“‘For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you” (Isaiah 54:10).

ONE OF THE GREAT ANCHORS OF OUR CONFIDENCE IN GOD IS THE STEADFASTNESS OF HIS LOVE. Unlike our human love, which is tragically fickle and fluctuating, God’s love will still be there though “the mountains may depart and the hills be removed.”

The Hebrew noun hesed is translated as “steadfast love” by some modern translations. Like many of the most meaningful words in any language, hesed is almost impossible to translate. There is no rendering for it that is entirely satisfactory, so translators have struggled to do it justice. Basically, hesed meant “mercy,” and in many contexts it comes close to the idea of “grace.” And yet it also has the connotation of “kindness.” To make matters even more complicated, when used in reference to God, hesed often connotes the covenantal aspect of God’s love, hence “steadfast love.” God’s love is enduring. It is, as Lois Tverberg says, “long acting love.”

It would often take a sentence in English to say what Hebrew could say in one word, hesed — but for today’s meditation, let’s stick with “steadfast love.” Because God has entered into a “covenant” or “contract” with us, we can count on Him to be loving, kind, merciful, and gracious to us because He promised He would.

The steadfastness of God’s love does not mean He will never discipline us. Indeed it is His love that will move Him to discipline us when that is what we need (Hebrews 12:5-11). Nor does God’s love mean He will not banish us from His presence in eternity if we persist in our earthly resistance to Him and refuse His offer of salvation. But until we have completely exhausted our opportunity to come back to Him and died in our rejection of His forgiveness, He will not give up on us. He will keep His covenant.

I don’t know about you, but I’m mighty glad that God’s love is steadfast. Were it not for His lovingkindness, this weak son of His would have been disinherited long, long ago. And, in Christ, I yearn for the sweet day when I shall be able to thank Him more properly.

“The love of God is consistent and cannot be altered or deterred. His love stands firmly fixed as the motive for all He asks and for all He provides. His love never changes” (Dee Bowman).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory . . .” (1 Peter 1:8).

HEAVEN OUGHT TO BE OUR MOST JOYOUS THOUGHT. We do not see our Lord right now, but we believe that someday we shall see Him and remain in His perfect presence forever. In that hope, we “rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”

But in practical, everyday terms, does heaven really mean as much to us as we say it does? We are, after all, very busy with the details of living in the here and now, and since we’ve grown accustomed to the idea of going to heaven, many of us may be guilty of taking it for granted. If we’re honest, we may have to admit that the concept of heaven has grown stale and the joy of thinking about it has disappeared. But how can we do that? How can we possibly have a casual attitude about heaven?

The first thing that should be said is that we need to make sure we are indeed going to heaven. Paul wrote, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5), and we need to make a practice of doing that on a fairly regular basis.

But second, we need to acquire the habit of thinking about heaven more often. One way to do that is to engage in the old-fashioned discipline of “counting our blessings,” consciously and deliberately enumerating to ourselves the things that we have to be thankful for. When we “count our blessings,” heaven will always be at the top of the list. And with that list in hand, we are then ready to meditate on this great blessing, to think about it, and, yes, even daydream about it! If we don’t find ourselves daydreaming about heaven, at least now and then, it really should cause us to question whether it means as much to us as we say it does.

But not only should we cherish the thought of heaven; I believe that we should show that we cherish it. It should come out in our conversation, our demeanor, our tone of voice, and even our countenance. There is no denying that, as we grow older, our faces come to be a mirror of the contents of our hearts. So what do those who see your face every day know about your enthusiasms, the things that mean more to you than anything else in the world?

“When you speak of heaven, let your face light up. When you speak of hell — well, then your everyday face will do” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Any deep relationship to another human being requires watchfulness and nourishment; otherwise, it is taken from us” (Paul Tillich).

THINGS THAT ARE PHYSICALLY ALIVE NEED NOURISHMENT OR ELSE THEY DIE. Most of us, somewhere along the way, have neglected a houseplant or two and seen the sad results. But there are some intangible things that need nourishment too, such as our relationship with those around us. Our relationships with other people may not need physical nutrients (although there’s a lot to be said for eating good food with good friends), but they do need emotional and spiritual nourishment. And the consequences of malnourished relationships are far sadder than the loss of any physically living thing.

