Where is thy sting?

Death has a way of making life seem short, and fragile and precious. It invades the comfortable rhythm of our commonplace days with a shocking finality! How can a friend, a spouse, a mother, be here one day in all her happy idiosyncrasies and gone the next?

Death does not come in a predictable way. While the aging languish in hopes of release from their bodies, others younger are taken in a moment in their prime. Some suffer long. For others the transition is abrupt-- with or without pain. But death inevitably comes to everyone, ever since Adam was put out of the Garden and prevented from eating of the tree of life. (Rom..5:14).

So I find myself with Moses' prayer on my heart: "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Ps.90:12 I can't help but think about the implications of death and the possibilities of dying. This reality is foisted upon us every time someone near us disappears. The temptation is to be fearful, or at least try to enact some preventative measures! This is valid if we are not confident of an internal, eternal Life being ours, guaranteeing we'll outlive the grave. But sometimes still, we as believers fall into a mindset that death is the worst thing that could happen, the end of everything, like a plague to be avoided at all cost, a 'work of the Devil' to be reviled, resisted, and resented. I wonder if this is valid?

Considering how our bodies are in fact destined for dust, corrupted by sin, and not fit for eternity (Rom.8:21) why would we want to hang onto them forever? Is a long life all it's cracked up to be? Really? Or is this thinking borrowed from a point of view whose hope is based in this lifetime? To paraphrase Paul: "If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world." (I Cor. 15:19) My husband regularly challenges my thinking in this way. We work hard to preserve our bodies. We pedal hard and fast, lift our weights and get our sleep. We eat our veggies too, and our chocolate. But there's got to be a point of balance between essential stewardship which enables us to do the 'good works prepared beforehand for us to do' Eph.2:10, and a dogged self-preservationism that turns our bodies into idols of a sort and sees death as the big bad monster come to rob us of our dominions!

There was a reason God banished Adam from the garden. Living forever in an 'as is' state, in a sin-infested world with a sin-bent nature is no picnic. What if it were to go on forever? No, the banishment was a mercy. The world had ceased to be 'user-friendly'. The garden had been infiltrated. Now Adam was destined to die physically, to toil, to groan and to hope for a salvation he could not yet see, that would only be fully realized after death. What if there were no death? What if we were stuck in time 'as is'? Death is our enemy and yet… even it serves God's purposes…

Consider this thought composed in verse:

"Death is the final blessing
Of this life.
The darkened glass
Will thin,
Become a sheet of smoke
And, suddenly,
We'll stand
In front of perfect Love.
He will hold out His arms
And we will run
Into their shelter
Safely home at last."

--Elizabeth Rooney, "Death" 5/11/86
in Gift Wrapped, Brigham Farm Publ.,p81

How can somebody call death a blessing, when Biblically it is called our enemy (I Cor.15:26)?!  After all, God is the God of the living. He has given us life. He has designed us to love life, to fight for life, to live life to the fullest… and yet, because He is God, He is able to use all things for our good. Just as nothing can separate us from His love-- not life, not death, not demons or disaster, so nothing can foil His purposes. Everything must serve Him--even death, even pain, even …(you fill in the blank) …. The Cross is the consummate example of this: "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts 2:23) Satan thought he was winning the day but God was calling the shots, orchestrating everything, winning the war!

Christ is the head of all principalities and powers. He has soundly whipped them and gathered the spoils. (Col.2:15) He is risen from the dead, accomplishing His reason for coming to earth--"that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Heb.2:14,15) Death's back is broken. It has become the believer's entrance into Glory!

We sing:

I just want to be where You are
In Your dwelling place forever
Take me to the place where You are,
I just want to be with You
[Listen Here]

Have we considered that death is the door to this place? These mortal bodies cannot stand in His presence. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." I Cor:15:50 Our bodies must put on immortality. While it's true that we are already new creations in Christ Jesus in one sense, our DNA has not been changed. Neither will it be till Christ returns and the trumpet sounds and both living and dead in Christ will rise, changed in the twinkling of an eye, given real live immortal bodies to house our already immortal souls. Then Christ Himself will put to death our last enemy, Death. I Cor.15:26  And we will reign with Him! Till then death is with us, yes, an enemy, but an enemy restrained by God Almighty and constrained to do his bidding.

