Pilgrims or Tourists

Not all journeys are the same. Tourists are focussed on their surroundings; pilgrims are fixed on their destination. Tourists want to capture as much as possible of what they see; pilgrims mark their progress towards an unseen destination. How do we respond to this world? Are we so comfortable and satisfied in it that we could better be described as tourists than pilgrims in relation to this world? Or half pilgrim, half tourist? Not all pilgrims are the same. Some are simply pleasing themselves under cover of religion. What is it to live as true pilgrims in this world?

Scripture must of course be our guide. 1 Peter 1:17 speaks about pilgrims who have a careful walk that is afraid of offending God. 1 Peter 2:11-12 speaks of keeping ourselves apart from the prevailing sins of the world we pass through so that we have a testimony that speaks to others. Is your life a pilgrim’s protest against the course of this world? Hebrews 11 outlines brief biographies of true pilgrims; particularly Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (11:8-16). David Dickson draws out various concise lessons for us in this updated extract.

True Pilgrims Walk by Faith

By faith Abraham obeyed God’s call and left his native country (v8). This teaches us that:

1. Faith in God will cause a man to leave his country, parents and every dearest thing if God calls him to.
2. Faith esteems God’s promises better than present possessions. It is content to leave the one for the other.
3. Faith is content with a general promise from God of that which is better. It is willing to obey even if it is blind as to how God will fulfil His promise.
4. Faith is willing to obey as soon as it sees authorisation from God.

True Pilgrims Will Forego Anything

Abraham sojourned in Canaan living in tents (v9). This teaches us that:

1. Faith can for a while submit to being a stranger even from that to which it has best right to in this world.
2. When faith is certain of a heavenly inheritance, it can be content with a small portion of earthly things.
3. Someone who sojourns amongst idolaters should be sure that God has called them to be there.  If they must be amongst such, they ought to behave as strangers and sojourners.
4. Even where we still have that which we have best right to on earth, we ought to have a pilgrim’s mind.

True Pilgrims Seek Heaven as their Permanent Home

It was the hope of a settled dwelling place with God, in the company of the saints in heaven that prompted Abraham to live as a sojourner on earth (v10). This teaches us that:

1. Heaven is a settled, spacious, and safe dwelling place. All places here are but moveable tents.
2. The patriarchs under the Law looked for entry into their eternal rest in the kingdom of heaven, after the end of their pilgrimage here.
3. The hope of heaven is able to make a man content with pilgrim’s fare and lodgings in the present.

True Pilgrim’s Persevere in Faith

These pilgrims died in faith not having obtained the promises (v13). This teaches us that:

1. Faith is not commendable unless we persevere in it until our death.
2. Even though we do not see a promise made to the Church or ourselves fulfilled in our time, we may go to death with assurance that it will be fulfilled.
3. Those who would die in faith must live in faith.
4. Though these pilgrims did not receive the Promises, yet they saw them afar off and were fully persuaded of them and embraced them.
5. Although faith does not possess the promise, yet it comes to behold a time of possession coming and is persuaded that the promise will be obtained
6. Faith embraces the promise: the original word implies greeting them in a friendly way. It is the sort of greeting that friends give one another while drawing near to embrace one another after a long time of separation.

True Pilgrims Openly Profess to be Pilgrims

They confessed in their lifetime that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. We only read this of Jacob when he appeared before Pharaoh but the mind of one of the faithful in the main matters, makes evident what is the mind of the rest. This teaches us that:

1. True believers must profess their faith before all, even before the idolaters they live amongst.
2. Those who know heaven to be their own home, reckon this world a strange or foreign country.

True Pilgrims Seek a Better Country

The apostle infers from their profession that they were strangers (v14-16) the following things: (a) they desired a country for their home; (b) this must have been either their own earthly country, or a better country; (c) it cannot have been their own earthly home country because they might have returned to it if they wished; (d) they therefore desired a better country; (e) if it was a better country, then it must have been a heavenly country. In other words, they desired heaven itself for their country. This teaches us:

1. To read Scripture so as to not only observe what is spoken, but also what is implied as a consequence (inference).
2. That which is implied by what someone has said plainly declares the mind of the speaker. This is not an obscure deduction, as those who deride this method of interpretation call it. The apostle says that those who say they are strangers plainly declare that they seek a country.
3. It is lawful to proceed in drawing one consequence after another until we find out the full mind of the author as long as the deduction is evident and follows sound reason, as it does here.
4. The apostle has proved here that the patriarchs sought heaven for their country; because they sought a better than any on earth.
5. The apostle knew no place for departed souls better than earth, except heaven alone. If there had been any other place, such as some imagine, his reasoning would not have been solid.
6. The patriarchs, after the end of their pilgrimage here on earth, went home to heaven.

