Unfailing Love in Personal Prisons

Listen to David's praise to God in Psalm 31:21-22:

"Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. I had said in my alarm, "I am cut off from your sight." But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help."

One of the beautiful things about the Psalms is that we are seldom told exactly what situation David or the others Psalmists are writing from. We often do not know who the enemy was or what the "besieged city" was. This allows us to apply the Psalms in a most wide way, not just in terms of physical enemies, but spiritual and mental and emotional enemies, as well. Therefore a "besieged city" can be any situation in my life where I am held captive by the enemy of sin.

Here are several reasons I love these verses:

• The place of personal captivity, where sin has us in volitional or mental or emotional chains, tends to be the LAST place where we expect to experience God's steadfast love. Steadfast love is hesed...covenant love...unfailing love...God's kind of love. We often expect judgment from God when we find ourself trapped in sin. "Why did I get myself into this place AGAIN?" "What kind of fool am I?" "I should be stronger in faith than to allow Satan to tempt me into this pig pin once again!" But over and over and over again God comes and breaks chains in His steadfast, unfailing love. This does NOT mean, of course, that He APPROVES of our sin or thinks lightly of our sin. NO, not at all. His steadfast love can be FIERCE in its freeing operation! Steadfast love is not necessarily synonymous with soft and warm and gentle. Love is jealous and zealous when it is protecting or rescuing or reclaiming its own.
• Note that David blesses the Lord for His steadfast love WHEN he is in a besieged city. That is, NOT after David has freed himself. God is the rescuer. His love is always acting first. Grace moves to give the OPPOSITE of what is deserved. It does not wait until there is something that is deserving. It does not say, "Get yourself out and then MAYBE I'll give you my favor again." God knows there is no freedom that begins with us. No...in covenant love, the love that "carries on to completion the work it began until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6) God comes to us IN OUR BESIEGED CITY and wondrously shows His power on our behalf.
• Note also: the Lord shows His steadfast love to "me" i.e. "us." It is PERSONAL. God is not into demonstrating his freeing power for the demonstration of His glory ALONE (He DOES do that!). He does it also so that His wondrous love and power RESCUE HIS BELOVED - us! His love and His wondrous working are personal. He is the Father coming once again to the besieged child to free her. There is personal warmth in God's rescuing. There is customized wondrous working in His rescues of us. He rescues us omnisciently knowing what we need in the way of character development and rescues us in a way that does that character work.
• How often are you in a difficult place and feel like, and even think, "I am cut off from your [God's] sight"? v.22. I often find out just how WEAK my faith is when I can't see or feel God's presence or the signs that He is at work. How quickly I cry out "Lord, where are you?" WHERE is He?! He is where He ALWAYS is - where His besieged child is. He is where steadfast love always is: near the needy beloved one. Can I actually be cut off from the sight of the OMNISCIENT One? He sees all things at once at all times. No depth of prison or captivity or addiction or failure can cut us off from the sight of the One who sees through all things. If God can't see, then He can't act for us WHEN and AS we need Him to. But HE DOES see! And not only does He see, He sees all things as they actually are: my true needs, the true strength and strategies of my enemy, what I need to be freed, all factors that are involved, who is culpable in every way: OUR GOD of steadfast love sees all and His beloved ones CANNOT be cut off from His sight. Do you find yourself in a personal prison? God sees you, His beloved in Christ.
• How often when you are in a personal prison does it seem like your prayers are leaving your mouth and falling on the floor? God hasn't heard! God is unaware of my true situation. God DOESN'T CARE! Ah...but HE DOES! God hears the humble cry of His beloved beaten down one, His captives due to foolishness. When we have had enough and CRY to our Father, HE hears, and no amount of enemy interference or noise or failure to pray the perfect prayer or lack of pure motives can hinder His ears from hearing clearly our cry. He hears and He will answer. However, sometimes He says, "Keep on asking, Keep on seeking, Keep on knocking" Matthew 7:7.
• What CRY does He hear? "My pleas for mercy" and when I "cried to you for help" v.22. If you are in a personal prison and think there are no divine ears perked for your cry, think again. There is a Lord of steadfast love in heaven who is a Father of MERCY. He loves to not give us what we deserve because His Son took that wrath. And He loves to answer the cry for help because it delivers us and it glorifies Him (Psalm 50:15). So CRY!

