"BOXHOLDER, PLANET EARTH"

Father, glorify thy name.  John 12:28, R.S.V.


In my mailbox I found a little brown package labeled "Boxholder, Route 1."  Inside was a sample of shampoo and a flier describing its virtues.  The product's name was unfamiliar; in a few minutes I had all but forgotten about the sample.  It wasn't until discovering I was low on shampoo that I remembered and decided to make use of it.  Retrieving it from the "odds and ends" drawer, I stepped into the shower.

I had done what thousands of consumers have done.  Not only had I tried a new product; I actually found myself weighing its potential.  That was exactly what the promoters wanted.  And really, what better way to introduce to the public an unknown product?  Whether they knew it or not, their methodology was not only a good idea, it was God's idea first!  Wrapped in the coarse swaddling cloth of a peasant woman, Jesus was delivered to this world, a sample of God.  He is often forgotten and tossed aside into the "odds and ends" drawer of our minds, then one day we find our supply of life's stability running low.  And we remember...

However, there is something incredible about this Sample: it fits all needs!  Coming to show us the Father, Jesus desired that God's name be glorified, honored, and extolled (John 12:28, Amplified).  Crying out, "I need someone stronger than I am!"  I learn I have as my strength El Shaddai (the Almighty).  "No one sees or understands me!" and I discover "El Roi" (the Seeing God).  Spinning in a world of no absolutes, I find solid ground in Adonai (Lord, Absolute Authority).  It has all been "home-demonstrated" in the person of God's own Son.

"It was there from the beginning; we have heard it; we have seen it with our own eyes; we looked upon it, and felt it with our own hands; and it is of this we tell.  Our theme is the word of life.  This life was made visible; we have seen it and bear our testimony; we here declare to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us....Here is the message we heard from him and pass on to you: that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:1-5, N.E.B.).

God, the I AM--the Way, the Truth, the Life, Bread, Water, Rest. Righteousness, Peace.  Whatever we need.  God has named Himself!  Therefore, "I shall not want."

FAITH-SURVIVING

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated.  Heb. 11:37, R.S.P.


I have just returned from the home of close friends whose 3-year-old son is dying of leukemia.  A precious, well-formed blond with a tender personality like his mother's, he played contentedly on the floor among us as we discussed his death.  One would search long to find a more openhearted, Christ-centered couple than his parents.  As we spoke of the unspeakable, with many tears, no hint of bitterness or doubt of our Father crept into their words.  Their main perplexity was whether to subject his fragile body to painful treatments to forestall his death or let the disease take its sure course.

We knely in a circle, and I held his restless little hand as we prayed for God's active mercy.  Afterward his father walked with me to my car.  "I've been studying again the lives of the great people of the Bible," he said, "and I've come to the conclusion that there is no connection between the quality of a person's faith and his protection from tragic death."

What great faith!  I remember another who grieved, "If only I had more faith, my daughter would have been healed."  Christians speak much--perhaps too much--of faith healing.  Often the assumption is that the more faith one has, the more likely that healing will take place.  I would wish for an emphasis on "faith surviving"--on learning how one's faith in God can survive even if one is not healed.  In the long view, faithfulness is a far more serious tragedy than death!

Satan urges us to believe that our faith is a sacred life-insurance policy; if we invest adequate "faith premiums," God is obligated to protect us from death.  Those who hold this view find every life-threatening event to be a faith-threatening event, for the loss of faith is the loss of eternal life.  It leads to the second death.

Jesus insisted, however, upon calling the first death but a sleep.  To His faithful ones who sleep He will one day soon say, "Awake!"  And a tenderhearted little boy--in perfect health--shall be placed in the arms of his glad parents.  Together they shall rise, to look into the face of the Life-giver and to pour out their gratitude.

SUBMISSION TO UNREASON

I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner so that no one can know what I mean.  And I don't tell Israel to ask me for what I didn't plan to give!  Isa. 45:19, T.L.B.


"The discipline man needed most was to learn his submission to unreason.  And that for man's own sake as well as Mine, so he won't find it hard to take his orders from his inferiors in intelligence in peace and war--especially in war." From A Masque of Reason, by Robert Frost.

In the lengthy narrative from which the above quote was taken, a dialogue between God and Job takes place.  Job, a little disgusted with God's apparent capriciousness, is trying to corner God into giving an answer for sending seemingly unreasonable trials.  Frost's whole account was certainly written to be humorous, and it is--except that many believers hold similar concepts with utmost sincerity.

"Submission to unreason"--is that God's desire for us?  There are many instances in Scripture in which God asked people to do apparently unreasonable things--such as march around a hostile city seven days in a row, or wash in a dirty river in order to be made clean.  Instances that certainly seem to bear our such sentiments.

However, closer examination of these kinds of events reveal that God always was working with a stated purpose, i.e., deliverance.  He sometimes used unusual methods in order to get people's attention or to remove any doubt in their minds as to who was dealing with them.  Never did He do anything deliberately unreasonable just for the sake of making people blindly obey Him.  It has never been His intention to "whisper obscurities in some dark corner so that no one can know what I mean."

It is my contention that God is always reasonable, that it would be contrary to His very nature to be otherwise.  He may use "strange, mysterious ways" (Isa. 45:15, T.L.B.), but His desire is that we should be able to sing praises to Him "with understanding" (Ps. 47:7).  Or, as The Living Bible puts it: "Yes, sing your highest praises to our King, the King of all the earth.  Sing thoughtful praises!"

To praise God with our understanding is possible only when we have been encouraged to think.  Rather than learning submission to unreason, let us learn to exercise intelligent faith--that unshakable confidence that God is utterly reliable and reasonable.  And that He would have us be the same!

SINNERS BEFORE A HOLY GOD

One called to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."  Isa. 6:3, R.S.V.


I was in the ninth grade when my father arranged to meet Billy Graham.  Knowing that I was thinking of becoming a minister, my father assumed that contact with an evangelist of such stature might inspire me.  Following Dr. Graham's crusade meeting, as we stood in the crowd pressing near him, waiting for a chance to shake his hand, I can remember feeling great apprehension.  How does one act in the presence of an important person?  I was sure my voice would crack.  When he finally grasped my hand, what a relief it was to find how genuinely interested he was in making me feel at ease and valued in his presence.

If we feel apprehension about standing in the presence of important humans, how should we feel about standing in the presence of our magnificent, holy, glorious, sovereign God? If the holy angels continually celebrate His holiness and show Him great respect, how should we acknowledge sinners feel about being in His presence?  Isn't there good cause for a great chasm between us?

Some have suggested that His infinite holiness is intended to keep us sinners "at bay," intimidated by such grand righteousness, lest we presume to step lightly into His presence.  Such holiness would certainly frighten sinners.  But would it ever draw sinners?  Would it ever make us glad that He is stepping across the chasm to be near us?  Would Emmanuel--"God with us"--be heard as good news, or as a signal for alarm?

Jesus came to reveal to us every aspect of the Father's glory that was important for us to know.  Yet it did not intimidate, frighten, or repel us.  For God's glory does not center in His consuming power, it centers in the qualities of His character.  And His character is compellingly attractive.

Jesus came to show that the gulf between us and our Father is not of His choosing, nor does He wish for it to remain.  It is true that God stationed an angel with a flaming sword at the gate of the garden to bar the way for Adam and Eve to return.  But this was to prevent them from thinking that a mere physical return to God's presence--short of a complete, informed return of their loyalties--would solve the sin problem.

LIVING LIMITLESS LOVE

There must be no limit to your goodness, as your heavenly Father's goodness knows no bounds.  Matt. 5:48, N.E.B.

Ours is a world of limits.  Speed limits, social limits, limits imposed by stress or handicaps; the list can become annoyingly, if not painfully long.  "Do I have to be home at midnight?!" implores your teenage daughter.  "Why can't I just win a sweepstakes, or something?!" wishes the dog-tired executive facing the monthly stack of bills that outbalance his income.  "If only I were beautiful, like Marilyn Monroe."  "If I were better with my hands, I could fix it myself."

We all continually face our own limitations and those imposed on us by society and circumstances.  "Oh, to be free!" we sometimes sigh.  Teenagers long to become adults.  Adults long for retirement.  The aged long for their youth.  Christians long for the Second Coming.  But is that the best for which we can hope?  Are our limitations immune from the gospel assurance of freedom and abundant life?

Of course, many limitations are those protections we might not choose for ourselves.  Many are not.  However, the irony of our lives is that most of us do not use more than 2 percent of our potential!  And this may indeed hold the key to our frustrations.  Perhaps our surest happiness and our greatest productivity lie in those areas that we pass by in pursuit of our desired goals.  This is not to say that our chosen goals are necessarily wrong.  Is it possible, though, that we have allowed the ideals we hold to rob us of the very real and tangible accomplishments?

I like today's text because it implies an open window in our world of many closed doors.  Rather than an impossible command, I see promise and potential.  The central issue is not obedience but sonship, as noted in verse 45 of the same chapter.  Sons and daughters have the privilege of upholding and extending their father's reputation.  And this is our heavenly Father's coronation: limitless love!

