Running WITH PATIENCE

Posted on 23 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

Pastor Larry Rogier wrote yesterday about Ministering From and For the Long Term.

Some years ago in ministry I made a horrible decision. It didn’t disqualify me or split the church. I didn’t kill anyone, or preach heresy. But it was a bad decision.

I didn’t make this decision based on the memory of past years . I didn’t make it in anticipation of future years. I made it on the basis of six months. And I made it out of anger, hurt, frustration.

And I regretted it.

When I read his article, I thought again of the verse I cited earlier this week — “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

Patience means staying the course.  It means looking at the whole picture, not just the “right now” (or in Larry’s case, the last six months).  It’s easy for us to say that, but when you are in the middle of the “right now”, it is a lot harder to look at the entire race.

The most crucial point in a 10K race is usually in the fourth or early part of the fifth mile.  Everyone can find the mental discipline to push through on the last straight.  It is the runner who keeps discipline in the middle of the race who wins the race.  If you set a pace too slow, as if you were running a marathon, everyone will leave you behind.  If you want to be in first place RIGHT NOW, you might not finish.  If you are too tired for how far you have come, you might have to recognise it is “one of those days” and adjust your pace.  If you don’t follow the course, you’ll lose time or be disqualified.  You have to keep your mind on the entire task, how far you’ve come and where you are going.  This is at least part of what Larry is telling us.

One other paragraph struck me:

I lived out of fear, rather than out of care. I lived for immediate convenience rather than extended ministry. I lived out of hurt rather than courage.

When I read this, I thought of II Timothy 1:7:  “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”  What Pastor Rogier describes for us is fear instead of power and love, deciding “in the moment” rather than deciding with sound, disciplined thinking.

Decisions, whether “ministry” decisions or otherwise, should be made with the whole race in view.  May God protect us from short term decisions driven by the wrong motivations.  The race is set before us — may we finish it well.

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Praise the Lord, Sing Hallelujah!

Posted on 22 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

I’ll be busy today, so I’ll let someone else do all the hard work.  Pastor Don Johnson has a really good post up on Psalm 148.  It’s well worth it.

Yesterday, it left me singing (all day) to myself William Kirkpatrick’s version of Psalm 148, “Praise the Lord, Sing Hallelujah” (#5 in our hymnbook).  If you don’t know it, the words are below.  I found this video with the music, so you can play it while you sing along.   

Praise the Lord, sing hallelujah,
From the heavens praise His name;
Praise the Lord, our great Creator;
All His angels, praise proclaim.
All His hosts, together praise Him,
Sun and moon and stars on high;
Praise the Lord, O heav’n of heavens,
And the clouds that roam the sky.

Refrain

Praise the Lord, sing hallelujah,
For His name alone is high,
And His glory is exalted,
Far above the earth and sky.

Let them praise the Lord their Maker,
They were made at his command;
God established them forever;
His decree shall ever stand.
Let the earth sing Hallelujah:
Raging seas and creatures all,
Fire and hail and snow and tempests,
Stormy winds that hear His call.

All the fruitful trees and cedars,
Ev’ry hill and mountain high,
Creeping things and beasts and cattle,
Birds that in the heavens fly,
Kings of earth, and all the people,
Princes great, earth’s judges all;
Praise His name, young men and maidens,
Aged men, and children small.

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A Proverb for Today — Proverbs 21:2

Posted on 21 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2).

I posted yesterday about the graciousness of our God.  To understand “grace”, you need to understand that it is love that is undeserved, unmerited.  God doesn’t love us because we are good, He loves us because He chose to love.

Today’s proverb highlights that.  We might as well face up to it — we aren’t very good at measuring how good we are.  This is a common theme in the Proverbs.  Look at 16:2:  “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.”  20:6 says, “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?”

We are very skilled at convincing ourselves that we’re pretty good.  This is especially true if we’re in a conflict with someone — we seem to have a magnificent capacity to exonerate ourselves and blame “the other guy”.

The Bible tells us that the Lord is the one who weighs the heart to assess its quality.  The point is pretty obvious.  If you are trusting in your own assessment of your own righteousness, you are on thin ice in the middle of a loch, with clear water all around you, and the temperature is rising.  You are going to sink.

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The Lord is Gracious — “Sarah laughed”

Posted on 20 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

I mentioned in a sermon recently a time when one of our kids kept making “stupid denials”.  The evidence might be incontrovertible, the wrong-doing even observed by a parent, and yet the denials came.  Teaching on honesty and humility seemed to have no effect.

