He knows all yet was willing to die for all…

 

Today, after our holiday and after this move, and even though our home is not yet organized, I get back to the routine of praying with others for a couple hours. This morning I read more of Charnock’s amazing book, a section on the omniscience of God. He knows all things just as the Bible says in verses like these:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. (Psalm 139:1–4)

Charnock points out that prayer is not to administer knowledge to God, but to acknowledge this admirable perfection of His nature. If God did not know, why pray? It would be like asking a statue, or a photograph, or any idol to protect and care for me. Instead, I’m talking with One who knows, and that alone is a comfort.

For lack of knowledge, people misunderstand people. On Sunday, a person asked me if I could drop in anytime to visit my adult children. He asked in several ways and told me that no one seemed to understand his question. Of course I didn’t — I’m not omniscient and needed more information. Were his children annoyed with him for showing up without letting them know? Was he troubled by their busyness and wanting to make plans before coming over? I could only guess, but God never has to guess.

Charnock points to Jonah who tried to hide from God, as if God did not know that he fled to Tarshish. Charnock mentions the brothers of Joseph who didn’t tell their father what happened to his favored son. Did they think God didn’t know? He also says that people tend to more easily confess visible sins than those held in secret, as if the observations of others are more incentive than the knowledge of God.
The reading for today even suggests that some will reverse the meaning of Bible promises or add to them in an expression of their unbelief. For example, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4) becomes “Blessed are they that rejoice, for they, and they only, shall be comforted.”

As a prayer leader, I need to watch out for such things and encourage faith, not only in our small group but in my own prayer life. The author of this reading says this is a problem of unbelief, yet I would add the sin of pride also motivates it. Compare being needy and asking for help with being so needy that ‘even God cannot help’ as one way to avoid honoring Him.

PRAY: Jesus, that true crime story I read yesterday gave me a shocking glimpse into the human heart. Lack of faith in You can result in extreme selfish thinking and actions that nothing else matters. What amazes me that it is for all sin You died. You bore the shame and the punishment for my sin and for unspeakable sins, even knowing that “The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:14) I’m in awe, not only that You know all things, but that You also came to earth to save sinners — all who sin, including me.

United by the Ark

By an unusual set of circumstances, I was introduced to a young Christian by email. He and his wife moved the same time as our daughter and her hubby to the same area. We decided to meet with this couple for a meal yesterday. It was as if we have known them forever. This is the grace of God. When He brings people into His family, we become just that — family.

This morning’s devotional gives a reminder of how that works. It is found in the story of Noah. This man’s life is summed up in the NT:

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)

MacArthur goes on to explain that the ark is a picture of salvation by grace through faith. In the text describing its construction, an unusual word is used:

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. (Genesis 6:14)

The Hebrew word for pitch is from the same root as the word for atonement or a covering, which is what Jesus does to our sin. However, this word is also translated as a protected village, which is what God does for His people. Pitch kept the waters of judgment from entering the ark, just as Christ’s atoning blood keeps judgment from the repentant sinner. Pitch, or the word for it, also surrounds and protects God’s family, speaking of our protection and hinting at our unity, just like the people in the ark were protected from judgment, together in that protected place, emphasis on together. Shared atonement gives a sense of oneness even among people of different cultures, backgrounds, education, and often varied views of many things. This “pitch” not only suggests the presence of oil in the middle east, but it speaks of the covering and uniting power of God’s grace!

Noah’s task was enormous. Some say this ark was bigger than a football field and more than four stories high. It had more than enough room for the animals and people in it. Engineers say its structure was incredibly stable . . .  just like the structure of salvation. This is why it illustrates what God has done in Christ.  

Even at that, only eight people entered it. There was room for more and God would have welcomed them because “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient . . .  not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) He also says: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37) but “The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:14)

The story says that Noah “was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. He walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9) That does not mean he was sinless and some of that showed up after the flood, but like every true believer, he was justified by God’s grace, his faith being counted as righteousness. That has always been the basis of salvation.

And (Abram) believed the Lord, and (God) counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, (Romans 4:5)

And that faith produces a unity between people who are otherwise strangers, a blessed sense of being “in the same village” even with our many differences. Atonement, like the ark, is our covering and protection. Because of God’s grace we are saved and given the mind of Christ so when we get together we are aware of belonging together in His ‘walled city’ of unity and fellowship.

PRAY: Jesus, I see Your hand in all things, in our dinner last night with people we’d never met, in our mutual edification as brothers and sisters in You, in the saving grace and life of Noah and his family, in the power that still saves people though the atonement that is ours in You. What a lovely wonder You are, a gift from the Father that never stops giving.

PONDER: Romans 4:1–8 is the gospel but it also explains why the members of God’s family have a unity that goes beyond common interests and mutual agreement. According to this passage, what gives us the status of being covered and living together in a walled city?

 

 

On the Road

Hope International finds water for people who walk hours each day to bring this precious commodity to their families. We saw a film where the crew went to a village and changed the lives of its people with a well of clean, spring water. But before that could happen, they had to build a road just to get there.

Most travelers appreciate roads. Last year on our trip to Italy we were amazed at the road system with hundreds of tunnels through the mountains so people could easily go from one place to another. I’ve seen films of just the opposite, where the roads were deeply rutted or looked more like a squirrel track. Often buses and other vehicles crash or fall over a cliff because the road is narrow or nearly impassable.

When Jesus was born “in the fullness of time” part of God’s plan included good roads. The Roman system of roads were an important contribution to the task of sharing the Gospel. Jesus told His followers . . .

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

To get to the ends of the earth, the disciples needed the measure of ease and safety of a good road system so they could travel back and forth across the Roman empire. These roads were well paved, well drained, and usually patrolled.

When I think of the NT and roads, several come to mind. The road travelled by Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The roads Jesus walked as He made His way through the many places where He ministered to people. The road to Damascus where the man Saul was confronted by the resurrected Christ and transformed into the Apostle Paul. The road where an Ethiopian man met Philip and heard the Gospel, was baptized and took the good news with him to his homeland. The wise men travelled from the east on a road.

The word road can also be translated with highway, etc. However, this word is also a metaphor. God’s prophets told about the Messiah who would come and about John who would prepare people for His coming:

For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ” (Matthew 3:3)

Jesus also referred to following Him as a way, sometimes a path. He said, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:14)

Roads also remind me of maps. I often use them to get from here to there. Today, the Holy Spirit reminds me that the Word of God is a road map. It shows me life’s destination and God’s route, also the sidetracks, detours, and dead ends I must avoid. My travel from faith to greater faith, from here and now to heaven and eternity requires reading the map, studying it, staying off the roads that go nowhere or lead to destruction.

Reading God’s map means trusting it (not like the GPS that puts you in the center of a lake). There are many roads, but only One Way:

Jesus said . . . “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

^^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, the Roman roads seem like a side issue, but they were important to Your plan. Even more, the Word of God gives me greater understanding of the way I should take and helps me along that way. Yet even more than that, You are the way to my Father, the One I can trust even when the path seems twisted or dark or unsure. You hold my hand and You guide me on the amazing road of this life taking me safely to my final destination.