Desires and Temptations: Why there is No Easy Road to Freedom

‘and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God’ Acts 14:22b.

Don’t Despise the Day of Small Things

In their early years a few Bible College students make a vow to be like their famous apostle Paul (including myself). They announce from rooftops that, ‘It is good for a man not to touch a woman.’ But then they leave college. And today most of them are married. If you ask them what happened they say simply - ‘Reality.’

Now I don’t want to laugh at them. For ‘I am also a man,’ and people living in glass houses should not throw stones.

But I’m also aware that we live in an age where a man can say one thing today and another thing tomorrow – and still he will not lose friends (or sleep) over such a small thing. Rather he will gain more, especially if they be men.

And that troubles me. Because it does not raise but it lowers the moral bar by which all Christians are called to live by.

So the men who say that reality hit them are not so brave or inspiring. Who can trust them if a war broke out? And does this not prove true that money and sex (flesh) are still the greatest temptations for any living Christian, whether married or single?

To be or not to be Honest that is the Question

Now there are things which (we were taught) are very hard to recover when once they are lost – and the chief one is character. But men (even Christian ones) don’t take these things very seriously today. But have we come all this way only to be felled by our own sabers and at such a time as this?

For Christ can still be heard saying, ‘But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.’ And ‘No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’ 

The reason why Jephthah is celebrated as a hero of faith (Heb 11:32) is because when the time of his hottest trial came Jephthah played the man. He did not flinch. And he was not alone as most Old Testament saints also never wavered in their faiths, ‘and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.’ Another lesson we were taught is that the beginning is nothing, but how the end will look like. These saints proved themselves men from the beginning to the end. As David sang: ‘LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?... He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not’ (Psa 15:4b). 

In the end what do you and I wish to be remembered for - as faithful servants or unfaithful ones?

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. Heb 10:35 

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. Heb 3:14 

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Heb 4:14  

Christ’s temptations appealed to three things, which John the Evangelist calls: ‘the lust of the flesh (hedonism), and the lust of the eyes (materialism), and the pride of life (egoism)’ – which ‘is not of the Father, but is of the world.’ These are the same tricks Satan uses to tempt us (as he did with Eve) even up to today. But Christ overcame, showing us that we too can.

For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Heb 2:18 

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Heb 4:15

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Jas 1:2-3-4   

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Jas 1:12 

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: Jas 1:13 

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Jas 1:14  

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Jas 1:15  

Be Proud to be Different

One girl vowed she would be married in church. She stayed for years until people wrote her off. At last she did, almost on the ‘eleventh hour.’ But God had been faithful. He still is.

Loneliness is real. It bites hard. But ‘weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.’ God gives the grace. He gives a way to escape – ‘There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it’ (1Co 10:13).   

The disciples in John Chapter Six were awed by Christ’s teachings. They asked, in effect: ‘Who can believe such?’ And many stopped following him.

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Heb 10:38  

But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Heb 10:39  

Stick there. Hold up to the end. God is still able to furnish a table in the wilderness.

 

 

The Crowding of Desires and Where One Can Find True Love

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Psa 37:4  

When it is Hard to Say ‘No’

We live in a day of relationships, sometimes complex, and we must have them whether we like it or not. As it is written, ‘For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself’ (Rom 14:7). 

Parents have not only their own desires, but they also carry in their hearts their desires for their children and even grandchildren – and for the wife for her husband. So one parent may want the child to be a lawyer, another engineer, another doctor, another entrepreneur – and the rest according to what they lack most in life. Probably himself he would love to be a poet but he knows he will be famous only after his death – and only after he has exited this world as poor as a church mouse. So he dabbles in all to please all – ‘and the last state of that man is worse than the first.’

In God Alone is our Chief Desire

One can break free from these entanglements (and desires) only through God. We give him our desires (our prayers) and he directs us in the path of finding them – or finding something better than what we had anticipated (‘like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field’) . We acknowledge him in everything and God directs us to the best, and ‘If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed’ (Joh 8:36).  

