THE PRESENT

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“GOD’S PRESENT PRESENT PRESENT!

Translation:

GOD’S GIFT NOW GIVEN!

God was present, is present, always present.

“THE PRESENT”

(The Moment)

(Here & Now)

Church Build GFA

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The Image of God

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Philosophy is concerned about God’s nature and will, but it has never had much appeal to the vast majority of people. It is abstract and talks about God as the Ground of being and the Fundamental Force of the Universe. Most people need a concept of God that can be embodied in some kind of a mental image. This is why the Bible is filled with what is called anthropomorphism. That is a big word that simply means the picturing of God in the form of a man, and with characteristics of a man. God became a man in Christ, and Jesus said that when we see him we see the Father, and so our image of God is very manlike. Our highest revelation of God is in the man Christ Jesus. In Jesus God is a man.

Even before man knew of God the Son the Father was described in terms of human characteristics. The reason for this is obvious, for there is no alternative if man is going to have any intelligent concept of the nature of God. If anthropomorphic terms were not used to describe God He would be so abstract as to be almost meaningless, and He would certainly not be thought of in a way that would be of much comfort. God is infinite spirit, and all His attributes are so infinitely superior to ours that we cannot conceive of God at all in His essence. Our knowledge of God has to be on the level of the finite. This means we must be aware that even our highest concepts of God are fall short of what He really is. God has had to descend to the level of our finite minds in order to be known by us at all.

If you want to communicate with a dog you do so with meat and bones and scratching behind the ears. These are hardly the highest expressions of man’s nature, or of his love, but these kinds of things alone can be understood by the dogs intelligence. You would get nowhere in communicating with a dog by mathematics, art, or a lecture on biology.

These are above the dog’s capacity, and so rather than get no response at all you stoop to the dog’s level and speak his language. This is what God has done with man. He has revealed himself in man-like ways, and with man-like characteristics. The result is that many young people form the concept in their minds of God as an old man of great wisdom with a long white beard. Mature believer know this is not so, but as C. S. Lewis has said, it is better that God be seen this way than as a mere abstraction, which is even more false to reality. He wrote, “What soul ever perished for believing that God the Father really has a beard?”

It is essential to think of God in human terms, and it is harmless as long as recognize them as necessary symbols to represent God, but not necessarily what He actually is. The Greeks fell into this danger and had their gods on the same level with men, and this included all of their limitations and immoralities as well. Most pagan peoples have done this, and so they have a very poor concept of God. Any god who is too man-like is a partaker in man’s evils. God rebuked this in Ps. 50:21, “You thought that I was one like yourself.

But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.” We must use the benefits of anthropomorphism, for the Bible uses them, but we must also avoid its dangers lest we make God in man’s image. God made man in His image, and so it is reasonable to assume that God is man-like in many ways. But we need to avoid any idea that God is like man in his fallen nature.

God has always been in heaven speaking the words that formed all or reality, but then we come to Gen. 3:8 and all of  a sudden we see God walking on earth in the garden. He is now clearly in the image of man. Our very first concept of God, which we can visualize is of a man walking in the garden and talking with Adam and Eve. We cannot conceive of what He was before creation, but here we see Him as a man. What is of interest is that this is not just anthropomorphic, but is a literal description of what God actually did. He made himself in the form of a man and dwelt with man. Only the literal interpretation fits the total unity of the Bible. The ultimate goal is that God will again dwell with man.

It is not stated as such but it could very well be that this one walking in the garden could have been the second person of the Godhead. Jesus became a literal man in the incarnation, but here we see him taking on the form of a man. In the ultimate paradise that we see in the book of Revelation we know it will be Jesus who will walk with us in white, and we shall be like Him when we see Him as He is.

Anthropomorphism is justified because God began his relationship with man as a man. He chose to reveal himself in the form of a man at the beginning, and actually became a man in history.

It is implied that God had walked in the garden before this, for how could they have known the sound of Him walking if they had not heard it before? They did not see Him but heard Him coming, and if they had never seen God before in the form of a man walking, how could they ever suspect it would be God making the sounds they heard? The text implies that God actually dwelt on earth with Adam and Eve. This means that earth was once the dwelling place of God, and God had actually been on our world in the form of man before Christ. It could have been the pre-incarnate Christ who was here in the form of man. He did not come into flesh through birth, but merely took on the form of a man as we see He did on other occasions in the Old Testament.

We see that the Old Testament works away from an incarnation of God, which was lost toward and incarnation of God, which gave hope. It is no wonder that the Old Testament concept of the ultimate kingdom was earth centered, for this was the setting of the ideal in the beginning. Even in the New Testament where the eternal kingdom is pictured as heavenly, there is still the new earth as a part of it, and it appears that this small planet will be forever a place where God will dwell with His people, and walk in the beauty of paradise.

The picture of God walking in the garden was like Jesus centuries later walking in Palestine, for He was the only man on earth who was perfect. Adam and Eve had fallen and so they felt naked before God and they hid themselves. We see two frightened shameful people who do not want to be seen in their nakedness. God’s first question to fallen man was, “Where are you?” God was the great seeker of man, and Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.

Everything about this first picture of God reminds us of Jesus. God finds them, hears their confusion, judges them, and then provides them with coverings and the hope of redemption. This whole account pictures God as Christ-like.  We see God in man’s image as the God-Man.

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Guilty But Pardoned

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If God did not pardon the guilty there would be no Gospel, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Even so, we feel there is a danger in being too merciful. Abraham Lincoln was accused of this during the Civil War when he seemed willing to pardon just about anyone. He would defend those who broke army regulations, and he would find alibis for those condemned to die. One young soldier, for example, had gone to sleep at his post and was court marshaled and sentenced to be shot. He was pardoned by Lincoln, who gave this defense: “I could not think of going into eternity with the blood of that poor man on my skirts. It is not wondered at that a boy raised on a farm, probably in the habit of going to bed at dark, should, when required to watch, fall asleep, and I cannot consent to shoot him for such an act.”