There is no need to fear it, shun it or curse it. Yes, it is real. It will claim our physical bodies, sooner for some, later for others, (short of Christ's coming first!) But it cannot touch the eternal, immaterial part of a believer. Christ's life is ours. Though our outer shell is flaking, our inner man is alive and well, growing stronger by the day! Our 'light affliction', even when it seems horrendously heavy, is but a blip in the eternal framework and is said to be actually working for us an 'eternal weight of glory'. (II Cor.4:16-18)

Our troubles, our losses, our crosses are doing for our souls what weight-lifting does for the athlete. They're making our inner man tawny and brawny in anticipation of the great unveiling of the sons of God (Rom.8:19) when we will see Jesus as He is in all His glory and find ourselves transformed into His likeness I Jn.3:2. Somehow, all this trouble in these bodies—the physical pain, the mental anguish, and ultimately even death is preparing us for this outcome.

And in the meantime, there is this residing Spirit of God, this unfathomable love of God that wraps us 'round and helps us in our weakness to yet please Him. (II Cor.5:9) And by His power we live out this life we've been given for His glory and His Kingdom's sake till the dinnerbell rings and we are summoned Home. This the perspective I want to keep, till death do us all reunite.

May I commend to you a reading (here) of I Corinthians 15? There's so much there about the redemption of our bodies and of the new ones yet to come!

******************

"So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,

Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." I Cor.15:54-58

 

--LS

“Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” Number 23:10

“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” Rev.20:6

But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. I Cor.15:23-26

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. II Cor.4:17,18

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. I Jn.3:2

Swallowed up by Life

“He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”

Can you hear the tune of it… “This world is not my home; I’m just a-passin’ through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue… and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”  Hmm… Is that so? Seems to me I feel pretty at home. It’s only when life gets hard or someone dies that my perspective is shaken up a bit and re-focused…

A sister in Jesus died this week. She had not intended to. She was sure through all the treatments that the Lord would do a miracle, defy the doctors’ prognoses and heal her. We were kept updated week by week through the prayer bulletin on her ‘progress’ but never a word was said about the possibility (probability) of death. After all, we wanted her to live. We were to pray for healing, and that was that. She has been healed by the Lord now; it was not exactly the way many had hoped. Will their disillusionment fuel bitterness toward God, resistance to the Gospel, flight from church and prayer and all things ‘religious’? It won’t be the first time or the last. This is the third such death in recent days here…while others suffer stoically convinced they will be healed.

When is it ok to acknowledge: ‘She’s dying’ and to bring comfort and encouragement and remind ourselves of the hope of Heaven and cheer her on to enter the gates triumphant? When do we call a spade a spade—not till it’s turning the dirt we’ll rest beneath? I don’t mean to be callous but I have seen too much of this denial of sickness that is regarded as ‘faith’, and then when death comes unexpectedly, there is devastation, disillusionment, confusion, even blame-casting as we put the incident out of sight and mind as tidily as we can despite its inconsistencies with our belief system.

Is death really an indicator of failed faith? A shame? A tragedy? Has the Devil really scored a victory when a saint is ushered from this sin-sick world and forever removed from his reach?! Can God not raise up others to continue the forwarding of his Kingdom especially as it relates to the ones we love so much?

Those hearing the medical reports could see the signs of death’s approach. It was as though the demolition team were setting up camp at the landmark building next door. The signs were posted. ‘City Hall’ was petitioned—‘No please don’t tear down our cherished heritage home’—Petitions were denied. What value then in denying the inevitable, that this dear building is slated for destruction and its occupant will be moving on? Why not redeem the opportunity to affirm her citizenship and ours, to encourage and cheer on, to say our good-byes and learn from one so near to glory…We could certainly use the perspective! Does faith really necessitate denial of physical realities like cancer? Can faith not be evidenced in other ways, like going through suffering without demanding relief, confident in a Saviour who is with me to the end…

I’m all for praying for healing. God does intervene. He does miraculously heal and extend life. But where is the putting it in His hands and leaving it with Him to determine the extent of our days? Where is the peace and acceptance when the petitions are denied? Where is the teaching that to be ‘absent from the body is to be present with the Lord’(II Cor.5:8) —the eager expectation of better things? Why do we fight so hard to avoid the ‘far better’? (Phil.1:23)


