The Hiddenness of God (Part 3)

I watched 'The Finger of God' DVD by Darren Wilson yesterday and showed it at Life Group. Absolutely amazing. It's a film documenting the physical works of God around the world. From people mysteriously receiving gold teeth in church services, to street evangelism and healings, to the dead being raised (some dead as long as four days).

It seems God is prepared to revealed himself in quite remarkable ways. In many of these places – Mozambique, California, China – healing miracles are performed to show people God is real, and then the gospel is preached. Often it seems the whole purpose of the healings is to open people up to the gospel message and pave the way for salvation.

What really strikes you when you watch this is that God doesn't seem hidden at all. He provides real, tangible proof of his existence when asked, and is more than happy to demonstrate his power to a people that have no knowledge of him.

It makes you think – perhaps healings and miracles are inextricably linked to evangelism and the gospel message. Maybe they're not just meant for church on a Sunday, but out on the streets, in everyday life.

Another interesting point was that these healings, miracles, signs and wonders seem just as available to the church in the West as to the poorer, persecuted Christians around the world.

As an old 'No Fear' poster once read, "You miss 100% of the shots you never take". Maybe we just need to actually pray for some people.

The Existence Of God (Part 2)

Sometimes I think that the presence of evil in the world is absolute and undeniable evidence that Satan and demons exist, and therefore God exists. The fact that we even have a concept of evil shows there is a moral law, and a God who wrote that law. We know the world is broken and we demand that it should be better.

As Matt Chandler humorously states, no one gets angry at unicorns, elves or the Tooth Fairy. No one really believes God is fictitious.

The Hiddenness of God (Part 2)

It seems many Christians struggle with doubts, even doubting God's existence at times. Many will confess to thoughts such as "Am I making this up? Am I crazy?". We all want God to be really visibly obvious so that there's no room for doubt whatsoever.

It occurred to me today that, even when you can't see someone, if you can hear their voice you would never doubt their existence. A voice on the phone – you know there's a real person on the other end.

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
John 10:27

Surely the same is true with God. When you regularly hear His voice you don't find yourself doubting His existence. When we apply ourselves to reading His Word, it speaks to us. It penetrates our soul and spirit the way no human words can.

"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."
James 4:8

There doesn't need to be a haze, a fog, or a great distance between us and God. You simply are as close to God as you want to be.

The Hiddenness of God

"Moses said, "Please show me your glory." ... "But," he said [the LORD], "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live¹."
Exodus 33:18-20

"Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him², because we shall see him as he is."
1 John 3:2

¹ There seems to be a real need for God to speak to us indirectly. Occasionally people hear the audible voice of God, yet it's very rare. But no-one's ever seen God the Father and lived to tell the tale. If he was to just turn up and show himself, like many people wish he would do, we would all die instantly.

² We would also be transformed into perfection with utter purity and holiness, just as Jesus Christ. So in short, we would cease to be of any earthly use.

It seems that God filters down His voice to a level that we can cope with. We have the Bible, and the whisper of the Holy Spirit to our soul. We are ministered to by angles, often without realising it. All very quiet, subtle ways. Some had even entertained angels and had no clue (Hebrews 13:2). But when people do see angels in the bible, they are usually terrified. And these are just created beings like us.

I would guess it's not God's plan to terrify us to on a daily basis.

But if we accept that we can't see God, we might at least question why He doesn't provide undeniable proof of His existence? Apparently, He already has...

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
Romans 1:20

"He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'"
Luke 16:31

If we can't see Him from creation, if we don't believe the very words of God, written, in the bible, we will never believe no matter what.

Self-Pity

"I want to be free of self-pity. It is a tool of Satan to rot away a life."

Barbara Youderian, Through Gates Of Splendor, p206

Expendable

I've just finished reading this book – Through Gates of Splendor – about five missionaries who set out to reach the savage Auca tribe in Ecuador. These guys gave themselves to a specific task, spent years in preparation, and then got massacred on pretty much their first point of contact with the tribe on the ground.

As far as the book details, no Auca ever became a Christian, or even had the gospel presented to them in an intelligible, meaningful way*. But thousands of Christians were struck by their sacrifice, commitment, and all out abandonment for Christ. Lives were changed and redirected through their testimony. And the story was big news in the secular press at the time (1950s).

So all in all, as far as it is visible to us at the present time, their life and mission bore much fruit. Just not in the way they had planned or envisioned.

