New Thoughts (12/23/04-12/25/04)
Before I move on to looking at the thoughts immediately related to this section, I must record what has been happening in me these last few days. This message of repentance, this message that has been ongoing for the last month or so, has not moved on to new topics, but has been building in strength. It has moved from the gentle whisper of a summer breeze to the roar of a full-blown hurricane. It has moved from being a thought and an idea, to being a concrete action. Repentance must take action. It can’t help but take action.
In the last few days, I have been moved to tears more often than I can remember crying in years. So, fine. I’ve been impressed by the way everything I’ve been studying and hearing has been focused on this message of repentance. “That’s so cool,” I think. And, yes, I feel that tug on my heart to cry out for repentance, but that’s been about it. Then, off I go to finish up some Christmas shopping. Truth be told, Christmas shopping has been more a chore and an annoyance to me this year than anything joyful, but this last shopping day I’m beginning to feel my heart settling into the right reason to be doing what I’m doing. Anyway, I go to the music store, and start wandering the aisles. “Hmm,” I think, “we could use some fresh Christmas music around the house.” Quite frankly, I’m bored stiff with most of what we have. So, I see something that looks interesting, and bring it home with the rest of my goods.
Well, I had the house to myself most of that afternoon. So, I put on this some music as I wrapped the things I had purchased. Done with wrapping, I went back to updating my website, as this new Christmas CD played. My first impression was simply that this stuff rocked. What a pleasant surprise. But, I noticed, as I was listening, that I was on the verge of tears. I couldn’t find a reason for it. It was just happening. I pushed them back, and continued what I was doing. Well, this one song comes on, and the message of the whole CD just came out. I hadn’t really looked much beyond the cover of the thing, so wasn’t aware at the time that there really was a message. There was. The message, in a nutshell, was “REPENT!” It was about living a life that showed the fruits of repentance – caring for those in need. Man! My eyes just flooded, absolutely flooded.
Listen, even as I was closing out the previous study in this set, it was beginning to hit. I’m writing, and at the same time, I’m thinking about how many winter coats I have, and wondering why. I’m thinking about how much and how well we eat as a family, and I’m wondering why. I’m thinking about all the surplus bounty God has been so kind as to bless us with, and I’m wondering why I think He gave it to us. There’s a change a-comin’! This CD just sealed the message, drove the nail home, convicted and convinced, and made the next step utterly clear in my mind.
Now, here’s the thing. That CD came out seven years ago. Seven years I’ve had to find out about it; me, who loves new music, and digs for what is fresh and creative. And it only surfaced before my eyes this year, this moment. May I remind me that there’s no such thing as coincidence (Jeff’s second theorem of faith)?
So, there’s this big, no huge, thing building up inside me. I’ve got to let it out. I decided I’d drop by the church and see if Pastor happened to be around, see if this same shout was being heard by anybody else, because frankly, it feels like something more than personal to me. I mean, there are messages God has for us personally, that really don’t apply to the Church at large. Then, there are those messages that demand a wider hearing, that He’s given to us, like those surplus goods, so that we can give out of it to everybody else. This feels like one of those things. I check with his secretary to see if he happens to be free. Shortly. Meanwhile, check out this music I found. Well, it’s that very same CD!
Man, I just poured out everything to my pastor, all that had been happening. I’m telling you, I couldn’t even describe to him the impact that one song had had without starting to cry again! And, once more, God laid before me proof that there is one Spirit that moves this church body. Yes, the message resonated, indeed, foreshadowed his own message for the closing Sunday of the year. There’s no such thing as coincidence! God drew me to his office for a reason: to confirm in his heart that what he was hearing was what God wanted heard.
But, He’s not done yet. I went back home. Again, I’ve got the house to myself, and again I turn myself to my projects. OK. I need some music to work by. My attention is drawn to one of Charlie Peacock’s older works, one I didn’t care for all that much when it came out, but it’s been growing on me. By now, it’s not going to be much of a surprise, but that same message is coming out over and over again. Repent! Get real about this faith thing! OK. Only mild tears this time.
