September 13th, 2009
William Bradford, from a statue at Plymouth.
In his history of Plimoth Plantation, William Bradford tells about some English separatists [Christians wanting to separate from the Church of England] who attempted to escape persecution in England by going over to the Netherlands. A large company of them planned to sail from Lincolnshire, and hired a ship, making an agreement with its master to be ready on a certain day at an appointed place. After a long wait, with unexpected expense, because he did not show up when he was supposed to, they finally saw his ship appear. He took them aboard in the night. But when he got them and their goods on his boat, he betrayed them, having plotted earlier with officials to do so. The officers sent men to seize the poor refugees, forced them into open boats, and ransacked them, searching even their shirts for money, and pawing the women without regard to modesty. They then brought them ashore to jail them, and made them a spectacle to the crowds, which came flocking from all sides to see them.
I cannot find an instance in which Jesus placed confidence in any man during his time of trouble. On the contrary, we are told he did not trust himself to the people because he knew what was in their hearts.
Had he placed confidence in his disciples, he would have been sorely disappointed, because one betrayed him to the authorities, the rest fled from him when he was arrested, and his chief follower, Peter, denied even knowing him.
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September 7th, 2009
DNA design from the U.S. government's genome project.
Gerald L. Schroeder, in The Hidden Face of God, discusses the wisdom scientists are finding as they dig into the hidden workings of biology (and other sciences). For example, a few strands of DNA, invisible to the eye, carry sufficient information that a complete human being, with all its different cells and capabilities, can form from their blueprint. Or consider our thinking process and the working of nerves which carry information to the brain, a system which is exquisitely simple on one level but extraordinarily complex on another, and certainly indicative of brilliant design to anyone without a closed mind.
I find intriguing Schroeder’s continual references to the wisdom of nature which reminds him of Old Testament wisdom references, including Proverbs 3:19—”With wisdom God founded the world.”
Paul teaches us that Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:22-24) and that it was through him and for him all things were created, visible and invisible (Colossians 1:16ff).
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September 5th, 2009
Christopher Wren, mastermind, was asked to rebuild St. Paul's Cathedral.
Rich and powerful people want the best. Not many White House invitations go out to obscure people. Business leaders, renowned stars, and meritorious teachers get them. In Great Britain, royal chaplains and medical consultants are not chosen at random, but from the prominent individuals in their field. Christopher Wren was asked to rebuild St. Paul’s Cathedral, not some farmer who threw up a sheep cote between breakfast and dinner.
Now Jesus’ business was the Father’s business—that is, showing holiness and testifying to the truth of God. As could be expected, this brought him to the attention of the powerful men of his day. We are told, for instance, that Herod wanted to see him, thinking John the Baptist had returned from the dead.
In the end, Herod got his wish. Jesus stood before this murderer. He also stood before the Jewish leaders and the more powerful Roman governor, Pilate. But Christ’s business was not of the kind worldly leaders ooh and ah over. Palestine’s power mongers did not solicit his services toward becoming better men, but derided and disposed of him.
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August 30th, 2009
Bernard Gilpin. A broken leg saved him from death at the stake.
Ken Curtis, founder of Vision Video and Christian History Institute, was once delayed in catching a train to London’s Heathrow Airport. Friends kindly drove him to his destination. This may have saved him from death or injury. The subway he was to have taken was one of those hit by suicide bombers. What seemed to be an inconvenience proved to be a blessing.
How often we read of such events. A woman misses her plane: it is involved in the terrible crash on Tinerife. Augustine of Hippo gets lost traveling to a church he has not visited before; the confusion proves God-directed—Donatists were lying in ambush for him. Bernard Gilpin breaks his leg and is unable to fulfill Queen Mary’s summons; she dies before he is able to move, and so he eludes death at the stake. Viktor Frankl misses his truck, and escapes a last-minute massacre of Jews by Germans. Perhaps we should not rail at inconveniences; sometimes they are God’s way of prolonging our lives.
Jesus knew about that. Both as an infant and as a man, God had to preserve his life from murderers, for “his time had not yet come.”
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August 23rd, 2009
James Gilmour grew lonely, tramping Mongolia for Christ.
