2009-06-12
Good Morning God’s Treasures,
At times we question whether or not God really loves us, as the Scriptures tell us. It’s because the way we are raised causes many of us to feel worthlessness and self-loathing. On the other hand, we also have a hard time recognizing that too much love of self leads us to arrogance. In between these two extremes is where God’s heart about His human creation actually is. 1 PET 5: 7, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” Just as He loves us, so He gives us very wise advice, such as that in 2 TIM 1: 13-14. As compared with MT 7: 6, we can examine these two places in Scriptures to see if there is a relationship between them. MT 7: 6, “Do not give what is holy to dogs-they will turn and attack you. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs-they will only trample them underfoot.” 2 TIM 1: 13-14, “Hold firmly to the true words that I taught you, as the example for you to follow, and remain in the faith and love that are ours in union with Christ Jesus. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Who lives in us, guard the Treasure entrusted to you.” As you already know, we’ve been examining how God helps us to be discerning and wise in the judgments we make, based on the wisdom of Christ’s words on judgment from the Sermon on the Mount. Now, we can add another angle on this by looking at His desire expressed for us to remain accurate to the truth of His teaching, which is to be sure-the Treasure meant here.
We can rest assured that God abhors false teaching. And yes, there is plenty of that around us! We are thus called upon to pray for both discernment and wisdom. PS 119: 125, “I am Your servant; give me understanding so that I may know Your teachings.” PS 51:6, “Sincerity and truth are what You require; fill my mind with wisdom.” The Lord’s teaching is like casting a bright light in a dark cave. The light shows the magnificence of God’s formations, and it also shows us the way out into the fresh air. With it, we can appreciate the beauty around us, while at the same time resisting the temptation to spoil it or lose our way ethically and morally. PS 119: 110-112, “Wicked men lay a trap for me, but I have not disobeyed Your commands. Your commandments are my eternal possession; they are the joy of my heart. I have decided to obey Your laws until the day I die.” All of these Scriptures mentioned demand relationship with the Lord. He was telling the truth when He made it clear that we cannot live righteously on our own; we must have His intervention in our lives to do this. When Christ was speaking of casting pearl before swine, He was telling us in other words: 1) that we are given His Gospel and the other teachings of Bible, which are Treasures to be guarded, 2) that we need to rely on Him for direction when we are faced with the temptation to believe in false teaching on the part of others, 3) that we must not deviate from God’s truth to just to please them, 4) that we must have a thorough knowledge of God’s teachings, so that we can recognize false teaching when we are faced with it, and 5) we must use discernment when witnessing to make sure that our audience is genuinely willing to listen with a heart open to the Holy Spirit.
I suppose a book can be written about any one of those five points, but space here won’t permit that. Suffice it to say that what we learn from God really is “Treasure to be entrusted…” We must understand that God’s love for us does indeed involve relationship. When we stand before temptation to deviate from His word, we need to be on His team and stand up to this temptation. We must have the faith to believe that even though God is unseen, He is there and will give us the leadership we need to walk away from or battle to victory with the work of the devil. That victory will be in the name of Jesus Christ! 1 PET 5: 8-10, “Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy, the devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Be firm in your faith and resist him, because you know that your fellow believers in all the world are going through the same kind of sufferings. But after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, Who calls you to share His eternal glory in union with Christ, will Himself perfect you and give you firmness, strength, and a sure foundation.” We should never jump to quick conclusions as to who is the devil’s servant and who isn’t. But, armed with a good working knowledge of God’s teaching, a person can recognize a false teaching and learn to keep away from him. The time when it gets to be difficult is when someone is doing false teaching in the manner of Apollos, but who would open his heart to the Holy Spirit and be corrected [AC 18: 24-28]. Even then, the Lord provided Priscilla and Aquila to act on His behalf to correct him. Apollos went on to be a very useful witness to God’s truths after that [AC 19: 1-6].
We must respect the fractal nature of God’s teaching. It appears on the surface to be very simple, but it is made up of many nuggets of truth repeated often and useful in all the contexts of our lives. After living with it for the last 40 years, I find myself still to be a student, a learner with much left to learn and believe. It’s that second word, “believe,” that is what creates real relationship with the Lord. Any of us in my situation of still being a learner needs to understand that making godly judgments comes with practice, exposure to God’s word, an active, dynamic prayer life, laying our hearts open to the Holy Spirit, and the willingness to learn from our circumstances. Even Christ Himself while in the Garden of Gethsemane revealed His fleshly desire to avoid the on-coming pain and sorrow of the cross. And yet, He set an amazing example for us when He put obedience to the Father ahead of His desire to avoid that pain [LK 22: 42]. And praise God that He did, because it opened the way for us to be saved. And all we had to do was to repent and believe the Lord Jesus!
PRAYER: O Lord, every day You have lessons for us. We learn about Your word and are able to build a long-standing, trusting relationship with You. It is because of the heart You gave us, Your willingness to keep the promise of EZK 36: 26-27. “ I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. I will put My Spirit in you and will see to it that you follow My laws and keep all the commands I have given you.” We learn, we believe, and we act. Those are the promises of head, heart, and hands. God never reneges on His promises. The Covenant of Grace is a two-way pact; it involves the actions of God and the actions for God of humans. We need not worry that God will keep up His part. Instead, we need to ask, “Am I keeping up my part?” If the answer is “not always,” then, we must do something to correct that. We must pray PS 119: 121-122, “I have done what is right and good; do not abandon me to my enemies! Promise that You will help Your servant; do not let arrogant men oppress me!” And we shouldn’t forget PS 119: 124, “Treat me according to Your constant love, and teach me Your commands.” In learning to make judgments reflecting wisdom and discernment, we must have hearts willing to learn and thankful every day for blessings received. IS 50: 4-5, “The Sovereign Lord has taught me what to say, so that I can strengthen the weary. Every morning He makes me eager to hear what He is going teach me. The Lord has given me understanding, and I have not rebelled or turned away from him.” I close this prayer with thanks and praise to God, Who stays with us, is always available to us, who is our First Defense in temptation, and Who loves us enough to patiently wait for us to put His will first in our hearts and actions. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Next week, we will delve into our need to be discriminating, to guard that truth as the finest Treasure we ever had, and knowing when it’s appropriate for us to make a judgment. In the meanwhile, we need to meditate in what God has given us. Through our faith in Him, the Sermon on the Mount and other of His teaching are priceless gifts. We never deserved these gifts, but were given them through God’s grace [EPH 2: 8-10]. It is not meant that we should receive them and then do nothing. Keeping up our end of the Covenant of Grace means living out the teaching we have been given. Still that isn’t enough. We can’t just keep them for ourselves. Instead, once we are familiar with the Scriptures and in relationship with God through prayer, worship, and service, then we must share what we know with others as witnesses who are “ambassadors of Christ” [2 COR 5: 20]. Often, it is our example more than our words spoken that will get this point across. When God is at the center of our lives, we find ourselves happy, strong, and able to resist temptations set before us. We are uplifting the lives of others, and we are at peace with God. Then, the swine that approach us are rendered helpless to do the work of the devil. Praise be to Him Who makes this possible!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn