Our Firm Foundation

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Ps.11:3)

Over the years, I have read Psalm 11:3 believing that the implied conclusion of the matter was that in this scenario “the righteous can do nothing”.  That conclusion seemed self-evident when one tries to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this generation. “We are living in a post-modern culture” we are told, and so the message of salvation has to be “modified to the times”. This position has always troubled me, but more-so now that I’ve learned a bit more of what “pre-modern, modern and post-modern” society actually means.

Briefly, since Christ, a pre-modern world view accepted the Biblical narration of the world system and has generally been the world view of most civilized societies up until the mid-1600’s.

The Modern world-view has a more skeptical view of the Bible, and relies heavily on the “Scientific Method” an obsolete standard for spiritual matters.  This world-view cast doubt on many Scriptural truths. Scriptures that were once considered absolutely true began to be redefined as mythical or allegorical. The concept of “truth” itself was loosened from its mooring suggesting that truth is “relative”. This gave birth to the “post-modern” worldview.

The devil’s proposal “Hath God really said…?” drifted through halls of academia like an intoxicant settling in the minds of those who now unfortunately stand in many American pulpits. The post-modern society that we are perceived to be living in is the fruition of the doubt cast upon the Word of God, the casting of truth onto the ground (Dan.8:12/Is.59:14), and the introduction of an “anything goes” mentality that confounds logic.  It is a cultural and religious upsweep that gathers all religions into one and judges the true Christian faith as divisive and antiquated.  It is this “world view” that dominates the times that we are now living in.  

While there are currently other religious beliefs that also claim exclusivity, these are, according to Scripture, under the sway of the spirit of this world, and will in due time, join forces against Christianity. (Dt.32:17/1Cor.10:20/1Jn.5:19) Christian persecution is on the rise world-wide.  It is the preaching of the cross of Christ and His resurrection that offends the devil and magnifies Jesus. Calvary is an absolute historical truth marked by the spilled blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that is an everlasting testimony to all of creation of His victory over the devil and his works.  Those who hold a modern or post-modern worldview cannot fully receive this truth. Although they may ascent to this doctrine, they do not live their lives under this banner. We are called to bear witness of the truth, not to modify it. Occasionally words may be necessary.

The post-modern version of Jesus Christ is not the Christ of the Bible. It is man’s attempt to reach others with the message of God’s love, but it is powerless to save. There is no conviction of sin and there is no repentance, the prerequisite to God’s forgiveness. Truly if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The remedy to that dilemma is found in the remaining verses of this Psalm. The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven, His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men, the Lord tests the righteous…For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.(Ps.11:4,5,7) When we suffer through various trials, we gain experience with the Lord and learn to trust Him. Double-mindedness is eradicated and stabilizes us (James1:8), and we are given a new heart and Spirit (Ez.11:19;18:31;36:26/Heb.10:16/2Cor.1:22). 

Ours is to trust the Lord, pray for discernment and walk in obedience to His Word. God will not confirm a counterfeit Christ, molded to fit the times. He will confirm the truth (Mk.16:20). The Lord is in His Holy Temple, and we are that Temple. (2Cor.6:16/Eph.2:19-22) God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.  Christ is in us to continue that work. (2Cor.5:19) As we yield to Him, He will bear the fruit through us. (Jn.15:5)

DJ

“A dead Christ I must do everything for; a living Christ does everything for me.”

 Andrew Murray (1828-1917)

Seasons

A friend of mine visited me a few years back, and noticed that I had a “thing for trees”. She noticed a few pictures around my house that showed bare deciduous trees in the winter, and inquired about them.  Some people prefer trees with blossoms such as we see in the spring, or broad green leaves providing shade from the summer’s heat, or a colorful palate of oranges, reds and yellows that burst forth in the autumn, but for me, the winter tree has a beauty that is indescribably unique. I never actually noticed the trees in the winter, unless they were covered with a layer of ice and sparkled in the sunlight, until the Lord spoke to me of hope in the dry seasons of life, and He used the winter tree to do it. 