Mountains of Spices

Desires have a way expanding into the infinite, as if water in a river, breaking from its banks and consuming every object along its way. Desires are both beautiful and perilous. When they afflict an unstable mind the desire can turn into a nightmare. And desire grows both by what we have – and what we don’t – and sometimes it is the latter which is most intense and intoxicating.  

    As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Psa 42:1 

    O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee         in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. Psa 63:1

    My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for     the living God. Psa 84:2  

    My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. Psa 119:20  

    I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments. Psa 119:131  

    The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. Psa 119:72  

    I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. Psa 119:14  

    Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. Psa 119:127  

    I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil. 

Lastly desire can be that chord and note in a song or flower garden…or that thing which lifts the mind from the mundane into the sublime -

    He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Son 2:4  

    Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. Son 2:5  

    Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow     out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. Son 4:16  

    I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have        eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink,            yea,     drink abundantly, O beloved. Son 5:1  

Desire too can be delusive – immersing one into a hole without an end – or plunging one into a room full of mirrors – and finally desire is progressive – growing into vintage like fine wine: ‘When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things’ (1Co 13:11), and ‘leaving the principles… let us go on unto perfection.’  

God Makes Streams in the Desert

So what is your desire my friend?

‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened’ (Mat 7:7-8).

Sometimes God gives the best wine last. So don’t despair. Don’t give up. Carry on. Soon he will bring you to the banqueting table – so you can sing with the congregation, ‘He shewed me the path of life: in his presence is fulness of joy; and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore’. In the desert of the soul only God can satisfy. ‘And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes’ (Isa 35:7). 

    Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psa 37:5  

    Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be        moved. Psa 55:22  

    Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your            requests be made known unto God. Php 4:6  

    Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. Psa     62:8  

    He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. Psa            145:19  

    They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of         the river of thy pleasures. Psa 36:8  

In the East of Eden – Where the Fruit of Love First Blossomed

By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. Son 3:1  

And Love ‘saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good’

We were created for relationships – first with God himself - and secondly with each other. In Eden God had made a place ready for love. He had made for us a garden, ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them’ (Gen 1:27). And God blessed us. And God said unto us: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply,’ and make more relations.

We are a Living Soul Today Because the Breath of God is in us

The day got spent, and the night arrived. But the man was alone in that vast garden, and the first pang of loneliness gripped him. The skies above were lit, and the wind had calmed, ‘And the LORD God said, It is not good that [you] should be alone; ‘I will make an help meet for him’ – or her. We hardly know what God is up to, until it hits us like a bombshell. He is still a God of surprises. Are you lonely today? God sees it…

From Dust to the Poetry of Sleep and the Missing Rib

God was in the world writing his first book of love, ‘And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man’ (Gen 2:22). And Adam was enthused with a joy that echoed in the whole garden, ‘And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man’ (Gen 2:23).  

Adam rubbed his rib cage in perplexity. And then he rubbed his head. Love was beginning to work things in him which no man (or woman) had ever known. This was Eden. And this was the garden which Love had planted there for their use. Adam loved her, and Eve loved him back. ‘And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.’

Love, Jealousy and the Fall

But where love is jealousy is usually not very far away also. He saw two people in love and he didn’t like it (even today). The Bible says, ‘the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.’ And he moved with dexterity, ‘Yea, hath God said…?’ And this interested Eve. It still interests us today. ‘And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat’ (Gen 3:6). 

‘Darkness at Noon’

Something happened that day. Beauty got besmirched and the glory grew faint. And now we had a free hand to do as we pleased – or what the devil was pleased to make us believe - ‘Yea, hath God said…?’ And something larger than an apple stuck in Adam’s throat that day. A wave of pain swept through his body. And then he felt his ribs ache. Something had given way, and a fatal misspelling of the commandment of God had happened, ‘Yea, hath God said…?’

Adam looked at his wife and his heart bled. The love which God had breathed in him choked him, and the vision of his eyes dimmed even though it was only at noon.

