Look to the need!!!

ALAS! AND DID MY SAVIOR BLEED?

Alas! and did my Savior bleed

And did my Sovereign die?

Would He devote that sacred head

For sinners such as I?

[originally, For such a worm as I?]      

Issac Watts

That line, “for sinners such as I,” stuck in my head this morning. 

I began to wonder if I really knew what it meant in my life.  It’s easy to say, “I’m a sinner” (and we may add “saved by grace”).  We say it somewhat flippantly at times as though it was a “duhhh.”  But if we really take the time to reflect (prayerfully) on what the “such as I” means in our lives things can get really serious really fast.

I know that I have to work to plant my feet on His grace and look at the “such as I.”  It’s just too easy to allow myself to get at least a little smug and lazy about my sin.  When I do that I lose something – I lose the humility and dependency I need to really grow in Him.

I want to develop a mindset that recognizes and appreciates the fact that I need no less of the blood of the Redeemer right now than I did before He called me to Himself.  I will never not need it all.  Jesus will never have suffered less for my overcoming even the most minor seeming infraction.

Notice that the last verse was changed.  From worm – to sinner (see my blog on Worminess).  Though it’s nice to use sinner rather than worm I wonder if the word “sinner” has lost some of its impact on our hearts, especially when we seek to share the good news. 

Do we communicate the Gospel sinner to sinner or “Ok-sinner” to sinner?  Though I am “in” Christ I am no less a sinner than my friend who is not “in” Christ.  Oh, I am redeemed, I have the assurance His promise and sacrifice provides – but I am still a sinner – I haven’t quit sinning.  Do I keep in mind, as I share the Gospel, that in that very moment I am no less in need of His saving grace than the person I am sharing with? 

The Gospel is a n“everybody” thing – everybody needs to hear it and everybody needs to accept it.  It is not a “you” thing.  The only “once for all” was His redeeming death.  He died once for us.  We are saved AND being saved.  We (believers) work out our salvation with fear and trembling – our only confidence is in Him.

It’s tough to discover a good analogy for the “wormy” attitude.  But I really believe that we need to cultivate it in gratitude and hope and assurance of His promises.  What have we to lose if we rekindle the sense of need we had the day He called us. Perhaps all we’ll lose is our comfortable complacency and the projection of an attitude of superiority.  We, in Him, are better off, not better.  We are redeemed sinners but still sinners.

I remember a dog food commercial where a child sings:

My dog’s bigger than your dog

My dog’s bigger than yours

My dog’s bigger ‘cause he gets  XXXXXX

My dog’s bigger than yours

I can almost hear some believer somewhere singing

My life’s better than your life

My life’s better than yours

My life’s better ‘cause, it’s got Jesus in it

My life’s better than yours

Well, my hope is better, my relationship with God is better, the beliefs and teachings that shape my living arebetter – but my “life” here – it’s pretty much like everyone else’s.  As far as sin – I can run with the best of them.  In regards to a need for His provision, especially His redemption, my need is NEVER any less than the worst of the worst of the worst.

Dottie Rambo wrote lyrics which are to be sung to the tune of that great Irish ballad, O’ Danny Boy.  I sing it often (ok, not well but fervently).  The lyrics are:

He Looked Beyond My Fault

Verse

Amazing grace shall always be my song of praise,

for it was grace that brought my liberty;

I do not know just why He came to love me so,

He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.

Chorus

I shall forever life mine eyes to Calvary,

to view the cross where Jesus died for me,

how marvelous the grace that caught my falling soul;

He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.

As we share the Gospel, I suggest we prayerfully seek to look beyond their faults and focus on their need.  I also suggest that before we share, we prayerfully remember that indeed, He looked beyond our faults and saw OUR need – and He still does.

A debtor - high and wide!

COME THOU FONT OF EVERY BLESSING

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

What a  wonderful hymn.  Those oldies are truly goodies.

I was thinking of how great a debt I owe His grace and I began to thnk of the people he has brought into my life who have been consistent sources of His encouragement and strength.  Of course I’ve written about my Grandmother, Grace Sanders, but the other side of the family gets equal time.

My aunt Jean and uncle Marvin (uncle Mama) have been a source of example, encouragement, challenge and hope.  If I was even to attempt to chronicle all the ways they have served Him and the difficulties they have faced it would be much too long for a mere blog.

Suffice it to say that as I look back I see their influence even when we were far apart and in little communication.  When the phone rings and Caller-ID displays their name my heart leaps and I grab the phone.  I know it will be a blessing.

Their “ministry” will probably never be recorded anywhere and platitudes may not come their way but I know in heaven they will know, more than they know now, what a blessing their faith has been to many in many ways.

You know it’s funny how in looking back for blessings the detail I can remember of the ministry in my life.  I was enfolded by Jean and in awe of Marvin.  Their witness in my life is perhaps one of the most consistent and comforting.

