THIS DOESN'T NEGATE THAT.....

Psalm 118:1 

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever!"

Wonderful truth..."his steadfast love." We glory in His unending love. Nothing can negate it nor in any way interrupt it. Nothing can "separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38,39). 

But this glorious truth doesn't stand alone. He is a loving Father who, however, deals with insubordinate children. He can give them a good spanking. And so, His love doesn't negate or toss this verse out:

"For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastens every son whom he receives" (Hebrews 12;6).

- Dick Christen

GOD'S WAYS OF ANSWERING OUR PRAYERS....

 

I BELIEVE GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS BOTH DIRECTLY BUT, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, INDIRECTLY. OR, PUT ANOTHER WAY, HE CAN SPEAK AND IT IS DONE, OR, HE MAY USE 'MEANS' TO BRING 'WHATEVER' TO PASS.

There was a preacher who fell in the ocean and he couldn't swim. When a boat came by, the captain yelled, "Do you need help, sir?" The preacher calmly said "No, God will save me." A little later, another boat came by and a fisherman asked, "Hey, do you need help?" The preacher replied again, "No God will save me." Eventually the preacher drowned & went to heaven. The preacher asked God, "Why didn't you save me?" God replied, "Fool, I sent you two boats!

I do believe God could have reached down with His own arm and plucked the preacher from the water. After all He led Israel waterlessly through the Red Sea. Water is no problem to God, and, to use the prophet's words, His arm is not shortened that it cannot save. But in another instance He sent a big fish to save Jonah and directed that fish to spit him up on dry land. In this way God used other than human means. However, God could have saved both Jonah and the preacher directly, even as He delivered the Hebrew men from the fiery furnace. He mysteriously appeared right there in the furnace with them. 

But, in the cases cited, He rather chose to use 'means.' And, more often than not 'the means' principle' applies to any area of life.

We can obtain wisdom from God, indirectly, even by means of a tiny ant. In Proverbs 6:6 He directs: "Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise..." So, we fascinatingly observe and learn.

OR.....

"But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."

Therefore, we should not presume upon God but actively learn wisdom from sources all around. Nor should we limit God but seek Him intensely to give what we need at any given moment. So, we look down and around for wisdom; we also look up for it.

However we go about it (or He goes about it), God loves to give what is needed in every day life in whatever way He pleases. Let us not limit Him but be so in touch with Him that we will read His responses correctly even while refusing to limit Him in His self chosen ways of doing what He will do. 

- dick christen

 

THAT MAN IN THE PULPIT....

                                                                                

THAT MAN IN THE PULPIT is at once the 1. ELDER (example) 2. SHEPHERD (pastor/feeder/care giver) and 3. OVERSEER (leader) of the local church.

In 1 Peter 5:1-4, the Apostle uses these three capitalized terms to refer to the very same group of church leaders. All three titles apply to all of them. Peter instructs:

"The ELDERS who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: SHEPHERD (pastor) the flock of God which is among you, serving as OVERSEERS, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away."

A holy, Spirit filled minister, (elder, shepherd and overseer that he is), is an awful weapon in the hand of God. The position is God-ordained, not of human invention. Tozer remarked, "I cannot recall, in any of my reading, a single instance of a prophet who applied for the job. The essence of the minister lies in what God had created him to be rather than in what the church has authorized him to do." Effective pastoring and preaching is the dynamic release of a Divine Word that has gripped the heart and mind of the preacher. "A man cannot really preach until preach he must." Such a pastor longs, in like manner, to see the Word take hold of the hearts on his listeners. But it takes much drawing nigh to the Father, much closeness to the Father, much prayer and much filling of the Holy Sprit for such to be reality. Be clear about this: In the pulpit education is no substiture for unction, as essential as 'learning' is. The Holy Spirit's fullness  (or control) is a 'must' for dynamic effectiveness. People hearing such will leave a service, not enamored with the beauty of a sermon delivered, but with the determination to take the God-empowered Word and turn it into the lived-out Word. 

- Dick Christen, D.D.

WHEN GOD SPANKS US....

When life issues us hard times, we often plead with God to change our circumstances all the while forgetting that God is using our circumstances to change us. At such times shouldn't we at least be asking the question, "Lord, what are you trying to teach me? Why are you allowing this to unfold in my life?"

 

Pro 3:11-12 declares: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights."

 

THE MESSAGE (an interpretive paraphrase) renders it: 

"But don't, dear friend, resent GOD's discipline; don't sulk under his loving correction. It's the child he loves that GOD corrects; a father's delight is behind all this."

Discipleship is more than getting to know what the teacher knows; it is getting TO BE what He is. The Father unrelentingly works in us that we will be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). That is His primary purpose in saving us. And God does this according to His desire, not our likes or dislikes. Jesus will be exalted in us! The Father works all things after the counsel of His will whether we are happy about it or not. The making of a disciple means the creating of a duplicate. Such is quite the process and, at times, excruciating. Discipleship is more than getting to know what the teacher knows. It is getting to be what he is.

- Dick Christen, D.D.