Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!
They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance.
(Psalm 89:15)

WHEN THE TRUMPET OF GOD SOUNDS, IT IS A WONDERFUL THING TO BE AMONG THOSE WHO KNOW THAT SOUND AND UNDERSTAND JUST HOW JOYOUS IT IS. The Psalmist said, “Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!”

In Israel, the priestly trumpets were to be blown on several important occasions. One of these was the onset of war. Through Moses, God had said, “When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved from your enemies” (Numbers 10:9). In this instance, the joyful sound would be that of victory.

Also, the trumpets were to be blown at various times of sacrifice. “Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God” (Numbers 10:10). At these times, the people would rejoice to hear the sound of worship.

But there was another occasion also, and that was the Day of Jubilee, that great day every fifty years when slaves were released and debts were canceled. “Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants” (Leviticus 25:9,10). This trumpet-sounding might have been the most joyous of all. It was the welcome sound of freedom.

To those whose hearts are turned toward God today, there are no more joyous sounds than those that emanate from His throne: the sounds of victory, of worship, and of freedom! Do we have ears to hear? Do our hearts resonate to the sounds of God’s joy? The “people who know the joyful sound” are a fortunate folk.

The trumpet shall be heard on high,
The dead shall live, the living die,
And music shall untune the sky!
(John Dryden)

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, ‘Entreat the Lord that He may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the Lord’ . . . But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the Lord had said” (Exodus 8:8,15).

IT IS AN HONORABLE THING, AND OFTEN A VERY HELPFUL THING, TO BIND OURSELVES TO A COMMITMENT BY THE MAKING OF A PROMISE. Promises can have a steadying influence on our will. But often, we make promises under the influence of strong emotions, and we find that after the emotions have cooled, we are no longer willing to keep the promises we made. Surrounded by frogs, Pharaoh said, “I will let the people go.” But later, “when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them.”

In general, we should probably avoid making promises while we are under the influence of strong emotions. I say “in general” because there are certainly times when deep feelings can lead us to make good and worthy commitments. Passion is not a bad thing.

But here is what we need to consider: whether they are made under strong emotion or not, promises have to be kept. We are not later released from the obligations we bound ourselves to simply because “on further review” we see that they are inconvenient.

Solomon had some very wise instruction on the keeping of commitments: “Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes through much activity, and a fool’s voice is known by his many words. When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed. It is better not to vow than to vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:2-5).

Not long ago, I was on an airplane that flew through some of the worst turbulence I have ever experienced. The thought crossed my mind that we might actually crash, and I’m sure there were hasty promises being made to God all over the cabin: “Dear Lord, if you will just get me off this airplane alive, I will ________ for the rest of my life.” Most of those promises were probably forgotten by the time we got to baggage claim. But God has not forgotten.

“Vows made in storms are often forgotten in calms” (Anonymous).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer” (2 Corinthians 5:16).

SOMETIMES WE SAY, “THERE’S MORE TO THAT PERSON THAN MEETS THE EYE.” In reality, that is true of everybody we’ve ever met. We never see anything more than the tip of the iceberg in anyone’s life, and it is hazardous to form conclusions about their character if all we have is a first impression or a superficial acquaintance.

With people (and even with situations and circumstances), discovering the whole truth requires more digging than many of us are willing to do. First impressions may get us started down the road to understanding, but finding out what is really going on usually takes patience and fact-finding. It can be hard work.

In 2 Corinthians 5:16, Paul admits that his previous rejection of Jesus as the Messiah was the result of having judged Him “according to the flesh.” Eventually, however, Paul came to see that the truth about Jesus was something that could not be seen if all one did was look at outward, worldly appearances. So as we form our own opinions about Jesus, let’s think of two important principles.

(1) Sometimes we need to find out more of the facts before we draw a conclusion. Given the far-reaching implications of the question, it is amazing how many people reject Jesus while knowing very little of His life and teachings from the original sources. Whatever our ultimate decision turns out to be, surely that decision needs to be based on more than a few tidbits of information.

(2) But also, we need to be careful about the criteria we use to make our evaluation. Even when we have a lot of information about a person, our assessment of their character is determined by the value system we apply to them, and this is especially critical when it comes to Jesus. If Jesus truly was the Son of God, we would not expect that truth to be obvious to us if our “eyes” can only see the things that this world considers to be important.

So may we avoid judging Jesus “according to the flesh.” There is more to Him than meets the eye. May we appraise Him carefully — and appraise His inner character the most carefully of all.

