Cold Water or a Polluted Well?

“Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.” (Proverbs 25:25 – 26)

The Church of Jesus Christ exists for three primary reasons; to worship God (John 4:23 – 24), to build itself up in Christ, bearing His image (Ephesians 4:11 – 16; Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:25-29), and to make disciples of all peoples (Matthew 28:18 – 20).

The Gospel is “like cold water to a thirsty soul,” coming as it does from a “far country” – the throne of God. And yet, with souls thirsty all around us, are we sharing the Gospel? Or are we keeping the cold water for ourselves? Are there people dying of thirst around us? Of course there are. Souls are parched, minds are wilted, hearts are shriveled. And yet, the Church, more often than not, passes people by as the priest and Levite passed the suffering man on the road to Jericho by (Luke 10:30 – 37) by walking on the “other side of the road.”

Do we think that if we pretend not to “see” the souls of others that we are not responsible? Do we think that if we just “happen” to be walking on the other side of the road that we are under no obligation to love the suffering man or woman or child? These are the thoughts of either a child or of a callous narcissistic man or woman…these are not the thoughts of Christ.

There is a mysterious dynamic about the cold water we have to share; when we live lives of sharing the living water of the Gospel (John 4:13 – 14; 7:37 – 39) flowing from the throne of God (Revelation 22:1) the water within us flows gently and powerfully at the same time and that living water is fresh and cool and clear. However, when we fail to offer the refreshing water of Jesus Christ to others, the water within us assumes a lukewarmness (Revelation 3:15 – 16) that is alien to its Source and that no one can drink from until by confession and repentance the Holy Spirit restores it to its Gospel purity.

How desperately we need the Word of God in order to share the Word of God. We need the Word of God living daily within us to form our souls, our entire beings, into the image of Jesus Christ and to keep us from the “stains of the world” (James 1:27; John 13:5 – 11; Psalm 1). The Word of God not only molds our hearts and minds, it filters our souls, separating the clean from the unclean, the unhealthy from the healthy (Hebrews 4:12), revealing Jesus Christ to us, who is the Word of God (John 1:1 – 5; Revelation 19:13).

When we, the Church, do not obey all that Jesus Christ has taught us (Matthew 28:18 – 20), what do we become but an unclean spring and a toxic well – no one can drink from us without becoming ill. Sadly, just as in the natural world people can be raised on polluted drinking water and often not realize it, so we can be raised drinking polluted water for our souls and not realize it for it is all that we have ever known.

When we are not faithful to the Word of God and our Lord Jesus Christ we become a polluted people. When we drink of the cup of the world, of the culture of our age and generation, when we bring the idols of fallen humanity into the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:19 – 22) we not only desecrate the Temple, we desecrate our temples and the water within our temples (2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1; 1 Corinthians 10:14 - 22) and no one can drink from us without sharing in our pollution.

In a time when clean drinking water is at a premium, are we attempting to be like the world in order to appeal to the world? If so we are fools; fools to exchange the glory of God for the glory of corruptible man (Romans 1:22 – 23; 1 Corinthians 1:18 - 31).

Let us be good stewards of the grace and Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us guard the purity of the Gospel and the Word of God. Let us exalt the glory of God and the beauty of living in His Presence. Let us give someone a drink of cold water from a distance country today.

Pondering Daniel Chapters 4 & 5

This is the material our Tuesday morning group will use next week in its reflections on Daniel. Maybe there is something here for others.

Our passage is Daniel chapters 4 & 5.

What do you see as the central point of these two chapters? What passage(s) captures the central point?

How would you contrast Nebuchadnezzar with Belshazzar?

Thinking about Chapter 4, is there anything here we can relate to? Has our pride ever needed to be knocked down a few pegs? Have we ever acted like “dumb beasts” and forgotten who we really are in Christ? Have we taken credit for success and not given God the glory?

“Eating grass like cattle” can be a picture of feeding on that “which passes away” – grass is used in the Bible as an image of the temporal. Do we feed on the eternal things of God or the temporal things of this age which are passing away? Who, or what, is our source of life?

