Streams in the Desert

He was better to me than all my hopes;
He was better than all my fears;
He made a bridge of my broken works,
And a rainbow of my tears.
The stormy waves that marked my ocean path,
Did carry my Lord on their crest;
When I dwell on the days of my wilderness march
I can lean on His love for the rest.

He emptied my hands of my treasured store,
And His covenant love revealed,
There was not a wound in my aching heart,
The balm of His breath has not healed.
Oh, tender and true was His discipline sore,
In wisdom, that taught and tried,
Till the soul that He sought was trusting in Him,
And nothing on earth beside.

He guided my paths that I could not see,
By ways that I have not known;
The crooked was straight, and the rough was plain
As I followed the Lord alone.
I praise Him still for the pleasant palms,
And the desert streams by the way,
For the glowing pillar of flame by night,
And the sheltering cloud by day.

Never a time on the dreariest day,
But some promise of love endears;
I read from the past, that my future will be
Far better than all my fears.
Like the golden jar, or the wilderness bread,
Stored up with the blossoming rod,
All safe in the ark, with the law of the Lord,
Is the covenant care of my God.

~page 364

John Piper Quotes

"Striving to enter through the narrow door is only as hard as treasuring Jesus above all things. The battle is not to do what we don't want, but to want what is infinitely worthy of wanting. The fight is not the oppressive struggle to earn God's final rest, but the satisfying struggle to rest in the peace that Jesus freely gives. (Matthew 11:28-30) The demands of Jesus are only as hard to obey as his promises are hard to cherish and his presence is hard to treasure." In Our Joy, page 77

"Remember that forgiveness of sins and justification by faith are at the bottom of our striving. We do not strive for them. We strive because we have them...Our standing with God as forgiven and righteous is the ground of our striving, not the goal of our striving." In Our Joy, page 78

Life Verses

This sermon was preached by a man named Paul Washer, a friend of my father's and one of the most insightful men I've ever heard. He shares these verses as the ones that have most shaped his life and encouraged him in the Lord. This message has been a great encouragement to me and I hope it will be to you as well. It's 69 minutes long and is #3 on the list of sermons located at this link.
http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?keyword=paul%20washer&entiresite=true

Bold as a Lion

When I found this picture it made me think of Proverbs 28:1. "The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are bold as a lion." I spent a little while thinking on this verse and drew the conclusion that if you have nothing to hide, then there obviously is no reason not to be bold. I was especially thinking of this verse along the lines of approaching the "throne of Grace."

In Hebrews 4:14-16 Paul talks about our Great High Priest, Jesus, through whom we can present all of our concerns to God. "Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (verse 16)." The Christian should not hesitate to approach God-in fact we are encouraged to draw near and are told that we can do so with confidence! Philippians 4:6 says "...but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." How is it that we are able to do this? It is because when God looks at the Christian He does not see a sin-stained person. Our sins are forgotten because they have been covered over by the blood of Christ! Psalm 103:12 "...as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." The wicked can certainly not lay claim to this. They would not dare approach the throne of Grace because their guilt would not allow it, nor would God.

To sum this all up, in Revelation chapter 5 Christ is referred to as the "Lion of Judah." I found it interesting that because of the Lion of Judah, the Christian can approach the throne of God with the boldness of a lion. Of course I believe that there is still reverence that must be maintained when dealing with a Holy God. But I also believe that there is far more liberty for the Christian in approaching God than he/she may realize. After all, we not only call him "God," we also call him "Father."

Streams in the Desert

Speak, Lord, in the stillness,
While I wait on Thee;
Hushing my heart to listen
In expectancy

Speak, O blessed Master,
In this quiet hour;
Let me see Your face, Lord,
Feel Your touch of power

For the words that You speak,
"They are life," indeed;
Living bread from Heaven,
Now my spirit feed!

Speak, Your servant hears You!
Be not silent, Lord;
My soul on You does wait
For Your life-giving word!
~page 356

I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chattered all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne'er a word said she;
But oh, the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me
~page 357

Jeremiah Chapter 2

13: "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."
19: "Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me," declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
27: "They say to wood, 'Your are my father,' and to stone, 'You gave me birth.' They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble they say, 'Come and save us!'

In verse 13 the two sins that were committed here were (1) forsaking the spring of living water, and (2) digging other cisterns, which were broken and could not hold water. In other words, Israel had rejected the One True God and had turned to idols, which meant nothing, could do nothing for them, and ultimately would not hold up in the end.

Verse 19 talks about the consequences for the wicked actions of Israel and the tragedy of forsaking the Lord and having no awe of him (the exact words used to describe this are "evil and bitter"). This led me to a thought based on verse 27, which mentions again how Israel had forsaken the Lord in order to worship idols. Towards the end of the verse it says "...they have turned their backs to me and not their faces..." In looking to idols for satisfaction, they had turned their backs on God. And since their backs were turned to God, they clearly were not standing in awe of Him. It's kind of hard to stand in awe of something if you're not even looking at, much less facing in the right direction!

Imagine going to the museum and examining a piece of gum that was stuck to the floor and completely ignoring the spectacular crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. How ridiculous! Or picture taking a trip into space and ignoring the stars around you because you'd rather look at a comic book. What would possess you to do that? Yet these examples and the account in Jeremiah are so similar to things that happen every day! Millions of people are content to play around in meaningless things and occupy themselves with transient pleasures of this world when the Son of God died to offer the free gift of eternal life to mortal, sin-stained, hell-bound men. The world and it's contented lost people need our prayers and God's mercy now more than ever.

