TheNarrowRoadPursued

“For there is hope for a tree,

When it is cut down, that it will sprout again,

And its shoots will not fail.

“Though its roots grow old in the ground

And its stump dies in the dry soil,

At the scent of water it will flourish

And put forth sprigs like a plant.”  (Job 14.7-9, NASB95)

The Biblical work called “Job” has fascinated me since I was a young man.  I honestly never got caught up in the “suffering” part of Job’s story because the work itself seemed to immediately tackle much larger, howbeit related, issues.  As I have trekked through the years of my spiritual journey, I have discovered how important Job is to the modern understanding of God and His explanation of Himself, Jesus the Christ.

This image of life from the stump is carried forward to the messianic sayings of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 11.10, 53.2) and applied specifically to Jesus of Nazareth (Romans 15.12, Revelation 22.16).

Those who are in Christ ought to reflect the vitality of his presence in every circumstance.  Even if they, like the tree under the forester’s axe, succumb to be cut off from towering above the earth, the root is still fed by the very source of new life.  The truth is when one whose root is Jesus sees Him face to face, new life is guaranteed (1 John 3.1-2).  The one who has a new sprig shooting up from the “stump”  serves as testimony to the promise, “Abundant life remains.” (John 10.10)

My prayer today is that the Lord would change my heart. I tend to fall into the pit of self-reliance over and over again. My heart’s desire is truly to rest in the Lord; yet the work of my hands rarely reflects that desire.

God help me to be a witness to your life in me. Let those around me know that I drink from the living waters. Allow your presence to shine through. Be grace through me and allow my actions to be extensions of your mercy and testimony to the life that flows from the Root that never surrendered to death.

He sent redemption to His people; He had commanded His covenant forever.  Holy and awesome is His name! (Psalm 119.9, ESV)

“The covenant is a treasury of wealth, a granary of food, a fountain of life, a store-house of salvation, a charter of peace, and a haven of joy.”

Is it not strange, the darkest hour

That ever dawned on sinful earth

Should touch the heart with softer power

For comfort than an angel’s mirth?

That to the Cross the mourner’s eye should turn

Sooner than where the stars of Christmas burn?

[John Keble 1792-1866, The Christian Year, exerpt from the poem “Good Friday”, Public Domain]

This time of year always compells me toward contemplating the wonders of the Cross.  This section of Keble’s poem asks the question why we don’t look more to the cross and less to manger and Bethlehem.  In my own life I want to do practical things to make the Ressurection day celebration more meaningful.  I desire to change the Christmas holiday to become subservient to the real holiday–the demonstration of God’s love and Jesus’ unabashed obedience.  Christmas is empty without the Cross.  Christmas is a curse without the Cross.  Christmas is everything its critics claim it to be without the Cross.

O, for such excitement over Resurrection Day!  Shall I give gifts?  Send cards?  Get up early with my children and run to the empty “grave”? Will I unwrap the brightly colored gifts You leave scattered all around by the power of Your Holy Spirit?

Lord give us wisdom, capture our imaginations, allow us to see past the beginning to the power of the Advent, the resurrection of the only begotten Son of God.

good-friday

“Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” (Psalm 55.22, NASB)

Of the many spiritual challenges I have to grown into, the casting of anxiety has got to be one of the most challenging. I have a terrible time casting my anxieties, my burdens, my cares on the Lord (and at least leaving them there). If I get them to him I often want to (and do) take them back.

“Care, even though exercised upon legitimate objects, if carried to excess, has in it the nature of sin. The precept [instruction] to avoid anxious care is earnestly inculcated [taught as if by command] by our Saviour, again and again; it is reiterated by the apostles; and it is one which cannot be neglected without involving transgression [sin]: for the very essence of anxious care is the imagining that we are wiser than God, and the thrusting ourselves into his place to do for him that which he has undertaken to do for us.”

Spurgeon speaks the truth, those who “do not cast” fall into sin.

Lord, in this day of anxiety, cause my cares to be cast upon you.  Give me strength to leave them there.

The psalmist says that “he will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” What a promise this is; what an incentive to be among the righteous in this day full of anxiety!

“The LORD looks down from heaven, he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of of them all and observes all their deeds.” (Psalm 33.13-15, ESV)

This God who sees everyone is not aloof and disconnected.  For instance, consider the story contained in Numbers 22-24. There the blessings of Balaam of Beor are kept for all to read and remember. In that narrative God sees what Balak and Balaam are doing and he causes (either by inspiration or by lack of countermand) Balaam to bless Israel. Perhaps the most scandalous piece of the narrative is 23:21 when the I AM is said to see nothing but good in Israel (so to speak).

The only way for God to see nothing but good is if the I AM were looking at Israel from above the mercy seat; the sin of Israel being covered by the blood of sacrifice.  He sees and he acts, not from “on high” but at our level.  He acts to bless and not to curse.  The God who sees surely must have known that his love sonnet of blessing would be returned with a note, “Left you, gone to serve Baal of Peor” (see Numbers 25).  How incredible is it that God would stoop to bless such an unworthy people?

How great indeed to serve a God who not only “sees” but stoops.  He stoops to love, to bless, to serve, to comfort, to give, to encourage, to order (our way), to provide; even then he abdicates none of the sovereignty I rely upon to see me into eternity with Him.

How wonderful is His way and how unfathomable are the riches of His grace to us–to me–this God who sees and yet stoops to those he knows can never deserve it!

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”  (Romans 5.8-9, NASB95, emphasis added)

I think that we have lost the sense of God’s terrible aspect which in turn has limited our understanding of His infinite mercy, of His boundless love. What blessings we have missed in not knowing our Savior first as Sovereign Lord then as Abba Father.

I thank God that I was taught this truth early in my spiritual journey. More and more each day I see the  abject condition of my own heart. Some sins new, some old, some realized, some untold. More and more I need the gentle shepherd and am grateful that I am not under the judgment of the dread Lord.

I aspire to something much more that what I am, even to what I could be if I were relieved of all encumbrances. I aspire to the One who knows me best, who will, in the end, claim me by the immensity of His own grace and the power of His own acts of love. O what inexplicable joy it is to be called a child of God, to be rescued from the sure wrath to come!