‘But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear… Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands’ (Isa 59:2,6).  

Yea, hath God said she’s the only one for you… or has he said he is the only one you must have? Have you prayed about it? Have you waited? Have you made a place ready for love in your heart? Pray again. And wait again.  

Because we are now in a Place which is strewn with the Dust of death – And all Manner of Confusion

But God has refused to let go. This was his work. He must see it to the end – for his name’s sake. That’s why you and I are still alive today, praise God. And Jesus is here today, and love has progressed to something larger than a garden – even into a city, ‘For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come’ (Heb 13:14). Love goes to the utmost to make her his own bride.

So Can One Trust God for a Wife or Husband in Our Time?

The story of Isaac teaches us that one can indeed trust God for a spouse – and that God gives the best. But the story of his son Jacob is much more like our own – he trusted God in some things while he trusted in himself for others, especially where the matters of his heart were concerned. And the life of Jacob was one long in lies and jealousies and ‘all these things are against me’ until God changed his name and heart.

So God is still ‘able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think’ if we can only give him our whole heart and mind and soul first. And that is not a grievous commandment but it is for our own good - so help us God to believe it.

 

Marriage and the Problem of Modern Man and Woman 

And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. Psa 106:15  

The Outsider Looking In

Every Sunday between 6.15 and 7am you will find me beside my transistor radio tuned to KBC English Service, where I would be listening to the poet loving preacher Rev. Geoffrey Njenga delivering his weekly Hope for Tomorrow sermon. And he never disappoints.

Then one Sunday about a month ago, my antennae shot to full height when I heard the title of the sermon he was going to deliver, I think, the title went along this line: What is the Problem with Modern Man?

Two young men had approached the preacher for advice about their marriages which had hit strong winds. The Rev then went ahead to give a power packed homily on the state of modern marriage and why young men were encountering a rough terrain.

He then contrasted the state of modern marriages, which break easily, with those of our grandfathers which lasted their lifetime, and where the word divorce was rarely heard.

Encouraged by that sermon, I feel constrained to add my own views on that subject, but in the way of an outsider looking in. God willing, I intend to do it in a snapshot like series of articles covering that subject, until I feel I have exhausted it.

One reason why our grandfathers and grandmothers lived their marriages until the end is because traditions were on their side.

A man’s place was marked, as a woman’s was. You will see it even today in rural churches where men have their own rows and the women theirs. So each knew their place. Society had defined them. And they stuck with them until death.

And when the Men were as Hardy as Steel

The men of old were ardent stoics. They weathered all moods successfully (unlike today). They lived and died as true men, even when they were incoherent and unpredictable. And their women were fiercely loyal and submissive, even unto death. They were sturdy, ragged and literally they bore a hard skin.

There were no marriage counselors then, as often, the old man’s walking stick fulfilled that purpose successfully. In contrast today’s modern man may help with the cooking, baby sitting and washing… but still the right formula for a lasting marriage continues to escape him.

The man tries – but the further he tries the more he seems lost… and the only person who seems confident in these situations is the wife.

And so the Reverend Njenga, in very succinct poetry, sympathized with the modern man.

Things Have Fallen Apart

The note of heroic has changed. Our grandfathers were not only loud, but they were also perpetually angry. Their temper defined their status as men. He roared like a lion while the women and their children scampered to safety. Today the note of heroic is blurred. At one time the man tries to be warm like Christ, while at another his grandfather blood rises in velocity, but most other times he’s beset with a rigorous anxiety.

On the surface this problem may look complex, but underneath it, this problem is quite basic and as old as Adam. He fell, and we his children, fell with him. And the foundation broke. It has remained that way ever since.

Now we see darkly in a mirror. But God has not left us alone. He has left us a memory, ‘I will come to you.’ Has he come to you yet? ‘The world is charged with the grandeur of God.’ I pray that you can begin to see it.

