4SpiritualSecrets

“Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth…” (Luke 3:5)

One of the greatest sermons was preached by the Prophet Isaiah and quoted by the man Jesus called ‘the greatest prophet ever born of woman,’ John the Baptist.  The sermon used a metaphor that was well known in Isaiah’s time.  When a king was going to travel to a distant province in his kingdom, they would build a highway on which he would travel.  While the highway was under construction they referred to it as “The Kings Highway.”

When you build a highway you do four things: you fill valleys, you level mountains, you straighten crooked places, and you smooth out rough places.

As Isaiah predicted the coming of the Messiah he proclaimed that God was coming into this world and the highway on which He was going to travel was the perfect life of His Son.  In that perfect life His valleys would be filled with the Holy Spirit.  The mountains of pride would be completely leveled, the crooked ways of sin would be completely straighten, and He would respond to the rough ways of His cross perfectly.

One of the most dynamic truths in the New Testament is that Jesus sent His followers into this world in the same way He was sent into this world.  That means that our life in Christ is designed to be a highway on which God travels into this world.  I dare you to ask God to make your life such a highway.  If you do, don’t be surprised when God’s “bulldozers” show up. Then you can write, “Caution: God at Work” over your life.

“…  ‘To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children’… to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’”  (Luke 1:17)

When the birth of the greatest prophet ever born of woman was prophesied, it was predicted that as he prepared the way of the Messiah to come into this world he would do so by exhorting fathers to prioritize their relationship with their children.  The challenging truth by application is that the way of the Lord in the lives of children is prepared when fathers are faithful in their responsibility toward their children.  

One example of this reality is when our Lord taught His disciples how to pray, He instructed us to address God as “our Father.” What images come into the minds of people when they address God in that way?  Their relationship to their earthly father can strongly influence the way they perceive their heavenly Father.

As a pastor I have had parishioners say to me in private “When I address God as my father I experience a spiritual short circuit.” When I asked them to tell me about their earthly father I often heard a story about a very dysfunctional father /child relationship.

Professional Christian clinical psychologists and psychiatrists strongly reinforce the hard reality of the profound influence fathers have on the lives of their children.  The profound truth that was focused when the life and ministry of this great prophet was profiled is confirmed in millions of lives every day.

As we in America call this Sunday “Father’s Day” may the vision statement that was prophesied for John the Baptist raise awareness in all of us who are fathers of the solemn mission objective we have been assigned by God when He made us fathers.

“…  who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:4)

They say an evangelist is “one beggar telling another beggar where the bread is.”  Paul is telling us in this passage of Scripture that a minister of comfort is “one hurting heart telling another hurting heart where the Comfort is.” According to Paul, every time you enter into a deeper level of suffering God gives you a diploma you can frame and hang on your wall of credentials.

Jeremiah Denton was in solitary confinement in Hanoi for seven years.  While he was alone in that cell he made an amazing discovery: God was there and God Himself comforted him.  Have you entered into a level of suffering that was deep enough for you to make that same discovery?  If you have, then you are a qualified minister of comfort and you can tell other hurting hearts where the Comfort is.

As a pastor for just under six decades I have made a discovery.  The best one to comfort a parent who has lost a child is a parent who has lost a child and the best one to comfort the person who has lost a spouse is someone who has lost a spouse – when those who have suffered these losses have been comforted by God Himself.  The same is true for women who have had mastectomies, those who are going through divorce, battling cancer and every other shade and grade of suffering.

When God Himself has comforted you in your deepest levels of suffering are you willing to reach outside yourself and become a qualified minister of comfort?

“Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful…And what do you have that you did not receive? (1 Corinthians 4: 2, 7)

The biblical word “steward” is not fully understood or appreciated.  It is actually one of the most important words in the New Testament.  A synonym for this word is “manager.” Many people believe this word primarily relates to a person’s money.  But that application falls far short of the essential meaning of this word.

When Paul asks the probing question: “And what do you have that you did not receive?” he is telling us that our stewardship applies to everything we have received from God.  This means our time, energy, gifts and talents, our health and all the things that make up the essence of our very life, including all of our money and possessions.