The trees in the winter stand isolated, reaching heavenward, seemingly lifeless. They are void of leaves or other ornaments of beauty, and appear naked against the landscape.  They bear up during blizzards and because they are leafless, they are not greatly moved in the storms. The covering of leaves would in fact make them weak and vulnerable to breaking and so while the winter tree almost appears abandoned it is in reality, by the forethought of God, protected from the elements of this world.  I remember the day the Lord showed me the absolute beauty of the lace-like branches, bare and naked, against the sky.  It was the most beautiful I had ever seen a tree to be.  We are a bit like that.

 To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven (Eccl.3:1).  “Everything” includes our life and our walk with the Lord.  There are seasons where we feel connected to the Lord and all is well, and other seasons when we feel spiritually “dry”, walking through a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. (Ps.63:1) When we go through these dry seasons, we often become perplexed and wonder if we’ve done something that broke our sense of communion with the Lord.  It is important to examine ourselves to see if we have sinned against God, and to ask Him to reveal anything in our lives that may have offended Him and created a break in our fellowship.  Certainly being imperfect, we will probably come up with a few things that we suspect may have caused the sky to become as brass to our prayers, but having confessed them, we claim that promise that if we confess and repent of our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse of all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) If the dry spell is due to sin, this remedies the problem if we are sincere.   

However, not all such desert experiences are due to sin and are, in fact, a part of the normal Christian life.  Such seasons have been called “wilderness” or “desert” experiences.  We learn of our weaknesses in such times and our dependence upon God. This is important to understand because we have an adversary who would love nothing more than for a Christian to become discouraged in such seasons of life.  I’ve come to believe that all discouragement is from the devil, who is the father of lies.(Jn.8:44)  The only weapon against lies is truth.  

The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit, our weapon (Eph.6:17), and when discouragement creeps in we search for the truth in Scripture to counteract the lie, and cleave to it.  This is how we exercise faith. This is how we learn experientially the faithfulness of God.  If we never had the dry, winter season stripped of our ornamental coverings we would not learn of His faithfulness or the power of the Word of God against all discouragement.  The Lord your God has set the land before you, go up and possess it…do not fear nor be discouraged (Dt.1:21) If God commands us not to be discouraged, He also has provided for our need so that we are not discouraged.  Faith grows when it is exercised, and the promise of spring reassures us that this is just a season through which we all must pass.

DJ

Broadway

I saw a tunnel deep and dark
beneath a bridge in a public park.
Beyond my vision I could hear
the sounds of a party
clinking glasses and cheer.
The entrance was broad and groomed to invite
the young and the old ventured in out of sight.
I paused for a moment only to see
the only one hesitating seemed to be me.
I gingerly entered as others passed by
they were talking and laughing, yet
I wanted to cry.
I could not understand why I wanted to mourn
the entrance was broad, the pavement well worn.
The deeper I traveled, I saw more hesitate
but others seduced them saying "this is your fate".
There grew thistles and vines
that entangled the feet. The air became heavy
and was no longer sweet.
A panic set in as I saw others snared
who were trying to leave what they
never had feared.
The clanging of glasses that the darkness had covered
was the gnashing of teeth, I soon discovered.
The roaring of laughter that I heard within
were the cries of remorse of those
deceived by sin.
A melody played hauntingly over-head
"I did it my way" it mocked, the song of the dead.
A glimmer of light shown through on my side
and I rushed to it wanting a place to hide.
The crevice was narrow, difficult and steep
but upward I climbed away from the deep.
Often I tired as I struggled alone,
but hope would engulf me as I carried on.
"I am the way" was the song I now heard
"the Truth and the Life, just abide in My word."
"My Savior" I grasped at His hem to survive.
Where once I was dead, I now was alive.
He held on to my hand and would not
let me go. "This is the way" I beckoned to the lost
souls below.
On occasion I heard relief in a sigh as
another escaped the place where souls die.
As long as there is breath, there is hope for new birth
A new life joined to the King of Heaven and Earth.
This way, fellow pilgrim, not easy, I know,
but better than hell where the other souls go.
The rewards are far better than
the wages of sin
Ask, knock and seek
He will let you in.

Two Trees in the Garden

We have before us the Tree of Knowledge
with all its numerous degrees
the fruit of which still brings death
though to the eyes they please.
And yonder there, the Tree of Life
simplicity and rest,
the fruit is hidden behind the leaves
and yet, this fruit is best.