Then, it’s time to get my daughter from school. Done. Bring her home. She’s got homework to do, but asks for some music to work by. OK. I can understand that. So, I dig out an old Caedmon’s Call CD, that I really didn’t like when I bought, but maybe I’ll give it another listen. Allow me to quote what came out:
“The Word of the Lord came one evening
Concerning His bride’s great sin
He’d send down His Word to renew her
To prepare for the Bridegroom again
The Word said, ‘Repent
From seeking vain glories
While gifts in the Lord’s name you give!
Repent of all the first stones cast to kill
While your own self-righteousness lives.’
…
“The Word said, ‘repent and turn from your strivings
Repent and turn from your hatred
Repent from the doctrines of men that divide
And tear like the wedding gown ripped.’”
Again, I’m obliged to point out that there’s no such thing as coincidence. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this CD since the day I bought it. It’s just been lying on my shelf for a couple of years, waiting for the right moment, God’s timing. The song itself, I’m just discovering, is even older than that. It’s an old John Michael Talbot piece from the late seventies. Never heard it before. Not once. The CD may have been in my player once, but I hadn’t really heard it.
God has made exceedingly clear to me what needs to happen. It comes right back to John’s message. It comes down to what the fruit of repentance looks like. It doesn’t require that I beggar my finances. It doesn’t allow me to settle for a quick prayer. It feels like it’s building to something that’s going to require a degree of boldness that is not typically mine. It’s a challenge. It’s a challenge to me, and I am reasonably certain it’s a challenge for the body. This is what I’m feeling: Tally up all that you’ve spent on Christmas this year, the gifts, the things you’ve bought for yourself, the decorations, all of it. Tally it up! Now, determine in your heart to give just as much to the needs ministries as you’ve just spent on yourselves. Don’t you dare go calculate whether you can afford it! You didn’t bother with that when it was for you! Just add it up. Don’t give your left hand time to catch on to what the right hand’s just put down on that check. Just do it!
You say you trust God, then trust Him! What is the fruit of repentance? Ask John! It’s very simple. If you have more than enough, give the excess to those who don’t have enough. It’s not about running to the altar. It’s not about feeling bad, about drowning ourselves in our tears. It’s about actually doing something. It’s about making open display of the faith we claim to have. There are three or more ministries our church is associated with that can see to it that any financial donations made to them will be used 100% to provide for the needy. One hundred percent! Those ministries are what real religion looks like. Those ministries are what faith looks like. They are quite possibly the ministries that are doing the most to make God famous, because they’re not just talking about Him, they’re living Him.
I want to close out this part with a quote from that Christmas CD that just focused the whole thing for me:
“If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask.”
The call to repentance does not stop. Nor is it strictly a time for painful self-assessment. Peter was a man who really understood first hand what repentance was about. At the time of his first sermon he had just been through an experience of thorough-going, all out repentance. He had hurt. He had hurt deeply. He had been drowned by the enormity of his failure. He wasn’t ready to face his fellow believers again, so he went fishing. Jesus, though, would not leave him in despair, but sent word to him, specifically, that the Christ was risen. He arranged to have breakfast with Peter, and for every betrayal that Peter had enacted, Jesus brought restoration in equal portion. Peter went away from breakfast a changed man.
Now, we come upon him delivering that first sermon. What does he have to say to those lost ones outside the upper room? “Repent! Return to God and let your sins be washed away!” (Ac 3:19). Look, we can feel as bad as we care to about what we’ve done, but until we are willing to return to God, until we stop letting pride keep us from going back to Daddy to say we’re sorry, He can’t make it better. If we have a necessary part in repentance, that’s probably it. Come back to Daddy. If we can’t bring ourselves to do even that much, you know what? He’ll come find us. But, that cleansing from our sins, that making it all better, isn’t the end of it. Not at all. It’s not just about feeling better. God has more for us! Listen to the witness of one who knows, our friend Peter, fresh from the font of repentance. His very next words, as he spoke to the people were these, “Be cleansed so that He can send times of refreshing to you from His bounty!” (Ac 3:20). He wants to send you the Christ. He wants to send you the Redeemer, the Appointed Salvation, the Balm of Gilead!