Of course we are human. We instinctively fight to live. We are loathe to let go of the ones we have shared this lifetime with….We had a ‘dry run’ to the hospital ourselves two weeks back, summoned to my mom-in-law’s bedside just in case her situation didn’t improve. She was willing to think death might be imminent and she just wanted her children near. There was opportunity to talk, to listen, to cherish, which could have been lost had she refused to reckon with the possibility of death. The urgent crisis was resolved. She rallied with the attention of kids and grandkids from near and far. But her diagnosis is terminal… She is ready to die but busy loving and being loved in the meantime. I admire her matter-of-fact attitude toward death. It is not something to be avoided at all cost. She has never wanted to grow old and be a crotchety old woman dependent on other’s care. She has gone for prayer for healing but she would love best to see her Saviour. In the meantime she cares and prays for a multitude of offspring as she waits…

Paul talked like that: “We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight…and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (II Cor.5:8) But he was busy investing in people’s lives, seeking the Kingdom, making it his aim to please the Lord and he left the matter of whether he lived or died to the Lord. He was intent only on honoring the Lord in his body, whether by life or by death (Phil.1:20). I like that.

Of course this is all pretty theoretical until my turn comes…but I like to think that there is value in reminding myself of a perspective that is alien to this world…we are not citizens here. This is not home. If I am completely comfortable and intent on maintaining perfect health and accruing resources to make the duration of my stay comfortable, what’s up with that? That’s our culture’s mindset isn’t it?! A ‘certain rich man’ did that and was designated a fool for laying up treasure for himself but failing to be ‘rich toward God’(Luke 12:15) He wasn’t thinking that this night would be his last. And what was he amassing all that stuff for anyway? How aptly the King James version puts it: “a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” When I head home, I can’t take it with me.

So I’m thinking it’s a good thing to face the possibility of death squarely without squirming out of it with the ‘I’m going to be healed’ clause. Jim and I are always tossing around the idea of who will go first. He has volunteered. I assure him he’ll be fine without me and it would be better to let me go first. Yes, I’m just being selfish. The point is not pleasing myself, I suppose, but cultivating a Kingdom-seeking mentality, a desire to be with Jesus but at the same time an intent to please him with my life in the meantime.

Herein is a tension. He died for us so that ‘we might live with Him’ (I Thess.5:10) which is not ultimately a hope for this lifetime. But He has given us His Spirit as a foretaste of the real deal to come, as a comfort, as a living, breathing “God with us” reality. We know in our hearts as the modern chorus echoes: “There must be more than this.” And so there is. But no spiritual experience in this lifetime, no miraculous healing or soul salvage can fill the ache to truly be in His Presence as He has wired us to be from the beginning. If we get sidetracked staking our hopes in anything in this world or the benefits we can enjoy in this lifetime “we are of all people most to be pitied” (I Cor.15:19).


And every so often a window to Heaven is opened and our Home there seems nearer and dearer, usually through pain and loss. Once upon a time when we were young we stood over the casket of our own four-month- old on a rainy morning in a lonely cemetery singing “Jesus Loves Me” with a huddle of friends and family…It was a brush with death that forever changed the way we see life. It made Heaven a more familiar, welcome hope for us. We visited the grave this past weekend to scrub away the gathering moss and algae and to read again our second-born son’s name: Josiah John followed by the inscription: “He is healed by the Lord”. Only after he had died did we learn this was literally the meaning of the name Josiah. John adds to that: “the Lord is gracious”. Yes. Our God is gracious and our God heals. And we, the “people of His pasture” and “the flock of His Hand” (Ps.95:7) can entrust our lives to this One who is our Keeper in this lifetime and the next. We can trust Him who has pledged Himself to us ‘in sickness and in health’—this One who died to be our very life (Col.3:4) We do not grieve as those who have no hope beyond the grave (I Thess.4:13). And by His Spirit we have hope that the best is truly yet to come for it is not death to die…


Please take a minute to listen to this beautiful old song, newly rendered, which brings into perspective the hope that awaits us:

It is not death to die
To leave this weary road
And join the saints who dwell on high
Who’ve found their home with God

It is not death to close
The eyes long dimmed by tears
And wake in joy before Your throne
Delivered from our fears

Chorus: O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die

It is not death to fling
Aside this earthly dust
And rise with strong and noble wing
To live among the just

It is not death to hear
The key unlock the door
That sets us free from mortal years
To praise You evermore

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise
Come Weary Saints album.
(Sample/buy here. I own a copy; it’s good stuff!)

