Sensitivity to the Voice of Christ

Tim Conway on grieving and quenching the Spirit and how we as Christians should always be sensitive to Christ's loving advances.

Bring Them In

Hark! ’tis the Shepherd’s voice I hear
Out in the desert dark and drear,
Calling the sheep who’ve gone astray
Far from the Shepherd’s fold away.

Bring them in, bring them in,
Bring them in from the fields of sin;
Bring them in, bring them in,
Bring the wand’ring ones to Jesus.

Who’ll go and help this Shepherd kind,
Help Him the wand’ring ones to find?
Who’ll bring the lost ones to the fold,
Where they’ll be sheltered from the cold?

Refrain

Out in the desert hear their cry,
Out on the mountains wild and high;
Hark! ’tis the Master speaks to thee,
“Go find My sheep where’er they be.”

 Alexcenah Thomas, 1885

Polyester and Shellfish

I don't know how many times I've heard people try to use certain Old Covenant laws to try to “prove” the hypocrisy of Christians or the absurdity of the Word of God. Is God angry with me for wearing polyester blend clothing? (Leviticus 19:19) Does God forbid me to go to Red Lobster and eat shellfish? (Leviticus 11:10) Am I a hypocrite as a Christian if I do these things yet claim to take the Bible literally? Scoffers who call Christians hypocrites for failing to obey any Old Covenant law are overlooking fairly obvious truths found all over the New Testament about how Christians don't obtain righteousness through the law but through Christ alone. We also see this truth applied to the Old Testament Jews, who were the true intended recipients of the law. “By faith” is the only way any person has ever been made right with God. (Hebrews 11) In the name of atheism, many people make the same mistake in discerning the true nature of knowing God as the religious Pharisees – and both parties reveal their unbelief and self worship in the process. Just as the Pharisees did, they diminish worshiping God into self righteous rule keeping. Being a true believer in the one true God has never been merely superficial. The idea that God is not solely focused on or appeased by the external acts of righteousness is not exclusively a New Testament truth applied to Christians, or something Christians try to falsely apply to the Old Testament.

“For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

(Psalm 51:16-17 ESV, emphasis mine)

So... were these types of judgments of God arbitrary if Christians don't even have to keep the law and even the Jews were only ever accepted through faith? There are so many deep, excellent theological answers derived from Scripture that people much much wiser than I should give on the subject. So I am really not trying to give a comprehensive answer to these objections in any way shape or form... All I know is that it grieves my soul so deeply to hear people call God's good and perfect word absurd because of the presence of these laws. Let's talk about true absurdity. What would you think of a physically disabled young man, unable to work, who had a deeply devoted and loving dad who provided all he ever needed to survive, and yet this young man constantly disobeyed, mocked, ignored, and insulted this dad? Furthermore, let's say this young man managed to hobble into the middle of the road one day without paying attention to the oncoming traffic and his dad quickly dived in the middle of the road, pushing his son out of the way to safety, and was crushed in his place? And after this the young man refused to go to the funeral, continued to openly mock and insult his deceased dad, and then even eventually stopped thinking about him altogether – living the rest of his life off everything his dad left him in his will? Well you might think absurd was a light way of describing this young man's behavior. How much more absurd is it to question and mock the Creator and sustainer of all life – the One who didn't merely wipe men out of existence when they rebelled against Him but actually condescended to become one of His own creatures in order to redeem them because of His great, unfathomable love for them? For you, friend – and for me! And because of this wonderful, undeserved love that God has for me, if God asked me to hop up and down on one leg for ten minutes every day until I die I'd strive to do it because He is worthy of my obedience – even when I don't understand His motives! The Jews that are rejoicing in Heaven now obeyed these laws because they truly loved and trusted the One who commanded them. God has a purpose for everything He says and does and my inability to comprehend it reflects only on the limits of my finite mind and puts no dents in His infinite wisdom or worthiness! People who mock God's Word are not prevented from believing in Christ because they're “too logical” to believe something “irrational,” but because they are blinded by their own pride in thinking that they know better than God; and even if such laws did not exist our deceived hearts would still find fault with God and refuse to submit. Our natural hardened hearts are the real issue. And that's just why we all need a Savior.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

(Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV)

Christian Strength

"Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself! Then we shall not turn back from  you; give us life, and we will call upon your name!"
Psalm 80:17-18

How we all long to be strong Christians. We long to live like our brothers and sisters before us, and see sin and worldliness laying slain around us like Samson's Philistines. What  is Christian strength and where does it come from and where does it lead us? The answer is shown here in this psalm and other places in the Bible.

• Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.-1 Peter4:11

•  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.-Ephesians 6:10

• And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him— for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength.-Isaiah 49:5   

The strength that God gives the Christian is not Shamgar's oxgoad to be picked up and swung in our own might and skill. The strength that God promises the Christian and which all the godly men and women in the Bible long for is a strength in resolve. Resolve to run after God harder and to stop seeking out worldly comforts and instead look to our God who is the only One capable of granting us the victory whatever the battle circumstances may be. God promised to drive out the Canaanites before the Israelite people and bring them into the promised land. The strength that they lacked and which lead to wandering in the wilderness was the strength to trust God with the battle. It takes strength to trust God and not to turn your back to Him and this is the strength that the Bible tells us to crave. God supplies the "strength" and the "strength" is to trust Him more. God help us.