Brethren, you are not hopelessly and forever stuck in your besieged city. Rise above the thoughts that you are cut off from God. Press on to the mercy seat in heaven with your cries for help. Let David's experience be to you a source of hope for what yours can be. The Lord of steadfast love will act wondrously on your behalf.

The Atheist and the Editorial

Once a month I write an article for our newspaper in the Opinion Section as part of a Writer's Group. That article springboards off of a local or state or national event and then seeks to give a biblical viewpoint. The newspaper has an online site where the day's articles are put in cyber space. For every article there is a chat room set up for folks to give comments. The comments that are made on my articles are probably 95-98% negative. You find out real quickly that true believers don't spend too much time in comment chat rooms. I think that is wise. In those chat rooms you have nameless, faceless critics who may say nearly anything with impunity.

As well, occasionally someone will write a letter to the editor to give critique of an article like mine. Hey, it's a free country and folks OUGHT to be able to respond and disagree and take divergent stances and to express that in the media.

Today the head of the Minnesota Atheists had an opinion piece published that took issue with my latest article. He sought to show how the Bible actually glorifies and encourages such things as polygamy and child abuse and slavery and hating one's parents. In the end he made this statement, "A lifestyle based on God-belief collapses when no evidence for gods exists. A lifestyle based on atheism and humanism has a greater chance for success because it is reality-based."

How should one think of such responses? Here's my thoughts:

• I think this man has as much right to express what he believes as I do. The question of whether it is right and true is another matter. I must respect his right to take issue with what I believe.
• In giving opposing viewpoints, I do expect the evidence martialled to be accurate and fair. This was not the case. Perhaps the writer felt that it was. But the support for his view included the usual litany of verses from Israel's history that sought to prove the Bible condones murder and abuse. He even quoted Jesus' words about "hating father and mother" etc. in comparison to one's devotion to and love for Him. This was supposed to prove that Jesus taught his followers to hate their parents. Is that what Jesus was teaching?
• I do not feel compelled to respond to such critiques. I am not saying that I should never nor that others should not respond to them. I have in the past. My thought is that this man's evidence and reasoning were so weak and erroneous that any thoughtful person would dismiss it at once. The only individuals who might rally around his article, in my opinion, would be those who are looking for support for their already chosen anti-biblical stances. Could this article push someone over into atheism from theism? Anything is possible, I guess. But I DOUBT it.
• Another thought is: IF I felt compelled to respond or if I was in a face to face encounter with this gentleman, COULD I defend what I believe? The Scriptures are clear that I should "always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is within you..." 1 Peter 3:15. Challenges, even poor ones, should cause me, not to HIDE behind cliches or my own weak logic but to seek to know what I believe ever more clearly and to be forearmed with the very Word of God.
• When we respond or do our own critiques of the work of others, HOW should we do it? Peter follows in the passage quoted above with instructions on HOW we are to make our defense: "...Do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame." v.16. Many a believer has "out-truthed" an opponent but lost the argument due to ungodly attitudes when responding. I must respond by SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE and treating ALL men as created in the image of God and carrying the dignifying marks of the Creator.
• I seek not to take PERSONALLY opposition, even vitriolic oppostion. We fight in a war for the souls of men and all men are EITHER on Christ's side or Satan's side. There are no spiritual-Swiss who remain neutral. Jesus said that if He was opposed, we will be also. John 15:18-21. If we will follow Christ, His critics will be ours. If we are opposed for His truth, we are sharing in His suffering. If we are opposed for being mean-spirited...well, we are called to repent and present a godly attitude the next time.
• We should make our core agruments the very Word of God itself. All my impressive logic (if I ever had any!) is without power to change one heart. But the Spirit of God will use the Word of God as a sharp-double edged sword to open hearts to the piercing gaze of God. The Word is like a hammer that crushes rock (Jeremiah 23:29), the rock of a heart of stone. Share the Word and be CONFIDENT that God will use it. I am called to reason and make sense and to offer arguments that man's wisdom cannot resist, but I must do so giving a priority place to Scripture. LEARN the Word!

May the Lord use us to share His truth in a world that has lost truth so that by His Spirit's work many may come out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Birthday Reflections

Today is my 54th birthday. Birthdays ought to be a time of reflection. We should think of the past and the future on this day. We should exult in the grace of God in whose hand is the exact pre-determined length of our days. We should cry out for more grace, MUCH more grace to continue growing in wisdom and love.

