His Love and Faithfulness

Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for;
    through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.
    Prov 16:6


Think of that the next time you contemplate your sin—the depths of hell from which Christ redeemed you.  It was His Love and His Faithfulness that made atonement for your sins.

Love and faithfulness meet together;
    righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
    and righteousness looks down from heaven.
    Ps. 85:10 - 11

God alone has the love that can completely atone for our sins.  He alone is completely faithful to make it happen.  We had no love at all in ourselves that could accomplish this redemption and atonement.  In fact, we love because He first loved us.  And Christ was completely faithful in His earthly ministry: faithfully He obeyed the Father, faithfully He purchased our redemption, and faithfully He now loves us and prepares mansions for us in glory where we will dwell with Him.  That is partly why the Psalm says that "faithfulness springs forth from the earth."  It is because Christ was faithful here on earth and the Righteous Father looked down from Heaven and saw that it was good: "This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!"

Truly "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (Rev. 7:10)

And what then is our role? our response to such a great salvation?

That is the second half of Prov. 16:6.  "Through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided."  Because the Lord saved me and atoned for my sins, I will now avoid sin because of how horrible it is and how much it cost my Lord to rescue me.

And how may I avoid sin?  The fear of the Lord.  It is the fear of the Lord that will be with us to keep us from sinning. (Ex. 20:20)  Thus I lift up the cup of salvation to the Lord (Ps. 116:13) by taking His salvation that He offers me and living a new life for His honor and His glory.  If I don't it means I treasure neither His love nor His faithfulness; and my sin may not be truly atoned for.

A hymn that goes well with this small meditation: Salvation's Hymn
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What is in Your Hand?

Judges 3:31 — "After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel."

Shamgar.  He must have lived in a different part of the country from Ehud, whose history was earlier in Judges 3.  Ehud was from Benjamin, and interacted with the Moabites around Jericho and the Jordan River.  Shamgar, on the other hand, was in or near Philistine territory—very likely the western foothills of Judah down toward Gath or the Mediterranean Sea.

Who was Shamgar? 

First of all, his name means "named a stranger" or "he is here a stranger." http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/shamgar/

Second, his father was Anath.  There is conjecture about who he was and what exactly his name meant, but most say that Anath was not a good Jewish name and it may have even been a Philistine name, ie, son of the goddess Anath.

How bad were the times of Shamgar? 

We have one more clue found in Deborah's song, Judges 5:6-7a:

   NIV: "In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
     in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned;
     travelers took to winding paths.
   Villagers in Israel would not fight...."
  
   KJV: "In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael,
      the highways were unoccupied,
      and the travelers walked through byways.
  The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel....

Picture it: Raiding parties from Philistia oppressed the Israelites living in the western foothills; they controlled the main roads and either caused people to abandon towns or at least quake in fear, afraid to resist.  Why?  Because they had neglected their Covenant Lord and went off after sin.

Yet, because of the Lord's mercies He did not completely abandon His people.

Into this picture we now see Shamgar.  He must have been a farmer of some kind.  Perhaps he was out tending the animals or perhaps plowing with his oxen.  We see that he had an oxgoad and that's all.

"What do you have in your hand?"  Ex. 4:2

And then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.  Maybe it was a sense of, "Oh no, not again! I'm not letting that raiding party destroy my crops again."  Or perhaps it was a sense of outrage that the heathen was doing this to the people of God.  But in some way he was stirred to action and used what was in his hand to do the Lord's work.

Moses had a staff but it became the a mighty staff by which the Lord performed many signs and wonders.

Doesn't this illustrate 1 Cor 1:25 - 29.

  "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.  Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."

 
God chose the weak, the nothings, the strangers, the unlikelies to do His work in His way through His power and for His glory.

