. Some are excellent communicators offering a valuable product or service, and they do so in a respectful and conscientious way. Others are, well, like the call I got last night. Maybe he's called your house too.
This poor guy was peddling long distance phone service. He probably had a long shift to work, a car payment due, rent to pay, a cable bill looming, a script to read, and he had me on the line.
This man was bound and determined to get through his script. Each polite refusal only took him to another section of his script. Each objection I raised only seemed to add fuel to his fire to make a sale. Each additional minute I stayed on the phone was an enticement to him to go for it. This guy just wouldn't take "no" for an answer.
Finally, mercifully, when it became obvious that we were entangled in an epic battle of right and wrong (he was right and I was wrong), of good versus evil (he was good and I was evil), and he dejectedly began to realize that the thrill of victory was not going to be experienced in this call, then and only then did he begin to wind down the sales pitch. In discernable disgust, he at (long) last ended the conversation and released me from the surly bonds that had tethered me to my phone. Surely, given the sound of his sad voice, after ending the call he would excuse himself from his workstation and hands-free phone set and retreat to the restroom for a good cry. Yeah, right.
Now I understand the man had a job to do and he was only trying to make a buck. He was just what his employer was looking for when he posted the ad in the classifieds:
"Wanted: Growing Fortune 1000 company seeks energetic, aggressive person with excellent communication skills for telemarketing position. Must be able to handle rejection well. Work part-time from your home. Day and evening shifts available, excellent benefits, pay commensurate with experience. Call…"
The boss found a guy that could handle a conversation like this:
TELEMARKETER: "Good evening sir, are you busy?"
AVERAGE JOE: "Why yes, I'm giving CPR to a man right now."
TELEMARKETER: "I understand sir, but this will only take a few minutes. May I interest you…?"
The kid got the job and now he was calling me. His trainer more than likely had told him the longer you keep them on the phone the higher percentage of your closing the deal.
All this to say that this young man, all humor aside, reminded me of me. He reminded me of me in my early days of witnessing to sinners about Jesus.
A pagan could have very well written a similar article about me back in my early days of "evangelizing" substituting "the gospel" for the product or service and me in the place of the telemarketer. He could have entitled the article "The Evangelist."
For if the truth were known, I have been rude, crude, and socially unacceptable in "sharing my faith"--all in the name of the Lord, mind you! And I did it "in love"!
Actually, I did NOT win friends or influence people when I was trying to ram and cram my belief system down another citizen's throat. I did not populate heaven with another soul for whom Christ died by tactfully forcing them to listen to my religious script. What I did do was soothe my religious conscience by "witnessing" and doing my "evangelism thing." I was caught up in "cold calling" on obvious sinners who obviously needed eternal life through Jesus, and I was the conductor passing out tickets to heaven.
Now, on the other hand, if a friend of mine were to call one day and tell me he or she had discovered a product or service that had benefited them and they wamted to recommend that I try it, I probably would. But the operative word in the previous sentence is the word "friend."
Friends have influence; friends have relationship; and sooner or later, friends tell friends about Jesus.
Food for thought: Why not consider laying aside memorized "scripts of evangelism" and be real instead? Be yourself. Or better yet, try to be like Jesus, the Friend of sinners.
DSR
6/7/04
Monday, May 31, 2004
My Valedictiorian Speech
by David Scott Robertson
First of all, I am not, nor have I ever been, a valedictorian at anything academic. As a matter of fact, I botched typing the word "valedictorian" so bad that my spell checker had to come to my rescue.
However, my wife and I did go to my niece's high school graduation last evening and not only did we celebrate a remarkable family moment, but interestingly enough we got to hear several valedictorians give their speeches before the diplomas were distributed. I think it's a charming tradition.
I suppose school officials reason that it's a nice incentive to offer students who have earned a perfect grade point average the chance to get up in front of all their friends, family, and photographers and say something intelligent. Then again, given our general phobia to public speaking, it could act as a deterrent! How ironic! (Sort of like the student who hasn't missed a day of school in four years being absent to receive their perfect attendance plaque due to sickness!)
At any rate, the whole evening got me thinking about what I would have said to my graduating class (class of '78) had I been a valedictorian. I think it would have sounded something like this…
"Friends, faculty, family, and honored guests - it is a great privilege to stand before you this evening. I've been asked to address you, my graduating class, and leave you with some parting words of wisdom. But the truth of the matter is, like many of you, I just turned 18 years old, so what do I really know so profoundly wise that I can pass it on to you?
There is one piece of advice, my fellow graduates, that I want to send you into your future with and that is this: Choose your mentors well.
When choosing a mentor, don't look for the young man with perfect abs and runners' legs, seek out an old man with a pot belly and a limp. Ask him how he got the limp and how you can avoid getting one yourself.
Don't base your important life choices on the opinion of a young girl who has dyed her hair purple. I don't have a problem with purple hair, it's just that an older woman with gray hair is better. Ask a white-headed woman how she survived the Depression without losing her marriage.
Don't look for understanding and knowledge from the young man sporting a brand new tattoo on his chiseled bicep. Look for an arm with a sagging, faded tattoo surrounded by wrinkles and fat and ask the man attached to it for counsel.
Don't look with great expectation to the girl with her nose and belly button pierced for help in charting the course for your life. Look to the woman with an eight-inch scar on her belly that she got from delivering her stillborn baby C-section and ask her how she managed to live through and beyond her grief.
I challenge you, fellow graduates, to choose your mentors well. Consider the words of God, who invented wisdom who said that "wisdom is established in the presence of many counselors." And consider also in looking to Jesus Christ for guidance throughout your entire lifetime, for of Him it has been written that "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ."
My friends, quote the Bible and you will never be wrong. Live by it and your life will turn out all right. Learn from the mistakes of others. In choosing your mentors, look for not only those who have taken risks and failed, but look for those who have taken risks and failed forward, gaining something that you and I don't have yet as teenagers - experience.
My advice to you, graduating class of 1978, is my advice to my own self. Let us choose our mentors well so that one day we may grow and mature into mentors ourselves who will one day pass along the experience we have gained from our successes and failures to those who will follow our leadership.
Thank you, good night, God bless you, and God bless America!"
DSR
5/31/04
First of all, I am not, nor have I ever been, a valedictorian at anything academic. As a matter of fact, I botched typing the word "valedictorian" so bad that my spell checker had to come to my rescue.
However, my wife and I did go to my niece's high school graduation last evening and not only did we celebrate a remarkable family moment, but interestingly enough we got to hear several valedictorians give their speeches before the diplomas were distributed. I think it's a charming tradition.
I suppose school officials reason that it's a nice incentive to offer students who have earned a perfect grade point average the chance to get up in front of all their friends, family, and photographers and say something intelligent. Then again, given our general phobia to public speaking, it could act as a deterrent! How ironic! (Sort of like the student who hasn't missed a day of school in four years being absent to receive their perfect attendance plaque due to sickness!)
At any rate, the whole evening got me thinking about what I would have said to my graduating class (class of '78) had I been a valedictorian. I think it would have sounded something like this…
"Friends, faculty, family, and honored guests - it is a great privilege to stand before you this evening. I've been asked to address you, my graduating class, and leave you with some parting words of wisdom. But the truth of the matter is, like many of you, I just turned 18 years old, so what do I really know so profoundly wise that I can pass it on to you?
There is one piece of advice, my fellow graduates, that I want to send you into your future with and that is this: Choose your mentors well.
When choosing a mentor, don't look for the young man with perfect abs and runners' legs, seek out an old man with a pot belly and a limp. Ask him how he got the limp and how you can avoid getting one yourself.
Don't base your important life choices on the opinion of a young girl who has dyed her hair purple. I don't have a problem with purple hair, it's just that an older woman with gray hair is better. Ask a white-headed woman how she survived the Depression without losing her marriage.
Don't look for understanding and knowledge from the young man sporting a brand new tattoo on his chiseled bicep. Look for an arm with a sagging, faded tattoo surrounded by wrinkles and fat and ask the man attached to it for counsel.
Don't look with great expectation to the girl with her nose and belly button pierced for help in charting the course for your life. Look to the woman with an eight-inch scar on her belly that she got from delivering her stillborn baby C-section and ask her how she managed to live through and beyond her grief.
I challenge you, fellow graduates, to choose your mentors well. Consider the words of God, who invented wisdom who said that "wisdom is established in the presence of many counselors." And consider also in looking to Jesus Christ for guidance throughout your entire lifetime, for of Him it has been written that "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ."
My friends, quote the Bible and you will never be wrong. Live by it and your life will turn out all right. Learn from the mistakes of others. In choosing your mentors, look for not only those who have taken risks and failed, but look for those who have taken risks and failed forward, gaining something that you and I don't have yet as teenagers - experience.
My advice to you, graduating class of 1978, is my advice to my own self. Let us choose our mentors well so that one day we may grow and mature into mentors ourselves who will one day pass along the experience we have gained from our successes and failures to those who will follow our leadership.
Thank you, good night, God bless you, and God bless America!"
DSR
5/31/04
Monday, May 24, 2004
Let's Ask God First
by David Scott Robertson
"Then Saul said, 'Let's chase the Philistines all night and destroy every last one of them.' His men replied, 'We'll do whatever you think is best.' But the priest said, 'Let's ask God first'" (1 Samuel 14:36).
* * *
Leaders, like King Saul in this instance, will often make decisions out of emotion instead of wisdom gained by seeking God. Unfortunately, there are those who will follow right along saying, "we'll do whatever you think is best." But priceless is the person who will interrupt the process by saying, "let's ask God first."
In Saul's case, the words of the priest prompted the king to inquire of the Lord which led to the discovery that there was sin in the camp that would have prohibited God from supporting Saul's battle orders.
Earlier, Saul had initiated inquiring of the Lord but bailed out prematurely.
"Then Saul shouted to Ahijah, 'Bring the ephod here…But while Saul was talking to the priest, the shouting and confusion in the Philistine camp grew louder and louder. So Saul said to Ahijah, 'Never mind; let's get going!' Then Saul and his six hundred men rushed out to the battle…" (1 Samuel 14:18-19).
Saul's career as king was plagued with poor decisions, rash vows, and blatant disobedience to the Lord. Saul's chronic habit of making soulish decisions (based on his reasoning ability and emotional state at the time) caused God's first choice of a king for His people to become disqualified and the Lord replaced him with David (a man after His own heart).
Had Saul learned early in his reign to observe two key rules of effective leadership consistently, he would have enjoyed an enduring dynasty, for God had said through the prophet Samuel:
"...Samuel said. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time" (1 Samuel 13:13).
The two principles Saul (and any aspiring leader) should consistently observe are:
1. Ask God first
2. Wait until you hear His reply before acting
Untold grief, heartache, and peril can be avoided by observing these two simple rules.
Saul and his men "rushed off into battle" without the word of the Lord and in the process of time it cost them all their lives. True wisdom lies in the ability to learn from the mistakes of others without repeating them yourself.
God's will for you and me is to successfully navigate around the many pitfalls and booby traps the enemy has set before us. To do this requires asking God before entering the minefield and having the good sense to wait on Him to reveal where the explosives are hidden before rushing off into spiritual battle.
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him"(James 1:5).
DSR
5/24/04
"Then Saul said, 'Let's chase the Philistines all night and destroy every last one of them.' His men replied, 'We'll do whatever you think is best.' But the priest said, 'Let's ask God first'" (1 Samuel 14:36).
* * *
Leaders, like King Saul in this instance, will often make decisions out of emotion instead of wisdom gained by seeking God. Unfortunately, there are those who will follow right along saying, "we'll do whatever you think is best." But priceless is the person who will interrupt the process by saying, "let's ask God first."
In Saul's case, the words of the priest prompted the king to inquire of the Lord which led to the discovery that there was sin in the camp that would have prohibited God from supporting Saul's battle orders.
Earlier, Saul had initiated inquiring of the Lord but bailed out prematurely.
"Then Saul shouted to Ahijah, 'Bring the ephod here…But while Saul was talking to the priest, the shouting and confusion in the Philistine camp grew louder and louder. So Saul said to Ahijah, 'Never mind; let's get going!' Then Saul and his six hundred men rushed out to the battle…" (1 Samuel 14:18-19).
Saul's career as king was plagued with poor decisions, rash vows, and blatant disobedience to the Lord. Saul's chronic habit of making soulish decisions (based on his reasoning ability and emotional state at the time) caused God's first choice of a king for His people to become disqualified and the Lord replaced him with David (a man after His own heart).
Had Saul learned early in his reign to observe two key rules of effective leadership consistently, he would have enjoyed an enduring dynasty, for God had said through the prophet Samuel:
"...Samuel said. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time" (1 Samuel 13:13).
The two principles Saul (and any aspiring leader) should consistently observe are:
1. Ask God first
2. Wait until you hear His reply before acting
Untold grief, heartache, and peril can be avoided by observing these two simple rules.
Saul and his men "rushed off into battle" without the word of the Lord and in the process of time it cost them all their lives. True wisdom lies in the ability to learn from the mistakes of others without repeating them yourself.
God's will for you and me is to successfully navigate around the many pitfalls and booby traps the enemy has set before us. To do this requires asking God before entering the minefield and having the good sense to wait on Him to reveal where the explosives are hidden before rushing off into spiritual battle.
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him"(James 1:5).
DSR
5/24/04
Monday, May 17, 2004
Restitution
by David Scott Robertson
"Then Samuel addressed the people again: 'I have done as you asked and given you a king…Now tell me as I stand before the Lord and before his anointed one - whose ox or donkey have I stolen? Have I ever cheated any of you? Have I ever oppressed you? Have I ever taken a bribe? Tell me and I will make right whatever I have done wrong'" (1 Samuel 12:1,3-4).
* * *
The prophet Samuel is an impressive example of a man of integrity. No wonder God used him so mightily. Samuel was a man of sterling character and it shines very bright in the statement above which he has just made at King Saul's inauguration. Samuel demonstrates before all Israel the importance of a powerful principle called "restitution."
Simply put, restitution means making right whatever you have done wrong. It means (gulp) admitting you were wrong and taking action to correct it. It means doing everything possible within your power to convert a negative into a positive. The phrase "I'll make it up to you" is a good example of the principle of restitution in operation.
Here's how it might have worked in Samuel's case. If someone were to have stepped forward at his pointed questions and reminded him of a time when he (perhaps unintentionally) borrowed an ox or donkey and failed to return it - I believe Samuel would have left the platform immediately and made the matter right.
If Samuel had cheated someone, he would have paid back the offended party with interest. If at that moment it came to light that he had unfairly oppressed someone, he would have offered a public apology to them on the spot. If he were to have taken a bribe he would have confessed that as sin and worked diligently to undo the injustice he had been responsible for through his lapse in character. Knowing Samuel and God's call on his life, I believe he would have relentlessly worked to make whatever wrong he had caused right in the lives of those whom he was called to serve.
It's difficult, if not impossible, to live a lifetime and never offend, hurt, or inconvenience another person in some way. To think otherwise is an unrealistic expectation. But once the violation has been discovered where you have infringed on someone else's property, rights, or feelings, simply activate the principle of restitution. That is to say, immediately (or as soon as reasonably possible) begin the process of making it right! As much as possible, and as far as it has to do with you, make it right! And do it with a good attitude!
Here are some contemporary examples of restitution at work:
- A father is out of town on a business trip and misses his son's 12th birthday party. He returns with a present and takes an extra day off work to take his son to Six Flags theme park.
- A man's pickup truck slides off a rain-slicked curve and plows down a mailbox. He not only replaces the mailbox with a brand new (and better one picked out by the homeowner) but he plants a patch of beautiful flowers around it.
- A teenager borrows his parent's car and wrecks it. The insurance company pays for the repair but the kid pays the deductible and pays to have the car detailed when it comes out of the body shop.
- A girl borrows a neighbor's car and returns it filled with gas.
- A high school student slanders a classmate but later apologizes in front of her friends and invites her to sit with her at lunch.
- A next door neighbor borrows the lawn mower and hits a tree root and bends the blade but he pays for the repair and has the oil and spark plug changed to boot.
- In a fit of anger, a hole is punched in the wall - it is fixed and new wallpaper is put up in its place.
Restitution. When it works well it almost seems like the offended party comes out ahead! They actually are better off in the long run than before the incident happened! They get something new or better or nicer. The principle of restitution is so potent that even enemies can be transformed into friends through its power.
In discussing this principle, we must admit that sometimes full restitution is difficult or even impossible. In the case where you have been directly or indirectly responsible for someone's losing their life or being permanently disabled as a result of your mistake, then restitution is not easy. Committing adultery with another person's spouse is another example where restitution is very complex:
"But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away; for jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse the bribe, however great it is" (Proverbs 6:32-35).
In these cases, I recommend doing the best you can under the circumstances and under the guidance of the Lord and godly counselors. Doing nothing is not good; doing what you can is good. You CAN express remorse. You CAN share grief. You CAN demonstrate repentance and ask for forgiveness. If you genuinely repent, God will forgive you even if men will not. But bitter, unforgiving hearts are a job for the Holy Spirit to deal with, not you.
My encouragement to you in this thought is to make the principle of restitution one of the core values of your life. When (not if) you discover you have hurt another person in any way, either intentionally or unintentionally, begin right away to make it right. Don't let the sun go down until you begin making preparation and plans to deal with the matter as best you can. Don't let sleep come to your eyes until you come up with a tentative plan and a workable solution to redeem the situation where it benefits the person you hurt as much as humanly possible.
Remember: In attempting to make restitution, (where applicable) you should ask the offended party: "What can I do to make it up to you?" Then try to meet their demand, and add a little bit extra, just for the trouble.
Offenses will come; they are absolutely inevitable. But as far as it has to do with you, be a man or woman of principle by applying as often as necessary the principle of restitution. People will notice this unusual quality about you and some will begin to imitate you and the gift of restitution will spread. And God will be pleased.
"Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."
-- The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Rome (Romans 12:17-18)
DSR
5/17/04
"Then Samuel addressed the people again: 'I have done as you asked and given you a king…Now tell me as I stand before the Lord and before his anointed one - whose ox or donkey have I stolen? Have I ever cheated any of you? Have I ever oppressed you? Have I ever taken a bribe? Tell me and I will make right whatever I have done wrong'" (1 Samuel 12:1,3-4).
* * *
The prophet Samuel is an impressive example of a man of integrity. No wonder God used him so mightily. Samuel was a man of sterling character and it shines very bright in the statement above which he has just made at King Saul's inauguration. Samuel demonstrates before all Israel the importance of a powerful principle called "restitution."
Simply put, restitution means making right whatever you have done wrong. It means (gulp) admitting you were wrong and taking action to correct it. It means doing everything possible within your power to convert a negative into a positive. The phrase "I'll make it up to you" is a good example of the principle of restitution in operation.
Here's how it might have worked in Samuel's case. If someone were to have stepped forward at his pointed questions and reminded him of a time when he (perhaps unintentionally) borrowed an ox or donkey and failed to return it - I believe Samuel would have left the platform immediately and made the matter right.
If Samuel had cheated someone, he would have paid back the offended party with interest. If at that moment it came to light that he had unfairly oppressed someone, he would have offered a public apology to them on the spot. If he were to have taken a bribe he would have confessed that as sin and worked diligently to undo the injustice he had been responsible for through his lapse in character. Knowing Samuel and God's call on his life, I believe he would have relentlessly worked to make whatever wrong he had caused right in the lives of those whom he was called to serve.
It's difficult, if not impossible, to live a lifetime and never offend, hurt, or inconvenience another person in some way. To think otherwise is an unrealistic expectation. But once the violation has been discovered where you have infringed on someone else's property, rights, or feelings, simply activate the principle of restitution. That is to say, immediately (or as soon as reasonably possible) begin the process of making it right! As much as possible, and as far as it has to do with you, make it right! And do it with a good attitude!
Here are some contemporary examples of restitution at work:
- A father is out of town on a business trip and misses his son's 12th birthday party. He returns with a present and takes an extra day off work to take his son to Six Flags theme park.
- A man's pickup truck slides off a rain-slicked curve and plows down a mailbox. He not only replaces the mailbox with a brand new (and better one picked out by the homeowner) but he plants a patch of beautiful flowers around it.
- A teenager borrows his parent's car and wrecks it. The insurance company pays for the repair but the kid pays the deductible and pays to have the car detailed when it comes out of the body shop.
- A girl borrows a neighbor's car and returns it filled with gas.
- A high school student slanders a classmate but later apologizes in front of her friends and invites her to sit with her at lunch.
- A next door neighbor borrows the lawn mower and hits a tree root and bends the blade but he pays for the repair and has the oil and spark plug changed to boot.
- In a fit of anger, a hole is punched in the wall - it is fixed and new wallpaper is put up in its place.
Restitution. When it works well it almost seems like the offended party comes out ahead! They actually are better off in the long run than before the incident happened! They get something new or better or nicer. The principle of restitution is so potent that even enemies can be transformed into friends through its power.
In discussing this principle, we must admit that sometimes full restitution is difficult or even impossible. In the case where you have been directly or indirectly responsible for someone's losing their life or being permanently disabled as a result of your mistake, then restitution is not easy. Committing adultery with another person's spouse is another example where restitution is very complex:
"But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away; for jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse the bribe, however great it is" (Proverbs 6:32-35).
In these cases, I recommend doing the best you can under the circumstances and under the guidance of the Lord and godly counselors. Doing nothing is not good; doing what you can is good. You CAN express remorse. You CAN share grief. You CAN demonstrate repentance and ask for forgiveness. If you genuinely repent, God will forgive you even if men will not. But bitter, unforgiving hearts are a job for the Holy Spirit to deal with, not you.
My encouragement to you in this thought is to make the principle of restitution one of the core values of your life. When (not if) you discover you have hurt another person in any way, either intentionally or unintentionally, begin right away to make it right. Don't let the sun go down until you begin making preparation and plans to deal with the matter as best you can. Don't let sleep come to your eyes until you come up with a tentative plan and a workable solution to redeem the situation where it benefits the person you hurt as much as humanly possible.
Remember: In attempting to make restitution, (where applicable) you should ask the offended party: "What can I do to make it up to you?" Then try to meet their demand, and add a little bit extra, just for the trouble.
Offenses will come; they are absolutely inevitable. But as far as it has to do with you, be a man or woman of principle by applying as often as necessary the principle of restitution. People will notice this unusual quality about you and some will begin to imitate you and the gift of restitution will spread. And God will be pleased.
"Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."
-- The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Rome (Romans 12:17-18)
DSR
5/17/04
Monday, May 10, 2004
To This Day
by David Scott Robertson
* * *
"And Samson said, 'With the jawbone of a donkey, I've made heaps on heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey, I've killed a thousand men!'" (Judges 15:16)
"Now Samson was very thirsty, and he cried out to the Lord, 'You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of these pagan people?'" (Judges 15:18)
"So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank. Then he named that place 'The Spring of the One Who Cried Out" [En-hakkore], and it is still in Lehi to this day." (Judges 15:19, emphasis mine).
* * *
Samson, the son of Manoah of the tribe of Dan, was the last of the major judges over Israel about 1100 B.C. (Judges 13:1-16:31). This legendary hero frequently did battle with the Philistines, who at that time had dominion over Israel (Judges 14:4).
I personally believe that Samson was an ordinary looking man, not some muscle-bound bodybuilder type. The source of his great strength, which often was converted into supernatural exploits, came through the "Spirit of the Lord" who would "come upon him" and enable him to perform amazing feats of physical strength (Judges 14:6,19; 15:14; 16:28-29). (Another example of this phenomena in Old Testament times was when the power of the Lord came upon the prophet Elijah and enabled him to outrun the chariots of King Ahab to Jezreel (1 Kings 18:46).
Before his conception, Samson was dedicated to the Lord by his parents to be a lifelong Nazarite. Part of his vow was letting his hair grow long and abstaining from wine and strong drink. Tragically, Samson did not live a consecrated life to the Lord and was careless with the calling of God on his life and his unbridled lust eventually cost him not only his eyesight but also his very life.
These Samson factoids may be conversation starters but they are not my point at all. Here is my point:
In the opening passage that I quoted, Samson had just clubbed to death one thousand Philistine loyalists and at this point was so thirsty that he felt in danger of perishing himself. Here is where I noticed something so captivating to my thinking that I wanted to write about it.
Here we have one man with one need (one time only) praying one prayer to the one true God to provide for that one need that one time and God immediately answers that prayer.
"So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank…" (Judges 15:19)
Samson drank, his physical body revived; prayer answered, problem solved. But notice especially the last part of that verse where the life-giving gift of water goes on…
"…Then he named that place 'The Spring of the One Who Cried Out" [En-hakkore], AND IT IS STILL IN LEHI TO THIS DAY" (Judges 15:19, emphasis mine).
Samson is dead and gone but the spring God opened up for him remains to this day. There is no telling how many countless other men and creatures who have been refreshed from drinking from the spring called En-hakkore.
What can we learn from this ancient story of a backslidden judge of Israel that can teach us spiritual truth TO THIS DAY? Here's at least five observations:
1. God answers prayer - Go ahead and call on God in your time of crisis and He will come and save you.
2. God knows your difficult situation - God is an ever-present help in time of trouble. He is not far away when a child of His is in trouble.
3. God is able - God can not only make water gush from a rock, He can, in fact, do anything for anybody at anytime and anywhere He chooses.
4. God thinks long-term - We think answered prayers are disposable, but God recycles. He is thinking about meeting the needs of someone else down the road, perhaps decades or centuries later, and His provision for them may have stemmed from His previous dealings with you. .
5. God keeps His Word - To this day God is keeping His promises to whomever He has cut covenant with. We can trust the Lord to hold up His end of the bargain.
- To this day the rainbow that follows a rain shower proves that a universal flood will never again destroy the earth.
- To this day the waves of seas and oceans obey God's order to travel no further than the shorelines that He set as their boundaries (Proverbs 8:29).
- To this day gravity has not been repealed and the laws of physical science remain intact because God has decreed that it be so.
- To this day God extends His loving mercy toward humankind in the Person of Jesus Christ that we might be reconciled to God and destroy the curse of sin through grace and faith.
May I encourage you to call on the name of the Lord today for whatever issue, situation, or technical difficulty you may be experiencing? God's response to your cry may ultimately provide relief for countless others.
DSR
5/10/04
* * *
"And Samson said, 'With the jawbone of a donkey, I've made heaps on heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey, I've killed a thousand men!'" (Judges 15:16)
"Now Samson was very thirsty, and he cried out to the Lord, 'You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of these pagan people?'" (Judges 15:18)
"So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank. Then he named that place 'The Spring of the One Who Cried Out" [En-hakkore], and it is still in Lehi to this day." (Judges 15:19, emphasis mine).
* * *
Samson, the son of Manoah of the tribe of Dan, was the last of the major judges over Israel about 1100 B.C. (Judges 13:1-16:31). This legendary hero frequently did battle with the Philistines, who at that time had dominion over Israel (Judges 14:4).
I personally believe that Samson was an ordinary looking man, not some muscle-bound bodybuilder type. The source of his great strength, which often was converted into supernatural exploits, came through the "Spirit of the Lord" who would "come upon him" and enable him to perform amazing feats of physical strength (Judges 14:6,19; 15:14; 16:28-29). (Another example of this phenomena in Old Testament times was when the power of the Lord came upon the prophet Elijah and enabled him to outrun the chariots of King Ahab to Jezreel (1 Kings 18:46).
Before his conception, Samson was dedicated to the Lord by his parents to be a lifelong Nazarite. Part of his vow was letting his hair grow long and abstaining from wine and strong drink. Tragically, Samson did not live a consecrated life to the Lord and was careless with the calling of God on his life and his unbridled lust eventually cost him not only his eyesight but also his very life.
These Samson factoids may be conversation starters but they are not my point at all. Here is my point:
In the opening passage that I quoted, Samson had just clubbed to death one thousand Philistine loyalists and at this point was so thirsty that he felt in danger of perishing himself. Here is where I noticed something so captivating to my thinking that I wanted to write about it.
Here we have one man with one need (one time only) praying one prayer to the one true God to provide for that one need that one time and God immediately answers that prayer.
"So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank…" (Judges 15:19)
Samson drank, his physical body revived; prayer answered, problem solved. But notice especially the last part of that verse where the life-giving gift of water goes on…
"…Then he named that place 'The Spring of the One Who Cried Out" [En-hakkore], AND IT IS STILL IN LEHI TO THIS DAY" (Judges 15:19, emphasis mine).
Samson is dead and gone but the spring God opened up for him remains to this day. There is no telling how many countless other men and creatures who have been refreshed from drinking from the spring called En-hakkore.
What can we learn from this ancient story of a backslidden judge of Israel that can teach us spiritual truth TO THIS DAY? Here's at least five observations:
1. God answers prayer - Go ahead and call on God in your time of crisis and He will come and save you.
2. God knows your difficult situation - God is an ever-present help in time of trouble. He is not far away when a child of His is in trouble.
3. God is able - God can not only make water gush from a rock, He can, in fact, do anything for anybody at anytime and anywhere He chooses.
4. God thinks long-term - We think answered prayers are disposable, but God recycles. He is thinking about meeting the needs of someone else down the road, perhaps decades or centuries later, and His provision for them may have stemmed from His previous dealings with you. .
5. God keeps His Word - To this day God is keeping His promises to whomever He has cut covenant with. We can trust the Lord to hold up His end of the bargain.
- To this day the rainbow that follows a rain shower proves that a universal flood will never again destroy the earth.
- To this day the waves of seas and oceans obey God's order to travel no further than the shorelines that He set as their boundaries (Proverbs 8:29).
- To this day gravity has not been repealed and the laws of physical science remain intact because God has decreed that it be so.
- To this day God extends His loving mercy toward humankind in the Person of Jesus Christ that we might be reconciled to God and destroy the curse of sin through grace and faith.
May I encourage you to call on the name of the Lord today for whatever issue, situation, or technical difficulty you may be experiencing? God's response to your cry may ultimately provide relief for countless others.
DSR
5/10/04
Monday, May 3, 2004
Daniel: A Real Wise Guy
by David Scott Robertson
"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel…" (Daniel 1:8-9)
* * *
Attention all politicians and business executives! Anyone desiring to be successful in a political or business career should take note of a man in the Bible named Daniel.
Students pursuing a business administration or political science degree would also do well to include in their curriculum a personal study in "Daniel 101." Why? Because in this Bible figure we find a man whose career spanned the administrations of at least FOUR kings. That's like being appointed to be Vice-President of the United States of America for George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Sr., and Ronald Reagan!
But unlike our current politicians, Daniel didn't campaign for office. He didn't seek position, authority, and influence - these things sought him. The Bible describes Daniel's personal and professional life as being "above reproach." He's one of the few characters in the Bible who we don't find any "dirt" on. To be sure he was not perfect but the scriptures omit any personal flaws and emphasizes Daniel's fidelity to his faith in God and practice of Judaism during his exile in a pagan culture.
The cycle of events in Daniel's life usually went something like this:
1. Work and pray hard (3 times each day)
2. The current king has a problem and the existing magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners can't help him - so they call for Daniel.
3. God works supernaturally through Daniel to interpret the dream, solve the enigma, foretell future events, or perform some other miracle in or through Daniel's life.
4. The king exalts Daniel and his God to high places.
For example, here is the end result of God working through Daniel in the presence of some of the most powerful figures in human history in their day and age:
KING Nedbuchadnezzar
"Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery." Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men" (Daniel 2:46-48).
King Belshazzar
"This man Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means" (Daniel 5:12).
[Daniel correctly interprets the "writing on the wall"]
"Then at Belshazzar's command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom" (Daniel 5:29).
KING DARIUS, THE MEDE & KING CYRUS, THE PERSIAN
"The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
At the king's command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions' den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones. Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations and men of every language throughout the land: "May you prosper greatly! "I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. "For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions." So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian" (Daniel 6:23-28).
THE GREAT GOD JEHOVAH
Even Almighty God Himself thought highly enough of Daniel to include him in the line-up of some the all-time Bible greats:
"Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath upon it through bloodshed, killing its men and their animals, as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter. They would save only themselves by their righteousness" (Ezekiel 14:19-20).