 

There was no question about his guilt, but though guilty he was pardoned. At another time 24 deserters were to be shot and warrants for their execution was sent to Lincoln to be signed. He refused to do. The general went to Washington to see Lincoln. At the interview he said, “Mercy to the few is cruelty to the many. These men must be made an example or the army itself would be in danger.” In spite of the forceful argument Lincoln replied, “There are to many weeping widows in the United States. For God’s sake don’t ask me to add to the number, for I won’t do it.” With complete knowledge of their guilt he pardoned them, and it was not because Lincoln was ignorant of the law, for he was a lawyer. He was also not ignorant of the importance of justice, but out of mercy he pardoned the guilty.

 

This is a parallel of what we see at the cross, though the mercy there was infinitely more amazing. We see a king, who was also a lawyer, defending those whom he knows to be guilty. But here it is himself who is also the victim of their sin and crime. Certainly no murder mystery ever ended with a more surprising scene than this. Here the guilty are standing before the judge, who is also the murder victim, and who is acting as their defending attorney pleading for their pardon before he dies. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” He has acknowledged their guilt, for if they were not guilty there would be no need for forgiveness. His case then will not consist in proving them not guilty, but instead that even though guilty there is a basis on which they should be pardoned. There are two questions we want to ask about this defense Christ makes for the guilty sinners who crucified Him.

 

I. WHO IS HE DEFENDING?

 

It would be a confusing trial indeed in which one did not know who the defendant was. There is some disagreement as to who is included in Christ’s plea for mercy, but this is only because a few authors cannot bring themselves to believe that even the cunning Jewish leaders were included. All agree that the Roman soldiers are included, and that they are the least guilty of all. They are victims of a power machine beyond their control. It is not theirs to reason why, but only to do or die. They have orders to crucify this man, and whether they like the task or not they do it. They could have refused and died, but what reason would they have for refusing to execute a man that has been legally condemned by the state? How could they know that the only sinless hands that ever were are now being nailed to a cross. It was certainly true of them that they knew not what they were doing.

 

But did Jesus go further than this? Did He intercede also for the Scribes and Pharisees? Did He include Ciaphus and Annas, and the cruel crowd that mocked Him?  The vast majority of commentators say yes, but a few say no. Are we to follow the majority and make this plea all inclusive just because it is a majority opinion? The magnitude of this plea for mercy cannot be determined by counting votes, but by searching the Scripture, and as we do we discover that the majority view is not an opinion only but a conviction based on clear revelation.

 

In Acts 3 we read of Peter preaching to the Jews where he gives credit to Christ for the healing of the lame man. He says of Jesus, “..whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilot, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Author of life…” And then in verse 17 he says, “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.” Peter knew that even the most guilty acted in ignorance, and so they were forgiven and were able to respond to the Gospel which he preached. Paul adds to the conviction in I Cor. 2:8, “None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

 

With these two witnesses we rest our case that Christ’s plea for mercy included all who guilty and responsible for His crucifixion. This means that Christ died for all sin, and that included the sin of causing Him to die. No one who was guilty was left without a pardon. The case was closed, for all were forgiven. The plaintiff dropped all the charges. They were all guilty, but they were all pardoned. This fact should have made it impossible for the history of Christian anti-Semitism to have ever happened. It makes the modern debate over the guilt of the Jews for the death of Christ a mockery. There is any dogmatic truth we can learn from the history of the church it is this: When ever professing Christians do not determine all of their attitudes and actions based on the Word of God and the example of Christ, they promote evil rather than the kingdom of God.

 

Jesus forgave those who were guilty for His death. Peter and Paul repeat this fact, and yet men go on debating whether or not the Jews should be forgiven. This word of Christ ought to enable everyone to see the folly of it all. Even if the very Jews who killed Jesus were alive today, they would be forgiven. How much more contemporary Jews who had nothing to do with it? God forbid that any who name the name of Christ should refuse to forgive the innocent when Christ forgave the guilty. To the question then, who is Christ defending? We answer: Everyone who needs defense, or all who are guilty.

 

Next we ask- 
II. WHY IS HE DEFENDING THEM?  

 

When we see that He meant even the most guilty in this plea for forgiveness we are compelled to ask why would He seek a pardon for those who deserve to be condemned? The primary answer lies in the very nature of Christ. The story is told of how in the Scotch Rebellion a man by the name of Ayloff was captured and taken before King James

II. The king said to him, “You had better be frank with me M r. Ayloff. You know that it is in my power to pardon you.” The prisoner broke his sullen silence and answered, “It may be in your power but it is not in your nature.” And so it was not, and Ayloff was executed.

 

This was not the case with the King on the cross. If was not only in His power but it was also in His nature to pardon. He never would have come into the world in the first place was it not His nature to seek and to save the lost, and to pardon the guilty. Mercy is one of the greatest attributes of God. As grace means what God does for us that we do not deserve, so mercy means what God does not do to us that we do deserve. We could conclude then that Jesus pleaded for the pardon of the guilty just because His nature of love and mercy made it a natural reaction.

 

This statement of Christ, however, that they knew not what they were doing shows that there is more to it than that. There is some cause in the guilty themselves that makes Him plead for pardon. Jesus finds a reason for their folly that does not make them not guilty, but does make them candidates for pardon, and that factor is ignorance. It is practically a proverb that ignorance is no excuse, but it is a product of man’s wisdom and not Gods. The Scripture says ignorance is an excuse. We have already read Peter’s statement that the Jews killed Jesus in ignorance, and to this we can add Paul’s testimony in I Tim. 1:13 where he says, “I formerly blasphemed and persecuted and insulted him, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.” He was guilty, but because he sinned in ignorance he was pardoned. Had ignorance been no excuse Paul would have been a flaming Apostle in the fires of hell, and not one flaming against the forces of hell.

 

The Old Testament makes a difference between the sin of ignorance and the sin of a high hand. One who sins willfully with full knowledge that it is out of God’s will sins with a high hand. There is no atonement for those who sin in this way, but there is for those who break God’s law in ignorance. We see then that the crucifixion of Christ was a sin of ignorance. They did not know what they were doing. As wicked as they were they would not knowingly kill the Son of God. They were really convinced that they were killing a blasphemer. Ignorance allows men to do the worst evils with the conviction that they are doing right. God accepts such ignorance as a basis for pardon. The fact that the greatest crime ever committed was the result of ignorance ought to open our eyes to see that ignorance is one of man’s greatest curses. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free,” said Jesus. Those who love ignorance are bound to do that which is stupid, harmful and evil. Even so, if their evil is a product of ignorance, it makes a difference in God’s attitude.