Heaven was prepared for the patriarchs, and the rest of God’s saints before they ended their pilgrimage on earth. To put them into hell or any other place must not be a teaching from heaven. [Dickson is referring to the false Roman Catholic teaching that believers who died before Christ went to limbus patrum – a state of limbo for the fathers].

True Pilgrims are Honoured by God

Since they counted themselves strangers until they came home to heaven, God is not ashamed to be called their God (v16). This teaches us that:

1. God will honour those that honour Him.
2. God will avow Himself to be the portion of those who renounce the world for His sake.
3. The Lord will even abase Himself in order to exalt and honour those who honour Him
4. When the Lord has done thus, He considers it no dishonour to Himself to do anything that may honour His servants.
5. God prepared a city for them (which the apostle previously called heaven, or the heavenly country).

Article published by Reformation Scotland.

I must get a better handle on this….

JUNE 19, 2017

The Joy of the Lord Is Your Strength

Article by

Tony Reinke

Senior writer, desiringGod.org

“I think it’s fair to say that many Christians don’t believe God is happy.” It’s an insight from Randy Alcorn, in his book Happiness. “If we did believe it, wouldn’t we be happier?”

It’s not that Christians don’t want God to be happy, it’s just that we are slow to understand the theology that God is always, essentially, and completely happy. We may believe that he is sometimes happy — that makes sense to us. But is God always, essentially, and completely happy at the core of his being?

That is a question that we have a hard time understanding, and one of the most common questions we get in the Ask Pastor John inbox: If God is so happy, why does he seem so angry in the Bible?

It’s a legitimate question for us to deal with, but under the surface it reveals our weird theological agnosticism about God’s happiness. How we answer the question will determine everything about how we view the Christian life — and how we search for holiness.

If we do not embrace the happiness of God, we jeopardize three precious realities in our own lives.

1. Your joy rests on God’s joy.

In a fallen world, cursed and made vain at so many points, we are fundamentally unhappy and prone to long bouts with unhappiness. We are made “happy” by having stuff, getting gifts, or feeling like we belong in a group.

In stark contrast, God is happy within himself. As Aquinas said so clearly, “God is happiness by his essence: for he is happy not by acquisition or participation of something else, but by his essence. On the other hand, men are happy by participation.”

We read our acquired happiness onto God (“God will finally be happy when X, Y, and Z all go his way”). We think God is merely happy by participation — just like us.

But God is happiness. Joy is fundamental to his triune nature. To find God is to find the fountain of all joy, so beautifully and simply put by Augustine: “Following after God is the desire of happiness; to reach God is happiness itself.” We participate in joy when we reach the essence of all joy: God himself.

Or take it from one of the most careful theologians of our age: “God is essentially blessed and happy” (Richard Muller, 3:382).

Yes, thank you for all these quotes, but please show me texts, you ask.

The foundation for this point is laid in 1 Timothy 1:11, where Paul extols “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” God is essentially blessed. His blessedness — his happiness — is central to his glory. This text shows us that God’s expressive glory is essentially linked to his inner joy (The Joy Project, 116–119). God’s majesty is his radiating joy, and that joy is what he promises to us. His holiness and beauty attract the elect to him. God communicates his majesty as beams that burn out from the solid, rocket-fuel radiance of his inter-Trinitarian joy.

See this truth, and embrace it, and your life will find an eternity of joy-fuel for this life — and the next one.

2. God really does delight in you.

When we assume that God is fundamentally angry, and simultaneously know that we are nothing special — not unique or extraordinary in our service — we cannot believe how on earth (or in heaven) the God of the universe would sing over us his song of delight (Zephaniah 3:17).

How can a holy God delight in me?

It was a preacher named Henry Donald Maurice Spence (1836–1917) who made a point I cannot forget: “God is so joyous that he finds joy even in us.”

Let that land for a moment. God’s song of joy over his justified children is not merely the sum of the joy we attract from him; it’s also the multiplication of his abundant joy exponentially expressing itself out over us. Joyful people more easily express joy, just as God delights to rejoice over his children, because he is essentially joyful.