At the age of 65 my best friend had what he refers to as a “halftime” experience when he came to fully appreciate this word “steward.” His regular custom was to draw a line down the middle of the top page of a legal pad.  On the left side of that line he wrote “My business” while on the right side of the line he wrote “God’s business.” When he fully appreciated this word “steward” he erased that line because, as a very successful wealthy businessman, he realized it was all God’s business.

Remember, the important thing about a steward is that we be found faithful.  Do you realize there is nothing in your life you did not receive from God?  Do you know that you are to faithfully manage everything you have received from God?  Are you willing to have a halftime experience and erase the line between what is yours and what is God’s?

“Now we have received… the Spirit who is from God, that we might know…” (1 Corinthians 2:12)

The inspired writing of the Apostle Paul has given us a masterpiece of what we might consider spiritual educational psychology.  How do we learn?  According to Paul there are several gates of learning through which we must pass if we want to know spiritual truth.

His thesis is that we learn through the eye gate, which involves everything we observe and read.  We learn through the ear gate, which involves everything we hear, including lectures and interaction with others, mentors and those who are learning with us. 

Then the apostle mentions the heart gate, which has to do with volition or the desire and the willingness to apply what we’re learning.  Apprenticeship, which is a synonym for discipleship describes a learner who is doing what they’re learning and learning what they’re doing.  This is the way Jesus trained His disciples (John 7:17; Matthew 4:19).

The most important gate we must pass through to learn spiritual truth according to Paul is the gate of the Holy Spirit.  His intriguing and profound illustration is that no person knows the thoughts of another person except the spirit that is in that other person.  In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God but the Spirit of God.  He is excited about the glorious reality that we have received that Spirit Who knows the very thoughts of God and we can therefore know the very thoughts of God.  One translation concludes this inspired Second Chapter of 1 Corinthians with “Incredible as it may seem, we actually have the very mind of Christ!”

 Prayerfully meditate on this chapter and then find your way through these gates of learning.

“For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” (Hebrews 6:10)

The devotional and practical application of this Scripture shows us that these thoughts are directed to people who have labored long and hard in the ministry without much visible affirmation, encouragement or reward.  These words are instructing them to think about the One for Whom they were doing this ministry to God’s people.

Abraham heard three words from God which are recorded (in Genesis 17: 1).    Those words are: “Walk before Me.” Those three words remind us that we need to know Who we’re doing it for and we need to know how He feels about everything we do in the way of ministry to His people.  When there is not much fruit and very few encouraging accolades, it can be a great consolation to faithful servants of the Lord to be reminded of the glorious reality that God has seen and He will never forget our faithful labors.

The story is told of two elderly missionaries who returned to New York after nearly half a century as missionaries in Africa.  They had lost their wives in Africa and were very, very lonely in that large city.  When they met at the YMCA where they were staying and shared their discouragement, one of them said to the other, “We are not home yet, George.” Sometimes the recognition and the reward for faithful service may only come when those words are heard “Well done good and faithful servant!”

 If you are a faithful servant without much affirmation or encouragement let these words be a consolation to you.

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you…”  (Philippians 1:3)

It is fitting that we in the United States of America set aside one day out of the year to memorialize our fallen warriors.  In the Old Testament God regularly commanded the Chosen People to erect memorials so they would never forget certain events on their journey of faith.  When we study those memorials we realize that God wanted them to remember miracles He performed for them.  He never wanted them to forget significant spiritual datelines.  He often repeated for emphasis things He wanted them to remember.  Throughout the Old and New Testaments we therefore continuously here the exhortation to remember!