Seek and ye will Find (Mt.7:8)

  The Scriptures were given to us to understand God and to discern truth and are essential to navigate in this life, for there are many antichrists and counterfeit experiences. God elevates His Word, even higher than His name and we are to study to show ourselves approved, rightly dividing the Word of God. There have been many good teaching helps for those who desire to know God in a deeper and more intimate way. These are helpful as is a map would be on any journey, but these can only but lead a believer to the threshold of a deeper walk.  To know the Lord intimately, is not to find Him in a book, or a method, but by “Faith".  I first address this to the skeptic and wandering soul who struggles with the stronghold of intellectual supremacy.

We do not taste with intellect, but with an organ designed to interpret the stimulus, which is translated somewhere in our mind, but not until having communicated something to the soul. We find the taste pleasant or noxious, uplifting and sweet, or repulsive and bitter or a combination of either. What business does intellect play but to put into works the interpretation of our decision as to whether this is a taste we decide is good and something to be repeated or not good and to be avoided.  Even the memory of the taste has greater prominence than intellect itself. We can never, by intellect, share what that taste is.  We can merely describe our personal interpretation of it.  We hardly think about it until we have tasted it. 

We love not with our minds, but our hearts. We do not completely reject all thinking, but our best description of attraction to another human being is “chemistry”, an unseen but well understood phenomena.  This chemistry cannot be generated, it merely is acknowledged to be present or lacking. We can, using our intellect, talk ourselves out of investing in a relationship, but that is not until there is a consideration of the factors involved. We become aware that there is a power of our heart that draws us into a controversy within ourselves. Until that phenomenon is experienced, it can hardly be explained.

We see with our eyes, but it is not until we see a thing, that we engage the intellect to interpret for us what we are looking at. We touch, and again if we had never touched, we would not have the experience to engage the intellect to interpret the sensation of the touch. Our memory dictates to the intellect, and intellect makes a determination, a determination which may not be accurate. Something such as fur may appear to be soft and decided upon by the intellect to be soft by prior experience and sensation, but in reality, it may have been sprayed with shellac and is quite stiff to the touch. The intellect needs additional information if it is to be trusted.

We may hear a sound, but until we hear it, our intellect has nothing to interpret. The same can be said about the sense of smell. Odors are amazing triggers to memory, and yet our intellect is not yet engaged until that memory is medicated upon.

All that is in the world that is perceptible to the senses demonstrates what a small role “intellect” plays in the experience.  Yet, many depend upon intellect to play a major role in the unseen spiritual realm.  Without any input whatsoever, many gamble away their souls to eternal damnation by relying entirely upon the limited ability of the intellect. They thrust the intellect to the forefront without any input and decide that “there is no God”. They do this without ever having taken the time to seek Him.  It is like saying a fully charged battery is dead, simply because it does nothing when you set it on a table.  Until that battery is placed in a circuit of some kind, what makes it any different from a fully expired battery?

The problem with the intellectual is that they think a true Christian’s faith is in the thinking and consideration of imaginations and stories.  They do not consider that a true Christian experiences God. They do not understand that there is an imparted divine life within him, communicating with his soul and spirit that grows stronger in time, much like the life that is hidden within a seed. One small seed can remain lifeless and inert for years…but plant it in soul, nurture and water it, and the hidden life becomes a tree.  It is not that a Christian forsakes intellect, but rather that he does not engage it to experience God, but only to interpret that experience, just as all men engage intellect only following their experiences of their five senses. The spiritual sense is just as real, but people are born into this life spiritually dead.  It is not until one is “quickened” by the Holy Spirit of God, that he can experience anything of God. 

The Scriptures declare that there is placed in the soul of man, a glimmer of light revealing God and that experiences in our lives may generate an inner sense of the reality of God.  In response to this revelation, those who seek God, find Him.  Those who do not seek Him do not find Him.  People talk themselves out of seeking God using an intellect that is void of any divine light.  It is ironic that we cannot engage the intellect without a sensory input in the temporal world and yet many engage the intellect and fully trust their intellect when it comes to the world of the unseen.  That really doesn’t make much sense.