Their story also stands out in direct contrast to that of Hudson-Taylor, John Wesley, and all the guys that spent long, fruitful, gifted lives working incredibly hard for the cause of Christ. It stands in contrast because they were very ordinary people, they were young and their story was so utterly short. And yet they were prayerfully led by God throughout it.

It seems this was His will, His way. Their sacrifice, their story, was one He permitted and intended.

It just makes you think – anything that we could accomplish or do with our lives is all in the hands of God. It's His story, not ours. He writes the script, and we're utterly expendable.

––––––

"Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."
Jim Elliot, p11

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
Jim Elliot, p173

"During the last war we were taught to recognize that, in order to obtain our objective, we had to be willing to be expendable ... This very afternoon thousands of soldiers are known by their serial numbers as men who are expendable ... We know there is only one answer to our country's demand that we share in the price of freedom. Yet, when the Lord Jesus asks us to pay the price for world evangelization, we often answer without a word. We cannot go. We say it costs too much."
Nate Saint, p53

"A call is nothing more nor less than obedience to the will of God, as God presses it home to the soul by whatever means He chooses."
Pete Fleming, p13

"The old life of chasing things that are of a temporal nature seemed absolutely insane."
Nate Saint, p62

––––––

* 7th August 2011: I've just read in Randy Alcorn's book Heaven that some Auca's (or at least one) did become Christians:

"Mincaye, the Auca Indian who speared Nate Saint, is now a follower of Jesus. When Mincaye was asked what he's going to do when he meets Nate Saint in Heaven, he replied, "I'm going to run and throw my arms around Nate Saint and thank him for bringing Jesus Christ to me and my people." He added that Nate Saint would welcome him home."

Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 336

Single-Mindedness

I've been thinking about the nature of single-mindedness this week, which I've never really thought about before. And interestingly it also popped up in Andrew Wilson's sermon today at church. As a topic, it's quite rare to hear in a sermon, or just in life. So I think God may be speaking.

Single-mindedness is when you set your sights on a goal and you walk straight and fast. It's very different from narrow-mindedness, although the two appear to have much in common. The single-minded man may have very good vision: he's aware of everything around him and what's up ahead. He knows where he wants to go. He plots a path, and he sticks to it.

The narrow-minded man, on the other hand, appears to have very limited vision. Perhaps even tunnel vision. He may walk straight, and stick to one trajectory, but he has no idea what's around him. He's easily lost and run over.

On the surface you can easily mistake one for the other. If a man is single-minded, he will reject many opportunities, paths and routes in favour of his chosen course. He may even upset and offend others who would unwittingly divert him. An outsider, or even a friend, may see this as narrow-minded as such action is typical of those with limited vision. But should we really be worried about that?

As such, it's got to be very important to be single-minded in the things that God's called us to. We have to know the course and know what's around us. We have to see the diversions, obstacles and difficulties for what they are – things to be overcome along the way.

Hope set slightly off

I was on a preaching course back in February with the founding pastor of my church, and he's an absolutely awesome guy. At one point he was talking about hope, and his musings on why a lot of people become grumpy in old age. His theory is this: you're hope must be in Jesus Christ alone. But it's easy set it very slightly off. You can add something else into the equation, like being a preacher, an evangelist or a church leader. The older you get, the more it dawns on you that those things may never happen. And a despair sets in.

That totally hits the nail on the head. It's good to be ambitious for Christ, but we have to tread very carefully not to let those things creep in as a source of assurance and right-standing before God. We come empty handed, not by works.

The king is not saved by his great army;
   a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
   and by its great might it cannot rescue.

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,
   on those who hope in his steadfast love,
that he may deliver their soul from death
   and keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the LORD;
   he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
   because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
   even as we hope in you.

Psalm 33:16-22

The Spiritual Disciplines

Andrew Wilson delivered some brilliant teaching on the Spiritual Disciplines last Sunday. The point was that, like an athlete in training, they are methods and techniques for developing the fruit of the Spirit.

"the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
Galatians 5:22-4

And thus... we become more like Christ, which is kind of the whole point. I think what was brilliant about it was that I had never heard / thought of some of them. I had also never thought in terms of abstinence and engagement. I have, to this point, subconsciously pursued all the disciplines of engagement while forgetting, neglecting, or not even realising the value of abstinence. Here's the list according to Wilson:

Disciplines of Abstinence
Secrecy
Solitude
Fasting
Silence
Simplicity (Frugality)
Chastity
Sacrifice

Disciplines of Engagement
Study, Memorisation, Meditation
Celebration
Service
Prayer
Fellowship
Submission
Confession

I feel like a whole new set of tools have been place in my hands. This is good.