Finally, I concluded that it was a reflexive habit, and used a different approach.  I required a handwriting assignment:  “I will not make stupid denials, lest I have to write this 25 times,” written ten times.  The next time, of course, it was 25 copies, modified to say “lest I have to write this 50 times.”  The stupid denials stopped before we got to 100.

Yesterday, reading in Genesis 18, I remembered this again because it records Sarah making a stupid denial.  She knew it was a stupid denial.  She knew that God knew it, and that He knew that she knew it, but she denied anyway — because she was afraid.  She didn’t think about the fact that she was accusing God of lying, or about the fact that no one would believe her, or that she was making herself look like a fool.  She was just afraid, so she made a stupid denial.

10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?

13 And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? 14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. 15 Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh. 16 And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.

The Lord had told Abraham before that Sarah was going to have a son.  He had even told him the son would be named Isaac, which means laughter.

It struck me that God knew what was in Sarah’s heart.  He knew her fear and her lack of faith.  Knowing all that, He told Abraham again about the son who would be born, knowing that Sarah would laugh and knowing she would then make a stupid denial.

God doesn’t cover up our sin.  In fact, sometimes He works to bring our sinful attitudes right out in the open to be corrected.

Something else struck me about this.  God could have preached a really good sermon here.  As far as some preachers are concerned, God dropped the ball.  He could have explained all the horrible heart issues that were behind Sarah’s laughter, and her stupid denial.  He could have explained the ramifications of what she did, and how she was influencing Abraham and the servants badly.  He could have gone on at length about all that was wrong with her, and He would have been right, too.  He could have let her have it with all three barrels of His double-barrel shotgun (yes, a double-barrel shotgun only has two barrels, but some preachers, once they start firing their sermons, fire a lot more barrels than they actually have).  For that matter, He could have made her write 10,000 times, “I will not make stupid denials.”

The Lord didn’t do that.  He identified what she had done, and He refuted her stupid denial, but He didn’t belabour the point.  God knew who was going to win this argument, and it wasn’t Sarah.

The Lord is gracious.  He won the “argument” graciously — He gave Sarah a son, just as He had promised.  If you find yourself doubting God’s gracious promises, you’re going to lose that argument, and you’ll rejoice when you do.  This “argument” ended in Genesis 21:5-7:

And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.  And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.  And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.

Indeed, who would have said that, Sarah?  God did, of course, and so we all laugh, laughing with Sarah at how God turned her laughter of unbelief into the laughter of joy.  The Lord is gracious, isn’t He?

God didn’t make excuses for Sarah, but He didn’t blast her with judgment — He blasted her with joy, blowing away her faithlessness and dishonesty with His own faithfulness and goodness.  Truly, we have a gracious God!

Of course, God wasn’t done, not even yet, with Sarah.  Her denials are gone as she embraces joyous laughter in remembering her unbelieving laughter.  God has “won” the argument, and Sarah has acknowledged His faithfulness and goodness.  It’s done, right?  But if we fast forward two millenia, we see that God, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has something more to say about Sarah and this incident.  We turn to I Peter 3:5-6:

For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.

Where did Sarah call Abraham “lord”?  It only happens once in the Scriptural record, in Genesis 18:12:

Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?

God takes a horrible statement of unbelief, one for which He rebuked Sarah at the time, pulls out of it the one commendable word (the one showing a pattern of respect for her husband), and uses that single word as an example to be followed.

If I were preaching on that word, I would make disclaimers.  “Now, don’t be unbelieving like Sarah was.  Don’t be dishonest like Sarah was.  Don’t call God a liar like Sarah did.”  God doesn’t bother.  In the last Scriptural word on this event, God grabs the good in Sarah’s statement and pays no notice at all to the rest of it.  It’s as if the bad didn’t even happen.

I Corinthians 3 talks about our labours for the Lord being either gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and stubble.  Sometimes we focus too much on the wood, hay, and stubble burning up.  Guess what?  We aren’t going to be left grubbing around in a pile of ashes for all eternity.

Our God is a gracious God.  He’s going to take the gold, even if it is just one little word in the middle of a wrong statement, one small nugget, and polish and fashion it.  We’re going to spend eternity laughing for joy, laughing at the destruction of all of our stupid denials of His truth and mercy, at the joyful blasting away of all our sin by His grace and goodness, and at the way He has drawn gold and precious jewels out of the fire.  Those treasures, small and too few though they may be, in His hand will become a beautiful masterpiece for His praise and glory.  It isn’t redundant to say it again — our God is a gracious God!

