By John Stallings
If you saw the movie, “Throw mamma from the train” you’ll remember Billy Crystal’s character not only taught writing but was an aspiring writer himself, & at present was having a problem with writers-block. This premise was amusing & I could relate to Crystal’s problem.
Writing has been one of the most humbling things I’ve ever attempted. If you read this blog much you’ll know that I make lots of mistakes though I try, I really try to get it right.
As a matter of fact, just before I started writing this piece, I went to my last posting, read it through & found a mistake. It was the kind of mistake spell-check can’t help with. I quickly changed it but many had already read it. A few more typos may still be lurking.
The big problem I have with that is; the post has been up several days & I had already proofed the article several times. [Wow.] That exasperates me, but it seems even when I do the best I can [& believe me I put my best effort into every message] I often come up short.
HEY JUDE!
Jude, a brother of Jesus seemed to have no such problem. He was a magnificent writer. He had a way with words, & was especially the master of metaphor. He doesn’t just tell you something, he paints a word picture. I wish I could have heard him preach.
Jude must have looked a lot like Jesus because Mary & Joseph were also his parents. Maybe he even sounded something like Jesus when he spoke. The same Galilean accent; the same mannerisms. Jesus drew word pictures with parables. Jude did it with short phrases that were rich in texture & in meaning.
In verses 12-13, Jude says some very interesting things.
JUDE CONTRASTS “AUTHENTIC CHRISTIANITY” WITH “SYNTHETIC CHRISTIANITY.”
If you were to ask the average Christian today what a church meeting was like in the days of the apostles, you’d probably get difference answers. A Charismatic person would feel that the early church service consisted of singing & preaching & the exercise of the gifts of the Spirit, & they’d be partially correct.
Many other people would no doubt believe the early church services were mostly a celebration, featuring the Lord’s Supper & the symbolic elements of bread & wine. They also would be partially right.
This may shock you but a dominate part of the worship of those early Christians was centered around a meal! That’s right—a meal!
The early Christians referred to this meal as the “agape meal” or love feast. What happened to this meal? Well; it fell through the cracks over time for various & sundry reasons.
Jude explains that counterfeit Christians had infiltrated his church. First he says; These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.
What is Jude talking about here? What does…spots in your love feast… mean?
The love feast would be equivalent to our covered dish suppers. They would combine these meals with The Lord’s Supper. The early church didn’t just meet for an hour or so, they got together & worshipped & ate together. They called these “Love feasts” because they were characterized by Christian fellowship & love.
The problem with these love feasts was that some who came didn’t exhibit love. Sound familiar? These people came in their sin, with raunchy attitudes, with no intention of repenting thereby spurning the gracious love of God.
Paul was dealing with these types when he talked to the Corinthians. He talks to them about the divisions & factions that were destroying the unity of the church. With Paul & with Jude, people were actually coming to the love feast early & eating all the food. So when the late folk came after long days of work there was no food left. The early-birds had stuffed themselves with food & wine & some were lying around “three sheets in the wind.”
In Jude’s church there were “spots in your love feast…serving only themselves.
Christianity has two distinct groups; those who are authentic & serve God, & those who are synthetic & serve only themselves.
HAVE YOU EVER HEAR ANYONE SAY- “I STOPPED GOING TO CHURCH BECAUSE I WASN’T GETTING ANYTHING OUT OF IT?”
Certainly a church should be a feeding station where we can get our souls fed. But there’s a fine line between- “I wasn’t getting anything out of it,” & “I go where I can get the most for my money.” Or “I’m looking for the best show in town.” The bottom line is; True Christianity is about true love. Everything else is just the surface appearance of Christianity.
Listen to Pastor James;
Pure religion & undefiled before God & the Father is this, to visit the fatherless & widows in their affliction & to keep himself UNSPOTTED from the world.—James 1:27.
Have you ever considered that a church service is a lot like the old schools sixty or seventy years ago, when one classroom had grades one through twelve? I don’t know how those teachers did it because they had to see to it that each of those grade-levels were challenged & taught helpful lessons.
When a church meets, the same thing is happening on a spiritual level. The pastors & teachers have to literally have something for everybody. One of the old time preachers put it this way; “There are spiritual Giraffes & spiritual Chihuahuas in every service.” This makes it a little difficult for ministry & without the Holy Spirit taking the things of God & revealing them to the people, nothing much would happen.
The next time you go to church, & you aren’t getting what you feel you need, & you feel the message is above your head, think about this; maybe God is looking out for the spiritual Giraffes that day. Or if you feel the Word is too elementary, maybe God is feeding the spiritual Chihuahuas that service.
Jude uses other metaphors to describe these folk who are serving self only but I want to stick with the love metaphor here.
There are several different kinds of love. There’s romantic love, family love, brotherly love & Agape love.
AGAPE LOVE
John uses agape love in 1 John 4:7-11;
Beloved let us love one another; for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love. In this was manifest the love of God toward us because that God sent His only begotten son into the world that we might live through Him……beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another.
John does a great job here of teaching us about agape love. He tells us that as Christians we should be exhibiting agape love. He tells us where Agape love comes from; he tells us what it looks like & shows us if we have this kind of love we’ll be a blessing to others.
But here’s the kicker; you & I aren’t actually capable of this kind of love. It isn’t going to happen. That is- in our own strength. We can’t love like that. As humans we’re just incapable. So in short John is asking us to do something we can’t do. You don’t have agape love & I don’t have agape love. We can produce family love & brotherly love & romantic love but we can’t produce agape love. It’s beyond humans to have sacrificial, God-like agape love.
The Beatles sang—All you need is love…& then they broke up. So how are we to fulfill this mandate to love—agape—others? John tells us that if we are born of God we know Him. That means to intimately know Him. If you & I are true believers who’ve committed our lives to Christ, then we know God.
AGAPE LOVE IS BEYOND OUR PAY GRADE
Do you remember the “pot-bellied” craze a few years ago when people were spending hundreds of dollars to own one of those exotic house pets imported from Vietnam? Well, this craze started when breeders of these particular animals claimed that these mini-pigs were very smart & that they would only grow to a weight of 40 lbs. For some reason people loved the idea of a smart mini-pig running around the house because thousands of these pigs were sold.
Well it turned out the breeders were only half-right. The pigs were smart. Some could even be trained to walk on leashes & use litter boxes. But they often grew to be as much as 150 lbs or more! I heard of one that grew to weigh 250 lbs & when the truth came out, as the pigs grew older they could become openly aggressive-not at all pet-like.
So what did the people do with their unwanted pot-bellied pigs? Fortunately, according to U.S News & World Report, a man named Dale Riffle came to the rescue. Dale was given a pig as a gift & he fell in love with it—even though it never learned to use its litter-box & developed a tendency to eat carpet, wall paper, & dry wall.
Dale loved his pig so much that he sold his suburban home & moved with his pig to a 5-acre farm in West Virginia…& then he started taking in unwanted pigs. Before long the guy was living in “Hog heaven.” When the article was written Dale had 180 pig residents on his farm enjoying a luxurious lifestyle! The little porkers snooze on a bed of pine shavings & wallow in mud puddles. They wait in line for one of Dale’s belly-rubs. These little rascals never fear that they’ll someday become bacon or pork chops. Not surprising, there’s a waiting list for unwanted pigs to get a hoof in the door at Dale’s ranch. At last report none of the pigs had ever had lipstick put on them which is comforting to know. In Dales’ own words; “We’re all put on earth for some reason & I guess pigs are my lot in life.”
It seems strange to me that anyone would fall so in love with pigs, especially if they were in their right mind.
But let’s be frank; isn’t it even more amazing that a perfectly holy God is passionately in love with we who are so imperfect, so openly rebellious & frequently indifferent?
Listen to the way God describes & paints the human race in Romans 3:10-17;
There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing & bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin & misery mark their ways & the way of peace they do not know.
All of us are flawed because of sin but God loves us anyway. Isaiah says our goodness is like filthy rages compared to a holy God.
1 John 3:1 says;-How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
Friend, you & I are utterly unable to generate agape in ourselves. The only way that happens is to be regenerated & born again. When we’re born again, then we have the ability to have this agape love because then we know Christ in an intimate way. Turn it around & it sounds like this; if we don’t have agape love it’s because we don’t know God.
John tells us- if we don’t have this agape, sacrificial love, then we don’t know God. Let me put it in question form; how can we have “the God kind of love, & love others in the way God loves us, if we don’t know God?
How can I do calculus if I don’t know calculus?
How can I speak Portuguese if I don’t know Portuguese?
How can I fly a plane if I don’t know how to fly?
How can I have agape love if I don’t know God who is the essence of that love?
If I don’t know God then agape love isn’t within my personal universe.
An individual can’t be an agape-loving -person unless they’ve been taken hold of by God & transformed into a loving person. That clears up a lot of things doesn’t it? Have you ever wondered why someone had no love? There’s’ your answer. They don’t know God, thus they can’t have agape love. John doesn’t go into detail about how this happens he just let’s us Know it’s a “God thing” & when we get straightened out with God this loves just comes. John can’t explain it & I certainly can’t because it boggles the human mind. All we know is when we know God He works in us in such a way that we can agape like He agapes. And when this love comes to us, it won’t come as a philosophy, it will come as a force, a living, practical force that we are to live out day by day.
If Jesus said “I feel for you” that would be Sensitivity.
If Jesus said “your sin is illogical” that would be Rational.
If Jesus said “Only bad people sin,” that would be Judgmental.
If Jesus said “Tell me about your problems” that would be Therapy.
If Jesus said “You should have seen it coming” that would be Pity.
If Jesus said, “Relax & try not to think about your failures” that would be Meditative.