“Jesus Christ always speaks from the source of things; consequently those who deal only with the surface find him an offense” (Oswald Chambers).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“The only shield to [a person’s] memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is imprudent to walk through life without this shield” (Winston Churchill).

WE MAY NOT OFTEN USE THE WORD “RECTITUDE,” BUT ITS MEANING IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, BOTH TO OUR INDIVIDUAL LIVES AND TO ORGANIZATIONS AND COMMUNITIES. The core meaning of rectitude is simply “rightness.” To rectify something is to straighten it out or make it right, and so rectitude is the condition or quality of being right. It means correctness or moral uprightness.

Isn’t being right something we ought to aim for? I believe it is, and by being right I don’t just mean being right in an intellectual argument; I mean being right morally — doing in every situation the thing that is right. Contrary to what many have been led to believe in our day, there is such a thing as right, and what is right basically comes down to doing what is just, as defined by the objective, immutable standards of justice that all people are subject to. Thomas Aquinas put it this way: “Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him.”

When we fail to do what is right, we damage the world we live in (usually more than we realize), but we also hurt ourselves. Without rectitude, we are severely wounded as human beings, as anyone knows who has ever lived for any length of time with a bad conscience. As Churchill observed, rectitude is a “shield” that we need to have. “It is imprudent to walk through life without this shield,” he said.

If we don’t have rectitude, we don’t have anything worth having. Without integrity, we are nothing. If we amassed all the wealth in the world but sacrificed the principles of right conduct in the process, our wealth would, in the long run, be nothing but cold comfort to us.

But finally, bear in mind that rectitude is the only way to have any good influence on those around us. What we are speaks much more loudly than what we say or do, and so let’s resolve to be people of integrity. People of justice. People who simply do what is right.

“The effective impact upon us of men of honor, rectitude, and goodwill is to arouse kindred impulses within us. We begin to detect in ourselves undeveloped capacities. The touch of the heroic awakens in us the slumbering hero” (Charles Malcolm Douglas).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? . . . To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him” (Deuteronomy 4:33-35).

WHEN GOD SPOKE TO ISRAEL ON MOUNT SINAI, SOMETHING HAPPENED THAT HAD NO NATURAL CAUSE. Assuming that what is recorded actually took place, the event was not triggered by any natural event that preceded it — it was the introduction of something “new” or “extra” into nature’s progression of cause and effect, something from outside that closed, deterministic system.

I suggest that the operations of our own reason are similar, not that they are divine communications, but that they cannot be explained as the result of natural causes producing natural effects. Many neuroscientists today, of course, dispute this; they argue that what we call human “reason” is nothing more than the brain at work as a physical organ. When science has learned more about the brain, they say, we will recognize that a person never has any thought that cannot be accounted for neurologically and biochemically. Every firing of every neuron is the result of something within nature. Nothing freely decided upon ever comes into the sequence — whatever happens, it was determined materialistically.

But think about this comment from Douglas Groothuis: “if materialism were true, we could never grant reasons for holding beliefs since all our brain states would be rigorously determined in a materialistically caused fashion. Thought would be reduced to a mere reflex action on the order of a muscle twinge. But can glorified muscle twinges weigh evidence and reach warranted conclusions?”

We ought not to minimize what is required if our reasoning is to be objectively valid. It must be the working of something personal — an independent force not chained to the sequence of physical cause and effect. And in the biblical account, that is exactly the case: we are dual creatures who straddle the physical and spiritual worlds. We have a brain, but we also have a mind — a reasoning faculty that reaches far beyond what the brain (which is its servant) can do.

“The validity of our reasoning depends upon the transcendence of reason itself. Reason must stand outside of nature in order for it to give us truth about nature. Our thinking, if we are to regard it as true or false, must be a shot from Something beyond nature, a beam from the Light beyond the sun, a participation in the eternal Logos” (Joe Rigney).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none” (Benjamin Franklin).

IN OUR DEALINGS WITH OTHER PEOPLE, THERE MAY BE MANY THINGS WE FIND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO DO, BUT WE CAN AT LEAST BE “CIVIL” TO ONE ANOTHER. To be “civil” is to act like a “civilized” person. The word comes from the Latin civis (“citizen”), and it refers to the behavior of those who live under a government in an organized society or “city.” Historically, when people have lived in close proximity, they have found it helpful to treat one another in a “civil” way. So basically, “civility” is courtesy. It’s the way people act who realize that a group’s quality of life is greatly affected by the way its members treat one another, as opposed to people for whom “might makes right.”