Now why do you suppose Daniel seems to possess this unusual and incredible ability to garner the favor of God and man? I think the answer is found in our opening verse.
"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel…" (Daniel 1:8-9)
Daniel adhered to a simple Biblical principle that paid off for him throughout his lifetime: Be faithful in little things and God will put you in charge of bigger things.
Daniel passed the test time after time when confronted with the temptation to defile himself through compromise, deviate from the truth, or sacrifice his belief in the One True God. It started with not defiling himself with the food he ate but that act was only an outward demonstration of an inward transformation that had already taken place in his spiritual life.
Daniel refused to be intimidated by anyone regardless of power or position. As a result, God could trust him with incredible spiritual gifts of interpreting dreams, reading mysterious handwriting on walls, and prophesying in detail the rise and fall of entire civilizations.
Let's break this down to where we live and how it impacts us today. I believe - wholeheartedly - that if you and I purpose in our hearts not to defile ourselves with the "meat" and "delicacies" of this world, then we, like Daniel, position ourselves for favor and a good name with God. And when you are "approved unto God" (1 Th. 2:4), look out world!
Daniel was a real wise guy but not because he was abnormally intelligent, but because he developed a great relationship with God who owns all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3) and is glad to share it with those He can trust (James 1:5).
DSR
5/3/04
"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel…" (Daniel 1:8-9)
* * *
Attention all politicians and business executives! Anyone desiring to be successful in a political or business career should take note of a man in the Bible named Daniel.
Students pursuing a business administration or political science degree would also do well to include in their curriculum a personal study in "Daniel 101." Why? Because in this Bible figure we find a man whose career spanned the administrations of at least FOUR kings. That's like being appointed to be Vice-President of the United States of America for George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Sr., and Ronald Reagan!
But unlike our current politicians, Daniel didn't campaign for office. He didn't seek position, authority, and influence - these things sought him. The Bible describes Daniel's personal and professional life as being "above reproach." He's one of the few characters in the Bible who we don't find any "dirt" on. To be sure he was not perfect but the scriptures omit any personal flaws and emphasizes Daniel's fidelity to his faith in God and practice of Judaism during his exile in a pagan culture.
The cycle of events in Daniel's life usually went something like this:
1. Work and pray hard (3 times each day)
2. The current king has a problem and the existing magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners can't help him - so they call for Daniel.
3. God works supernaturally through Daniel to interpret the dream, solve the enigma, foretell future events, or perform some other miracle in or through Daniel's life.
4. The king exalts Daniel and his God to high places.
For example, here is the end result of God working through Daniel in the presence of some of the most powerful figures in human history in their day and age:
KING Nedbuchadnezzar
"Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery." Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men" (Daniel 2:46-48).
King Belshazzar
"This man Daniel, whom the king called Belteshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding, and also the ability to interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. Call for Daniel, and he will tell you what the writing means" (Daniel 5:12).
[Daniel correctly interprets the "writing on the wall"]
"Then at Belshazzar's command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom" (Daniel 5:29).
KING DARIUS, THE MEDE & KING CYRUS, THE PERSIAN
"The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
At the king's command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions' den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones. Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations and men of every language throughout the land: "May you prosper greatly! "I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. "For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions." So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian" (Daniel 6:23-28).
THE GREAT GOD JEHOVAH
Even Almighty God Himself thought highly enough of Daniel to include him in the line-up of some the all-time Bible greats:
"Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath upon it through bloodshed, killing its men and their animals, as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter. They would save only themselves by their righteousness" (Ezekiel 14:19-20).
Now why do you suppose Daniel seems to possess this unusual and incredible ability to garner the favor of God and man? I think the answer is found in our opening verse.
"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel…" (Daniel 1:8-9)
Daniel adhered to a simple Biblical principle that paid off for him throughout his lifetime: Be faithful in little things and God will put you in charge of bigger things.
Daniel passed the test time after time when confronted with the temptation to defile himself through compromise, deviate from the truth, or sacrifice his belief in the One True God. It started with not defiling himself with the food he ate but that act was only an outward demonstration of an inward transformation that had already taken place in his spiritual life.
Daniel refused to be intimidated by anyone regardless of power or position. As a result, God could trust him with incredible spiritual gifts of interpreting dreams, reading mysterious handwriting on walls, and prophesying in detail the rise and fall of entire civilizations.
Let's break this down to where we live and how it impacts us today. I believe - wholeheartedly - that if you and I purpose in our hearts not to defile ourselves with the "meat" and "delicacies" of this world, then we, like Daniel, position ourselves for favor and a good name with God. And when you are "approved unto God" (1 Th. 2:4), look out world!
Daniel was a real wise guy but not because he was abnormally intelligent, but because he developed a great relationship with God who owns all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3) and is glad to share it with those He can trust (James 1:5).
DSR
5/3/04
Monday, April 26, 2004
The Incomplete Person
by David Scott Robertson
(Gen 1:26 NIV) Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Human beings were the ingenious creation of God. The "let us" and "in our image" in the scripture above refers to, of course, the Holy Trinity. In the same way that there is one God who eternally exists in three persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit - similarly mankind whom He created exists in three aspects - body, soul, and spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:23, among other scriptures, proves this to be true: "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Each of these aspects of the human being must receive appropriate care and feeding and nurturing in order for proper development to occur. If this does not happen, malfunction and dysfunction result.
I have observed an interesting phenomenon in our culture. There seems to be enormous attention given to the development of two-thirds of what makes up a human being leaving one-third in a very undeveloped state. The net result of this practice is a generation comprised of incomplete persons. We see this truth manifest all the time.
A young woman is on a low-carb diet and works out 4 days per week at the health club. She is a graduate student at a local university. However, she only goes to church on Easter and Christmas. The incomplete woman.
A young college graduate lands an executive position with a Fortune 500 company. On the weekends he participates in regional triathlons. He is the picture of health poised to climb to the pinnacle of corporate success. His competitions take him away from home on Sundays so he rarely attends church. The incomplete man.
A young couple has a baby. They painstakingly feed it, clothe it, shelter it, and rear it to the point where they eventually send it off to school for 12-16 years to educate it. Tragically, the parents totally omit the spiritual rearing of their offspring. The incomplete family.
My point is that we can look at a person who is beautiful and attractive (whatever that means to you) and intelligent and successful (whatever that means to you) and ERRONEOUSLY suppose that this individual is full and complete. Wrong.
- The gold medal-winning gymnast with bulging biceps and perfect abs has an anger problem.
- The Nobel Prize winner smokes 2 packs of cigarettes a day.
- The MTV idol is working on her fourth marriage.
- The college professor drinks…a lot.
- The drop-dead gorgeous blond at the office is eaten up inside with bitterness against her father.
Incomplete persons, one and all. And you and I rub shoulders with tens of thousands of them in a lifetime. It doesn't help that we exist in a culture in America when we rate, judge, and reward people based on two-thirds of who they really are. But that's the way that a carnal culture operates.
So what if someone is incomplete? What difference does it make? If a person is pretty and smart, isn't that enough? It may well be, unless you're interested in marrying an incomplete person. Or employing one. Or electing one to public office. Personality, charisma, charm, pedigree, appearance, accomplishments, etc. all take a back seat to the fruit of the Spirit.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23).
Unless you are "born of the Spirit" (saved, regenerated, a believer in/disciple of Jesus Christ) you are ineligible to receive the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, any super-model or power-executive who is not a Christian is an incomplete person.
"You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked" (Revelation 3:17).
Natural beauty will eventually fade; time and gravity will take care of that. Earthy intelligence and reasoning will eventually prove to be inferior to godly wisdom; experience and history each testify to that. Success without God is not success at all. Kings, politicians, CEOS, and movie stars all eventually die. At that time, the only thing that matters is whether or not you are a complete person.
"If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15).
My counsel to you who are reading this today is to eat right, exercise, drink plenty of water and read your Bible. Complete your education, exercise your mind and imagination, enjoy the arts, and spend lots of time in prayer. Plant a garden, play ball with your kids, go on vacation, and make sure you are in church as regularly as possible. Fellowship with complete persons who will help your faith in Jesus grow strong. Reach out to share the love of God with those who are not yet complete in Christ. Make sure that your spiritual life development is the top priority in your life and then the other two-thirds of who you are will follow in proper order.
DSR
4/26/04
(Gen 1:26 NIV) Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Human beings were the ingenious creation of God. The "let us" and "in our image" in the scripture above refers to, of course, the Holy Trinity. In the same way that there is one God who eternally exists in three persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit - similarly mankind whom He created exists in three aspects - body, soul, and spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:23, among other scriptures, proves this to be true: "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Each of these aspects of the human being must receive appropriate care and feeding and nurturing in order for proper development to occur. If this does not happen, malfunction and dysfunction result.
I have observed an interesting phenomenon in our culture. There seems to be enormous attention given to the development of two-thirds of what makes up a human being leaving one-third in a very undeveloped state. The net result of this practice is a generation comprised of incomplete persons. We see this truth manifest all the time.
A young woman is on a low-carb diet and works out 4 days per week at the health club. She is a graduate student at a local university. However, she only goes to church on Easter and Christmas. The incomplete woman.
A young college graduate lands an executive position with a Fortune 500 company. On the weekends he participates in regional triathlons. He is the picture of health poised to climb to the pinnacle of corporate success. His competitions take him away from home on Sundays so he rarely attends church. The incomplete man.
A young couple has a baby. They painstakingly feed it, clothe it, shelter it, and rear it to the point where they eventually send it off to school for 12-16 years to educate it. Tragically, the parents totally omit the spiritual rearing of their offspring. The incomplete family.
My point is that we can look at a person who is beautiful and attractive (whatever that means to you) and intelligent and successful (whatever that means to you) and ERRONEOUSLY suppose that this individual is full and complete. Wrong.
- The gold medal-winning gymnast with bulging biceps and perfect abs has an anger problem.
- The Nobel Prize winner smokes 2 packs of cigarettes a day.
- The MTV idol is working on her fourth marriage.
- The college professor drinks…a lot.
- The drop-dead gorgeous blond at the office is eaten up inside with bitterness against her father.
Incomplete persons, one and all. And you and I rub shoulders with tens of thousands of them in a lifetime. It doesn't help that we exist in a culture in America when we rate, judge, and reward people based on two-thirds of who they really are. But that's the way that a carnal culture operates.
So what if someone is incomplete? What difference does it make? If a person is pretty and smart, isn't that enough? It may well be, unless you're interested in marrying an incomplete person. Or employing one. Or electing one to public office. Personality, charisma, charm, pedigree, appearance, accomplishments, etc. all take a back seat to the fruit of the Spirit.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23).
Unless you are "born of the Spirit" (saved, regenerated, a believer in/disciple of Jesus Christ) you are ineligible to receive the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, any super-model or power-executive who is not a Christian is an incomplete person.
"You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked" (Revelation 3:17).
Natural beauty will eventually fade; time and gravity will take care of that. Earthy intelligence and reasoning will eventually prove to be inferior to godly wisdom; experience and history each testify to that. Success without God is not success at all. Kings, politicians, CEOS, and movie stars all eventually die. At that time, the only thing that matters is whether or not you are a complete person.
"If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15).
My counsel to you who are reading this today is to eat right, exercise, drink plenty of water and read your Bible. Complete your education, exercise your mind and imagination, enjoy the arts, and spend lots of time in prayer. Plant a garden, play ball with your kids, go on vacation, and make sure you are in church as regularly as possible. Fellowship with complete persons who will help your faith in Jesus grow strong. Reach out to share the love of God with those who are not yet complete in Christ. Make sure that your spiritual life development is the top priority in your life and then the other two-thirds of who you are will follow in proper order.
DSR
4/26/04
Monday, April 12, 2004
The Planet's Most Extreme
by David Scott Robertson
NOTE: This thought was the text for a sermon I preached in 2003.
My daughter Abigail and I very much enjoy watching nature shows on television. She, like me, is fascinated at the wonders of nature and rightly so. God had done such a magnificent, spectacular, (fill in the blank with your own adjective), job in creating creation, don't you think?
To be sure there are vast wonders in the areas of astronomy, biology, physical science, geography, and all the other complex segments of our universe, but it's the animal world that has captured my daughter's attention.
As Abbey and I watch these programs together, it is my delight as her father to have opportunity after opportunity to teach her about the many facets of the Inventor of the animals - Creator God.
It was God who gave the Crocodile Hunter (Steve Irwin), and Jeff Corwin, and the explorers on Wild Kingdom, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel and all other nature shows something to talk about. In fact, as these scientists perform their excellent job of bringing nature up close and personal to the rest of the world by way of a television camera, they are also, whether they realize it or not, glorifying God who created the subjects of their commentary.
Abbey and I particularly enjoy a series on Animal Planet called "The Planet's Most Extreme." It's a show that counts down backwards from ten to one the most peculiar organisms in the natural world: The most extreme camouflage, the most extreme intelligence, the most extreme speed, the most extreme strength, and so forth. We love it!
I want you to know that this show is the inspiration for this "Thought About God."
It got me thinking about how God holds the title for "The Planet's Most Extreme." Extreme what? Let's take a look at some of the attributes of God that are unparalleled in this or any universe. Let's begin our countdown of what I think may be 10 of the most extreme characteristics about God. Coming in at #10, is the fact that God possesses…
#10: The Planet's Most Extreme GENIUS
God is so smart. Abbey and I get giddy with laughter as we look at the innumerable, incomparable, ingenious variety of wildlife on the planet! Recently we visited the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg (Tennessee) and saw colorful fish of every shape and size - it was fantastic! But God's genius and creativity doesn't stop with fish! In His creation are tiny and huge birds of every description - tiny birds like a hummingbird that can fly backwards and large birds like geese that somehow migrate thousands of miles back to their original nesting grounds.
God invented insects that look like they're from outer space! Yesterday, in my daily devotions, I was reading about the Noah and the ark and I had this funny picture flash through my mind of Noah feeding the animals and suddenly and instinctively he realizes something is biting his neck and - SLAP! - Noah squashes a mosquito and cries out: "What have I done? I've killed a species!"
Anyway, the genius of God has created critters ranging in size from microscopic to massive.
Moreover, it's not just what they look like, it's where they live and how God has crafted their bodies to survive their environment. Critters survive in the oceans, the lake and river systems, the savannahs, the desserts, the frozen wastelands of polar regions, the rainforests, the everglades - they flourish on top of the ground, underground, or spend their days soaring in the sky -- the ecosystem and chain of plant and animal life are beyond incredible!
I watched a documentary one time about volcanic holes in the floor of the ocean where the water pumping out of the earth's crust was superheated and poisonous and guess what? God invented tubeworms to thrive there! Friends, it would take a Genius to think all this up. And it did.
To believe that all of this was the result of a process called evolution takes more faith than to believe in the creation account.
Evolution basically says that TIME + CHANCE = EVERYTHING.
To believe that everything evolves over billions of years is tantamount to believing that you can throw a grenade into a print shop and out of the explosion comes an unabridged dictionary! If you believe that then you'll have no problem believing that the United States Navy can fire a cruise missile into an airplane hanger and out of that explosion will come the space shuttle!
No, things don't go from chaos to order all by themselves (investigate the "law of entropy"). You can look at your kid's room and figure that out! No, things don't go from simple to more complex all by themselves! Evolution is a THEORY, not a fact, and it's a bad theory at that based on lies and false assumptions.
You see, the earth has a very complex design, therefore it must have a Designer. Seasons follow a plan, so there must have been a Planner. Creation had a Creator, His name is God, and He is a genius!
It is Abbey and my firm conviction that when it comes to high intelligence and creativity, God is the Planet's Most Extreme GENIUS.
Coming in at #9 on the countdown of God's extreme attributes is that God is the owner of…
The Planet's Most Extreme PATIENCE
God is so patient. He's more patient that you or me or all of us called humanity put together. And it's a good thing too because if God were not patient, there would be no humanity. The Lord God could have, at any given time, spoken the word and the earth could have been reduced to a sterile ball of matter floating through space.
And it's not like we haven't tried His patience. By and large, every people group on the earth today has offended God, transgressed His laws, and for the most part ignored Him.