If Jesus said “Don’t worry about your sins, things will get better” that would have been blind Optimism.
But Jesus said, “Take my hand & let me pull you out of your sin & forgive you. That’s Agape Love!
HERE’S ANOTHER SURPRISE…
If you looked at John’s language structure in this passage, it would be logical for him to say this; - “since God has loved us with this agape love, then we ought to love Him.” But John doesn’t say that. He says,--Since God loves us with agape love, then we should love one another with agape love. God’s agape is what enables us to agape.
The more you & I experience God & walk with him in intimate fellowship, the greater our ability to agape others. The more of God I have the more agape I will have with which to love others. So what I want to do is experience God as much & as closely as possible, because that’s where I get my power to agape love people. How do I build up my agape love level? I experience God. How do I experience God? By spending more time in His presence. What kinds of things bring me into this intimate fellowship with God? Worship, prayer, Bible study & quite time so that I can take on more of the reflection of God.
Friend, I want to encourage you, if you’re not already doing it, to add a time of quiet each day with God. Over the years I’ve found that this time of closeness where I can press into God & listen to Him as He speaks, has been perhaps the most healing thing in my life. I have found that this & only this gives me a growing ability to love that I just don’t naturally possess.
In verse 12, John says God’s love is perfected or completed in us.
Do you have a sense of emptiness in any area of your life? Is there something that eats at you or something that’s missing & you just cant put your finger on it? In time, as you draw nearer & nearer to God, He’ll make those things that are stressing you now irrelevant. He’ll take the things that seem to be missing & make them inapplicable. How? In the ever increasing experience of the agape love of God, all things pale in comparison.
Here is what God envisions for you & me;
….That He might present to Himself a glorious church, without SPOT or wrinkle or any such things; but that it should be holy & without blemish.
Blessings,
John
Friday, March 31, 2017
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Sex, Lies, And Unthinkable Deceit
By John Stallings
Have you ever been into a jewelry store & watched the way they display the beautiful diamonds?
When the customers come in to see the rings or precious stones, they pull out a cloth of black velvet & move it under the bright light. The diamond sparkles & shines & arrests the heart of the potential buyer.
Why don’t they use a cloth of multi-colored background? ---Contrast! It’s a stark contrast for people to see the beauty of the diamond against the black background.
The Bible contains some stories that are so terrible they boggle the mind. Remember the one about Lot & his two daughters? They both got pregnant by him. Remember Dinah the sister of Judah? Remember Rahab the prostitute?
Then there’s the adultery between David & Bathsheba. What about the prophet Hosea who was commanded by God to marry a practicing prostitute? What about the murder of the little boys in Bethlehem?
If there was one chapter in the Bible I’d have removed if it were up to me [If I looked at it strictly from the human standpoint] it would be Genesis 38,-- because it’s so exceedingly dark. But the reason this black chapter is there is so that we can see God’s love & grace contrasted against the blackness.
Chapter 38 of Genesis pops out at you almost like one of those pop-up books for children, interrupting the interesting flow of the story of Joseph.
Here’s a good rule of the thumb in Bible study; if you find something that seems to be out of context or out of sync with what you’re reading, stop & look carefully for God is trying hard to get a message through.
The story of Judah & Tamar in Genesis 38 is so ugly that teachers & preachers seldom address it.
Judah, one of Jacob’s twelve sons is supposed by divine fiat to have offspring because God had promised it would happen. His kids were supposed to have kids of their own & this was supposed to happen until at last Jesus was born.
But Judah doesn’t believe this & he wanders off to do his own thing. He has no faith in all the prophecies so he goes down to Adullam & takes a pagan wife from the unbelieving Canaanites, themselves folk who don’t have any regard for the prophecies of the coming Christ.
Notice, they had people who doubted the coming Messiah just as we have people who doubt He ever came.
Judah knew better. He was in possession of the facts; he’d been raised as a member of God’s covenant & was one of God’s special people. He knew he was unequally yoked just like people in our day go right on & yoke up with unbelievers & expect good results. 2 Cor.6:14.
Judah & his wife have three sons, & they are like him, they don’t believe the promise of the coming Messiah either. All these people doubt Jesus will someday come. Does that kind of hard-headedness sound familiar?
Now, God kills Judah’s first son before he has any kids. The second son is a non-believer & wants no children so God kills him. Now this man Judah has only one son left. Judah by now is scared, wouldn’t you be? He has only one son to even try to have children & he’s afraid God will kill his last son too. [I'm trying to be polite but these men are killed because they are intentionally rebelling against God, in having sex only for pleasure & not allowing their seed to be used to produce an offspring.]
A woman named Tamar enters center stage. She was Judah’s daughter-in-law who was married to Judah’s first two son’s who died. Judah had promised her his third & only other son Shelah but he had no intention of keeping that promise.
In Matthew 5:37, the Bible says, ---- let your yes be yes & your no be no. anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
There was a custom in those days that if a man died & left no children, his brother should take the widow in & father her kids in his brother’s name so his name would not die out.
Now Judah’s wife dies. So, nobodies having any children. But how is Jesus supposed to get here if He’s coming through this lineage &, pardon my countrified speech; “they aint having no babies?”
Well, Tamar decides to fix all of this mess. Boy did she fix it? She finds out that Judah is going to Timnah to sheer sheep & disguises herself as a temple prostitute. Judah, somehow justifying it in his mind, doesn’t recognize her behind the dark veil & hires her for her services. These aren’t very nice boys & girls. Here we see a major step down for Judah as he descends into wickedness. He knew better than to sleep with a prostitute.
But Tamar bargains with Judah & asks him for a pledge, or shall we say, a deposit? They finally settle on it & Judah gives her a signet cord & a staff. A signet cord in those days was a sign of identification & a staff was a symbol of authority over his family & servants. Can you believe this; Judah is handing over his identification & authority to this “strange woman?” He’s giving up his Social Security number & his American Express credit card, voluntarily forfeiting that for this pleasure.
Don’t think too deeply about this, just think of some of the crazy things you’ve known men to do just for a few moments in the arms of some strange woman. It’s a good thing that women seem to be more forgiving than men.
Through Judah’s lack of faith he’s condemned his family but now he’s giving everything up to have what he thinks is a meaningless one night stand that can’t, as far as he knows produce a seed.
Judah finds out he’s been tricked by his daughter-in-law & decides to get his two identity symbols back & sends an offer of a goat to Tamar. What a mess!
Time goes by & now Judah is told that Tamar is pregnant, [shades of David & Bathsheba.] Judah decides that for Tamar’s deception she’s to be burned to death, him being so holy & all. Talk about a double standard. He doesn’t know she’s carrying the promised seed. The seed is now in jeopardy.
Judah has sinned by whoring around, he’s sinned by being against the promises of God, he’s sinned by marrying a Canaanite woman in the first place, this hypocrite will now sin by standing in judgment against Tamar, & having her burned to death. At this point, Judah isn’t exactly a lover of the truth. As a matter of fact he’s perfectly willing to settle for quick judgment rather than to take the time for truth & justice.
But wait, on the way to the fire Tamar produces Judah’s signet cord & staff & asks, “Whose are they?” Now comes the turning point for Judah. I wonder if he turned white or red in the face when he saw this. He recognizes the proof she has, acknowledges them & makes the famous statement, “This woman is more righteousness than I.”
Truer words were never spoken. It seems that right here Judah was converted. He’s clearheaded enough to see he’s in no position to judge Tamar because he was a greater sinner in not keeping his word to give her his son Shelah to try to produce a seed.
When people hear the truth, it often makes them angry & contentious. They want to argue rather than say, "It's me O Lord." But Judah came clean here & we can see the basic good stuff that was in him.
There can be no doubt that the Judah we met at the first of this story isn’t the same Judah we meet at the last. He started out wicked, hypocritical, self-righteous & untrustworthy & ended up humble, loving, caring & trustworthy.
So Tamar gives birth to Judah’s babies & has twins. The names of the kids will be Zerah & Perez. When the time comes, one of the twins sticks a hand out first, & this catches the mid-wife’s attention. She ties a scarlet thread around the hand & says “this one came out first.” What she is securing are the rights of the firstborn for the child.
But the other child comes out first. What’s happening is; God is interjecting Himself here & choosing the child not chosen by man. According to the midwife, Zerah is the firstborn but according to God He can do what He wants to so He chooses Perez.
This child Perez will be in the direct lineage of none other than Jesus Christ. Once again God does it His way & turns people’s plans on their heads. Doesn’t this cause you to marvel at the gracious providence of our God?
How does this story make you feel; Revolted, disgusted, shocked, horrified, embarrassed, or dismayed? Is there a messier story in the entire Bible? Yet out of all this messiness God brings the righteous Christ. God’s plans aren’t thwarted & His purposes are sure.
Yes, there has to be willingness on our part but God many times in spite of our best efforts to frustrate His plans produces great victories.
We can now see the reason God interrupted the story of Joseph; like a television channel interrupting a program to bring us an important message, God wants to show us how the linage of Jesus went from Judah to Christ. It’s plain to see that Jesus didn’t have an ancestry of noble men.
God also wants to show us the ugliness of sin & the self-delusion of sinners & how easy it is for the worst of us to pretend we are better than the best of us.
Like Judah, we see many messed up family situations today don’t we? We see divorce, remarriage, incest, physical, mental & emotional abuse, adultery, broken promises, homosexuality, pre-martial sex, & single parent homes.
It’s easy for us, like Judah, to set in judgment on all this wickedness & condemn them with gusto when some of us have done just as bad as those we condemn. Like Judah, we need to be humbled at times & see ourselves as God sees us. We might even end up saying, even of someone whose behavior we despise, “She/he is more righteous than I.”