They always believed in Him “for” me.  What I mean is that no matter mess I found myself in I KNEW I was always in their prayers – even when I kind of resented it.  I also knew that no matter “how” I was, I always had a home to run to and be cared for.  For a long time as I tried my best to outrun God I kept running into them – they were kind of His angels in my life.

Jean gave me a Bible once (of course at the time I scoffed).  In the fly-leaf of the Bible she wrote:

The inexhaustible supplies of God

Are available

To the man who is available

To the inexhaustible supplies of God

I cannot count the times that quote has come to my mind and refreshed and steadied my heart.  Although at the time it bore little significance to me its hope and promise has come to mean more and more as Patti and I serve Him.  One thing it has done it to make me aware that He knows what of His inexhaustible supply I need – I usually don’t.

So, I thank my God for them.  I praise my God for them.  Though they may not know how very much He has done through them in our lives, we and He do.  Certainly I first thank and praise Him but I am compelled to thank and praise them – for being willing and determined to be part of His inexhaustible supply to Patti and I.

So, as they are a part of His grace in our lives, our debt grows higher and wider.

Thank you Lord for Aunt Jean and Uncle Mama ;-}}}}!!!

Ministered to in ministering to......

There are giants in these days, though the times are not such as to allow them room to display their gigantic strength; in many a humble cot, in many a crowded workshop, in many a village manse there are to be found men of the house of David, men after God’s own heart, anointed with the holy oil.   Spurgeon, Charles Haddon (2010-08-03). Till He Come - Enhanced Version (Kindle Locations 962-963). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.

I have found and am still finding that though the men and women of known faith – of public faith – are worthy counselors,  it is the guiet and humble believer whose voice is little heard from whom I receive my greatest blessings.  It is from their walks and especially their prayer that God richly blesses me.

They think themselves poor and weak and in need for all things and in doing so they keep their eyes, minds and hearts focused on the Lord who has promised them His friendship and care.  It is their clear awareness and humble acceptance of their deep and broad need for Him to be strong in every aspect of their lives that is a much needed and kindly given reproach to me.

They have a special sense of things not being Ok and a pervasive hunger to lean solely upon His grace, mercy and power.  They speak of His being the only provisions they trust.  They speak of Him “speaking” to them not in audible voices, though He can, but rather through the guidance of the Word and the Spirit as well as a surrender to listen.

There are two people and one family to who I have been blessed to minister of late.  And I laugh.  In their coming to me for encouragement and counsel it has been I who have been given such.  They have been His ministers in my live, His “come along side” earthly helpers who, utterly unaware of the work He is doing through them,  spread the message of His faithfulness and His deep desire for us to utterly depend upon Him.  They have shown me that it is only when I am distracted by the world, the flesh or perhaps the devil that I am cast down in myself, by myself.

One in particular recommended a book that has greatly impacted his walk.  Perhaps sensing my skepticism he finally bought me a copy of the book.  For weeks it lay by the sofa on my little table.  I couldn’t bring myself to read it but I couldn’t shelve it either.  So it sat.

Finally, a few days ago, out of a sense of obligation to acknowledge the gift, I picked it up and began to read.  I did not put it down until I have read it all.  Today, it is dog-eared and marked and waiting to have the notes transcribed.  It is directly impacting my perspective and especially my heart.

Did I learn something “new.”  Well, only if seeing the Way of faith through someone else’s eyes and heart is “new,”  yes.  No new truths were revealed in the book but the striking difference in the author’s perspective was a real conviction.  The reality of how simply and faithfully God works and moves in the truly dark places in the world was a smack in the back of the head.

I did my “due diligence” on the author and I was shocked at how little I could find.  I looked hard to find evidence to feed my skepticism but I could find none.  My big hurdle came from his claim to have fasted fo 70+ days while in prison and being beaten with great regularity.  My reaction, “Yeah, right, 70+ days??”

In the book he talks about that experience.  He tells us that he was not fasting to grow closer to the Lord or be released from prison.  Rather he was praying to die and to be released from what he was going through.  Does he then talk about how God’s will was for him to live and do a bunch of great things etc, etc, etc???  Nope.  He simply relates that he was wanting to die and be with the Lord and the Lord said, “Not now.”

What was so shocking to me was that I, in my own comfortable western way, have sought the same thing.  I have, in the depths of despondency and pain, lay on my bed and asked the Lord to take me home.  My situation, compared to his, is certainly a paltry and minor thing but I “knew” the feeling, the despair he writes about.  I too had “heard” the Lord’s, “Not now.”

Maybe it’s just me, and I hope so, but the danger of “professional pride,” or “seminary sanctity,” is very real to me.  I was taught that I was to have all the answers – I was the “pro.”  Well I work to make myself remember that I only know the one in whom all the answers are found, I have NO exclusive claim to those answers and He doesn’t always give them through me.