As a matter of fact, the Bibles predicts a day in which the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth to claim His Bride, the Church, and leave the rest of humanity to contend with a period of history known as "The Great Tribulation." What's preventing Him from showing up? Patience.
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
I could go on and but suffice it to say that God is the clear winner when it comes to longsuffering and exercises the Planet's Most Extreme PATIENCE.
#8 - God possesses The Planet's Most Extreme GLORY
God is so glorious. In Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth, he writes "that no flesh should glory in his presence" (1:29). When we compare the glory of man with the glory of God, there is no comparison!
God is so great and so glorious that the angels in heaven bow down and give Him glory and praise with complete adoration continually.
His glory provided light in the beginning before there was a sun (Genesis 1:3) and His glory will illuminate the universe when the sun is extinguished in the new heavens and new earth at the consummation of the age (Revelation 21:25).
A man in the Bible named Saul got a glimpse of the glory of God and the brightness blinded him for three days (Acts 9:8-9). Peter, James and John caught a glimpse of the glory of God on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:2) and they instantly fell on their faces deeply afraid! The Israelites saw the glory of the Lord settle on Mount Sinai for seven days and it looked like a consuming fire (Exodus 24:16-17). When King Solomon was dedicating the newly built temple of God the glory of the Lord was so thick that the priests could not perform their service (1 Kings 8:10-11).
Friends, the glory of the Lord is beyond description and human understanding. When it comes to magnificence, splendor and wonder, the Lord God most definitely possesses the Planet's Most Extreme GLORY.
#7 - The Planet's Most Extreme HOLINESS
God is so holy. God is unspeakably holy. He is utterly good, flawless, sinless, He is perfection personified. He is so holy that there are living creatures in heaven right now who day and night never stop saying:
"...holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come" (Revelation 4:8).
It's a good thing God is holy. You see, if God were not holy, then Jesus' sacrifice on the cross would have been insufficient to purchase mankind's salvation and restore the severed relationship between God and Man lost in the Garden of Eden through Adam and Eve's sin.
But because God is holy, and Jesus is God, then His sacrifice was all-sufficient (Hebrews 7:27) and allowed Christ to die a vicarious and atoning death as the ultimate sin offering. It worked! Now, whosoever calls on the name of the Lord can be saved! (Acts 2:21).
Why? Because when it comes to sanctity, godliness, and consecration, nothing even comes close to God who has the Planet's Most Extreme HOLINESS.
#6 - The Planet's Most Extreme POWER
God is so powerful.
"And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light" (Genesis 1:3).
Can you do that? When God speaks, it is so powerful that whatever He says happens.
Let me illustrate the power of God's creative power this way. Since it is impossible for God to lie, if God were to say to me: "David, you're 8 feet tall." Before I could get the words out of my mouth saying "no, I'm 6 feet 1 inch tall…" - I'd be 8 feet 0 inches tall! Why? Simply because God's word would cause it to be so.
God is so powerful that - as Nahum 1:5 tells us - that…
"The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it" (Nahum 1:5).
God is so powerful that no man can see him face-to-face and live (Exodus 33:20).
All the atomic weapons in the world combined couldn't rival one atom of His power.
As a matter of fact, God is so powerful that there's a special word in the English language reserved exclusively for Him and nobody else: the word is "OMNIPOTENT." That means "all-powerful."
I think that means God can handle the mess you've gotten yourself in to.
When it comes to supremacy, command, and authority, God is most assuredly the Planet's Most Extreme POWER.
Well, at this point, we're halfway through the countdown! We're talking about attributes of the Lord our God that are so extreme that nothing on earth, nothing in heaven, and nothing under the earth can compare with the majesty of Almighty God.
We're talking about the One who is going to lead us into 2004. This is the One that who says, "My presence will go with you and I will give you rest." This is the one who said in Hebrews 13:5, "I will never leave you nor forsake you!" This is the One who said "ALL authority in heaven and in earth has been given to ME!" and this same Jesus wants to be your Best Friend in the New Year - if you'll let Him!
His GENIUS is extreme. His PATIENCE is extreme. His GLORY is extreme. His HOLINESS is extreme and to be sure, His POWER is extreme. But although these are incredible qualities that our Lord King possesses, there's still more! The half has not yet been told!
Have a look at my #5 most extreme attribute of God...
#5 - The Planet's Most Extreme WISDOM
God is so wise. He doesn't possess a portion, part, slice, or fraction of wisdom, He IS wisdom embodied. Everything He does is just and fair and right (Proverbs 2:9).
There's not a single decision or plan He's made that wasn't perfectly wise. There hasn't been a solitary incident of Him saying or doing anything that wasn't the exact right thing to say or do. His counsel and advice are wise, His laws and decrees are wise, His commands and statues are wise. Even His rebukes and judgments are completely wise!
Without a doubt, God has a monopoly on wisdom.
"Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:3)
If that's not enough, the Bible teaches that ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ! (Colossians 2:2-3). And where is Christ? That's the mystery of the ages - "Christ in you, the hope of glory!" (Colossians 1:27).
Compared to God, man's wisdom is foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:20), and yet God has generously consented to share His wisdom with whoever needs it.
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5).
When it comes to being intelligent, prudent, and judicious, God most certainly wins the award for the Planet's Most Extreme WISDOM.
Coming in at #4, please consider that God is also…
#4. The Planet's Most Extreme DREAMER.
God is such a dreamer. You see, in the beginning there was a perfect God walking in the cool of the day through a perfect garden on a perfect earth with a perfect atmosphere and perfect environment in perfect balance with a perfect man and a perfect woman in perfect fellowship with each other and God. That's what's called "paradise."
Enter sin…and the rest is history.
Now listen to this: God's dream is to restore fallen mankind back to that original state. He's not going to just refurbish or remodel the planet, He's going to make it brand new!
Let's take a quick look at a couple of verses out of the Book of Revelation:
"He [God] who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" (Revelation 21:5)
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea" (Revelation 21:1).
Before God concludes His plan for the ages, He's going to restore all that was lost in the fall of man. Before all is said and done, we are going to end up with a perfect God visibly and physically living with perfect men and perfect women on a perfect earth in perfect relationship with each other and God. (By the way, God will be on the throne and the devil, that old serpent, will be in the lake of fire!)
In my daily devotions I'm reading through Genesis right now and I just finished reading the account of creation. It never ceases to amaze me that in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, that He made all that real estate but only put two people on the planet. The earth is a large land mass 12,000 miles in diameter at the equator. Why do you suppose, then, that God only put Adam and Eve on the planet in the first place? It's because God is a Dreamer!
The Father's dream right from the beginning was to ultimately have billions and billions of sons and daughters on the earth that look like Jesus. And He sent Jesus to reconcile a fallen race to Himself and to challenge us with a Great Commission to go and win souls and make disciples so that His Father could have His dream fulfilled. When you say "yes" to God's Great Commission ("Therefore go and make disciples..." - Matthew 28:19-20), you are saying yes to becoming a part of making God's dream come true.
What a Visionary God is! Talk about positive thinking! This is one dream that is guaranteed to come true because it's God's dream.
When it comes to thinking big thoughts and dreaming big dreams, wouldn't you agree that God is absolutely the Planet's Most Extreme DREAMER?
#3. God, undeniably, is the title-holder of The Planet's Most Extreme GRACE.
God is so gracious. Grace means that you don't have to do it but you do it anyway.
Somebody somewhere once wrote that God's grace was amazing. Grace is the ex-murderer going to heaven. Grace is the former homosexual walking down streets of gold. Grace is the disabled man's body functioning properly again. Grace is the woman who once only used God's name as profanity who now cherishes that name and worships her precious Lord with all her heart.
There is no grace found on planet earth greater than the grace of God.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).
Jesus volunteering to leave the comforts and glories of heaven to intercept fallen humanity's death sentence was the single most profound act of grace in the history of the world.
Therefore, when it comes to unmerited favor, God has a corner on the market making Him the owner of the Planet's Most Extreme GRACE.
I'm thankful for God's grace, but I'm also thankful that God is…
#2. The Planet's Most Extreme GIVER.
God is so generous. There is no greater giver than God.
He gives food to the animals, sun and soil to the plants, and water for the creatures of the sea to play in. He gives weather and atmosphere and environment to keep things running smooth.
He gives man and beast the basic staples of life to sustain their existence, and yes, He even gives all creatures great and small the very breath of life itself.
His compassion knows no bounds as in His benevolence He gives time, money, resources, energy, willpower, choice, understanding, common sense, wisdom, self-worth, and a reason to live to mankind. And get this: God's generosity extends to everyone, good and evil alike! Even the wicked benefit from the kind, benevolent, giving hand of the Lord.
2 Peter 1:3 says it well what God has given us. The World's Greatest Giver through
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."
But God went beyond giving the basics of life or providing people with a higher quality of life, He went on to give a Gift that purchased for mankind eternal life.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
My dear friends, when it comes to giving, no one has yet to out give God! That's why God is the undisputed champion of giving and by far the Planet's Most Extreme GIVER.
And so we've come to end of our countdown. We've talked about various aspects of our God that demonstrate to us, unequivocally, that He is without equal. There is no God like our God, the Holy One that does awesome wonders!
But there 's outstanding quality about God that perhaps stands out more than any other. And that attribute is #1 in our countdown…[this would be the place where Animal Planet would put a commercial - but I'm not going to do that to you!] #1: God is the possessor of…
#1. The Planet's Most Extreme LOVE
God is so loving. As we come to the end of our countdown, we have examined several attributes of God that has recognized Him to be THE Most Extreme Deity. This great God we serve is not just the greatest of many lesser gods, He is in fact the One True and Living God! (1 Corinthians 8:6)
Although the Lord is strong, He has also chosen to be loving (Psalm 62:11-12). He is big enough and tough enough to be and do anything He wants to - after all, He's God!
What makes God so incredible, so wonderful, so extreme, is that
"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8).
The prophet Jeremiah commented that "His loving kindness and tender mercies are from everlasting to everlasting" (Jeremiah 31:3) and went on to say that God's plans for us are for good and not for evil (Jeremiah 29:11) - plans to give us a hope and a bright future.
God the Father demonstrated the full extent of His love for us in sending Jesus to die for our sins (John 3:16).
Jesus demonstrated the full extent of His love for us in agreeing to become the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world on the cross (John 13:1).
The Holy Spirit demonstrates the full extent of His love for us in agreeing to remain on earth in the hearts of every believer and lead and guide us continually into all truth (John 16:13).
In this God confirmed that "greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
When all is said and done, at the end of the day - as 1 Corinthians 13:13 says - there are three things that remain…
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).
We end our countdown of the Planet's Most Extreme with a quote from God Himself proclaiming His name in Exodus 34:6-8:
"And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped" (Exodus 34:6-8).
My question to you is: Will you follow the example of Moses the man of God and bow down to the God of all men?
DSR
4/12/04
NOTE: This thought was the text for a sermon I preached in 2003.
My daughter Abigail and I very much enjoy watching nature shows on television. She, like me, is fascinated at the wonders of nature and rightly so. God had done such a magnificent, spectacular, (fill in the blank with your own adjective), job in creating creation, don't you think?
To be sure there are vast wonders in the areas of astronomy, biology, physical science, geography, and all the other complex segments of our universe, but it's the animal world that has captured my daughter's attention.
As Abbey and I watch these programs together, it is my delight as her father to have opportunity after opportunity to teach her about the many facets of the Inventor of the animals - Creator God.
It was God who gave the Crocodile Hunter (Steve Irwin), and Jeff Corwin, and the explorers on Wild Kingdom, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel and all other nature shows something to talk about. In fact, as these scientists perform their excellent job of bringing nature up close and personal to the rest of the world by way of a television camera, they are also, whether they realize it or not, glorifying God who created the subjects of their commentary.
Abbey and I particularly enjoy a series on Animal Planet called "The Planet's Most Extreme." It's a show that counts down backwards from ten to one the most peculiar organisms in the natural world: The most extreme camouflage, the most extreme intelligence, the most extreme speed, the most extreme strength, and so forth. We love it!
I want you to know that this show is the inspiration for this "Thought About God."
It got me thinking about how God holds the title for "The Planet's Most Extreme." Extreme what? Let's take a look at some of the attributes of God that are unparalleled in this or any universe. Let's begin our countdown of what I think may be 10 of the most extreme characteristics about God. Coming in at #10, is the fact that God possesses…
#10: The Planet's Most Extreme GENIUS
God is so smart. Abbey and I get giddy with laughter as we look at the innumerable, incomparable, ingenious variety of wildlife on the planet! Recently we visited the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg (Tennessee) and saw colorful fish of every shape and size - it was fantastic! But God's genius and creativity doesn't stop with fish! In His creation are tiny and huge birds of every description - tiny birds like a hummingbird that can fly backwards and large birds like geese that somehow migrate thousands of miles back to their original nesting grounds.
God invented insects that look like they're from outer space! Yesterday, in my daily devotions, I was reading about the Noah and the ark and I had this funny picture flash through my mind of Noah feeding the animals and suddenly and instinctively he realizes something is biting his neck and - SLAP! - Noah squashes a mosquito and cries out: "What have I done? I've killed a species!"
Anyway, the genius of God has created critters ranging in size from microscopic to massive.
Moreover, it's not just what they look like, it's where they live and how God has crafted their bodies to survive their environment. Critters survive in the oceans, the lake and river systems, the savannahs, the desserts, the frozen wastelands of polar regions, the rainforests, the everglades - they flourish on top of the ground, underground, or spend their days soaring in the sky -- the ecosystem and chain of plant and animal life are beyond incredible!
I watched a documentary one time about volcanic holes in the floor of the ocean where the water pumping out of the earth's crust was superheated and poisonous and guess what? God invented tubeworms to thrive there! Friends, it would take a Genius to think all this up. And it did.
To believe that all of this was the result of a process called evolution takes more faith than to believe in the creation account.
Evolution basically says that TIME + CHANCE = EVERYTHING.
To believe that everything evolves over billions of years is tantamount to believing that you can throw a grenade into a print shop and out of the explosion comes an unabridged dictionary! If you believe that then you'll have no problem believing that the United States Navy can fire a cruise missile into an airplane hanger and out of that explosion will come the space shuttle!
No, things don't go from chaos to order all by themselves (investigate the "law of entropy"). You can look at your kid's room and figure that out! No, things don't go from simple to more complex all by themselves! Evolution is a THEORY, not a fact, and it's a bad theory at that based on lies and false assumptions.
You see, the earth has a very complex design, therefore it must have a Designer. Seasons follow a plan, so there must have been a Planner. Creation had a Creator, His name is God, and He is a genius!
It is Abbey and my firm conviction that when it comes to high intelligence and creativity, God is the Planet's Most Extreme GENIUS.
Coming in at #9 on the countdown of God's extreme attributes is that God is the owner of…
The Planet's Most Extreme PATIENCE
God is so patient. He's more patient that you or me or all of us called humanity put together. And it's a good thing too because if God were not patient, there would be no humanity. The Lord God could have, at any given time, spoken the word and the earth could have been reduced to a sterile ball of matter floating through space.
And it's not like we haven't tried His patience. By and large, every people group on the earth today has offended God, transgressed His laws, and for the most part ignored Him.
As a matter of fact, the Bibles predicts a day in which the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth to claim His Bride, the Church, and leave the rest of humanity to contend with a period of history known as "The Great Tribulation." What's preventing Him from showing up? Patience.
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
I could go on and but suffice it to say that God is the clear winner when it comes to longsuffering and exercises the Planet's Most Extreme PATIENCE.
#8 - God possesses The Planet's Most Extreme GLORY
God is so glorious. In Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth, he writes "that no flesh should glory in his presence" (1:29). When we compare the glory of man with the glory of God, there is no comparison!
God is so great and so glorious that the angels in heaven bow down and give Him glory and praise with complete adoration continually.
His glory provided light in the beginning before there was a sun (Genesis 1:3) and His glory will illuminate the universe when the sun is extinguished in the new heavens and new earth at the consummation of the age (Revelation 21:25).