Tamar is also a story of grace, God’s grace. God used Tamar to humble Judah & after that he started to change.
Consider this; Judah was one of the leaders in selling his brother Joseph into slavery & not killing him. Gen.37:27. And remember what Judah did years later when a cup was found in Benjamin’s sack of grain. Judah offered himself as a hostage & slave in the place of his brother. Do you see the change that took place in Judah’s life? He was changed from a very bad man to a man willing to serve & love others & it was God’s grace that brought about that change.
If God’s grace can change a man like Judah, then His grace can change the life of people we’re praying for too—no matter how great their sin & misery may be. So in actuality, this is a story of hope & comfort is it not? It’s the story of what God can do & does do in the lives of broken people.
This story is also about how God providentially preserved the family tree of Jesus. The twin boys given to Tamar were named Perez & Zerah. When you read the first few verses of Matthew, you see the names of Judah, Tamar & Perez as part of the family tree that starts with Abraham, goes to David & ends with Jesus.
Yes, Judah & Tamar & Perez are part of the family tree of Jesus. They are listed among those whom God has chosen, whom God has elected to be His special people. They aren’t exactly the kind of relatives we’d tell others about but the Bible includes them in the family tree of Jesus.
When father Jacob was on his deathbed, he called all of his sons to him, one by one. God inspired him to give a special prophecy & blessing to Judah. Judah may have lived a portion of his life as an alley-cat but Jacob called him a lion. Jacob said that Judah’s & Tamar’s line would be a royal line that would eventually give birth to the Ruler of all nations.[Genesis 49:10] This prophesy was realized in Jesus Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah.[Rev.5:5]
It’s also awesome to note that of the twelve gates of the celestial city of heaven, God has a gate named Judah.
So now almost unthinkable things become a wondrous story of divine irony & God’s providence by which He preserves the linage of the Christ Himself. We can see what God can do with messed up, mixed up families like Judah’s & Tamar’s to carry out His great & eternal purposes in Christ.
Take note that Perez & Zerah were twins who struggled in the womb just like their grandfather Jacob & Esau struggled. You will probably also remember that the birthright in that case didn’t go to Esau, the older brother ; instead contrary to human custom it went to Jacob the younger brother.
In the case of both the sets of twins, what counted were not human qualifications, not human righteousness, or human efforts, or human custom or standards. What counts was God’s blessing & God’s providential choosing.
This story tells me that God doesn’t avoid sinners but rather by His grace He saves them, changes them & uses them. Truly,
Those who sat in darkness have seen a great light.
At first blush, this story doesn’t seem like it should be in Holy Scripture; a tradition that requires a widow to try to conceive a son with her dead husbands relatives; a man so greedy he would destroy the reputation of his brothers widow in order to take the inheritance that would go to her children; a woman who dresses as a prostitute to attract her father-in-law who doesn’t recognize her, but when he finds out his widowed daughter-in-law is pregnant he has her brought from the neighboring town so he can burn her to death for adultery.
Then as the story ends the woman pulls the evidence out that her father-in-law is the father of her children, her life is saved & she is proclaimed the most righteous one in the whole bunch. This seems more appropriate for HBO than for the Bible.
Why would this story be told at all & why should Matthew's genealogy include this motley crew? The answer to this question is part of Matthew’s root understanding of who Jesus is, and how God can work through those the world would consider unrighteous, or at least at the very bottom of the religious pecking order.
Another thing it shows us is that our race is depraved. If God can use the people in this story He can certainly use & bless our families no matter how messed up they may be.
Selfish behavior is destined to bring trouble & what looks like successful strategies in the eyes of man are not always successful. You & I apart from Christ are nothing & He’s certainly not depending on us to produce our own salvation.
You and I know the nature of God is such that He cannot & will not accept anything unholy. Tamar’s behavior is no more to be emulated than Abraham who was willing to cut his son apart with a knife. We generally won’t be called to go to distant lands like Ruth & Abraham or leave our families behind like Peter, James & John.
We don’t have to endure the hardships like the people did in the early development of the Kingdom. We don’t have to shed the blood of animals or be circumcised or baptized over & over. Christ has changed things & destroyed many barriers. Praise His Name!
If God could work miraculously as He did in Genesis 38 before the New Covenant & before His Son came to be the sacrifice for sin, think what He can do for us today, in the light of the finished work of Christ on the cross?
All we have to do is;
-lay aside every weight & the sin that doth so easily entrap us & run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author & finisher of our faith
Blessings,
John
Have you ever been into a jewelry store & watched the way they display the beautiful diamonds?
When the customers come in to see the rings or precious stones, they pull out a cloth of black velvet & move it under the bright light. The diamond sparkles & shines & arrests the heart of the potential buyer.
Why don’t they use a cloth of multi-colored background? ---Contrast! It’s a stark contrast for people to see the beauty of the diamond against the black background.
The Bible contains some stories that are so terrible they boggle the mind. Remember the one about Lot & his two daughters? They both got pregnant by him. Remember Dinah the sister of Judah? Remember Rahab the prostitute?
Then there’s the adultery between David & Bathsheba. What about the prophet Hosea who was commanded by God to marry a practicing prostitute? What about the murder of the little boys in Bethlehem?
If there was one chapter in the Bible I’d have removed if it were up to me [If I looked at it strictly from the human standpoint] it would be Genesis 38,-- because it’s so exceedingly dark. But the reason this black chapter is there is so that we can see God’s love & grace contrasted against the blackness.
Chapter 38 of Genesis pops out at you almost like one of those pop-up books for children, interrupting the interesting flow of the story of Joseph.
Here’s a good rule of the thumb in Bible study; if you find something that seems to be out of context or out of sync with what you’re reading, stop & look carefully for God is trying hard to get a message through.
The story of Judah & Tamar in Genesis 38 is so ugly that teachers & preachers seldom address it.
Judah, one of Jacob’s twelve sons is supposed by divine fiat to have offspring because God had promised it would happen. His kids were supposed to have kids of their own & this was supposed to happen until at last Jesus was born.
But Judah doesn’t believe this & he wanders off to do his own thing. He has no faith in all the prophecies so he goes down to Adullam & takes a pagan wife from the unbelieving Canaanites, themselves folk who don’t have any regard for the prophecies of the coming Christ.
Notice, they had people who doubted the coming Messiah just as we have people who doubt He ever came.
Judah knew better. He was in possession of the facts; he’d been raised as a member of God’s covenant & was one of God’s special people. He knew he was unequally yoked just like people in our day go right on & yoke up with unbelievers & expect good results. 2 Cor.6:14.
Judah & his wife have three sons, & they are like him, they don’t believe the promise of the coming Messiah either. All these people doubt Jesus will someday come. Does that kind of hard-headedness sound familiar?
Now, God kills Judah’s first son before he has any kids. The second son is a non-believer & wants no children so God kills him. Now this man Judah has only one son left. Judah by now is scared, wouldn’t you be? He has only one son to even try to have children & he’s afraid God will kill his last son too. [I'm trying to be polite but these men are killed because they are intentionally rebelling against God, in having sex only for pleasure & not allowing their seed to be used to produce an offspring.]
A woman named Tamar enters center stage. She was Judah’s daughter-in-law who was married to Judah’s first two son’s who died. Judah had promised her his third & only other son Shelah but he had no intention of keeping that promise.
In Matthew 5:37, the Bible says, ---- let your yes be yes & your no be no. anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
There was a custom in those days that if a man died & left no children, his brother should take the widow in & father her kids in his brother’s name so his name would not die out.
Now Judah’s wife dies. So, nobodies having any children. But how is Jesus supposed to get here if He’s coming through this lineage &, pardon my countrified speech; “they aint having no babies?”
Well, Tamar decides to fix all of this mess. Boy did she fix it? She finds out that Judah is going to Timnah to sheer sheep & disguises herself as a temple prostitute. Judah, somehow justifying it in his mind, doesn’t recognize her behind the dark veil & hires her for her services. These aren’t very nice boys & girls. Here we see a major step down for Judah as he descends into wickedness. He knew better than to sleep with a prostitute.
But Tamar bargains with Judah & asks him for a pledge, or shall we say, a deposit? They finally settle on it & Judah gives her a signet cord & a staff. A signet cord in those days was a sign of identification & a staff was a symbol of authority over his family & servants. Can you believe this; Judah is handing over his identification & authority to this “strange woman?” He’s giving up his Social Security number & his American Express credit card, voluntarily forfeiting that for this pleasure.
Don’t think too deeply about this, just think of some of the crazy things you’ve known men to do just for a few moments in the arms of some strange woman. It’s a good thing that women seem to be more forgiving than men.
Through Judah’s lack of faith he’s condemned his family but now he’s giving everything up to have what he thinks is a meaningless one night stand that can’t, as far as he knows produce a seed.
Judah finds out he’s been tricked by his daughter-in-law & decides to get his two identity symbols back & sends an offer of a goat to Tamar. What a mess!
Time goes by & now Judah is told that Tamar is pregnant, [shades of David & Bathsheba.] Judah decides that for Tamar’s deception she’s to be burned to death, him being so holy & all. Talk about a double standard. He doesn’t know she’s carrying the promised seed. The seed is now in jeopardy.
Judah has sinned by whoring around, he’s sinned by being against the promises of God, he’s sinned by marrying a Canaanite woman in the first place, this hypocrite will now sin by standing in judgment against Tamar, & having her burned to death. At this point, Judah isn’t exactly a lover of the truth. As a matter of fact he’s perfectly willing to settle for quick judgment rather than to take the time for truth & justice.