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Housekeeping Note

Posted on 19 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

In case anyone wonders, I’ve moved all the links from the sidebar to a Links page (at the top).  That lets me say a little more about them.  I’ve also added a couple more links.

Also, I added an “About Me” page over the weekend.  It’s probably not all that exciting, but it’s there.

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Rightly Dividing — “Service” in Romans 12:1

Posted on 19 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

A week ago, I started a new sermon series.  One of the most commonly preached verses in the Bible is Romans 12:1, which tells us to be “living sacrifices”.  This sermon series will be focused largely on the succeeding verses, which deals with some specific aspects of being a “living sacrifice”.

I’ve preached on Romans 12:1 before, and heard a lot of sermons on it, but something always bothered me.  Let’s look at verse one:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

What bothered me?  “Therefore.”  Obviously, the verse is building on what has come before, but I’ve never really felt I had a grip on how.

You might say, “What’s wrong with you, Jon?  It’s obvious.  Romans is about the Gospel.  He’s given the doctrines of the Gospel, salvation by faith, and now Paul is challenging believers to live a life that reflects the Gospel.  He’s saying, ‘I beseech you, because of the Gospel, to live holy and dedicated lives.’  It’s quite clear.”

Certainly, most sermons I’ve heard on it (and I’ve heard a lot!) say exactly that.  So why was I uncomfortable?

  • Paul already delivered that exact message very clearly in chapter six.  He didn’t wait until chapter twelve of Romans to tell believers that, because we’ve been saved by faith, we are to be holy and acceptable to God.  It’s already been said.
  • Paul just spent three chapters talking about how the Gospel relates to Israel.  Chapter 12 doesn’t immediately follow chapter 8.  The “therefores” that I’ve generally heard preached from 12:1 (and preached myself, for that matter) point back to chapter 8 and earlier.  It’s as if 9-11 is parenthetical, not really relevant to chapter 12 at all.  Paul could have put those chapters in a different letter, for all the impact on most sermons on 12:1.  This has never seemed quite right to me.

I think I finally got the picture when preparing to preach this time.  The Greek word for “service” in this verse is latreia.  The key that unlocked my thinking was a simple little statement in A.T. Robertson’s Word Pictures commentary:  “For latreia, see note on Rom 9:4.”  (Well, ok, A.T.  I’ve never actually gone and looked at that in this context, but I’ll do it this time.)  His note on Romans 9:4 was also brief:  “The service (hē latreia). The temple service (Heb 9:1, Heb 9:6).”  (A.T., why not just plug that in at 12:1, rather than make me come to 9:4?  Jon, why are you griping at a dead person?  He’s not listening….)

Wait a minute!  Temple service?  Does latreia always mean “temple service”?  The passages Robertson cited in Hebrews certainly fit with that.  In fact, the word only occurs one other place, in John 16:2, although the verb form is more common.  It means “service” in the sense of “worship”, so “temple service” isn’t a bad reflection of the sense, especially in the context in Romans 9 — and in Romans 12, which is talking about a sacrifice.

Romans 12:1 is parallel to Romans 9:4.  “Therefore”, in Romans 12:1 does indeed point back to the Gospel and all that we have in it, as described in Romans 1-8.  But it flows directly out of Romans 9-11, as well.

In Romans 9:1-4, we see that the Jews were given the Law, the covenants, the promises, and the temple worship.  Israel stumbled in unbelief (9:31-33).  The giving of the Gospel, and Israel’s unbelief, was all prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures (chapter 10).  Because of Israel’s unbelief, they have been “broken off” and you (Gentiles) have been grafted in (chapter 11).

Because you have been grafted onto that same tree, you also have a “temple service” to perform.  Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19), and your reasonable worship or temple service is to present it as a living sacrifice, a spiritual “burnt offering” to the Lord.

Those “parenthetical” chapters weren’t just stuck in there because there wasn’t a better place to put them.  It is all part of the logical development of the book, and 12:1 HAS to follow 9-11.