Civility does not seem to come naturally to us. Rising above the behavior of animals involves the use of our freedom of will. It takes deliberate choice and conscious effort. So we must (1) value the benefits of civility, and (2) aim to make our communities places where that is the norm. It won’t happen if we don’t make it happen.

But in the quotation above, Benjamin Franklin advised being “civil to all,” and therein lies the real challenge. Almost anyone can be civil to those who are civil in return, but it takes people of uncommon character to practice civility to all, even to those who are uncivil.

Some would say that being courteous and mannerly to those who dislike us is timid and cowardly, but John F. Kennedy was right when he said in his inaugural address, “Civility is not a sign of weakness.” Indeed, it takes far more strength to be civil than to fail to do so.

One of life’s great pleasures is to please others. If we had to compromise our principles to be pleasing, that would not be commendable, of course. But within the boundaries of moral integrity, there is ample room to bring pleasure by being civil and mannerly to those around us. Graciousness and generosity are habits well worth learning. When we act as civilized people, rather than as brute beasts, we give a gift that’s as agreeable to the giver as it is to the recipient.

“The ultimate aim of civility and good manners is to please: to please one’s guest or to please one’s host. To this end one uses the rules laid down by tradition: of welcome, generosity, affability, cheerfulness, and consideration of others” (Claudia Roden).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

WE READ THE WORDS OF PAUL ABOVE AND WE DEEM THEM NOBLE, BUT IF ANYONE SERIOUSLY SAID SUCH A THING TODAY, WE WOULD CONSIDER HIM NEUROTIC RATHER THAN NOBLE. If the truth be told, we are “well pleased” rather to be present in the body and absent from the Lord. For us, going to be with the Lord is all right, as long as it is later. But for now, we prefer living in this body and this world. We wouldn’t willingly give up this life if there were one ounce of happiness left that we could get from it.

As for being “absent from the body and . . . present with the Lord,” we prefer that scenario only at the end of a long life of temporal satisfaction. I don’t believe I’m exaggerating when I say that the average Christian’s true sentiment runs something like this: “After I’ve drained all the happiness out of this world that I can get and my body has fallen into ruin, then, yes, I would prefer to leave this body and go to be with the Lord.” But to say that such a thing would be preferable right now? That is nonsense. We want to go to heaven only when we’ve exhausted every means of putting it off.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I know we don’t have the option of going to heaven until our work is done. But if today the Lord were to say, “Your work is done,” shouldn’t we be thrilled?

So we have a dilemma, don’t we? We want heaven but we want this world too. And right now, we want this world more than we want heaven. We are more in love with this world than we like to admit. In theory we know that heavenly things are better than earthly things, but in practice we see heaven only as a place the Christian has to go to when the doctors have run out of alternatives. Only when we’ve glutted ourselves on happiness below does heaven start to sound interesting. We are not unlike children at an amusement park being asked by their parents, “Wouldn’t you like to go home now? Home is much better.” No, we don’t want to go home! Of course not! Not until we are sunburned and sick of junk food and have absolutely, totally, and completely worn ourselves out having fun! Then we might consider it . . . maybe.

“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die” (Joe Lewis).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

How sweet are Your words to my taste,
Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
(Psalm 119:103)

THERE IS A STRONG, VIBRANT LINK BETWEEN LOVING GOD AND LONGING FOR HIS WORD. If Scripture study is nothing to us but an obligation or chore, we ought not to be so bold as to say we love God or take Him seriously. It is no less true with God than with anyone else: we are delighted to receive communications from those whom we love. “This is the love of God,” John wrote, “that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).

The problem that many religious people have, however, is that while God’s words are sweet to our taste in general, we shrink away from the parts of His word that we ourselves most need to hear. Thus our three goals should be: to long for God, to long for what He says, and to long for whatever He says!

There happens to be a quite practical reason why we should be open to whatever God says. As J. I. Packer has pointed out, “One of the many divine qualities of the Bible is this: that it does not yield its secrets to the irreverent or censorious.” If we find some of God’s words less than sweet because our hearts are not open and receptive to our responsibilities, then it’s not likely that we’ll even understand the meaning of the words we need to understand. Adopting a resistant attitude is a sure way to cut ourselves off from the comprehension of God’s words (John 8:43,44).