God has so much more in mind for us than simply to correct us. There is corrective punishment to be sure, but there is more. There is the need to recognize our own mistakes, and do what we might to make amends, but there is more. There is hope. There is the very real hope that He who alone is able will see to the work of repentance in us. The same Spirit who comes to us with the faith we need to believe is also present to convict us when conviction is needed, and to bring us to a real and earnest repentance. The same Spirit who is at work to sanctify us in our faith, is also present to empower us to walk in the repentance we have laid claim to. The same God who brings correction, who brings us to our knees in sorrow for our failures, also brings times of refreshing! Indeed, I’ve got to say that the times of repentance really are times of refreshing. That’s probably not true in the very same moment. Anguish is not something that generally refreshes. But, the effect of repentance, the impact of finally accepting that there’s a problem, and setting out on the course of correcting the problem, the power of knowing that Daddy has come to make things right with us; these things cannot help but leave you refreshed at the end of it. He does, indeed, turn our mourning into dancing, because our mourning is a Godly sorrow, the working out of our sanctification. And, what saint will not rejoice to find himself one step further along the way, one day closer to home?
Now, we need to be careful to hear the words of God through the apostles when it comes to this matter of the fruit of repentance. With John the Baptist, we must hold fast to the Truth that real repentance will bear fruit. Real repentance will manifest itself in works, every bit as much as real faith. However, we must be very wary of allowing this to return us to a salvation by works. We must hear, alongside John, the voice of that one who wrote to the Jewish Christians in the book of Hebrews: “Surely, by now you have repented from dead works. Surely, you have moved on towards real faith in God” (Heb 6:1b)! Works, even those works that John offered as examples of a repentant life, are not repentance, cannot accomplish repentance. There are many who labor all their adult life amongst the poor, yet never come to repentance. There are entire denominations that have gone off on the path of the social gospel, and left Jesus and God far behind them. These denominations know nothing of repentance, have lost sight of that simple reminder. They have returned to dead works.
Others are ready to leave everything up to God. They will put forth no effort, because they have heard that it’s impossible for them to really do, anyway. They haven’t understood, only heard. There are many among us who have accepted the impossibility of real repentance, of real righteousness, but we have accepted it with devilish leaven. We see the impossibility, so we don’t bother trying. It’s all up to God, anyway, so why should we put in any effort? It’s a lie and a curse to those that believe this! If that’s the belief we hold, it’s not faith in God. Faith in God has got to recognize, in the face of the impossibility of righteous living, that “with God, ‘impossible’ doesn’t apply” (Lk 1:37).
The rebuilding of our lives is no more impossible for God than was the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The liberating of our lives from enslavement to sin is no more impossible for God than was the return of the Jews from their exile in Babylon. It is entirely in His power to do, and it is solely in His power to do. Yet, if He is to do this on our behalf, if He is to return us to our homeland, and help us rebuild our lives, He requires something of us. He requires that we do our utmost towards that same goal. He requires that, in spite of our weakness, we throw all our strength into the effort. He requires that, even as we do so, we continue to acknowledge our weakness, and lean wholly upon His strength to see things through.
I saw, in the parallel verses to this section, this message from Paul to the Corinthians. “I told you before that if I come again, I will spare no man’s dignity in the face of sin” (2Co 13:2). This is not just Paul speaking to Corinth. This is the same message that God has been sending His church all year long! This is the cry for the bride to prepare. This is the cry for His people to repent. This is the deep concern of the Christ because He sees us replaying the role of the Pharisees in His first visit, and He cannot bear the thought of His bride missing out when He comes again. “I told you that if – no not if, when I come again, I will not spare your dignity. I will insist that you face your sin, confess your sin, see your sin for the hideous mass of death it really is.” But, my Jesus doesn’t stop there! From Paul, the message came out that those who sought proof that he really knew the Christ would find that He was of more than sufficient might to bring the rebuke for sin in them (2Co 13:3). For us today, that message is the voice of the Bridegroom. “I AM not weak, when it comes to you. You need rebuke. My Love is strong enough to rebuke you. You need cleansing. My Righteousness is big enough to cleanse you. You feel there’s nothing you can do, and you are right. But, I AM mighty in you.”
