“Chaffin, you are as good of a fielder as anybody on the team, but I swear if I rolled a basketball to you on the ground, you couldn’t hit it.” The words of my 14-and-under baseball coach stung rather smartly in my spirit, particularly as we rode back home after the game. My athletic experiences of organized sports were not too encouraging. Most of my memories are rather negative. I was so bad at basketball that I was the only one who tried out for the team that never even got to suit up for a game. I think my coach rather wished that I had not come out for the team. He ignored me most of the time. Most of my football memories aren’t much better. With the exception of my last game, I was usually yanked from the game with a few unpleasant words spoken. That last game was different. I finally had hit my niche. I started at nose guard and even finished it as well. I finally heard some encouraging words from my coach, “Chaffin, if I knew you could play nose guard like that, you would have been there all season.” It felt good to hear my coach rejoice over me.
I took note of today’s passage that when the nation of Israel sought the Lord with all their heart, He would rejoice over them. Wow, can you imagine, the King of the Universe rejoicing over you? Who cares about a coach of some dumb sport? We have opportunity to have the King of the Universe rejoice over us. It is this passage that Paul quotes in Romans 10:6-8 and then applies it in 10:9,10. You see the true faith in the Lord and confession of that faith results in that obedience which causes the Lord to rejoice over us. Wow! My King, the King of the Universe is rejoicing over me when I exercise faith that results in obedience! You know, that really feels good! I don’t want to be on the bench. I want to suit up and get in the game! It is not too difficult. I simply trust and obey. He provides the fuel for obedience. I only choose. He rejoices over me. It is not difficult because He performs it. 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
JEREMIAH 20
Some messages from the Lord are not welcome, to say the least. In the previous chapter Jeremiah had brought a very negative (from the nation’s perspective) message to the nation. One would expect the worshippers of other gods in the nation to be upset, but not the priests of Yahweh. Yet, the priests of Yahweh were the ones that took the greatest offense! Pashur struck Jeremiah and had him placed in stocks. It would seem the better part of wisdom for Jeremiah to shut his mouth, but he couldn’t. When the glory of God grips us, it drives us to proclaim His message, no matter the cost. Jeremiah delivers to Pashur a scathing prophecy because of Pashur’s lack of repentance. Jeremiah renames him ‘fear-on-every-side.’ Now Jeremiah has to sit and dwell upon the personal cost of his announcement while the people gape at him and while the stocks chafe his wrists and ankles as he sits in the high gate of Benjamin.
The people filing in and out of the north gate to the temple could taunt and ridicule the ‘prophet’ for his ‘inappropriate speech.’ (It is interesting that the Lord was led out of the second temple to be crucified in the same general direction.) Can you imagine how humiliating this would have been for the prophet of the LORD? He spoke the truth and was rejected for it. Jeremiah responded just like every one of us would have responded. He said to himself, “All right, enough is enough! I’m not speaking the word of the Lord anymore!” But the glory of the Lord is more powerful than physical beatings. The glory of the Lord is more powerful than stocks. The glory of the Lord is more powerful than the ridicule of our comrades. When His glory grips us, His word becomes like fire in our bones! We cannot but help to speak the things which we have seen and heard. We know that the Lord is with us like a Mighty, Awesome One! It hurts now, but only for a little while. For them it feels okay now, but their everlasting shame will never find relief.
Oh Lord, let Your glory consume me! Let your glory fill my life producing everlasting praise to Your name! Let it overflow even the pain of life that comes from proclaiming your word! May Your glory be the fixed reference point of my life! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
ACTS 7:44-60
Stephen makes a clear case that the glory that was revealed in the patriarchs, Moses and the prophets was the glory of Jesus. The fathers of these religious leaders had resisted the glory of God (and thereby the glory of Jesus) just as these religious leaders had resisted the glory of Jesus by crucifying Him. As they sought to kill Stephen for speaking the truth, Stephen saw a greater glory of God, i.e. Jesus standing at His right hand, the place of prominence and power. Normally a monarch remains seated while in court. Jesus stood to receive His faithful servant into His court. What glory! Interesting isn't it that the more we resist the glory of Christ, the less we see of it, and the more we speak the glory of Christ, the more we see of it? That is the way Jesus works. Indeed we serve a glorious king! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
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