If we are eager to hear what God has to say, however, and if we are also eager to do as He instructs (James 1:21,22), then we will certainly be able to understand all we need to understand. And not only that, but we will become hard-working, thorough students of the Scriptures. We will be more than dabblers in God’s word. Perhaps we shall even be able to identify with the well-known words of Martin Luther: “I study my Bible as I gather apples. First, I shake the whole tree that the ripest might fall. Then I shake each limb, and when I have shaken each limb, I shake each branch and every twig. Then I look under every leaf.”

“Make it the first morning business of your life to understand some part of the Bible clearly, and make it your daily business to obey it in all that you do understand” (John Ruskin).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the fundamentals” (Jim Rohn).

ALMOST EVERY ACTIVITY IN WHICH WE ENGAGE IS MADE UP OF SMALLER ACTIVITIES THAT HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER. Some of these smaller activities are more essential than others. The ones that are most essential are known as the “fundamentals.” These are the basics, the elements, or the ABCs of the activity. If you were a beginner, the fundamentals are what a teacher would teach you first.

Right now, for example, I am trying to learn something I’ve always wanted to be able to do: play the banjo in the style that Earl Scruggs played it. If I work at it, I may eventually be able to play Earl’s Foggy Mountain Breakdown, but for now, I am spending most of my time learning the fundamentals of the instrument: finger rolls with the right hand, chords with the left hand, etc. If I were so eager to get to the exciting stuff that I rushed past the basics, that would be a costly mistake. People often find the fundamentals of a subject boring, but they are very important. In any worthwhile endeavor, there is no real excellence without mastery of the fundamentals.

The importance of the fundamentals has long been recognized by athletes, whose paycheck depends on achieving peak performance. To those who would like to play golf well, Jack Nicklaus said, “Learn the fundamentals of the game and stick to them. Band-Aid remedies never last.” And Lou Holtz, the football coach, gave this good advice, “Build your empire on the firm foundation of the fundamentals.”

But the comment by Lou Holtz suggests an additional thought. As can be seen from the word itself, the “fundamentals” are the “foundation” of an activity. Foundations are always important, but their importance becomes even more obvious with the passage of time. And in that respect, the foundation of a human life is like the foundation of a building. Shortcuts taken in laying the foundation may not be noticeable in the early years, but eventually the faulty foundation begins to crack and the entire structure is in jeopardy. So, my friend, if your life has become shaky, you need to get back to the fundamentals.

The fundamental things apply,
As time goes by.
(Herman Hupfeld)

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Let us go on to perfection . . .” (Hebrews 6:1).

WHY IS IT THAT WE HAVE SUCH A HARD TIME REACHING FORWARD? Why do we insist on looking backward so often when the future is beckoning us to things that are so much better?

Laziness. The pull of “inertia” often keeps us from doing what we ought to do. It takes extra effort to press toward a goal that is in the future, and many people are just not willing to make that effort. They are content to stay where they are and do nothing more than leaf through the scrapbook pages of their past. Whatever vision of the future they may have, it is not a powerful enough vision to move them forward. It’s just too much work.

Grief at what we’ve lost. At other times, there is some loss we have suffered, and our grief keeps us focused, at least temporarily, on what we had in the past but no longer have. Grief is not sinful, at least it need not be, and during times of grief we need to be patient both with ourselves and others. But by its very nature, grief is past-oriented rather than future-oriented, and so we need to be careful not to let it become our permanent perspective.

Fear of the future. One way the past and the future are different is that the past is certain but the future is uncertain. While the past is already an accomplished creation, the future is yet to be created, and there is no guarantee that we will not fail in some of our efforts to create it. We recognize that we depend upon God’s help in all things, but He still requires us to do our part, and that can be frightening. So we just play it safe and avoid the risk of discouragement, secure within the comfort zone of past accomplishment.

Whatever the reasons for our fixation on the past may be, we need to work on overcoming them. The Hebrew writer said, “Let us go on to perfection.” At times, we may need some help in seeing the importance of that effort. We may need to have our focus adjusted by pain or difficulty. Or we may need friends who will pull us out of the past. Indeed, we have no better friends than those who will turn us around and make us face in a forward direction. If you have such a future-oriented friend, you should be thankful.

“I want to do away with everything behind man, so that there is nothing to see when he looks back. I want to take him by the scruff of the neck and turn his face toward the future!” (Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com