LiveWeak!

Here's a motto that withstands the test of life's harsh waves. It agrees with Nature's assessment of God's finest creation. We are weak. I think a good grasp of this every once in a while can help us to really live well.

When we perceive ourselves as strong, it usually affects the way we live and perceive the world around us. We tend to believe that what we have already accomplished, enjoyed, and acquired are not to be compared with what, in our strength, we are striving for. There is no time to stop and smell the roses. For example, there is no greater earthly gift that I could enjoy more then the gift I already have in my wife. However, it seems that I take her for granted all too often.

When we recognize that we are weak, we take inventory...and then take nothing for granted.

Here are some good thoughts below from one who experiences weakness more regularly than many.

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Living Weak--Stuntz (Posted by David Skeel)

(http://bit.ly/d9uchr)

“Live strong” is a common slogan among cancer patients. I think I understand the slogan’s appeal, and I admire the spirit that lies behind it. But it doesn’t fit my experience, and I suspect I’m not alone.
Reduced life expectancy aside, the chief consequence of stage 4 cancers—even more, the chief consequence of their treatment—is weakness, not strength. Cancer and chemotherapy, taken together, are exhausting. Walking up a flight of stairs feels to me like running a couple of miles would feel to a typical out-of-shape 50-year-old, which is what I would be if I were healthy. All mental exercises are several times harder than they used to be. Concentrating takes real effort, and most of the time, I can’t pull it off—I have to read things twice (at least) in order to understand them once. My mind is two steps behind whatever conversation I’m in; I have to scramble to keep up. I feel half dead, as though a large fraction of whatever I was is gone, never to return.
In short, I can’t live strong, because there isn’t much strength left in me. But I can live weak.
What does that mean? ..."

Another quote...

"...cancer is an ugly disease, in every possible way. No wonder people recoil from it. But in the midst of all its life-sapping, soul-destroying ugliness, something amazing can happen: the most ordinary things, the most mundane tasks, take on value and beauty beyond anything I could have imagined. "

Another quote...

“Live strong” sounds to me like denial: I’m not strong, and pretending I am [strong] can’t change that fact. But I can live weak: do what I can, however small and ordinary, day by day. Some of the living—I wish it were more, but at the same time, I thank God for the “some”—is surprisingly good."

The Beauty of Gethsemane

Since November I have not moved out of Matthew 26. There is something about Christ in his anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane that helps me to appreciate the Incarnation. He knows our pain. He truly knows it from experience. This helps me to appreciate His comfort and to look for it... because He is familiar with our infirmities, sorrows and weaknesses.

I have re-read that chapter at least a hundred times since November. It is a well of darkness that somehow draws up comfort from its depths. Jesus, who was voluntarily plunged into that darkness, was fully man and tasted every texture of the pain and sorrow and foreboding. Because of that cup, Christ can experientially empathize, weep and work on our behalf to accomplish our good--interwoven as one piece with his glory. However black the darkness may seem, his experience will always be the deepest and darkest, not only to propitiate God's wrath on our behalf, but to establish him as the perfect High Priest who has compassed all of our infirmities. "For we have not a 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. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb 4:15,16

"Come troubled believer, fret not over your heavy troubles, for they are the heralds of weighty mercies." CHSpurgeon

Judas

When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, "Is it I, Lord?" He answered, "He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." Judas, who would betray him, answered, "is it I, Rabbi?" He said to him, "You have said so." Matt 26:20 - 25

As I considered this sobering passage I was moved. First I was moved to pity Judas. Then I thought that God's aim in this portion of Matthew 26 was probably not for us to feel sorry for Judas in a way that might question the kindness of God; pitying Judas in the sense that he was not deserving of what he received. This passage emphasizes the greatness of the person of Christ by the greatness of the punishment reserved for that man who betrays him; "It would have been better for that man if he had not been born."

I think this passage also displays who we are apart from His intervening grace. Grace is favor given, though punishment is warranted. If I said "intervening mercy" it would sound like we are pitiful, and neither Judas nor we are pitiful. We are hard hearted. We, like Judas, heard the word of the Lord: "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" (Jn 6:29), and we scorned that word. Were it not for the grace of God, we like Judas, would have continued to harden our hearts against the words of life, continued to deny the authority of Christ, and continued to walk brazenly before Him, pleasing only ourselves (Jn 12:5-6).