Here are a few of my reflections on this doorstep to year #55:

• When I was younger I never really expected to live to be 54. I have. Youth tends to be extraordinarily short-sighted. Older middle age has helped me to see a little more clearly and to have the corrective lenses of Scripture to realize that how long I live is not the real issue, but rather HOW WELL I live. Each additional year causes me to think more and more about what I will hear Christ say when I stand before His judgment seat someday. I want to hear His "Well done."
• Each additional year also causes me to say, "What is MOST important at this point in my life?" I have lived life to this point largely bouncing from one activity to the next, not really evaluating the enduring value of each activity but more the present pleasure of it. I have always zeroed in on the easy, the interesting, the creative activity. Now I am realizing that a life well-lived is about faithfulness to the most important things from God's vantage point: family, the church, my own soul's intimacy with Christ, the eternally lost, and the glory of God. I am seeking to look at my schedule more through such values these days.
• At this point in life, my mom is dead and my wife's dad is dead. My dad is in a state of much more frail health and my wife's mom is totally incapacitated physically. To see the decline of those you love, to see the inevitable effects of aging, causes me to think about the time when I will be "old." Never used to think about that before! Will my children need to make hard decisions about where I will live when I can't get around easily or when I am incontinent? Will I have the symptoms of dementia or full-fledged alzheimers in my later years? If so, will I become cranky and mean and aggressive? I sure don't want to end up as a heap of aging humanity in a wheel chair in the corner of an expensive care facility someday. But I might. If so, will I trust God? Will my personality honor God or will it cause folks to make excuses for my profane language and disagreeable nature? It makes me want to learn MORE and MORE and MORE to walk in the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, to know contentment in whatever condition I am in and to genuinely love others. If I grow in this, isn't there a good chance that my aging years will be more mellow and God-glorifying? God knows, but I want to take the high road into my later years.
• To this point I have lived 19,710 days. My heart has beat nearly 2 BILLION times! What do I have to show for the length of days of my life? To this point I would say MEDIOCRITY has been the rule of the day. I have known very little of striving for excellence. I have been motivated more by ease and comfort and others than I have by Christ. Someone has defined mediocrity as "the best of the worst and the worst of the best." That would be me. But in this I hope, I am still alive, Christ is STILL working in me, and I am doing some of my most diligent work and cross-motivated living ever! 54 or not, God is still at work in me. He has not rejected my mediocre self. He is committed to make me like His Son (Romans 8:29) and He will NOT do a mediocre job at that conforming work.
• I am committed to be more of a man of prayer than ever before in my life. I have been learning that God does His work on this earth through prayer. As long as I can at least think relatively clear, I can pray. I can lose my ability to see, hear, walk, talk, feed myself, etc. but I can still pray. I may not be able to preach when I am 75 or 80, but I do hope I'll be able to pray. If I can pray, my life will NOT be wasted nor fruitless. If I can pray I can affect the growth of the Kingdom of God on earth. I can do evangelism if I can still pray. I can lay up treasures in heaven if I can pray. I can have a gigantic impact on my local church if I can pray. I can glorify God if I can pray. Prayer is the great ministry of the elderly who grow old in the Lord. "Oh, Lord, teach me to pray!"
• As I look at so many of the elderly that I have known and do know I fear. I fear becoming like them when I am old. I fear living out my last days consumed by talk and worry about medical problems and doctors and treatments and bills. I fear a life that has become fruitless and boring and lonely. I want to grow old like the righteous spoken of in Psalm 92: "The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. They STILL BEAR FRUIT IN OLD AGE, they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him." vv.12-15. The best way to make sure that I do not grow old with little to no living trust in Christ is to trust him today. My pursuit of Him TODAY is my best insurance against a future where He is a distant memory. It is His mercy that will keep me close, but I am charged to seek Him.

"So teach me to number my days, that I may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12

Accepting the Weak for a Stronger Church - Part 3

When we are seeking to keep differences in minor areas of doctrine and practice from becoming WALLS between us in the church, the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 14:

• ACCEPT one another into your hearts, as God does; and
• Don't CONDEMN one another, the Lord is both Master and Judge of you and your brother.

