FAITH: HAVING A GOOD MEMORY

The man who lacks them is short-sighted and blind; he has forgotten how he was cleansed from his former sins.  2 Peter 1:9, N.E.B.

I've finally figured out why it has been so easy for me to be so hard on the children of Israel.  I used to become so annoyed at them for so quickly forgetting God's miraculous acts among them and resorting so soon to the faithless murmurings and rebellions of their recent past.  I have often wondered how people could be so dense, especially in the face of such astounding miracles.  but now I have come to the painful conclusion that I am not all that much different from them.  The difference is that the Old Testament packs several lifetimes of history into a few paragraphs, and I'm still forgetting my way through one short lifetime.

Oh, how much we need a good memory!  If faith is a relationship of confidence in God, based upon His reliable dealings with us in the past, then Satan can work havoc with our faith just by getting us to forget.  The enemy can stunt our growth by getting us to forget our heritage, our own spiritual pilgrimage with our Father, for God's favorite way of revealing Himself to us is through active interaction with us.

Peter puts all these concepts into a very important setting in today's verse.  He has been explaining some of the character qualities that Christ wants for His people: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, fortitude, piety, brotherly kindness, and love.  He knows that as we look at this list of qualities, we will notice that we have not fully incorporated them into love lives.  So he explains why: We are shortsighted, blind, and forgetful that we have been cleansed of our former sins.

You see, if we still doubt that God has forgiven our sins, then any quest for Christlikeness will be flavored by desires to earn that forgiveness, and we will be groveling for His favor.  To keenly remember His forgiveness is to be set free from selfish clamoring for it--set free to turn toward Christ for His own sake.

In listening to the public prayers of others we more often hear people praying "Please forgive our sins" than we hear "Thank You for having forgiven our sins."  Could this mean that too many Christians have forgotten the message of a forgiving Lord?  Or, worse yet, that they never heard it in the first place?

PRAYER AND BUMPER STICKERS

Tremendous power is made available through a good man's earnest prayer.  James 5:16, Phillips.

The car just in front of me on my right began gliding into my lane without signaling.  As I jammed on my brakes, I noticed that this unperplexed driver had a prominently placed bumper sticker on his car that read: "When you pray, wonderful things happen!"

I can't help but wonder what a nonbeliever would have thought of this driver's irresponsible actions in view of his obvious advertisement that he was a follower of God.  Should prayer make us careless?  You've heard the expression "They're so heavenly minded that they're of no earthly good!"  What a sad indictment of what knowing God is supposed to do for people!

What about prayer?  If "tremendous power is made available through a good man's prayer," what can we honestly expect in our own lives?  Is labeling everything "God's will" (because, after all, we've "prayed about it") the only way we can claim God's activity in our lives?  Unfortunately, this kind of attitude tends to produce careless living patterns.

Prayer is entering into intimate fellowship with the most awesome Mind in the universe! It is our privilege to "think in His presence"--to work through any and every facet of our lives while consciously interfacing with God's wisdom.  It is accepting the accountability for how we live, fully awake to His guidance, without fear of condemnation, because we know that it is not His purpose to belittle or browbeat us.  In communion with Him we are set free to look squarely at our lives, meeting the challenges with head held high.  We are released from mediocrity--we are yoked with divinity!  We are released from pettiness--our inspiration is infinity!

I believe that the tremendous power available in prayer is the power to live intelligently and reasonably.  It is not a power attained by the waving of a magic wand; it is gained by being in the presence of One who is wonderfully reasonable and realistic.  And our prayers are effectual because we ourselves are being made more effective through companionship with Him!

As God's friends, let's make sure we do not give unbelievers the wrong impression.  We are not exempt from the grubby realities of everyday living.  And we are not beyond forgetting to signal when we change lanes!  Perhaps someone ought to design a bumper sticker that says, "There's hope!  God and I are still talking!"

GIVING AWAY THE KINGDOM

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Luke 12:32, R.S.V.

In a wave of growing appreciation for human rights and democratic principles, most Western countries have adopted representative forms of government.  Yet several nations have also retained many of their traditional forms of royalty.  It seems that the trappings of royalty have a marvelous way of capturing the imaginations of us common folks.

Have you ever savored in your imagination being in the place of attractive Queen Esther as she approaches King Ahasuerus?  This incredibly wealthy potentate, who rules 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia and is able to hold sumptuous feasts lasting 180 days, looks fondly at his young queen and says, "What is your request?  It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom" (Esther 5:3, R.S. V.).

What sovereign authority, to give one more than one could ever use in a lifetime!  And just for the indulgent fun of it, we let our minds explore: "What would I have asked from Ahasuerus?  Would I have wanted a nice home, or even a whole seaside resort of my own?"  Our imagination surveys the kinds of things earthly kingdoms are prone to accumulate--and that we are prone to covet!