I love this! “I am not weak towards you, I AM mighty in you.” That’s the key to this whole Christian life! God is not so weak that He will allow us to slip away from Him. He who holds me in His hands isn’t going to let go. No demon in hell can prevail against Him. All the demons in hell combined cannot prevail against the smallest part of His power. No, He is not weak towards me. He will do whatever love demands. If I insist on my sins, He is strong enough to insist on an end to them, and He is strong enough to win. When I’ve decided to come to my senses, it is because He has had enough. It is because He is might in me. Sweet mystery of faith! I don’t understand how God, who cannot abide sin, can yet abide in me when I am rolling in filth, yet He does, and He picks me up from the pit, and He hoses me down, and He sets me back on my feet, and He says, “Come, child. Walk this way.”
God, this whole thing is simply so astounding. This whole week has been simply astounding. What You have been doing, well, don’t let it stop. What You have convinced me to do, don’t let any whisper change that course. I have heard You more clearly this last week than in a long, long time. You have indeed brought times of refreshing, even in the time of repentance. You have indeed shown Yourself strong in me, overcoming every obstacle that I have held in Your way, plowing down every mountain of pride, filling every valley of impossibility, until I have been left standing naked before Your pure eyes.
God, this whole thing is simply so astounding. This whole week has been simply astounding. What You have been doing, well, don’t let it stop. What You have convinced me to do, don’t let any whisper change that course. I have heard You more clearly this last week than in a long, long time. You have indeed brought times of refreshing, even in the time of repentance. You have indeed shown Yourself strong in me, overcoming every obstacle that I have held in Your way, plowing down every mountain of pride, filling every valley of impossibility, until I have been left standing naked before Your pure eyes.
Oh, there’s so much that still needs to be done in my life, so much work that remains. The things that You are draining out of me, they leave other, worse, things more exposed. It’s OK, I know. You’re exposing them to Your Light so that You can bring them to an end, but it feels awfully unfair to those who have to live with me in the meantime. Have mercy on them, Lord. Let them learn from my agony that no sin is maintained without a price. Let them learn from my trials that it’s so much better to listen to You when You can still be the still, small voice, rather than waiting for the roar of Your power insisting that change come now. Let me learn it, too. We still have a week ahead of us, not so undistracted a time as this last has been, but time, nonetheless. Seal to me what You have been doing. Set it in stone, Lord, that nothing can change it. Let this be the last time that we do battle with this stronghold. Storm the gates, tear down the walls, and put an end to it!
Here is one key factor regarding why this whole business of repentance is so important: It displays belief. It declares that we believe what God says, that we believe who He is, and we trust Him to do as He promises to do. If we believe that Jesus is truly Messiah, truly the Christ, then it is impossible that we should not put our trust in Him. If we believe God’s Word, if we accept His declaration that none, not even we, are righteous, then it is impossible that we should continue to trust in our own ability to make things right. If we really believe these things, we’re going to sound a lot like those people that were confronted by John. We’re going to be at a loss to know just exactly what to do, and we’re going to have to come to God and say, “OK, Lord. I know You are right. I know I’ve blown it. Again. I’m tired of trying to do what I can’t do. You tell me. What must I do?” Then, if we really believe, if our trust is really in Him and not still clinging to our own flesh, we must do what He has told us. If we won’t do, how can we say we believe?
If you tell your spouse how great your love is for them, and then go out and cheat on them, which of these things speaks the truth about you? If you say you love your neighbor, but you’re always out talking about the mistakes he’s made, the poor care he takes for his property, or the excessive pride he displays in keeping his lawn so perfectly, which of these things declares the truth of who you are? If you say you love the Lord, and then go on doing just exactly as you please, if you declare your commitment to Him, but can’t be bothered to do a thing for the homeless and the helpless all around you, which of these things declares the truth of who you are? Belief is always joined with obedience! If you believe Him, obey His words! If You believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, how can you even hesitate to do the things He has said to do? If you believe that a voice came from heaven and said, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” why aren’t you listening?