Relationships need to be fed huge helpings of love and appreciation and concern. They also need the nourishment that comes from time and energy and service. And above all, of course, love itself needs to be nourished. “Love is a tender plant; when properly nourished, it becomes sturdy and enduring, but neglected it will soon wither and die” (Hugh B. Brown). The love, however, that usually needs to be nourished is not the love that others have for us but our love for them. It’s a selfish mistake to make our relationships totally dependent on the quality of love that other people show to us. Without being condescending or patronizing, we can grow better relationships by nourishing the love we show to them. Amazing transformations in relationships can take place when we feed the affection that’s in our own hearts (or even used to be there), regardless of the immediate response.

Wouldn’t it be a fine thing to be known as somebody who nurtures and nourishes, rather than somebody who depletes and destroys? Indeed it would, and in truth, that’s a reputation that’s within the reach of every person on the planet. Many things we may not be able to do, but we can be people who nourish our friends and neighbors.

Nourishment never goes out of style. There’ll never be a time when it’s not needed. The more we nourish those who cross our path, the more they’ll enjoy being nourished. It’s an everyday opportunity, really, and a lifelong privilege. Let’s not miss the pleasure of it.

“The more the heart is nourished with happiness, the more it is insatiable” (Gabrielle Roy).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9,10).

IF OUR INTENT IS TO SEEK GOD, THEN WE MUST LEARN HOW TO SEEK HIS WILL. We all have a tendency to think we’re seeking God when what we’re really seeking is His ratification of our own will. It takes a lot of spiritual growth to be able to pray with integrity, “Your will be done.”

Whatever specific requests we make of our Lord ought to be made with great reverence and humility. It is true that we are encouraged to come to God with the confidence that comes from love (Matthew 7:7-11), but in our love for God we must not forget to love His wisdom. Letting the Lord decide what is best should not be something we do reluctantly or grudgingly. If we’re thinking as we should about God, we’ll rejoice and revel in whatever His will is, knowing that the accomplishment of His purposes will result in ends that are not only wiser, but ultimately more joyful than any our own desires would have produced. If our reverence for God is real, however, we’ll show that reverence by yielding to His will in every instance, whether what happens next seems to be joyful or not. When faced with choices between good, better, and best, sincere seekers make these choices by deferring to God. “Lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5), the wise man said.

So the purpose of our praying should be to put ourselves in the Lord’s hands and trust His judgment. Yet He has taught us to ask Him for what we think we need. He has promised to grant our requests when they don’t interfere with His larger purposes. And when the Lord does yield to what we ask, He does more than merely say “yes.” He not only gives what we ask; He gives a better version of the thing than we had envisioned. Did Mary not find this out at the wedding feast in Cana (John 2:1-12)? It is as Elizabeth Barrett Browning said in the Sonnets from the Portuguese: “God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.” J. K. Maclean said it well: “If our petitions are in accordance with His will, and if we seek His glory in the asking, the answers will come in ways that will astonish us and fill our hearts with songs of thanksgiving.”

“O Lord, you know what is best for me. Let this or that be done, as you please. What you will, how much you will, and when you will” (Thomas à Kempis).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:7).

IN THIS VERSE, WE FIND THE CHRISTIANS IN THE CHURCH AT TROAS DOING SOMETHING THAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT IN THOSE DAYS THAN MANY PEOPLE THINK IT IS TODAY. They gathered together on the first day of the week to “break bread,” which in this context is a reference to what we know appropriately as the “Lord’s Supper.”

The Lord’s Supper is a partaking of unleavened bread and fruit of the vine in memory of Jesus’ death for our sins. The bread represents Christ’s body which was crucified and the fruit of the vine, the blood which He shed. It was instituted by Christ on the night before His execution (Matthew 26:26-29), and we find more teaching about it in texts like 1 Corinthians 10:16,17 and 11:17-34.

In the assembly. The Lord’s Supper is not a private observance. Every word spoken about it in the New Testament presumes that it is to be done when the Lord’s people have come together.

Every Lord’s Day. Just as it is linked to the assembly, it is also linked to the first day of the week — the Lord’s Day — that being the day of the Lord’s resurrection (Luke 24:1-3) and the day, a few weeks later, when the gospel was first preached in its completeness (Acts 2:1-4). And it was every Lord’s Day, as we infer from Acts 20:7 (see also 1 Corinthians 16:1,2; Revelation 1:10). Historically, it was sometime later before the Supper was separated from the Lord’s Day.

But this essay is not meant as a general discussion of the Lord’s Supper; it is written to emphasize the connection between the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s people. Against the argument that one may be a Christian and not have anything to do with a local congregation, this is a point that needs to be pondered. If we reject “organized” religion and adopt the “spiritual but not religious” approach, where does that leave the Lord’s Supper? It is not Christianity that we are practicing today if we don’t take seriously an observance that, in the New Testament, was so extremely important to Christians on the first day of every week.

