The Perils of Being Full

Lest when thou hast eaten and art full… Deu 8:12 

Greed is Subtle

Nothing has the potential to reveal our capacity for depravity like food and money does. The sight at a buffet table always excites passions as everything is usually calm as the people wait out at the conference or party room. But all hell breaks loose when they rise up to go to be filled.

My mother used to admonish us to ‘cover’ our stomachs when we were full. That is because that was the time when we were most liable to forget ourselves. As a former alcoholic I can testify that nothing makes one feel invincible as booze does.

That is also the time when kings are wont to become reckless. King Ahasuerus lost his queen Vashti for good after seven days of wanton feasting, and ‘Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?’ boasted Nebuchadnezzar.

And then it was while he was busy running away from King Saul’s wrath in the wilderness that David’s behavior was excellent. But it was when he was full and idle that he ‘walked upon the roof of the king's house’, and the world shall never forget Bathsheba.

Testimonies abound about how some people were once very loyal church goers and very close to God until ‘he heard their prayers, and he blessed them’, and that was usually the end of their relationship.

And so man without God would be totally depraved.

So are Riches to be Spurned?

It depends on the context. ‘The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it’ (Pro 10:22). And I think it was on this wise that God (aware of our natural desires) said to seek his kingdom first, ‘for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things’ (Mat 6:32).  But likewise ‘There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked’ (Isa 57:21).  

Paul’s teaching about Money is also True as Experience Bears him out

‘But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows’ (1Ti 6:9-10).  

And this is so because a Christian’s chief calling is first and foremost ‘a high calling’, as it is written, ‘If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God’ (Col 3:1-3).  

But it becomes very easy to lose sight of this when our occupation is also taken up with much ‘serving the tables’ rather than dwelling on ‘the ministry of the word.’ Paul’s counsel therefore is on the minister of God to keep himself from these earthly or fleshly desires, ‘But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses’ (1Ti 6:11-12).  

But for those who are rich Paul counsels against becoming enslaved by the same, ‘Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life’ (1Ti 6:17-19).  

But in Everything Rather Give Thanks

Likewise it should never be lost that it is God who gives one the power to become wealthy (Deu 8:18) or the lack thereof (and not necessarily because it is the work of the devil),  ‘The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and he hath set the world upon them’ (1Sa 2:7-8). 

So it is rather incumbent upon us that we thank God in everything rather than to be engaged in grumbling and falling prey to bitterness: ‘Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer’ (Rom 12:12).   

For it is actually a sin not to enjoy the life God has given us, ‘And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee’ (Deu 26:11a).

Finally there is the Need for Self-control or Discipline in Everything we do

Moments of self-reflection or fasting are profitable and should be encouraged, for they afford one calmness, soberness and self-control: ‘For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come’ (1Ti 4:8).

Equally it is written that, ‘There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God’ (Ecc 2:24). 

Life is beautiful. But to doubt that is to invite perpetual gloom. And yes God is still ‘able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think’. Let us pray: Lord, you came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly according to your word, please open our eyes to this fact in everything that we do. Amen. 

Go on to Possess what you want in Life

‘I have begun to give… begin to possess’ Deu 2:31

Is all ambition Vain and the Desire for Profit Evil?

At eighty years of age Caleb pleaded with Joshua to give him ‘this mountain.’ And elsewhere the poet has put these words in God’s mouth: ‘I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.’ And so sometimes we don’t get what we desire from God because we are afraid to persist, or we are too overwhelmed by our sense of apparent greed.

Many Christians are uncomfortable with the issues of ambition and wealth acquisition or prosperity. Perhaps some were ‘filthy rich’ at one time before hard times set in, and the experience left them permanently disillusioned about the beauty of life.

Again we have all read the stories of people who struck a windfall or won a large lottery. But they are not usually very happy stories.

Or perhaps one is gifted with a poetic turn of mind, and in their search for the ideal, they have tried everything in life before finally they landed on the perfect treasure, and it was only then that the demons in their minds were quieted.