But wait, on the way to the fire Tamar produces Judah’s signet cord & staff & asks, “Whose are they?” Now comes the turning point for Judah. I wonder if he turned white or red in the face when he saw this. He recognizes the proof she has, acknowledges them & makes the famous statement, “This woman is more righteousness than I.”
Truer words were never spoken. It seems that right here Judah was converted. He’s clearheaded enough to see he’s in no position to judge Tamar because he was a greater sinner in not keeping his word to give her his son Shelah to try to produce a seed.
When people hear the truth, it often makes them angry & contentious. They want to argue rather than say, "It's me O Lord." But Judah came clean here & we can see the basic good stuff that was in him.
There can be no doubt that the Judah we met at the first of this story isn’t the same Judah we meet at the last. He started out wicked, hypocritical, self-righteous & untrustworthy & ended up humble, loving, caring & trustworthy.
So Tamar gives birth to Judah’s babies & has twins. The names of the kids will be Zerah & Perez. When the time comes, one of the twins sticks a hand out first, & this catches the mid-wife’s attention. She ties a scarlet thread around the hand & says “this one came out first.” What she is securing are the rights of the firstborn for the child.
But the other child comes out first. What’s happening is; God is interjecting Himself here & choosing the child not chosen by man. According to the midwife, Zerah is the firstborn but according to God He can do what He wants to so He chooses Perez.
This child Perez will be in the direct lineage of none other than Jesus Christ. Once again God does it His way & turns people’s plans on their heads. Doesn’t this cause you to marvel at the gracious providence of our God?
How does this story make you feel; Revolted, disgusted, shocked, horrified, embarrassed, or dismayed? Is there a messier story in the entire Bible? Yet out of all this messiness God brings the righteous Christ. God’s plans aren’t thwarted & His purposes are sure.
Yes, there has to be willingness on our part but God many times in spite of our best efforts to frustrate His plans produces great victories.
We can now see the reason God interrupted the story of Joseph; like a television channel interrupting a program to bring us an important message, God wants to show us how the linage of Jesus went from Judah to Christ. It’s plain to see that Jesus didn’t have an ancestry of noble men.
God also wants to show us the ugliness of sin & the self-delusion of sinners & how easy it is for the worst of us to pretend we are better than the best of us.
Like Judah, we see many messed up family situations today don’t we? We see divorce, remarriage, incest, physical, mental & emotional abuse, adultery, broken promises, homosexuality, pre-martial sex, & single parent homes.
It’s easy for us, like Judah, to set in judgment on all this wickedness & condemn them with gusto when some of us have done just as bad as those we condemn. Like Judah, we need to be humbled at times & see ourselves as God sees us. We might even end up saying, even of someone whose behavior we despise, “She/he is more righteous than I.”
Tamar is also a story of grace, God’s grace. God used Tamar to humble Judah & after that he started to change.
Consider this; Judah was one of the leaders in selling his brother Joseph into slavery & not killing him. Gen.37:27. And remember what Judah did years later when a cup was found in Benjamin’s sack of grain. Judah offered himself as a hostage & slave in the place of his brother. Do you see the change that took place in Judah’s life? He was changed from a very bad man to a man willing to serve & love others & it was God’s grace that brought about that change.
If God’s grace can change a man like Judah, then His grace can change the life of people we’re praying for too—no matter how great their sin & misery may be. So in actuality, this is a story of hope & comfort is it not? It’s the story of what God can do & does do in the lives of broken people.
This story is also about how God providentially preserved the family tree of Jesus. The twin boys given to Tamar were named Perez & Zerah. When you read the first few verses of Matthew, you see the names of Judah, Tamar & Perez as part of the family tree that starts with Abraham, goes to David & ends with Jesus.
Yes, Judah & Tamar & Perez are part of the family tree of Jesus. They are listed among those whom God has chosen, whom God has elected to be His special people. They aren’t exactly the kind of relatives we’d tell others about but the Bible includes them in the family tree of Jesus.
When father Jacob was on his deathbed, he called all of his sons to him, one by one. God inspired him to give a special prophecy & blessing to Judah. Judah may have lived a portion of his life as an alley-cat but Jacob called him a lion. Jacob said that Judah’s & Tamar’s line would be a royal line that would eventually give birth to the Ruler of all nations.[Genesis 49:10] This prophesy was realized in Jesus Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah.[Rev.5:5]
It’s also awesome to note that of the twelve gates of the celestial city of heaven, God has a gate named Judah.
So now almost unthinkable things become a wondrous story of divine irony & God’s providence by which He preserves the linage of the Christ Himself. We can see what God can do with messed up, mixed up families like Judah’s & Tamar’s to carry out His great & eternal purposes in Christ.
Take note that Perez & Zerah were twins who struggled in the womb just like their grandfather Jacob & Esau struggled. You will probably also remember that the birthright in that case didn’t go to Esau, the older brother ; instead contrary to human custom it went to Jacob the younger brother.
In the case of both the sets of twins, what counted were not human qualifications, not human righteousness, or human efforts, or human custom or standards. What counts was God’s blessing & God’s providential choosing.
This story tells me that God doesn’t avoid sinners but rather by His grace He saves them, changes them & uses them. Truly,
Those who sat in darkness have seen a great light.
At first blush, this story doesn’t seem like it should be in Holy Scripture; a tradition that requires a widow to try to conceive a son with her dead husbands relatives; a man so greedy he would destroy the reputation of his brothers widow in order to take the inheritance that would go to her children; a woman who dresses as a prostitute to attract her father-in-law who doesn’t recognize her, but when he finds out his widowed daughter-in-law is pregnant he has her brought from the neighboring town so he can burn her to death for adultery.
Then as the story ends the woman pulls the evidence out that her father-in-law is the father of her children, her life is saved & she is proclaimed the most righteous one in the whole bunch. This seems more appropriate for HBO than for the Bible.
Why would this story be told at all & why should Matthew's genealogy include this motley crew? The answer to this question is part of Matthew’s root understanding of who Jesus is, and how God can work through those the world would consider unrighteous, or at least at the very bottom of the religious pecking order.
Another thing it shows us is that our race is depraved. If God can use the people in this story He can certainly use & bless our families no matter how messed up they may be.
Selfish behavior is destined to bring trouble & what looks like successful strategies in the eyes of man are not always successful. You & I apart from Christ are nothing & He’s certainly not depending on us to produce our own salvation.
You and I know the nature of God is such that He cannot & will not accept anything unholy. Tamar’s behavior is no more to be emulated than Abraham who was willing to cut his son apart with a knife. We generally won’t be called to go to distant lands like Ruth & Abraham or leave our families behind like Peter, James & John.
We don’t have to endure the hardships like the people did in the early development of the Kingdom. We don’t have to shed the blood of animals or be circumcised or baptized over & over. Christ has changed things & destroyed many barriers. Praise His Name!
If God could work miraculously as He did in Genesis 38 before the New Covenant & before His Son came to be the sacrifice for sin, think what He can do for us today, in the light of the finished work of Christ on the cross?
All we have to do is;
-lay aside every weight & the sin that doth so easily entrap us & run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author & finisher of our faith
Blessings,
John
Monday, March 6, 2017
The Night The Lights Went Out
Bu John Stallings
You know the story. It’s the story in Matthew 25:1-13, of a nighttime wedding where everything seems to go wrong. The facts are very straightforward. Ten young virgins wait for a wedding banquet. The groom will come by & they will run out to join the party as it continues to the wedding feast.
But the groom shows up late & it gets dark. The young girls are sleepy & soon nod off by the side of the road. Five of the girls refill their lamps before they fall asleep, so they’ll we ready to join the wedding party as it comes through the street. But the other five let the oil in their lamps run out.
At midnight the groom comes by. The five who’re prepared simply light their lamps & run out to meet him. The five who’re not prepared ask the first five girls to share their oil but they say, “No, if we loan you our oil, there won’t be enough for our own lamps.”
Imagine the shock that overtook the foolish virgins when they discovered their lamps had flickered out. Sleepy eyes, unkempt hair, ruffled dresses, all these things paled into insignificance when compared to the tragedy of their lights going out.
The five foolish virgins run out to buy oil & arrive late to the feast. As the story concludes the rejected bridesmaids are standing outside the door asking for admission but to no avail. They are banned from the celebration. “The door was shut.”
This is one of the most solemn parables that the Lord Jesus ever told; partly because of the time at which it was spoken & partly because of the important implications for the Christian. The story was told but a few days before our Lord’s death & was spoken within view of Gethsemane, Calvary, the cross & the grave. Not only is there a wooing call of devotion to God, this parable contains a strong prophetic significance, & stands as a beacon to the Church in all ages. It warns against carelessness, slothfulness, apathy & indifference. It cries to sinners, “Awake” & it cries to saints, “Watch.” The overriding message of the story is that when Jesus returns to the earth, some will be ready & others won’t.
THE TEN VIRGINS WERE SIMILAR IN MANY WAYS
All had been invited to the banquet & all had responded positively.
All ten had gone out to wait for the bridegroom.
All of them had their lamps with them.
All the virgins wanted to see the bridegroom.
All were in the right place at the right time for the right reason.
All of them wanted to go to the wedding banquet.
All had some oil in their lamps in the beginning.
All fell asleep while waiting for the bridegroom.
All were awakened by the midnight cry.
All ten virgins got up to prepare their lamps.
All appeared to be equally prepared for the bridegroom’s coming.
If these ten girls had stood in front of us, we couldn’t have seen any difference between the wise ones & the foolish ones. One might have been chewing gum & a few might have looked bored but to the untrained eye, they would all look the same.
Before you feel sorry for the five foolish virgins, please consider this; they knew as much as the wise virgins knew about the coming celebration. It wasn’t a lack of information or wrong information that caused them to miss the celebration. The foolish virgins had everything they needed to know & still they weren’t ready.