In Daniel 1:2 we saw that Nebuchadnezzar brought vessels from the House of God (the Temple) in Jerusalem back to Babylon and put them in the treasury of a pagan god; now in Daniel Chapter 5 (verses 2 – 4, and verse 23) prominence is given to what Belshazzar does with these vessels. Why do you think we see this emphasis?

In thinking about the vessels of the Temple, what lessons can we draw from this for our lives today, and for the life of the Church? Who is the Temple of God?

How might 2 Timothy 2:20 – 21 and 1 Thessalonians 4:1 – 8 help us think about this?

How can we help others think about this?

What do you see in Daniel’s response (5:17) to the king? What can we (and the Church) learn from this?

Chapter 5 is, of course, where we get the saying, “The handwriting on the wall.” However, notice that the handwriting was not easily understood, it was quite the opposite. When a man or woman, or a society, is drunk with arrogance it cannot discern its situation.

Do you see any handwriting on the wall today?

Thoughts: In Revelation 2:12 – 29 Christ indicates that He will judge the churches of Pergamum and Thyatira, in part, due to their tolerance and promotion of teaching encouraging sexual immorality. Romans Chapter One portrays the downward spiral of a society when “God gives it up”  -  and while that descent into the abyss contains a number of elements which are all evil (Romans 1:28 – 32), we cannot miss the dark picture of Romans 1:24 – 27 in which sexual sin is shown to be a result of rejecting the image of God. When we reject the image of God (Romans 1:22 – 23) we end up with a perverse view of the image of man. Note Romans 1:32, “…they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

God does not take lightly how the vessels of His Temple are abused and polluted. If Belshazzar’s sin was great when it was related to physical vessels of the Temple of Jerusalem, how much greater was the sin of the churches of Revelation Chapter Two? And…of course…what about today?

Pondering Daniel Chapter Three

Every week I prepare a handout for two men's groups that meet in the Richmond area. This is our handout for next week, perhaps there is something here to consider.

Our passage is Daniel Chapter Three.

For background: Exodus 20:1 – 6; Psalm 106:6 – 20; Revelation 13:1 – 14:5; Romans 8:28 – 30; 12:1 – 2; 2 Corinthians 3:17 – 18.

The danger of reading passages like Daniel Chapter Three is that we tend to relate them either to the past or to the future – another danger is that even if we relate them to today we tend to think they apply to others and not to us or our churches. It is important that we ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to how God desires to reveal Jesus to us through the Bible – both Old and New Testaments, and to how the Father desires to transform us into the image of His Son.

Considering that the image of Chapter Three (obviously) follows the dream of the image in Chapter Two, has Nebuchadnezzar learned anything? In John 2:23 – 25 how do we see Jesus relating to the people? What does John, the Gospel writer, point out about the nature of mankind?

What can we learn from this? What should be our realistic expectations regarding that portion of humanity – and its leadership – that does not know Jesus Christ?

In Daniel 3:8 we see that the Babylonian “home boys” used Nebuchadnezzar’s image and decree as a way of eliminating Daniel’s friends (we don’t know where Daniel was at this time – he’ll have his turn in Chapter Six). Consider the irony that if it had not been for Daniel’s interpretation of the king’s dream in Chapter Two that the Chaldean counsellors would have been executed by the king. So now the very people who Daniel and his friends saved are out to have them toasted in the furnace. This again is the way of mankind and we ought not to be so foolish as to expect that the nature of unredeemed humanity is going to change, only Jesus Christ can produce lasting change in people.

What is the response of the Hebrew men when confronted by Nebuchadnezzar?

How long does it take them to give a reply?

What does their response tell us about the way they have lived up until this point (remember what we learned in chapters one and two)?

Who is in the fire with them?

Are we living today in such a way that on a daily basis we are worshiping the True and Living God and refusing to bow down to the images of this world?

What are some of the primary images the world demands that we bow down to? How can we help each other think about these things? How can we support one another in not caving into the world’s images?