3. The happiness of God is the strength you need.

The text on this point is a familiar one, but one we don’t stop to think about more carefully. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Whether the “joy of the Lord” here refers mainly to the joy he has in himself, or to the joy he gives us, we have no real hope of joy or strength unless God is happy (John 15:11).

God does not give us any joy outside of the joy he has in himself already. Which means, God’s happiness is our strength.

It’s a remarkable point delivered to Nehemiah and a people who were ravaged by war, weakened by insecurities, and constantly reminded of their own fragility.

And this is where we find our strength: for life, for pain, for trials, for marriage, for child-raising, for missions, for everything. The strength we need for this life is found in the essential joy of God.

You will never be spiritually stronger than your God is happy. God’s joy is our strength. Settle it biblically. God is essentially happy within himself.

 

Tony Reinke (@tonyreinke) is senior writer for Desiring God and author of 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (2017), John Newton on the Christian Life (2015), The Joy Project: A True Story of Inescapable Happiness (2015), and Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books (2011). He hosts the Ask Pastor John podcast and lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and three children.

Tony Reinke

Clever!

The A – Z of Friendship

“A Friend:
(A)ccepts you as you are
(B)elieves in you
(C)alls you just to say “Hi”
(D)oesn’t give up on you
(E)nvisions the whole of you (even the unfinished parts)
(F)orgives your mistakes
(G)ives unconditionally
(H)elps you
(I)nvites you over
(J)ust to “be” with you
(K)eeps you close at heart
(L)oves you for who you are
(M)akes a difference in your life
(N)ever judges
(O)ffers support
(P)icks you up
(Q)uiets your fears
(R)aises your spirits
(S)ays nice things about you
(T)ells you the truth when you need to hear it
(U)nderstands you
(V)alues you
(W)alks beside you
(X)-plaines things you don’t understand
(Y)ells when you won’t listen and
(Z)aps you back to reality.”

Author Unknown

Encouragement is oxygen to the soul

“I will not wish thee riches,
nor the glow of greatness,
but that wherever thou go
some weary heart shall
gladden at thy smile,
or shadowed life know
sunshine for a while.
And so thy path shall be
a track of light,
like angels’ footsteps passing
through the night.”

Inscription, words on a church
wall in Upwaltham, England.

A Secretary of His Praise!

John Piper says that George Herbert, who penned this brief poem, is his favourite poet:

    Of all the creatures both in sea and land
        Onely to Man thou hast made known thy wayes,
    And put the penne alone into his hand, 
        And made him Secretarie of thy praise.

Piper, who has just published his own collected works, wrote the following poem to explain his desire to write. Following it is a piece of prose that further explains his thought (for those not into poetry!)

I Write

    Some travel where they’ve never been,
        Some trace the paths within,
    Some peer into the depths, and grope,
        Some scan the skies, and hope.
    They long to see, 
        If faint or bright.
          Since I agree, 
             I write.
    Some study, marking ev’ry page,
        Some probe the ancient sage,
    Some perch cross-legg’d and chants rehearse,
        Some through the night converse
    To understand 
       And seize the light.
          I set my hand 
             To write.
    Some eat at gourmet restaurants,
       Some mortify their wants,
    Some blitz along the Autobahn,
       Some plod the marathon
    To feel the zest, 
       Enjoy the height.
          I share the quest, 
             And write.
    Some paint, some build, some act the play,
       Some draw, some spin the clay.
    Some cook, some sew, and some compose,
       Some dream, and some propose,
    All to create. 
       Ah, such delight!
          I bear the trait, 
             And write.
    Some heal, some shield, some educate,
       Some sway the magistrate,
    Some feed, some serve to make shalom,
       Some bring the stranger home.
    They seek to love. 
       I too invite
          The cordial Dove, 
             And write.
    Some sing, some leap, some lift their hands,
       Some bow and keep commands,
    Some kneel, some sway, some close their eyes,
       Some lie prostrate, some rise.
    And all to praise. 
       Is this my flight?
          Oh, all my days! 
             I write.
    And may it be that someday we,
       In heaven, sinlessly,
    At last may see, and understand,
       And feel, and put our hand
    And spirit to create, and love,
       And praise. Then to the Dove,
    All-powerful and pure and high,
       My prayer will be: That I,
    With crowning skill 
       And perfect sight,
          Be summoned still 
             To write.