The Lamb of God

To continually behold this Lamb of God
is life to our souls, and death to our sins!
Sin cannot terrify with its guilt, nor prevail
in its power while the heart is looking to this Lamb!

~William Mason

"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world!" John 1:29

A Clear View of Trials

I read this excerpt yesterday in Streams in the Desert and was encouraged by it. Just a little disclaimer, when the author talks about "getting out of a trial" and I don't necessarily agree with that phrase. I believe that we "get out of trials" on God's time and not ours, but I do agree with his idea that if we view trials properly they may cease to seem like a trial to us. It is much more becoming of the Christian to view trials as an opportunity to learn something of value and to grow in grace. This little paragraph sums it up beautifully.

"There are two ways of getting out of a trial. One is simply to try to get rid of the trial, and then to be thankful when it is over. The other is to recognize the trial as a challenge from God to claim a larger blessing than we have ever before experienced and to accept it with delight as an opportunity of receiving a greater measure of God's divine grace. In this way, even the Adversary becomes a help to us and all the things that seem to be against us turn out to assist us along our way. Surely this is what is meant by the words In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)"

~A.B Simpson, Streams in the Desert, September 7th

Two Types of Striving

Luke 13:24 says "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." This implies that a struggle must take place in order to enter through that door, and I think the verse is actually talking about professing Christians. Look at the parallel passage in Matthew 7:22-23 that says "Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me you who practice lawlessness." It seems that Jesus was talking about those who would profess to be Christians and even do some superficial good works in the name of Christ, but in reality their hearts were not in the right place. They were trying to enter the kingdom of heaven through the wide gate so that they could hang onto their lawlessness, idols, and worldly practices (much like the rich young ruler who would not tear down his own idol, which was his riches). This dispels the theory of "Carnal Christianity" not only because the two terms completely contradict each other, but also because of the context of this passage. The narrow door with its eternal life, or the wide gate with its destruction; try as you might, it is impossible to have both.

In Hebrews 12:4 it says "You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin." This is a reprimand to those who are not waging war on sin within their lives as they should be. A true Christian must take radical measures to rid themselves of anything that would prove to be a hindrance in entering the kingdom of God, whether it be sin, the bad influences of certain friends, or even his own thought life. This made me think of an account in Pilgrim's Progress that I believe illustrates a Christian who is dealing violently with what is hindering him. The account begins with Pilgrim standing in front of the Palace Beautiful. A scribe is sitting outside the door to take down the name of anyone who would dare go in, but Pilgrim is afraid because of the armed men that stand guard at the gate. Then a braver man approaches and the following takes place...

"Now was Christian somewhat in amaze: at last, when every man started back for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man of a very stout countenance come up to the man that sat there to write, saying, Set down my name, sir; the which when he had done, he saw the man draw his sword, and put a helmet upon his head, and rush towards the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him with deadly force; but the man, not at all discouraged, fell to cutting and hacking most fiercely. So after he had received and given many wounds to those who attempted to keep him out, he cut his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace."

Then there is the matter of not only striving against sin, but also striving for righteousness. Paul speaks in 2nd Corinthians 6:7 of how the Christian ought to carry "the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left." No matter what realm of the Christian life we are talking about, it is clear that a violent struggle will be involved.

Matthew 11:12, in reference to the kingdom of God says that "violent men take it by force." This means that there is a mighty battle involved in entering the kingdom of God. But what does the non-Christian have to strive against? According to John Piper, "Our own sin is the greatest threat to entering the kingdom of God (In Our Joy, pg 48)." For any who are interested, I've got a link posted to a sermon entitled "Violent Men" that has been preached a number of times by my uncle, Charles Leiter. The sermon is about 51 minutes long and definitely worth the time. http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=22308115198

In Our Joy

I am in the middle of a small booklet written by John Piper called In Our Joy. The book is based on the parable Jesus told about the treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44) and it deals with the magnificence of the treasure, the great cost it took to gain that treasure, and also the great joy of its reward. The chapter I read today dealt with how the world, and even Christians at times, are so easily pleased in petty, meaningless things while the Savior of the World holds out eternal life and with it, eternal joy. It also spoke of how self-denial adds greatly to the joy of the Christian by refusing the transient joys of the world, and instead looking to Christ as the ultimate source of joy. Here are some quotes that I found to be a real encouragement along those lines.

"Before the new birth happens and repentance occurs, a hundred other things seem more important and more attractive: health, family, job, friends, sports, music, food, sex, hobbies, retirement. But when God gives the radical change of new brith and repentance, Jesus himself becomes our supreme treasure."
~John Piper

"If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." ~C.S. Lewis

"The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire." ~C.S Lewis

"Self-denial will also be reckoned amongst the troubles of the godly...But whoever has tried self-denial can give in his testimony that they never experience greater pleasure and joys than after great acts of self-denial. Self-denial destroys the very root and foundation of sorrow, and is nothing else but that lancing of a grievous and pailful sore that effects a cure and brings abundance of health as a recompense for the pain of the operation." ~Jonathan Edwards