Category: Pastors Blog

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.  In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”

                                                                                                                                                                John 1:1-5

                An examination of the Gospel of John, in fact a careful look at all of the Apostle John’s writings, leads us to develop a strong suspicion that one of the themes that he wanted to impress upon our minds was the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.  John points us back beyond the beginning of creation in order to develop the foundation of his gospel proclamation.  The one he is about to introduce us to is someone much more glorious than any historical figure.  He is in fact the one through whom all of creation has come into being, and in whom everything currently holds together.  John calls us to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Glorious One whom the whole of Scripture has been pointing to as the Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, and Destiny of Creation.  John uses the word Logos to describe Him.  This is the Word of God as a person active in every part of God’s revelation of Himself.  Today I will focus upon two aspects of this revelation in order to point us to the Glory of Christ.

First the Scriptures describe Him as wisdom personified.  In 1 Corinthians 1:24 we read, “But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  In Proverbs 8:22-31 we read about Wisdom as being personified and much that is written there seems to inform John’s description of the Word of God.

“The Lord brought me forth as the first of His works, before His deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began.  When there was no oceans, I was given birth, when there was no springs abounding with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before He made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world.  I was there when He set the heavens in place, when He marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when He established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when He gave the sea its boundary so the waters could not overstep His command, and when He marked out the foundations of the earth.  Then I was the craftsman at His side.  I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in His presence, rejoicing in His whole world and delighting in mankind.”

                John links his portrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom he calls us to believe in, with this being who existed before anything had been created.  In fact John takes his Gospel further by telling us that not only was this being with God before creation, He was in fact God Himself.  The teaching in the Old Testament about this pointed further as well because in many places this Divine Logos was also identified with the Angel of the Lord who was in fact the Pre-Incarnate Christ.  In Exodus 23:20-23 we read about this figure.  “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.  Pay attention to Him and listen to what He says.  Do not rebel against Him; He will not forgive you your rebellion, since My Name is in Him.  If you listen carefully to what He says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you.  My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.”  What a tremendous promise for these Old Testament people of God.  This Angel of the Lord will be God Himself among them, leading them.  The Name of God, the character of God, will be in this Angel.  It is this figure that John is pointing to as he calls us to faith.  He asks us to lift up our eyes and behold the Glorious Christ who has come in humility to redeem us through the Cross.

Such truth saves us from sin.  It is this that Charles Haddon Spurgeon describes when he tells us the account of the conversion of an ancient Christian writer by the name of Junius the younger, quoting his description of the way in which he came to Christ.  “My father, who was frequently reading the New Testament , and had long observed with grief the progress I had made in infidelity, had put that book in my way in his library, in order to attract my attention, if it might please God to bless his design, though without giving me the least intimation of it.  Here therefore, I unwittingly opened the New Testament thus providentially laid before me.  At the very first view, although I was deeply engaged in other thoughts, that grand chapter of the evangelist and apostle presented itself to me — `In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.` I read part of the chapter, and was so greeted that I instantly became struck with the divinity of the argument, and the majesty and authority of the composition, as surpassing the highest flights of human eloquence.  My body shuddered; my mind was in amazement, and I was so agitated the whole day that I scarcely know who was I was; nor did the agitation cease, but continued till it was at last soothed by a humble faith in Him who was made flesh and dwelt among us.“

“Yes and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.”

                                                                                                                                                Philippians 1:18b- 19

The Apostle Paul is writing a very joyful letter to the Church in Philippi, and dealing with some of the difficulties that he has been facing.  As he writes this Paul gives us the proper, Biblical perspective on the circumstances that we face in our lives.  As believers we are called to love and glorify God with every aspect of our lives.  At times it seems as if this is impossible on account of the overwhelming nature of our circumstances.  When we look at the context of what Paul writes here we discover his perspective, which must become ours if we expect to enjoy the love of our God.  Paul’s perspective was Gospel centred.  The one question that he wrestled with was whether the Gospel would be advanced by his circumstances.  The facts were that he was imprisoned, chained to a guard, and prevented from freely serving the Lord.  For us such circumstances would be an intolerable hardship.  For Paul they served to advance the Gospel cause.  So he rejoiced in them.