A man in the Bible named Saul got a glimpse of the glory of God and the brightness blinded him for three days (Acts 9:8-9). Peter, James and John caught a glimpse of the glory of God on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:2) and they instantly fell on their faces deeply afraid! The Israelites saw the glory of the Lord settle on Mount Sinai for seven days and it looked like a consuming fire (Exodus 24:16-17). When King Solomon was dedicating the newly built temple of God the glory of the Lord was so thick that the priests could not perform their service (1 Kings 8:10-11).
Friends, the glory of the Lord is beyond description and human understanding. When it comes to magnificence, splendor and wonder, the Lord God most definitely possesses the Planet's Most Extreme GLORY.
#7 - The Planet's Most Extreme HOLINESS
God is so holy. God is unspeakably holy. He is utterly good, flawless, sinless, He is perfection personified. He is so holy that there are living creatures in heaven right now who day and night never stop saying:
"...holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come" (Revelation 4:8).
It's a good thing God is holy. You see, if God were not holy, then Jesus' sacrifice on the cross would have been insufficient to purchase mankind's salvation and restore the severed relationship between God and Man lost in the Garden of Eden through Adam and Eve's sin.
But because God is holy, and Jesus is God, then His sacrifice was all-sufficient (Hebrews 7:27) and allowed Christ to die a vicarious and atoning death as the ultimate sin offering. It worked! Now, whosoever calls on the name of the Lord can be saved! (Acts 2:21).
Why? Because when it comes to sanctity, godliness, and consecration, nothing even comes close to God who has the Planet's Most Extreme HOLINESS.
#6 - The Planet's Most Extreme POWER
God is so powerful.
"And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light" (Genesis 1:3).
Can you do that? When God speaks, it is so powerful that whatever He says happens.
Let me illustrate the power of God's creative power this way. Since it is impossible for God to lie, if God were to say to me: "David, you're 8 feet tall." Before I could get the words out of my mouth saying "no, I'm 6 feet 1 inch tall…" - I'd be 8 feet 0 inches tall! Why? Simply because God's word would cause it to be so.
God is so powerful that - as Nahum 1:5 tells us - that…
"The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it" (Nahum 1:5).
God is so powerful that no man can see him face-to-face and live (Exodus 33:20).
All the atomic weapons in the world combined couldn't rival one atom of His power.
As a matter of fact, God is so powerful that there's a special word in the English language reserved exclusively for Him and nobody else: the word is "OMNIPOTENT." That means "all-powerful."
I think that means God can handle the mess you've gotten yourself in to.
When it comes to supremacy, command, and authority, God is most assuredly the Planet's Most Extreme POWER.
Well, at this point, we're halfway through the countdown! We're talking about attributes of the Lord our God that are so extreme that nothing on earth, nothing in heaven, and nothing under the earth can compare with the majesty of Almighty God.
We're talking about the One who is going to lead us into 2004. This is the One that who says, "My presence will go with you and I will give you rest." This is the one who said in Hebrews 13:5, "I will never leave you nor forsake you!" This is the One who said "ALL authority in heaven and in earth has been given to ME!" and this same Jesus wants to be your Best Friend in the New Year - if you'll let Him!
His GENIUS is extreme. His PATIENCE is extreme. His GLORY is extreme. His HOLINESS is extreme and to be sure, His POWER is extreme. But although these are incredible qualities that our Lord King possesses, there's still more! The half has not yet been told!
Have a look at my #5 most extreme attribute of God...
#5 - The Planet's Most Extreme WISDOM
God is so wise. He doesn't possess a portion, part, slice, or fraction of wisdom, He IS wisdom embodied. Everything He does is just and fair and right (Proverbs 2:9).
There's not a single decision or plan He's made that wasn't perfectly wise. There hasn't been a solitary incident of Him saying or doing anything that wasn't the exact right thing to say or do. His counsel and advice are wise, His laws and decrees are wise, His commands and statues are wise. Even His rebukes and judgments are completely wise!
Without a doubt, God has a monopoly on wisdom.
"Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:3)
If that's not enough, the Bible teaches that ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ! (Colossians 2:2-3). And where is Christ? That's the mystery of the ages - "Christ in you, the hope of glory!" (Colossians 1:27).
Compared to God, man's wisdom is foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:20), and yet God has generously consented to share His wisdom with whoever needs it.
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5).
When it comes to being intelligent, prudent, and judicious, God most certainly wins the award for the Planet's Most Extreme WISDOM.
Coming in at #4, please consider that God is also…
#4. The Planet's Most Extreme DREAMER.
God is such a dreamer. You see, in the beginning there was a perfect God walking in the cool of the day through a perfect garden on a perfect earth with a perfect atmosphere and perfect environment in perfect balance with a perfect man and a perfect woman in perfect fellowship with each other and God. That's what's called "paradise."
Enter sin…and the rest is history.
Now listen to this: God's dream is to restore fallen mankind back to that original state. He's not going to just refurbish or remodel the planet, He's going to make it brand new!
Let's take a quick look at a couple of verses out of the Book of Revelation:
"He [God] who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" (Revelation 21:5)
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea" (Revelation 21:1).
Before God concludes His plan for the ages, He's going to restore all that was lost in the fall of man. Before all is said and done, we are going to end up with a perfect God visibly and physically living with perfect men and perfect women on a perfect earth in perfect relationship with each other and God. (By the way, God will be on the throne and the devil, that old serpent, will be in the lake of fire!)
In my daily devotions I'm reading through Genesis right now and I just finished reading the account of creation. It never ceases to amaze me that in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, that He made all that real estate but only put two people on the planet. The earth is a large land mass 12,000 miles in diameter at the equator. Why do you suppose, then, that God only put Adam and Eve on the planet in the first place? It's because God is a Dreamer!
The Father's dream right from the beginning was to ultimately have billions and billions of sons and daughters on the earth that look like Jesus. And He sent Jesus to reconcile a fallen race to Himself and to challenge us with a Great Commission to go and win souls and make disciples so that His Father could have His dream fulfilled. When you say "yes" to God's Great Commission ("Therefore go and make disciples..." - Matthew 28:19-20), you are saying yes to becoming a part of making God's dream come true.
What a Visionary God is! Talk about positive thinking! This is one dream that is guaranteed to come true because it's God's dream.
When it comes to thinking big thoughts and dreaming big dreams, wouldn't you agree that God is absolutely the Planet's Most Extreme DREAMER?
#3. God, undeniably, is the title-holder of The Planet's Most Extreme GRACE.
God is so gracious. Grace means that you don't have to do it but you do it anyway.
Somebody somewhere once wrote that God's grace was amazing. Grace is the ex-murderer going to heaven. Grace is the former homosexual walking down streets of gold. Grace is the disabled man's body functioning properly again. Grace is the woman who once only used God's name as profanity who now cherishes that name and worships her precious Lord with all her heart.
There is no grace found on planet earth greater than the grace of God.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).
Jesus volunteering to leave the comforts and glories of heaven to intercept fallen humanity's death sentence was the single most profound act of grace in the history of the world.
Therefore, when it comes to unmerited favor, God has a corner on the market making Him the owner of the Planet's Most Extreme GRACE.
I'm thankful for God's grace, but I'm also thankful that God is…
#2. The Planet's Most Extreme GIVER.
God is so generous. There is no greater giver than God.
He gives food to the animals, sun and soil to the plants, and water for the creatures of the sea to play in. He gives weather and atmosphere and environment to keep things running smooth.
He gives man and beast the basic staples of life to sustain their existence, and yes, He even gives all creatures great and small the very breath of life itself.
His compassion knows no bounds as in His benevolence He gives time, money, resources, energy, willpower, choice, understanding, common sense, wisdom, self-worth, and a reason to live to mankind. And get this: God's generosity extends to everyone, good and evil alike! Even the wicked benefit from the kind, benevolent, giving hand of the Lord.
2 Peter 1:3 says it well what God has given us. The World's Greatest Giver through
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."
But God went beyond giving the basics of life or providing people with a higher quality of life, He went on to give a Gift that purchased for mankind eternal life.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
My dear friends, when it comes to giving, no one has yet to out give God! That's why God is the undisputed champion of giving and by far the Planet's Most Extreme GIVER.
And so we've come to end of our countdown. We've talked about various aspects of our God that demonstrate to us, unequivocally, that He is without equal. There is no God like our God, the Holy One that does awesome wonders!
But there 's outstanding quality about God that perhaps stands out more than any other. And that attribute is #1 in our countdown…[this would be the place where Animal Planet would put a commercial - but I'm not going to do that to you!] #1: God is the possessor of…
#1. The Planet's Most Extreme LOVE
God is so loving. As we come to the end of our countdown, we have examined several attributes of God that has recognized Him to be THE Most Extreme Deity. This great God we serve is not just the greatest of many lesser gods, He is in fact the One True and Living God! (1 Corinthians 8:6)
Although the Lord is strong, He has also chosen to be loving (Psalm 62:11-12). He is big enough and tough enough to be and do anything He wants to - after all, He's God!
What makes God so incredible, so wonderful, so extreme, is that
"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8).
The prophet Jeremiah commented that "His loving kindness and tender mercies are from everlasting to everlasting" (Jeremiah 31:3) and went on to say that God's plans for us are for good and not for evil (Jeremiah 29:11) - plans to give us a hope and a bright future.
God the Father demonstrated the full extent of His love for us in sending Jesus to die for our sins (John 3:16).
Jesus demonstrated the full extent of His love for us in agreeing to become the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world on the cross (John 13:1).
The Holy Spirit demonstrates the full extent of His love for us in agreeing to remain on earth in the hearts of every believer and lead and guide us continually into all truth (John 16:13).
In this God confirmed that "greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
When all is said and done, at the end of the day - as 1 Corinthians 13:13 says - there are three things that remain…
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).
We end our countdown of the Planet's Most Extreme with a quote from God Himself proclaiming His name in Exodus 34:6-8:
"And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped" (Exodus 34:6-8).
My question to you is: Will you follow the example of Moses the man of God and bow down to the God of all men?
DSR
4/12/04
Monday, April 5, 2004
The Forgotten Funeral
by David Scott Robertson
(Mat 1:18 NIV) This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
(Mat 1:19 NIV) Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
(Mat 1:20 NIV) But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
(Mat 1:21 NIV) She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
Can you imagine the inexpressible joy of being the adopted parent of Jesus Christ, the Messiah? That privilege fell to a man named Joseph.
In His wisdom, God the Father had chosen Joseph, a righteous man, to serve in the key position of earthly father to God's only begotten Son. Mary, Joseph's virgin fiancé, was of course selected by the Holy Spirit to be the human host to usher in the incarnation, that is, God becoming man in the person of Jesus the Christ. Joseph and Mary, although by no means a perfect couple, was the perfect couple chosen by Almighty God to entrust the care and nurture of His beloved Son.
So then, into the house of this humble Jewish carpenter, Jesus was carefully, lovingly, and providentially placed. What an honor! What a responsibility!
I'm curious, aren't you, if there ever was a time when Joseph had to speak sternly to Jesus as a toddler? "Don't go out in the road, son!" "Come over here and sit down." "Pick that up, Jesus."
When the Lord was 12 years old, He amazed the religious leaders with theological discussions over a three-day period in the temple while separated from His very worried parents oblivious of His whereabouts. Can you just imagine what must of have been running through Joseph's mind those three agonizing days? "Dear God, I'm supposed to be looking after your Son and I've lost Him!" The young lad Jesus calmly comforted His earthly parents when at last they located Him:
(Luke 2:49 NIV) "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"
So Jesus came home to His earthly father's house and continued to be obedient to them.
Throughout the remainder of His childhood, Joseph and Mary were there to provide for all the needs of the Savior of the world as He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52).
As a young man growing up in a carpenter's house, there must have been many years of hard labor involved in doing His part to support the family and assist His dad, Joseph.
"Jesus, I need you to go down to Ezra's and pick up a load of wood."
"Son, can you finish this table for me?"
"We've nearly out of nails, Jesus, I want you and James and Simon to make the trip to get more."
In his heart Joseph knew all along that his firstborn Son would not be carrying on the family business.
The Bible doesn't give us many details about Joseph's life and is completely silent about his death. It seems apparent, though, that at some point before Jesus entered His public ministry that Joseph passed away. We can deduce this from the fact that at His crucifixion, Jesus commits the responsibility of the long-term care of His mother to John, the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 19:26-27). (It's interesting to me that Jesus did not assign this task to James, Simon, and Judas, his half-brothers or His earthly sisters. Evidently, Jesus discovered first hand that Proverbs 18:24 applied to his beloved and trustworthy friend, John, "…a friend who sticks closer than a brother.")
Most of us know the heartache and pain of losing a loved one, and losing a father, the head of the family, is most especially traumatic. I wonder how Jesus felt when this crisis visited His own home? I wonder about the reaction of Jesus' brothers and sisters. I wonder about the crushing anguish that Mary must have experienced.
"Can't you do something, my brother?"
"Why does he have to die now?"
"Is there any other way, Son? Please ask your Father to heal your father."
I'm curious if losing Joseph - and Jesus' apparent inability to do something about it - skewed his family's view of Jesus and His destiny. It seems so because the scriptures record subsequent doubt and unbelief manifesting in his family in bizarre ways such as this instance captured in Mark's gospel:
"Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind" (Mark 3:20-21).
Friends of the family, neighbors, and those they went to synagogue with were no less kind in their estimation of who Jesus was:
"Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor'" (Matthew 13:55-57).
I wonder if some of the doubt and unbelief stemmed from a funeral many of them attended some time back, the funeral of Joseph, as they watched a nice family helplessly weep and grieve over their dead loved one.
But the Lord Jesus Christ would not be called to action ahead of God's timing. He would not be driven by emotions but by obedience to His Father's perfect will.
The time to unveil the miracle power of Jesus the Christ began not in a funeral parlor but oddly enough at a wedding feast. It seems the wedding party ran out of wine and Mary petitioned Jesus to do something about it. He responded:
"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come" (John 2:4).
No doubt at this point Jesus calls upon His Father God in brief and perhaps silent prayer for direction and quite obviously received it. Because His next act was His first miracle, transforming the water of six stone water pots into 120-180 gallons of high quality wine.
"This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him" (John 2:11)
The forgotten funeral of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Matthan, may have faded into the pages of unwritten history, but history is not yet complete.
One fine day, ten thousand years from now in the New Jerusalem, Jesus Himself may be walking down the golden streets as millions of people out of every nation, people, tongue, and tribe worship Him in humble adoration saying, "behold, my Lord!" At that time, there will be only two in heaven that have the right to say of the King of kings and Lord of lords, "behold, my son!"
DSR
4/5/04
(Mat 1:18 NIV) This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
(Mat 1:19 NIV) Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
(Mat 1:20 NIV) But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
(Mat 1:21 NIV) She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
Can you imagine the inexpressible joy of being the adopted parent of Jesus Christ, the Messiah? That privilege fell to a man named Joseph.
In His wisdom, God the Father had chosen Joseph, a righteous man, to serve in the key position of earthly father to God's only begotten Son. Mary, Joseph's virgin fiancé, was of course selected by the Holy Spirit to be the human host to usher in the incarnation, that is, God becoming man in the person of Jesus the Christ. Joseph and Mary, although by no means a perfect couple, was the perfect couple chosen by Almighty God to entrust the care and nurture of His beloved Son.
So then, into the house of this humble Jewish carpenter, Jesus was carefully, lovingly, and providentially placed. What an honor! What a responsibility!
I'm curious, aren't you, if there ever was a time when Joseph had to speak sternly to Jesus as a toddler? "Don't go out in the road, son!" "Come over here and sit down." "Pick that up, Jesus."
When the Lord was 12 years old, He amazed the religious leaders with theological discussions over a three-day period in the temple while separated from His very worried parents oblivious of His whereabouts. Can you just imagine what must of have been running through Joseph's mind those three agonizing days? "Dear God, I'm supposed to be looking after your Son and I've lost Him!" The young lad Jesus calmly comforted His earthly parents when at last they located Him:
(Luke 2:49 NIV) "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"
So Jesus came home to His earthly father's house and continued to be obedient to them.
Throughout the remainder of His childhood, Joseph and Mary were there to provide for all the needs of the Savior of the world as He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52).