Original Words by Henri Malan (1787-1864). Translated by George Bethune (1847).
Music, Chorus and Alternate Words by Bob Kauflin.
-------------------------------------

For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. (II Cor.5:4,5)


--LS


…and a few more tidbits for thought…


As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way… we are treated as dying, and behold we live, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing every thing! (II Cor. 6:4-10)


Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable...For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." I Cor. 15:50,53,54


For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then [cometh] the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy [that] shall be destroyed [is] death.I Cor.15:22-26

The shining within…

It is the season of dying things…gardens, leaves, mosquitoes…and of funerals.  Our ‘small group’ lost a member this week.  Funerals have a way of bringing life as we know it to a halt and making us look at the life just beyond this one, the life we have a hard time keeping in view as being really real and accessible in the snap of a finger…The fellow who left us was born in 1965, making him younger than me.  He was a whole-hearted believer.  He was confident too that God would heal him, but the time-frame wasn’t what we earthlings had hoped for. 

This eternal life we’ve embarked on has no such limitations.  It goes on and on, but the best of it begins just where life as we know it stops.  There’s the bump in the road that causes so much grief—to the ones left waiting for their turn.

Paul saw life clearly in this respect, perhaps because he was given a glimpse of life in the heavenlies.  He came right out and said it: “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better”. (Phil.1:23) He had no delusions about life here being something to cling to for selfish reasons.  He had already dedicated his life entirely to the cause of the Gospel, intent on honoring Christ in His body, whether by life or by death.  Life here wasn’t about himself. (gulp)  Consequently, he was ready and waiting to go be with the One who was His Life.  And at the same time, he was content to ‘do his time’  imprisoned in his physical body if it would mean an opportunity to serve His Lord by building up His Body here and now.

Maybe I don’t fully share his perspective because my life here and now still has some ‘perks’ for me.  I’ve woken this morning for instance, in the home of my grandbabies!--here to visit for a week, and hear sweet baby talk and the patter of little feet racing to and fro for the sheer joy of it!
And there’s still beauty in this world. The drive yesterday was awesome, in the true sense of the word.  The dark evergreens are scattered with brilliant splashes of gold.  And reds and oranges punctuate the world before it fades to winter’s sleep.  Really quite remarkable that trees go through this surprising metamorphosis—leaves don’t just turn brown and crumble into nothingness. First there is the parting brilliance. For our brother this brilliance wasn’t seen in a supernatural gift of physical healing, but in the confidence that he would see us all later.  He went out declaring his to be a win/win situation--either “supernatural or see-ya’ later”.

Ha!  is that what is meant to happen in the fall of our lives?  We don’t just descend to the grave.  First we are alight with the hope of the world beyond, a glimpse of things eternal, a faith that overcomes our fears and lights our faces…the indelible mark of the Spirit of God housed within and breathing life eternal…O death where is thy sting? Grave where is thy victory?

This is where all the ‘good things’ of this life point isn’t it?  The innocence of babies, the carefree laughter of children, the beauty of nature—all are meant not to bond us to this world but to point us to the next, to point us to the place His glory dwells in its fullness.  A glory from which all the beauty and wonder and sweetness in this life is derived.  Ahh let me keep my bearings, celebrating this fall season and its glory, but not clinging.  Ready to live or die as pleases my Maker, for His glory…
I need to remind myself often of Paul’s perspective: “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body…” Phil.3:20,21

And I couldn’t help being reminded of it when I saw this picture taken by my sister.  It is of an old old house that stood all our childhoods abandoned on a neighboring acre… hidden from our view amongst trees…It stands clearly in view in this photo because all the surrounding trees have been cut down-- a housing development is moving in and this house is the last to fall, thus the picture just before the devastation… Reminds me of Paul’s words, and with them I close.

…though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal…


For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens…For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling…so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.  So we are always of good courage.  We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight  (IICor.4:16ff)

Do you see the brightness in that window?  As if something were shining from within?  May such be true of us—shining with the treasure inside all the days of our lives!

--LS

Good enough for me!

 I have to chuckle sheepishly to myself this week as I chew on some good words:
.“So much of our praise to the Lord is limited to the moments when we have determined that what He has done is good…in these situations we praise God for His faithfulness.” (Paul Tripp, War of Words, 74)

When things have turned out as we wished, when a prayer has been answered promptly with a ‘Yes, I’d be glad to do that’, when the sun shines and life feels good, it’s pretty easy to exclaim, “God is so good!” or “Isn’t God so faithful!”

Is He not good the rest of the time? Does His faithfulness lapse? And when that trying situation is not resolved and there’s no end in sight—am I quick to believe that God is good and faithfully at work despite what I can see and feel?