The Prophet Jeremiah calls us to a different perspective on life from what is normal for us.  He writes,

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man of his riches,  but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the Lord.”

                                                                                                                                                Jeremiah 9:23ff

In the book of Job we read,

“Keep silent and let me speak; then let come to me what may.  Why do I put myself in such jeopardy and take my life in my hands?  Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him; I will surely defend my ways to His face.  Indeed this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless man would dare come before Him!”

                                                                                                                                                Job 13:13-16

                The Job quotation hints at the defence which Paul gives for his ministry.  No matter what happens to him he is praying that the purposes of the Gospel will be advanced through his life or his death.  This is the joyful approach that we are to take to our circumstances.  Our prayer and our commitment must be that the Gospel purpose will be advanced by what we are facing.

“Then He said to them all: “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it.””

                                                                                                                                                                                Luke 9:23-24

What does it cost us to follow Jesus today in North America?  Some might say that it doesn’t cost us much because we live in a much easier time and place for Christian witness than that of the Apostles or even those in other Nations around the world.  Perhaps it would help if we were to rephrase the question just a little bit.  What does it cost us to truly follow Jesus today baring witness to His Gospel in our diverse, secular, 21^st century cities and world?

I have been wrestling with this question recently as I am called to be a witness to the Gospel of Christ in the heart of a rapidly growing diverse city.  The easy route would be to throw up my hands and to say that the task is impossible.  However deep inside I know that the Lord has called me to this place and that I will be accountable for those that I have been placed among.  The calling, my calling, is to be faithful in proclaiming the Gospel of the grace of Christ to the people of my city.  This calls me, or should I say us, to a life of self-denial in baring witness here.  What does this self-denial look like?  Here we are helped by this definition given by Wilhelmus a’Brakel.

“Self-denial is a Christian virtue, granted by God to His children, whereby they, out of love for God’s will, neither give heed nor yield to their intellect, will, and inclinations insofar as they are in opposition to the will of God—and oppose and suppress them instead. They do so by a voluntary forsaking and rejection of all that pertains to their natural well-being, if God’s cause demands such from them. This [is] to the honour of God and the welfare of their neighbours.” (from “Self-denial (Free Grace Broadcaster – Puritan Collection #218)”

 

What is needed is the pursuit of the will of God in every part of life.  Don Carson writes in Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor which is a brief biography of his father Tom Carson and his life as an evangelical Church Planter in mid 20^th century Quebec an exploration of the trials of a Godly man, faithfully baring witness under some extremely severe trials.  Others have written about the trials and persecutions of the reformers and the New Testament Apostles.  These faithfully persevered in their witness despite huge odds.  In examining these lives certain lessons stand out.

1)      These all laboured in the Scriptures.  To bear witness requires that we know and understand what our message is.

2)      They bore witness to the Gospel of Christ.  They turned away from a trust in anything other than the Grace of God in Christ Crucified.  This is our only hope.

3)      They loved God first and their neighbour as themselves.

4)      They were persons of integrity.  They lived true to the commitments they made in their lives.

5)      They were people of prayer.  Carson sums up his father’s life with these brief words.  “He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer lists.”  Tom Carson was a man who had very extensive prayer lists which he faithfully brought to the Throne of Grace.

The question these points confront me with is whether this describes me?  Does it describe you?