As a young man growing up in a carpenter's house, there must have been many years of hard labor involved in doing His part to support the family and assist His dad, Joseph.
"Jesus, I need you to go down to Ezra's and pick up a load of wood."
"Son, can you finish this table for me?"
"We've nearly out of nails, Jesus, I want you and James and Simon to make the trip to get more."
In his heart Joseph knew all along that his firstborn Son would not be carrying on the family business.
The Bible doesn't give us many details about Joseph's life and is completely silent about his death. It seems apparent, though, that at some point before Jesus entered His public ministry that Joseph passed away. We can deduce this from the fact that at His crucifixion, Jesus commits the responsibility of the long-term care of His mother to John, the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 19:26-27). (It's interesting to me that Jesus did not assign this task to James, Simon, and Judas, his half-brothers or His earthly sisters. Evidently, Jesus discovered first hand that Proverbs 18:24 applied to his beloved and trustworthy friend, John, "…a friend who sticks closer than a brother.")
Most of us know the heartache and pain of losing a loved one, and losing a father, the head of the family, is most especially traumatic. I wonder how Jesus felt when this crisis visited His own home? I wonder about the reaction of Jesus' brothers and sisters. I wonder about the crushing anguish that Mary must have experienced.
"Can't you do something, my brother?"
"Why does he have to die now?"
"Is there any other way, Son? Please ask your Father to heal your father."
I'm curious if losing Joseph - and Jesus' apparent inability to do something about it - skewed his family's view of Jesus and His destiny. It seems so because the scriptures record subsequent doubt and unbelief manifesting in his family in bizarre ways such as this instance captured in Mark's gospel:
"Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind" (Mark 3:20-21).
Friends of the family, neighbors, and those they went to synagogue with were no less kind in their estimation of who Jesus was:
"Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor'" (Matthew 13:55-57).
I wonder if some of the doubt and unbelief stemmed from a funeral many of them attended some time back, the funeral of Joseph, as they watched a nice family helplessly weep and grieve over their dead loved one.
But the Lord Jesus Christ would not be called to action ahead of God's timing. He would not be driven by emotions but by obedience to His Father's perfect will.
The time to unveil the miracle power of Jesus the Christ began not in a funeral parlor but oddly enough at a wedding feast. It seems the wedding party ran out of wine and Mary petitioned Jesus to do something about it. He responded:
"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come" (John 2:4).
No doubt at this point Jesus calls upon His Father God in brief and perhaps silent prayer for direction and quite obviously received it. Because His next act was His first miracle, transforming the water of six stone water pots into 120-180 gallons of high quality wine.
"This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him" (John 2:11)
The forgotten funeral of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Matthan, may have faded into the pages of unwritten history, but history is not yet complete.
One fine day, ten thousand years from now in the New Jerusalem, Jesus Himself may be walking down the golden streets as millions of people out of every nation, people, tongue, and tribe worship Him in humble adoration saying, "behold, my Lord!" At that time, there will be only two in heaven that have the right to say of the King of kings and Lord of lords, "behold, my son!"
DSR
4/5/04
Monday, March 29, 2004
Don't Just Stand There, Do Something!
by David Scott Robertson
How often has the title of this thought been the cry of the world in your ears?
Is all inactivity bad? Is it a sign of weakness, laziness, or passivity? Can doing nothing actually accomplish something?
I suppose that "doing nothing" can be unproductive but I propose that "doing nothing with purpose" can be extremely productive.
There are times, more often than you might think, when the appropriate action might be: "Don't just do something, stand there!"
Haven't you noticed in the history of the world and in the history of your life that just "doing something" was very often the catalyst to your downfall? If your experience is anything like mine then you've discovered that very often taking matters into your own hands has gotten you into massive amounts of trouble. Or saying something stupid instead of holding your tongue has gotten you into incredibly complex situations. Later, in remorse, I have made statements like: "I wish I hadn't every said/done that!" In so doing, you and I have joined an elite club of wrongdoers - the human race! This is evident for the Bible declares:
"…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…" (Romans 3:23).
Wouldn't it have been better if Adam had paused before eating the forbidden fruit after Eve offered it to him and instead consulted with God later in the cool of the day?
Wouldn't it have been better if Abraham had paused to inquire of the Lord before sleeping with Hagar, the Egyptian slave, which resulted in the birth of "an Ishmael?"
The list of "what ifs?" is endless…
Science tells us that "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Can this similarly apply to our personal lives as well?
Could it be just as true that:
- For every impulsively bad decision there is an equal and opposite well thought out good decision?
- For every negative word curse there is an equal and opposite positive word blessing?
- For every idle moment accelerating into fruitless activity there is an equal and opposite active moment decelerating into fruitful inactivity?
What if we were to take it on faith that our plan of action should be to stand still until we first find out what God's plan of action is for the situation? After all, isn't God the One that recommended that we…
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" (Psalm 46:10).
Isn't God the One who instructed Moses to tell the children of Israel trapped in between the Red Sea and the murderous Egyptian army to:
"Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will show to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace" (Exodus 14:13-14 KJV).
Isn't God the One who instructed Samuel to tell a stubborn Israeli nation caught in the web of yet another self-inflicted dilemma when foolishly demanding a king:
"Now then, stand still and see this great thing the LORD is about to do before your eyes!" (1 Sam 12:16)
Isn't God the One that inspired Joshua to command that the sun to stand still so that a great victory could be won?
"On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: "O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."
So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!" (Joshua 10:12-14).
Perhaps in your own life there can dawn a day that has never been like it before when the Lord can intervene with miracles and signs and wonders but all He is waiting for is for you to quit striving, cease from your labors, enter His rest, and stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!
DSR
3/29/04
How often has the title of this thought been the cry of the world in your ears?
Is all inactivity bad? Is it a sign of weakness, laziness, or passivity? Can doing nothing actually accomplish something?
I suppose that "doing nothing" can be unproductive but I propose that "doing nothing with purpose" can be extremely productive.
There are times, more often than you might think, when the appropriate action might be: "Don't just do something, stand there!"
Haven't you noticed in the history of the world and in the history of your life that just "doing something" was very often the catalyst to your downfall? If your experience is anything like mine then you've discovered that very often taking matters into your own hands has gotten you into massive amounts of trouble. Or saying something stupid instead of holding your tongue has gotten you into incredibly complex situations. Later, in remorse, I have made statements like: "I wish I hadn't every said/done that!" In so doing, you and I have joined an elite club of wrongdoers - the human race! This is evident for the Bible declares:
"…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…" (Romans 3:23).
Wouldn't it have been better if Adam had paused before eating the forbidden fruit after Eve offered it to him and instead consulted with God later in the cool of the day?
Wouldn't it have been better if Abraham had paused to inquire of the Lord before sleeping with Hagar, the Egyptian slave, which resulted in the birth of "an Ishmael?"
The list of "what ifs?" is endless…
Science tells us that "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Can this similarly apply to our personal lives as well?
Could it be just as true that:
- For every impulsively bad decision there is an equal and opposite well thought out good decision?
- For every negative word curse there is an equal and opposite positive word blessing?
- For every idle moment accelerating into fruitless activity there is an equal and opposite active moment decelerating into fruitful inactivity?
What if we were to take it on faith that our plan of action should be to stand still until we first find out what God's plan of action is for the situation? After all, isn't God the One that recommended that we…
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" (Psalm 46:10).
Isn't God the One who instructed Moses to tell the children of Israel trapped in between the Red Sea and the murderous Egyptian army to:
"Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will show to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace" (Exodus 14:13-14 KJV).
Isn't God the One who instructed Samuel to tell a stubborn Israeli nation caught in the web of yet another self-inflicted dilemma when foolishly demanding a king:
"Now then, stand still and see this great thing the LORD is about to do before your eyes!" (1 Sam 12:16)
Isn't God the One that inspired Joshua to command that the sun to stand still so that a great victory could be won?
"On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: "O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."
So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!" (Joshua 10:12-14).
Perhaps in your own life there can dawn a day that has never been like it before when the Lord can intervene with miracles and signs and wonders but all He is waiting for is for you to quit striving, cease from your labors, enter His rest, and stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!
DSR
3/29/04
Monday, March 22, 2004
Passionate Zeal
by David Scott Robertson
"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest has turned my anger away from the Israelites by displaying passionate zeal among them on my behalf. So I have stopped destroying all Israel as I had intended to do in my anger. So tell him that I am making my special covenant of peace with him. In this covenant, he and his descendants will be priests for all time, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.'" - Numbers 25:10-13
God is a zealous God. One of His attributes most certainly is zeal. Zeal is a funny little word that basically describes an attitude of deep devotion or passionate commitment to something or someone.
If you take a few moments and track God's zeal through the scriptures, you'll find it surfacing again and again (Deuteronomy. 29:20; 2 Kings 19:31; Isaiah 26:11; Isaiah 37:32; Isaiah 42:13; Isaiah 59:17; Isaiah 63:15; Ezekiel 5:13; Ezekiel 36:5; Ezekiel 38:19).
It was the zeal of the Lord that accomplished the salvation of the world through the advent of the Messiah, Jesus the Christ:
"Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this" (Isaiah 9:7 NIV).
Jesus, the Son of God, carried on the family tradition by displaying His zeal as He was inaugurating the New Covenant between God and man:
"To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" His disciples remembered that it is written: 'Zeal for your house will consume me'" (John 2:16-17).
When Jesus was selecting His twelve, the inner circle of disciples that He would personally mentor and commission to carry on after His earthly departure, He selected a man named Simon, a zealot (Luke 6:15). Simon was a militant radical. According to Holman's Bible Dictionary, a zealot was "one who acted with great zeal. The term came to designate a particular segment of the Jewish population who continually tried to overthrow foreign oppression, especially the Roman rule in Palestine."
God exalted a man in the Old Testament named Jehu because this man had a passionate commitment to expunge Baal worship from the land (1 Kings 10:28), a practice that God detested:
"Jehu said, "Come with me and see my zeal for the LORD." Then he had him ride along in his chariot (2 Kings 10:16) en route to assemble and assassinate the priests of Baal.
You see it over and over again in the Bible text, men and women being zealous for the Lord and God exalting and promoting them because of it.
Zeal is good but it must be harnessed for the right cause or person. Proverbs 19:2 warns:
"It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way."
The religious leaders of Jesus' day were indeed zealous, but not for the things that God intended:
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness" (Romans 10:1-3).
In his zeal Saul (who later became the apostle Paul) persecuted the Christian church(Philippians 3:6).
The conclusion of the matter is that we can be sincere about something, but be sincerely wrong. Our sincerity, our passion, our commitment, our zeal must be channeled correctly under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to be credited to us as righteousness.
God is still looking for men and women today who possess the unusual quality of passionate zeal so that He can exalt them in due season.
How about it? Are you willing to ask the Lord for the "zeal of God" to consume you? Are you ready to move on to a place of passionate commitment to the cause of Christ? Are you willing to separate yourself from billions of unbelievers and millions of believers by allowing God's passionate zeal to course through your spirit uninhibited by your fleshly desires?
I can't answer for you, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! We will love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength and lean on God to help us love our neighbors as ourselves! I served the devil much when I was lost, now that I'm a Christian, I will serve God even more!
"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11).
DSR
3/22/04
"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest has turned my anger away from the Israelites by displaying passionate zeal among them on my behalf. So I have stopped destroying all Israel as I had intended to do in my anger. So tell him that I am making my special covenant of peace with him. In this covenant, he and his descendants will be priests for all time, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.'" - Numbers 25:10-13
God is a zealous God. One of His attributes most certainly is zeal. Zeal is a funny little word that basically describes an attitude of deep devotion or passionate commitment to something or someone.
If you take a few moments and track God's zeal through the scriptures, you'll find it surfacing again and again (Deuteronomy. 29:20; 2 Kings 19:31; Isaiah 26:11; Isaiah 37:32; Isaiah 42:13; Isaiah 59:17; Isaiah 63:15; Ezekiel 5:13; Ezekiel 36:5; Ezekiel 38:19).
It was the zeal of the Lord that accomplished the salvation of the world through the advent of the Messiah, Jesus the Christ:
"Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this" (Isaiah 9:7 NIV).
Jesus, the Son of God, carried on the family tradition by displaying His zeal as He was inaugurating the New Covenant between God and man:
"To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" His disciples remembered that it is written: 'Zeal for your house will consume me'" (John 2:16-17).
When Jesus was selecting His twelve, the inner circle of disciples that He would personally mentor and commission to carry on after His earthly departure, He selected a man named Simon, a zealot (Luke 6:15). Simon was a militant radical. According to Holman's Bible Dictionary, a zealot was "one who acted with great zeal. The term came to designate a particular segment of the Jewish population who continually tried to overthrow foreign oppression, especially the Roman rule in Palestine."
God exalted a man in the Old Testament named Jehu because this man had a passionate commitment to expunge Baal worship from the land (1 Kings 10:28), a practice that God detested:
"Jehu said, "Come with me and see my zeal for the LORD." Then he had him ride along in his chariot (2 Kings 10:16) en route to assemble and assassinate the priests of Baal.
You see it over and over again in the Bible text, men and women being zealous for the Lord and God exalting and promoting them because of it.
Zeal is good but it must be harnessed for the right cause or person. Proverbs 19:2 warns:
"It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way."
The religious leaders of Jesus' day were indeed zealous, but not for the things that God intended:
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness" (Romans 10:1-3).
In his zeal Saul (who later became the apostle Paul) persecuted the Christian church(Philippians 3:6).
The conclusion of the matter is that we can be sincere about something, but be sincerely wrong. Our sincerity, our passion, our commitment, our zeal must be channeled correctly under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to be credited to us as righteousness.
God is still looking for men and women today who possess the unusual quality of passionate zeal so that He can exalt them in due season.
How about it? Are you willing to ask the Lord for the "zeal of God" to consume you? Are you ready to move on to a place of passionate commitment to the cause of Christ? Are you willing to separate yourself from billions of unbelievers and millions of believers by allowing God's passionate zeal to course through your spirit uninhibited by your fleshly desires?
I can't answer for you, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! We will love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength and lean on God to help us love our neighbors as ourselves! I served the devil much when I was lost, now that I'm a Christian, I will serve God even more!
"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11).
DSR
3/22/04
Monday, March 15, 2004
The Mixed Multitude
by David Scott Robertson
"And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle" (Exodus 12:37-38 KJV).
When Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt en route to the Promised Land, the Bible tells us that more than the children of Israel left Egypt that momentous day. A "mixed multitude" went with them. The New Living Translation says, "Many people who were not Israelites went with them, along with the many flocks and herds" (Exodus 12:38).
I don't know what it is about the "mixed multitude" that fascinates me, but it does.
The book of Exodus focuses on the mighty miracles that God performed to free His people from centuries of slavery in the idolatrous nation of Egypt but little is said about the mixed multitude that accompanied their hasty exit.
I hate to speculate, but I can't help but wonder about this non-Jewish people group who evacuated Egypt that apparently was so great in number that the Bible describes them as a "multitude."
Do you suppose some of them were slaves from other nations conscripted into hard labor along side of the Israelites? Were some, in fact, former Egyptian officials who defected because of their profound respect for Moses and a newfound faith in the great God Jehovah? This is not inconceivable since Exodus 11:3 tells us:
"The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people."
The influence of Moses transformed some of these pagans into God-fearing men as we discover in Exodus 9:20:
"Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside [when Moses prophesied a plague of killer hail was coming]."
Perhaps they and their households and slaves comprised part of the mixed multitude. Maybe the mixed multitude were foreigners from other nations who had settled in Egypt for economic reasons. There they may have prospered and flourished. But ten devastating plagues later, they were broke with no livelihood, no source of income, no hope and future. Perhaps they were once "free" but now were "enslaved" by debt.
Maybe the mixed multitude contained many "curiosity-seekers," those who wanted to go see for themselves the much talked about sacrifice that the Israelites were commanded to perform to their God and expecting to see some glorious manifestation of Israel's God.
Many, if not most of the mixed multitude, may have been an unthinking mob who just "went along with the crowd" not really knowing why but joining in the mass exodus anyway.
I could go on but the established fact remains that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people blended into the departing Israelite community as they left Egypt in a mass exodus.