So what is your greatest fear my dearest friend? Accept the reality. The looking glass will always be cracked on this side of heaven. There is no perfect husband or perfect wife. But God gives the grace, and then we can see, even if it is only in part.

Finally let us accept this is not our home - But trailing clouds of glory do we come/From God, who is our home. We are here looking ‘for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.’ Can we accept his leadership? Can we accept what he wills as best for our life? Can we love him (and not this world) with our whole heart, mind and soul? It is the only way we can avoid the lean life later on.

Or are you afraid because love sniffs through the doorway?

We are in a dry season. But it will rain again. Only let us get our priorities right. And let us be daring enough to take the road ‘less travelled by.’ It is that which makes ‘all the difference.’ And because it is that which will make us full men and women again, so help us God. 

Love, Anxiety and Headache

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. Luk 10:41  

Fears or Obsessions?

I’ve had a persistent headache for a week now. But we also have been without power for a week! Probably the darkness touched a raw nerve somewhere in my mind.

Yet just across the road - at our neighbours’ houses - the lights glimmer like stars the whole night. And it has felt eerie sometimes, with our darkened house standing out like a phantom.

So it’s been an anxious week. And I thought (in those long, long dark nights) about anxiety. And I wondered - why is worrying – to some people – almost like second nature – but to others it hardly leaves a scratch?

But since childhood I have ‘known’ anxiety. At school (I remember) I used to worry about missing school, about my reports, and about my compositions. I was sad a lot too. But to the rest of the students school was like a prison, a sore punishment. They burned their books to ashes after school, and then they went home laughing. I kept mine. To me school was like heaven.

So I have learned (and accepted) that certain people – and of a certain disposition – are much more susceptible to these anxiety bouts than others – the sickly lot, the contemplative lot (introvert), the book lot, and the perfectionist -

Of course in extroverts it is the fear of silence that can drive them to start seeing things. Peter the disciple was such a one extrovert. He was highly driven, seeing things others didn’t see, and attempting things others wouldn’t dare. It was anxiety that made Peter to begin to sink…and for anxiety Peter forgot Jesus completely (denied him).

‘But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not’. If it wasn’t for Jesus praying for Peter he should’ve lost it – and us too who believe.

But I have prayed for you, and that neither will love sift you.

When Anxiety and Love can Result in Disaster

I have known guys who wouldn’t touch a woman for fear of blowing it, and, unconsciously, they have gone ahead and blown it even before it started… and yes such anxieties can qualify as clinical (remember biologist Andrew Steyn in God’s Must Be Crazy 1, and where he attempts to explain to Kate his tendency to be uncoordinated in her presence, but accidentally and repeatedly knocks over a number of objects in the process?). Of course that is psychological!

But should a believer also believe that – or accept that?

No. Check Boaz, and check his calm demeanor, which is a believer’s dream, ‘Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman's part: but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the LORD liveth: lie down until the morning’ (Rth 3:13).  

Yet Boaz seemed perfectly at peace, as if finding a handmaiden sleeping at his feet was a normal every night occurrence!

So it is different how you believe as a believer.

Jesus Disciples too were Given to their Anxious Moments

But there is a sense in which to be a believer is also to be subject to anxiety.

·      And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. Mar 8:16 

·      Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. Luk 9:46  

·      And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. Mar 9:10  

·      Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled? Mar 13:4  

And that might sound like a recipe for anxiety. Probably their worry was about displeasing their master, perhaps their worry was whether he would still love them the following day. Plus the fear of rebukes can make a person to be perennially anxious. It is why some find themselves apologizing for no purpose or wrong… except the one existing in their imagination. And always it is an exaggeration -

But they don’t know it. Anxiety has made a bondage of them. And that is not the Lord’s doing but of the evil one. One is a healthy anxiety, while the other is not.

What is the Cure for Anxiety?

First, living in sin will aggravate the sense of anxiety, as we can see in David, ‘When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long’ (Psa 32:34). ‘For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned…?’ (Psa 51:3-4). But he felt different after he had repented, ‘Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile’ (Psa 32:1-2).  