Let us make a conscious effort to allow God to develop in us the glorious potential of living limitless love!

​MAKING ENEMIES FOR GOD

Alas for you, you scribes and Pharisees, play-actors!  You scour sea and land to make a single convert, and then you make him twice as ripe for destruction as you are yourselves.  Matt. 23:15, Phillips.

Evangelism is for most Christians what apple pie, motherhood, and the flag are for most Americans.  The value of evangelism seems almost unquestioned.  Oh, it is true that some evangelism is apparently more successful than others--perhaps because of personalities or planning.  But no one should be found opposing it!  For to tell people about Christ and to invite them to give their lives to Him should be the goal of every Christian.

Yet that was the apparent goal of the scribes and Pharisees whom Jesus so soundly rebuked in today's text.  Intensely eager to gain converts, they covered oceans and continents to find names to add to their list.  In the broad outlines, their doctrines seemed correct, too.  They spoke out against idolatry, evil associates, and religious indifference.  And they advocated Sabbathkeeping, tithing, and a healthful diet.

Though Jesus Himself was an evangelist, He pronounced their work to be worse than effective.  It was outright destructive.  Their converts, rather than being more likely to be saved, became twice as likely to be lost--even though they had joined the "religion of the true God."  How could this be?  How could those who set out to make people followers of the true God actually end up making enemies for Him?

The answer may have much in it for us as well.  The apostle Paul labels their zeal an ill-informed zeal (Rom. 10:2).  For example, they were driven with zeal to see that no one broke the Sabbath.  In service of that goal, they composed thousands of detailed commands, requirements, and prohibitions about Sabbathkeeping.  But somewhere in all the paperwork they lost the Lord of the Sabbath.

Their converts ended up with lots of information about the Sabbath, but they were converted to an arbitrary view of Sabbathkeeping.  Therefore they saw God as an arbitrary God.  And those who worship an arbitrary God become arbitrary themselves--which is the activity of Satan.

Salvation is not assured by the quantity of information one has about God but by the accuracy of that information--because false information about God does just exactly what Satan wants it to do: it makes people enemies of God.

THE POWER OF GOD

Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with living-kindness have I drawn thee.  Jer. 31:3.

Power!  You see it in the latest television commercials: four-wheel drive pickups soar into the air with the blazing sun as a backdrop.  Powerful nations meet at summit conferences to eye each other and consider the extent of negotiable weaponry.  Five-year-old Billy wilts when Dad begins to slip his belt from his waist.

Christians pray, "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory."  Sometimes we rejoice at the thought of God's power.  (He can shut lions' mouths and make the sea like dry land!)  At other times we wish we could hide from Him.  (He can destroy wicked people with fire and brimstone!)  Depending on our need and how we feel about ourselves, we cry to God for His power or we run from it

While not wanting to diminish the quality of power in God (indeed, one of God's own names for Himself is El Shaddai, the ALmighty), may I suggest that our human obsession with muscle power has distorted our view of God?  Remember the six blind men from India, each of whom had hold of an elephant?  Asked to describe the beast, the one who had hold of the trunk said that it was like a huge snake.  Another argued that it was like a tree trunk, while yet another thought it was like rope, and so on.  The point is that while all were partially accurate, none could conceive of the true nature of the animal.

Jesus said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee, since thou hast given him power over all flesh."  Power over all flesh!  But He goes on, "to give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him" (John 17:1, 2, R.S.V.).  Power to give!  And lest there be any doubt as to what He meant, He finished, "And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (verse 3, R.S.V.).

To know God is to be drawn to Him.  Jesus, in showing us the Father, drew all men unto Himself and, consequently, to the Father.  In today's text, God declared through the  prophet Jeremiah that He draws us by His lovingkindness.  That is the greatest definition of God's power: drawing love!

And by this He has given us power--to become children of God (chap. 1:12)!

THE BEST GIFT

He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all; and with this gift how can he fail to lavish upon us all he has to give?  Rom. 8:32, N.E.B.


There comes a Christmas in each person's life when, in spite of his youthful inexperience, he must make that bold step of purchasing gifts for the other members of the family.  I think I was about 7 years old when my mother guardedly slipped several dollars into my hand and whispered that I should try to get a present for my dad.

While she busied herself at the dress shop I walked down the block to where my dad seemed to enjoy shopping.  It was a hardware store.  I was too bashful to ask for help from the clerk, so I found something colorful that I guessed I could afford, ignored the inquisitive look of the cashier when I paid for it, and took it home to wrap.