Today I want to give you an extended quotation from Christ Is All in “Profiles in Reformed Spirituality”.  It is an examination of the piety of Horatius Bonar.  Here quoting from an article entitled “Do You Go to the Prayer Meeting?” in Kelso Tracts Bonar writes,

 

“Reader, is there a prayer-meeting in your neighbourhood?  If there is, do you attend it?  If you do not, have you good reasons for staying away?  Perhaps there is one just by your door, or at least within a few minutes’ walk of your dwelling.  Do you go to it?  I have known people to walk many miles every week to a prayer-meeting.  The do not grudge the distance.  The way seemed short and pleasant.  No wonder.  They were in earnest about their souls!  And if you neglect or despise such meetings, it is to be feared that you are altogether unconcerned about eternity and the kingdom to come.  If you are thirsty for the water of life, you would be glad of such opportunities of drawing it out of the wells of salvation.

                I ask then again, do you attend the prayer-meeting?  If not, what are your reasons?  If they are good reasons, you need not be ashamed of them either before God or man, and they will serve you before the judgment seat of Christ.  If they are not, the sooner you give them up the better.  Very soon the last sermon will be done, the last Sabbath will close, the last prayer-meeting will be over, the last message of salvation delivered, the last warning sounded, and the last invitation given!  Then, what bitter regret and agonizing remorse!  What will you think of your excuses then?  Oh, you will give the wealth of worlds for another prayer-meeting, another day of hope.  No more making light of such precious opportunities, nor scoffing at those who prized them!  The follies and vanities of earth are all over then; and invisible realities are seen to be all in all.

                Will the memories of your days and scenes of pleasure or sin be soothing to your soul when they have passed away like a vision of the night?  Will the remembered hours of carnal levity, the idle word, the thoughtless jest, the gay smiles of companionship, the halls of gaiety, or the haunts of sin ( all of which you once preferred to the prayer-meeting), will these breathe comfort to your dying soul, or bear you up when giving in your account before the judge of all?   Laughter will then be exchanged for burning tears; nights of harmless merriment for ages of endless woe.  Oh, waste not then the  precious hour – one precious moment!  Thy eternity may hang upon it!  It may soon be too late to think of prayer.  Up, sleeper, up!  Turn, sinner, turn!  They days are but an handbreadth; flee! Oh, flee from the wrath to come.” (Christ Is All, The Piety of Horatius Bonar, Michael A. G. Haykin & Darrin R. Brooker, Reformation Heritage Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2007)

                It takes a Nineteenth Century man to call us back to a secure place of refuge.  The Lord has been laying on my heart a burden for increasing prayerfulness in my life.  This is the way forward in discipleship for God’s people.

“Jesus looked at him and loved him.  “One thing you lack,” He said.  “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”

                                                                                                                                                                                Mark 10:21

                An exploration of the words of Mark’s Gospel can give us a deep insight into the characteristics of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Michael Haykin, in a recent blog entry, at the Andrew Fuller Centre website, on the subject of C.H. Spurgeon’s success and spirituality, gave a description of many of the intangible factors that led to his success, including a description of the great Baptist Preacher’s voice as described by his biographer Mike Nicholls as, “one of the great speaking voices of his age, musical and combining compass, flexibility and power.” [C.H. Spurgeon: The Pastor Evangelist (Didcot, Oxfordshire: Baptist Historical Society, 1992).  The intangible of Spurgeon’s voice enhanced his success, but it was not the main reason for it.  Spurgeon attributed his success as a preacher to the grace of God.  It is there that true success is found.

Mark uses vivid language in order to introduce us to the real Jesus.  Mark tells us of Jesus’ gaze in the story of the rich young ruler.  Mark literally writes the Jesus looked upon the young man intently and loved Him.  The eyes of Jesus become the focus of the story.  He looks intently at the young man, He looked around intently at His disciples as the rich young man was leaving, and finally He again looked intently at His disciples when they expressed surprise at His teaching about wealth and the Kingdom of God.  Mark is telling us here that there was something penetrating in the gaze of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It literally cut deep into the hearts and souls of those that Jesus encountered.  We have all encountered people whose eyes were extremely expressive.  One glance from them was enough to stop us in our tracks.  It was once said of the Evangelist Billy Graham that his gaze was penetrating.  When he looked out at a Congregation and told us what his Bible said there was something arresting in the encounter.  I am certain that Mark is telling us that the Lord Jesus Christ’s eyes were even more powerful.

