Helping

Bites & Bits...

 

“Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him”.

Psalms 103:13

 

Don’t we like to see the care and involvement of our relationship with God as somehow very like our best relationships with our earthly family?  Jesus, when asked, “Teach us to pray”, gave us the privilege of addressing our praying with “Our Father”.  Today’s reference draws on the actions and attitudes of God in comparison with the best earthbound father.

 

When, in Acts 17, Paul was addressing the philosophers in Athens; he—in verse 25—said that God is not “served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things”.  We acknowledge in the sense that is noted in Acts 25:17, God exceeds any comparison with even the very best of human fathers.

 

Here’s where I am trying to get.  Remember when your father—or mother—let you help them with something they were completely able to do by themselves?  Didn’t that make your chest swell?  We know that God doesn’t really need our help (as stated in Acts 17:25); but He is gracious and so cares about our development that He lets us help Him do what He has to do.

 

Jesus pictures some of this in Matthew 9:38, where He says, “Therefore (since the laborers are few) beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest”.  Who can answer why God leaves such urgent work—reconciling the World—in the hands and hearts of people?  To us He gives the privilege of helping Him do what is on His heart to do.

 

In the sense of Jesus’ words in Matthew 9, God does need us.  We can’t do what only He can do; but, we can take from His hand what He provides and accompany Him in doing the work that is so important to Him.

 

Remember taking that wrench—or cup towel—to “help” Dad or Mom?  These were growing experiences for us.  Our Father in heaven has the equipment needed to do what He is committed to do.  He hands the tools to us, and lets us help Him.

To Whom?

Bites & Bits...

 

“I loathe my own life, I will give full vent to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul”.

Job 10:1

 

The bitterness of one’s soul must have release.  For it to stay seething within one’s soul, poisons all remaining of one’s life.  Hebrews 12:15 explains to us that bitterness is a root; and being a root it produces vile fruit.  Job’s life was spoiled enough by the unexplained events that were torturing him with questions he could not answer.  He could not—no person can—contain the bitterness that poisoned his soul.  It had to come out.  Job made a decision for improving his health and self—soul—with his decision to give vent to his bitterness.

 

To whom would he vent?  Our reference for today indicates that he turned his first vent toward the friends that came to grieve with him.  Most opinions are that the friends were not as gracious and helpful as they intended.  Such may be true of many of the human companions we hold as friends.  Though they proved to be less than fully helpful, it was very helpful for Job to have the opportunity to unload on them.  How well did they hear?  How well will we, if we find ourselves in their place?

 

It was good for Job to vent his bitterness to and with his friends.  It will be good for us…to vent as needed with friends, and to bear with as needed.

 

Beyond friends, bitterness can be—should be—vented on God.  1 Peter 5:7 encourages us to “cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you”.  God hears bitterness addressed to friends.  He hears everything.  Bitterness specifically addressed to Him gets the attention that God can give.  Elisha Hoffman wrote, “I Must Tell Jesus”’; which is what any of us who—like Job—have bitterness attacking our soul must do.  Here are the words of two of the verses:

I must tell Jesus all of my trials;

I cannot bear these burdens alone;

In my distress He kindly will help me;

He ever loves and cares for His own.

I must tell Jesus all of my troubles;

He is a kind, compassionate friend;

If I but ask Him, He will deliver,

Make of my troubles quickly an end.

 

If bitterness is not rooted out, its root will produce poisoned fruit.

 

Desperate Question

Bites & Bits...

 

“The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He covers the faces of its judges.  If it is not He, then who is it?”.

Job 9:24

 

Don’t we see the desperation in Job’s questioning here?  As far as he knows—and he insists that he is honest—what he is now experiencing is not consequences.  For reasons he cannot—at least yet—name, his life has become a dreadful series of catastrophes.  His statement here expresses his assurance that God is not oblivious to his ordeal.  He knows that God knows.  How is it that God has given his life (he says “the earth”) into Satan’s hand?  God must know that people—judges--expected to know what is right and what is healthy appear to be oblivious.  If God is not aware of this, who is?  There is no one, Job’s faith knows, that is more powerful and knowledgeable than God.  How could there be?

 

What he cannot answer is “Why me?”.  Did he ever get an answer to his desperate question?  Ponder this quote from Dr. W.F. Adeney regarding Job and his desperate question, “To him the series of calamities is an overwhelming mystery, and he is tried the more by its inexplicable character. We cannot see the purpose of our troubles. But there is a purpose. Possibly one explanation is, not that we are merely to suffer for our own soul's discipline, but, like Job, for the sake of lessons which, without our knowing them, may be taught to others by means of our experience”.

 

Isn’t there something of this in Solomon’s word in Ecclesiastes 11:1, “Cast your bread upon the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days”? At least one thing Job will never know; and that is how many people have learned and adjusted from his experiences.

 

God has never stopped being God.

Both

Bites & Bits...

 

“Depart from me, evildoers, that I may observe the commandments of my God”.

Psalms 119:115

 

Today’s reference puts us in mind of a very similar statement that Jesus made in Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other.”  Isn’t that the tone of our reference?  How can we be devoted and committed to Christ if we are somehow flirting with that old nature that has such experience with us?  We may be dealing with some stress because we are trying to do what Jesus said is not possible.

