Christian Labor

Acts 24:24 ESV

After Some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.

The smell of buffet pizza and fried chicken filled the cool night air outside of the Pizza Ranch. Twenty-two months had come to an end. I helped their grandfather fill his old Jeep with all the things kids can become attached to in almost two years. An inflatable bouncy horse, dolls, bicycle, clothes, cars, trains… All the things we know they love, that will make their time back with their mom feel like home for them. Two years of work, witnessing, praying, pressing, watching, looking for opportunities to sow seed, all apparently for naught. Casting it upon the waters in the hands of a sovereign God is all that is what is left to do. Crying and thinking as we drive home trying to prepare for Christmas next week.

Such is following a sovereign God. Such is faith and belief in such a good God. In the Passage of Acts, we see Paul’s two years of evangelism to a culturally mixed family. We are told in the versus preceding this that “Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the way” was not inclined to give the Jewish officials all they would desire in connection with Paul. This was the foundation of his time with Paul. He knew something of Christianity, and that rather accurate, and so he kept Paul with reasonable liberty. Yet, being a somewhat corrupt official, he would visit Paul hoping to get a bribe from him. In these visits Paul would speak of Christ. Paul would reason from the scriptures “about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment”, he would do this over and over. Paul would preach and teach to Felix and his wife, he would reason and pray for Felix, that he might come to faith. In all human estimation it was for naught. Little to show for it but a backhanded slap as Felix would exit the scene of scripture.

After all the work Paul had done, hall the hours talking with Felix and his wife, all the time praying for his heart to soften, his ears to open, his mind to accept, we are left with this word “Felix…desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.” Not only had Paul’s work not brought Felix to repentance, Felix actually wished to help the “enemy”!

God is sovereign. How many soldiers were present to hear Paul reasoning? How many servants would listen in to Paul disputing and answering the questions of this man, so well and so powerfully that John Wesley notes Felix was an “Almost Christian”? How many of the answers to Felix’s question bear fruit in the letters Paul writes to the Churches? Such are things that rest soundly in the hand of our sovereign God. We are told that God’s word does not return void (Isaiah 55:11) and so these actions and places to accomplish his purpose, and we rejoice.

Two years of Christian work are not wasted. It may be two years working in a Church with no visible sign of change. Two years raising an infant only to have them taken from you. A few months spent nurturing a child that will die in the womb. Decades spent praying for a husband to repent and find God. Such are the works of the church, and such work is never fruitless. May we continue in the Work.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

His Court

Psalm 84:2 ESV

My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

What does it take to be a doorman? This question should be one of those that rarely comes but should come regularly. Psalm 84 begins with the heading “A Psalm of the Sons of Korah”. These men are defined by their birth. The family and lineage they were born to is that of a man discontent with God’s call on his life. Korah along with others wished to usurp Moses’s place and led a rebellion against him for just that purpose. All those still in his home were consumed by the earth as God opened the ground to receive him and his, but these were adult children who chose not to follow their father and saved their lives because of it. They were those who heredity had given the job of patching the door to the tent and later to the temple.

Spiritualizing these psalms will often rob them of their color and glory. Who doesn’t long for the perfect place of God’s presence? Who doesn’t look to the streets of translucent gold and have their heart skip a beat? Yet that is not what these men were singing of. Take your time and let that statement sink in. The eternal dwelling place of God was not the court or the doorkeeper position that was being sung about. When you think of that wonderful place do think of the sparrows and swallows’ nests in every eave? (see verse 3) Our first year in Lincoln we were blessed with a robin’s nest outside our door. We watched as the eggs hatched and birds flew away, it was messy. These men were well acquainted with the actual Temple, they spent hours cleaning up after said birds, and singing songs in said courts. In this environment they chose to sing of the great honor that was bestowed on them to be doormen in the house of such a great God that even sparrows were welcome to dwell. They were no nuisance but rather a sterling testament to the love of God for his creation, and spur for those of humble heart wishing to come to the house of the Lord.

They fully rejected their namesake’s view. They embraced the joy and honor given to them to be the greeters in the house of the Lord. Verse ten was not a spiritual musing of better times but a joyful praise that the reality of their preference for the position of greeter than for that of priest, to be at the door of the church welcoming people in than to be out playing Disc Golf, hunting, fishing, sleeping in.  The actual building with all its foibles was a joy to be stationed at and enjoy serving in, even when hypocritical kings come and worship. Even when Pharisaical priests walk by and turn their noses. These men still found joy being where God had set his name.