As the night wore on, all the virgins came close to burn-out. There was nothing wrong with that. It was a common experience. If the bridegroom had come on time, there would have been no problem but he delayed his coming. However, due to the lateness of the hour, having an extra supply would be crucial. The wise virgins carried an extra supply of oil but the foolish virgins didn’t.
Note that the oil the wise virgins carried in their lamps was no greater than the oil the foolish virgins carried in their lamps. Obviously, the extra resource, the extra supply of oil was separate from the oil they had in their lamps. All ten of them were seeing their lamps beginning to burn out as the midnight hour approached. The oil the wise virgins had wasn’t already poured inside their lamps; it was separate from & subsequent to the residual oil.
We know that God is trying to tell us something here but what is it? He’s telling us that one thing separates the wise girls from the foolish girls. Whatever could it be?
OIL, A SYMBOL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
In scripture, oil is symbolic of The Holy Spirit. This being true, the extra oil could only represent the Divine Paraclete, The Comforter/ Strengthener, our Eternal Supply, even the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This issue of the extra provision that’s beyond ourselves is hugely important. I believe this is God in His loving way giving us a warning, a call to spiritual preparation.
Lately I’ve been quickened in my spirit that time is running out. I’m sure many of you feel the same. Heaven is going into her last hour operations. The prophetic clock on the mantel of the ages is trembling toward the midnight hour & many Christians are asleep.
Political winds are blowing in our beloved country in a direction they’ve never blown & if we slumber through the next weeks & months in America, we could very well see the subtle undoing of all our forefathers laid down their lives for.
Biblical Christians know there is certainly darkness up ahead & understand that God is desiring to get His people ready for that journey through darkness that comes at the end of this age. If this parable is a prophecy & I believe it is, the answer is all too apparent. Through this parable God is giving us a “heads-up.” The question is will we take the warning to heart, seek the face of God & make the needful preparation?
RUINING LOW ON OIL—RISKING BURNOUT
All the ten virgins were in the same condition to a point. They had all come to a moment of crisis & all were running out of oil. Spiritual attentiveness seems to be a critical issue here. What was really the difference in the wise girls & the foolish girls in this story? The wise ones had made deliberate plans & preparations for the coming night. They weren’t trusting in just the oil they had in their lamps, they came with extra oil.
They made it a priority to have spiritual reserves outside themselves. It was “midnight oil.” With this extra oil the virgins were ready for the midnight drama that was to come. When the hour of burnout came they could recharge their lamps with fresh oil. The foolish virgins weren’t prepared for any midnight emergency. They couldn’t continue after midnight. The lights went out for them.
OUR HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM HAS PROMISED US EXTRA OIL.
Jesus promised his followers He wouldn’t leave them desperate & alone but would send more power on the Day of Pentecost.
Listen to John 14:16,--And I will pray the Father & He shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.
He kept His promise 50 days after His resurrection when the Holy Spirit walked a dusty stairway & fell on the 120 faithful who’d waited in an upper room for the promise to be fulfilled.
Jesus spoke of His Holy Spirit as a light. He said;
When he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come. John 16:13.
I’ve said it many times but it’s strange to me that some folk believe the days of miracles along with the out poured Holy Spirit are past & the gifts given to the Apostles have all been revoked. However the gifts were never called- the gifts of the Apostles, -but rather “the gifts of the Spirit.” Surely the Spirit hasn’t passed away.
THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST HAUNTING PARABLE CHRIST TOLD.
There were ten girls who were going into this dark night & all of them had lights that were burning brightly but they were in for a long night. At the stroke of midnight things would change & become very different & very difficult. A long dark night will take them completely out of their comfort zone. It will be a journey of wonder & it will take them well beyond their present structures they’ve come to rely on.
SOME FOLK MOCKINGLY CALL RAPTURE BELIEVERS “FLY-AWAY CHRISTIANS.”
I believe the Word of God makes it crystal clear that Christ Himself will leap from the battlements of the sky with a shout to take the waiting saints to be with Him forever. I believe according to His Word that the trumpet sound will topple tomb-stones, graves will open & the sainted dead will rise first. Then millions of Christians will be missing.
I personally don’t believe Christians will go through the Great Tribulation but we’ll definitely go through a tribulation & it’s already begun.
Somehow a word of wisdom came to the wise virgins & they paid attention to it & made sure they were prepared. Are we prepared for our journey through darkness just ahead? They set their face toward the Coming One & made sure they had all that was available to them. They dressed themselves in the garments of praise & righteousness. They were prepared to go bravely into this epic night. They will meet the Bridegroom at his coming & be given glorified bodies & come into their spiritual consummation at the marriage Supper of the lamb.
Are you & I allowing our five senses to dictate reality to us? Are we just ignoring the realities of the times we’re living in? Are we even stopping to consider the fact that we’re also going to be called to face unfamiliar events just ahead of us? This parable teaches us that we, the Bride of Christ are also going to face a time of real darkness as we approach the foothills of the Great Tribulation. Are we going to be prepared for it, or have we as Westernized Christians become so narcissistic & self-absorbed that we’ve allowed the comforts of the flesh to lull us into complacency?
Some people get confused when we speak of a great falling away in the last days, because we simultaneously speak of a great end-time revival. There will be both. We’re presently experiencing a falling away but we’re also seeing a great worldwide revival. All the Old Testament prophets saw this latter-day outpouring of God’s Spirit.
CAN YOU SEE THE DIVINE ROMANCE IN THIS PARABLE?
God has a people, a bride who in these last days are preparing themselves to rise & shine for the bridegroom in the face of the utter darkness that’s settling upon this world. God has a remnant that “gets the message.” They can discern the spiritual skies. They have the revelation that we’re going to have to walk almost all the way into the coming Apocalypse, but they have no fear of it. Their lamps are fueled with a personal supply of oil as well as the external yet also personal supply of oil. Their lamps don’t waver even in the valley of the shadow of death. They are prepared to go out into the midnight darkness & go beyond.
Friend, what will you do when things turn black in this world? Will that be-“The night the lights go out” for you? Do you have that extra reserve of unction, power, brightness of spirit & good cheer to go on? Do we have that extra jar of oil to refill our failing lamps?
THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF “BORROWED POWER”
A striking aspect of this story is the refusal of the wise virgins to loan oil to the foolish virgins. This might seem selfish on their part but to loan out their oil would mean that no one would have oil. The more overarching point is; no one can borrow another person’s faith. We can’t borrow faith from our parents.
We can’t borrow faith from the Bible College we attended.
We can’t go to heaven by holding to someone else’s coattails.
We must believe on Jesus on our own, not relying on the faith of someone around us.
At some point in our future the midnight cry will be heard. The comforts we’ve become so accustomed to will fall away. Forces will begin to press in on us & we’ll start to stir & awake from our dreamy state. The “dark night of the soul” will finally have come. If we think looking up for our heavenly bridegroom is being too “heavenly minded” we won’t think that much longer. It will be a time to “rise & shine” for God’s covenant people. The time Isaiah saw will have finally arrived;
Arise, shine for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Isa.60:1-5
OIL SIGNIFIES A PLACE OF CRUSHING
Oil is obtained by the crushing of olives. There is an aspect of crushing when it comes to Christians who want to walk in an anointing, especially in these last days.
I’ve been in ministry for more than half a century but I can tell you that I’ve never seen a time when God’s people are experiencing more oppression than at the present moment. There’s a price to be paid to walk in the anointing.
Having been to the Holy Land several times I realize that right across from Jerusalem’s eastern gate is the Mount of Olives. This is the grand entrance into the Holy City, the entrance Jesus took at His first coming. It will also be where He comes in at His second coming when His feet touch the Mount of Olives & the whole mountain cleaves in two. Not far away is the place called Gethsemane, which means “oil press.” Here is where oil is pressed out.
This is the place where Jesus was handed the cup of suffering. This is the place where He knelt down & prayed, sweating as it were drops of blood. It was here that “The anointed one” faced the powers of darkness in His dark night & faced the prospect of the cross & for the first time being cut of from His father. There at the “oil press” Jesus defeated the powers of darkness so that you & I will never have to see defeat.
The wise virgins knew this place for it was here that they found the oil & purchased it with the surrender of their own self-life to God.
The virgins get up as they hear the midnight cry. Their lamps are about to go out. The five wise girls proceed to fill their lamps with the extra oil.
The Bible is replete with cases of people slumbering. The disciples slumbered in the garden on the night of Jesus’ betrayal. Like the disciples the ten virgins also slumber as their lamps burned low.
At midnight all the virgins awaken. They have all heard the shout of the Bridegroom. The wise virgins fill their lamps & they are burning bright to light their way as they head out into the darkness. The hour has come.
MIDNIGHT IS BOTH AN AGONIZING & ECSTATIC MOMENT IN TIME.
It was at midnight when Samson awakens from slumber & finds himself in the bonds of Delilah’s seduction & betrayal.
It was at midnight when Boaz discovers the maiden Ruth lying at his feet. As he slept on the floor she had nestled herself there seeking covering.
It was at midnight when Jesus was betrayed & sent up before Caiaphas.
It was at midnight that Paul & Silas are praising God in prison. They weren’t low on oil were they? Their praises went through the prison roof & skipped out through the Milky Way & didn’t stop until they reached heaven & then came back down to earth in the form of an earthquake, shaking open the doors & locks of the prison & causing the jailer, now under a death sentence to ask, “What must I do to be saved?.
The ten virgins are now awaking from sleep. The midnight drama is starting to unfold. The shout of the Bridegroom has been heard off in the distance. The Bridegroom is coming. The ten virgins are up. Their lamps are burning low & about to go out. But the wise virgins are prepared for this. Excitedly they pour oil from their vessels to fill their lamps.