That is the first big principle Paul teaches.
The SECOND principle is found in vv13-23:

Don't TRIP UP your brother, BUILD him up!

• What is the STRONGER brother to do with his CONVICTION that he is free to do what the WEAKER brother believes he is forbidden from doing?
• He is to CONSIDER his WEAKER brother. He does this by asking:

-Will this distress or hurt my brother? What is HIS conviction in this matter? v.15a

-Could my actions (following my convictions of freedom) encourage my brother to do what he believes is wrong and thus cause him self-condemnation for not acting by faith? v.15b

-Am I encouraging my brother to condemn me by my actions? v.16

There are several COMMITMENTs the STRONGER brother will make, in love, as he considers his WEAKER brother:

• He will do what pleases His Master and his brother by concentrating on what is of TRUE VALUE in the Kingdom of God: righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. He will not make the badge of his Christian freedom eating and drinking (v.17). He will use his freedom to SERVE HIS BROTHER IN LOVE (Galatians 5:13).
• He will pursue what BUILDS his brother UP, v.19.
• He will RESTRICT his freedom, when he is in the presence of his weaker brother to what his brother would approve of. v.21
• He will keep his CONVICTIONS to himself when with his weaker brother, not pressuring him to change to please the STRONGER brother. v.22

A couple of important principles to close with:

• Be sure that you are convinced in your mind and comfortable in your conscience before you do whatever you do. v.5
• If you cannot do something by FAITH that it is right and pleasing to the Lord, if it causes you to DOUBT, DON't DO IT! It would then be sin. v.23

The overarching principle in all of this relating to one another with our differences is:

LOVE.

The STRONGER brother who supposedly has the greater knowledge and understanding is therefore responsible to show the GREATEST love! With clarity comes responsibility.

Accepting the Weak for a Stronger Church - Part 2

For the sake of Christ and His church, we cannot allow those differences in minor areas of doctrine and practice to become WALLS between us as believers.

In Romans 14, the Apostle Paul tells us FIRST of all, that to keep these differences from becoming WALLS we must ACCEPT one another. This is not just in the door but in our HEARTs acceptance. We must accept one another as God in Christ accepts us. That is, accept your differing brother or sister NOT because you can find an emotional liking for them, but because they have been BOUGHT by the same blood as you, the precious blood of Christ. We have equal standing before the Father based on Christ's work, not our worthiness or perfect understanding and practice of doctrine. PHEW! That's GOOD NEWS.

The NEGATIVE side of this principle of ACCEPTANCE is found in Romans 14:3: DON'T CONDEMN.

• The STRONGER brother can easily take a CONDESCENDING attitude towards the Weaker brother.
• The WEAKER brother can easily be CONDEMNING of the STRONGER brother.
• The STRONGER might think: "You are too narrow and legalistic."
• The WEAKER might think: "You are too liberal and stretch God's grace."

2 Reasons Paul gives us not to condemn:

• v.3b: God has accepted your brother. If HE has accepted Him, and He is holy and infinitely perfect, will I dare to reject my brother?
• v.4: We are not our brother's judge. We are not qualified in the slightest sense!

3 reasons it is wrong to try to judge our brother:

• Our brother's master is the Lord! And this master will make even His WEAK servants stand. V..4
• The Lord is OUR master, too. Of EVERY area of our lives. v.7-9 Let's focus on serving our Master instead of trying to be our brother's master!
• The Lord and the Lord alone is judge! see vv.10-12. He WILL judge some day. We will stand before His judgment seat and give an account of our lives.

Brothers and sisters: may God have mercy on us to STOP judging one another and instead, because of what our Lord has done on our behalf AND on the behalf of our brothers: ACCEPT one another!

Accepting the Weak for a Strong Church, Part 1

Romans 14 is a glorious chapter of truth in God's Word. It tells us how those with very different convictions in things that are "gray" in Scripture can live in unity.

What are some of the things on which all true Bible believing disciples agree?

• That the true and living God is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• That the Scriptures are infallible and inerrant and the ultimate rule for belief and practice
• That salvation is by grace through faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone
• That there is a place of eternal, conscious torment for the unbelieving lost: hell
• That the Lord Jesus Christ was and is both fully God and fully man
• That Christ will return bodily, visibly, in power, and unexpectedly some day

These are some of the bedrock beliefs that serve as the foundation of the body of Christ. We stand on these things and we stand TOGETHER on them in order to have true unity in the church.