And so one trenchant idealist says, ‘I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? … Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit… Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun…’ (Ecc 2).

And so Paul too would count everything as dung.

There will always be a big Chasm between our Time and their Time

Time is dynamic and not static. So Abraham, in his days, kept large heads of cattle, and in addition servants were born in his own house. But in our day it is the ‘large heads’ of education, the stock market and the Protestant Ethic. And who can say God has not been gracious to us as he was with Abraham and his descendants?

There is a Sense of Contradiction in every aspect of our Lives

To miss this fact is to choose a perplexed life, and it is to miss the joy of our humanity. So quipped the philosopher, ‘Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?’ (Ecc 7:16).

Many times the simplest thing to do is believe, but O how hard!

‘Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word’ (Psa 106:24), and ‘Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?’ (Psa 78:19). 

Might we have overanalyzed our problems until we cannot tell the common from the supernatural anymore?

‘Wherefore be ye not unwise,’ the apostle admonishes, ‘but understanding what the will of the Lord is’ (Eph 5:17), and ‘Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth’ (2Ti 2:15).

And so some are called to be dreamers in this life and some are called to be entrepreneurs.

‘But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that,’ adds the apostle, and, ‘Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.’ (See Desiring God, Meditations of a Christian Hedonist by John Piper).

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty

A tree when winter strikes, withers. But it is not usually the death of life, but only the death of a season. So what beliefs do you believe today and why do you believe them? Are they still valid today or they are outdated? And can you change? ‘And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it’ (Psa 90:17). And ‘where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty’ and so we can begin to be changed from one image of his glory to another.

And so what ‘glory’ are you short of at present dear friend? Is it peace? Is it healing? Is it knowledge or wisdom? Is it freedom? Is it joy? Is it patience? Is it riches? Is it happiness? Name it. But God’s command is that we should begin to possess it right now. Is the Jordan river still overflowed and are we afraid we are going to drown if we cross it? ‘And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in.’ God is still faithful. He has said it and will he not do it? ‘He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?’ (Rom 8:32).Tonight let us do a different thing. Let us just believe. 

 Job: A Study of Hope Where there is Apparently no Hope

‘but who can withhold himself from speaking?’ Job 4:2  

 ‘all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.’ Job 14:14 

Where is God when He is most Needed?

‘Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?’ Zophar, one of Job’s ‘miserable comforters’ was piqued by the latter’s constant justifying of himself, and therefore rather rattled, he threw Job the above question.

Is there anyone who can really know God to perfection? No, it is impossible. Besides, if I should attempt it, I should lose my mind.

The pain which Job felt was gratuitous according to his thinking. He didn’t deserve it and the thought just drove him further up the wall. Without knowing it he was slowly approaching that point at which the whirlwind of questioning goes round and around in the head but without seemingly arriving at any end.  

Meeting God ‘face to face’

In the end Job prayed that he would meet God, and God granted his request (38-41). Job didn’t go to him but God came to Job. And then chapter after chapter the book opens on how God asked Job question after question – and strangely Job could not even answer one of them. He asked God to forgive him instead. He had only heard of him in the past but now he had met him in person. And though he was still in pain but Job acknowledged that he now understood. It happens to us too after a long night of the soul, it happens in the songs which God gives to his beloved, and though they are ransacked by pain.

There is always a point at which one reaches and beyond which pain means nothing. I pray that point comes to you soon too like it came to Job.  ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’ thundered Paul, ‘shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ And then Paul breaks into that dizzying of chants: ‘Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom 8:37-38). 

Having Christ only for One’s Best Friend

And that is always the comfort of having Christ for one’s best friend. He understands. And in times like these the Spirit intercedes for us ‘with groanings which cannot be uttered.’ In Christ we are never alone. And so when all questions had yielded no answer for Job, he cleaved to his God as if with his clenched fist: ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him’. God grant you that confidence and courage especially at a time like this dear friend.