In addition to Shamgar's oxgoad, we see other examples in the Book of Judges, where God uses nothings and powerless things to do His work:

• Judges 7:16 — trumpets and torches
• Judges 9:53 — a millstone
• Judges 15:15 — a jawbone of a donkey

With God, a little becomes much.  Consider how Elijah and the widow and her son were fed through the famine with only a little handful of flour and a small jar of oil.  Consider also how Jesus took the loaves and fish and multiplied it for the people.  In the burning bush He asked Moses, "What do you have in your hand?"  To the disciples by the Sea of Gaililee, he asked, “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”  (Mark 6:38)  This is the Mighty God who spoke and the whole universe sprang into being.  He is the Omnipotent God "who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." (Rom. 4:17)

This should give us courage and comfort.  Our little when used with God's power and for God's purposes becomes a mighty force.  We can overcome only by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony—that is, by Christ's salvation applied to our hearts and our living faithfully to obey His will.

Then we can say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  (Phil 4:13)

When Things Go Wrong

I was blessed recently while looking at Psalm 11 & 12.

There will always come some point when things look bad.  These psalms point to what we should do when things are going badly.  The psalmist says it's so bad that it looks like the foundations themselves are being destroy (Ps. 11:3).  If the foundations are destroy, the house falls down.  That is serious.

Yet the psalmist does not dwell on that.  He acknowledges that it is a reality but he doesn't stop there.  He goes on and says (Ps. 11:4):

•    "The Lord is in His holy temple...."  A temple implies peace and calm.  A temple also refers to heaven where THE temple stands, THE temple that was the model for the earthly temple.  Look at Heb 9:24.  But it can also refer to here on earth; His church is called His temple.  I Cor.3:16; II Cor. 6:19.  So the psalmist says that he is not going to be overly concerned with trouble because first God is in His temple and second by implication, God, the covenant Lord, is in the midst of His people, His church.  
•    "...the Lord's throne is in heaven..."  He is ruling.  He is not merely in heaven residing; rather He also actively rules.  Heaven is not awash in hustle and panic.  It is stable and ordered.  He is a God of peace, not chaos.  "The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silent!"  Hab 2:20.  See also Rev 8:1--in the midst of judgment coming upon earth in the Last Days, heaven pauses and there is complete silence for the space of a half hour.  If God is in control, and if we are truly His, then we do not have to worry or upset.  He will take care of it.  It did not slip His attention.  
•    "...His eyes behold, He tests the children of men."  The psalmist takes comfort from the fact that God sees and knows and intimately understands.  The inference is that this is knowledge that will cause God to act.  See verse 6: He will rain snares, fire and brimstone upon the wicked.  But verse 7, He looks with favor upon the righteous.  His looking is a sign of His approval and His moving to action in behalf of.  No wonder the psalmist is comforted.

Psalm 12 starts out in the first two verses with an equally dire situation: "the godly cease; the faithful fail." 

But what encourages the psalmist? 

•    Look at verse 6: "The words of the Lord."  Compare psalm 19 where the psalmist extols the beauty and wonders of God's Word.
•    Also look at verse 7: He is taking comfort in the loving, sovereign protection and Providence.  Compare I Jn. 3:1.  How GREAT is the love that God the Father has lavished on us!

  
So when troubles come we should always take comfort in God, His love for us, His Providence, His Word and in His Omniscient, Omnipotent, Sovereign ruling in every area of His creation.  He has not forgotten us.  He is moving all things for His glory and our good!

Je Suis "Nun"!

First, let me say that I am appalled at what happened in Paris last Wednesday.  Second, let me say that I am not surprised.  Greater atrocities have been happening across the Mid East and Africa for much longer, but for some reason those events fly under most of the Media's radar.  ISIS and Boko Haram have created far more carnage than anything that happened in Paris or with Charlie Hebdo.

ISIS has been going door to door in Syria and other areas of its extended control and systematically killing, raping, crucifying and torturing anyone who is Christian.  Labeling their doors with the Arabic letter "Nun" which is the first letter of Nasrani--ie, Nazarene, as in a follower of Jesus the Nazarene.  In Nigeria Boko Haran has been conducting a campaign of terror and horror against anyone in the country who is Christian--especially anyone who is Christian.  The kidnapping of a couple hundred of school girls made a brief splash across the media last year (with its #hashtag campaign) before its significance faded from Western thought.