O Father, bless this solemn day,
When we assemble, sing and pray,
To honor Christ, Thine only Son,
Who tasted death for everyone.
(Craig A. Roberts)

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
(Ecclesiastes 1:9)

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME. You may call it a “cycle” or a “pattern” or a “rhythm,” but there is a definite repetitiveness to this world. What has been done in days gone by is what will be done in days to come. There is, when you really think about it, nothing new under the sun.

Things that seem to be new in the world are usually just variations on a theme, and the theme has been around for a long time. Sometimes variations on a theme can be extremely important and quite innovative, but they are still just improvements on something that was already in the world. We are not, and cannot be, creators in the true sense. We can only be what J. R. R. Tolkien called “sub-creators,” rearrangers of preexisting materials.

Unfortunately, most of the “new” things that people make such a to-do about are nothing more than fads and fashions, trends that come and go, and are labeled “old” as soon as the next “new” one comes along. On this kind of newness, Robert M. Pirsig commented: “‘What’s new?’ is an interesting and broadening eternal question, but one which, if pursued exclusively, results only in an endless parade of trivia and fashion, the silt of tomorrow.”

We may as well face it, in all the most important ways, the world remains the same generation after generation. But that statement is not meant to be depressing or demeaning to the dignity of human beings. It is simply to say that we all live in the same world. There is a certain context common to all men and women, no matter when and where they have lived. We experience the same joys, we suffer the same sorrows, and we encounter the same challenges. When we back up and look at life from the broadest perspective, none of us can say that our lives are unique.

That insight should do two things for us. First, we should have a greater respect for the experience of those who’ve gone before. And second, we should have a greater humility as to the importance and “newness” of our own contributions to the world. What we do may well be important, but it’s all been done before.

“Everything that has been is eternal: the sea will wash it up again” (Friedrich Nietzsche).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Make it clear. Make it simple. Emphasize the essentials” (Charles R. Swindoll).

SOME OF OUR GREATEST IMPROVEMENTS IN LIFE COME FROM CUTTING THROUGH THE CLUTTER AND GETTING BACK TO THE ESSENTIALS. In the round of daily ideas and activities, some things matter much more than others, and it’s important to give the best of our time and energy to the deeds that are going to make the most difference for good. But that’s hard to do. Trivia creeps into our lives at an astonishing rate, and it takes more discipline than most of us possess to keep the clutter at bay and stay focused on our priorities. So now and then, we’re greatly helped by a good “housecleaning” — one in which we get rid of “things” we don’t really need.

If something is essential, that means we have to have it. We can’t do without it. The real difficulty in life, however, is being honest enough to identify what’s essential and what’s optional. It takes a person of uncommon honesty to see the difference between what he really needs and what he merely wants. If we want something badly enough, it’s fairly easy to convince ourselves that we have to have it.

Yet even when we’re willing to be honest and courageous, we need to understand that what we think is essential depends on what our standards are. Our standards come from our principles and our values, and the truth of the matter is, we’re sometimes dangerously careless in deciding these things. We casually pick up our principles, and the standards that go along with them, from the media, the popular culture, and the people around us. As a result, we find ourselves defining the “essentials” as cars, clothes, cologne, and Caribbean cruises, and we spend 90% of our time on things that are 10% essential to real life.

Life can be complicated. The surface appearance of some things can be deceiving, and as long as Hollywood and Madison Avenue are with us, there’s going to be some confusion over what matters in life and what doesn’t. So fairly often we need to call a halt to the commerce. We need to slow down and listen. If we’ll listen, our hearts and our consciences will tell us what the essentials have always been.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye” (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up'” (Daniel 3:16-18).

WE SHOULD REVERE GOD FOR WHO HE IS, AND NOT MERELY FOR WHAT HE DOES THAT MAY BE OF BENEFIT TO US PERSONALLY. It is right to worship God because He is God, period. There need be no other consideration. Whatever serves the greater glory of God’s wise purposes, that should be our desire, even in cases where His glory might require Him to refrain from saving us (1 Samuel 3:18).

It’s a sad truth that much of our seeking amounts to a subtle form of bargaining with God. We’ll agree to do this or that aspect of His will . . . as long as He is willing to do this or that to make it worth our while. All too often, that which we call our “obedience” is contingent on some sort of payoff — if not in the short term, at least in the long. And if God doesn’t do as we wish, then we’re tempted to complain, “What good is God?”