We are saved by grace alone through faith alone, receiving the imputed righteousness of God (ch. 1-5).  Thus, we are to be holy (ch. 6-7), and as God’s children we’ve been given abundant spiritual blessings (ch. 8).  This isn’t a surprise, but all part of God’s plan in relation to Israel (ch. 9-10), and we have been “grafted into the same tree” (ch. 11).  Because of that, we (just like Israel in the Old Testament) have an offering to offer to the Lord, a service of worship in His holy temple (ch. 12:1 and following).

OK, that’s interesting.  So what?  How does it really change anything?  It is always profitable to understand God’s truth more fully, but didn’t we pretty much understand the verse anyway?

The answer is yes, we did.  You don’t have to understand the relation of the verse to the context of chapters 9-11, in this case, to get the general import of the verse.  The challenge is pretty clear.

The benefit that I can see is two-fold (there may be others I haven’t noticed yet).  First, it helps us to better understand the glorious gift that has been given to us.  We are priests, with direct access to God, any time and any place!  It emphasises the benefit of being grafted in.  When Paul says he beseeches us “by the mercies of God”, the very thing he is encouraging to do is something that highlights those great mercies.  He’s not just talking about our salvation when he says “mercies”, he’s talking about everything that comes with it, including our position in Christ.

Second, it gives us a better understanding of worship.  Worship is a 24/7 proposition.  If we are living sacrifices, and that is our worship, then worship is about everything we are, everything we have, all day, every day.  Everything we do should be worship to the Lord.  We see that elsewhere (I Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17, 23).  There is no “sacred/secular” dichotomy.  When you work, you are worshipping God.  When you tell your wife you love her, you are worshipping God (wives will now, presumably, tell their husbands to start worshipping God more :)).  Even eating and drinking are seen as worship to God.

I beseech you, brethren.  Because of your salvation from wrath, your freedom from sin’s power, the blessings you have received, and because of your exalted position in Christ as grafted into Him and serving as His holy priests, by all these mercies of God, present your bodies, the temple of the Lord, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the Lord.  Now that you have been grafted in, this is your holy temple service, the one that logically comes to you in the glorious salvation that you’ve been given.

Navigation note:  First in a series.  Next — Conformed or Transformed?

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I Ran Two Miles Yesterday

Posted on 19 July, 2011 by Jon Gleason

Two miles!  I had to stop and walk twice, once for about 100 metres and once for only about 30 metres.

That is pretty pathetic for a guy who used to run marathons, a guy who is supposed to run a half-marathon in October.  On the other hand, it’s a lot of progress compared to where I was even a month ago, and the post-op pain seems to finally be decreasing.  I’m still not sure this half-marathon was such a good idea, but the discipline of forcing myself to get back in condition is valuable.

The interesting thing was how old disciplines start to come back.  The mindset kicks in — “no matter what, no matter how slow you have to go, keep moving forward.”  Paying attention to how you are feeling without giving in to it, and knowing the difference between “good” hurts and bad ones.  Concentrate!  Keep your breathing steady, even if it’s hard.  Keep your form smooth!  Keep looking ahead — it doesn’t matter if your neighbours are laughing at you or cheering you on, you have just as far to run either way, so keep your eye on the goal.  All these mental disciplines, the things I had to drill into myself years ago, came back just “naturally”.

I thought of two Scriptures:

But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (II Timothy 3:14-15)

If we train ourselves in the Scriptures, those patterns will stay with us.  You’ll never regret knowing the Scriptures well, and establishing Scriptural patterns in your thought life.  It will always stand you in good stead.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Of course.  The runners’ verse — you probably knew I’d come to that one.  So many of the mental patterns that a successful runner must adopt have their spiritual parallel in the Christian life.

When it’s hard to live as a Christian, when it’s hard to keep on keeping on, and my spiritual breath seems to be gasping, when service seems hard and we want to give up, I’m thankful that we can look to Jesus.  He has gone before us.  He’s at the right hand of the Father interceding for us when we stumble.  He’s preparing a place for us, and this verse reminds us that this life’s struggles are temporary and our future is with Him.

It also tells us that He is the “finisher” of our faith.  He paid the price in full, but this goes beyond that.  He is the finisher of my faith.  He has begun a good work in me, and He will complete it.

Coming back up the road to our house, I wished, for a time, that we lived at the bottom of the hill.  But I made it!  In our spiritual race, we don’t very much like going up the hills.  It is hard, and we can feel worn down.  If that’s where you are today, remember the Finisher!  He endured the Cross, far more than He asks us to endure on His behalf.  He is faithful, and He will carry you through.

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