James Gilmour, Scottish missionary to Mongolia, felt strongly the weight of loneliness and the need of a wife. He related to a friend, “I proposed first to a Scotch girl, but found I was too late; I then put myself and the direction of this affair—I mean the finding of a wife—into God’s hands, asking Him to look me out one, a good one too; and very soon I found myself in a position to propose to Miss Prankard with all reasonable evidence that she was the right sort of girl, and with some hope that she would not disdain the offer.”
Emily Prankard was the sister of missionary friends whose portrait he had seen. Emily accepted.
The match was not foolish. As James explained to his parents, “I wrote her, and she has written me in the most unrestrained way concerning her spiritual hopes and condition, and though we have never seen each other, yet we know more of each other’s inmost life and soul than, I am quite certain, most lovers know of each other even after long personal courtship.”
She travelled to China and they were wed. Emily proved to be an ideal companion. “Without any gammon, I am much more happy than ever even in my day-dreams I ventured to imagine I might be. It is not only me that my wife pleases, but she has gained golden opinions from most of the people who have met her among my friends and acquaintances in Scotland and China…The young lady went to Scotland, and was with [my parents] two weeks, and came away having made such an impression on them that they wrote me from home to say that ‘though I searched the country for a couple years I could not have made a better choice.’”
Emily proved to be more of a soul-winner and a better linguist than James, a real helper in his work. It was a faith-marriage truly made in heaven.
Jesus also has a marriage made in heaven. His Father selected for him a bride—the church—”without spot and wrinkle” and promised “greater things than I have done, you will do.”
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August 16th, 2009
Charles Wesley who rejected wealth.
The young Charles Wesley refused a living of five hundred pounds a year, choosing to remain with those he loved. He also refused another large fortune which a lady would have given him out of spite toward relatives who had quarreled with her. His simple reply was, “It is unjust.” Advised to accept the fortune and give it to the relatives himself, Charles replied, “That is a trick of the devil; but it won’t do. I know what I am now, but I do not know what I should be if I were thus made rich.”
Considering how seldom riches go hand in hand with spiritual depth, and how often the wealthy are proud people, I cannot doubt that Charles Wesley made the right decision.
In embracing poverty for the sake of righteousness, Wesley was like his master. Christ emptied himself of everything pertaining to his Godhead (Philippians 2), and could justly speak of himself as meek and lowly (Matthew 11:28-30). He lived among the humble when his birthright and abilities might have placed him in a palace. But, like Moses, he preferred the privations of his people to the pleasures of their oppressors.
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August 8th, 2009
Sir Francis Bacon.
When Francis Bacon was Lord Chancellor of England, he—or at least his servants—accepted bribes from all quarters. Whether these bribes influenced Bacon’s decisions is not clear; after his disgrace he called God to witness he had been the fairest of judges. At any rate, the wealth so easily gained was also quickly dissipated, and Bacon declined into deep debt.
A commission investigated. It returned numerous counts of wrongdoing. Bacon signed a confession and King James I dismissed him in disgrace. He was forbidden ever again to hold public office. His wife having already betrayed him, and the couple being childless, Bacon had no family to suffer with him, although posterity, enamored of his scientific and philosophical writings, has often wished his practice had been more in keeping with his precepts. Bacon died alone in a mansion empty of all but a caretaker.
Christ was once offered a bribe—all the kingdoms of the world—if he would but honor Satan, and he rejected the temptation with a sharp rebuke from God’s word.
Any Christian in a position of authority—be it only authority over a child—should firmly resolve never to consult his or her interest in determining the resolution of a matter but only the justice of the case.
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July 29th, 2009
Sunrise in space, NASA photo.
I once observed a dawn from an airliner 25,000 feet above the sea. The sky grew grey in the east and then an orange arc appeared between the grey sky and the black ocean, tracing the horizon as far as the eye could see. Soon the wrinkled water gleamed, and before long everything shone with a fiery glare.
In literature and in history, dawn is a powerful metaphor. Homer makes “her” a goddess with rosy fingers. Columbus anxiously peers through the darkness, awaiting the dawn which will decide if he and his men turn back, the new world undiscovered. The men of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings wait for a dawn that may bring the final battle for Middle Earth; Mr. Vane, longing for the sun as he attempts to revive a mysterious woman he has found in a field in George MacDonald’s Lilith, says, “Beneath the sad, slow-setting moon, I lay with the dead, and watched for the dawn.”