These are thoughts that challenge me. My heart’s been a little sad this last few weeks. My faithful hiking companion and ‘bear-dog’ injured his leg in a rush of bravado shooing a bear from the yard. That was nearly three weeks ago. It happened all in a moment but he has not been up to going on walks since, let alone climbing Scout or rambling off in search of new trails and making me feel ‘bear-safe’. I’m on my own and the sense of his absence is acute, especially when I consider the likelihood that his injury may not heal itself. There’s this great sense of loss—loss of a good thing, loss of freedom to hike with a carefree aloneness--the sense of loss that always comes with sudden change. But I tell you this because I am so encouraged by what I sense God doing in the backdrop of my sadness.


That first tear-filled walk alone I was bursting with tension between grief and gratefulness and could really not say much but “Lord, you know…” But there was deep gratitude welling up for all the good years He’s given. Eight years of carefree rambling and idyllic retreats with the Lord in His Creation. It was all so custom-made for my very own soul that I can’t really explain it. Can I complain if that season is drawing to a close? Are there new possibilities ahead that I would fail to see unless weaned from this delight? I don’t know, but I am so encouraged that God has planted in me this sense that it is all under His control and He is indeed working all things for my good.

Ha! There is a potential pitfall in expecting always what’s ‘good’. So quickly I can lapse into self-pity and doubt and begin to think I’ve been neglected, mistreated, etc… Our ‘good’ sensors are terribly out of whack, magnetized to self-centeredness. If it doesn’t please me at the moment, if it doesn’t ‘seem’ good, if it’s painful in any way… how can it possibly be good?! But God says He is working everything out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rom.8:28). Of course, one big adjustment we could give our ‘good’ sensors would be to orient them to what God’s purposes for us in fact are: to make us just like Jesus being the main thing! And the prescribed process is likely to include discomfort. (See: Heb. 12, James 1:2-4, I Pet.1:6,7) Funny how we get to thinking the discomfort is evidence that we’ve been forgotten, when in fact it’s quite the contrary. God is giving evidence that we’re His very own sons, being shaped for glory!!

So my trails have been abruptly halted, except for those I’ve taken with real people companions. These are increasing –a new thing growing? Am I being weaned from my solitary habits? Hmm… Can I trust that God is faithfully accomplishing all the good work He has promised to do in and through my life?

Absolutely, by His grace I can.

Do I yet have to fight anxiety some times when I don’t know what to do next with this faithful hound?

Yep. That too is part of the process. But ya’ know, the one bad night when the dog was acting agitated and senile, and I was very consciously busy ‘not being anxious’ but still not knowing what I should do, this solution came (thanks to my wise bedfellow): “Count your blessings”. You’ve heard of counting sheep, well that has never worked for me; but I can tell you that counting blessings does. My mind wandered back to the delight of getting to keep Louie when he was just an energetic two-year old…and I was asleep before the count of eight.

I’ve been giving myself doses of doctrine lately regarding God’s sovereignty, and find I just want to lap up more! For instance consider Nebuchadnezzar’s conclusions about God after his bout with insanity:

“I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?” (Dan.4:34-35)



If this God is in control of my life, need I ever panic (or despair)? Life is never really out of control and though I may be confused or not know what’s going on, God does. And I’m His. And He cares about every little detail. Isn’t that enough?


Or consider this inheritance we’ve been freely given:
“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Eph. 1:5,6

For that matter, look at the whole of Ephesians 1 and it’s pretty clear that God is the one pouring on the blessings, guaranteeing our inheritance, assuring us of a blameless stance before Him, sealing our adoption ‘papers’ with His Spirit… in short, doing a host of things we are helpless to do for ourselves, a host of things that beg the question: “If God be for us, who can be against us?!” Can any circumstance obstruct His purposes for us?

Ahhhh… to get to the point where I remember at every moment that He is active in my life, working in all things for my redemptive good. That would sure change the way I react to ‘problems’ wouldn’t it? If indeed, “God has us just were we need to be so that His purposes for us and His promises to us may come to pass,” (Tripp, 74) then what more could I wish for?


And the more I think about God’s sovereignty, the more I’m drawn away from worry and toward worship. God is so good and so faithful—all the time--and that’s good enough for me!

“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.”  (Ps.62:8)


“Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come--For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord from my youth—I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more—So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.” (Ps.71)


I leave you with a snatch of a favorite poem by George Herbert (a pastor and poet, 1593-1633) entitled:

Gratefulness


Thou hast giv’n so much to me,
Give one thing more, a grateful heart….