Memorials are closely linked with the attitude of gratitude and the awful sin of ingratitude.  On Memorial Day are you thankful for what has been labeled “The Greatest Generation” who in the first half of the decade of the forties saved us from an unthinkable future without freedom and throughout the decades of the Cold War from more of the same?  Does your memorial gratitude continue through those who fell in Korea, Vietnam and now in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Do you have spiritual memorial datelines for which you are grateful as you remember them before God?  Do you have a dateline of when you came to faith in what Christ did for you on the cross?  Do you have spiritual datelines beyond that point of beginning your faith journey, when the risen Christ has proved Himself to you in miraculous ways?  Do you have a dateline when He made you know what He wants you to do for Him? In the fulfillment of that vision has He brought very, very significant people into your life to help you bring that vision into reality?

Then have a spiritual Memorial Day and be filled with grateful worship!

“… Will the thing formed say to Him who formed it, ‘Why have You made me like this?’”(Romans 9:20)

 In an old prayer hymn we find words that tell God to have His own way with us because He is the Sculptor and we are the clay.  That prayer then asks our Sculptor to mold us and make us after His will while we are waiting as passively as clay in the hands of our perfect Sculptor.

 The antithesis of this prayer is expressed in the words of the Apostle Paul quoted above.  His question is essentially “Can you imagine clay talking back to its sculptor asking, ‘Why are you making me this way?’” As believers we should always be perceiving, believing, and becoming who God wants us to be and not who we want to be.

 How do you feel about the way God has made and is making you?  Do you meet yourself in the prayer of the old hymn, or are you like the clay that is talking back to its Sculptor?      

 An underlying cause of unhappiness in professing believers is that they’re not who God wants them to be and, at least subconsciously, they know it.  The cure for that unhappiness is to become as passive as clay, tell God we just want to be who He wants us to be, and then perceive, believe and become that person.  We cannot be anything more and life is too precious to be anything less. 

 Have you ever heard of the Spiritual Triple-A Club?  It is made up of those who pray to God “Anything, Anywhere, and Anytime.  Are you willing to become as passive as clay that doesn’t talk back to its sculptor and then join that club?

“…  And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.” (Colossians 1:27 NLT)

The most important teaching in the New Testament is that Jesus Christ died for our sins.  The most dynamic teaching in the New Testament is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and He lives in us.  According to the Apostle Paul, the glorious reality that the risen Christ lives in us gives us the assurance that we can glorify God.

To glorify God means to do that which pleases God.  At the end of His perfect life Jesus made the statement, “I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work You gave me to do.” (John 17:4)  In one of His most profound metaphors, Jesus taught that it is possible for us to be at one with Him the way a branch is at one with a Vine.  (John 15:1-16)

It is only because I am in Him and He is in me, like a branch is in a Vine, that I can hope and pray to come to the end of my life exclaiming, “I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work You gave me to do.”

This means the risen Christ is a Vine looking for branches today.  Are you willing to be one of those branches?  When you become one, or if you already are a branch, are you finding and finishing the work He wants you to do for Him that glorifies His Father God?

When you bring forth the fruit that remains because you are in Him and He is in you, Jesus has showed you how to make the spiritual secret of Paul your own spiritual secret.

“…  I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” (John 9:39)

 Jesus made the claim that He was the light of the world.  He also commissioned His followers with the exhortation that we are the light of the world.  From the statement quoted above we learn that the light of which our Lord was speaking is a very strange quality of light.  It makes it possible for those who are blind to see and it reveals the blindness of those who think they see.

 When I was a child I lived near coal mines.  One day there was a terrible explosion in a coal mine and 20 miners were trapped and isolated for three days in a small pocket of that mine.  When they were rescued there was great jubilation and celebration among the rescued miners and those who had broken through to them.  All the celebration grew quiet when one of the rescued miners asked the question “Why didn’t you guys bring any lights?” The rescuers had actually brought many lights.  The miner who asked the question had been blinded by the flash when the explosion happened.  He had been blind for three days but in the pitch black darkness of the mine he didn’t know he was blind until the light came.

 The light that Jesus is – and the light He told us that we are – has that purpose and function.  It reveals the spiritual blindness of those who think they see and it gives sight to those who know they are spiritually blind.  Jesus did not give us that light.  He told us we are that light.  Are you willing to let the light of Jesus shine through you?