 

We know that, since we have accepted Christ into our lives, that we have two natures—the old nature that is common to all humans, and that new nature resulting from The New Birth.  Neither of the two is passive.  In fact, Galatians 5:17 explains, “The flesh (that’s the old nature) sets its desire against the Spirit (the new nature), and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another (two masters), so that you many not do things you please”.  So, with the ceaseless battle going on we have to take a firm position that we will not cave in to the Old in preference for the New.

 

For us, it is taking captive any and every thought that would “so easily beset us”.  Note 2 Corinthians 10:5, “…we are taking every thought captive”…and, as noted in today’s reference, tell it to “depart from me”.  Hear this word from Amos 3:3, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”.  Rationalization will tell us that “it is only human”, when we know that it is our old nature whining or beguiling.  Capture that thought and destroy it.

 

James 1:8 is a word for our health, “A double minded person is unstable in all his ways”.  Our re-commitment is more often than a daily requirement…it may even be moment-by-moment.

 

Our contentment and joy is heavily influenced by our determination to capture and destroy any thoughts that would incline us to consider the impossible…serving two masters.

Balanced with Hope

Bites & Bits...

 

“Oh that my grief were actually weighed and laid in the balances together with my calamity!”.

Job 6:2

 

Are we reading today’s reference right?  Is Job bothered by the thought that his calamity is too great for his grief to equal?  All of us have, at some time, experienced some degree of grief.  Often, the degree of grief is influenced by the cause of that grief.  Few of us have had to somehow endure that degree of calamity that Job was now experiencing.

 

A classic illustration of such deep grief is seen in our Savior.  Look at Matthew 26:38, “Then He said to them, ‘My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death…’”.  The grief Jesus was suffering was balanced with the supreme sacrifice He was about to engage.  His was, we might say, the maximum grief…He was near death.

 

There may be some application for us in this word from 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you (like that seemingly grief beyond redemption that Job confessed?) but such as is common to man (we all share in grief): and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted (grieving) beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it”.

 

When we get to the last chapters of Job’s experience, we see the way that God had provided for him to endure what he had to endure.  Job came to experience 1 Thessalonians 4:13, “…you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope”.  Balancing out the calamity, the grief, and the assured hope; really tilts the scale in favor of the hope.  Is there, for any believer, a hopeless situation?  We can’t downplay the intensity of the calamity.  We can expect that the grief will equal to the calamity.  We can—and must—hold to the assurance that “hope” tilts the balance in our favor.

 

Note 1 Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a LIVING HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”.

 

Grief is a heavy load…but we have living hope to help with carrying the load.

Grip

Bites & Bits...

 

“Would that God were willing to crush me, that He would loose His hand and cut me off”.

Job 6:9

 

Few, if any of us, have had to endure what Job had to.  We could agree with him that life can seem not worth the effort.  Who can blame him for such despair?  There is something in that last part of his lament that contains some encouragement and even assurance.

 

Job might loosen his grip on God’s hand.  We have God’s assurance that He will never even loosen His grip.  That God will not loosen his grip is the salvation of Job…and of us also.

 

Job likely did not think of it (beings he had so much on his anguished mind), but—since God would not loosen His grip—He was going through all that Job was enduring with Job.  If they were holding hands (Job seems to have loosened some of his grip…which he would regain) what one went through, both would have to go through.

 

God will not loosen—or even weaken—His grip on the hands of His children.  This is Jesus’ word, in John 10:28-29, “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand”!

 

Maybe not to the same extent, but most of us have times that discouragement descends upon us like a plague.  We would—almost—voice the same lament as Job did.  David had some experience with our common plague.  This is David in Psalms 73.  He laments that maybe he has loosened some of his grip on God’s hand.  Notice his confession in verse 23, “Nevertheless (what does this word not cover?) I am continually with You; You have taken hold (He already had taken David’s—and Job’s, and ours—He was just tightening His grip) of my right hand”.

 

In any despair, we can hear Hebrews 13:5. “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you”.

 

In our worst moments, we may wish it; but it will never happen.

Anselm

Bites & Bits...

 

“I do believe, help my unbelief”.

Mark 9:24

 

Anselm became The Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093.  He was born in 1033 or 34, in Italy.  He died April 21, 1109.  Among some of his works, was a piece, “Faith Seeking Understanding”.  Here is a prayer of his from “The One Year Book of Personal Prayer”.  What he prayed is what this man, who had such urgent and personal need, prayed in today’s reference.  His, both of them, might be a prayer that we would also offer.

 

Here is Anselm’s prayer: 

“I confess, Lord, with thanksgiving, that you have made me in Your image, so that I can remember You, think of You, and love You.  But that image is so worn and blotted out by faults, and darkened by the smoke of sin, that it cannot do that for which it was made, unless you renew and refashion it.  Lord, I am not trying to make my way to Your height, for my understanding is in no way equal to that, but I do desire to understand a little of Your truth which my heart already believes and loves.  I do not seek to understand so that I can believe, but I believe so that I may understand; and what is more, I believe that unless I do believe, I shall not understand”.

 

The man Mark tells about could not understand how Jesus could heal the trauma his son—and himself—were experiencing.  He did believe that Jesus could do it.  And, Jesus did what he believed he could do…despite that he could not understand just how. 

 

The answer is “Believe”.  Some we will never fully understand.  What it is possible for us to understand we will gain as we insist upon believing.  Until then, we will believe.