But for the foolish virgins the story is different. In the light of their dim & failing lamps the awful truth hits them. They have no oil to re-fill their lamps. They must remain behind to find the oil. But the hour is late; too late in fact. This is an awful situation. They have heard the midnight cry. They know the he is near, yet they’re unable to go out to meet Him.
Think of these solemn words in the story; And the door was shut.
The foolish virgins went out to buy oil, but by the time they returned the door was shut. Today the door of salvation is open but at death it closes & when Christ comes back to earth the door will close. What will you do then?
Some folk act like they’re going to live forever. Did you know that three people who survived the World Trade Center attack on September 11-01 died in the plane crash in Queens New York a short time later? James tells us that our lives are like a vapor that appears for a time then vanishes away. [James 4:13-17]
One thing that strikes me in this story is that the five foolish virgins are never called rank sinners, if they were we could understand their being shut out of the banquet. They truly wanted to see the bridegroom & that's part of the tragedy. Seemingly these women did nothing--& that was their real problem. If you & I miss heaven we can't blame our parents or friends -or ex-husband -or ex-wife.
If you miss heaven & wonder why, look in the mirror & you'll have your answer.
Today the door of salvation is open wide. Someday it will be shut forever. Make sure you’re on the right side of that door when that day comes.
The time for preparation is now.
The time for the procuring of extra oil is now.
Let us seek the oil of the fullness of His Spirit now.
Let us trim our lamps for the coming night.
Every Blessing,
John
You know the story. It’s the story in Matthew 25:1-13, of a nighttime wedding where everything seems to go wrong. The facts are very straightforward. Ten young virgins wait for a wedding banquet. The groom will come by & they will run out to join the party as it continues to the wedding feast.
But the groom shows up late & it gets dark. The young girls are sleepy & soon nod off by the side of the road. Five of the girls refill their lamps before they fall asleep, so they’ll we ready to join the wedding party as it comes through the street. But the other five let the oil in their lamps run out.
At midnight the groom comes by. The five who’re prepared simply light their lamps & run out to meet him. The five who’re not prepared ask the first five girls to share their oil but they say, “No, if we loan you our oil, there won’t be enough for our own lamps.”
Imagine the shock that overtook the foolish virgins when they discovered their lamps had flickered out. Sleepy eyes, unkempt hair, ruffled dresses, all these things paled into insignificance when compared to the tragedy of their lights going out.
The five foolish virgins run out to buy oil & arrive late to the feast. As the story concludes the rejected bridesmaids are standing outside the door asking for admission but to no avail. They are banned from the celebration. “The door was shut.”
This is one of the most solemn parables that the Lord Jesus ever told; partly because of the time at which it was spoken & partly because of the important implications for the Christian. The story was told but a few days before our Lord’s death & was spoken within view of Gethsemane, Calvary, the cross & the grave. Not only is there a wooing call of devotion to God, this parable contains a strong prophetic significance, & stands as a beacon to the Church in all ages. It warns against carelessness, slothfulness, apathy & indifference. It cries to sinners, “Awake” & it cries to saints, “Watch.” The overriding message of the story is that when Jesus returns to the earth, some will be ready & others won’t.
THE TEN VIRGINS WERE SIMILAR IN MANY WAYS
All had been invited to the banquet & all had responded positively.
All ten had gone out to wait for the bridegroom.
All of them had their lamps with them.
All the virgins wanted to see the bridegroom.
All were in the right place at the right time for the right reason.
All of them wanted to go to the wedding banquet.
All had some oil in their lamps in the beginning.
All fell asleep while waiting for the bridegroom.
All were awakened by the midnight cry.
All ten virgins got up to prepare their lamps.
All appeared to be equally prepared for the bridegroom’s coming.
If these ten girls had stood in front of us, we couldn’t have seen any difference between the wise ones & the foolish ones. One might have been chewing gum & a few might have looked bored but to the untrained eye, they would all look the same.
Before you feel sorry for the five foolish virgins, please consider this; they knew as much as the wise virgins knew about the coming celebration. It wasn’t a lack of information or wrong information that caused them to miss the celebration. The foolish virgins had everything they needed to know & still they weren’t ready.
As the night wore on, all the virgins came close to burn-out. There was nothing wrong with that. It was a common experience. If the bridegroom had come on time, there would have been no problem but he delayed his coming. However, due to the lateness of the hour, having an extra supply would be crucial. The wise virgins carried an extra supply of oil but the foolish virgins didn’t.
Note that the oil the wise virgins carried in their lamps was no greater than the oil the foolish virgins carried in their lamps. Obviously, the extra resource, the extra supply of oil was separate from the oil they had in their lamps. All ten of them were seeing their lamps beginning to burn out as the midnight hour approached. The oil the wise virgins had wasn’t already poured inside their lamps; it was separate from & subsequent to the residual oil.
We know that God is trying to tell us something here but what is it? He’s telling us that one thing separates the wise girls from the foolish girls. Whatever could it be?
OIL, A SYMBOL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
In scripture, oil is symbolic of The Holy Spirit. This being true, the extra oil could only represent the Divine Paraclete, The Comforter/ Strengthener, our Eternal Supply, even the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This issue of the extra provision that’s beyond ourselves is hugely important. I believe this is God in His loving way giving us a warning, a call to spiritual preparation.
Lately I’ve been quickened in my spirit that time is running out. I’m sure many of you feel the same. Heaven is going into her last hour operations. The prophetic clock on the mantel of the ages is trembling toward the midnight hour & many Christians are asleep.
Political winds are blowing in our beloved country in a direction they’ve never blown & if we slumber through the next weeks & months in America, we could very well see the subtle undoing of all our forefathers laid down their lives for.
Biblical Christians know there is certainly darkness up ahead & understand that God is desiring to get His people ready for that journey through darkness that comes at the end of this age. If this parable is a prophecy & I believe it is, the answer is all too apparent. Through this parable God is giving us a “heads-up.” The question is will we take the warning to heart, seek the face of God & make the needful preparation?
RUINING LOW ON OIL—RISKING BURNOUT
All the ten virgins were in the same condition to a point. They had all come to a moment of crisis & all were running out of oil. Spiritual attentiveness seems to be a critical issue here. What was really the difference in the wise girls & the foolish girls in this story? The wise ones had made deliberate plans & preparations for the coming night. They weren’t trusting in just the oil they had in their lamps, they came with extra oil.
They made it a priority to have spiritual reserves outside themselves. It was “midnight oil.” With this extra oil the virgins were ready for the midnight drama that was to come. When the hour of burnout came they could recharge their lamps with fresh oil. The foolish virgins weren’t prepared for any midnight emergency. They couldn’t continue after midnight. The lights went out for them.
OUR HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM HAS PROMISED US EXTRA OIL.
Jesus promised his followers He wouldn’t leave them desperate & alone but would send more power on the Day of Pentecost.
Listen to John 14:16,--And I will pray the Father & He shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.
He kept His promise 50 days after His resurrection when the Holy Spirit walked a dusty stairway & fell on the 120 faithful who’d waited in an upper room for the promise to be fulfilled.
Jesus spoke of His Holy Spirit as a light. He said;
When he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come. John 16:13.
I’ve said it many times but it’s strange to me that some folk believe the days of miracles along with the out poured Holy Spirit are past & the gifts given to the Apostles have all been revoked. However the gifts were never called- the gifts of the Apostles, -but rather “the gifts of the Spirit.” Surely the Spirit hasn’t passed away.
THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST HAUNTING PARABLE CHRIST TOLD.
There were ten girls who were going into this dark night & all of them had lights that were burning brightly but they were in for a long night. At the stroke of midnight things would change & become very different & very difficult. A long dark night will take them completely out of their comfort zone. It will be a journey of wonder & it will take them well beyond their present structures they’ve come to rely on.
SOME FOLK MOCKINGLY CALL RAPTURE BELIEVERS “FLY-AWAY CHRISTIANS.”
I believe the Word of God makes it crystal clear that Christ Himself will leap from the battlements of the sky with a shout to take the waiting saints to be with Him forever. I believe according to His Word that the trumpet sound will topple tomb-stones, graves will open & the sainted dead will rise first. Then millions of Christians will be missing.
I personally don’t believe Christians will go through the Great Tribulation but we’ll definitely go through a tribulation & it’s already begun.
Somehow a word of wisdom came to the wise virgins & they paid attention to it & made sure they were prepared. Are we prepared for our journey through darkness just ahead? They set their face toward the Coming One & made sure they had all that was available to them. They dressed themselves in the garments of praise & righteousness. They were prepared to go bravely into this epic night. They will meet the Bridegroom at his coming & be given glorified bodies & come into their spiritual consummation at the marriage Supper of the lamb.
Are you & I allowing our five senses to dictate reality to us? Are we just ignoring the realities of the times we’re living in? Are we even stopping to consider the fact that we’re also going to be called to face unfamiliar events just ahead of us? This parable teaches us that we, the Bride of Christ are also going to face a time of real darkness as we approach the foothills of the Great Tribulation. Are we going to be prepared for it, or have we as Westernized Christians become so narcissistic & self-absorbed that we’ve allowed the comforts of the flesh to lull us into complacency?
Some people get confused when we speak of a great falling away in the last days, because we simultaneously speak of a great end-time revival. There will be both. We’re presently experiencing a falling away but we’re also seeing a great worldwide revival. All the Old Testament prophets saw this latter-day outpouring of God’s Spirit.
CAN YOU SEE THE DIVINE ROMANCE IN THIS PARABLE?
God has a people, a bride who in these last days are preparing themselves to rise & shine for the bridegroom in the face of the utter darkness that’s settling upon this world. God has a remnant that “gets the message.” They can discern the spiritual skies. They have the revelation that we’re going to have to walk almost all the way into the coming Apocalypse, but they have no fear of it. Their lamps are fueled with a personal supply of oil as well as the external yet also personal supply of oil. Their lamps don’t waver even in the valley of the shadow of death. They are prepared to go out into the midnight darkness & go beyond.
Friend, what will you do when things turn black in this world? Will that be-“The night the lights go out” for you? Do you have that extra reserve of unction, power, brightness of spirit & good cheer to go on? Do we have that extra jar of oil to refill our failing lamps?
THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF “BORROWED POWER”
A striking aspect of this story is the refusal of the wise virgins to loan oil to the foolish virgins. This might seem selfish on their part but to loan out their oil would mean that no one would have oil. The more overarching point is; no one can borrow another person’s faith. We can’t borrow faith from our parents.
We can’t borrow faith from the Bible College we attended.
We can’t go to heaven by holding to someone else’s coattails.
We must believe on Jesus on our own, not relying on the faith of someone around us.
At some point in our future the midnight cry will be heard. The comforts we’ve become so accustomed to will fall away. Forces will begin to press in on us & we’ll start to stir & awake from our dreamy state. The “dark night of the soul” will finally have come. If we think looking up for our heavenly bridegroom is being too “heavenly minded” we won’t think that much longer. It will be a time to “rise & shine” for God’s covenant people. The time Isaiah saw will have finally arrived;
Arise, shine for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Isa.60:1-5
OIL SIGNIFIES A PLACE OF CRUSHING
Oil is obtained by the crushing of olives. There is an aspect of crushing when it comes to Christians who want to walk in an anointing, especially in these last days.
I’ve been in ministry for more than half a century but I can tell you that I’ve never seen a time when God’s people are experiencing more oppression than at the present moment. There’s a price to be paid to walk in the anointing.
Having been to the Holy Land several times I realize that right across from Jerusalem’s eastern gate is the Mount of Olives. This is the grand entrance into the Holy City, the entrance Jesus took at His first coming. It will also be where He comes in at His second coming when His feet touch the Mount of Olives & the whole mountain cleaves in two. Not far away is the place called Gethsemane, which means “oil press.” Here is where oil is pressed out.
This is the place where Jesus was handed the cup of suffering. This is the place where He knelt down & prayed, sweating as it were drops of blood. It was here that “The anointed one” faced the powers of darkness in His dark night & faced the prospect of the cross & for the first time being cut of from His father. There at the “oil press” Jesus defeated the powers of darkness so that you & I will never have to see defeat.
The wise virgins knew this place for it was here that they found the oil & purchased it with the surrender of their own self-life to God.
The virgins get up as they hear the midnight cry. Their lamps are about to go out. The five wise girls proceed to fill their lamps with the extra oil.
The Bible is replete with cases of people slumbering. The disciples slumbered in the garden on the night of Jesus’ betrayal. Like the disciples the ten virgins also slumber as their lamps burned low.
At midnight all the virgins awaken. They have all heard the shout of the Bridegroom. The wise virgins fill their lamps & they are burning bright to light their way as they head out into the darkness. The hour has come.
MIDNIGHT IS BOTH AN AGONIZING & ECSTATIC MOMENT IN TIME.
It was at midnight when Samson awakens from slumber & finds himself in the bonds of Delilah’s seduction & betrayal.
It was at midnight when Boaz discovers the maiden Ruth lying at his feet. As he slept on the floor she had nestled herself there seeking covering.
It was at midnight when Jesus was betrayed & sent up before Caiaphas.
It was at midnight that Paul & Silas are praising God in prison. They weren’t low on oil were they? Their praises went through the prison roof & skipped out through the Milky Way & didn’t stop until they reached heaven & then came back down to earth in the form of an earthquake, shaking open the doors & locks of the prison & causing the jailer, now under a death sentence to ask, “What must I do to be saved?.
The ten virgins are now awaking from sleep. The midnight drama is starting to unfold. The shout of the Bridegroom has been heard off in the distance. The Bridegroom is coming. The ten virgins are up. Their lamps are burning low & about to go out. But the wise virgins are prepared for this. Excitedly they pour oil from their vessels to fill their lamps.
But for the foolish virgins the story is different. In the light of their dim & failing lamps the awful truth hits them. They have no oil to re-fill their lamps. They must remain behind to find the oil. But the hour is late; too late in fact. This is an awful situation. They have heard the midnight cry. They know the he is near, yet they’re unable to go out to meet Him.
Think of these solemn words in the story; And the door was shut.
The foolish virgins went out to buy oil, but by the time they returned the door was shut. Today the door of salvation is open but at death it closes & when Christ comes back to earth the door will close. What will you do then?
Some folk act like they’re going to live forever. Did you know that three people who survived the World Trade Center attack on September 11-01 died in the plane crash in Queens New York a short time later? James tells us that our lives are like a vapor that appears for a time then vanishes away. [James 4:13-17]
One thing that strikes me in this story is that the five foolish virgins are never called rank sinners, if they were we could understand their being shut out of the banquet. They truly wanted to see the bridegroom & that's part of the tragedy. Seemingly these women did nothing--& that was their real problem. If you & I miss heaven we can't blame our parents or friends -or ex-husband -or ex-wife.
If you miss heaven & wonder why, look in the mirror & you'll have your answer.
Today the door of salvation is open wide. Someday it will be shut forever. Make sure you’re on the right side of that door when that day comes.
The time for preparation is now.
The time for the procuring of extra oil is now.
Let us seek the oil of the fullness of His Spirit now.
Let us trim our lamps for the coming night.
Every Blessing,
John
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
What Really Sank The Titanic??
By John Stallings
Not that long ago we commemorated the one hundred year anniversary of the sinking of the luxury liner Titanic.
For generations the tragic story has captivated the hearts and minds of people from all walks of life. People of all ages - even the very young - are enthralled with the story.
For generations the tragic story has captivated the hearts and minds of people from all walks of life. People of all ages - even the very young - are enthralled with the story.
When I was in third grade, [I think] I got my hands on a book about the sinking of the Titanic in the school library. For some reason it made an imprint on me and to this day that mystique remains to haunt me. Why?
After over sixty years all I can tell you is this. If we were to put the Lion's share of all the super rich and super powerful of our day on one ship, and I mean all of them, and have them all sink into the ocean on one ship, maybe we could understand what gave this story such legs, one hundred years ago.
Moreover, interest in Titanic has grown stronger, fueled by the discovery of the wreck by explorer Bob Ballard in 1985, and culminating in the motion picture by James Cameron which set new records for box-office sales and earned a multitude of Academy Awards.There have been a great many myths and legends put forth as the cause of the disaster ever since that fateful night in 1912. Tales range from sabotage, to the evil curse of a mummy said to be on board. Balderdash!!
The loss of the Titanic left a shaken world in disbelief and made people stop and think. People are still thinking. I believe that God wants us to remember the object lessons the Titanic story provides. The lessons are still relevant to us today, and perhaps that’s why He made it possible for the wreck to be located in 1985 - to again remind us that these lessons are for our time.
The most obvious lesson is the sinfulness of human pride and arrogance...clearly present in almost every aspect of the story.
Titanic took nearly 12,000 men more than two years to construct. Built in
People wanted luxury, and to say that’s what they found in Titanic would be an understatement. Not only was Titanic the largest man-made moving object in the world, it was also the most luxurious ship the world had ever known. It was a floating palace loaded with fine amenities; a five-star hotel on the sea. Never before had anyone seen anything like it.
She was truly impressive, but Titanic’s owners failed to remember Psalm 127:1:
“Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”
Man has always endeavored to reach higher, to achieve things greater than ever before. Great achievements in themselves are not bad, but too often, they are done for the wrong reasons, specifically, to glorify man, rather than God.
DID PRIDE SINK THE TITANIC?
Throughout the Bible are accounts of proud men who refused to humble themselves and acknowledge God, who built monuments to themselves and their achievements, who trusted in their own abilities, possessions and self-efforts, rather than relying on God’s provision. All inevitably came to a tragic end. You’d think we humans would “get it” by now, but we don’t.
We read in 1 Peter 5:5, “...God gives special blessings to those who are humble, but sets Himself against those who are proud.” (Living Bible).
The Titanic was a symbol of everything man could achieve in her day and she was truly beautiful. But the society of the day forgot God, reveled in their own abilities, and even taunted God’s awesome power, taking His name in vain and boasting “God Himself could not sink this ship!”With all the latest innovations in ship-building technology, including 15 watertight doors, it was widely believed and accepted that this ship really was unsinkable.
As we all know, God Himself could sink the Titanic, but no big storm or major “act of God” was needed. Once again, the arrogance of man was adequate to facilitate his undoing.Passengers enjoyed a tranquil crossing on their way toNew York
Those aboard the Titanic booked passage in either first class, second class or third class (steerage) accommodations. First class passengers enjoyed the most luxurious surroundings, rivaling the most posh hotels in the world. First class suites even included their own private promenade decks, sitting rooms and lavatories.
It was said that the second class accommodations on Titanic were better than first class on all other ships of that time, and even steerage passengers had it better than ever.Titanic was brand new, shiny and strong. This was her maiden voyage and expectations were high for such a beautiful - and unsinkable - ship.
OnSunday, April 14, 1912 , Titanic was making excellent speed and most of the passengers spent the day indoors because the weather had turned suddenly cold.