Creed - by Steve Turner

I came across this poem in a Ravi Zacharias podcast. It makes some pretty amusing comments regarding the naturalistic worldviews that are so common in our secular culture:

Creed
by Steve Turner

We believe in Marx, Freud and Darwin
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don't hurt anyone
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy’s OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything's getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in horoscopes
UFO's and bent spoons.
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,
Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher though we think
His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same -
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens 
they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied, then it's
compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps
Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Kahn

We believe in Masters and Johnson
What's selected is average.
What's average is normal.
What's normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors.
And the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It's only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that
is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth
that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought.

If chance be
the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky
and when you hear:

State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School! 

It is but the sound of man worshipping his maker.

Overcoming Mediocrity

The threat of a mediocre Christian life is one of my greatest fears. There's a sleepiness and a lethargy that is so easy to slip into. You get consumed with day-to-day life and the simple matters of provision. It's a toil and it's wearisome. You spend little time walking with God, seeking out His plan and His purpose. And the years roll by. We may spend our whole lives in that state, die, and stand before the judgement seat of Christ.

"I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you."
Revelation 3:1-3

It seems this lethargic, lukewarm Christian life comes about when we take our eyes off Jesus and fix them on our day-to-day needs. We don't trust God to provide. Just like Peter when he steps out of the boat and onto the water. He starts in faith, but sees the wind and becomes afraid. He immediately starts sinking (Matthew 14:22-33).

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."
John 14:12

So how do we overcome this sluggish mediocre Christian life? How do we break through this sleepiness? Our whole lives should be caught up imitating Christ and continuing His work. Jesus sets the bar high in John 14:12. I have a few practical thoughts which I'm seeking to apply to my own life:

– We place our relationship with God above all other things. We walk with Him every day, side-by-side, in constant, continual fellowship. If we're too busy, we systematically delete the less important things from our lives to make room. It's far better to be materially poor and spiritually rich.

– We stand on Matthew 6:25-34 for our provision. If our chief goal is to glorify Jesus Christ, to spread the message of salvation and extend His kingdom, we have assurance from God that He will meet our basic needs. (Note to self: this may not include a 40" flat-screen TV with Sky+ subscription, gym membership, a holiday to the Carribean; all of which probably compromise our walk with God anyway!)

– We pursue holiness and the continual filling of the Holy Spirit.

– We learn to love the reproach of God and let Him drive our sanctification. This is the hallmark of a true believer.

– We seek excellence in all the things God has set before us at this present time. Be an excellent husband, an excellent father, an excellent life group leader, a great youth worker. Be excellent at handling your finances. Be excellent in your giving. Everything.

Being Filled With The Spirit

Below is a story regarding the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the life of a young missionary (name unknown) in the China interior in the 1890s. I've been studying bible verses and listening to loads of sermons on the baptism of the Spirit in preparation for a Holy Spirit evening at Life Group. This account is absolute spot on with my present understanding that 1, the Spirit is a person to be personally welcomed and accepted into one's life (we don't need to plead, but simply ask and believe); 2, the purpose of being filled is to be clothed with power to continue the work of Jesus Christ; 3, the evidence of being filled is a supernatural effectiveness in ministry and witness; 4, the filling is not a condition of salvation, but a gift; and 5, manifestations may well occur at the point of receiving, but this is not always the case and is neither the main goal, purpose or evidence of being filled.

Here's the excerpt... it's quite long but very good!

Four years in China had taught her something of the joy and blessing to be found in the deeper fellowship with the Master, but something also of the deadening influences of heathenism, the power of evil within as well as around her, and the blank despair of seeking to help others when her own soul was out of living touch with Christ. How she longed for 'the exchanged life', the life she saw in others, but knew not how to attain. Praying in an anguish no one suspected for light and for help, it was the last Sunday before Christmas when a word was spoken that, under God, brought the deliverance and made all things new. After the evangelistic service in the C.I.M. hall, an entire stranger – a Christian seaman – came up to her and said earnestly:

'Are you filled with the Holy Ghost?'

Filled with the Holy Ghost? She remembered no more of the conversation, but that question burned deeper and deeper into her heart. This, then, was the explanation of all the inward failure, the sorrow that seemed unavailing, the purposes that came to nothing. God had made a provision, given a Gift that she had never definitely accepted. She knew that the Holy Spirit must be in her life in a certain sense, for 'if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his'. And yet, just as certainly, she knew that she was not 'filled with the Spirit', and was experiencing little of His power.