But can we not see how offensive this utilitarian approach to God is? We would hardly limit our earthly friendships to those who can be of “use” to us, yet this is what we seem to do with God. James Houston comments on this when he says, “Just as the pragmatist has no friends because he simply ‘uses’ people, so pragmatic Christians — and they are indeed numerous today — use God and do not realize the need to know Him intimately.”

When Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35), He pointed to a principle that is as applicable to God as to our fellow human beings. Even with God, we should derive more joy from giving than from getting. And even when we are giving, it should not merely be because that is the way to “get” more blessedness. God was not created for us; we were created for Him. Yet many of us “are expecting Jesus Christ to quench our thirst when we should be satisfying Him! We should be pouring out our lives, investing our total beings, not drawing on Him to satisfy us” (Oswald Chambers). To seek God truly we must desire, simply and purely, to fill His heart with gladness.

“If we seek God for our own good and profit, we are not seeking God” (Meister Eckhart).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Corinthians 6:1).

IN THE SCRIPTURES, ONE OF THE MOST TOUCHING CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD IS THE FERVENCY WITH WHICH HE APPEALS TO HUMAN BEINGS. In many dire circumstances, God is shown pleading with people to let Him save them. But there was always a choice to be made by those needing God’s help: would they receive God’s grace or not? The basic situation of mankind is summed up well in Paul’s heartfelt exhortation to his brethren in Corinth in which he said, “We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.”

Sadly, there are those (many of whom I admire for their sincerity) who teach that God’s grace cannot be rejected. Believing that we are born with the “original sin” of Adam’s transgression and are so depraved in our nature that we couldn’t even respond to an offer of salvation if we tried, these teachers insist that God must decide who will be saved — and those whom He decides to save, He infuses with the “enabling power” of the Holy Spirit. This grace is “irresistible” by the recipients, or so says the doctrine. God having decided who will be saved, the chosen ones do not have the power to reject the saving influence which God sends upon them. But surely, many have refused God’s efforts to win their hearts. When, for example, Jesus lamented Jerusalem’s rejection of Him (Matthew 23:37), it is woefully inadequate to say that, since they refused, it must not have really been salvation that He was offering them.

As with all the concepts that are central to Calvinism, the doctrine of irresistible grace rests on a mistaken notion of God’s sovereignty. The Calvinist argues that if anyone can say no to God, that means God is not sovereign. In other words, if we can, by the exercise of our will, keep God from saving us, that means God is not all-powerful. But actually, that argument is the one which limits God. It says that God could not have decided to make creatures endowed with a free will. But that is exactly what God did when He created us. And the result is that those who accept Him, whether many or few, do so freely and lovingly — rather than under the compulsion of their “irresistible” programming.

“It is a denial of the sovereignty of God to say that He could not create persons capable of freely rejecting him” (Curtis Byers).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Does not every man feel that he is himself made higher by doing reverence to what is really above him?” (Thomas Carlyle).

IS THERE ANYTHING “ABOVE” US? Are we answerable or accountable to any power or personal supremacy that it would be right for us to give “reverence” to? Historically, most human beings have thought so, but it’s not a question that ought to be answered on the basis of tradition alone. It’s an issue for each individual to confront, and it’s the most crucial question, by far, that anybody ever asks.

The fact that we have the capacity for reverence is an interesting thing in itself. No other flesh-and-blood creatures have this power. Only we can admire and be in awe, or extend honor and esteem. Only we can worship — lovingly and purely. And these qualities are no small gift: of all the things that set us apart from the lesser creatures, the capacity for reverence is the most distinctive. “Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish man from beasts?” (Confucius).

If we wish to deepen the quality of reverence in our lives, I would like to suggest that we look first at our speech. Reverence resides principally in the heart, of course, but it’s a fact that we can sometimes encourage our hearts to change by adjusting external things like our words. We live in a time when reverential, or even respectful, speech has become almost old-fashioned, even among religious folks. We’ve become shockingly rude. I believe we’d gain some good things in our lives if we’d recover a certain modesty and reserve when we feel the urge to speak of things above us, and I agree with Nietzsche’s opinion: “Concerning great things one should either be silent or speak loftily.”

Yet in the end, it’s obvious that reverence must be more than words, or even feelings or sentiments. Reverence is a right orientation to, and a real-life relationship with, all that is above us. If, for example, there really is a God, then reverence would be a worshipful manner of actually dealing with that objective reality. So let us reconsider the concept of reverence. Let us learn again the wholeness that can only come from humility toward that which is higher and greater than we are.

Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell;
That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music as before.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com