 

It made a difference in Lincoln’s attitude as well. We saw how he could freely pardon those who became traitors out of weakness and ignorance, but when he was approached to pardon one who was engaged in the slave trade he made this reply; “You know my weakness is to be, if possible, too easily moved by appeals for mercy, and if this man were guilty of the foulest murder that the arm of man could perpetrate, I might forgive him on such an appeal, but the man who would go to Africa and rob her of her children, and sell them into an interminable bondage with no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer, that he can never receive pardon at my hands. No, he may rot in jail before he shall have liberty by any act of mine.”

 

We see the 2 sides of Lincoln with his mercy and justice. We see mercy to the ignorant guilty and justice to the willful guilty. The fact that he had these two attitudes would indicate that he was a man directed by God, for this is God’s attitude as well. The mercy and wrath of God are to be understood in the light of this principle. As G. Campbell Morgan says, “All sins of ignorance are forgiven. It is only the sin against light, which has no forgiveness.” He probably should have qualified that by adding that sins against light have no forgiveness without repentance. We sin willfully often in the face of clear revelation, and we need to know that if confess He is faithful and just to forgive. The point is, however, that sins of ignorance can be forgiven by God even before repentance, but willful sin only after repentance. Jesus prayed for the guilty sinners around His cross, and they were anything but repentant. But we cannot doubt that God heard the dying prayer of His Son. They were guilty and unrepentant, but they were still pardoned.

 

Because they were ignorant it makes sense that they did not repent, for one does not repent apart from conviction that one is doing wrong. By necessity then forgiveness must often come before repentance. Jesus often forgave sins and then told the person to go and sin no more, and to turn from evil to God, which is repentance. Paul also says in Rom. 2:4, “Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” Men often need to experience forgiveness first before they can repent. We often fail to represent God at this point by trying to bring conviction by means of condemnation rather than assurance of God’s forgiveness.

 

We cannot begin to understand people as Jesus did, nor can we know their inner motives and the degree of ignorance in them, but it is our responsibility to be both just and merciful. For the unbeliever there is the responsibility of either receiving the mercy of Christ and being pardoned, or of receiving His justice and being condemned. The Jews suffered the wrath of God in 70 A.D. not because they crucified Christ, for they were pardoned for that, but judgment came because they refused to believe in Christ even after the clear revelation of His deity in His resurrection. Ignorance can be forgiven, but sin against light must be condemned.

 

Seneca the Roman says that those who were crucified usually cursed their executioners and spat upon all who were near. Cicero says that the tongues of those crucified were cut out on occasion to stop their terrible blasphemies. How Satan and all the forces of evil would have delighted had Jesus uttered a curse from the cross, but Jesus, like a fragrant tree, bathed in perfume the very acts, which gashed Him. His first thought was not for himself but for those who were guilty. It is hard to be like Jesus in this way because it is contrary to self-defense. To forgive demands self-denial, for to forgive means to take upon yourself undeserved suffering and demand no payment from those who inflict it. They are guilty of injustice, and you are innocent, but yet it is you that must suffer and the guilty who get off scot-free if you forgive them.

 

Our very sense of justice fights against forgiveness, for it is not fair, but that is just the point. Grace deals with unmerited favor. If forgiveness was fair it would merely be a legal obligation and moral duty, but it is not fair, and so it is a free choice that rises above the law. Forgiveness is totally of grace, and only those who are gripped by grace can grasp the importance of it, and the ability to express it. I cannot express what I have not experienced. I cannot give away what I do not have, and so we must first be forgiven in order to forgive. We must believe in God’s free grace of forgiveness before we can be free to forgive those who sin against us.

 

The example of Jesus shows us that the innocent party is free at any time to forgive. There is no need to wait for repentance and confession. The people Jesus forgave did none of these. They never said they were sorry, and they were not even looking for His forgiveness. Grace is expressed because of the nature of the forgiver, and not because of the nature of those being forgiven. We have many sins of which we are not conscious.

 

We have many which are called the sins of omission. There is no way we can confess these sins of which we are not aware, and so we need to depend upon he grace of Christ to forgive them, and we can have the assurance that He will because He was willing to pray, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

