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Articles 2014-2017
Not only had God revealed His amazing mercy to David the son of Jesse, He then promised through Isaiah to release that same covenantal mercy among the nations of the earth. To begin with, He called his servant while he was but an obscure youthful shepherd. And then He began to visibly raise him up in the nation so as to reveal to others His work in David’s life.
Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.
In one sense, anyone wanting to understand God’s ways in calling, preparing, and releasing into service men and women for His purpose should study the life of David. He became a witness in his own generation even while King Saul was seeking to kill him. But no matter what Saul conspired to do, David would turn to the Lord. And he became known as one who trusted in God to establish His objective. This character qualification would be crucial for him to succeed in leading the nation in a proper manner. Other godly Israelis would have assurance in following this man whose confidence was the Lord.
Like David we become God’s witnesses by how we entrust our lives to Him. And such lifestyles of faith will authenticate us as leaders for others. People will follow those who love God and who trust His merciful involvement in their lives. In fact, all believers are leaders of somebody. For example, those who do not know Him will ask us about our evident hope concerning the future. Here to some degree is the covenant He established with David and has been making known among the nations throughout Church history.
Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified (Hebrew, PAAR – to beautify) you.
It is the eternal beauty that God works into us that will draw the nations. The process He takes us through to establish His attributes in us is often both painful and sometimes seemingly irrelevant to what we think Heaven’s priorities ought to be. But He knows what He is doing. He has the “end product” firmly set in His own mind – a Bride that looks like she belongs next to Him. And since His perspective of eternal beauty far surpasses our understanding, we must trust Him in the process of working it into our lives.
Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
When Paul walked into Ephesus, he could say to the citizens there that God had drawn near. The Lord himself had sent His servant with clear words from heaven. If they would but listen, He would draw near and make himself known to them. The apostolic gospel bears the presence of God himself to those listening. And when He presents himself in word and deed through His representatives, people must respond; His kingdom has come.
And at various times He draws near to regions and even to whole nations. He drew near to America (as well as to other nations) in the early 1900s in the Azusa street revival. Then in the 1940s He revealed himself in the healing revivals. Then more recently, He visited us in the Charismatic Renewal. Many thousands were saved and filled with His Spirit. We could say that to some degree God’s kingdom had drawn near.
But the Kingdom of God costs everything.
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
As the Ephesians, the Corinthians, and others listened to the apostles, they heard how the way they were living, the road they were on needed to change. Their ways, their idolatrous lifestyles were an expression of twisted ways of thinking. As they stopped what they were doing and listened with repentant hearts to the wisdom of God in the gospel, they would be transformed by the renewing of their minds (Romans 12:2). The gospel comes to change in the lost both their lifestyles and the thought patterns that gave rise to them.
Political, religious, and scientific leaders do us all no service when they affirm our sin as common and acceptable. Even when the United States Supreme Court says that certain sinful and unbiblical practices should be seen as normal, their conclusions still must be weighed against the words of the One who created them, who gave them life and breath, and who enabled them to function in their roles as judges. Indeed, one day they will have to stand before the Judge of all the earth and give account of their judicial decrees in light of His expressed will made known in both the creation and in His word.
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Are we to indeed say to the lost that they must return to the Lord? If they do not know Him, if they have never been personally born of His Spirit, how can they return?
The truth is that all human beings have come from the hand of God. He fashioned us while yet in our mothers’ wombs. He saw our entire futures before we had experienced even our very first day. The words of the old hymn ring true. Come home. You who are weary come home. Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling. Calling, “O sinner, come home.” The image of God in man, no matter how marred by sin is what separates us from the animals. To kill a man yields a prison sentence; to kill a chicken yields lunch. How sad and how telling it is when many who campaign and demonstrate against the killing of baby seals also crusade for the right to kill unborn baby humans. Something is off in their perspectives, their priorities, and their worldviews.
I remember hearing a preacher say that we should change the words of the hymn from “come home” to “go ye.” “Softly and tenderly Jesus commands us. Commands all believers, ‘Go ye.’” He was making a good point – one that any good evangelist would advocate. We need to go wherever He sends us. But the evangelist’s point does not negate the truth that God is the Creator, the Author of mankind. We are the only species lovingly formed from the dust by His hand and personally given life by the breath of His mouth. Therefore the invitation still stands – “come home.” Lord, give us wisdom to help redirect those who are lost, those who think that home is wherever they decide it is. It is indeed true that the human soul will only wander until it finds its rest in You.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
It is not that God’s thoughts and ways are merely different from ours; they are higher. They are on a qualitatively different plane than ours. It is not as though we can simply change our ways and align them with His – which is what religion attempts to do. But the best efforts of mankind will always be on a level far below God’s definition of righteousness. And even if we could attain to His likeness through our own efforts, we would then have the right to take the glory for what we achieved. But the reality is that His purpose among men is rooted in His mercy; none of us deserve to even be His children.