So to be on God’s side is to always have a helper and a friend, especially in those ‘evil day’ moments. Also to have God’s promises at your fingertips is to know joy and peace at all times, even at night.

·      He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Psa 107:29-30 

·      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  

·      Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Rom 8:35  

·      Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Php 4:6-7   

And that is the peace which you can begin to enjoy even right now – if only you can call on his name without shame or fear.

(Oh the electricity has come, thanks be to God! And the headache is gone too!)

 The Responsibility of Hearing

Take heed what ye hear. Mar 4:24

Take heed therefore how ye hear. Luk 8:18 

Everyone can be misunderstood, and everyone can be biased

It is always a risky affair to interpret the work of a serious writer at first reading. Most demand a second or even a third reading, or longer, as Kafka and James Joyce.

Only the Bible demands a lifetime of reading or ‘hearing’.

But an even greater risk is the work of interpreting people. For we can only know them outwardly, and only partially, even though they be a complete enigma.

You are ‘a text’ the Lit teacher said.  And the Apostle wrote, ‘Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men.’ 

And conjoined to this work of reading is the work of hearing. The twentieth century Scottish preacher and writer George Morrison has written a wonderful devotional on this topic, and it is in this regard that I am greatly indebted to him for this blog…“It is not really by the eye we see. It is really by the soul we see. And it is not by the ear we hear. It is indeed by the character we hear. By all we love, by all we have made ourselves, by all we have striven for or lusted after, do we take the words which fall on every ear and color them with heaven or with hell. Take heed what you hear. It is a revelation of your personality. It is in the verdicts which you are always passing that your responsibility begins.

“The same thing is always happening in the hearing of the Gospel message. A hearer's judgment of a Gospel sermon is really the judgment of himself. With patient and with prayerful diligence a minister prepares his message. He has his ideals of what preaching is, and from those ideals nothing will make him swerve. And then, often in fear and trembling, and sometimes with a joyous sense of liberty, he gives his message to his beloved people. It is the same message which falls on every ear, and yet how varying is the reception! All that is living in the hearer's breast rises up to meet a living message, and rises in welcome or defiance. Men hear with all that they have made themselves. They hear with every sin that they are clinging to. Every ambition, every joy or sorrow, comes to the hearing of a Gospel sermon. And that is why to one it shall be weariness, and to another a thing to be disproved, and to a third, in hungriness of heart, the message shall be the very bread of angels. It is a great responsibility to preach. It is a great responsibility to hear. I know no teacher except Jesus Christ who has laid such tremendous emphasis on hearing. For Him there is nothing mechanical in hearing. It is the response of what a man has made himself. It is the swift reaction of the character, and character is destiny.”

On the use of parables and why people ‘stop their ears.’

When the disciples asked Jesus why he spoke in parables, he gave them an interesting answer, ‘because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand… For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them’ (Mat 13:13,15). 

“A parable is a shell that keeps good fruit for the diligent, but keeps it from the slothful” so expounds Matthew Henry, “There are many that see the gospel light, and hear the gospel sound, but it never reaches their hearts, nor has it any place in them [2.] It is just with God to take away the light from those who shut their eyes against it; that such as will be ignorant, may be so; and God’s dealing thus with them magnifies his distinguishing grace to his disciples. The evangelical prophet that spoke most plainly of gospel grace [Isa 6:9-10], foretold the contempt of it, and the consequences of that contempt…And because they are resolved to be ignorant, they shut both the learning senses; for their eyes also they have closed, resolved that they would not see light come into the world.”

‘And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil’ (Joh 3:19). 

“Let us therefore fear, lest by sinning against the divine grace, we sin it away.”

‘But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear’ (Mat 13:16).  Isaiah writes (32:3) ‘And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.’

“They who have the truth of grace, shall have the increase of grace, even to an abundance in glory.”

Let us pray that God would count us all among the blessed ones today and forever more!