But how afraid she was of being misled, of running into error and mistaking emotion for reality! The Word of God was full, now she came to study the subject, of the personality and power of the Holy Spirit. The Acts of the Apostles - what was it but the acts of the Holy Ghost, transforming and quickening lives just as she knew she needed to be quicken and transformed? O yes, why had she never seen it? It was indeed the Holy Spirit, to make unseen things real to her and impossible things possible. And there stood out in Gal. 3. 13, 14 the words:

'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us ... that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.'

What was she doing with the infinite Gift purchased at such a cost? She saw that just as Christ is ours by the gift of God, and yet we have each one personally to receive Him, so with the Holy Spirit. She saw that He too was a Person, just as real as the Lord Jesus, and to be just as truly welcomed by faith into the heart that cannot do without Him as a living link with the risen, glorious Lord. All the rest that can be told is that she took the step, though with fear and trembling - scarce knowing what it meant - and trusted the Holy Spirit to come in and possess her fully, just as she had trusted the Lord Jesus to be her Saviour. Feeling nothing, realising nothing, she just took God at His word, and then and there asked that the promise might be fulfilled, 'When he is come (to you) he will reprove (or convict) the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment'. Her chief sorrow for many months had been that she seemed to have little power for soul-winning, and hardly knew of any who had been brought to Christ through her instrumentality. It was Christmas week, and believing that a real, a definite transaction had taken place alone in that quiet room, she asked in faith that God would give her to see the proof of it in actual conversations every day that week, in connection with meetings that were being held.

And every day that week the prayer was answered. More than twenty people, young and old, sailors, visitors, and residents in Shanghai, it was given her to help a definite decision for Christ, while the joy and liberty of her own heart were so manifest that others could not but long for and seek the same blessing.

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p456-8

"if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ."
Romans 8:9

"He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit."
Galatians 3:14

Hudson Taylor and the Holy Spirit

Hudson Taylor had an interesting perspective about the possibility of a gradual filling of the Holy Spirit. It's the first time I've come across that perspective and I'm not yet sure how fully I agree. I'm still working it out.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit is mentioned frequently in the book of Acts, and the terms does suggest a sudden, total and full immersion. Jesus specifically tells his disciples to "stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49), which again suggests a sudden and complete equipping of the saints for tasks to come.

In any case, here's the excerpt. I guess God is by no means constrained in the method he chooses to fill us with the Spirit. We may all experience it differently.

"Now the heart can no more be filled with two things at the same time than a tumbler can be filled with both air and water at the same time. If you want a tumbler full of water to be filled with air, it has first to be emptied of the water. This shows us why prayer to be filled with the Spirit is often gradually answered. We have to be shown our sins, our faults, our pre-possessions, and to be delivered from them. Faith is the channel be which all grace and blessing are received; and that which is accepted by faith, God bestows in fact. Being filled does not always lead to exalted feeling or uniform manifestation, but God always keeps his word. We have to look to His promises or rest in them, expecting their literal fulfillment. Some put asking in the place of accepting; some wish it were so, instead of believing that it is so. We have never to wait for God's giving, for God has already 'blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ'. We may reverently say, He has nothing more to give; for He has given His all. Yet, just as the room is full of air, but none can get into the tumbler save as far as the water is emptied out, so we may be unable to receive all He has given, if the self-life is filling to some extent our hearts and lives."
Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p349

Weak Enough for God to Use

"All God's giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them."
Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p349

It seems, rather than being strong enough for God to use, we need to become weak enough. A person fully aware of their weakness and fully aware of God's strength is one who relies totally on Him. They are less likely to push in their own strength, but rather cry out to God continually, knowing that they are destined to fail by themselves.

I do often wondered if God deliberately chooses people who aren't the obvious choice for this very reason. And I wonder if He may pick me for some task which I feel totally ill-equipped to complete in my natural self. My faith better be real enough!

Another quote from the biography of Hudson Taylor on this point:

"I myself, for instance, am not specially gifted, and am shy by nature, but my gracious and merciful God and Father inclined Himself to me, and I who was weak in faith He strengthened while I was still young. He taught me in my helplessness to rest on Him, and to pray even about little things in which another might have felt able to help himself."
p487

"For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 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; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.""
1 Corinthians 1:26-31