Notice that there are only two groups.
The wicked, the unrighteous living according to their ways and their thoughts (Isaiah 55:7).
Those learning the ways and the thoughts of God.
The scary part is that one can regularly read the Bible and still be in the first group. Think of the religious leaders who rejected Christ and persecuted His Church in the Book of Acts. The only way to be included in the second group is through repentance (which involves a change of mind) and then the lifelong discovery of the One who fills heaven – the One who intends to fill the whole earth with the knowledge of His thoughts and His ways. What good news! There is a kingdom emerging on the earth from heaven.
While the proud strive to achieve, the humble will bend their knees to receive. Those who labored to build the tower of Babel were motivated by the desire to make for themselves a great name (Genesis 11:4). And God opposed them. On the other hand, Abraham received a great name when he simply believed and responded to God’s initiative and blessing (Genesis 12:2). How much wiser it is to listen and to move forward in what Heaven is initiating and blessing than it is to strive after what God is personally opposing. It is no wonder that so many in our nation need pharmaceutical assistance to just get through the day. When will we all learn that God is simply out of our weight class? As difficult as it is for the righteous when we experience resistance from the powers of darkness, let us pray with mercy in our hearts for those whose lives experience Heaven’s continual, firm, and unyielding yet compassionate opposition. To resist Him is not only folly; it is ultimately and eternally a losing proposition.
And so we look to Him; we wait upon Him. And as we listen for His word, we know that what He says will be established on earth.
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
God sends His word into the world, into men’s hearts, and into seemingly intractable problems. Our hope is not in our ability to fix the world, other people, or even ourselves. Our hope is in the One who accomplishes amazing things through His word. And He continues to speak in our day. This means that something as momentous as the initial creation of the heavens and the earth is going on right now.
As His word went forth, the universe came into being. Then as His Word became flesh and walked among us, He laid the foundation for the new creation to come forth. Church history is His story of the slow yet unstoppable emerging of His perfect work revealed in and through an imperfect people.
First the Lord called all who were thirsty to come. Then He guaranteed the success of His spoken word, His invitation. What has been the outcome? Many have heard, responded, and have been saved. The question today is whether He is still calling the lost to himself. Some of His final written words in the Bible give us the answer.
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
John’s prophetic words are almost identical to Isaiah’s (Isaiah 55:1). And while the Lord continues to issue His call over the nations, His word is more than simply an invitation. The power to respond is present in what He is saying. Certainly it is true that the human will is involved in each one’s salvation experience.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
(Revelation 22:17 KJV)
But it is also true that Christ promised that He would build His Church (Matthew 16:18). And the act of building involves also the gathering of the needed materials. As a result, Heaven is gathering the materials – a people for His own possession and is in the process of integrating them together into a single house, a holy people, a corporate bride, what Paul identified as a many membered man growing up into Christ who is the head.
But when we look at the present condition of His Church with all the different and sometimes competing groups, streams, and organizations – all proclaiming their allegiance to Christ, we sometimes wonder if our Lord is up to the task. Of course, we know that He is. His present project is not any more difficult for Him than was His act of creating the heavens and the earth.
Here is His promise.
For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
Simply put, the Lord is out to make for himself a name of renown among all the nations of the earth. His intent is not rooted in a pretentious self-pride due to insecurity. Rather, His name is salvation. In making himself known He is unveiling both His definition of soundness as well as the proper route to get there. Indeed, He is the only one who understands what a normal human should look like. In fact, He became one.
When God put His Son on display in Israel two thousand years ago, people simply did not know how to relate to this truly normal human. Here was a man who walked with God in perfect submission, intimacy, and insight. I like to say that it took God to be a man to show us how men are to walk with Him. The problem was that mankind had grown so used to sub-normalcy due to Adam’s sin that many could only see Heaven’s upward call as a threat to the status quo (it can be challenging to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and set out for Canaan). But the glories of God’s Kingdom are so much greater than what we must leave behind in order to follow Him.
Brier patches and thorn bushes can seem pretty normal to us all. But our God’s stated intent is not to pretty up the sharply pointed barbs but to change their very nature and turn them into cypress and myrtle trees – and in the process to make known His name as an everlasting sign. As a consequence, the earth will behold the unfolding transformation of His field, His people, and multitudes will turn to the living God.
In closing, if God is still prophesying “come” to the nations of the earth, then we can rest assured that multitudes are on the way. This coming generation will see many turn from darkness to the light. If we have discovered hope for the hopeless, truth for the wanderers, and joy for the depressed, let us not apologize for an increasing normalcy among us. Rather, let us rejoice in the One who has determined to take on this sometimes seemingly impossible task. And let us believe in His ultimate success. His name shall be great among the nations.
Donald Rumble – March 2017
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