Life is a Journey

Life is a journey, and God humbly asks us not to tire ourselves with too much thinking. He asks us to trust him instead. It may not remove all the stones from the road but it sure brings relief after the wind has been spent. The dust will settle and the stream by the roadside will be clear again. The journey is still uphill but the heart brims with expectation at the rest which awaits us just beyond the shoulder.

Hasn’t he said that all things work together for our good? I believe that. It is the pathway to peace for me, and I pray it is your pathway too.

Let us pray: I can’t understand everything in life God, that’s why I cast all my cares upon you, because I believe your yoke is easy as you have promised and your burden is light. In my pain please make me to feel light again Lord I pray. Amen.  

 

 Desiring the Best in this Life

 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Php 4:8 

 The mind is a sea which never stops to stir. At one time it is calm and gentle like a breeze. But at another time it is like a gale blowing in the desert and scattering dust in the air. The mind never slumbers even when we are asleep, and one may wake up with a loud scream, or one may smile at the darkness while they fondle the air lovingly with their hands.

 The mind, it would seem, is a universe all of its own, and though we may have little control over it, but it is important to exercise control over our thoughts as failure to do this will impart negatively on all our relationships, as the proverb says: ‘He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls’ (Pro 25:28). 

 Our Selfish nature will always Impart on what We think and what We believe

But not all thoughts come to us uninvited. Some we deliberately invite them in our minds, as we listen to them, agree with them and even encourage them, as Cain famously did, and which resulted in the murder of his brother Abel.

Only Death to self can Break us from being Servants of our Thoughts

On our own it is nearly impossible to kill the love of our self. It is just not natural to our fallen nature. What is natural instead is to rebel and disobey against authority, whether it is from our parents, our elders or from God. Our thoughts usually exercise powerfully over our behaviors (and our egos), but it is often to our own destruction than salvation, as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, no, not one’ and, ‘For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not’ (Rom 7:18).  The world, by scripture’s testimony, is at the hands of the prince of darkness even at this time and which is the devil (Eph 2:2), and again: ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jer 17:9).

 And so to die completely from self is purely the supernatural work of God, and it is from him alone we obtain ‘a new heart and a new mind’, and also the ‘power to become the sons of God’. And that process is nothing short of a ‘death’.

Meditation usually gives one a Peek into their Inner self and into the Workings of their own Thoughts

Our thoughts usually escalate where there is action, and especially of pleasure. It is at a crowded place where thoughts get provoked into excitement, and it is usually in such places too where jealousy gains a foothold, and anger and hate.

There may be much laughter and screams of pleasure in such a place, but these also take place under suppressed annoyances. This is especially so because it is very difficult to be truly oneself in a crowded place (hence hypocritical), and this in turn will only provoke self-loathing… and more of all sorts of sins!

But in meditation there is usually very little room for hypocrisy, as one is usually made acutely self-conscious (naked) of their own limitations, and even of their utter helplessness and need of help from a higher Being, hence the psalmist’s plea, ‘From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I’ (Psa 61:2).  And are you at such a place at present dear friend? It’s written, ‘Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.’ God is still faithful. Cry unto him and he will save you out of your trouble.

In meditation therefore one is able, in self-reflection and quiet, to observe the general trajectory of one’s thoughts and one’s life, and hence to begin changes or improvement to the same. The following prayer for example could only have been as a result of deep meditation: ‘Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness’, and, ‘Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way’ (Psa 119:36-37).  

Love heals Everything: and where Undesirable thoughts hold sway May we take Refuge in the Word of God

King Solomon wrote, ‘The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe’, and the apostle Peter echoed the same in ‘And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.’ And moreover the apostle Paul himself weighed in with the same exhortation in his famous ode on love:

‘Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things…Charity never faileth’ (1Co 13:4-8a).  

And as God did not create us to remain in the same state in this life, let us strive towards perfection (as it is written, ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’). And so it is incumbent upon each one of us to desire such higher attributes, for only in doing so shall we be able to bring our own thoughts and lives under great control. And so may God humble us, and help us to desire only the best in this life, and which (as he has taught us), can only be found in our communion with him. Amen.