Now I look at this passage, and at Judas, with new eyes. The sense of pity now is the pity one feels when his own guilt is somehow pardoned, while his fellow receives the just punishment. We also deserved judgement, but we received grace. This perspective cannot embrace self-righteousness. This perspective cannot charge God.

In the mysterious providence of God, his love enfolded me, and grace intervened, and I did not wake up this morning as Judas, the "son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled"(Jn 17:12).

May I humbly thank my Heavenly Father throughout this day for choosing me to be his own adopted child from before the creation of the world (Eph 1:4).

Grief and Hope

(Posted 1/26/09)

As you may know, in the past 3 months, we have experienced 3 very dear souls escape the circle of this earth and our influence—the sudden and untimely loss of our daughter being uppermost in my mind. We did not have the comfort of professed faith; scrapbooks of godly spiritual lives lived. These events left us somewhat breathless, making us aware of how very frail and short life is. More than ever, it is plain to us that life is a "pit stop." What we and our other loved ones do with this time we are granted has also taken on graver importance. Events like these raise questions which we wrestle with in ways we never have before. The question of the final eternal destination is the most significant one. In my experience, this is the first question a grieving heart asks.

The motivator behind this post is certainly the season as I mentioned before. On a side note, one encouraging report came from a hospital worker who said my impaired grandfather seemed heartily interested and expressed trust in the gospel after being presented with it before he passed away. My grandfather could not write or speak since he was admitted to that hospital after suffering a couple of significant strokes.

When someone whom we love dies without professing Christ, the pain has a double edge. What do we do--how do we process this? Here are some ways that I have sought to process this within biblical boundaries. The governing principles in the process are faithfulness to the revelation of Scripture, and carefulness to approach what we know and have observed with intellectual honesty. I think I have been true to both. And let me say, if our hope is firmly based in the revealed truth of God, we can be sure that it is possible to be intellectually honest, and hope still. Hope is not an antagonist to intellect. Well placed hope is based on evidence and fact (fact meaning truth as it is found in Scripture).

I am not a trained theologian. Yet as CJ reminds us we are all theologians by default. What we think, say, and do all relates to what we believe about what God is like and those implications. I hope that what I have wrestled with below and put on this post provokes more love for God, desire for more knowledge and obedience ("abiding in Him", Jn 15:9,10), and more compassion and energy on behalf of those who are lost.

I want to begin with the term 'false hope.' False hope is putting hope in something that has no scriptural basis as a means for salvation. Putting our hope in someone's good works as a basis for God's acceptance is false hope. But, hoping that someone's good deeds are a fruit of God's redeeming grace at work in their lives is not false hope (Prov 20:11, Jn 13:35). Perhaps an announcement of their profession of faith has yet to reach our ears and our hope is that these visible good works are an outworking of a seed of faith in their heart that has yet to be announced. While this is precarious ground, this is not false hope. If, as a parent, I were to cherish this hope for a child while simultaneously taking no action to discuss or ask questions (2Tim 2:24-26, Tit 1:6,2:11-15, Ezek 3:18)--this also would not be false hope. This would be unloving and unwise.

I said this is precarious ground because we need to evaluate what we have observed of our loved one with our conscience engaged. James (2:18) says we show our faith by what we do. It is important to note that if a person is verbally disdainfully rejecting the Gospel, thus expressing a heart that is not hoping in the good news, how can we assign their good deeds to a seed of faith in Christ?


The Burden

We know we are called to participate with Him in his work of reconciliation, but we know that the work is truly His own. He says that apart from the Son choosing to reveal himself to a person, it is impossible for that person to be reconciled to the Father (Mt 11:27). Yet graciously giving us hope to “ask, seek and knock”, the next thing Jesus says is, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” So it is His initiative that we respond to when we come to Him seeking rest in His grace. It is not our place to know whom He has chosen for himself, it is our place to pursue the unreconciled with the good news, and for the unbeliever to acknowledge they are heavy laden and come to Jesus.

Again—what do we do when these dear ones expire without confirmation of their final spiritual condition? It is easier to hope that God might have drawn them to himself in the last hour if there has been a pattern of open-minded consideration and not antagonism toward the gospel. It is encouraging to our hope when, between opportunities for spiritual conversations, we have seen some changes in character, some displays of attitudes and actions that might be more consistent with what the fruit of the Spirit looks like.