Perhaps this is why our response is often so flat when we hear Jesus' bold promise, "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."  Are the treasures that He has accumulated in His kingdom the ones we are inclined to long for?  Do we long for the lifestyle of this Servant-King who has freely offered us a share of His kingdom?

The world is full of people who have amassed fortunes at the expense of others.  But history remembers fondly the ones whose values centered around a deep love for people.  The world has seen enough of royalty who have crushed the masses for the dubious benefit of the slender few.  But Jesus was advocating the formation of a new royalty: kings and queens with hearts that are tender and large, whose treasury is made up of people made whole through love.

Our Father takes no delight in giving us a kingdom that would burden us with the anxieties of materialism.  He would not countenance any joys other than the ones that bring pleasure to Himself--the joys of loving people into wholeness.  The treasure He imparts are those of a transformed heart, and they are eternal!

WAYS IN WHICH TO VIEW THE FATHER

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.  Rev. 20:5, R.S.V.


"I believe in God, but I don't want to belong to any church!  Doctrines just make people haggle over the Bible!"

Unfortunately, it is true that doctrines often divide people.  Especially when being "right" is viewed as a thermometer of one's Christian experience.  We've all heard people piously say of those who do not agree with their particular explanation of Scripture: "They'll understand when they get closer to the Lord!"

Why has God given us doctrine?  How important is it that we have the right understanding of, say, the Trinity and the millennium?  Will we be saved only if we manage to grasp correctly the articles of faith set forth in Scripture?  How much scholastic theology must one master before he or she qualifies as an honest seeker for truth?

May I suggest that doctrine is primarily God's way of giving us varied pictures of Himself.  If we approach the study of the Word of God with the purpose of coming to know Him better, we will find ourselves being drawn away from dissension and division.  Our desire will be to get a clearer view of the Father, not to add to our"arsenal of truth."

How can a doctrine such as the millennium illuminate our understanding of God?  Without getting into a major discussion, I believe that the fact that "the rest of the dead [will] not come to life until the thousand year [are] ended" reveals God's supreme regard for people--even those who have finally and forever rejected Him.  During the thousand years when the saved of all ages reign with Christ, those who are lost will be spared the agonies of having to spend that time with Satan without the benefit of God's protection, the protection that they themselves have spurned.

The doctrine of the Trinity teaches me that the essence of the Godhead is relationship.  This brings me great comfort, because I know that since I have been made in the Their image, it is in God's plan that I experience rewarding friendships.  Even when I feel alone in the crowd, I never lose this confidence.

There are so many pictures of God in the Bible!  We need not haggle over any of them.  They aren't there for rightness' sake--they are there so that not one of us might fail to come to know Him.

HOW CLOSE IS GOD?

They were to seek God, and, it might be, touch and find him; though indeed he is not far from each one of us.  Acts 17:27, N.E.B.


I have been told since I was a little child that Jesus will descend through the "open space" in the constellation of Orion at the time of the Second Coming.  And so, of all the countless millions of stars visible in our heavens, my eyes always search out the middle star in the "sword" of the supposed warrior figure.

Telescopic photographs of the constellation reveal that this star really isn't a solid object but is actually a gaseous cloud.  Some are certain that they see in it a large opening, or corridor, going into infinite space beyond.  Somehow it was comforting to me as a child to know that, just possibly, this is where God lives!  But then, I was dismayed to learn that the constellation of Orion is more than five hundred light-years from earth.  Though I had no way of understanding just how far that was, I felt despondent that God kept Himself at such a distance that I couldn't even write the number.

Through the years, then, as I have heard people say, "I just don't feel very close to God," my mind has translated this into geographical terms.  As I have matured, of course, I have recognized that it really doesn't matter whether God is six inches away or 6 trillion light-years away.

But isn't it just as irrelevant for the one who says, "I don't feel very close to God," to base that conclusion on flighty feelings as to base it on geography?  The point is that feelings and emotions are a very unstable basis for measuring one's closeness to God.

Jeremiah complained to his Father about the attitudes of his people toward God: "Thou are ever on their lips, yet far from their hearts" (Jer. 12:2, N.E.B.).  Jeremiah knew that closeness to God was measured not by distances.  It is measured rather by the alignment of the mind with the values of God's kingdom.  Jesus said, "Men cannot say, 'Look, here it is,' or ;there it is,' for the kingdom of God is inside you" (Luke 17:21, Phillips).  It means having the values of Jesus Christ cherished in our deepest inner loyalties.  You can't get any closer than that, can you?

GIVING OUR KIDS REASON TO HOPE

Tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders which he has wrought.  Ps. 78:4, R.S.V.