 

  

 

 

Abraham and Moses: Lessons from Two Great Heroes of Faith

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Heb 11:1-2 

The Old Testament Writer as merely a Reporter or Messenger of God

I know it is in David’s character that we famously meet him craving for his God ‘As the hart panteth after the water brooks’, but I want to propose that even Abraham and Moses did so, though from reading their accounts in the Old Testament, one would never think so. There they are silent, and they don’t publish to the whole world the matters of their hearts as David famously did in his psalms. Therefore we are more conversant with the latter than we are with the rest of the Old Testament prophets, except perhaps Solomon. These two were not only kings in Israel, but even more important they were also poets and writers, and to be a poet, singer or writer is to be ‘a noise maker’, for by their nature they cannot be shut up! That is why governments all over the world hate them, and kill them.

But it wasn’t so for Abraham. Apparently he didn’t (in his tongue) possess ‘the pen of a ready writer.’ So in Old Testament Abraham is told to leave his father’s land by God… and he leaves. Likewise he is told to sacrifice his son and ‘automatically’ he obeys… thus we see him in a figure only, but we don’t really see his heart. That is left to the New Testament writers to shed light for us on those matters. And it is from them that we get glimpses of Abraham and Moses strong cravings for their God. In the Old Testament Moses is a reporter per excellence (as the writer of the Pentateuch) and as a good writer, he doesn’t let his feelings interfere with his reporting. Again it is the New Testament writers who go ‘behind the scene’ to reveal to us the state of Moses’ heart. Without them, Abraham and Moses should never have appeared to us as real humans, but as stock characters, allegories or archetypes.

 The Shadow and the Reality: The examples of Abraham and Moses as ‘called out’ Ones

It is essentially from Paul that we receive a hint of Abraham’s true heart, where, in six heavy words, he describes Abraham’s conflict as consisting of one ‘Who against hope believed in hope’. And so at last we learn that Abraham made a tough decision when he decided to leave Mesopotamia as God had commanded him for a new land. And isn’t that always the case, whether one is getting into ministry, or whether one is getting saved?

 

And so as the Old Testament writer reports about Abraham wandering in the vast Canaan country with his wealth of animals, the Hebrews writer knew what Abraham’s longing was for all along: ‘For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God’ (Heb 11:10).  

 We are Strangers and Pilgrims in this World

It is especially in the book of Hebrews that the whole heart of Abraham is laid bare for us to see. For it is here that we see his great faith, his great vision, and his great patience, as it is written, ‘These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city’ (Heb 11:13-16).  And so as the Old Testament writer’s vision ended with The Promised Land, the New Testament writer saw something larger than that, he saw heaven, ‘To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you’ (1Pe 1:4).

Likewise Moses’ heart is opened fully for us only in the New Testament book of Hebrews as it is written: ‘By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible’ (Heb 11:24-27). And so, at last, we comprehend how an enlightened man like Moses can be content for forty years to be a plain shepherd in a desolate desert, and not why he should be a prince in a Pharaoh’s palace in rich Egypt.

The happenings in this world do not seem to have had any hold on these prophets. Their whole life and business was about their God only. O that we should have such a burning passion for our missions in this life!

Is it possible for us in our modern age to embody the spirit of being merely sojourners and pilgrims here on this earth?

I think we can. For even in the New Testament that spirit of being citizens of heaven but strangers in this world is still clearly spelt.

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Joh 15:19  

I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Joh 17:14 

 

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Joh 17:15-16   

 

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1Jn 2:15-17  

In the End it is the Word of God which Counts

So, I ask myself, and you probably ask yourself, can we, in our modern era, exhibit such passion, such single mindedness, and such craving for our God as these two great prophets of God?

What distracts us?

Where do our fears come from?

May we be encouraged indeed, and God grant us the courage to imitate these prophets, or even more, to imitate Christ himself, the author and captain of our faith, now and forever more. Amen.