Thoughts - Matthew 11:28

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
- Matthew 11:28

The Christian life, as commonly understood, can be an extremely busy one. The business of saving souls demands a lot of giving by a lot of people. Even in the Bible, the working, giving nature of the Faith is repeatedly stressed, leading to innumerable discussions of spiritual gifts, methods of evangelism, varieties of social ministry, whole laundry lists of church activities, and so on, and so on, and so on. It leads to a lot of exciting work, and even more exciting results. It also leads to incredible fatigue.

Which is why a lesson that I learned myself only a couple weeks ago continues to stick out so prominently in my mind. I've been very busy lately doing God's work, both in direct ministry and in getting things together to continue following His calling on my life. It's all good stuff, but, after one particularly eventful weekend, I was completely exhausted.

My automatic response to this, being a good Christian, was to pray. And God answered, by providing for me an extremely refreshing nap. As I woke up later, He reminded me of the main verse for today.

OK, I realize that it wasn't the most exciting story. Even so, remarkably, the experience has significantly modified my view of the Christian life, by showing me a couple truths I had missed. Or possibly ignored.

First, for all of our “doing”, Christ's goal was to give us rest, not burden us with work. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) - sounds more like joy than toil. The old system of the law gave us an unbearable burden, and the Jews literally worked themselves into exhaustion attempting to pull it. Christ alone could pull the load, and He invited us (Matthew 11:29-30) to come along with Him, so He could pull it instead of us.

Second, even more basically, Christ's goal was to give. It's true that “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) But realize that, with God, there's very little we can give. Beyond that, if no one receives, then giving comes to a halt. To the audience Jesus was addressing, the problem was in getting people to give. In the Church today, far too often, the opposite issue rears its head: we get so caught in giving that we refuse to receive, even from God.

Now, this in no way reduces the commands of Scripture or the demands of life with God and in the Church. There are a lot of things we are to do, and those are good things. The problem is, we get focused on the to-do lists, and forget about both God and ourselves. God's first concern is for His children – He loves us and wants to take care of us. And, honestly, we need His care. Only when we'll allow Him that access will we have what it takes to minister to others.

Put another way: the point of the Christian life is the two-way relationship with God. Commune with Him and receive from Him, and you can do great things through Him. Concentrate on the “stuff”, however sanctified, and you'll be hopelessly drained.

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
- Philippians 4:19

Happy Boxing Day!

I just wanted to be the first to wish everyone a happy Boxing Day. This blog being based in and catered to the USA, I'm not exactly sure what anyone will be doing to celebrate this august day, but I wish you well in whatever celebratory activities you may undertake.

Just a note, though: from my understanding, "Boxing" here does not refer to the sport. So, if your plans involve giving someone in the supermarket a celebratory uppercut, you may want to reconsider. Just a thought.

Nathan

Merry Christmas!

Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great Desire of nations,
Ye have seen His natal star:
Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

- James Montgomery

A Poem

This appears to be an evening for poetry by the members of the Triumvirate (see here and here). Unfortunately, though, I'm not in a particularly poetic mood. So, rather than attempt to force one, I think I'll post one that I've previously composed.

Yes, my poem is devotional. Don't act so surprised!


The day was closing dark and dreary
The wind was howling, the rain, it poured.
Yet as I watched this, soft and slowly,
A song of praise came to the fore.
The song did nothing to the scen'ry,
It stayed as wretched as before,
But in my eyes, the darkened green'ry,
Was in that moment all transformed:
What had before been gath'ring gloom,
That all within its grasp would capture,
Was suddenly made to assume,
A portal to God's next adventure.

The song that worked this curious act,
Did not address the stormy weather -
Its power indeed was in the fact
That it ignored it altogether.
This song, it took no heed of hap'nings
It stayed the same through thick and thin,
Reminded me of brighter evenings,
And made my joy to surge within.

Oh Lord, You are forever constant,
You changeth not from year to year,
My life may change within an instant,
So precious Christ please hold me near.
And like a song which bears within
Light from outside my present view,
Be Thou to me a Heav'nly hymn,
Let all I see and hear be You!

Thoughts - John 11:16

"So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, 'Let us also go, that we may die with Him.'"
- John 11:16

This came up in a Bible Study yesterday. There was a point to it, but it kind of got lost. And it shall stay lost, as I think this verse is extremely interesting in its own right.

If you're like me, you're already quite familiar with the context of this story. Jesus is out teaching, and He hears that His friend Lazarus is sick. He waits for a couple of days, and then decides to head to Bethany to see about healing (at this point, actually, raising) Lazarus.

Now, the problem with going to Bethany is that Bethany is within the region known as Judea. And the muckity-mucks of Judea are quite convinced that Jesus needs to die. These folks, however, are not mere thinkers - they also have the influence and drive to help Jesus meet His Maker (logical quandary intended) in an expeditious manner. With this in mind, the disciples try to dissuade Him from this mission - first stating the fact (v. 8) and then arguing the necessity of the trip (v. 12). Thomas put an end to the discussion with his statement, noted above.

There are a couple interesting elements of Thomas' statement. First, Thomas has very little hope here. He's pretty sure Jesus is going to die on this trip, and the rest of the group may join Him. The annoyance and resignation in his voice is almost palpable in the text.

Second, however, Thomas never questions following Christ. He's pretty sure they're all going to die, and yet he chooses to still go with Jesus. The level of dedication felt here by Thomas is simply amazing. The fact that no one sees fit to argue with him seems to indicate that the feeling was mutual.

Now, if this were a happy Sunday School lesson, everything would turn out peachy, and the disciples would learn to trust God to keep bad things away. The problem is, that isn't what happened. The irony of this whole story, you see, is that Thomas and the other disciples were right - although it took a couple stops, it was on this trip into Judea that Christ was captured, tried, and crucified!

What do we make of this, then? I think there are a couple important points. First, it's not inappropriate to think rationally about your actions - what the disciples deduced as happening did, in fact, happen in part. Second, though, they recognized that their reason had to be subservient to their priorities - they were going to go with Christ, whether it seemed smart or not. Third, when they did this, God gave them neither what reason nor hope would have expected - instead, He gave them infinitely more, a place in the founding of His Church!