Solomon employs dawn as a metaphor for the life of a child of God. The image finds its fullest expression in the New Testament. When Christ, the Light of the World, shines upon the spiritual sleeper, a spiritual dawn begins. The sleeper awakens from the dead (Ephesians 5:14). As a child of God, made righteous by Christ (who is our righteousness, 1 Corinthians 1:30), he awaits the full daylight, not certain what it will bring, but knowing that “when He is revealed we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2).
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July 22nd, 2009
A. T. Pierson, soul-winner.
This morning I was looking through a local college catalog. One of the new business courses being touted is Opportunity Analysis. Its purpose is to teach students to assess economic and social conditions for business ventures.
This set me to thinking. Business is indispensable, but its fruits, or profits will ultimately perish. The only business with eternal profits is the Father’s business. Each of us has only a limited opportunity to demonstrate our love for Christ and to win others to follow him. Would we enroll in a course whose purpose was to assess economic, spiritual, and social conditions for spiritual ventures?
Strategically-minded Christians have long thought in these terms. William Carey prepared a careful analysis and heart-felt appeal for missions in a day when Protestants paid little attention to the subject; A. T. Pierson and John Mott showed students how they might win the world in a generation through methodical efforts; and, like a general, Robert A. Jaffrey studied maps and demographics to plot the next advance of his work in the Far East. According to Solomon, such men are wise.
Wiser than all was God himself, who prepared Christ before the world was formed, and in the fullness of time sent him to be born of a woman. Christ redeemed and won untold numbers of souls. The profits of the Father’s wise strategy implemented through the Son are eternal and incalculable. Would God the righteous could do more to imitate their Lord.
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July 19th, 2009
Charles I on the scaffold.
King Charles I of England had great difficulties with Parliament and his people. Eager to accept those Bible verses which seem to promote divine right of kings, he showed little regard for verses such as Proverbs 17:7 which would have restrained his dishonesty. Most of his problems were the result of two errors: his determination to be an absolute monarch and his disregard for truth. He seemed incapable of keeping his own word, and in the end perished on a scaffold at the hand of a rebellion which would never have succeeded had he been honest in his dealings.
By contrast, Jesus, who truly had divine right, became a servant of his people and died for the truth. He introduced many of his deepest sayings with the words “Truly I tell you…” or “Truly, truly I tell you….” He even asserted that He Himself was the truth, and at his trial declared to Governor Pilate, “for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.”
Both Charles and Jesus perished, but Jesus for the nobler sake of truth. Because of this and his vindication in resurrection, he still appeals to us with the words, “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.”
Solomon presented to us two kinds of leaders: the first arrogant and lying, the second humble and truthful. Which are you following?
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July 12th, 2009
String of pearls, Zales store.
When I worked as a librarian at Michigan Reformatory, I had to take law books to the protection cells and help with shakedowns of general cells. This gave me opportunity to observe three ways in which prisoners handled possessions.
The first group simply had what they had and made no effort to exaggerate or conceal what they owned.
The second group, to prevent extortion or theft, took pains to conceal any useful item they owned, whether by hiding it where it could not easily be discovered, or by putting a sham front on it.
A very few—and this third group interested me the most—ostensibly stacked boxes of toothpaste, soap, cards and other small items of prison value for all to see, pretending a wealth they did not have. Every box was empty.
Jesus was their opposite; he came to the earth with real treasure (he likened it to a pearl of great price, or a buried treasure) but, like the second group of prisoners, he cloaked what he had. Although higher than any earthly king, he came as a the poorest of commoners, and forbade his disciples to reveal who he really was. The greatest of philosophers, he spoke in parables. The purest of men, he mingled with thieves, prostitutes, revolutionaries and extortionists. A healer of the first rank, he admonished those he cured to say nothing.
Jesus cloaked who he was and his message so that only those who were serious about following God would penetrate to the reality of himself.
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July 4th, 2009
Microwave ovens were one result of an unhasty financial policy.
When Ronald Reagan took office, he inherited the worst economy of fifty years. Inflation was in double digits. Production was stagnant. Gasoline prices were soaring.