• There is a greatness in the beauty of God. “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3). And all his works share in his greatness: “Great are the works of the Lord” (Psalm 111:2). I love to look at greatness. Since writing is a way of seeing, I write.
• There is a wonder in the beauty of all God’s works and words. “Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:14). Every heart craves wonder. Woe to me if I walk through a world of wonders and grumble about the humidity. Even the psalmist prays to see this: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). God answers this prayer for me through writing. So, I write.
• There is depth in the beauty of all God’s thoughts. “How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep!” (Psalm 92:5). God spare me from wading near the beach for fear of your depths. Few things have pushed me more regularly into the deeps than writing. So, I write.
• There is a vast value in the beauty of God’s mind. “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17). Life is a constant battle not to believe the devil’s portrait of this world as preferable to the preciousness of God. Writing about this treasure helps me see it. So, I write.
• There is an endlessness in the beauty of God. It is inexhaustible, and will be, for all eternity. “You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us . . . they are more than can be told” (Psalm 40:5). For those who have the capacity to see, there will be no boredom in the endless ages of the world to come. Writing has delivered me from many a fearful season of threatened boredom with life. So, I write.
• There is a gladness in the beauty of God. And a gladness in finding it out. “You, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy” (Psalm 92:4). “Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2). How can we not make this study the happy work of a lifetime — and beyond. Nothing aids my study of God’s works like writing. So, I write.
• There is a legacy in the beauty of God. There is nothing better to bequeath. “One generation shall commend your works to another” (Psalm 145:4). “Even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation” (Psalm 71:18). Writing is a proclamation that will be heard beyond the grave. So, I write.

Meditations for Resurrection Day

Early in the morning, on the first day of the week…

 

“Christ our life, you are alive
in the beauty of the earth
in the rhythm of the seasons
in the mystery of time and space
Alleluia

Christ our life,
You are alive
in the tenderness of touch
in the heartbeat of intimacy
in the insights of solitude
Alleluia

Christ our life,
You are alive
in the creative possibility
of the dullest conversation
the dreariest task
the most threatening event
Alleluia

Christ our life,
You are alive
to offer re-creation
to every unhealed hurt
to every dreaded place
to every damaged heart
Alleluia

You set before us a great choice.
Therefore we choose life.
The dance of resurrection soars and surges through the whole creation.
It sets gifts of bread and wine upon our table.
This is grace, dying we live.
So let us live.”

Kathy Galloway
(Iona Community)

This prayer penned by theologian Karl Barth so beautifully describes the hope and light of Christ’s resurrection:

“O Lord God, our Father.  You are the light that can never be put out; and now you give us a light that shall drive away all darkness.  You are love without coldness, and you have given us such warmth in our hearts that we can love all when we meet.  You are the life that defies death, and you have opened for us the way that leads to eternal life.

None of us is a great Christian; we are all humble and ordinary.  But your grace is enough for us.  Arouse in us that small degree of joy and thankfulness of which we are capable, to the timid faith which we can muster, to the cautious obedience which we cannot refuse, and thus to the wholeness of life which you have prepared for all of us through the death and resurrection of your Son. Do not allow any of us to remain apathetic or indifferent to the wondrous glory of Easter, but let the light of our risen Lord reach every corner of our dull hearts.”

            Karl Barth
1886-1968

Afterwards we tried to pray…

I was moved this morning reading a re-writing of Pete Greig’s (24/7 prayer) visit of a few years ago to S-21, a onetime concentration camp in Phnom Penh. After walking around with his two sons looking at the photos of long-deceased inmates and reading the dreadful story of the place, Pete said – “Afterwards we tried to pray but our words didn’t work. They were frauds”

Something of a challenge for Good Friday – how much of my superficial Christianity is simply a fraud?

 

He stepped forward!

A Savior Stepped Forward

Greg Morse / April 12, 2017

Torches danced in the night. Weapons were unsheathed. Judas led his oppressors to him.

After warring in prayer — watering the ground with blood-laden sweat — he led the disciples across the Brook of Kidron to the place where he knew his persecutors would arrive.

The Second Adam stood poised in the garden. The soldiers arrived. Angels watched with bated breath, as the tsunami of the Father’s holy wrath rose before him.

No other hero could step forth (Revelation 5:1–5) except the one who knew perfectly well the absolute horror that awaited him.

“Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, went forward. . . .” (John 18:4).