Having been sufficiently motivated by the awesome plagues God sent on Pharaoh and his nation, they were convinced in the reality of the God of Moses and Aaron.
Furthermore, they experienced deliverance from death from the pursuing army of Pharaoh with orders to kill all those that fled through the Red Sea (Pharaoh probably gave orders to indiscriminately kill any of the mixed multitude who fled through the Red Sea with Moses.)
Shoulder to shoulder with their Israelite traveling companions, the mixed multitude would experience God's miracle provision in a barren wilderness. They watched, with their own eyes, as God performed miracle after miracle - the Red Sea swallowing the entire army of Pharaoh in one fatal blow - they saw the awesome Tabernacle and sacrificial system - they saw the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night leading Israel - they heard God speak to Moses and through Moses - they tasted bitter waters made sweet and drinkable and on and on. The mixed multitude even had their very lives sustained through the miraculous food supply from heaven that came to be known as "manna."
So, here is what I think would naturally happen to the mixed multitude in the subsequent weeks and months that follow.
They would all, without exception, convert to the faith of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They would become obedient to the Old Covenant requirements of the Law to please the great God Jehovah who richly provided them with a hope and future, even though they were foreigners of mixed ancestry (Nehemiah 13:3). They would do all they could to encourage the Israelites to faithfully serve their powerful God because associating with them had saved their lives.
But tragically, that's not what happened.
"Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt, and the people of Israel also began to complain. "Oh, for some meat!" they exclaimed. We remember all the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic that we wanted. But now our appetites are gone, and day after day we have nothing to eat but this manna!" (Numbers 11:4-6)
Their negative report apparently spread to every family in the twelve tribes of Israel for the scriptures say, "Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled" (Numbers 11:10).
Where am I going with all this?
I suppose we who have been delivered from the slavery of sin can identify much with the children of Israel in the time of the Exodus. Before we are saved, Satan is our evil taskmaster. While in sin, we are doomed to a harsh existence with the devil desiring to keep us in bondage and destroy our children and fruitfulness.
But just like God sent Moses to deliver His people back then, so God sends a deliverer to us in our day bearing the authority of God and the good news of the gospel. Like Israel leaving Egypt, we leave sin and through the waters of baptism we experience our version of the Red Sea passage.
Then we begin to walk in a wilderness led by the Spirit en route to a land flowing with milk and honey, that is, heaven.
While we are walking through our modern world, we have as our traveling companions a mixed multitude. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people who seek to influence us to depart from the faith and go back to "Egypt", back to a life of sin.
To me, the message of the "mixed multitude" is that it is fine to associate with people of other cultures and even religious persuasions. We can work with them, walk with them, eat with them, play sports with them, and even live next door to them permitting our children to play with theirs. However, a line must be drawn when it comes to allowing them to negatively influence us or our children to compromise God's righteous requirements of our lives and lifestyles. Our belief system which is based on the living and proven Word of God cannot be undermined by those who have never read it, understand it, let alone obey it.
There can be no tolerance of a murmuring spirit that causes division among the brethren, something that made the list of seven things that God hates (Proverbs 6:19).
So how do we handle the mixed multitude in our present day and age?
I think first we should understand that Jesus died for the mixed multitude. Those of us who are Gentiles and not of Jewish descent are actually part of the natural mixed multitude. When we receive Christ as Savior and Lord, we are grafted into the family of God and become joint-heirs with Jesus, and this by the grace of God. We need to understand that God is not willing that any of the mixed multitude should perish but that all should come to repentance and experience eternal life.
Next, I think we should ask God for wisdom (James 1:5) in establishing good boundaries in which to conduct our lives as the mixed multitude live among us. We need to let the light of the gospel shine through our lives (Matthew 5:16) that all may know that God lives not only among us, but in us.
Finally, we must adopt Joshua and Caleb attitudes that are resistant to grumbling, complaining, and murmuring and energized with faith. We must understand that we are well able to possess the lands that God has set before us, lands filled with more of the mixed multitude.
DSR
3/15/04
"And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle" (Exodus 12:37-38 KJV).
When Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt en route to the Promised Land, the Bible tells us that more than the children of Israel left Egypt that momentous day. A "mixed multitude" went with them. The New Living Translation says, "Many people who were not Israelites went with them, along with the many flocks and herds" (Exodus 12:38).
I don't know what it is about the "mixed multitude" that fascinates me, but it does.
The book of Exodus focuses on the mighty miracles that God performed to free His people from centuries of slavery in the idolatrous nation of Egypt but little is said about the mixed multitude that accompanied their hasty exit.
I hate to speculate, but I can't help but wonder about this non-Jewish people group who evacuated Egypt that apparently was so great in number that the Bible describes them as a "multitude."
Do you suppose some of them were slaves from other nations conscripted into hard labor along side of the Israelites? Were some, in fact, former Egyptian officials who defected because of their profound respect for Moses and a newfound faith in the great God Jehovah? This is not inconceivable since Exodus 11:3 tells us:
"The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people."
The influence of Moses transformed some of these pagans into God-fearing men as we discover in Exodus 9:20:
"Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside [when Moses prophesied a plague of killer hail was coming]."
Perhaps they and their households and slaves comprised part of the mixed multitude. Maybe the mixed multitude were foreigners from other nations who had settled in Egypt for economic reasons. There they may have prospered and flourished. But ten devastating plagues later, they were broke with no livelihood, no source of income, no hope and future. Perhaps they were once "free" but now were "enslaved" by debt.
Maybe the mixed multitude contained many "curiosity-seekers," those who wanted to go see for themselves the much talked about sacrifice that the Israelites were commanded to perform to their God and expecting to see some glorious manifestation of Israel's God.
Many, if not most of the mixed multitude, may have been an unthinking mob who just "went along with the crowd" not really knowing why but joining in the mass exodus anyway.
I could go on but the established fact remains that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people blended into the departing Israelite community as they left Egypt in a mass exodus.
Having been sufficiently motivated by the awesome plagues God sent on Pharaoh and his nation, they were convinced in the reality of the God of Moses and Aaron.
Furthermore, they experienced deliverance from death from the pursuing army of Pharaoh with orders to kill all those that fled through the Red Sea (Pharaoh probably gave orders to indiscriminately kill any of the mixed multitude who fled through the Red Sea with Moses.)
Shoulder to shoulder with their Israelite traveling companions, the mixed multitude would experience God's miracle provision in a barren wilderness. They watched, with their own eyes, as God performed miracle after miracle - the Red Sea swallowing the entire army of Pharaoh in one fatal blow - they saw the awesome Tabernacle and sacrificial system - they saw the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night leading Israel - they heard God speak to Moses and through Moses - they tasted bitter waters made sweet and drinkable and on and on. The mixed multitude even had their very lives sustained through the miraculous food supply from heaven that came to be known as "manna."
So, here is what I think would naturally happen to the mixed multitude in the subsequent weeks and months that follow.
They would all, without exception, convert to the faith of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They would become obedient to the Old Covenant requirements of the Law to please the great God Jehovah who richly provided them with a hope and future, even though they were foreigners of mixed ancestry (Nehemiah 13:3). They would do all they could to encourage the Israelites to faithfully serve their powerful God because associating with them had saved their lives.
But tragically, that's not what happened.
"Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt, and the people of Israel also began to complain. "Oh, for some meat!" they exclaimed. We remember all the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic that we wanted. But now our appetites are gone, and day after day we have nothing to eat but this manna!" (Numbers 11:4-6)
Their negative report apparently spread to every family in the twelve tribes of Israel for the scriptures say, "Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled" (Numbers 11:10).
Where am I going with all this?
I suppose we who have been delivered from the slavery of sin can identify much with the children of Israel in the time of the Exodus. Before we are saved, Satan is our evil taskmaster. While in sin, we are doomed to a harsh existence with the devil desiring to keep us in bondage and destroy our children and fruitfulness.
But just like God sent Moses to deliver His people back then, so God sends a deliverer to us in our day bearing the authority of God and the good news of the gospel. Like Israel leaving Egypt, we leave sin and through the waters of baptism we experience our version of the Red Sea passage.
Then we begin to walk in a wilderness led by the Spirit en route to a land flowing with milk and honey, that is, heaven.
While we are walking through our modern world, we have as our traveling companions a mixed multitude. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people who seek to influence us to depart from the faith and go back to "Egypt", back to a life of sin.
To me, the message of the "mixed multitude" is that it is fine to associate with people of other cultures and even religious persuasions. We can work with them, walk with them, eat with them, play sports with them, and even live next door to them permitting our children to play with theirs. However, a line must be drawn when it comes to allowing them to negatively influence us or our children to compromise God's righteous requirements of our lives and lifestyles. Our belief system which is based on the living and proven Word of God cannot be undermined by those who have never read it, understand it, let alone obey it.
There can be no tolerance of a murmuring spirit that causes division among the brethren, something that made the list of seven things that God hates (Proverbs 6:19).
So how do we handle the mixed multitude in our present day and age?
I think first we should understand that Jesus died for the mixed multitude. Those of us who are Gentiles and not of Jewish descent are actually part of the natural mixed multitude. When we receive Christ as Savior and Lord, we are grafted into the family of God and become joint-heirs with Jesus, and this by the grace of God. We need to understand that God is not willing that any of the mixed multitude should perish but that all should come to repentance and experience eternal life.
Next, I think we should ask God for wisdom (James 1:5) in establishing good boundaries in which to conduct our lives as the mixed multitude live among us. We need to let the light of the gospel shine through our lives (Matthew 5:16) that all may know that God lives not only among us, but in us.
Finally, we must adopt Joshua and Caleb attitudes that are resistant to grumbling, complaining, and murmuring and energized with faith. We must understand that we are well able to possess the lands that God has set before us, lands filled with more of the mixed multitude.
DSR
3/15/04
Friday, February 27, 2004
The Unrecorded Sufferings of Christ
By David Scott Robertson
Last evening my wife and daughter and I saw Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ."
Our reaction to the film parallels many positive reports you may have already read or heard. It's difficult to put into words the profound impact the movie has already begun to make in the lives of my family.
An eight-year-old child that I was escorting to the R-rated movie (with permission from his mother) asked me as we were going in if we were going to get Cokes and popcorn. My reply was "No, son. This movie is not entertainment."
Perhaps my eleven-year-old daughter Abbey summarized it best when I asked her reaction on the drive home from the theater: "Daddy, until I saw this movie I never really understood what Jesus did for me. Now I'm glad that I'm a Christian." We had her sleep with her mother last night while I slept in another room.
Our family prayed before we viewed the film that the Holy Spirit would do in us what He wanted to accomplish. I believe God is answering that prayer.
As I write this, the Holy Spirit continues to massage deeper truths into my spirit. I can't speak for anybody else but me, but I suspect the effects of this movie on my life are going to be far-reaching and it may take some time to realize its full impact.
It's now the "day after," and I find myself sitting in my office with the lights off meditating on the movie. The graphic scenes of Jesus' profound suffering that justifiably earned an R-rating are being played and re-played through my mind and are being engraved on the tablet of my heart.
Still, I do not believe that Mel Gibson and his associates were able to capture the full measure of the sufferings of Christ. I believe that his team has done a more than satisfactory job, perhaps even the greatest job ever by a group of filmmakers, in bringing this true story to the screen without including excessive and unnecessary embellishments or detractions from the gospel text of the passion of the Christ.
Still, I don't believe that any human being or group of human beings will ever truly know the full extent of the outpouring of God's love through Jesus' sacrifice, nor the depths of His suffering and abuse during the last twelve hours of His life.
My thoughts today, oddly enough, drift to imaginary conversations of Roman soldiers re-uniting back at the barracks after an unusually difficult day at work.
"What just happened here?"
"I don't know what came over me. My lust for blood was insatiable today."
"I can't believe I said the things I said to Him. I don't know where I came up with the curses I cursed Him with."
"Did you see Him stand up after we whipped Him the first time?"
"I can't explain my irresistible urge to ram that crown of thorns on His head. I couldn't help myself."
"When I spit in His face, He looked at me. I'll never forget that look."
"Malchus! Malchus! What's up with you?"
"Truly this man was the Son of God."
It is my conviction, not in a dogmatic way, but firmly nonetheless, that Satan and his fallen angels were there en masse at the passion of the Christ.
I also believe that at least twelve legions of angels were there, hands on weapons, poised to strike immediately at a single command of their King, Jesus. Agonizingly, it never came.
But it's the demons' powerful influence over human beings at the passion of the Christ that my thoughts drifted to seated in the darkness of my office this morning.
I believe they played a key role, spurred on by their bloodthirsty master, Satan, to influence Roman solders to set new benchmarks in cruelty, to work a crowd into a murderous frenzy, to whisper key phrases into the ears of religious leaders who parroted the evil words out loud to an insecure Pontius Pilate persuading him to accept their unreasonable request to release Barrabas and permit the murder of Jesus of Nazareth.
The unconverted, unregenerate Roman soldiers that day were morbid puppets manipulated and guided into saying and doing things I believe even hardened soldiers didn't normally do. But this was not a normal day. And Jesus was no ordinary prisoner.
As the scriptures say, "…at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6).
And at just the right time, the ex-archangel Lucifer and his demonic followers, who had been excommunicated from heaven along with their fallen leader, seized the opportunity to kill the Christ and orchestrate the greatest upset in the history of the world.
And Satan laughed in his arrogant pride.
Having said all that, I want to revisit a writing I released a long time ago called "The Unrecorded Sufferings of Christ." Perhaps it's time to think about such things. Perhaps it time for us to petition the Father not for a raise at work or another blessing to add to the list, but for a revelation of the cross; for a greater understanding of the passion of the Christ.
"The Unrecorded Sufferings of Christ - Revisited"
by David Scott Robertson
"He [Jesus Christ] was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not" -- Isaiah 53:3
Jesus Christ was familiar with the concept of suffering. You see, there's no teacher like experience. Jesus was well acquainted with the full range of pain that a human body can experience.
The climax, of course, the cataclysmic centerpiece of human history, culminated in the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus Christ. The bleeding began in the Garden of Gethsemane.
"And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground" (Luke 22:44).
And it did not stop until He was drained to the dregs on the cross. Much blood was sacrificed at the whipping post. The flogging, the flogging was horror and agony personified. The flogging scene from the movie "The Passion of the Christ" pushed me closer to the edge than I've ever been. As devastating as the flogging was, it was survivable. But the cross was fatal 100% of the time.
We read the Bible narrative about the horrors of crucifixion. And there is no short supply on the Internet of commentaries that add to our understanding of how death is achieved on a cross. Medical doctors have written detailed explanations of what physiologically happens to the human body during the actual process of dying in this brutal manner. Although history books can tell us about the particulars of a victim being nailed to a cross, they cannot adequately communicate the level of suffering that takes place upon it.
Here is what I want you to consider today: Were there other unrecorded sufferings of Christ? Could it be that the half has not yet been told? Is it possible that Jesus endured more, much more suffering than at first believed?
Perhaps additional sufferings took unorthodox and unaccounted for forms. It would be impossible to refer to these as "lesser" sufferings. God alone knows the full extent of the agony that took place that day. Point your attention, if only for a moment, to the subtle sufferings of Jesus the Christ…
Consider this one fact and ponder its profound implications: The hands of Jesus Christ were immobile while nailed to the cross. He was incapacitated. His hands could not perform routine duties that hands are designed to do.
I think about the flies that must have been drawn to Him by the smell of blood; biting flies with no way for Jesus to flick them off.
Have you ever had a broken arm or known someone in a cast? Have you watched a friend go crazy trying to scratch an itch they couldn't get to? Was this the case of our Lord?
Ever had a cramp or a "charley-horse" in your leg while in bed asleep and the only thing that brings relief is to jump out of bed immediately and walk it out? If Jesus had any cramps He could do nothing about it except grunt and bear it.
Do you think He had a headache that day? Have you ever had a head-on collision with something or somebody and knocked yourself silly? The Lord had several head-on collisions that day.
"…and they twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. 'Hail, king of the Jews!' they said.
They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again" (Matthew 27:29-30).
No aspirin or medication for Jesus. The ultimate Pain Reliever had no access whatsoever to any pain reliever.