Hurting people shrieked for the government to do something—anything. His fearful advisors also urged government intervention in the economy. Reagan refused quick fixes. Firmly committed to private enterprise, he cut taxes, reduced government spending, and condensed or removed regulations. The results were months in coming, but restored the American economy.
What is more, his tax cuts and deregulation freed private capital to fund production of new goods, such as microwaves and personal computers. Over the course of fifteen years, his supply-side economics resulted in the huge tax surpluses which Clinton inherited.
The panic-stricken “do-something” people with their hasty plans only make matters worse, as Roosevelt’s unsuccessful alphabet agencies, Nixon’s gasoline rationing, Bush’s bank bailouts, and Obama’s huge stimulus packages demonstrate.
Sins are like economics. They are often an attempt to get quickly what we should obtain slowly by prudence and forethought.
Jesus never went for the quick fix if it meant sinning. On the contrary, his death was pre-planned before the creation of the world. Since all of the evidence shows our universe is at least twelve and a half billion years old, it is fair to say there was nothing hasty about God’s plan of salvation. It was a plan over twelve billion years in implementation.
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June 28th, 2009
Willems rescues his would-be killer.
Christian history is replete with examples of wicked men who sought the lives of the godly, who in turn faithfully witnessed to the wicked. No doubt you can fill in examples from your own knowledge. Two that sprang to my mind were Richard Wurmbrand who showed love to his torturers, and Robert Jaffrey who spoke to his Chinese captors of Christ.
But the noblest story I recalled was that of Dirk Willems. Willems was an Anabaptist pursued for his faith. Fleeing from the man sent to arrest him, he fled across an icy pond. The man followed, but broke through the ice. He cried for help, and Dirk Willems turned back, dragging him to safety. In gratitude, the man-hunter would have let Willems go but a higher official sternly commanded him to fulfill his duty, keep his oath of office, and bring in the prisoner.
Willems held fast his religious views, and was sentenced to burn. At the stake, a strong wind blew the flame away from his body so that his torments were lengthened. Finally the judge could bear to see and hear no more and ordered the executioner to dispatch the victim immediately.
The parallels between Willems’ behavior and Christ’s are obvious. Both are prime examples of this proverb. Neither sought the lives of the bloodthirsty men who took them into captivity. Jesus healed the ear of one who came to arrest him, and testified to the Pharisees and Pilate in words that might have saved their souls had they listened. He appealed to the Father to forgive the soldiers who nailed him to the cross, saying, “They don’t know what they are doing.” And he won the soul of one of the thieves crucified beside him who had earlier mocked him.
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June 24th, 2009
The Prodigal Son of Christ's parable.
As soon as I read this proverb in light of Christ’s life and teaching, I exclaimed to myself, “The Prodigal Son!”
Did Jesus have these words of Solomon in mind when he told his famous parable? The prodigal, you will recall, demanded his inheritance from his still-living father and headed off to squander it on prostitutes and fine food. Next thing he knew, he was a pauper during a famine. With rumbling belly he came to his senses and began to grow his first seedlings of wisdom.
In Solomon’s philosophy, wisdom was to steer clear of adulterous women and to live in fear (or reverence) of the Lord. The repentant prodigal did both; he abandoned the scene of his orgies and headed home with the acknowledgment of sin on his lips: “I have sinned against God and you.”
His new-found wisdom brought an almost delirious joy to his father, who ran to greet him, hugging and kissing him, and throwing a party to celebrate his return.
The terms of Solomon’s proverb were fulfilled.
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June 22nd, 2009
Beasts savage Christians in the arena.
During the Roman persecutions in North Africa, many Christians so feared the danger and torments with which they were threatened, that they paid for false certificates, saying they had sacrificed to the emperor, when in fact they had not. Others refused this dodge as unworthy of their faith, and accepted whatever indignities their cruel captors inflicted.
In this they were like Christ. Although he shrank from the cross, as any man might have, yet he set his face to it and endured the nails, the jeers, the thirst and hours of gasping agony for our sakes. He showed a strength of purpose which Solomon could not have imagined when he wrote this. Christ’s fortitude in adversity has inspired every generation since.
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June 14th, 2009
Proud Cardinal Beaton.