The gaze of Jesus connected with His loving approach gave a deep authority to His teaching.  He told the rich young man the truth.  As Jesus gazed upon him, loving Him deeply, He told him the truth about himself.  The Gospels tell us that Jesus knew people, in a personal and powerful way.  Jesus would speak with people in a way that forced them to confront their personal issues.  Those things which were in reality hindering people from really coming to the Lord for salvation would be brought up in very powerful ways in these conversations.  In this case it was the hold that this young man’s possessions had upon Him that was at issue.   With the woman at the well in John 4 it was her string of relationships.  In John 3 Nicodemus was shown that He must be born again.  Jesus always seems to deal with the truth of us.  His love for us required no less of Him.

What about you?  What issue is the Lord Jesus Christ confronting in your life?  I have come to the conclusion that the Lord never wastes time.  His gaze always cuts through our evasions, bringing us to that point where we see clearly the thing that separates us from the eternal life He purchased for us on the cross.  His call is for us to surrender, to repent and to give ourselves unconditionally to Him.  Will you do this today?

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

                                                                                                                                                                Matthew 11:28-30

                At the heart of Matthew’s Gospel is this beautiful passage which points us to only real solution to our problem as human beings.  Matthew records for us the invitation of the Lord Jesus Christ to us.  His invitation meets us in the depths of our weariness and need.  If we honestly examine our world we quickly come to the conclusion that we are desperately needy.  We hear each day about wars, rumours of wars, violence, crime, dishonesty, broken marriages, the exploitation of others, and the constant need to be on guard against the dishonesty of others.  Who has not seen the constant barrage of deceptive advertizing which has come to us through the internet?

As a world we are desperately needy.  We find ourselves thinking at times that if only the behaviour of others could be brought under control then all of the world’s problems could be solved.  This is where a second honest look is required.  This time we must look at ourselves.  When we do look at ourselves we discover that the problem is not just with other people.  It is with us as well.  We are desperately wicked, unable to be understood even by ourselves.  We have tried to reform ourselves but we constantly find ourselves failing.  We need help.

What is the solution?  We have grown weary trying to keep ourselves in line.  We have tried to live better lives.  Our yearly resolutions demonstrate this fact.  Like the resolutions our attempts at reformation often result in failure.  It is here that the Lord Jesus Christ brings us the only solution that will ever really be able to deal with our problem.  This is the gospel solution.  The Lord Jesus invites us to come to Him for rest in our weariness.  He is the solution.  The reason for this illustration is owing to the reason He came among us.  He came to bear our sin in His own body upon the cross so that we might live in His resurrection life.

In John 6:35 we read these words of the Lord Jesus Christ regarding the invitation He gives to us, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never go thirsty.”  In this verse John uses present participles to translate what Jesus says about coming to Jesus and believing in Him.  These participles refer to the actions of coming to Jesus and believing in Him as continual action in the present.  We are constantly coming to Him, and constantly believing in Him.  We did not just come and believe in Him at some point in the past.  It is a continual relationship of coming and believing in Him.  We are not coming to Him as an idea, or the head of a religious movement.  We are coming and believing in a person.  This person is God who took on human flesh in order to redeem us from sin through His cross.  When we come to Him and believe we enter into a relationship of faith in which we find ourselves resting in Him for all of eternity.  We find Him completely sufficient for our every need.

William Hendrickson in his New Testament Commentary on Matthew’s Gospel (page 504) gives us a hint about what Matthew is recording for us when he quotes from the Syriac (Peshitta) New Testament, “Come to me….and I will rest you…..for I am restful…..and you shall find rest for yourselves.”  The rest is in Him, and in Him alone.  We receive it when we come to Him.  All of life’s burdens are meant to teach us this one crucial thing.  This is that we need Him.  We must come to Him if we are to receive the rest that we so desperately need.  This is the evangelistic invitation that the Lord Jesus Christ gives to us.