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Fruit is Success

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Two young brothers, Nathaniel and John Chapman, entered the
Black Bear Tavern, the largest building in Pittsburgh back in 1788.
They were looking for a place to sleep in this little village on the
Western Frontier. All of the rooms were filled, so they had to sleep on
the floor in the corner of the bar. Little did the bar keeper realize
that one day one of these brothers, John, would become one of the
most famous characters West of the Allegheny Mountains. John had
been to Harvard, and had also been a missionary preaching the
doctrines of the Swedish mystic Swedenborg. He came to Pittsburgh
because it was the point from which people departed for settlements in
Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.
John and his brother went up the Allegheny River to visit an uncle.
When they found his cabin enemy they decided to settle there for
awhile. John noted that there was an absence of fruit trees in the area,
and he decided to do something about it. He found an neglected
orchard and set out hundreds of apple tree shoots. Clarence
Macartney in his book of historical studies called Right Here In
Pittsburgh says, “This was probably the first nursery in the West.”
John became so concerned about orchards and the providing of fruit
for the people moving West that he made it his life work to plant apple
trees.
He said, “Fruit is next to religion. I use to be a Bible missionary
down in Virginia, but now I believe I’ll be an apple missionary. He
chose a very fruitful profession, and he was a marvelous success at it.
He became known all over the country as Johnny Appleseed.
Everywhere he went he carried his bag of apple seed and he planted
them. He said, “I am going to sow the West with apple seeds, making
the wilderness to blossom with their beauty, and the people happy with
their fruit.”
On horseback, in canoe, and on foot he roamed the wilds of
Western Pennsylvania, Southern New York, and Ohio. He kept a
cabin near Pittsburgh. He dressed with ragged, ill fitting, faded
garments. He went barefoot and had long black hair that fell over his
shoulders. He made friends wherever he went as he sowed his seeds
and preached from the Bible. When the Indian wars raged through
Ohio, he was the only white man who could go on roaming the woods
and not be killed, for the Indians also loved him. For 50 years he lived
a vagabond life risking every danger to sow his seeds. More than once
he was brought down by malaria. Robert Luccock in The Last Gospel
tells of how on one occasion he was found by a pioneer in an Ohio
River settlement dying with an intense fever. He did not know who he
was, but he called for a doctor. The doctor came and seeing him
clutching a bag of seed with the initials JC burned into the leather
said, “It’s Jonathan Chapman that good Samaritan of Pittsburgh
come to settle among us. Praise God from who all blessing flow.”
At the age of 79 Johnny Appleseed died at Fort Wayne, Indiana
where he is buried. Monuments have been created in his memory, and
many legends have surrounded his career. In the U. S. Senate,
General Sam Houston of Texas paid this eulogy to Johnny Appleseed:
“This old man was one of the most useful citizens of the world in his
humble way. He has made a greater contribution to our civilization
than we realize. He has left a place that can never be filled. Farewell,
dear old eccentric heart. You labor has been a labor of love…” We
are interested in this life, because his life of love and fruit illustrates
the ideal of the New Testament for the Christian. Our goal is not
apples, but our goal is fruit. As Peter indicates here, and as the whole
Bible makes clear, the purpose of all virtues, including love, is that
they might lead us to fruitful living.
Johnny Appleseed dressed like a bum, had his hair like a hippie,
had habits as strange as John the Baptist, and was just a very unusual
man, but he became a great success because fruit was his aim, and he
fulfilled that aim. Without fruit he would have been considered an
eccentric old fool and a mad man. Fruit made the difference, and
fruit will make the difference for all of us between failure and success.
Fruit is one of the key themes of the Bible. God is a God of fruit,
and all that is in harmony with His will is fruitful. Paradise was
paradise because of the fruitfulness of nature. To be put out of
paradise was to have to labor for food, for the earth was less fruitful
outside of paradise. When paradise is regained, Rev. 22:2 describes it
as possessing fruitfulness beyond anything we, or Johnny Appleseed,
could ever imagine. A tree bearing 12 kinds of fruit and yielding its
fruit every month.
The Godly in the Bible are often likened to a tree, and the effects
of their godliness to fruit. In Psa. 1 he who delights in the law of God,
“..Shall be like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit
in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he
prospers.” Success and fruit go together.
Paul was a Johnny Gospelseed going everywhere sowing the seeds of
life in Christ. He says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the
increase. The whole ministry of the church is symbolized in fruit
bearing. Jesus sent forth His disciples that they might bear fruit.
It was no accident that the Holy Spirit came upon the church at
Pentecost. This was the great feast of harvest when the fruits were
gathered in. What delight God has in harmony and beauty of
symbolism. The coming of the Spirit was the beginning of the harvest
of the church. Three thousand souls were saved that day, and the
church immediately began to bear fruit. The dry bones of Israel were
clothed with living flesh. The desert of Israel began to bloom like a
rose, and began to produce the fruits necessary to refresh the world
and bring new life to all.
Jesus cursed the fig tree because it had no fruit. It was a symbol of
Israel. Israel was cut off because she was barren and unfruitful, and a
new branch was grafted in, which was the Gentiles. God just will not
tolerate perpetual unfruitfulness. Jesus tells us clearly why Israel was
replaced by the church to represent the kingdom of God on earth. In
Matt. 21:43 he said to the Jewish leaders, “The kingdom of God will
be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruit of
it.” Even the kingdom of God is of no value if it produces no fruit.
Every gift of God and every virtue is of no value if they do not
produce fruit.
Jesus was very fruit conscience. In the Parable of the Sower He
taught that much seed is choked out before it bears fruit, and so is of
no value. But some seed goes on to bear fruit, and some a hundred,
some sixty, and some thirty. Not all seed is equally fruitful, but any
fruit is some measure of success. John the Baptist required fruit as
evidence of repentance. Jesus said that by their fruits you shall know
them. Fruit is the test of all truth. That is why Paul warns Christians
not to partake of the unfruitful works of darkness. The Christian
should be so fruit conscience that he does not waste his life on what is
unprofitable. This is even so in spiritual experiences. We are urged to
aim for the best and most fruitful gifts.
In I Cor. 14:14 Paul says, “..if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays
but my mind is unfruitful.” The good can be the enemy of the best and
rob us of fruit. All we do needs to be evaluated according to its
fruitfulness. We can get caught up into the 7th heaven in emotion but
if we do not turn this spiritual experience into some sort of
fruitfulness, it is all in vain. Fruit is what counts, and fruit alone is
success. Even the death of Christ is a fruit issue. In John 12:24 He
says, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain a wheat falls into the
earth and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” A
seed that does not die and thereby bear fruit is of no value. It is as
worthless as a dead rock. Success for a seed is in bearing fruit, and if
it cannot bear fruit without dying, then dying is the only way to
success. So it is with the seed of David-the Lord Jesus Christ, and so it
is for all who follow Him. Whatever the cost we must pay the price to
bear fruit, for fruit is success.
In the light of all this, which does not begin to cover all the stress of
Scripture on fruit, we can see why Peter makes the goal of all these
virtues the escaping of an unfruitful life. This is the worst possible fate
for a Christian to be a dead an barren branch. The world desperately
needs a army of Johnny Gosepseeds planting the trees of life in the
wilderness of the world.
When Julian the Apostate was Emperor of the Roman Empire, this
is what he wrote to a pagan priest: “Let us consider that nothing has
contributed so much to the progress of the superstition of the
Christians, as their charity to strangers. I think we ought to discharge
this obligation ourselves. Establish hospitals in every place, for it
would be a shame in us to abandon our poor, while the Jews have
none, and the impious Galileans (thus he calls the Christians) provide
not only for their own poor, but also for ours.” Here is pagan
testimony to the fruit bearing power of agape love. The love of
Christians even gets their enemies to do good works just to try and
keep the church from getting all the credit. God alone knows all the
good evil men have done in order to keep others from turning to
Christ. Government programs of welfare do much good, but they rob
the church of her fruits. People now look to the government when
they use to look to Christians motivated by the love of Christ to meet
their needs.
We seldom stop to realize that even good works divorce from the
Gospel are the means by which the powers of darkness can keep
people from turning to the light. If Satan can meet all a man’s needs
on the physical level, why should he turn to the church or to Christ?
This means the government programs compete with the church for the
allegiance of men, The church must be actively engaged in
demonstrating love on every level, and do it in the name of Christ, for
only as men see that we are motivated by His love will they turn to
Him.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the gifted Negro poet, felt deep bitterness
over the injustice to his people. He was a cynic and his poetry
reflected this.
A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
An never a laugh but the moans came double,
And that is life!
Before he died at the age of 33 he experienced the love of Christ in
his own life, and he was transformed. Instead of the soar and bitter
fruit of despair, he bore the sweet attractive fruit of the Spirit, and he
wrote,
A crust and a corner that love makes precious,
With a smile to warm and the tears to refresh us,
And joy seem sweeter when cares come afar,
And a moan is the finest foil for laughter,
And that is life!
Paul Dunbar became a success before he died because he boar the
fruit of the Spirit, and fruit is success. This is the goal for every
Christian. We must produce that fruit which attracts the hungry soul
to Christ. If the church is ineffective today, it is because they are like
neglected orchards. The fruit is small an unappealing. Hungry minds
and hearts are looking elsewhere for satisfaction. We must each strive
to produce fruit according to our gifts. God does not expect a
grapevine to produce watermelons, nor does he expect an apple tree
to produce corn. Each is to produce according to its gifts. You are
not to compare yourself with anyone else, but to measure how
effective you are in the use of your own gifts. If you have the gift of
helping others and no one is thanking you for your help, you are not
using your gift, and are not producing fruit. Evaluate your gifts in
the light of whether they are producing fruit.
Fruit is what we give back to God for the gift of salvation. Salvation
is what we accept from God, but fruit is what we achieve for God.
Salvation is a gift from God, but fruit is a goal we reach for God.
Salvation comes as free grace, but fruit comes by fertile growth.
Salvation is God’s investment in us, but fruit is the interest we return
to God on His investment. May God help us to be successful in our
service for Him by striving to bear fruit, for fruit is success.