But there are probably MORE things that true believers DIFFER on. These things are not foundational truths, but important truths nontheless. Things such as:

• The precise sequence of events in the last days
• The mode of baptism
• Styles of corporate worship
• Whether certain spiritual gifts are still in operation or not
• How much a believer should give to his local church
• What music is glorifying to God
• What movies are permissable for believers to view
• How much money a believer should store away for the future
• How Christians should school their children
• Whether Christians should use insights from psychology in dealing with people's problems
• And many, many, many more!

God's Word has many things to say about these issues, but what the Word says is interpreted and applied differently by different believers. From these differences emerge TWO basic groups:

• The STRONGER brothers
• The WEAKER brothers

The great difference between these two groups is their FAITH: what do they BELIEVE is right and wrong? What are their CONVICTIONS?

The STRONGER brother typically believes that Scripture gives him a broad freedom with lots of options. He might be stereotyped as saying, "JUST DO IT!"

The WEAKER brother, however, typically believes that Scripture gives a narrower range of options. He might be stereotyped as saying, "JUST DO IT THIS WAY!"

For example:

• Stronger brother on music: "I am free to listen to any music I desire. I can glorify and worship God using any style of music."
• Weaker brother: "Only music that remains within certain rythyms and beat glorifies God and does not appeal to the sinful flesh."
• Stronger brother on schooling children: "God gives me the latitude to school my children in public, private, or homeschool. As long as I keep up with what my children are being taught, God is pleased."
• Weaker brother on schooling children: "To raise a godly offspring requires homeschooling because God has given us as parents the sole responsibility for training of our children."

These kinds of differences can easily become WALLS in the church between believers. These convictions can be used to DEFINE who is on the Lord's side and who isn't! But they should NOT be.

How can we have a strongly unified church in spite of all the differences?

Romans 14 gives us the answer.

I will begin to look at the first answer in this passage in this entry and continue later.

Principle #1: ACCEPT one another.

"As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions." v.1

• This deals with our ATTITUDE towards those with different convictions.
• ACCEPT means more than to let in the front door, it means to let the person with differing convictions into our intimate FELLOWSHIP and into our HEART!

Is there room in your heart for those with different convictions in areas of minor truth?

If you stand together on the MAJOR doctrines, do not allow differences in minor doctrine to become WALLS!

Thoughts for those who Shepherd God's Sheep

Following are a couple of quotes from Charles Spurgeon's Lectures to My Students. They are good roughage for the soul of those who serve others to chew on.

Quoting M’Cheyne: “It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.”

Spurgeon: “True and genuine piety is necessary as the first indispensable requisite; whatever “call” a man may pretend to have, if he has not been called to holiness, he certainly has not been called to the ministry.”

Character holds the priority over gifts every time. Who I am will make more of a lasting impact than What I can do or how Well I can do it. There is an old, well-known story about a preacher who lived a less than godly life. It is said that he preached so well that when he went up to preach the people wished that he would never come. However, it was also said that he lived so poorly that when he was not preaching the people wished he would never go up to do so!

This is not only applicable to preachers! For all of us, the question we must continually ask is: "What is my reputation with others? Do they see in me a disciple of Christ? Do they see one who takes up his/her cross daily to follow Jesus? Do they witness the fruit of the Holy Spirit when I am near? Do they see one whose life matches his words? Am I a fragrance of Christ or of His enemy?"

God will bless personal holiness to have a lasting impact on others. May we all pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14

Holiness for Fellowship

In Leviticus 11, after a long list of unclean animals that Israel may not eat and clean animals that they are allowed to eat , God tells His people,

"For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy." v.45

The message is clear: God brought His people out of captivity so that He could be their God. His purpose was a covenant relationship with His freed people. BUT FOR THIS TO HAPPEN they must be HOLY. Why? Because HE is holy.