The question for us is this.  Will we come to Jesus?  Will we receive the rest that He promises us?  The answer that we give to this question will determine our eternal home.

“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Sonship.  And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His Glory.”

                                                                                                                        Romans 8:15-17

“”To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it” (Rev. 2:17). I suspect that this passage refers to the same mark of the Spirit, the same blessed token of special favor, that in other places in Scripture is called the seal of the Spirit.
The confusion about this comes from the fact that people have misunderstood the meaning of the word “witness.” They assume that it is a sort of internal verbal suggestion, rather than an ongoing work of the Spirit within our hearts. They think that God speaks to us mentally, conveying in some sort of secret voice the message that we are His children. In the New Testament, however, the term “witness” often has a deeper meaning than merely a declaration or an assertion that a thing is true. We think of “witness” in these terms, but the New Testament sees it to mean the actual proof of something, the living demonstration of the truth, rather than a mere statement of the truth.” (Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, Barbour Publishing, pp. 117-118)

Jonathan Edwards has many helpful things to say to us about the Christian life.  It would be hard to choose one of his books as being his best.  Each one advances our understanding of the Christian life.  This is most clearly seen in the work that Edwards does exploring the nature of revival.  I would urge every Christian to spend the time learning from Edwards.  My favorite book written by Edwards is The Religious Affections because it leads us into a deep understanding of what genuine Christian experience is all about.  One morning as I was reading the section where Edwards explores the sealing of the Spirit I came across the gem that is quoted above.  Here we are brought to understand what the witness must be.  Edwards points out that we can never base our assurance of salvation on anything which is subjective.  We can be so easily deceived by our inner feelings.  The assurance of salvation must be the witness of the reality of God’s Holy Spirit is doing within us to conform us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It must be concrete and real.  It is the development of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, a committed walking with Christ in a world that is hostile to all that we stand for.  It is shown in our loving our enemies. We see it when we, in love, lay our lives down in service to people that don’t care for us simply because that is what our Lord did for us.  “For God demonstrates His love for us in this that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)  Edwards tells us that as we begin to experience this reality in our lives, then we have unmistakable evidence that the Lord has saved us.

This is a far different standard than that which we often appeal to today.  I have a feeling however that the days may be coming when we will need that real, deeper assurance that Edwards describes. It is the only thing that will see us through when life gets really difficult, as sooner or later it does for all of us. comes from the fact that people have misunderstood the meaning of the word “witness.” They assume that it is a sort of internal verbal suggestion, rather than an ongoing work of the Spirit within our hearts. They think that God speaks to us mentally, conveying in some sort of secret voice the message that we are His children. In the New Testament, however, the term “witness” often has a deeper meaning than merely a declaration or an assertion that a thing is true. We think of “witness” in these terms, but the New Testament sees it to mean the actual proof of something, the living demontration of the truth, rather than a mere statement of the truth.” (Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, pp. 117-118)

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.  See what this Godly sorrow has produced in you:  what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.  At every point you proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.”

                                                                                                                                                                2 Corinthians 7:10-11

                At the heart of the Apostle Paul’s defence of his ministry to the Corinthians he shares these thoughts in 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 in which he describes for us the reality of Gospel repentance.  These are such important verses that every Christian should commit them to memory, bringing them to mind constantly so that we can truly begin to live the time of experienced Christian faith that the Bible calls us to.  What Paul does here is to contrast Godly sorrow which leads to a real repentance and abundant life through Jesus Christ with a worldly sorrow that leads to a false, fleshly repentance that only continues us on the downward spiral to death.

What are the characteristics of each?  This calls for self-examination as we explore each one briefly today.