His eyes held a sadness his years could not bear.  One leg draped over the arm of an overstuffed chair, he looked languid yet brittle.  His mother sat helplessly nearby.  "Son," she began tentatively, "is there anything I can do?"  Her boy had just come home from juvenile hall, where he had been charged with drunken driving.  He was failing his courses at the local high school.  "Do?" he responded tonelessly.  "Mom, I just don't care anymore."

Across the city, in a type of house that most people can only drive by but can never afford, a teenage girl was being accosted by her mother: "I said, turn it down!"  The mother referred to the stereo in the girl's room that was blasting out one of the Top Forty tunes.  "Why?" the girl asked sullenly.  "What else is there?"

What else is there for these kids and so many others like them?  Their parents' affluence?  The Establishment and all its double standards?  The threat of annihilation by nuclear war?  Honestly, why should our kids hope for anything more than they can grasp quickly today?  Look at our world!  It's not exactly a place where happiness is the rule of thumb!

But our kids can have reason to hope!  In our text today we see the answer.  We can "tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders which he has wrought."  The result of their hearing about their wonderful Father is that they will "set their hope in God" (Ps. 78:7).  Notice, it says in God.  If our children are given a chance to know who He is, He will be their hope!.

Can we share the right things about God if we ourselves do not hope in Him?  If our believing is more theology than a warm, fresh relationship, they won't buy it!  Why should they?  Why should they hope that it will do for them what it hasn't done for us?  If we expect, even demand, that they accept such a belief, we only increase their feelings of hopelessness by adding another requirement to their already long list.

The "wonders which he has wrought" are told best in the context of relationship.  If you find that accepting the friendship of God has given you hope and courage, the chances are good that your kids will too.

THE GOD WHO ASKS QUESTIONS

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"  He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you."  John 21:15, R.S.V.


The poet T.S. Eliot once wrote, "Oh, my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger, be prepared for Him who knows how to ask questions."

A good teacher is full of questions.  He keeps drawing out of his students deeper awarenesses of their own feelings and convictions.  And every time he asks them a question, he is in essence telling them that he prizes hearing their values.

Jesus was constantly asking people questions.  "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" (Matt. 16:13, R.S.V.).  "Who do you say that I am?" (verse 15, R.S.V.).  "Do you want to be healed?" (John 5:6, R.S.V.).  "Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?" (chap. 8:10, R.S.V.).

There was a pattern in Jesus' queries.  They were not merely rhetorical questions, designed to make an obvious point.  Each one was designed to stimulate self-understanding within His hearers.  He wanted their minds to be brought into an informed posture of trust in Him.

So often our prayers become times of frantic talking to God, as though He needed edifying.  Or we are busy asking Him questions about details in our lives as though our greatest need is to have the future figured out.  But if we wll discipline our souls into relevant silence in His presence, we just might hear Him asking us questions.  Tender, probing, solicitous questions, designed to help us know ourselves better.

Perhaps we should often, while on our knees, express this message to God: "Father, I know that it is safe here.  I know that--together-- we can face any issue.  I can admit my hidden, dark resentments, my foolish fears, even my cherished sins, and know that You will deal wisely and gently with me.  I give You permission to probe me with Your questions.  I know that these questions will guide my understanding into the most needed areas of my life.  Father, I trust You.  Now show me myself!"

Some people pay psychiatrists large sums of money to guide them toward self-understanding.  The psychiatrist is skilled not only in asking the right questions but also in providing a supporting, noncondemning atmosphere in which painful answers can be faced.  But many have found such a trusting union with God that He Himself guides their self-understanding.

PEOPLE: GOD'S HIGHEST PRIORITY

When a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, if they both bear him sons, and the son of the unloved wife is the elder, then, when the day comes for him to divide his property among his sons, he shall not treat the son of the loved wife as his first-born in contempt of his true first-born, the son of the unloved wife.  Deut. 21:15, 16, N.e.B.

Has God changed since the days of Moses?  Do we read with amazement laws such as the one in today's text?  Maybe even despair?  Was God permitting polygamy?  How do you explain such scriptures?

Many Christians simply throw out the Old Testament.  That's the easy way out.  Others stammer uncomfortably, "There are some things we can't understand" and try to change the subject.  A few support polygamy!  Knowing that "every inspired  scripture has its use for teaching the truth and refuting error" (2 Tim. 3:16, N.E.B.), what can the serious seeker for truth do with such texts?

Dear reader, God has much to tell us about Himself!  And I believe that not all He has to say is wrapped in clean white tissue.  Some is wrapped in the soiled understandings of people who have tried to live as best they could in this confused world.  Does it surprise you that God "gets down on His hands and knees"--even when it's muddy--to talk to us, His beloved children?