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INTIMATE COMMUNICATION

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If we had as many answers to prayer as we have books on prayer the
battle would be won. Unfortunately it is easier to write a book on
prayer than to pray effectively. It is easier to preach a sermon on
prayer than to pray. It is easier to give a lecture on prayer than to
pray. It is easier to do just about anything concerning prayer than to
actually pray well and wisely.
The reason this is so is because we have not taken Christ as our
guide to prayer, and have tried to follow men who claim to be experts,
but who have made the matter of such complexity that it is too
discouraging, and we lose our motivation. If we went into a library
and found a dozen volumes on how to order a hamburger, we would
probably figure it is too complicated, and never brother to order one.
So it is with prayer. There are books galore, and seminars, and
special retreats, and so many people trying to teach us how to pray,
that we automatically assume that it is in the same category with
learning brain surgery and international law. So we lose hope, and
just accept the role of being poor at prayer.
People who are good at saying prayers only confirm our despair.
We say, come Lord Jesus be our guest, let this daily food be blest.
They can give a lesson on Bible history, and give guidance to
government leaders, and a challenge for world missions, all in a
prayer of thanks for a hamburger. It makes the rest of us feel like we
are not even really thankful for our hamburger, and also feeling like
we just don’t know how to pray.
The vast majority of Christians would list as one of the weaknesses
of their Christian life, their prayer life. We do not spend enough time
in prayer. We don’t pray for enough people. We don’t pray as
fervently as we ought, or as persistently as we ought. There is hardly
any aspect of prayer that we do as adequately as we ought. Christian
guilt feelings about this make them easy targets of manipulation. They
can be made to feel they need to go along with some prayer gimmicks
to get back into God’s favor. Maybe it’s an all night prayer meeting,
or some kind of prayer chain, or large group prayer service, as if the
length of your prayers or the quantity of them is the key to God’s
reluctant heart.
All of this Jesus put into the category of paganism in Matt. 6, where
He said the pagans think they will be heard because of their many
words. Jesus taught that God already knows what we need, and so a
short and simple prayer is all that is necessary. He never told His
disciples to get a big crowd together, but said get alone in your own
room and close the door. He didn’t give them a manuscript of
hundreds of prayers when they asked Him to teach them to pray. He
gave them a single prayer of about 50 words as an example.
My point is, the reason that prayer is so hard for Christians is
because they have made it hard. The Bible doesn’t. Jesus didn’t.
Christians have so complicated the simplicity of the Bible with pagan
ideas, they have put a satisfying life of prayer beyond the reach of the
average Christian. One Christian writer said she could visualize the
millions of prayers hurtling toward God at mealtime, and so she
decided to do her praying between meals when the prayer traffic was
not so thick. She also got up early to get her prayer in before the
heavy breakfast crowd. Of course, this is silly, but so is every aspect
of prayer that implies God is not omniscient. Jesus said in Matt. 6:8,
“Your father knows what you need before you ask Him.”
If that is the case, then being eloquent is no big deal, for we do not
have to persuade God. It is not as if we have to be intellects, and be
able to speak with great logic to get through to God. Neither the
quantity nor the quality of our prayers are the issue, for God already
knows what we seek to communicate. This puts all God’s children on
the same level. So what if we can go on for a half hour with flowery
words of oratory, and another can only say thank you Lord for today,
give me guidance for tomorrow?
The Pharisee in the temple was no doubt better at prayer than the
publican. If we took a vote among men after hearing them both pray,
the Pharisee would win on both length and eloquence, but Jesus said
the publican went away justified, not the Pharisee. “God be merciful
to me a sinner,” was his prayer, and on the cross the thief said,
“Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And the father
of the demonized boy prayed, “Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief.”
When you look at the prayers that Jesus answered in his life, you can’t
help but be impressed with their brevity and simplicity. They are
little more than cries for help.
When the disciples were caught in the storm, and feared the ship
was going down, they woke Jesus and their prayer was, “Lord, save
us! We are going to drown.” When Peter was going under his prayer
was, “Lord, save me!” All these prayers were answered. Of course,
they were emergency situations where eloquence and length are not
only irrelevant, but potentially deadly. But what we want to see as we
examine the prayer life of Jesus is that even the normal prayer life of
the believer is to be simple and not complex.

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Thank God Conclusion

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THANK GOD FOR HIS PROVIDENCE.