He Stepped Forward

I don’t cry often. Moisture may gather, but tears rarely fall.

But a particular scene in movies consistently moves me. The story reaches its climax and the people are in imminent danger. The enemy is looming, and the hero — knowing that the fight will cost him his life — steps forth to defend his own.

Those moments whisper about one glorious scene two thousand years ago when a Galilean peasant — knowing that the fight would cost him more than his life — stepped forth into battle to save his own.

Jesus stepped forward for you and me — willingly, with authority, and in love. He intervened between a ruined race and God’s righteous wrath to secure his people’s rescue.

1. He stepped forward willingly.

He who had rejected worldly crowns embraced the Roman cross. As the wolves growled, the good Shepherd stood before his sheep.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep . . . No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” (John 10:11, 18)

Jesus counted the cost. Never did knowing Scripture give anyone more reason to sweat blood.

He saw the piercing of hands (Isaiah 53:5). He envisioned the slapping, the spitting, the beard-pulling (Isaiah 50:6). He anticipated the lashings, the beating beyond human recognition, the oppression (Isaiah 52:12). He rightly feared the crushing of his Father (Isaiah 53:10; Matthew 10:28). He knew he would have no rest (Psalm 22:1).

He heard the dogs approaching (Psalm 22:16), the stampede of bulls surrounding him (Psalm 22:12). The lions were coming to devour (Psalm 22:13). The beasts of men would soon wag their heads at his anguish (Psalm 22:7–8). His very soul would be poured out to death (Isaiah 53:12). He knew his disciples would soon desert him (Zachariah 13:7). And, most terrifying of all, he knew his Father would forsake him (Psalm 22:1).

Christ stood between God’s righteous wrath and sinful men. Jesus interceded for criminals before the heavenly courts. These were not merely innocent bystanders. Each made the heaven’s Most Wanted list along with the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:3). If he chose not to be unjustly taken away, they would eventually stand before the wrath of God, alone.

And knowing this, he stepped forward willingly.

2. He stepped forward with authority.

Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. (John 18:5–6)

The arrested one was the authoritative one.

By the word of his mouth he buckled their knees and knocked them down. With one more word, he could have had them executed by an army of angels (Matthew 26:53). His divine proclamation of “I am” caused his enemies to fall at his feet (Exodus 3:14; John 18:5). As they crawled upon the ground, he did not run. The King of all the earth allowed them to rise and arrest him. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world was to be led to the slaughter.

He stepped forward with authority because he stepped forward as God.

3. He stepped forward in love.

Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.” (John 18:8–9)

Let these men go? These men who couldn’t stay awake an hour to pray? These men who he knew would forsake him anyways — and at his hour of greatest need (John 16:32)? The Son of God left perfect fellowship with his Father to become forsaken, traded angelic adoration for sinner’s sneers, and exchanged eternal joy for a cup of eternal pain — all for these men.

Why? Because he and the Father loved them.

When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (John 13:1; 3:16).

The Word that became flesh, the child born in a manger, the Creator of all things, the light of the world, has, as his earthly epitaph: He loved them perfectly in his life, and he loved them perfectly to his death.

No other love has survived such an end. Deserts of wrath stood between him and his beloved. His steadfast love endured mountains of judgment and valleys of pain.

He stepped forward into wrath to save those whom he loved from it.

Your Step Forward

His earnest prayer was that his people would be with him to see his glory (John 17:24) . . . but not yet. He prayed to his Father,

“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one . . . As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:15, 19)

We step forward into a world that would rather have Barrabas rob them, than Jesus call them to repent; a world of Pilates who find no fault with Christ, but who see no glory in him either; a world of Judases who may kiss him every Sunday, but betray him with their lives; a world that pays homage to Caesar instead of the Savior.

Jesus sends us into darkness, just as he was sent into darkness. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession so that we might declarethe excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9–11).

He willingly stepped forward in love and authority to manifest his excellencies, that we might declare them in this life, and experience them perfectly in the next.

Mary of Egypt

“You are powerful over your creatures, You can do all things in me. Give me a right mind, give me the wisdom that you promise to all who ask for it. Convert my heart and let me glorify You to the utmost til my last breath and through all eternity. I ask this in the Name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Je veux crier l’Evangile toute ma vie. (I would shout the Gospel all my life)”

“Jesus promised his disciples…”

“Jesus promised his disciples three things: that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.”William Barclay