I have also learned that regardless of our western proclivity for order, structure and boxes He does not NEED them.  Not that they are wrong but rather, when they are not possible, He is not hindered in any way, shape or form.

I am learning that the Holy Spirit is much neglected (or hampered) by many of us (me too).  For whatever reason we shrink from Him hence we deprive ourselves of His ministry.  But when we allow aberrant and strange supposed manifestations of the Spirit to make us hesitant for His ministry it is akin to clogging an artery to our hearts.  Yet, Jesus Himself tells us the purpose and we see the might of the Spirit throughout the Word.  It is the Spirit that is the seal the provenance of our citizenship  in the Kingdom and it is the Spirit working in us that conforms us to His likeness.  Oh, we certainly are invited to help – but we must be very careful not to hinder.

Those of us who are called to the role of evangelist, shepherd or teacher must accept the purpose of our calling which is to equip the saints for works of – yep – ministry.  When we do we will find ourselves ministered to in ways we do not expect by the very ones we so equip.

Peter's Pen 1st Peter 1:8&9

1Pe 1:8-9  Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,  (9)  obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

I once had someone tell me that the gospel was unbelievable.  I agreed.  For the “world,” it does seem unbelievable.  When you and I were dead in our sins, blind to the things of God, the Gospel seemed unbelievable.

But – God didn’t let that remain the case for you and me.  He made us alive, restored our sight and we believed.  Now we are His forever.

In this passage Peter is acknowledging the unbelievableness of the Gospel.  We have never seen Jesus and yet we love Him.  We don’t see Him now yet we believe in Him.  We aren’t in heaven yet – but we rejoice at the firm promise of it.

Oh yeah – we’re nuts.  Folks even thought Paul was nuts:

Act 26:24  And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind."

Paul even writes:

1Co 1:27-29  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;  (28)  God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are,  (29)  so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

Do you ever feel alien?  Do you ever have a sense that you aren’t meant for here?  That is very appropriate.  Even more so to feel a little godly "foolishness."

But this passage does not stand alone.  We haven’t “seen” Him yet we love Him.  We don’t “see” Him yet we rejoice in His promises and faithfulness.

But Peter goes on in the next section -

Me 081612

I used to think I was grateful to God for all He has done is  doing and will be doing in our lives.  Boy was I wrong!!

On the recommendation of my Pastor I started reading The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel.  Notwit’s an old book written in a very different time but it’s presentation on Providence is powerful.

Here’s the “Aha!”

A one point Flavel talks about the “providence’ of being raised in a Christian home.  Well, I wasn’t – not even close.  But that got me thinking about what was providential in getting to where I am with Him today.  Then I began to see with a new clarity and understanding.

Her name was Grace Hood Sanders.  She was my fraternal grandmother.  She was over 6 feet tall, built like a block-house and had a mustache.  She also loved Jesus like you wouldn’t believe.  She was an avid member of the church next door to her house (interestingly named “Grace Baptist) in Chattanooga, TN.  She was a big fan of Oral Roberts and a real hard core prayer.

She was also reviled and I guess you could say persecuted by her own family.  Her husband ignored her, her daughter and oldest son humored her and my father ridiculed her.  But she held firm in her faith and every summer when we visited off we’d go on Sunday to church with her –  “we” was my sister and I.

But when I was very young she said she’d give me a dollar if I would memorize John 3:16.  OK, in my immediate family a dollar was not such a big deal.  But something made me anxious about memorizing the verse.  Not excited – but anxious – it was strange.  But, memorize it I finally did – and I got my dollar.

My point is that Grace has always been a big part of my memories.  I have lived in awe of her and until the other day, I never knew why.  Now I do.  Among a lot of other ways I see His providence in my early life – from bombings to really bad car wrecks to simple kindnesses, Grace  Sanders looms largest – now.

It was through this big, loving, faithful Christian woman, whom I rarely ever saw, that a seed was planted in my heart.  I like to say that I couldn’t remember a time I didn’t know who Jesus was and what He did for me.  Well now I can – it was before Grace Sanders told me His story and implanted the first little piece of His Word in my mind and heart.

This realization has resulted in a whole new understanding and sense of gratitude in my heart.  When I realized this wonderful providence I began to see His hand working through so many others as he shaped and molded and refined me.  The number of those whom He used is legion.  From a  business executive who mentored me in high school, to Sinclair, to some I have discipled, to some who were not believers, to strangers at Caribou,  to my current Pastor, God has had many hands busy in my life.

It’s overwhelming and wonderful.  I recommend the book but I also encourage you to take time to remember those whom He has used to care for you.  Some will be glaringly obvious but I assure you, there are many many more.  It just takes a little digging to find them.

To all of you whom He has used in my life.  Thank you and God bless you and praise Him for you.