How can we teach our children, grandchildren, and others about the images of the world?

Note that in verse 28 the king says that the Hebrews “…yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god expect their own God.” How does Romans 6:12 – 14 and Romans 12:1 – 2 help us think about this?

Are we yielding our bodies to Christ every day? (1 Corinthians 6:18 – 20). Are we living as if our bodies belong to Christ, that we are no longer our own?

There are two groups of people in Revelation 13:1 – 14:5 – one group is worshiping the beast and their minds (foreheads) and actions (hands) are receiving the nature of the beast; the other group is following the Lamb in the purity of worship and in faithfulness to Him (2 Corinthians 11:1 – 15) – and this group is bearing the image of the Father and the Son, they are first fruits to God and to the Lamb (James 1:18).

There is no neutrality in this life, we are either following the beast or the Lamb, we are either bowing down to the image(s) of the world or we are worshipping the Trinity.

We become what we worship. What we behold we become. Whose image are we bearing?

How are we worshipping today? How can we help others? How can others help us?

Are there areas of our lives that we have not surrendered to Jesus Christ? Are there idols in our temples?

In conclusion, note that God did not remove the Hebrews from the trial, there was no guarantee that they would survive the fire. The Way of the Cross is the Way of Suffering with Christ (Philippians 3:7 – 16; John 15:18 – 27). It is a high privilege and honor to suffer for Jesus Christ and our brethren, and we should be concerned about any teaching that seeks to spare us the Cross of Christ, that suggests that we ought to avoid the Cross. The promise of God is that He will always be with us – both in “good” times and in times of trial, persecution, and suffering – including martyrdom. The fourth Man in the furnace would have been there whether the three Hebrews lived or died – and had they died they would still have lived (John 11:25).

The following is something I wrote in my journal on April 2, 2015 after reading Daniel Chapter 3:

Called to suffer, called to die

Called to lift Your Name on high.

Through the fire we walk with Thee

Use the fire to set us free.

To be counted worthy to bear His Name,

To be counted worthy to share His shame.

To be counted worthy to suffer loss,

To be counted worthy to carry His Cross.

Why Uncover Sin?

If you are a regular reader you know I haven’t been posting much the past few months, it isn’t that I don’t have much to say, rather than perhaps I have too much to say and I need to meditate on it and choose the best things to write about. This season of life has been wonderful in the Word and in the Kingdom, sometimes the wine needs to sit and wait and breathe.

Speaking of wine and good food, a difference between a great book and a great world-class meal is that I can enjoy the book until I die, I cannot say the same about the meal...or a fine bottle of wine. I have had book “friends”, such as The Cost of Discipleship, since I was a teenager...and these friends get sweeter and richer with the passage of time and experience.

Yesterday I began a new book, and as I touched the book I was reminded of something I read in another book by another author about the author of the book I am just beginning to enjoy. The other author is a person I have met, whose speaking and writing I enjoy - and yet in one of his books he said something about this other author which was unnecessary, which did not contribute to the message of his own book, and yet which planted a bad thought and image in the mind of the reader about another person. The author of yesterday’s book is dead, the other author is alive  - would the other author have written such a thing about a living person?

This in turn reminded me of a statement I heard in a church meeting from a person who has meant much to me, who has significantly contributed to my life; the statement was about another person, a person who has been dead for well over 100 years, a person who has a wonderful testimony of faith and benevolence. Once again, this statement did nothing to add to the speaker’s message, but it planted a dark image in the minds of his listeners about someone who many, perhaps, admired.

Even if what the author and speaker above wrote and said was true - how is it edifying? How did it build people up? Did not Christ die to cover our sins? What right do we have to gratuitously uncover that which Christ has covered and forgiven?

Well, I was pondering this...once we say something, once we write something, it is difficult to repair the damage. I will enjoy the book I’m reading and trust Jesus to have taken care of any inconsistencies in the life of the author I’m reading...I think He is able to do that. It is amazing what God produces through broken vessels.