We learn:

• God is the DELIVERER. It is HE who sets us free from our Eygptian captivity to sin and idols. HE does it. He might use teachers or books or seminars or fasting or a long, desperate time of prayer but ultimately HE is the deliverer. "I am the Lord who brought you...out of..." If you find yourself still drawn to bow at the shrine of pleasure or appetite or an ungodly relationship or the menacing god of bitterness and unforgiveness, CRY to the LORD who brings His people out. He did it for 2,000,000 mud-squishing slaves under the military might of Egypt. He does it today for all who call upon Him in a desperate faith.
• God delivers us from bondage to sin for RELATIONSHIP. We can easily lose sight of the relational purpose of God in our deliverance. We can settle into a "gotta check the boxes" Christianity where we labor under the stern, watching, easily-displeased eyes of God in heaven and forget that this LORD is my FATHER in HEAVEN! What a loving Father He is. Have you forgotten the infinite extent of His love? Look to the CROSS and look to the bloody, tortured form hanging there, nailed to the cross bearing YOUR SIN (Colossians 2:13-15). There the love of God was proven once and for all forever. Realize that every embrace of an idol is an adulterous liaison before the very eyes of your Father. Let His redeeming you for relationship draw you back into His arms. Turn from the empty trysts into the everlasting arms.
• To live in this love relationship with our redeeming Father, we must be HOLY. And we must be HOLY because HE IS HOLY. God will not, God cannot become less than God in order to walk with us. HE is eternally and infinitely and immutably holy. He cannot become what He is not. WE, however, can and must become what we were not so that we can walk with Him. We must cleanse our hands and our hearts. We must separate from what is unclean. I cannot link my left arm in God's right arm while I carry my favorite idol in my right arm. How do I know what is unclean? His WORD! His LAW! Just as God gave detailed dietary laws to emphasize the need for holiness amongst Israel and to draw distinct lines between the holy and the common, so He gives His commands and principles to us to define the holy life that can walk with the holy God in loving relationship. So God's Word tells us: it is His will for us to be PURE (1 Thessalonians 4:3). It is His will for us to do all things without grumbling and complaining (Philippians 2:14). It is His will for us to be holy by praying without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). It is His holy will for us to obey the governing authorities (Romans 13), and so on. We must strive for holiness or we will not walk in joyful, intimate, loving relationship with God.

How close is your walk with Him? Do you enjoy daily intimacy with Him? Is He your joy? Are there idols under your arm as you bemoan the lack of closeness with the LORD? Are you living in the light of the truth of His Word that you ALREADY know?

If you are a true disciple of Christ, He has redeemed you from the Egypt of sin and idolatry to be His and for Him to be yours. What a sacrificial love He has extended to you so that you could know Him up close and personal. Turn to the Father today and cry for restoration to His loving intimacy.

He will hear and He will answer.

There ARE Two Sides!

What relationship reconciling wisdom is packed into Proverbs 18:17:

"The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him."

This pithy proverb tells us that there ARE two sides to every story, every situation, every quarrel. The first one to share what happened seems to be telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Why would they ever tell anything else?

If you are listening to someone "share" about their struggles with another person, you tend to feel with them and believe that they are stating the objective and unbiased truth about the events, statements, reactions, etc that brought about the problem. However, how many times have you heard a drastically different story when the "other" person shows up and asks a few well placed questions of the first? There are TWO sides.

The basic reason for this is that when there is interpersonal conflict TWO people are involved...2 sinful people...2 seeing life through the lens of their own jaundiced eyes people. The unchangeable reality of life before heaven is: sin affects all we do, our finiteness affects all that we do. No one ever sees all the sides. No one ever sees the situation clearly from the OTHER'S perspective. Our sin-skewed subjectivity affects all efforts at objectivity.

What do we learn from this? Listen to SIDE ONE with the certainty that there is ANOTHER SIDE to this story, this struggle. Do not align yourself with the first person to report what happened and against the one who has not yet shared. Refuse to listen to any accusations against someone not present. Discourage the first person from assuming they know the motives of the other person. Ask if this first reporter is willing to share their story with the second person present.

Too often folks share their struggles with another person only to enlist supporters for their side. How FOOLISH to side with a person with only half the story told! NONE of us are totally objective, even at our best and most clear headed and humble moments. We see through skewed eyes. There is always a better chance of seeing the whole picture when all those involved are able to recount what happened.

If the first person is laying all the blame on the other(s) involved, you KNOW you have a dangerously biased and blinded account. If they seem uncomfortable or offended at being asked questions about their story, you know the other side is desperately needed.

It is important that we guard our minds and emotions from being prejudiced when one person shares their conflict story with another person. Deep emotions, tears, minute details, and even seeming humility can capture our hearts for #1's cause and raise walls of bias towards #2.

Get BOTH sides of the story, especially if your are in the role of a peacemaker. Work hard to have both parties present. Listen to each as though each is telling the truth. Realize and let them know you realize that no one has a totally impartial story.

Glorifying God in Life and Death

As Jesus and Peter walked along the Sea of Galilee in John 21, Jesus not only restored Peter to a preeminent place of service, He also predicted how Peter would die.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hand, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go" v.18.

Jesus has told Peter how he could glorify Him in life: Feed My Sheep. Now He has told Peter how he WILL glorify Him in death: You will die FOR Me by the hands of others. John, the writer of this Gospel, adds an editorial comment, "This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God" v.19.

Ultimately following Jesus is about glorifying Him. There is no way TO glorify Jesus except by following Him. This following means to take up our cross daily, to say "NO" to our desires and plans and glory in order to pursue His (Luke 9:23f). And to follow Jesus means to follow Him in another day of life or in the final day of our life: death. In life or death, Jesus says, "Follow Me."

The life of a disciple of Jesus is never wasted, in life or death. Every moment is an investment in glorifying God by being a light that shines in this dark world and salt that is rubbed into the rotting moral decay of our culture. The ultimate life-purpose to glorify God never stops. There is no retirement from glorifying God. There are no vacations from glorifying God. My work is to glorify God. My parenting is to glorify God. My leisure is to glorify God. My eating is to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31). My speech is to glorify God. My spending is to glorify God. My home is for the glory of God. My sickness is to glorify God. My death is to glorify God. My funeral is to glorify God.

If I live for the glory of my glorious God, ALL ELSE will receive its rightful and needed attention and blessing from God. Family does lose out. Work does not lose out. Others do not lose out. Rather, they all receive from me the best of what I can give because now I give it out of the overflow of a life satisfied with and supplied by God.

To live for the glory of anyone or anything else is to raise it in my heart to god-hood; it becomes my idol and it reduces me to living on the fumes of what man or matter can supply.

Finally, don't miss the absolute SOVEREIGNTY of the Lord Jesus Christ that is evident in His statement to Peter about His death. Peter WILL die a death for Christ's glory. He WILL die as others take him bound to execution. Tradition tells us this happened, indeed. Peter was crucified upside down to the glory of God. But Peter could NOT die, Peter would NOT defect, angry leaders could NOT kill Peter, accidents could not unexpectedly take his life, sickness could NOT be his end...WHY? Because Christ had planned, pre-ordained Peter's death and therefore he could not die otherwise.

Therefore, know that your entire life and death is about God's glory and that the life you live and the death you die are all under the sovereign control of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't fear disease, or accidental death on a plane or by a terrorist or in a car crash, don't live in anxiety about that hereditary heart condition or high cholesterol. Do what you should to be safe and be healthy, but above all - LIVE and DIE to the glory of God.

What is that to you? Follow Me.

As Jesus and Peter walked that recommissioning walk by the sea in John 21, Peter noticed that John was following. It seems like John was always following Jesus. Peter asked Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?" v.21.

Jesus' answer is packed with instruction for you and me. We don't know what Peter meant when he asked Jesus about John. He might have meant, "Lord, what is your will for John? You've just said that in old age I will be taken where I don't want to go. What will happen to him?" Jesus doesn't tell Peter what he has in store for John. He says, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?" v.22. It seems that Jesus is saying, "I have given indication that your death will be by the force of others, just like mine. What if I will that John doesn't die until I come?" That is, "I am not telling you what his end will be. Whatever happens to him will be by MY sovereign will, just like for you. But no matter what my will is for him, you are still to FOLLOW ME!"

What God wills for our lives is what He wills for US. What He wills for others He wills for THEM. THEY are not to be our focus, JESUS is! We are to follow Jesus, no matter what He chooses for us or for others. He may choose a hard way for us, full of suffering and pain and loss. At the same time He may choose for our best believing friend a way that seems relatively free from difficulties (though no believer is without them!). We might be tempted to become bitter at the hard way chosen for us and the "easy" way for them. Jesus would say, "Follow Me." Take your eyes off of them and put them on Me. Don't get into the comparison game. Don't begin to weigh what you go through against what others go through...it will only lead to bitterness and thoughts of "NOT FAIR!" "Follow Me!" There is a race marked out for you by Jesus (Hebrews 12:1). You run your race. Do not long for another's course. Do not allow yourself to envy their path. "Follow Me."