He cares about the world, and he gets involved. Thankful people like Joseph see this, and they acknowledge the hand of God in history. God was working in Joseph’s life, but also in the lives of the whole Egyptian population and many other peoples of the world. God’s providence is not limited to His people, but extends as far as His love, which includes the whole world. The result was that the Egyptians were thankful for God’s providence, and they became a blessing to God’s people, and made it possible for them to enjoy a happy ending of these final chapters of Genesis.

If you read the autobiography of any person who is humble about their blessings in life, you will read things like this, which is taken from the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: “and now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my pass life to His kind providence, which led me to the means I used and gave them success.” This is precisely the spirit of Joseph, and should be the spirit of every person who has achieved any goal they are grateful for, for it is only by the providence of God that there is any success.

The first English settlement in America was in Jamestown, Virginia. It was a disaster. Nine out of every ten people who set sail for this new world colony would die the first year. In 1610 the survivors decided to abandon the new world. They all got on their ships and were on their way when the sails of the large ship Deliverance appeared. Lord De La Warr had been sent to be the new governor, and he urged them to return to the abandon town. He knelt on that land which had been so unkind and thanked God for bringing them there safely. Had he been just a little later all of history would have been different, and all the people would have died, for they only had food on their ship to get them a third of the way back to England. They had an immediate service of thanksgiving for God’s providence in saving the project. It was still a long hard struggle, but the project was saved, and the history of America was radically altered because the hand of God intervened in history.

The examples are numerous, but let me share one more before we move on. Benedict Arnold was in charge of West Point during the Revolutionary War. He plotted with the British to betray his country and let the British take West Point, which would have been a major victory. Major John Andre was their contact man. Arnold sent secret plans of the fortification of West Point through him. He was dressed as a civilian, and the plan should have been fool proof. But Andre had the bad luck of mistaking an American patrol for a British patrol. He let it slip that he was a British officer, and he was immediately searched. They found the plans in the heel of his shoe. This was not enough to foul up the plan, however, for they sent the prisoner to Benedict Arnold to explain how he happen to have such plans.

It just happened that Major Ben Tallmage, Washington’s Chief of  Intelligence was in the area. He put two and two together, and although Arnold escaped to a British ship, West Point was saved and General Washington saw the hand of God again in the history of our land. He reported to the American people, and I quote, “Treason of the blackest dye was yesterday discovered….The providential train of circumstances which led to it affords the most convincing truth that the liberties of America are the objects of divine protection.”

When the war finally ended with the British surrender, George Washington said, “The hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worst than a infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.” The more you know of history in the Bible and outside of it, the more you know that you have an endless obligation to thank God for His providence. Everything we have to be grateful for in America is ours, not because we are worthy, but because of the providence of God. The happy ending of Joseph and his brothers was not reward for their righteousness, but it was grace, and they had an obligation to be forever grateful for the providence of God.

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Thank God Part Three

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THANK GOD FOR THE PRESENT
David calls upon us to join him in song in verse 4. “Sing to the Lord
you saints of His, praise His holy name.” Do it now, even if it is a tough
time, and you feel like you are under God’s anger. The good news David says
in verse 5 is, God’s anger only lasts a moment, but His favor lasts a
lifetime. Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the
morning. David is thankful for the present because he is an optimist. No
matter how heavy the present is, the burden will soon become lite, and joy
will replace sorrow. We see here that weeping is no sign of weakness, but
is merely an honest expression of emotion, which even a strong man like
David could show. Being an optimist does not mean you do not feel the
sorrow of present suffering.
How many times have we been there? The cloud cover is oppressive and
living is a chore, and so many things are discouraging. But those days pass
by, and the sun shines again, and we are delighted to be alive. Not
everything in the present is pleasant, but the thankful heart can and will
see values that are missed by the complaining heart. Listen for example to
the insight of this poem–
Thank God for dirty dishes,
They have a tale to tell:
While others may go hungry,
We still are eating well;
With home and health and happiness
We have no right to fuss;
This stack is ample evidence
That God’s been good to us.
The challenge of life is to find a reason to be thankful in what seems on
the surface to be a reason to complain.
There are volumes of testimonies by people who have come to actually
thank God for problems and trials, and even diseases and accidents because
these so-called misfortunes opened their eyes to the fact that they were
going away from God, and they were motivated by their need for God to get
back on the right road. Their burden became their greatest blessing.
Charles Colson in his book Loving God said all of his proud and
sophisticated labor in Government was not used of God–it was his shame,
humiliation, and fall, in the Watergate scandal that God used for His glory,
for when he was down he prayed as David did in verse 10. “Hear O Lord, and
be merciful to me, O Lord, be my help.” God listens to such a prayer, and
most of the thankful people in the world are so, because they know God
listens to the cry for mercy and help, and will work with them even in the
worst situations to bring forth good.
Chuck Colson is thanking God for the present ministry he has in the
prisons of our nation where many are coming to Christ because God is
merciful and turns wailing into dancing. The worst can be used for the
best, and that is why the thankful heart can always be thankful for the
present, for no matter what it is, it has potential for good. The very
trial you now endure can be laying the foundation for a triumph tomorrow,
and so be thankful for the present. The thankful heart is ever searching
for that diamond that is hidden in life’s dirt.
Matthew Henry, the famous Bible scholar, was once accosted by thieves
and robbed of his money. He wrote these words in his diary. “Let me be
thankful…….
First, because I was never robbed before,
Second, although they took my purse they didn’t take my life,
Third, because, although they took my all, it wasn’t much,
Fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.”
Could you be thankful for the present if it was as unpleasant as being
robbed? You could if you choose to count as someone has written-
Count your blessings instead of your crosses,
Count your gains instead of your loses,
Count your joys instead of your woes
Count your friends instead of your foes
Count your courage instead of your fears,
Count your health instead of your wealth,
Count on God instead of yourself.
One of the quickest ways there is of quenching the spirit, and thereby
withering the fruit of the spirit in our lives, is by an attitude of
ingratitude which focuses on what we do not have rather than on the
abundance which we do have. The quickest way to cure any negative mood is
by the therapy of Thanksgiving. There is healing power in praise. David
said his sack cloth was removed and he was clothed with joy,
and that is what can happen to anyone who will chance their tune from the
blues to the song of Thanksgiving.
A surprising conclusion that many have come to is that Thanksgiving is
to the Christian what swearing is to the non-Christian. It is a release,
and a therapeutic expression of emotion. The one takes the low road of the
negative, and the other takes the high road of the positive. Pastor Chase,
a Presbyterian minister, was visiting a hospital ward late at night where
two elderly women were in great pain.
Both were terminal patients. One of them was cursing God and swearing at
life. The other was thanking God for the precious memories of that life and
love had given her. She was saying with the Psalmist, “Blest the Lord O my
soul and forget not all His benefits.”
The present was unpleasant for both of these ladies, but one was
building on a broader foundation than the moment. She had a reservoir of
memories she could thank God for, and that made her thankful for the
present, for her now was not empty, but was packed with grateful memories of
the past. The past influences the present, and, therefore, every one of us
has an obligation to our future self to start being grateful for the
present, so we can have a positive past to influence our future.
This makes more sense than it sounds like, for what it means is,
everyday we are laying up a treasure of Thanksgiving that will bring healing
in some future circumstance. If we neglect being thankful for the present,
we will someday go to the medicine chest, and find it empty. If you want to
enjoy the therapeutic power of Thanksgiving do not wait until someday, start now, and thank God for the present.