 

Why it is Hard for Believers to Escape the Tag of being Crazy

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2Ti 3:1  

The Gods Must Be Crazy (1 and 2) is a hilarious movie shot in South Africa. But it is not a religious movie. And it is a clever gimmick because the subject of gods will always elicit laughter, anytime and anywhere. For apart from the ‘believers’ who regard them as revelation, to the rest of the world they are usually fodder for the crassest of jokes. That is why we look at someone with a wry smile when they announce that they have seen the Lord.

Nobility, Professors, Religion and Craziness

I read in a devotional, how a woman of nobility was once scandalized by the preaching of George Whitefield, so much so that she approached him and raved, ‘How can you preach to me as if I am one of the common people? Underlying her fears was the thought of being considered crazy.

And that is always the curse of nobility and higher education… that a professor will feel out of place in a church where people are clapping wildly and raising their voices… And so why should he be thought crazy?

And it is for that reason that Nicodemus went to see Jesus at night.

But is there a Ground for such Fears?

At Pentecost the believers were thought to have taken one too many – and Felix advised Paul to go easy on his books… ‘And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.’  So Jesus too did not escape the tag of craziness, and ‘It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master.’

Certainly religion has had its share of excesses (and it cannot be legislated, or denied). But likewise the world has had its excesses too in tyrants - and Trump.

It is possible many who would be believers are not because they fear to be counted with the insane (or they would prefer to go to Jesus at night). Might that be the reason why you do not believe - or show?

But did not the OT Prophets act Crazy?

Granted, in the OT, the prophets acted, by today’s standards, real crazy! Else how would people react to a prophet building a ship in a dry land as Noah did? Or Ezekiel acting out his bizarre visions, or Hosea marrying a prostitute… Can God act the same way today?

‘God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds’ (Heb 1:1-2). So today we have Christ. We have the Bible. And we have his word and the teachings of his apostles…

So Today should we Still fear to be thought Crazy?

No. To announce one’s faith is a matter of principal. It is to be decisive and not to be a rolling stone. To abandon the world belief will naturally attract hatred. As it is written, ‘If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 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 15:18-19).  

It will attract ridicule, certainly, but that is not the same as being crazy. To proclaim a different belief might even attract death, it is to be lonely, and to open oneself to being misunderstood. And as nature abhors a vacuum, and where people cannot explain something, so they will naturally dismiss one as being crazy!

Yes Truth will at Times Sound Crazy

And the question of Isaiah is still as relevant today as it was then, ‘Who hath believed our report?’

Only the latter day prophets have become most popular, rich and jet set… and multitudes have believed their report. But it is easy to see why. Any gospel which preaches nothing but money will draw in crowds. But the word of God cannot be broken. And that is why it is written, ‘Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven’ (Mat 7:21). 

And you shall know them by their fruits. 

There are True Prophets (read crazy) and False Ones

Paul died a lonely man, while most of his friends deserted him, like Demas, as he wrote, ‘Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears’ (Act 20:30-31).  

Apparently Paul’s preaching refused to move with the times, ‘Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle’ (2Th 2:15).  

And in the same note, and by today’s standards, the prophet Jeremiah (and his famous mood swings) would not only be regarded as crazy but sick. He would be a clinical case. And like the painter Van Gogh he would be thrown out of church for interpreting the Bible too literally (the scar of that rejection seems to have stuck with the artist until his death).

But even today the highly educated and believing Christians are caught in a fix. They believe in Jesus Christ yes but they gloss over those aspects of him which insult their intelligence. So they have thrown out his miracles, and they have dignified them with the word myth.

But the Apostle Paul writes again, ‘For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God… For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe… For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are’ (1Co 1:18,21,26-28 ).    

And so How will the Last Days look like?

And ‘as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be,’ Jesus said. Perhaps this is the time to engage in a serious discussion about life and the signs of the time… as the prophet Joel cried to the people of Judah, ‘Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?’ 

O Lord, grant that I might see ‘these things’!