Have you ever been so thirsty that all you can think of is getting a drink? We know He was thirsty because He said on the cross, "I thirst" (John 19:28). I'm sure Jesus' thirst was beyond anything you or I have ever experienced. Psalm 22:15 prophetically captures a few of Jesus' words on the cross:
"My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death."
Have you ever "pulled a muscle" during work or exercise? Torn a ligament? Strained a tendon and had to go to an orthopedic doctor to get it checked out? I cannot imagine that Jesus didn't suffer all sorts of muscle pulls, rips, tears, strains and tender tissues being forced out of joint.
If a chiropractor could have x-rayed Jesus' spine after His death, what story do you suppose the x-rays would tell? What problems would an MRI reveal? What would the cat scan say? Not a bone broken, but as the prophetic Psalm of Christ on the cross, Psalm 22 says: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint."
None of us enjoy being subject to outside weather and the elements without having the proper clothing to regulate our body temperature. Jesus was at the mercy of the weather that day with no ability to adjust for it. Chapped lips? Sun in His eyes? Sweat in the cuts? Salt in the wounds? Cold? Hot? Too bad.
Have you ever had the unfortunate experience of having a bug fly in your ear? What's the knee-jerk reaction of your body? A finger immediately goes to the ear to help dig the pest out!
What if Satan sent a bug? Or bugs? Demons entered pigs one time (Matthew 8:30-32) so why not control bugs? Did the devil have the power to arrange it? Even a gnat can be a nuisance when it keeps dive-bombing your face. Flies? Mosquitoes? Spiders? Ravens? Crows? Vultures? Were they present and accounted for on Golgotha's hill that day?
Have you ever had a stopped up nose and needed to "blow it?" You reach for a tissue and you blow your nose. Jesus had no tissue and no reach to blow his nose or wipe His brow and dry up salty sweat in His stinging wounds.
Have you noticed that most artwork of the crucifixion depicts Jesus wearing an undergarment? Or was He, in fact, crucified naked? Normal crucifixion protocol called for complete humiliation and degradation.
Now what I am about to say is almost unspeakable, but…did the Son of Man have to "go to the bathroom" that day while nailed to the cross? If He had to obviously He couldn't go anywhere but on Himself.
Ever had a blood test where they prick the end of your finger? For most people the jab of a lance or a sterile needle drawing blood is an unpleasant experience. What about hundreds of dirty splinters raking over a raw, bloody back as Jesus labored to breathe? Just dropping the cross into the hole and the sudden jolt at the end would have caused most men to faint in pain.
What about when they tore His clothing off prior to putting Him on the cross? The coagulated blood had caused His garment to be like an adhesive to His skin and the soldiers carelessly ripped it off re-opening the wounds. We don't read about it but I believe it may have happened just that way.
From the foul-smelling saliva that was spit upon Him to the foul words that were vomited on Him from the very "enemies" for whom He was dying, Jesus endured unimaginable, and I believe unrecorded, sufferings on the cross.
None could compare, I suppose, with what I'm about to say. Pain of the body is one thing, but pain of the heart can be unbearable. Jesus had to endure the worst of the worst of sufferings while on the cross:
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
As Jesus' life ebbed away, the Light of the World began to flicker. As Jesus became sin for us, His Father in heaven who in the beginning said "let there be light" withdrew. And the Bible records: "From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land" (Mat 27:45).
For three hours the same darkness that hovered over the face of the deep before the world began returned, and the earth, in a way, once again became without form and void.
For the first and only time, God the Father had to turn His back on His Son who bore the sins of the world and prompted an agony so deep, so intense, so immense, that Jesus cried out:
"…'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?'--which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" (Matthew 27:46).
I write this thought today not to subject you to spurious thoughts carrying shock value, but to somehow try and wrap my own mind around the astonishing and lavish price that God paid for my sin and for your sin in order to adopt us into the family of God.
It's been said that the Son of God became the Son of Man so that the sons of men could become the sons of God.
Writing this thought today helps me focus a little bit more on the unimaginable horror of sin
and the incomprehensible price it cost God to redeem us from it.
Some have said that God paid much too high a price for us. Who can argue with that?
Nevertheless, Jesus paid a debt He did not owe, so we could gain a life we could not earn.
Given that, how can we doubt the love and caring concern of our living Savior? No matter what you face to today, consider the problem in light of the cross.
We've talked about the unrecorded sufferings of Christ, but we haven't even considered the unrecorded sufferings of God the Father who had to watch His Son, His only Son, suffer and die in such a shameful and painful manner. And all this for sinners, many of whom would never repent and embrace God's love at all despite knowing the facts of the passion of the Christ.
To my view, the only thing that could conceivably be worse than the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus Christ is for you and I to refuse to accept His sinless life and vicarious death as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
So then, let us take to heart God's passionate declaration of love forever settled in heaven, permanently written in His Holy Word, and infinitely memorialized as scars on the hands, feet, and side of His beloved Son.
The next time you are tempted to ask yourself, "where is God in all of this?" remember…
"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
DSR
2/27/04
Last evening my wife and daughter and I saw Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ."
Our reaction to the film parallels many positive reports you may have already read or heard. It's difficult to put into words the profound impact the movie has already begun to make in the lives of my family.
An eight-year-old child that I was escorting to the R-rated movie (with permission from his mother) asked me as we were going in if we were going to get Cokes and popcorn. My reply was "No, son. This movie is not entertainment."
Perhaps my eleven-year-old daughter Abbey summarized it best when I asked her reaction on the drive home from the theater: "Daddy, until I saw this movie I never really understood what Jesus did for me. Now I'm glad that I'm a Christian." We had her sleep with her mother last night while I slept in another room.
Our family prayed before we viewed the film that the Holy Spirit would do in us what He wanted to accomplish. I believe God is answering that prayer.
As I write this, the Holy Spirit continues to massage deeper truths into my spirit. I can't speak for anybody else but me, but I suspect the effects of this movie on my life are going to be far-reaching and it may take some time to realize its full impact.
It's now the "day after," and I find myself sitting in my office with the lights off meditating on the movie. The graphic scenes of Jesus' profound suffering that justifiably earned an R-rating are being played and re-played through my mind and are being engraved on the tablet of my heart.
Still, I do not believe that Mel Gibson and his associates were able to capture the full measure of the sufferings of Christ. I believe that his team has done a more than satisfactory job, perhaps even the greatest job ever by a group of filmmakers, in bringing this true story to the screen without including excessive and unnecessary embellishments or detractions from the gospel text of the passion of the Christ.
Still, I don't believe that any human being or group of human beings will ever truly know the full extent of the outpouring of God's love through Jesus' sacrifice, nor the depths of His suffering and abuse during the last twelve hours of His life.
My thoughts today, oddly enough, drift to imaginary conversations of Roman soldiers re-uniting back at the barracks after an unusually difficult day at work.
"What just happened here?"
"I don't know what came over me. My lust for blood was insatiable today."
"I can't believe I said the things I said to Him. I don't know where I came up with the curses I cursed Him with."
"Did you see Him stand up after we whipped Him the first time?"
"I can't explain my irresistible urge to ram that crown of thorns on His head. I couldn't help myself."
"When I spit in His face, He looked at me. I'll never forget that look."
"Malchus! Malchus! What's up with you?"
"Truly this man was the Son of God."
It is my conviction, not in a dogmatic way, but firmly nonetheless, that Satan and his fallen angels were there en masse at the passion of the Christ.
I also believe that at least twelve legions of angels were there, hands on weapons, poised to strike immediately at a single command of their King, Jesus. Agonizingly, it never came.
But it's the demons' powerful influence over human beings at the passion of the Christ that my thoughts drifted to seated in the darkness of my office this morning.
I believe they played a key role, spurred on by their bloodthirsty master, Satan, to influence Roman solders to set new benchmarks in cruelty, to work a crowd into a murderous frenzy, to whisper key phrases into the ears of religious leaders who parroted the evil words out loud to an insecure Pontius Pilate persuading him to accept their unreasonable request to release Barrabas and permit the murder of Jesus of Nazareth.
The unconverted, unregenerate Roman soldiers that day were morbid puppets manipulated and guided into saying and doing things I believe even hardened soldiers didn't normally do. But this was not a normal day. And Jesus was no ordinary prisoner.
As the scriptures say, "…at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6).
And at just the right time, the ex-archangel Lucifer and his demonic followers, who had been excommunicated from heaven along with their fallen leader, seized the opportunity to kill the Christ and orchestrate the greatest upset in the history of the world.
And Satan laughed in his arrogant pride.
Having said all that, I want to revisit a writing I released a long time ago called "The Unrecorded Sufferings of Christ." Perhaps it's time to think about such things. Perhaps it time for us to petition the Father not for a raise at work or another blessing to add to the list, but for a revelation of the cross; for a greater understanding of the passion of the Christ.
"The Unrecorded Sufferings of Christ - Revisited"
by David Scott Robertson
"He [Jesus Christ] was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not" -- Isaiah 53:3
Jesus Christ was familiar with the concept of suffering. You see, there's no teacher like experience. Jesus was well acquainted with the full range of pain that a human body can experience.
The climax, of course, the cataclysmic centerpiece of human history, culminated in the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus Christ. The bleeding began in the Garden of Gethsemane.
"And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground" (Luke 22:44).
And it did not stop until He was drained to the dregs on the cross. Much blood was sacrificed at the whipping post. The flogging, the flogging was horror and agony personified. The flogging scene from the movie "The Passion of the Christ" pushed me closer to the edge than I've ever been. As devastating as the flogging was, it was survivable. But the cross was fatal 100% of the time.
We read the Bible narrative about the horrors of crucifixion. And there is no short supply on the Internet of commentaries that add to our understanding of how death is achieved on a cross. Medical doctors have written detailed explanations of what physiologically happens to the human body during the actual process of dying in this brutal manner. Although history books can tell us about the particulars of a victim being nailed to a cross, they cannot adequately communicate the level of suffering that takes place upon it.
Here is what I want you to consider today: Were there other unrecorded sufferings of Christ? Could it be that the half has not yet been told? Is it possible that Jesus endured more, much more suffering than at first believed?
Perhaps additional sufferings took unorthodox and unaccounted for forms. It would be impossible to refer to these as "lesser" sufferings. God alone knows the full extent of the agony that took place that day. Point your attention, if only for a moment, to the subtle sufferings of Jesus the Christ…
Consider this one fact and ponder its profound implications: The hands of Jesus Christ were immobile while nailed to the cross. He was incapacitated. His hands could not perform routine duties that hands are designed to do.
I think about the flies that must have been drawn to Him by the smell of blood; biting flies with no way for Jesus to flick them off.
Have you ever had a broken arm or known someone in a cast? Have you watched a friend go crazy trying to scratch an itch they couldn't get to? Was this the case of our Lord?
Ever had a cramp or a "charley-horse" in your leg while in bed asleep and the only thing that brings relief is to jump out of bed immediately and walk it out? If Jesus had any cramps He could do nothing about it except grunt and bear it.
Do you think He had a headache that day? Have you ever had a head-on collision with something or somebody and knocked yourself silly? The Lord had several head-on collisions that day.
"…and they twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. 'Hail, king of the Jews!' they said.
They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again" (Matthew 27:29-30).
No aspirin or medication for Jesus. The ultimate Pain Reliever had no access whatsoever to any pain reliever.
Have you ever been so thirsty that all you can think of is getting a drink? We know He was thirsty because He said on the cross, "I thirst" (John 19:28). I'm sure Jesus' thirst was beyond anything you or I have ever experienced. Psalm 22:15 prophetically captures a few of Jesus' words on the cross:
"My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death."
Have you ever "pulled a muscle" during work or exercise? Torn a ligament? Strained a tendon and had to go to an orthopedic doctor to get it checked out? I cannot imagine that Jesus didn't suffer all sorts of muscle pulls, rips, tears, strains and tender tissues being forced out of joint.
If a chiropractor could have x-rayed Jesus' spine after His death, what story do you suppose the x-rays would tell? What problems would an MRI reveal? What would the cat scan say? Not a bone broken, but as the prophetic Psalm of Christ on the cross, Psalm 22 says: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint."
None of us enjoy being subject to outside weather and the elements without having the proper clothing to regulate our body temperature. Jesus was at the mercy of the weather that day with no ability to adjust for it. Chapped lips? Sun in His eyes? Sweat in the cuts? Salt in the wounds? Cold? Hot? Too bad.
Have you ever had the unfortunate experience of having a bug fly in your ear? What's the knee-jerk reaction of your body? A finger immediately goes to the ear to help dig the pest out!
What if Satan sent a bug? Or bugs? Demons entered pigs one time (Matthew 8:30-32) so why not control bugs? Did the devil have the power to arrange it? Even a gnat can be a nuisance when it keeps dive-bombing your face. Flies? Mosquitoes? Spiders? Ravens? Crows? Vultures? Were they present and accounted for on Golgotha's hill that day?
Have you ever had a stopped up nose and needed to "blow it?" You reach for a tissue and you blow your nose. Jesus had no tissue and no reach to blow his nose or wipe His brow and dry up salty sweat in His stinging wounds.
Have you noticed that most artwork of the crucifixion depicts Jesus wearing an undergarment? Or was He, in fact, crucified naked? Normal crucifixion protocol called for complete humiliation and degradation.
Now what I am about to say is almost unspeakable, but…did the Son of Man have to "go to the bathroom" that day while nailed to the cross? If He had to obviously He couldn't go anywhere but on Himself.
Ever had a blood test where they prick the end of your finger? For most people the jab of a lance or a sterile needle drawing blood is an unpleasant experience. What about hundreds of dirty splinters raking over a raw, bloody back as Jesus labored to breathe? Just dropping the cross into the hole and the sudden jolt at the end would have caused most men to faint in pain.
What about when they tore His clothing off prior to putting Him on the cross? The coagulated blood had caused His garment to be like an adhesive to His skin and the soldiers carelessly ripped it off re-opening the wounds. We don't read about it but I believe it may have happened just that way.
From the foul-smelling saliva that was spit upon Him to the foul words that were vomited on Him from the very "enemies" for whom He was dying, Jesus endured unimaginable, and I believe unrecorded, sufferings on the cross.
None could compare, I suppose, with what I'm about to say. Pain of the body is one thing, but pain of the heart can be unbearable. Jesus had to endure the worst of the worst of sufferings while on the cross:
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
As Jesus' life ebbed away, the Light of the World began to flicker. As Jesus became sin for us, His Father in heaven who in the beginning said "let there be light" withdrew. And the Bible records: "From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land" (Mat 27:45).
For three hours the same darkness that hovered over the face of the deep before the world began returned, and the earth, in a way, once again became without form and void.
For the first and only time, God the Father had to turn His back on His Son who bore the sins of the world and prompted an agony so deep, so intense, so immense, that Jesus cried out:
"…'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?'--which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" (Matthew 27:46).
I write this thought today not to subject you to spurious thoughts carrying shock value, but to somehow try and wrap my own mind around the astonishing and lavish price that God paid for my sin and for your sin in order to adopt us into the family of God.
It's been said that the Son of God became the Son of Man so that the sons of men could become the sons of God.
Writing this thought today helps me focus a little bit more on the unimaginable horror of sin
and the incomprehensible price it cost God to redeem us from it.
Some have said that God paid much too high a price for us. Who can argue with that?
Nevertheless, Jesus paid a debt He did not owe, so we could gain a life we could not earn.
Given that, how can we doubt the love and caring concern of our living Savior? No matter what you face to today, consider the problem in light of the cross.
We've talked about the unrecorded sufferings of Christ, but we haven't even considered the unrecorded sufferings of God the Father who had to watch His Son, His only Son, suffer and die in such a shameful and painful manner. And all this for sinners, many of whom would never repent and embrace God's love at all despite knowing the facts of the passion of the Christ.
To my view, the only thing that could conceivably be worse than the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus Christ is for you and I to refuse to accept His sinless life and vicarious death as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
So then, let us take to heart God's passionate declaration of love forever settled in heaven, permanently written in His Holy Word, and infinitely memorialized as scars on the hands, feet, and side of His beloved Son.
The next time you are tempted to ask yourself, "where is God in all of this?" remember…
"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
DSR
2/27/04
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