There came a time in Martha’s life when she was really being put to the test. She had been doing, doing, doing. It seemed to her at times that this whole ministry was nothing but work, work, work. She had learned from the Master that this was not the way of it. She had learned to stop working for the sake of working, to take a page from her sister’s book and find times to just enjoy the Teacher’s company, but she still felt that need to be doing what His lessons taught her to do. She had expended every ounce of effort to comply with His message. She knew it required more than she had in herself. She knew she had to lean on Him. She knew He was the Christ. Yet, still, her brother was in the grave. He, too, had shown himself faithful to the Word. What sort of prize was this, that he had attained to? Huh! This great friend hadn’t even bothered to come to his aid. Now, here He was to join the mourners.
This bitter experience, though, was come as a test, and nothing more than a test. Martha needed to see the next thing that needed doing. She needed to move to the next step. So, Jesus, come to the scene (too late, in her estimation) asks her “Do you believe?” They have been discussing her brother’s death. He has reminded her of the coming resurrection. He has reminded her that He is the Resurrection. He is Life. But, she can’t see beyond the theology of it. Oh, certainly, he’ll rise again on the final day, but her heart is devastated now. Jesus says gently, yet firmly, “I AM Life. Do you believe this?” (Jn 11:26).
Martha’s answer seems at once to display faith and unbelief. “Yes,” she says, “I have believed that You are the Christ. I have believed that You are the Son of God. I still believe it.” Then, she walked away to find her sister. She believed, but she had not yet believed fully. She hadn’t heard the promise of His Words. She was stuck in the doctrinal, in the theological, and hadn’t yet reached the moral import of what He was saying. Yes, You are God, and I shall stop from criticizing Your decisions. Here, I’ll go get Mary for You. She’ll appreciate Your company more just now. Look at it! When she sees Mary, she says, “The Teacher is here calling for you” (Jn 11:28). It’s not ‘The Teacher has come.’ It’s not ‘for us.’ It’s “for you.” He’s not here for me. He’s not here for Lazarus. The pain is evident. The pain of the testing has plugged her ears from hearing the Answer. But, her eyes are still open, and the Teacher will teach her through the avenue that remains.
Do you believe this? Such a simple question, and yet, like Martha, we often don’t answer the question that is asked. We give the answer that will make our unbelief sound like righteousness. Do You believe I AM Life, that I can, if I so choose, breathe life into whomever I desire, whenever I desire? Like Martha, we lie to Him. We’re too sophisticated to fall for that, but we’re to religious to admit it to His face, so we tell Him how we believe He is God. That’s wonderful, but it evades the question. He isn’t asking us to believe the vague generalities of divinity. He’s asking us to believe very specific aspects of who He is. He’s asking us to live out our belief in Him in the very specific situations of our daily life. He’s requiring that we accompany belief with obedience to His Word.
Martha’s answer was “I have believed.” She had believed the general truths, but she didn’t really believe yet. We’re like that. We believe in God. We believe He is good. We believe that the things that are recorded in Scripture probably really happened. OK, some of us might not believe that, but most of us do. But, when it comes to our own specific situations, many of us don’t believe He still does what He does. We believe there’s no such thing as coincidence, and yet we insist that some things are coincidence. We believe He is the Great Physician, the Healer who came to heal our diseases, yet we don’t allow that He can really do so now, what with all the advances that medicine and science have made. We believe in miracles, just not today.
By the time the day was over, Martha’s “I have believed” would become “I believe!” She would be forcibly moved from general platitudes about God and Messiah to a more absolute trust in His Word. What’s it going to take for us to do the same? Will it require that He once more raise somebody from the grave in our sight? Will we really require a sign of Him before we learn to take Him at His Word? He is Truth! When Truth speaks, when Truth makes a demand upon our time, how can we claim to have the Truth and not heed Him? How can we claim to believe the Bible is God’s own message to mankind, and refuse to use as directed? What’s it going to take for us to truly believe?
I think we run the risk of falling into the same trap that so many slipped into when the Son walked among them. It is displayed here, in what became of John’s ministry. The people’s reaction to John was symptomatic of a larger trend in Israel at the time. They wanted a Messiah. They didn’t, however, particularly want Him for any great spiritual reason. They just wanted to be out from under the thumb of Rome. Certainly, there were those that wanted the righteousness He would bring, as well, but the greater public concern was more for the power. They were looking everywhere for Messiah. They were so hungry for him, that they would run off after any oddball character that laid claim to the title. Radicals and rebels understood this, and played into the role to gain a following, and many died following after these imposters.
