We had a baptism this morning, Christmas morning. I filled the tank before I went home Friday. I remember years ago when First Baptist Church of BSL burned down early one Sunday Morning. The cause of the fire was traced to a faulty water pump/heater for the baptistery. With that in mind and since Christmas Eve was a Saturday, I decided to get up at 6:00 on Christmas morning to start the heater. It would just be done later. I didn’t want to be gone a day while the heater was running. Unfortunately, the pump seized up when I tried to start it. It became really hot to the touch. It was too late to call a plumber to fix the heater for the morning’s baptism. Sometimes things just don’t get done in time. Later in the morning, I learned that one of the baptismal candidates was ill. She and her husband could not attend. Their baptism would be done later. Sometimes things just have to be done later. We went ahead and had the baptisms with the other candidates. Brrrrr. . . it was cold.
The Passover is a celebration of Jesus. The Lord wants us to celebrate Him. It is His glory for us to celebrate Him. Sometimes things just don’t happen in time for it to happen. Sometimes things just don’t get done in time. As marvelous as was the revival in Hezekiah's day, it just did not get done in time to allow the priests to properly prepare for the Passover. But the law had a provision for celebrating the Passover in the second month for those who could not celebrate it in the first month. So, Hezekiah called the nation to celebrate the Passover in the second month. Sometimes things just have to be done later. It is the glory of the Lord to recognize this and mercifully allow for change. When there is real change going on in our lives, He makes allowance for us. He is so merciful to allow for my slowness, as long as there is real change going on. What was the result in Jerusalem? There was joy! Lord, keep the change going on in my life! Thank you for Your mercy in giving me more time. Keep me from presuming upon Your mercy! You are so glorious in Your patience with me! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
PROVERBS 25
I am on vacation in North Carolina, visiting my son, daughter-in-law and grandson. There is something about traveling, whether it is across the state, across the country to North Carolina, or across the world to Mongolia, that reminds me of how small I am. In the midst of the travel I must struggle to traverse the vast distances, but the distances are mere trifles in comparison to the vast distances of creation. In the midst of travel I encounter fantastic variety of information in different species, and am reminded that my Creator thought it all through. I am overwhelmed how He holds it all together.
Friday I was bitten by something, an insect, a spider; I don’t know. My arm is swollen and extremely itchy. The bite mark is hard in the center and oozing. I checked the internet for types of possible spider bites. Purportedly there are not brown recluses in this area of the USA. The only antihistamine that I have with me is Claritin. It seems to briefly help the swelling, hardness and itching, but it wears off quickly. I began thinking about the extreme complexity involved in the chemistry of a spider bite and other chemicals of the body. It is indeed a matter which is wholly hidden to us. Yet God has designed it all both in its creation and its curse. He has concealed this matter.
Why does God conceal a matter? Indeed most of creation is matters which are hidden to us. The question sounds almost as if He is trying to hide something. Rather I think it is that He is so far greater than us in knowledge, power and virtue (infinitely so), and we are so far under Him that it appears that He has concealed all of these things. We will be infinitely studying matters which He has concealed (because He is infinite) and we will never exhaust the mysteries which He created or concealed. The ultimate mystery is Himself, the love that exists in the Godhead, and the marriage of the Son and His bride. That is His glory.
But there is another glory! It is the glory of kings to reveal what God has hidden. There is one King, the King of Kings, who reveals what God is like. The one who has seen Him, has seen the Father. The one who finds Him, finds the way to the Father. The one who knows Him, knows the Truth. The one who obtains Him, obtains life for the Father has granted Him to have life in Himself. The one who has Him has the perfect exegesis of the One is above all else. That is the glory of the Lord Jesus. He is both the one who conceals all things as their creator, as well as the one who makes everything known. That is part of his glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
REVELATION 16
Are the judgments of the Lamb righteous? Of course they are righteous! One might respond that one is taking the word of God too literally to say that every judgment of the Lamb is taking the passage too literal. What is to keep me from saying that every passage that does not satisfy me emotionally is not to be taken literally?
I was talking with my father-in-law. He asked me, “You don’t believe that God really sends people to hell to burn forever?” I nodded my head indicating that I do believe that God sends people to hell to burn forever. He responded, “I think that you take the Bible too literally.” The implication of his comment is that such a judgment is unrighteous. Now I did not argue the point with him. I believe that if someone does not want to believe the word of God, then no logical argument, no matter how logical, will be useless. Believing God is mostly an act of the will not of the intellect. It is a spiritual thing not intellectual; although, the intellect does play into it. If one wants to believe, then the intellectual questions must be addressed, for God does not ask us to shelve our intellects. He expects us to love Him with all of our minds. So for those who choose to love God, the intellect must be addressed as much as possible. But for those who choose not to love God, it does not matter how logical your argument, the intellect is never satisfied.
I suppose that if the book of Revelation were the only place in the Bible that talked about eternal flames of hell, then my father-in-law would have a good point. Revelation is a book of imagery. Often times one wonders whether the images of the Revelation are be taken literally or whether to ask what does the image mean and then conclude that the meaning behind the image is literal. But the references to eternal judgment are not found only in the book of Revelation. Jesus, Himself, warns against doing something that would cause one to, “Go into hell into the fire that shall never be quenched—where, ‘Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’” (Mark 9:42-48; Matthew 5:29,30; 18:8,9) If this does not refer to an eternal punishment, then what does is mean?
What does it mean that God is eternal? Part of the meaning is that time is part of His creation, which necessarily means that He exists outside of time. He sees and knows all things at once. For Him, everything could be considered one eternal now. If sin is committed, then it is committed against an eternal God. That sin is eternally before Him. If He is just, then His justice must eternally judge a sin that is eternally before Him. This He did in the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. If one refuses to receive the Lamb’s eternal payment for one’s sin, then that refusal is eternally before God. The payment that the Lamb made is applied only to those persons who receive Him. It would be unjust of God to not eternally punish those persons who refuse to receive Him. That is why Jesus says, “He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
His judgments are indeed righteous and true. It is emotionally painful for us to think of any one being tortured for eternity. Perhaps that is because we really do not understand righteousness and justice and why the unrighteous cling to their decisions when pardon is offered. He is righteous in all of His judgments. Eternal sin demands eternal justice. The Lamb gives both eternal mercy and eternal justice. That is part of His glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
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