Dad was courteous when he opened it on Christmas morning, even when he asked me what it was.  I didn't know.  My family later figured out that it was a cloth band to put around cold steering wheels for comfortable early morning driving.  I was too embarrassed to ask why Dad never used it.

What would our infinitely wise heavenly Father choose to give us on Christmas morning?  Imagine: the ultimate gift from One for whom money is no object and who perfectly knows our needs!  He could have given us treasures of exquisite value--works of art, palaces, creature comforts unending.

But instead, He walked down the staircase of heaven with a baby in His arms.  He gave us a Person!  The perfect gift, designed to meet the deepest need of the heart, the need for a close, loyal, loving Friend.  On the surface it would seem to have been easier for our loving Friend to have given from His treasury of things.  But all parents know that the greatest joys on Christmas morning come from having given a gift of the finest quality, matched exactly to their children's needs.

And our God, who created us for fellowship with Himself, knows that we could be satisfied with nothing less than the object of that fellowship.  He revealed a pattern at Bethlehem: His best gifts come in the form of people.  Jesus was not isolated in the sumptuous wrappings of some elite palace.  He lived among us in humble, believable form, and authentic life.  And He showed us the One whom to know is life eternal.

GOD'S GREAT CONFIDENCE

But while he was still a long way off his father saw him, and his heart went out to him.  He ran to meet him, flung his arms around him, and kissed him.  Luke 15:20, N.E.B.

Sheila's mother's eyes were wide open as she lay in the darkness.  At every new sound she held her breath and listened.  The time was well past midnight, the weather was cold and rain was falling.  Finally she arose, wrapped her bathrobe closely around her, and took up a position at the front room window.  Straining her eyes into the darkness, she sat watching for her tardy teenage daughter.

Long ago a father watched for his wayward son, a son who had left for more than a night out on the town.  In fact, he had asked for his inheritance and, upon receiving it, had left the country.  It is doubtful that his father had even heard anything from him since then.  Though our text does not actually say that the father was watching, we know that he was by the description of what happened.  "While he was still a long way off his father saw him."  In the context of the story, there is only one reason for his father to be looking "a long way off."

Why did the father keep watching?  Hope and love, of course, made him scan the horizon day after day.  However, I believe there was something more: a sureness, a confidence born of knowing that he had dealt well with his son, and the faith that his son would someday remember his father's goodness and come home.  And remember he did!  Only he underestimated it!  Perhaps if he had fully comprehended his father's virtues, he would not have left in the first place.

Dear reader, in this touching parable we have a picture of our heavenly Father that should both comfort and delight our hearts!   We can safely surmise that God knows His goodness has power to draw us back to Himself; He need not threaten to yank us back by the scruff of our necks.  In His very act of watching for us He reveals His faith in us that, given a chance to "come to our senses"--and in the parable that happened when the son began to think correctly about his father!--we will gladly return to Him.

Like the prodigal son, in returning to God, we find that He runs out to meet us with acceptance--with a crown!

​MORE THAN SHED BLOOD

Indeed, according to the Law, it might almost be said, everything is cleansed by blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.  Heb. 9:22, N.E.B.

            There is a fountain filled with blood,
                Drawn from Emmanuel's veins;
             And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
                 Lose all their guilty stains.

                                         ----William Cowper


Dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of Christian hymns exalt the shed blood of Jesus Christ as the key to salvation.  It is a constant theme in Christian literature, the central metaphor of many a sermon.

The blood of Christ, flowing from his hands and feet, His torn back and pierced brow, as He hung on the cross, is a symbol of a larger reality.  Jesus' shed blood is a poetic metaphor, a graphic way of saying that He died for me, for shed blood leads to death.

Yet it is worth remembering that when the Roman soldier thrust the spear into Jesus' side (as recorded in John 19:34), there came out a flow of water and blood, indicating that He had already died of other causes.  The blood had already separated into serum and platelets.  Though blood is a symbol of Jesus' death, to know that His death was not caused by the loss of blood is important.  The blood on Jesus' body revealed the cruelty of sinners against their Savior, but it did not reveal what had caused His death.

For you see, the death that Jesus died in my place was the second death--that death that is caused by separation from the Life-giver.  This is the consequence of sin that He bore in my place.  The cross of Christ--or more accurately, the death of Christ on the cross--saves me from the second death, not necessarily from the first.

Jesus did not die because of the Roman soldier's spear.  He did not die because of the nails in His hands and feet.  He did not die because of the extreme agony of the cross, which was intended to be a slow torture leading to death after several days.  He did not die from a loss of blood.  Jesus died when His Father withdrew His life-giving presence from Him, thus verifying for all the universe just how deadly it is to separate from God.