This was the same crowd that was coming to John. Here was another radical come out of the badlands. Maybe he’s the one. They really hoped he was. They were tired of waiting. They wanted the victorious King to be here now. They wanted to witness His army crushing to foreign oppressors. They wanted excitement. So, the looked to John, but John would not have any of it. “Not me! I’m just the announcer. I’m only here to get you ready for Him.” Wow! Nobody else had come out with anything like this! They all just took in the adulation and fired up the crowds.
For some in the crowd, the “Not me” part was all that got through. Disappointed once more, they walked away. For others, though, there was an increased excitement. Yes, he said he wasn’t the One, but he also said he was here to announce the One. If he was for real, then the time was now near! Israel would soon be restored to its former glory, and all these heavy handed heathens would be chased back into the sea.
Still others seem to have completely missed what John said. Indeed, it is a wonder and a mystery to me that his ministry even continued at all. He came to announce the One, and the One had come. He was on the scene and ministering in His own right. Why then was John still continuing? Well, certainly, there were those who still needed to be prepared. Truth be told, there is always a need for John’s ministry wherever Jesus is preached. There is always a need for real repentance before the Sun of Righteousness can shine upon us. Perhaps the greater shock is that any of his disciples remained with him when once he had pointed to the Light, and said, “there He is!” Yet, to the end of his days, he would have his own disciples, and to the end of his days, he would be laboring to make them understand that there was One greater.
No, He didn’t look like what they were expecting. No, He didn’t have any of the bearing of a conquering King. But, He was the Anointed One. He is the Anointed One, the Redeemer, the Salvation of not only Israel, but all mankind. Right to his last dying breath, he was faithful to point the way, but there would always be those who only heard what they wanted to hear. Decades later, John the Evangelist would still be dealing with these. There were those who wanted John’s martyrdom to mean more than it did. They insisted that his death somehow proved that in spite of his own words, he really was the Messiah.
They didn’t like the Messiah they had, so they invented one. Others had darker motives still. By promoting this false Messiah, they could enhance their own power. They could claim a knowledge greater than the apostles, and many would follow after them. They could claim connections that would allow none to gainsay what they claimed was true, and they could wrestle the less solid Christians away from the Church for their own use.
Watch out! This movement has never really gone away. All around, we can see folks creating Messiahs that suit their tastes better. The one who accepts the Messiah Who Is is the exception. Everywhere, especially here in America, people are trying to remake God in their own image. In an age of designer jeans and designer genes, we want a designer god. We want Him personalized to our own specifications, with all the options that we choose, and none that we don’t. In our age of enlightenment, when science has advanced beyond our wildest dreams, when knowledge has been exchanged for information, we are more and more convinced that we have outgrown God, so we dress ourselves up, and put ourselves on display, and say, behold! I am!
But, God is still in heaven, still seated upon His throne, not moved the least by our display, and He looks down upon His creation and says, “Behold! I AM!” He is not going to be the god we want Him to be. He will be Whom He will be. He IS, and He does not change, not for us, not for anything. Into the lie of modern existence, He still speaks His Truth. Into the darkness of our delusion, He still shines His Light. And some few recognize Him still. There is still, as ever and always, a remnant. They are found threaded through even the most disastrously misdirected denominations. They are found in the reformed church, and the charismatic. They are found amongst the Congregationalists, the Baptists, and the Catholics. They are not fooled by the products of liberal seminaries. They are not so overawed by degrees that they cannot read the Bible for themselves, and they are not so stupid as to chase after vain hope when Hope is standing right next to them. When so many are looking for God to be who He isn’t, the remnant continues to hold fast to the God Who Is. Even when He doesn’t look pretty to us, we will hold to Him, for in Him is Life and Light.