Yes, for us, we must look not to the physical Temple built by Solomon, or the one built by Herod, but to the place where God has chosen to set his name. Where Christ has said he would be present. We are told when the Church Gathers, He will be with us. He has chosen to place his name in the assembly of believers. It is such a place that often “nuisances” are present and making a lot of racket, living messes everywhere, but it is still the place God has chosen to dwell until Christ returns. The psalmist tells us that those who love God’s actual, earthly house, “go from strength to strength”. This remains the case for all those that LOVE God’s church, his bride, in its reality “warts and all” as Cromwell would say. Let us treasure the noisy messy sparrows and rejoice as those who greet strangers coming into the house of the Lord.

Coram Deo

The Sanctuary

Psalm 73:2, 16, 28 ESV

But as for me my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.

But when I thought how to understand this it seemed to me a wearisome task,

But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

The evidence is unquestionable. I am my greatest enemy. Over the past weeks I have had the conversation multiple times. Sometimes with others telling me, sometimes with me reiterating the facts of the matter. The world, the Flesh, and the Devil. The great struggle against sin is a struggle against these forces and the forces of light. Looking at the demonic, the majority of my interactions bear little to know resemblance to what I see in the New Testament. Do not mistake that for denial of but rather admission that the majority of my battles are not against said spiritual forces. The World and the Flesh seem to be the main antagonists in the struggle that is my sanctification.

Looking at the Psalmist I see that I am not alone. He begins with the wonderful truth of God’s goodness and blessing of the pure. Then he adds the “but” disrupting the perfect picture we like of Good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. He looked around and the reality of life just didn’t seem to add up with what his eyes saw. Like most of us, his vision wasn’t as clear as Solomon who at least noted that “the rain falls on the just and the unjust”, but rather he only saw the evil being rewarded and the good suffering. It is easy to fall into that filtered view of life.

That filtered view hurts most because it has enough truth in it. When good gifts are not given to us from God and we see as those who scoff and hate God are given them; kids, employment, land, nice cars, wealth… it is enough to make the firmest foot slip. And so it was for the psalmist as he was brought to despair in seeing the blessings God had given those who scoff at God. Then we come to the next turn in the Psalm.

The Psalmist had spent his time contemplating the ways of life, watching, and trying to understand how these things could be. He was wearied and worn out by the task. He seeks out God. In seeking him out he went to the temple. As a youth I remember sitting for quiet moments in an empty sanctuary. Thinking and contemplating after fellowship meals in the basement. The Temple, however, was not a quiet place to be alone, to contemplate these things. People are always coming and going, worshiping with offerings and sacrifices. He would go and try to solve this conundrum where Songs were being sung and animals were being burned.

To often we think that being alone is going to help us solve our problems. “Do not lean on your own understanding” we are told but we are Americans and are grown to be independent and self-sufficient. How humiliating it is to have to go and ask for help. To lean on others as they help open scripture with us to discern wisdom in the midst of the congregation of God’s people met together.

The Temple of God, and the worship of him, is where the answer was found for this song writer. He watched as animals were slain, because of sin, their bodies thrown on the alter, to be burned, blood shed for remission of sins. He would ponder this and join the writer of Hebrews in understanding that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). They seem to live in victory but their end is death. The wicked, no matter how great and blessed on earth, will die and be cast into the fire.

Seeing this reality, the Psalmist is driven to the one place he can go to find that he is different than the wicked. Only in how God relates to him. God held his right hand, God guided him with his counsel, and God will receive him in Glory (v 23-25). He ends his Psalm with the renewed focus that God is who he must draw near to and the desire to publish the works of God to all who would hear.

I often struggle with letting my eyes lead my heart to become distraught with the ways of the world. Letting my flesh cry out for things unneeded. As we battle with the sins of our flesh and this world let follow the psalmist to the sanctuary. To God’s people gathered together worshiping and serving him. Let us press into the assembly of believers and watch as he uses his hands in feet to comfort our heart.

Coram Deo

Micromanagers

Acts 12:3 ESV

And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread.

Herod was flourishing. He had inherited a restless and rebellious people. He was their king but they had an independent streak a mile wide running down their back. Being a staunchly religious nation concerned with the slightest fault and willing to riot at the smallest provocation they had earned themselves a hated name in the Empire. Yet Herod was doing well, we read after this episode he was able to bring the Tyrians and the Sidonians to heal. Yet in Judea, with its “stiff-necked people” he was using a different tact.

The question that had plagued many rulers of the Jews, how do you placate such a people? He simply wants to be rich and powerful but he has to keep the peace to make that happen. He then stumbles across something that both gets rid of an annoyance for him and greatly pleases the rich, powerful, and vocal majority of his subjects, the execution of James. Seeing all the benefits that came from this act he chooses to do what everyone would do under the watchful gaze of a micromanager that has been pleased, attempt to do it again. So, he arrests Peter with the intent of executing him as well to allow himself greater freedom of action.

Into this “win-win” scenario enters a very unexpected catastrophe. As Tolkien would put it a eucatastrophe (from our perspective). God’s people prayed. They prayed fervently and specifically. The missionary team from Antioch was still present, with their gift to help alleviate the trials of the famine, and they prayed. They did not pray for what they Got, or they prayed while doubting, remember the servant girl and all those present assumed Peter to be a ghost when he knocked. Yet, God entered into the situation and denied Herod the second measure of his plan to appease the Jewish leadership, and solidify his place. Peter was saved, James was not. Herod continued for a short time, and was destroyed. Such are the prayers of God’s people and the will of the Almighty.

Looking at the state of our politicians today I fear for them and for us. As we are a staunchly independent people, religious, and watchful. With no hope or trust in them or their ability, I wonder what struggles they must endure under the watchful eye of a micromanaging public. It is hard to thrive in such an employment environment. It could be their constituency or their lobbyist, both are equally watchful looking for weakness and failure to pounce upon. I fear for our politicians when they find the James they can kill to win both sides. As I prepare for another round of “stimulus” payments to be magically taken from my children and put into my bank account, I fear they have found it.

When God’s people gather and pray, expect the unexpected. God will enter into the situation and bring about his resolution. Some will rise in the middle of the night, others may find themselves in the company of Christ, but God will move to bless and deliver his people from the tyrannical. Let us pray.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

The Celestial City

Genesis 47:9 ESV

And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.”

The poignancy of the last chapters of Genesis always draws me in. The reality of family conflict needing forgiveness, guilt continuing to cast its shadow on brothers even after they are forgiven, a heal grabber looking back on his life and realizing “few and evil” are his years. As Jacob prepares for his death, he gets to see the children of the son he thought was lost forever. The moment we stand with Christian and Hopeful at the river trying to find away around the reality of “this mortal coil”, is a fate awaiting us all. As we contemplate our lives and life after we have crossed over regret and sorrow may take the field for a time as it does with Christian who needs his companion to bolster him when doubt and sorrow flow over him in those troubled waters, as the last impediment to Pilgrim’s Progress towards the celestial city. Many have walked with him on the journey some Faithful and some Worldly Wiseman. He has fought with Giants and Demons, Former Master and angry mobs. Yet, his battle was always greatest against his own sin. And so, it plagues him mightily at the end.

I recently hear a quote from Timothy Keller, “If it wasn’t for my sin, I would be completely resting in Christ… and the Resurrection would be spiritually real to me and I would be fine.” Mr. Keller has Pancreatic Cancer and wanted to make sure people understood he wasn’t fighting Cancer he was fighting sin. His body was fighting off and the doctors were doing their best, but his greatest or the real battle was against his own sin, not the cancer ravaging his body. I have read and reread that quote multiple times in the last few days. Seeing how easy it is to get lost in the trifles of this life. Our failures and our vanities, and forget the reality of the moment.

How many of us fall victim to the sin of thinking that eternity is closer because a doctor has told us we have cancer or because a government tells us a virus is deadly? As we plan our bigger barns does not scripture cry out a warning “You fool! This night your life will be required of you.” (Luke 12:20). Sin clouds our thinking and distracts us from the reality of our moment. Many things are coveting your attention. As millions are paid for those things that can hold your eyeballs long enough to get you to buy something. Yet, if we are doing our job, addressing the sin of our hearts, and growing in the faith “the things of earth will grow strangely dim” as the hymnist tells us. Why then do we fall victim to fear when we are told that the virus has mutated and the vaccine is not preventing the spread of some of these new versions?

Our sin and hubris are on full display. We like every generation that has come before are not in control of life or death. Let us attack both with the conviction and veracity that come from those who have escaped their former master and seek our heavenly home in the Celestial City.

Cruce, Dum Spiro, Fido