Not thankful, when it pleaseth me;
As if thy blessings had spare days:
But such a heart, whose pulse may be
                 Thy praise.



If you enjoy poetry, you’ll enjoy the rest of this poem found here: http://www.janice-campbell.com/2007/11/20/gratefulnesse-by-george-herbert/

--LS


P.S. I am indebted to author Paul David Tripp for encouraging my thinking along these lines in his  thought-provoking book: War of Words: Getting to the Heart of Your Communication Struggles in which he explores the implications of God’s sovereignty on the way we communicate.  Good stuff!

The Spirit—alive and well

When a strong, hard-working and talented craftsman sits slumped in mental confusion unable to fasten a snap or string two thoughts together into meaningful speech, the reality is clear.  The outer man is decaying.  The brain as a function of the physical body is wasting away.  What is left?

I have been mulling over these things with particular concern this past week as my own Dad has taken a sharp turn for the worse in his journey with Alzheimer’s.  How can I pray for him?  What understanding do I need in order to see things from God’s perspective?   Our bodies are described as ‘tents’ that house the ‘inner man’, temporary wind-blown affairs that grow tattered and burdensome, tents in which we groan in anticipation of the real deal, the imperishable version.

What resides in the tent that is our body?  A soul with an eternal destiny, whether that be endless torment or unending life!  As I understand it the soul is the very center of my being, my ‘heart’.  From it emanate the values and beliefs that shape who I am as a person.  So what happens when the brain goes ‘haywire’ and the body is no longer able to communicate who I am to people around me? [Incidentally, this belief in an immaterial part of us is not to be taken for granted.  Secularists will mostly deny it, and those who acknowledge an unseen reality want to attribute it to brain chemicals or some such ‘scientifically’ verifiable substance.] Who am I then?  Am I utterly alone in my plight? 

I was sitting here this morning considering briefly how to pray for my Dad when these words came to my attention: “Though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” (Rom.8:10)  A precious comfort is given to the believer, for not only does his ‘tent’ house his own soul, but God’s spirit has also come to dwell there.  He has brought to life the spirit of the man and is able to commune with him there by His Spirit.  The inner man is alive and well!  The Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are indeed God’s children. (Rom. 8:16) Sweet reality, no matter what is happening on the outside,  the inner man is being renewed day by day, ever being transformed into the likeness of Jesus.  This is the believer’s destiny! The whole creation is said to be waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.  Who’s to say whether Alzheimer’s cannot be part of the refining process by which God perfects his saints?  Does God stop working all things for the good of those who love him when they have lost their mental abilities?  Does His Spirit vacate its residence in us because of physical disease?  No, in fact His Spirit is given as a guarantee of our inheritance to come—that imperishable, undefiled, unfading inheritance kept in heaven for us, guarded by God’s power through faith. (I Pet. 1:4-9)

And it gets even better, there’s more to the work of the Spirit.  How am I to pray?  How is my dad to pray if his mind won’t work? When no one understands his confusion?  When he feels abandoned by his own family and sits forlorn chin in hands… Can the Spirit stir in his spirit to elicit prayer, to give comfort?  I believe so.  We are given a glimpse of the Spirit’s work in Romans 8: “the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (8:26-27) Does it get any better than that?! The verse following reminds that God is working in everything for the good of the one who loves Him.  What is this good?  Conformity to the image of His own Son—via choosing, calling, justifying, and at last glorifying! Is Alzheimer’s disease an obstacle to His purposes.  Will it separate one from the love of God? Assuredly not.   The lyrics to the powerful hymn “The Love of God” further attest to this fact.  Are you aware where the 3rd stanza originated?  It was found written on the wall of an inmate’s room in an insane assylum: 

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

So how do I pray for my dad these days?  I am praying from Paul’s prayers that God will grant him to be strengthened with all power through His Spirit in his inner man, so that being rooted and grounded in Christ he may be able to comprehend the full extent of God’s love for him and in so doing, be filled up with all the fullness of the God who is Love.  (Eph.3:16-18)

Not a bad prayer to pray for any of us I’d say—till we all come to maturity in Christ and the perishable has put on the imperishable. 

Praise be to God who leads us in triumph in Christ!  (I Cor.15:56)

May your New Year be filled with the awareness of the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord—Christ in us, our hope of glory.

…………………
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.
………………….

--LS