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Thank God Part Two

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THANK GOD FOR THE PAST.

David looks back and recognizes that had God not loved him, led him,

and lifted him, he would have been long gone, and a part of the population

of the pit. The only reason any of us are sitting here, and not lying in a

cemetery is because of the grace and providence of God. There have been

millions of people just our age who have gone into the grave because of war,

accidents, or disease, but we are alive, and not because we are more worthy,

but because we have been spared.

David knew he was alive for that same reason, and he says in verse 3,

“O Lord, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down

into the pit.” Life has its burdens and sorrows, and sometimes we even get

depressed enough to want to chuck the whole thing. David knew these dark

depths as well, but most of the time we feel like David does here, and like

the modern poet who wrote,

Thank God I’m alive!

That the skies are blue,

That a new day dawns

For me and you.

The sun light glistens

On field and on tree,

And the house wren sings

To his mate and to me.

The whole world glows

With a heavenly glee!

I know there are heart–aches,

A world full of strife,

But thank God, O thank God,

Thank God just for life.

We could not say that or feel that unless we could look back to the past and

see how God has spared us and protected us to this point.

David saw many a good man go down in battle. Israel was a winner, but

even the winners lose men, and often a great many men. Some of you have no

doubt survived wars. Some of us could have been killed in the wars of our

nation, as many thousands were. We were spared, and we got the chance to

live, to marry, to raise children, and to have grandchildren. We have been

granted the gift to be a part of history, and not because we are more

worthy, but because of the grace of God.

It is good for us to reflect on this, for it can help us to develop a

more thankful perspective. So often we forget the enormous privilege it is

just to be alive, that we become resentful and even bitter because we are

only among the riches people of the world, and not literally the richest

people around. The curse of comparative thinking takes its toll on all of

us at come point in life. We compare ourselves to others who have been more

materially blest, and who have acquired more things, and we envy them, and

this envy quenches the spirit of thankfulness.

Many of the most blest people alive are not happy to be alive because

they are caught in this curse of comparison. There is no level of life you

can arrive at where you can escape this curse. Millionaires compare

themselves with multi-millionaires, and they grieve. The multi-millionaires

compare themselves with billionaires, and they grieve, for they have been

deprived of the highest place. Art Linkletter actually has a friend who has

eight million dollars, but he is always depressed because all of his friends

have at least 10 million dollars.

The only cure for this curse is to change your perspective and look at

life like David is doing in this Psalm. He is not comparing himself to the

Pharaoh of Egypt, or to the kings of the world. He is comparing himself to

those in the grave, and he likes his place better. If you have to compare,

don’t look up, for by this foolish logic everybody is nobody except the man

at the very top. The only one who can win the comparison game is the one

that has nobody he can look up to because he is on top of everyone else. In

other words, only one can win this game, for anyone else is below him and

thus, by comparison are failures.

But if you look the other way, and compare yourself to those who are in

the grave, you are the very essence of success and superiority. How do you

measure the degree of value between you and those not alive? Are you fifty

percent, seventy five percent, or one hundred percent better off? Keep in

mind, we are not talking about eternal life, but temporal life. The dead in

Christ are with him, and are blest beyond our knowledge, but they have zero

potential to enjoy the gifts of God in this earthly life. Compared to them

we are infinitely blest. Therefore, let us look back, and thank God for the

past and for all the ways by which He preserved us so we could be alive this

day.

In our pride we often think we are who we are because of our labor and

wisdom. There is some truth to this, but if it hinders our sense of

thankfulness to God, we need to see life from a new perspective. Did you

choose to not be raised by the Mafia, and learn to live by crime? Did you

choose not to be born in Ethiopia, and be starving? Did you choose not to

live in Mexico City and be killed by a earthquake? Did you choose not to be

a farmer in Columbia and be killed by a volcano? The list could go on for

hours of all the evils you have escaped, not by your own choice and wisdom,

but by the grace of God.

Henry Ward Beecher said, “A proud man is seldom a grateful man for he

never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.” David is a grateful man for

he knows he has received so much more than he deserves. Let us join in the

spirit of David, and thank God for all His deliverance’s of the past that

bring us to the present, alive and full of potential. Thank God for the

past.