When the world asks us concerning this God we insist on clinging to, we may not have the sort of evidence they want. We may not be able to point to scientific experiments that prove the existence of God. They may not find in creation the evidence that is there. That’s OK. There are those among us, yes, who can speak on those terms. There are apologists and philosophers and professors who can address the intellectual concerns, and this is well and good. It is part of God’s plan. But, the witnesses, however they may speak, however simple their words, speak with authority! They speak with the assurance of those who know. The false messengers claimed a knowledge that wasn’t theirs. The believers, though, speak from a knowledge that comes from having been there. It is not just what we have been taught. Indeed, in large part it has little to do with what we were taught. It’s what we have seen, what we have experienced ourselves. No, it’s far more than feelings and impressions. Like Mary, we have laid up the events that we have undergone, and thought long and hard upon them. Like the Bereans, we have studied to see if these things were really true.
We have a knowledge that comes from personal experience. That is what holds the faithful firm against the onslaught of unbelieving ministers in the pulpits. They can preach their watered down, politically correct Jesus, but the faithful know Who He really is. They can declare the god they want, but the faithful will hold to the God who is. Listen, it doesn’t stop with that matter of personal experience. Those who have settled for experience alone have often settled for pipe dreams. No. The personal experience of Truth is our strong anchor, but it is strong because it has been built on Truth, Truth that stands up to the inspection of rational thinking, Truth that remains consistent, Truth that doesn’t have to change as new data becomes available. Everything about this God Who IS holds together. It all adheres as a perfect Whole. It does not require that we simultaneously hold two viewpoints that are at total odds with each other. It all fits.
That is the power of witness! Whether you can explain it in big words or not, whether you can really explain it at all, the power remains, because the power rests not in our words, but in the Authority behind our words. He will give us the words we are to say. It’s not our eloquence that will make the point. It’s not our towering intellect that will win over the opposition. If there is any winning over to be done, it will be God who wins. If we have any part to play in it, it will be as His mouthpiece, it will be the role of the prophet, testifying to God’s future events, God’s present events, and God’s past events, as He gives utterance.
Behold! The Child whose birth we celebrate today was not left to hang upon that Cross! Behold! He was born among men to die among men. He was come into the world to save the world. He died that we might live. That is the Gospel story. That is the King who came. That is the King who is coming again. He came, a Light in the darkness. He came, a Light not only the Jews, but to the Gentiles as well. He came, not only to save the Gentiles, but the Jews as well. He came, willing to accept all who would come to Him on His terms. He came to heal all who would admit they were sick. He came to find all those who realized they were lost.
And He has sent us forth, representatives of the Light. He has sent us forth to stand out as beacons of Truth, beacons of Purity, real purity. He has sent us forth to live in the sight of all, but not to live like we once did. We all have our past. We were all every bit as sinful as the sinners around us. But, Love has come. Light has shone upon us. The Holiness of God has invaded our darkness, and the darkness of our own soul could not stand against Him. He has stormed the gates of hell, and He has been victorious. Those gates were not hard to find. They were right in our own hearts. This gentle God of which we are taught, I know Him not. He stormed my gates. He came upon the fortress of my heart and utterly overwhelmed it. He has bared His mighty right arm, and He has vanquished me utterly. Who is like unto my God? There is no one!
All the powers of darkness cannot, in their combined strength, so much as approach His presence, let alone stand up to Him. Every knee shall bow at His coming, whether for joy or for fear. Every voice will confess the Truth of His Supremacy, whether freely or by force. His will will be done on earth as it is even now in the heavens – immediately and without question. He shall rule with an iron rod, but His children will not know its touch, for they will have already learned, like Martha, to believe, and in belief, to obey.
He is coming. No. He is here. He is present. He, even now, is exposing every hidden thing to His Light. He, even now, is demanding the purity of His church. All that claims to be His yet opposes Him in deed is being burned away. The chaff is already being thrown on the fire, and every work that is not His own will be consumed. Oh, that we may be found amongst the pure and precious gold that remains when the Refiner’s Fire has done its work. Oh, that we might be found a bride prepared, anointed in the precious oils of the Holy Spirit’s washing, wrapped in the pure white linen of Righteousness that He has provided for us, and come to our wedding with a dowry worthy of our Bridegroom’s Name.