As we all know, God Himself could sink the Titanic, but no big storm or major “act of God” was needed. Once again, the arrogance of man was adequate to facilitate his undoing.Passengers enjoyed a tranquil crossing on their way to
Those aboard the Titanic booked passage in either first class, second class or third class (steerage) accommodations. First class passengers enjoyed the most luxurious surroundings, rivaling the most posh hotels in the world. First class suites even included their own private promenade decks, sitting rooms and lavatories.
It was said that the second class accommodations on Titanic were better than first class on all other ships of that time, and even steerage passengers had it better than ever.Titanic was brand new, shiny and strong. This was her maiden voyage and expectations were high for such a beautiful - and unsinkable - ship.
On
Captain E.J. Smith held church services that morning, which would have been traditionally followed by a lifeboat drill for passengers and crew, but on this day, there was no drill...after all, the ship was unsinkable.
As for the lifeboats, Titanic’s owners were so convinced that the ship could never sink, that they only included lifeboats for less than half those on board, to make for a better looking, less crowded boat deck.
Iceberg warnings came in via wireless telegraph all day and evening but were generally ignored and Titanic pressed forward toward disaster.
Perhaps what makes the story of the Titanic so sad and heart-rending is that the people involved were really no different than we are today. We can easily identify with them. If we were on a ship that was said to be unsinkable, would we feel it necessary to hold a lifeboat drill, or would we call it off if it was too cold outside?
Would we heed iceberg warnings if we “knew” our ship was unsinkable, or continue on with the party we were enjoying? Wealth, comfort and luxury can make people complacent, lulled into a false sense of security. We can become so full of ourselves that we feel we are invincible. We can think all is well, when disaster is just around the corner.
But as we read in James , “How do you know what is going to happen tomorrow? For the length of your lives is as uncertain as the morning fog - now you see it, soon it is gone.” (Living Bible).
In much the same way the people of Noah’s day were warned, and in much the same way the people ofSodom Gomorrah
comfort and luxury, doing our own thing, forgetting God?
In 1 Thessalonians 5 it says, “When people are saying, ‘All is well, everything is quiet and peaceful,’ - then all of a sudden, disaster will fall upon them.”
Disaster struck the Titanic at ,April 14, 1912 , as she collided with the iceberg.For decades it was thought that the berg tore a 300 foot gash in the side of the ship. But when the wreck was discovered in 1985, it was found that only a few small holes had opened in the ship’s hull --- all told the damage was less than 12 square feet in size, less than the size of the average doorway in one’s home.
Even this discovery provides a lesson as to how just a few “small” sins in our lives - if not dealt with - can bring devastation and disaster. Regardless of how immaculate the “ship” of our lives may be, just one sin can sink us...
As for the lifeboats, Titanic’s owners were so convinced that the ship could never sink, that they only included lifeboats for less than half those on board, to make for a better looking, less crowded boat deck.
Iceberg warnings came in via wireless telegraph all day and evening but were generally ignored and Titanic pressed forward toward disaster.
Perhaps what makes the story of the Titanic so sad and heart-rending is that the people involved were really no different than we are today. We can easily identify with them. If we were on a ship that was said to be unsinkable, would we feel it necessary to hold a lifeboat drill, or would we call it off if it was too cold outside?
Would we heed iceberg warnings if we “knew” our ship was unsinkable, or continue on with the party we were enjoying? Wealth, comfort and luxury can make people complacent, lulled into a false sense of security. We can become so full of ourselves that we feel we are invincible. We can think all is well, when disaster is just around the corner.
But as we read in James , “How do you know what is going to happen tomorrow? For the length of your lives is as uncertain as the morning fog - now you see it, soon it is gone.” (Living Bible).
In much the same way the people of Noah’s day were warned, and in much the same way the people of
comfort and luxury, doing our own thing, forgetting God?
In 1 Thessalonians 5 it says, “When people are saying, ‘All is well, everything is quiet and peaceful,’ - then all of a sudden, disaster will fall upon them.”
Disaster struck the Titanic at ,
Even this discovery provides a lesson as to how just a few “small” sins in our lives - if not dealt with - can bring devastation and disaster. Regardless of how immaculate the “ship” of our lives may be, just one sin can sink us...
“For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10).
Just after , Captain Smith ordered the crew to ready the lifeboats. But passengers were reluctant to leave the comfort of the huge ship for a 70-foot drop down to the dark ocean in the tiny wooden boats. Sadly, even though there were only lifeboats enough for less than half those aboard, very few of the boats were loaded to their capacity.
The rule was “women and children first,” but many of the ladies refused to leave without their husbands, and had to be forcibly picked up and placed in the boats.
Families were torn apart, as women and children bid farewell to their husbands and fathers, who were not allowed into the lifeboats.
Many of the wealthy on board refused to leave without their valuables. Some went back to collect their belongings from their staterooms, and in so doing, lost their only chance at a lifeboat. They didn’t realize the danger, and preferred to remain with their “treasure” instead of saving their lives. Like the rich man in Matthew 19, they would not give up their money or
possessions.
But within an hour, the seriousness of the situation became apparent as the bow of the ship began to disappear beneath the surface of the water. But by this time, it was too late for most.Many of the third class passengers remained trapped below decks, separated from the rest of the ship by locked gates. By the time the majority of the third class passengers made it to the boat decks, most of the lifeboats had already been launched - again, most half-empty - as hundreds remained on the ship with no hope for survival.
As one of the last boats was being lowered away, J. Bruce Ismay, Chairman of the White Star Line and owner of Titanic stepped into a boat and saved himself.
Captain Smith went down with the ship - and more than 1,500 others among the passengers and crew.
There are hundreds of inspiring and heartbreaking stories that are told of Titanic’s last moments...the band that kept playing until the end, to help calm the passengers and avoid a panic. The wealthy Mrs. Isador Strauss, who chose to stay and die with her husband, rather than leave without him. The hundreds and hundreds who were left on board with all the lifeboats gone and no way to be rescued -- women, children and families alike.
One story that is often left out of the movies, and seldom told is that of John Harper, the newly called Pastor to Moody Church who was on his way to
Harper’s final moments were recounted by a survivor four years after the disaster. “I was drifting alone on a spar that night, when the tide brought Mr. Harper, also on a piece of wreck, near me. ‘Man,’ he said, ‘Are you saved?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I am not.’ He replied, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’ The waves bore him away, but strange to say, brought him back a little later, and he said, ‘Are you saved now?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I cannot honestly say that I am.’ He said again, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,’ and shortly after, he went down; and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert.”
He was also one of only six people to be picked up out of the water that night. 1,517 people died. Only 706 survived.
When the sun came up the next morning, the survivors in the lifeboats had their first look at the harsh reality -- hundreds of corpses, still wearing their life jackets, frozen to death or drowned in the icy waters of the
A great many awe-inspiring artifacts have been brought up from the site of the wreck...things that help to tell the story, and remind us of what happened that night. We’ve seen pieces of the ship, personal belongings, even letters, menus and tickets.
But can we grasp the real story here?
What can we learn from all this? We can learn to not trust in the wealth and things of this world...they are only temporary. Trusting in worldly possessions is futile. After all, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
We can learn that the consequences of pride and arrogance are always destruction, in one form or another.
“They trust in their wealth and boast about how rich they are, yet not one of them, though rich as kings, can ransom his own brother from the penalty of sin! For God’s forgiveness does not come that way. For a soul is far too precious to be ransomed by mere earthly wealth. There is not enough of it in all the earth to buy eternal life for just one soul, to keep it out of hell.” (Psalm 49:6-12, Living Bible).
As Christians, charged with the great commission, we’re the “Captains” here. For the sake of our “passengers” - those we’re called to disciple, we cannot skip the lifeboat drills. We need to actively teach people there is a lifeboat (Jesus Christ), and show them what the lifeboat can do for them (by teaching the Gospel). We must also reach out to the lost - those drowning in sin - and pull them into the boat (evangelism and education). Just as the Lord told Peter, “Feed My little sheep,” (John ).
We can’t skip the lifeboat drills - not only for the sake of those we’re disciplining, but also for our own benefit...we need to keep our skills in shape through constant Bible study and prayer. And if it’s too cold outside, or we’re too tired on Sunday morning, we can’t call off the lifeboat drill and stay home from church -- we need it!
Then we need to make sure the people remain in the lifeboat (discipleship).We also need to heed the iceberg warnings, and keep our ship on a safe course. We need to be sensitive to things that could bring harm to our ship, because our eternal lives, and those of our passengers are at stake.
Satan would have us believe we’re “unsinkable,” and that there’s no need for a lifeboat. This is one of his greatest lies... that there’s no rush, no sense of urgency. And that it’s much more safe and comfortable to stay aboard the ship of our own lives where we are in control. It’s not just inconvenient - it’s scary - to put yourself in someone else’s hands and be lowered into a lifeboat that doesn’t look at all comfortable - or safe. But it really depends on Whose hands you’re talking about, doesn’t it? Thankfully we're in the hands of God.
Praise God that He provided us with a way to be rescued...His Son, Jesus Christ!“But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through His name.” (John 20:31).
Even though we are hopelessly lost, with no way to save ourselves from eternal death, the Lord provided each and every one of us with a lifeboat. The ship is going down, no question...“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).
But like those on the Titanic, people are still reluctant to get into the lifeboat. They feel safer - and much more comfortable - where they are, but they don’t realize they’re on a sinking ship, and the lifeboat is the only way to be saved...it’s very simple: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life...” (John 3:36). There are two choices: Get in the boat and live, or don’t get in the boat and die. It’s not complicated.
There are enough seats in this lifeboat for all of us.
And the boat is open to all -- there are no third-class passengers trapped below decks...Christ unlocked the gates that lead to safety at the cross.
And this isn’t just for women and children! “For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).
The Lord isn’t willing that any should perish. Step into the boat!
Blessings,
John
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