You see, God has priorities, and you and I are at the top of the list!  When we have muddy ideas of how life should be, He does not yell at us from millions of light-years away.  He joins us where we are, not in approval of our actions but in total identification with our personhood.  Like working out a splinter, He starts on the open end of our wounded relationships and slowly works out our wrong concepts and dealings with others.

The law quoted in today's text is not aimed at defining marriage.  It is meant to protect the unfortunate offspring of relationships that should never have happened in the first place.  But happen they did.  And while God carefully worked on getting the "splinter"--polygamy--out He applied "antiseptic" to the situation: He showed His love for the people involved by giving some interim ground rules.  In essence He said, "Until you learn a better way, let Me tell you how not to hurt each other so badly."

I'm glad that God hasn't changed!

WORSHIPPING A HOLY GOD

Holy and awe-inspiring is His name.  Ps. 111:9, Berkeley


I must confess to a strong personal prejudice.  Will you listen as I share it with you?  Though I have rather broad-ranging musical tastes and am willing to grant people their own latitude in this subjective area of experience, I simply cannot handle one style of music.  That is the style known as "gospel rock"--religious word or sentiments set in the musical idiom of a rock beat.

While it is true that my temperament does not enjoy heavy drums, strained and highly stylized voices, pounding electronic amplification, and the earthy connotations of traditional rock, I don't think this is my basic problem.  My distaste centers, rather, around another matter.  That is the picture of our God that is projected through religious rock.

Worship is centered in the adoration of God.  Any form of worship, including its music, is shaped by who we believe God to be.  The writers of religious music hold a particular understanding of the God about whom they are composing music, and it molds their musical style.  I have come to know God as a Being of great dignity, nobility, and grandeur.  This does not mean that He is distant and stuffy, or terrifyingly awesome.  But I cannot be at peace hearing Him exploited for the sake of private entertainment.


Our understanding of God's character is the basis for our attitudes of reverence toward Him.  Satan has successfully portrayed God through many centuries as somber, abusively powerful, and with a very short fuse when it comes to people who misbehave.  As a result, much religious music wore dark tones, alien to joy and freedom of spirit.  Loving to swing pendulums, Satan then told religious people they could bolt over into the opposite alternative.  He presented a God who was a trite, lightweight "pal in the sky."  His name could be ritually dragged through just about any style of music, and thus He would presumably sanctify it.

Rather than letting our music shape our understanding of God, I believe that our clear and growing understanding of God must shape our God-centered music.  Though our experience in Christ is joyful, even the texture of that joy derives from the Person who brings the joy rather than the joy itself.

Don't you long to hear how the angels--who behold Him face-to-face--adore our holy and awe-inspiring God?

GIVING GOD A BLACK-EYE

He said to them, "Listen to me, you rebels.  Must we get water out of this rock for you?"  Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff.  Num. 20:10, N.E.B.


The children of Israel were murmuring again, this time about the lack of water.  " 'Why did you fetch us up from Egypt to bring us to this vile place, where nothing will grow?' they complained to Moses. 'There is not even any water to drink' " (Num. 20:5, N.E.B.).

Since the smitten rock at Horeb, God had miraculously provided water to the Hebrew host wherever in their journeyings they went.  It gushed out of the clefts of the rock beside their encampments.  The smitten rock represented Christ, "smitten of God"--from whom flows the stream of salvation for a lost race.  But they had forgotten how ready God was to satisfy their needs.

Moses took his position in front of the assembled multitude.  He had been instructed by God to "speak to the rock and it will yield its water" (verse 8, N.E.B.).  Instead, with his full of anger and impatience Moses yelled, "Listen to me, you rebels.  Must we get water out of this rock for you?" (verse 10, N.E.B.).  Then he raised his rod and  struck the rock twice with his staff.

"Water gushed out in abundance, and they all drank, men and beasts.  But the Lord said to Moses and Aron, 'You did not trust me so far as to uphold my holiness in the sight of the Israelites; therefore you shall not lead this assembly into the land which I promised to give them' " (verse 12, N.E.B.).

Why such horrible consequences?  After all, the people were rebellious, and God had told Moses on another occasion to strike the rock!  But this time Moses virtually gave God a black eye, a bad reputation.  Moses' lack of self-control was evident.  And he included God in his display of anger by saying "must we get water"--implying that God was reluctant to help them.

Something had to be done.  God could not allow Himself to be viewed as an angry, capricious deity.  He gave the people water as He had always done.  Then He set Moses apart from Himself by disallowing him to enter Canaan with Israel.  The reason He gave made it crystal clear: Moses did not "uphold My holiness in the sight of the Israelites."

But God wasn't mad at Moses.  Fourteen hundred years later Moses stood with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration!