Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Miracles

JESUS: THE LORD IS SALVATION

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There's light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

We all lose hope, and lose fight, and lose focus. But He does not lose faithfulness.

The book of Deuteronomy primarily recounts things that happened or are already told before. Therefore, a major theme of this book is to "remember".

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.
(Deuteronomy 15:15)

How important it is to remember that God saved us, and how he saved us. Don't we be like the rebellious Israelites, who failed to remember how miraculously God delivered them from slavery, and began to whine in the wilderness. Their complaints ultimately kept them there for a very long time.

Don't let our despair keep us from inheriting the amazing things that the Lord has in store for us. Despair is equivalent to unbelief. Don't lose hope in Him. Look back on your life. In the past, has God changed your heart toward Him in such a way that you find miraculous? It is miraculous. You were dead to the things of God, and now you see, you really see.

If you don't have such a past, don't despair either. Be envious of such an experience, because it demonstrates that you really do hope to love God too. Furthermore, our highest assurance is the Word of God, not personal experience. And He promised that whoever calls upon His name shall be saved. Now, if there was one person in the universe whose promises we can trust, who would it be? 
 
remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
(Ephesians 2:12-13)

I do believe in miracles. I believe that what is impossible for man is possible for God. I believe He can raise the dead. And I believe He can make me love Him.

I believe that suffering will make perfect sense to me one day.

Monday, September 23, 2013

The Vapor of Life

OUR TOWN

“Now there are some things we all know, but we don't take'm out and look at'm very often. We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and it ain't names, and it ain't earth, and it ain't even the stars… everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being.”

― Thornton Wilder, Our Town 

I highly suspect that Thornton Wilder has existentialist ideas and influences, but at least this quote is true.

It should be no surprise that I teared up watching the 2-hour play, considering how this play stayed in theatres for over 70 years, and at some point was being performed at least once every day in some part of the world.

I was moved not because I agreed with the author's message. Wilder said the play was "an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events of our daily lives." But this search for value in the particulars of life had put God out of the center of the picture. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

But I was moved to tears. The simplicity of the play was its greatest impetus, showing us the daily life of Grover's Corners and the ordinary and special occurrences in that town. In fact, in the play, you realize that there isn't such a distinction between the ordinary and the special anymore. Are weddings special? Well, most people who have ever lived were married. Is eating breakfast prepared by your mother an ordinary thing? Not after you leave the house and start your own family, and begin to miss it.

"This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying."

The play speaks of wants and fears, hopes and disappointments, gains and losses, dreams, doubts, regrets, ice cream, love, life, and death. And it is all so familiar, man being depicted as tossed into existence, into time and space, and soon strains to grab hold of it, trying to make sense of it, not wanting to slip out of it, at least not without gaining something or leaving something behind.

Why would I tear up for an old lady who's bursting into tears for giving away her child in marriage? Why do I sympathize with these absurd little things that everybody who lives will surely go through? But I sympathize with their inability to make sense of things. They don't get it. They can't cope with loss, and never truly understand the source of gain. In this foolishness, they go through life, full of hope at one moment and filled with despair at the next, experiencing tears, laughter, racing heartbeats, comfort, and suffering. Then they die.

That's what brings me to tears. The imagery of man leaving God's house and getting lost in the wilderness, not sure what to expect other than to die in the dirt.

Of course life would seem like a mess without God, without Christ. Life would just be a really bad joke, an awkward existence. It would be a terrible experience, to think that you're born into the world against your will and pulled out of it against your will, and not understanding why.

The characters complain that life is too fast, too fleeting. I do agree that it is like a vapor. But unless my goal for this life is to love it and find full satisfaction, I have no problem with life's shortness. This life is for seeking salvation and repentance, and I'm sure that God is gracious in giving me the right amount of time.

My hopes are beyond the stars. Yea, my hope is being reconciled to God for eternity.

Like Emily walking down the aisle to George, a step at a time.

Closer, closer.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Simple Truths

THE NATURE OF GOD'S TRIALS FOR US

In the Christian walk, we worry sometimes that we are not capable of discerning deep and complex ideas, that we are not well versed enough in rich, complicated doctrines to keep us from straying.

But we must remember that God's test of us is not a test of intellect, but of obedience. There are a lot of secular intellectuals in the world, and they are still fools for not being obedient. And there are many quiet, humble Christians who are not very brilliant but are exceedingly wise to follow the Lord.

No, God is not set out to test our brainpower, but our obedience to the simple truths of His Word.

Because within all the complex questions and problems that arise in our life, there are always even deeper questions. Is God there? Is God good? Is God holy? Is God in control? Is God tender? Is God who He says He is? These are very basic questions, and we could give a verbal answer to them without hesitation, but do we really believe it?

Sometimes we show that we don't; it is just like calling Jesus "Lord" but not doing His will.

This is a fearful truth for the legalist, and great assurance for the faithful saint. Yes, I must hold on to these simple truths about God revealed in His Word, and test everything against them, and I shall be on the right path.

“The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple.” 
― Rebecca West.

And yet, I strongly believe that it is the latter that causes men to fall from God.

In all things, never doubt that God is good and in control.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Dishonesty

WHY WE CARE HOW PEOPLE VIEW US

The real question is, why can't we bring ourselves to care about how God views us in the first place?

The answer is that we know people can be fooled, and God cannot.

We know God sees us as correctly as can be. We know that in His sight, we are but a mere speck in the universe, made of dust, and totally helpless without Him. We bear His image and likeness, and thus are meant to be witnesses to His endless ocean of greatness, nothing more.

Yet, we find that in the world, people don't see us like that. People seem to elevate us to a higher status than God does; we are bigger in the eyes of men than in the eyes of God. We feel more important in people's sight, even to the point where we think we're special enough to be irreplaceable in this world.

We don't want to be slaves and just do His bidding. We want to have a say. God does not give us that say, but people do. Therefore we find pleasing people so important, because it gives us that forbidden status we've always sinfully wanted.

Yet only God's view is reality. And when you try to cause someone to have a view of you that isn't God's, you're being downright dishonest. And you're being unreal.

What's worse is that serving God is no longer one's priority. Being a slave to Christ is no longer one's primary identity. The idolatry of seeking recognition and agreement from men cripples a Christian, and keeps him from sacrificing himself wholly to God. That's sad, because if we refuse to obey Him, we refuse to bear His glorious likeness, and what's left is distorted, sinful dust of the ground.

What's left is dust praising dust for being dust. It all fades into vanity and nothingness.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The Man in The Iron Cage

AN EXCERPT FROM THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS

"Now," said Christian, "let me go hence." "Nay, stay," said the Interpreter, "till I have showed thee a little more, and after that thou shalt go on thy way." So he took him by the hand again, and led him into a very dark room, where there sat a man in an iron cage."

Now the man, to look on, seemed very sad. He sat with his eyes looking down to the ground, his hands folded together; and he sighed as if he would break his heart. Then said Christian, "What means this?" At which the Interpreter bid him talk with the man.

CHRISTIAN: "What art thou?" The man answered, "I am what I was not once."

CHRISTIAN: "What wast thou once?"

MAN: "I was once a fair and flourishing professor, both in mine eyes, and also in the eyes of others: I once was, as I thought, fair for the Celestial City, and had then even joy at the thoughts that I should get thither."

CHRISTIAN: "Well, but what art thou now?"

MAN: "I am now a man of despair, and am shut up in it, as in this iron cage. I cannot get out; Oh, now I cannot."

CHRISTIAN: "But how camest thou in this condition?"

MAN: "I left off to watch and be sober; I laid the reins upon the neck of my lusts; I sinned against the light of the Word, and the goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and he is gone; I tempted the devil, and he is come to me; I have provoked God to anger, and he has left me; I have so hardened my heart, that I cannot repent."

Then said Christian to the Interpreter, "But is there no hopes for such a man as this?" "Ask him," said the Interpreter.

CHRISTIAN: "Is there no hope but you must be kept in the iron cage of despair?"

MAN: "No, none at all."

CHRISTIAN: "Why? The Son of the Blessed is very pitiful."

MAN: "I have crucified him to myself afresh, I have despised his person, I have despised his righteousness, I have counted his blood an unholy thing; I have done despite to the Spirit of Grace: therefore I have shut myself out of all the promises, and there now remains to me nothing but threatenings, dreadful threatenings, fearful threatenings of certain judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour me as an adversary."

CHRISTIAN: "For what did you bring yourself into this condition?"

MAN: "For the lusts, pleasures, and profits of this world; in the enjoyment of which I did then promise myself much delight; but now every one of those things also bite me, and gnaw me like a burning worm."

CHRISTIAN: "But canst thou not now repent and turn?"

MAN: "God hath denied me repentance: his Word gives me no encouragement to believe; yea, himself hath shut me up in this iron cage; nor can all the men in the world let me out. O eternity! eternity! how shall I grapple with the misery that I must meet with in eternity!"

INTERPRETER: "Let this man's misery be remembered by thee, and be an everlasting caution to thee."

And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
(Luke 8:13)