June 30, 2005

They are everywhere I go with one rather common complaint: “I want to be a true Christian, I’m a member of the church, I keep the Lord’s Day, I go to church, I pay my tithe, I give offerings, but I know that if my end should come today, I would not be ready. I do not love the Bible, I do not love to pray, what I do love is the world and self; truly, the story of the cross does not move my heart which is cold. What can I do?”

Surely there are many counselors wiser than myself. But may the Lord help me to encourage you:

1. Your last word is misplaced--it’s not something to “do” that’s the problem: you need something to “believe”--“whosoever believeth......” (John 3:16); “With the heart one believes to righteousness” (Rom. 10:10; but that’s what you say is your problem--your heart is cold).

2. The previous verse promises: “if you...... believe in your heart that God has raised [Jesus] from the dead, you will be saved.” You know that cannot mean a cold affirmation. There is something about “heart work” that’s lacking. Endless “works” but a cold heart leave you in fear.

3. The Lord Jesus is real; He is a Person; but you can insult Him. He says, “Come......” You MUST; and this will take some time, the quality kind. Maybe away from the cafeteria. And what you dread more than almost anything--silence. Radio, CD, TV, DVD--off. All “background ‘music’”...... off. In this interview you will be giving Him your full attention.

4. Your heart is empty, your soul starved; your mind is cluttered. You don’t need magic, or emotionalism. Even prayer or having someone pray for you may not be good enough; your soul needs something more than prayer. You need some spiritual food--“bread from heaven” (John 6:32). You need truth in your heart. Don’t get hung up on reading books or magazines ABOUT the Bible. READ THE BIBLE. The other “inspired” books can wait. No “inspired” author ever would dare tell you to read his/her books
instead of God’s Book, the Bible.

5. Read a faithful one. Its authors were inspired. If the KJV is difficult, read the NKJV; it’s accurate. The four gospels and Job in the TEV are wonderful (but not Galatians or Romans!).

6. Invite the Lord Jesus to give you His Holy Spirit. He will. “Wait on the Lord;...... wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalm 27:14). He has already taken steps toward you; now you take a step toward Him.

June 29, 2005

Is the Bible as a book (composed of pages bound as a “biblos”) destined to become out-dated and supplanted by computerized versions? Does our heavenly Father still regard the Bible (as a book) His message to the human race? We hear it said often that reading books is going out of date. “People just don’t read anymore! They watch movies and videos.”

The last words of John’s Gospel speak of “books that should be written” about Jesus as the divine Son of God (21:25, KJV). He commended the practice of “searching the Scriptures,” meaning the books or scrolls they possessed (5:39). He rebuked those who did not study and believe “the Scriptures,” saying, “You...... err” (Matt. 22:29). On the day He was resurrected He gave a Bible study to two of His disciples, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:25-27). He upheld actual Bible study.

We have no reason to doubt that He has the same burden of heart for us today--that we read, study, learn, what His Holy Spirit has inspired prophets and apostles to write “for our admonition,  on whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11, NKJV).

The vast proportion of inhabitants of the earth are not computer or Internet literate. And of those who are, they still love real books. What you take to bed to read before you go to sleep is a book. What you take to church or Sabbath School is a literal Book (with some few exceptions among Internet buffs). The ease of finding things in the Bible through flipping pages cannot be bettered, and for sure the practice of marking salient passages for future reference is efficient. Your Bible becomes your own intimately personal “word of God.” Fits you better than your shoes do. (Write in your margins dates and places where the Holy Spirit was very close to you!)

A prayer the Father loves to hear and answer is the request that the Holy Spirit “make known” His words to you (Prov. 1:23). Plead that He give you “a hunger and thirst for righteousness”(Matt. 5:6)--that’s the way of “happiness” (which is what it means to be “blessed”). And you’ll be surprised how often the Lord will  open doors for you to share treasures of truth you have discovered in your personal reading of the Bible. One thing, please: be modest about them; don’t drive sincere people away by being proud.
 

June 29, 2005

I have known the story of Jesus almost all of my long life, but it is more fresh and startling than ever.  Grace and I still have what used to be called “family worship” morning and evening; we are currently reading John in the TEV. Never has the hatred of God’s own people for the Son of God struck me as being so bitter and unreasoning; it’s straight out of hell! Never in the history of this earth has any one been so cruelly “despised and rejected  of men”(Isa. 53:3) The story of Jesus is the saga of eternity. To the extent that the universe is filled with intelligent beings, they marvel that people created in the image of God and redeemed by His love can be so devilish in their animosity toward the Son of God.

Now the world stands in a new relationship to God’s throne, never before known in its past: we have come to the hour of the cosmic Day of Atonement. It’s the hour Scripture has long said is the time when repentance for the rejection and crucifixion of the Son of God shall become complete and a people at last be fully heart-reconciled to the righteousness of God. One of the vivid metaphors that describes this “atonement” (or at-one-ment) is the “Bride” making herself ready for “the marriage of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:1-8). Out of the human race that is corporately guilty of this rejection of Christ comes (or will come) a “remnant” as intimately reconciled to Christ as a bride can be to her husband.

At the same time as this “atonement” is in process, the rejecters in the human race will crucify Him “afresh” in a final frenzy of hatred of God. The grand Day of Atonement is the hour for some to be fully reconciled to God, and also the hour of “judgment” for those who choose finally to dis-believe the Son of God. It will be the time for Revelation 13-19 to be played out, with all that the prophets have said long ago.  We have arrived.
 

June 29, 2005

It was 41 years to the day since three civil rights workers were murdered mysteriously in Mississippi. All these long years, justice has been apparently asleep. Then yesterday, a now 80-year-old man was found guilty of masterminding the murders. Many people will quote Numbers 32:23, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” But that’s small comfort to the three who died; they can only await final judgment.

Has the Holy Spirit had something to do with this history? The sight of an old man having to pay for what he did in his 30’s may be overruled by God for the blessing of young people the world around. And it’s been a salutary lesson that the three young people are vindicated who gave their lives for what they believed was a cause of righteousness. And it has also been a blessing that the indignation that stirred the national government over this crime encourages us that God does have servants in high places.

If you are one of many the world around who have had to suffer injustice unrequited, accept the comfort and encouragement that the Bible gives you. It chronicles the experience of unnumbered hosts who have had to suffer since the murder of Abel, the first martyr (Gen. 4:1-8). One outstanding lesson seems apparent in all the Bible stories: take your case to the Lord in earnest prayer, and then let Him handle it. He says, “Vengeance is mine,...... I will repay” (Rom. 12:19). That takes enormous self-control, to let the Lord handle it; and you can’t do it unless you receive “the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12). Nobody ever suffered greater injustice! Learn from Him. You don’t have to wait until eternity for redresss; the Holy Spirit comforts you now.