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Thank God

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If all we are and all we have is a gift from God, then the best we can do is to give back to God what is already his. But this leads to a problem. The problem is, it seems like much ado about nothing. Our giving to God is like giving a thimble of water to the ocean, or like giving a candle to the Sun. It seems so insignificant that we tend to lose the thrill of Thanksgiving. Sir Michael Costa, a famous composer and conductor from Naples, was once rehearsing with a vast array of instruments and hundreds of voices. With the thunder of the organ, the roll of the drums, the sounding of the horns, and the clashing of the cymbals, the mighty chorus rang out. You can understand the mood that came over the piccolo player who said within himself, “In all this din it matters not what I do!” So he ceased to play. Suddenly, Costa stopped and flung up his arms, and all was still. He shouted out, “Where is the piccolo?” His sensitive ear missed it, and it’s absence made a difference to him. God has a sensitive ear as well, and he misses any voice that is not lifted in Thanksgiving to Him. Besides the angelic host of heaven, millions on earth join the chorus with all sorts of spectacular things to thank God for, and it is easy for us to feel like that piccolo player and say, “How can it matter what I do? In the colossal symphony of voices, what does it matter if I remain silent? God’s blessings are more than I can count, but my ability to express my thanks is so inadequate.” Simon Greenberg expresses the frustration of the thankful heart as he deals with the gifts of God just in nature alone: Five thousand breathless dawns all new; Five thousand flowers fresh in dew; Five thousand sunsets wrapped in gold; One million snowflakes served ice cold; Five quiet friends, one baby’s love; One white mad sea with clouds above; One hundred music–haunted dreams, Of moon–drenched roads and hurrying streams, Of prophesying winds, and trees, Of silent stars and browsing bees; One June night in a fragrant wood; One heart that loved and understood. I wondered when I waked that day, How–how in God’s name–I could pay! He never even got into the greatest gifts–the gifts of love and salvation and eternal life in Jesus Christ. We can’t even pay for the gifts of natural life let alone for the gifts of eternal life. So let’s face up to the reality that Thanksgiving is not a way to pay God back. All we can give is what is already His, and we can only give a fraction in return for the fullness He has given us. So forget the idea that thanks is to pay. It is not to pay, it is to pray, and to say to God, this is how I look at life, history, nature, and all that is, because I acknowledge you as my God. Thanksgiving is the expression of an attitude, or a philosophy of life. The thankful person is a person who looks at life from a unique perspective, and, therefore, sees what the ungrateful do not see. At best we see only a part, a mere fraction of God’s grace. We see through a glass darkly Paul says, and so none of us can be as thankful as we ought to be, for we are all ignorant of so much that God has spared us from, and even of what He has given us. We can get tiresome and superficial when we try to enumerate all the things for which we are thankful. One author describes the boredom of going through and endless litany of thanks: For sun and moon and stars, We thank Thee, O Lord. For food and fun and fellowship, We thank Thee, O Lord. For fish and frogs and fruit flies, We thank Thee, O Lord. By the time you are finished, what you are most thankful for is that the list is over. David here in Psalm 30 does not give us a long list, but focuses on just a few ways of looking at life that expresses the grateful heart. I hear him saying here, thank God for the past; thank God for the present, and thank God for the permanent. I. THANK GOD FOR THE PAST. David looks back and recognizes that had God not loved him, led him, and lifted him, he would have been long gone, and a part of the population of the pit. The only reason any of us are sitting here, and not lying in a cemetery is because of the grace and providence of God. There have been millions of people just our age who have gone into the grave because of war, accidents, or disease, but we are alive, and not because we are more worthy, but because we have been spared. David knew he was alive for that same reason, and he says in verse 3, “O Lord, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit.” Life has its burdens and sorrows, and sometimes we even get depressed enough to want to chuck the whole thing. David knew these dark depths as well, but most of the time we feel like David does here, and like the modern poet who wrote, Thank God I’m alive! That the skies are blue, That a new day dawns For me and you. The sun light glistens On field and on tree, And the house wren sings To his mate and to me. The whole world glows With a heavenly glee! I know there are heart–aches, A world full of strife, But thank God, O thank God, Thank God just for life. We could not say that or feel that unless we could look back to the past and see how God has spared us and protected us to this point. David saw many a good man go down in battle. Israel was a winner, but even the winners lose men, and often a great many men. Some of you have no doubt survived wars. Some of us could have been killed in the wars of our nation, as many thousands were. We were spared, and we got the chance to live, to marry, to raise children, and to have grandchildren. We have been granted the gift to be a part of history, and not because we are more worthy, but because of the grace of God. It is good for us to reflect on this, for it can help us to develop a more thankful perspective. So often we forget the enormous privilege it is just to be alive, that we become resentful and even bitter because we are only among the riches people of the world, and not literally the richest people around. The curse of comparative thinking takes its toll on all of us at come point in life. We compare ourselves to others who have been more materially blest, and who have acquired more things, and we envy them, and this envy quenches the spirit of thankfulness. Many of the most blest people alive are not happy to be alive because they are caught in this curse of comparison. There is no level of life you can arrive at where you can escape this curse. Millionaires compare themselves with multi-millionaires, and they grieve. The multi-millionaires compare themselves with billionaires, and they grieve, for they have been deprived of the highest place. Art Linkletter actually has a friend who has eight million dollars, but he is always depressed because all of his friends have at least 10 million dollars. The only cure for this curse is to change your perspective and look at life like David is doing in this Psalm. He is not comparing himself to the Pharaoh of Egypt, or to the kings of the world. He is comparing himself to those in the grave, and he likes his place better. If you have to compare, don’t look up, for by this foolish logic everybody is nobody except the man at the very top. The only one who can win the comparison game is the one that has nobody he can look up to because he is on top of everyone else. In other words, only one can win this game, for anyone else is below him and thus, by comparison are failures. But if you look the other way, and compare yourself to those who are in the grave, you are the very essence of success and superiority. How do you measure the degree of value between you and those not alive? Are you fifty percent, seventy five percent, or one hundred percent better off? Keep in mind, we are not talking about eternal life, but temporal life. The dead in Christ are with him, and are blest beyond our knowledge, but they have zero potential to enjoy the gifts of God in this earthly life. Compared to them we are infinitely blest. Therefore, let us look back, and thank God for the past and for all the ways by which He preserved us so we could be alive this day. In our pride we often think we are who we are because of our labor and wisdom. There is some truth to this, but if it hinders our sense of thankfulness to God, we need to see life from a new perspective. Did you choose to not be raised by the Mafia, and learn to live by crime? Did you choose not to be born in Ethiopia, and be starving? Did you choose not to live in Mexico City and be killed by a earthquake? Did you choose not to be a farmer in Columbia and be killed by a volcano? The list could go on for hours of all the evils you have escaped, not by your own choice and wisdom, but by the grace of God. Henry Ward Beecher said, “A proud man is seldom a grateful man for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.” David is a grateful man for he knows he has received so much more than he deserves. Let us join in the spirit of David, and thank God for all His deliverance’s of the past that bring us to the present, alive and full of potential. Thank God for the past.

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