Cardinal David Beaton and Archbishop Gawin Dunbar were both proud men in sixteenth century Scotland. One day they had to enter a church together and each claimed precedence. A war of words ensued. Soon their retainers were at blows, tearing each others’ fine clothes, swinging their crosses as weapons and even rolling upon the ground like boys in a school-yard fight. The spectacle of religious leaders scrapping for pre-eminence brought mockery on the church they represented.
It was this attitude of pushing oneself forward which Solomon was at pains to warn against.
Jesus, who came as a lowly man among the lowly, gave a similar warning to the haughty religious leaders of his day, although he applied the principle not just to the royal court, but to more mundane social situations.
Possibly his idea was formed through reading Solomon. Here is what he said, “When you are invited by any man to a wedding, don’t sit down in the highest place, lest a more eminent person than yourself is invited by him and the one who invited both of you says to you, ‘Give this man place;’ and you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place; then when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher:’ then you will have respect before those who sit at dinner with you. ”
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June 10th, 2009
Paul preaching in Athens.
Preaching to the Athenians (Acts 17), Paul quoted their sages as saying of God, “In him we live and move and have our being.” The quote has been traced back to Aratus, an Athenian philosopher who lived nearly three centuries earlier and was echoed in Cleanthes’ “Hymn to Jupiter.” It goes without saying that since God is everywhere, nothing can be hidden from Him. Unfortunately, because He cloaks himself in invisibility, however much we know His oversight to be a fact, none of us live consistently as if we believe it. And yet the Lord sees everything.
Christ by his teaching and by his behavior affirmed this proverb. First, look at his teaching. He endorses the idea when he says, “your Father in Heaven, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you openly.” Jesus taught us to act on the principle of God’s oversight.
Second, look at Christ’s behavior. Jesus had limited his divine abilities in becoming a man; thus he often had to ask questions in order to elicit details. Nonetheless, he modeled this proverb. In the power of the Spirit, he described Nathanael’s actions under a fig tree and declared Lazarus’ death from a great distance. He knew of Peter’s exchange with the priests over the temple tax before Peter said a word.
At other times, Jesus kept his eyes open as any man might, marking both good and bad. Thus he noticed the good act of the widow dropping her two little coins into the temple treasury, and the childish behavior of the Pharisees who grabbed the highest seats at dinner–not to mention their many acts of hypocrisy. If Solomon had not penned this proverb, we could derive it from the behavior of Christ Jesus.
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June 7th, 2009
Fall tree, courtesy of Rich King.
Trees are marvelous creations. Their designs are pleasing to the eye. They clothe the landscape in restful greens, give shade and provide all sorts of useful products such as lumber, fruit, fuel and nuts. And, as we now know, they reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and pump out healthy oxygen. The Bible mentions special trees which do more. There was, for example, the tree of knowledge of good and evil which brought such woe to our race when violated. There was a tree of life from which Adam and Eve were driven away. In the New Jerusalem there will also be a tree of life, perhaps like a banyan tree, spreading over the river of life. It will bear a different fruit each month and heal the nations.
Solomon compares a wholesome tongue to a tree of life. Jesus had such a tongue. Life-giving wisdom dripped from his lips. One cannot read his words two thousand years later without a thrill. They cut to the core of any pretense and exalt to the skies. They are health-giving like the tree of life in the New Jerusalem.
By contrast, perverseness is the tendency to twist truth into its opposite. A perverse tongue shows a gaping hole in the spirit of its owner. Where Christ’s words defend truth, teach, warn and refresh, the words of a perverse man batter at the spirit with nagging, lying, cursing and destruction. Such a tongue pains its hearers and damns its owner.
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May 31st, 2009
US mint coin.
A while back, I read a book which documented the stories of people who had won large lotteries. With just one exception (a Christian woman who tithed heavily and went on living the same as before), the recipients were worse off after winning than before. One had even been killed for his money. Most had lost friends. Others had quit their jobs or gone into such debt they were staring at poverty.
Wealth gotten quickly through any dishonest or corner-cutting means (exploitation and gambling come to mind) is not blessed in the end.
By comparison, Christ gained an imperishable inheritance for us by leaving his riches in heaven (2 Corinthians 8:9), living a perfect life (Hebrews 4:15) and finally dying an agonizing death in our behalf (1 Peter 1:3-6). From his life we see that a blessed inheritance is one gained by steady determination and self-sacrifice.
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