Hoping til we know

It is difficult to learn to live with both truth that we know (certainties)and truth that we hope (uncertainties)existing in our lives. So much of our peace and growth comes from hoping, personal uncertainties and knowing, personal certainties. Truth that we hope evolves into truth that we know, growing into peace. Life and Scripture teach us to apply the proper verb, knowing or hoping, to the circumstance of the moment. For instance,"It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes." (Psa 119:71 KJV). In life we experience suffering for a reason. It is a certainty that in suffering and testing we can learn God’s statutes. Hope holds us in our suffering until we can know that which the good Lord teaches us "And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth," (Exo 34:6 KJV). This experience of converting “holding hope” to “knowing peace” changes us and, thank God, purifies us,

"But ye have not so learned Christ;" (Eph 4:20 KJV)

"If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:" (Eph 4:21 KJV)

"That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;" (Eph 4:22 KJV)

"And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;" (Eph 4:23 KJV)

"And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Eph 4:24 KJV)

We must hear and be taught. We must believe until we know.

The observations of Christ tell us so much about Him and then how he sees us tells us so much about ourselves. From Mark 6:34 we are told Jesus “saw much people”, and we are also told “he was moved with compassion”. Jesus was affected by the condition of the crowd. He looked at them with a capacity to genuinely care that the crowd was in duress and he was by nature required to react, so He had compassion. His reaction tells us so much about Him. The Greek word for this compassion is rooted in the Greek for bowels or spleen. His reaction was from a deep sensitivity inside of Christ capable of seeing desperation and confusion, then being able to translate that which He saw into a natural response, not using a perfect logical analysis, but by simply being who he was, the loving Son of God. He could clearly see the plight of man and he cared deeply. How blessed we are that he being man and God he could care and remedy. We clearly see the compassionate prophet. Though his compassion was natural to him, it was his reaction to what he saw in the crowd representing fallen man. He saw that we as fallen beings are in desperate need for two reasons. First we are like sheep, we are not self-sustaining; secondly without Christ we need a Sheppard a sustainer. Seeing perfectly their predicament and caring deeply from within, “he began to teach them many things”. His solution was to give them relief through the truth. Fallen man receiving truth is evidence of the deep love of God. How foolish we would be to reject his compassion which comes in the form of truth found in the Holy Scripture.

Integrity of truth

What comfort floods the mind by the way of the mystery of the indwelling Spirit when holy truth overcomes our doubt. We the elect, redeemed and adopted, by the blessed revelation of the scripture, find ‘perfect peace” as our minds are stayed on Him, the only authentic source of truth since he has “made all things”. Called to come into his courts with praise, the advice is not unreasonable nor without explanation for the psalmist continues For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. The durability of this truth is the basis for our confidence and then our comfort. The seed then the fruit, the grave then the resurrection, the promise then the inheritance; this is how the great Author of all blesses us. Since He decrees all that comes to pass, He is the only legitimate source of truth so that His revelation is the only authentic and genuine explanation of what is and the only dependable promise of what will be. His documented plan has integrity as a properly constructed building; it holds together and is dependable, reflects His mercy and gives us a hope that is the seed for the rejoicing and testimony of those …that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Honor thy father and mother

“Honor thy father and mother”, from the great and eternal tablets, as with all that is sacred is likely to be trivialized by fallen egocentrics, even among the elect. Beneath the obvious, lies a rich God-glorifying reality “the greater and the lesser”, a fact surely built into creation. All the conceived will have the relationship of ancestry, the ones who bring life; lifegivers. Some will be lifegivers. This provides us with model of “greater and lesser” as God has evidenced by using the experience of “father” to show us his relationship to his beloved remnant. Meditating on this blessed command allows us to consider our individual roles, sometimes the greater, at times the lesser and often equals. How blessed being made in His image to have a chance to see things from God’s perspective as the greater while enjoying the commonness with equals and caring for the lesser, loving all, finding indelible etchings of the great Creator uniquely in each arrangement. Blessed we will be when we submit to these decreed arrangements, submitting to magistrates, cooperating with others and being responsible and longsuffering with those in our charge; acknowledging the providential attention and intention of the true Greater, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created”.

Are we there yet?

“Are we there yet”? Even the childish instinct to arrive testifies to some subtle awareness of something yet to follow. As with many human experiences, it reminds us of our commonness with one another and perhaps provides a clue to our created nature. How wonderful to realize we were made with certain natural feelings, such as rejoicing in arriving, which makes us alike and helps us understand and appreciate one another, even to love one another. To anticipate the goodness and mercy following the redeemed allows us to be sustained by the witness that deliverance will come. We will arrive; in the meantime what relief to hear “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. Grace does carry us pilgrims forward; we should hope in that which is to come. In the meantime we can be discouraged with the journey, impatient to get there, complaining all the way or “rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer”. How is it with you fellow strangers?

Law of grace

In the sacred and holy construction of the Levitical legal system, the gentle and loving Father planted great truths for comfort, conformity to creation ordinances and a foundation for the decreed plan of redemption by grace, benefiting all creation. From Leviticus 25, “The Lord spake unto Moses” to instruct the people to observe “a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord”. During the seventh year of each seven year cycle, no pruning, no sowing, no reaping “for it is the year of rest unto the land”. Man then may ask “what shall we eat the seventh year?” The good Lord in his great power and sovereign majesty declares “then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years”. Food for the sixth year following the harvest, the Sabbath year and the year of sowing to follow; keep his law, hope in his grace and rest and enjoy his timely and perfect provision. Think of and marvel at a God who would demand of us in his law, not to get from us anything, only to display his grace in his commands, “neither is (God) worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things”. The same One provides daily needs and stirs the regenerate soul with his power and love, so we will not as Paul told the men at Athens “ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you”. Imagine, a law, that even in the command declares grace and displays glory.

Acceptable sacrifice

Man, the created, as his Creator, can conceive of and make sacrifice. The creature however can not sacrifice for, only to, his creator and the creator would never sacrifice to, but only for, the creature. Our human behavior patterns are often this way, holy in that they are similar to our Creator’s ways but from the inferior position of the created being. If we error on this point, failing to submit to the reality of creation, God as creator, man as created, we insult Him and offer the sacrifice of fools. God defines the acceptable sacrifice to him; we should comply. He then provides for us an acceptable sacrifice, Christ, which we have no right to demand nor could we even imagine left to ourselves. Christ then becomes the sacrifice to God as the perfect atoner and for man as savior. This could be a subtle argument for Christ being totally God and totally man; One who could sacrifice to God and for man.