A Contrary Wind

He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them (Mark 6:48)

We live in an environment where the “wind is against us”. We strain and try to cut through the wind, and we just don’t get very far.  In this scene, the 12 disciples are straining, fighting to row against the wind for most of the night.  Jesus, after staying back on shore for the first 9 hours of the night, set out walking on the water seemingly effortlessly. In fact, He’s about to stroll on by while they’re wrestling with the oars, barely having made any headway. When the disciples see him, they’re terrified until He reassures them and climbs into the boat. Once in the boat with the disciples, the wind ceases. No more contrary wind, no more struggle, smooth sailing from then on.

 

Perhaps the wind remembers the rebuke of the Lord from a previous encounter as described earlier in this Gospel account, and behaves as soon as He is in their midst, but it is noteworthy that the word “wind” is so often used to describe the spiritual world.  Not knowing from whence it comes, or where it blows, but it stirs up the physical realm.  The invisible wind causes the sea to violently respond.  The contrary wind opposes the plans and agendas of the followers of Jesus.  Yet, they struggle and fight against it, exhausting themselves, while Jesus who spent the time in prayer, strolls effortlessly by on top of the sea, unhindered and unaffected by the wind.  It is as though the winds parted, and the sea was restful wherever He planted His next step.

What if the disciples decided earlier on to drop anchor and wait for Jesus. What if they turned around back to where Jesus was and said “Lord, without You, we are struggling against a contrary wind.  We have seen how the wind and waves obey You, and how compassionate You were to all those You sent away, feeding every single one of them.  We have seen You accomplish great things in a short time, and how we are not able to do this without You.  Therefore we’ve come back to ask You to get into the boat with us.”  Maybe this is why Jesus waited on shore for so long. Perhaps He was wondering when it might occur to them that they were powerless without Him. By the forth watch,  it would appear that they were going to continue their fruitless struggle against the contrary wind, not asking for help, nor even praying for it, just fighting and struggling against the elements of the invisible world in the weakness of their flesh.

One can almost picture Jesus rolling His eyes, shaking His head as He decides He’s let them struggle long enough and since they hadn’t called out to God to help them, He was about to stroll on by, past them, onto the other side.  Perhaps to emphasize the calm surrounding Jesus, one might also imagine Him whistling a tune to Himself as He walked on by.  In the same way we watch a toddler struggle to do an impossible task as He pushes our hands off insisting and saying “I can do it myself!”, while we sigh, sit back and wait until He finally asks for help, or gives up trying, we see Jesus taking the same approach. It wasn’t cruelty that Jesus allowed them to exhaust themselves against a contrary wind, it was an object lesson.  We must come to the end of ourselves sooner or later.

We can do nothing in our own strength.  There is an invisible contrary wind blowing against us, stirring up the physical world with its circumstances and interruptions.  We can fight against it in our strength, but it is a fruitless struggle and all that we accomplish is exhaustion. 

 The Lord had commissioned them earlier to go out two by two, proclaiming the gospel, healing the sick, and casting out demons.  He had to demonstrate to them their utter helplessness without Jesus.  Their power depended upon Jesus.  In this stormy scene, the Scripture states that “their heart was hardened” (Mark 6:52). Whenever we think that we did something amazing, pride rears its ugly head and hardens our hearts.  God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Pride must not be allowed to enter into the work of the Gospel because it is a lie.  Pride is the sin that caused Lucifer’s fall, and it is the greatest disease to afflict mankind.

The remedy is death, therefore we must all die and be reckoned dead to the flesh, where pride proliferates, but alive in Christ.  We must be entirely dependent upon Jesus, living in union with Him, abiding in Him.  He must be in our boat at all times if we are to get to the other side and if He isn’t, we must wait and find out why that is. Jesus would never leave us, nor forsake us, but He would, for our own good, let us struggle without Him until we cry out to Him. We must seek Him and ask Him if He is indeed sending us out, or is He calling us to “come aside by ourselves to a deserted place to rest a while”.  It is imperative that we are abiding and sensitive to His will in this moment.  We cannot have an agenda of our own.  Ours is to surrender our agenda, and wait upon God.