1)      Godly sorrow is the creation of the Holy Spirit as He convicts us of our rebelliousness towards God.  We constantly want our own way.  We want to solve our problems ourselves, so that our pride can be satisfied with what we have made ourselves to be.  God’s Spirit confronts this attitude of heart, and exposes its bankruptcy.  Such sorrow is always centred upon God.  We come to know that there is a fundamental brokenness in our lives which comes from our estrangement in life.  At this point we understand the wickedness of our sin.  It has separated us from the only source of real life.  As a consequence we find ourselves unable to know God in any real sense.  We may know all about Him.  But we do not know Him.  Here Godly sorrow leads us to the only real help available to us.  This is the grace of God in Christ.  God, in His great love for us, has done everything necessary to make us alive in Christ.  We are humbled because we have come to know that we can never solve the problem of us, on our own, in our own flesh.  The only solution is found in God’s grace.

2)      Worldly sorrow on the other hand is the creation of our own flesh.  It is self-centred instead of Christ-centred.  It is characterised by sorrow over the consequences of our rebellion against God.  How often have we found ourselves only beginning to feel concern over sin when we discover that we might get caught in it?  We want to escape its consequences, but not necessarily from sin itself.  When caught in our sin, worldly sorrow leads to a false repentance which leads us to try to reform our lives in our own flesh.  The best we can hope for here is that our behaviour will improve, but we are still left dead in our sin.  The consequence is that we are made to become increasingly self-righteous with no saving knowledge of Christ.

John Miller in Repentance and 29^th century Man explores this theme with the following encouraging words.

“If conviction of sin is demanded as though this were the goal of things, if human unrighteousness is exposed apart from faith in Christ, then men will be left in a state of penance, and they will return to pre-Reformation misery, with salvation made entirely unstable because it is founded on what man does to recover himself.

                Sinners in such a state have no way of knowing whether God loves them and will receive them into His heart.  Psychologically and morally, all is left dark and shoreless.  When sin is exposed apart from the promises of God, reality for the man outside of the Lord becomes increasingly inverted and twisted.  The aching conscience cannot possibly find relief in this way.

                In other words, repentance can only be genuine and lasting when the evildoer sees that God’s mercy is available to him.  Put grace in an unreachable realm and you simply deepen the convicted sinner’s despair and opposition to God.  But John’s Gospel banners forth the absolutely finished character of Jesus’ work (John 4:34, 17:4, 19:30).  There is enough love, and more, accessible to any sinner who wants it.  One drop of Jesus’ blood will, as it were, atone for the worst of man’s sins.  How then can we fail to respond when we are assured that cleansing love flows in superabundance from Calvary?”  (John Miller, Repentance and 20^th Century Man (Fort Washington, Pa.; Christian Literature Crusade, 1980) p. 80)

                “And He said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.”  So I opened my mouth, and He gave me the scroll to eat.  Then He said to me, “Son of man, eat the scroll I am giving to you and fill your stomach with it.”  So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.”

                                                                                                                                                                Ezekiel 3:1-3

                One of the great blessings of following a Bible reading plan such as the McCheyne plan, or any other plan that takes you through the whole Scripture on a regular basis, is that, over time, it gives you an increasing clarity on just what the Bible teaches.  This is especially true if you take the time to brood over the Scriptures.  That is Packer and Nystrom’s word from “Praying”, and it is used to describe the process of prayerful meditation upon the Word of God which leads to the application of God’s truth into our lives.  It is that process that I believe Ezekiel is being called to into the symbolic setting of his vision in Ezekiel chapter three.  He is told at least four times in these verses to eat the scroll.  He obeyed and discovered that God’s Word, even when bringing us a difficult message is always sweet.  It is the Word that brings us eternal life.  It is to be ingested, that is it is to become part of us.