ISIS: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/24/this-is-not-a-one-eyed-smiley-face-its-a-symbol-of-frightening-things-happening-to-middle-east-christians/

Boko Haran: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30826582
            http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/nigeria-other-terror-attack-why-no-one-talking-about-boko-haram

Our society cannot hold a collective thought long enough to act on it unless the pervasive media tells us that we need to act on it.  In fact, most of what passes for breaking news might be more of a ploy to divert our attention from the previous atrocity that horrified us.

Thus our cause célèbre of the moment is Charlie Hebdo.  Tragic as it is, I cannot say that "I am Charlie."  I do sorrow with the loss of life.  I do deplore the despicable carnage that the Muslim terrorist inflicted.  I do shudder at the loss of free speech.  But I can't help but wonder at the blatant hypocrisy within the media itself.

First, surviving staff of Charlie Hebdo scoff and disdain the new-found friends:

First: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/13/charlie-hebdo-cartoonist-we-vomit-on-those-who-sud/  "Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Bernard Holtrop says surviving employees of the Paris-based magazine “vomit” on those who suddenly support them in the wake of last week’s terror attack that wiped out a third of its staff.  We vomit on all these people who suddenly say they are our friends,” he told the Dutch daily de Volkskrant in an interview published Saturday.

Not exactly a warm way of welcoming support.

Second: where were all these supporter of "free speech" when Brendan Eich was ousted from Mozilla because he contributed a few bucks to a campaign to keep marriage defined as "one man, one wife"?  I personally think that anyone who applauded that ouster should be barred from holding a "Je Suis Charlie" sign.  Period.  End of subject.

Third, there is no real "free speech" allowed in the media.
MSNBC immediately blurred and obfuscated the cover of the new Charlie Hebdo magazine.  Afraid of angering Islamists worldwide.  See: http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/13/msnbc-blurs-charlie-hebdo-cover-during-interview-with-magazine-contributor-video/
The NY Times refuses to print any of the "offending cartoons" http://liberallogic101.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/B7MmThZIIAEbEW8-500x667.jpg
CNN says that it refuses to show news that is offensive to religions, yet was very glad and foreright to show a disgustingly offensive "art" piece called piss christ.  http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/01/07/cnn-policy-charlie-hebdo-muhammad-cartoons-forbidden-piss-christ-okay/
As one twitter user said, "CNN’s long, ugly history of anti-Christian bigotry is well-documented."

Thus, I cannot say that I am Charlie Hebdo.  I grieve with the loss of life and the loss of innocence and the loss of freedom, but I am not Charlie Hebdo.  Bernard Holtrop, a surviving employee, cast vitriolic dispersion on all who would so associate themselves.

Nor can I align myself with Charlie Hebdo because of the gross hypocrisy in applying the badge of "Free Speech"--Free Speech is "free speech" or it isn't.  There are not some brands that are okay and some that are not unless you have set up a judging station.  And then, I ask, by what standards judge ye?

But mostly, I cannot say that I am Charlie Hebdo because my brothers and my sisters are in peril and at the point of sword and death throughout the Middle East and Africa--yet the Western World is strangely silent.  Ominously silent.  Pathetically silent.  Cowardly silent and beaten into a quiet submission by another agenda that raises its head against all that would speak against it.

But, I'm not cowering in fright of that.  I am Nun.  Je Suis Nasrani.  I am Christian.  And these are my brothers and sisters.

Will you be silent too?

Upon the Sabbath Rest

After reading someone's joy at finishing their college term, I began thinking about how God gives us 6 days to complete our normal tasks; then a seventh day to enjoy as rest. I then thought how sullied and empty that Rest is if we still have work that needs to be done, hanging over our heads. Let us then make sure to complete the work of the week and so prepare our souls for deeper enjoyment of His Sweet Rest.

This is but a pale analogy of that great Sabbath Rest which He bids us to partake of. So how much more we should work hard and diligently make sure that we do enter into His Sweet Rest having done all--all that the Master requires! Then we will enter into His Rest with the sweet happiness of accomplishment--yet fully aware that all accomplishment is but because He accomplished it all for us with His great "It is Finished!"


Ah, sweet joy of blessed rest and accomplishment,
hebdomadal habituation heralding Heavenly hope,
irenic icon of idealized incentive,
perfect peace procured by pardon and partaken of by privileged permission,
sweet happiness of labors done and victories won.....