We come to both evidences of rebellion and also any evidences of God's grace that we have seen, as mentioned previously. It is encouraging to consider that whether we describe what we have observed to be 'common grace' or the effects of 'saving grace'--it is grace nonetheless, and comes from a merciful God! "In Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28) However, we must be honest about the statements they made expressing their opinion about the beauty or the repulsiveness of a Savior crucified for their sin (2Cor 2:15-16). We can no longer evaluate and bring the truth of the Word to them with appeal as before. What we have left is what we know of God as revealed in Scripture, what we know of our loved one, and the importance of being honest with both. As we process, we must lean under that weight on the holy, yet good, and sovereign God, who crushed His own son that he might adopt us.


What We Know of God

We know that we don't "find God"...he unveils our eyes (2Cor4:3). Can we see God’s kindness pursuing our loved one in different scenarios and circumstances (some of them I have mentioned already)? We remember that he is the Great Evangelist. He is the fountain of grace and the Savior of hopeless sinners. (2Sam 12:23) He is sovereign over his work of salvation--over choosing and saving his people. Consider Rom 11:6, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” It may give room for hope if we do not allow ourselves credit for our own response to God's saving mercy and effective call. We remember that He is the same one who was working in all the details of our deceased one's life, over the details of their health and the circumstances of their death.

We bless Him for his command that we confess Him as Lord, and also amen His gracious prerogative to do as he sees fit, and have mercy on whomever He wills (Rom 9:18). This places us at the foot of a holy yet merciful God. The sacrifice of his Son on our behalf was not our request, it was His idea, His initiative and doing. However, we know that He required our loved one to humble themselves, repent from their “self-authority”, and hope in his mercy through Christ. When we do not have certainty of this obedience before their earthly life ceased, it presents a sobering encouragement to all to take inventory of their current posture and submission to the Savior.


What We Know of Our Loved One

Scripture exhorts us to consider and look for "the fruit of righteousness" (Phil 1:3-11, 2Cor 13:5, Jn 6:29) to ensure loved ones are reconciled to God—affirming they have turned from themselves as their own final authority on what is good, and hoped in the substitutionary death of Christ. In one sense a believer is 'watching' those around. Not self-righteously (for self-righteousness denies the gospel), but rather watching out of love. The idea may be unpalatable at first, but ‘watching’ is actually an accepted societal norm. Consider the statement: "Friends don't let friends drink and drive." We are looking for evidence that would confirm or deny that our loved one is appropriately prepared to drive--because we love them.

We must temper our watching with humility, hope, and love. There was no seed of good in us that allowed us, by grace, to be given the gift of faith…otherwise grace would no longer be grace. We also must hope that despite anything discouraging that we may see, God is indeed at work as he promises (Lk 15:4, 8-10, Rom 1:20, Ps 19, 2Pet 3:9) . Since the limitations of creatures are space, time, and the accuracy of our discernment, what we don't know must also make room for hope.

To hope, one must have the humility to realize that there are things unseen and unknown; some things only God can see. Consider this situation: a loved one, who has not yet confessed Christ, receives a language disabling, and limb paralyzing stroke. We find ourselves with very few handles for certainty. These are sober circumstances and the result again should lead all to an appropriate carefulness to reflect and see whether they themselves are in the faith (2Cor 13:5). And for our deceased loved one, we must lean on God’s sovereignty and mercy. There will be circumstances in which only He knows. Let us put our hope in Him. One day we will see him as he is; all things will be made clear and we will only say “Amen!” to all of His works.


Putting It Together

Imagine a square container containing oxygen. Consistent with oxygen's behavior as a gas, the oxygen will expand to fill the size of its container. The measurements of the walls of the container—the length, width and height—will formulate the capacity that the container may hold of that oxygen.

For the sake of analogy, the dimensions of this container’s walls represent both what we know about our loved one, as well as what we know about God and His ways revealed in Scripture. The content held is the hope we maintain of our loved one’s salvation. The capacity of this hypothetical container--our amount of hope if you will--is formulated through what we have been able to observe of our loved one, and the knowledge we have of God’s sovereignty, His plan of salvation, and His character. The X-factor in this illustration is that we cannot put a measuring stick to the sovereign prerogative of the grace of God.

Though our heart may ache, we may not demand God’s mercy to be granted in the face of apparent unresponsiveness to the gospel. But because Jesus’ death enabled God to be just and the one who justifies the ungodly (Rom 3:26, 4:5), we can hope that before the final curtain God’s mercy was extended, enabling them to rest on His gift of grace.

Octavius Winslow on Christ's Sufferings

I have had a post 'percolating' for the past couple weeks and I just haven't been able to get back to it and finish it.