Years ago I read a tribute of john Bunyan written by Charles Haddon Spurgeon which reflected upon the reality of what was at the heart of Bunyan’s life.  To paraphrase Spurgeon he stated that Bunyan was a thoroughly Biblical man.  His whole nature was infused with the Scriptures.  If you where to prick Bunyan with a pin he would bleed Bible because his blood was in fact bibline.  What a wonderful tribute to that godly preacher and author.  We need to acknowledge however that that was not a natural state for Bunyan.  He was a thoroughly Biblical man because he had taken the time to meditate prayerfully upon the rich truth of the Scripture.  He ingested it, and it changed him.  It could be argued that this was the result of certain events which were imposed upon Bunyan, as he was imprisoned for much of his life and ministry.  In the providence of God he was put in an environment where he could not be distracted from the prayerful meditation on God’s Word and the application of it to his life.   For us there are many distractions, but if we are to incorporate God’s Word into our lives we must make the commitment to meditate upon it.

Ezekiel is to ingest God’s Word, and then speak it prophetically to the people of Israel.  This is to be his life.  The people who hear, and who read him will not be responding to Ezekiel, choosing to like or dislike his message.  They will be encountering God.  They will be dealing with the God who is speaking to them.  The author of the book of Hebrews puts this in powerful terms as he writes to us about the God who has spoken to us in His Son.

“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.”

                                                                                                                                                                Hebrews 1:1-2

                “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness.  We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.  As has just been said; “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.””

                                                                                                                                                                Hebrews 3:12-15

                We are called to hear Him as He speaks to us in His Word.  With the Spirit’s help we come to obey the truth we find in God’s Word.  Therefore the word that we have heard in the Bible is God’s Word.  It must become part of us as we meditate upon it, prayerfully coming to understand and apply it to ourselves.  In this way we become Christ-centred people.

“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

                                                                                                                                John 3:3

I have been reflecting over the past few days about birthdays.  Every year we each have a birthday and we are reminded of the day when we came into this world.  We are also reminded that we are each one year closer to the day on which we will stand before the Living God to give an account of our lives.  For each one of us birth was something that happened which was out of our control.  In no way were we in control of any aspect of it.  In reality the same can be said for our birth from above into the life of Christ.  When I re-examine my born again experience what I discover is that it was entirely an act of God.  I might think that I exerted some control over it.  When I look at its reality however what I discover is that the decisions that I made were the consequence of things that God was doing in me.  His gracious work in me was the motivation for all of the decisions which I then made.

To examine my testimony reveals that I came to Christ at an East Toronto Youth event in the early 1970s.  I had no plan on committing myself to Christ when I went to the retreat.  In fact I felt that I was already a believer at that time.  As the retreat concluded something happened that shook me out of my unbelief.  This was that I suddenly became aware that I was not in fact a believer.  Then I had a powerful experience of the love of God.  I knew then and there that God loved me.  It was very much like John Wesley’s description of his conversion where he described himself as having his heart strangely warmed as he was given a powerful sense that he was loved by God and that his sins were forgiven.  That was my experience.  Everything else fell into place at that point.  Long established behaviours were changed as I found myself being conformed to the image of Christ.  I now knew that I was a believer.  I wanted to read the Bible.  In fact I felt that I had to read the Bible.  Choices to involve myself in Christian fellowship seemed to be made for me.  I became involved as the Lord led me.

In much of this I thought at the time that I was making decisions to involve myself in these things.  Hindsight tells me that the Lord was changing me and opening up opportunities for me.  Even the choice I made to become a minister was made for me.  The Lord’s leading, and the choices that He led me to make all seemed to be under His control.

Jesus tells us in John 3:3 that we must be born again.  Another translation of this phrase is born from above.  It is the work of God’s Spirit, under His control and it is that one thing that makes us into real Christians.  It is God’s work in us.  We cannot control it, or create it.  All we can to in regard to it is to receive God’s gift when He gives it to us.  Jesus presents this to Nicodemus as a statement of fact that is designed to bring him to faith.  The Word of God presents this same fact to each one of us.  “We must be born again.”  Are you?  All of eternity depends upon your answer to that one question.