When we stand before Jesus at His bema seat of judgment some day, He will not ask us about the race of others. He will not compare our sufferings with others. He will simply ask, "Did you follow Me?"

Embrace the race marked out for you and Follow Him.

If You Love ME, Feed My Sheep

You are probably familiar with the re-commissioning of Peter by Jesus as they walked along the shore of the Sea of Galilee in John 21. Peter would NEVER forget his three adamant, even cursing denials of Christ before the crucifixion. He was crushed. Who knows the thoughts that tortured his mind as he was brought to true repentance for disowning His Lord.

But Jesus was not finished with Peter. Jesus knew the denials were coming. He had prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail, and though it was bruised and bleeding, it held. Peter was back with the disciples.

After Jesus gave bread and fish to the disciples (sounds like some other familiar incidents, doesn't it?!) he began to address Peter. THREE times He asked Peter a sort of re-commissioning question, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" Remember in Mark 14:29 that Peter had said, "Even though they all fall away, I will not," in essence saying that he loved Jesus more than all the other disciples. He also passionately declared he would die for Christ before He would deny Him.

Now Peter is seemingly emptied of his self-confidence. Does he love Christ more than the others? Well, he does love him...but he will not exalt his love above the others, and he will not declare that there is no chance of his defection. He simply says, "...You know that I love You" (John 21:15)

Jesus asks the question TWO more times, now without the "more than these." The third time Jesus asks Peter is grieved with His question. Why? It seems it would be because this third question parallels his third denial. That is, the third question hits at the heart of Peter's sin of self confidence and reminds him of his cursing denials that came on the heels of his statement that he would NEVER do so. It is as though Jesus is asking, "Peter, do you REALLY love Me?" Peter does.

There are several wonderful lessons here for us:

• The AWESOME MERCY and GRACE and FORGIVENESS of the Lord Jesus. I suppose if I were Peter I would think that I was in company with JUDAS! I would be tempted to go out and hang myself, too. But Peter's sorrow was a godly sorrow that led to true and lasting repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10). This repentance is a gift of God just as surely as faith is (Acts 11:18). Even cursing denials are forgiven by our Lord (see Mark 3:28). Is there any sin of yours that He will not forgive? Go to Him. He will forgive and restore you like He did Peter. If you find yourself without the true desire to turn back to Him, ASK for the gift of a repentant heart.
• Jesus IS concerned that we LOVE Him. It is not serve, obey, take up your cross, deny yourself, be a living sacrifice ALONE...in fact NONE of these please the Lord Jesus if we do not love Him. And the love that He demands from us is a whole-hearted, above-all-else love. Do YOU love Him above all others? Above all things? Where does this love come from? First, from knowing His prior love for us (1 John 4:10). Second, from His Spirit (Romans 5:5).
• How are we to love Jesus? He gives us great insight into the answer when He tells Peter 3 times: "Feed my lambs," "Tend my sheep," "Feed my sheep" (vv.15-17). How do I love Jesus? Love those that are His! Share His heart for the flock. Give yourself to those that HE gives Himself for. His little lambs...His sheep. When Jesus confronted Saul on the road to Damascus, He asked him, "Why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:4). Saul had never met Jesus! But he HAD persecuted Jesus' people. Jesus is organically knit to His people...He is the head and they are His body. You touch them, you touch Jesus. You hurt them, your hurt Him. You bless them, you bless Him. You shepherd and feed their souls, you do so TO JESUS! Love for Jesus does not happen primarily in the secret place, though it does happen there. Love for Jesus is a demonstrated love, like His for us in His life, death, resurrection, and current High Priestly ministry in heaven. Jesus says to us today, "If you love ME, show it to my sheep." We can show this love for Jesus to His sheep by praying for them, encouraging them, helping them to grow in a hundred different ways, providing for their physical needs, pointing them to Jesus when they are discouraged, listening to them when they need to talk, reminding them of the faithfulness of their Lord, etc.

No matter how great your failure, the Lord Jesus Christ seeks you out to restore you to loving fellowship with Himself. He is ready to forgive the repentant one and to restore him to His service, loving His sheep.