I have been hanging out in Matt 26 for a while--so long as a matter of fact that I forgot what chapter number it was and when asked was calling it Matt 29--which doesn't exist. I have been captured by the passion of Christ. I can't stop reading and re-reading about the Son of Man and his personal walk through the valley of the shadow of death. One of these days I will post some more on things I have found there (Lord willing). However, my wife received a fantastic quote from a guy I have never heard of before and it was like--Boom!--the very things I was scratching for. He wrote it with such confidence, passion and beauty. You have probably read it on Heather's blog, but I have it here below as well. I made a comment on her blog and thought it might be a good beginning to some posts I've been wanting to 'spawn.'

"We have not a 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." Hebrews 4:15. See Him bearing our sicknesses and our sorrows; more than this, carrying our iniquities and our sins. Think not that your path is a isolated one. The incarnate God has trodden it before you, and He can give you the clear eye of faith to see His footprint in every step. Jesus can say, and He does say to you, "I know your sorrow; I know what that cross is, for I have carried it. You have not a burden that I did not bear, nor a sorrow that I did not feel, nor a pain that I did not endure, nor a path that I did not tread, nor a tear that did not bedew my eye, nor a cloud that did not shade my spirit, before you, and for you. Is it bodily weakness? I once walked forty miles, to carry the living water to a poor sinner at Samaria. Is it the sorrow of bereavement? I wept at the grave of my friend, although I knew that I was about to recall the loved one back again to life. Is it the frailty and the fickleness of human friendship? I stood by and heard my person denied by lips that once spoke kindly to me; lips now renouncing me with an oath that once vowed affection unto death. Is it straitness of circumstance, the galling sense of dependence? I was no stranger to poverty, and was often nourished and sustained by the charity of others. Is it that you are houseless and friendless? So was I. The foxes have their shelter, and the birds their nests; but I, though Lord of all, had nowhere to lay my head; and often day after day passed away, and no soothing accents of friendship fell upon my ear. Is it the burden of sin? Even that I bore in its accumulated and tremendous weight when I hung accursed upon the tree." - Octavius Winslow

Thank God for Octavius Winslow. Praise Him even more for the book of Hebrews and the Incarnation! A God who became a man and can now in experience and empathy know the pain and the darkness that we encounter in this life (Heb 4:14-16). One benefit of trial is that because he 'shared in our sufferings', we can now, in each of our trials, understand and empathize a little bit more with His sufferings. Holy and 'happy' fellowship! O to know Jesus more!

3 Months and...

3 Months and 3 deaths; Alivia, Pappa (my grandfather), and Grammy (Sandie Keenan's mom, Heather's grandmother) who passed away suddenly last night. The only beauty I can find in death is that one day it will be no more. That will be a glorious day. "The death of His saints is precious in His sight."(ps116) I'm sure when one day we are on the other side of glory, watching and waiting for others to join us, the death of a loved one will seem much more precious to us.

Encouragement

(From post started on Heather's / family blog. Posting here because I wanted to include some honoring of Heather and, well, didn't want her to complain :o) that I did it in a post on her blog.)

We're all accustomed to being temporarily separated from someone we love. However, as time goes on, we become more and more aware that our little one is not just 'away for a while.' What this means for us is that the pain isn't subsiding in a predictable linear fashion: from severe throbbing pain in the beginning toward ever fainter twinges of grief. From my own vantage point, in work circles and in personal circles, this can at times be a noticeable misconception. Hopefully this does not sound like a belabored reminder because my follow-on purpose is to say...

Your prayers are needed. Your prayers are 'at work.' We tell folks that we had appreciated hearing that we were 'being prayed for' in the past, but since entering this season of acute weakness in November, we have been significantly more grateful for prayers, feeling both our need for them as well as the effects of them. That's right--we have experienced the effects of your prayers, sometimes in ways that make us consciously take note that we must have the benefit of someone's prayers right now. Please continue to pray for Heather!

So we are grateful, because of the power of the gospel being demonstrated in the battle of faith, and the victory of grace, in Heather's life...and these things are evidence of your prayers 'at work.' As I watch her focus on her family and others by accomplishing chores and acts of thoughtfulness to others, I encourage her that she is magnifying the sufficiency of God. She is magnifying His grace. I would also want to encourage those of you praying that what you are doing is powerful and effective.

And especially, I wanted to thank you, Heather, for making God big in my eyes. You truly are a God loving woman (Jn 14:15-21).