On Poached Eggs, Seeing the Sun, Scribbling and What Lies Ahead

I delight in the reality that as our Lord builds His church He raises up men and gives them insight that others might have hope and be encouraged. One such man who has encouraged me is CS Lewis. Like every other man the Lord gives to His church, Lewis was limited and imperfect. Nevertheless it’s difficult not to find some nuggets in his writings that give off a holy echo of the abiding Word. I trust you will be encouraged by the following.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Mere Christianity

Jesus – Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word, and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life (John 5:24).

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“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

In Him was the life and the life was the light of men… There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man (John 1:5,9).

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“A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.”

And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:5).

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 “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him (I Corinthians 2:9).

Never Try To Teach a Pig To Sing

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me and it is a safeguard for you. – Philippians 3:1

I have a very good friend who is having a major impact on me because he is a man who rejoices! And he reminds and encourages me to rejoice.

I don’t know about you, but like the Philippians I have to be reminded to rejoice in the Lord. I have to make a conscious decision to be happy in Jesus -- to be glad in the Lord. Paul writes that to be reminded is a safeguard -- reflecting on why I’m to be rejoicing and taking steps to rejoice protect me.

Here are some thoughts from Philippians I trust might remind all of us to rejoice.

First, rejoicing in the Lord confirms we belong to God. We can be a rejoicing people because “we are of the true circumcision” (3:3). Those in Christ have been truly set apart by the God of the universe as His own. We need no external mark or external religious act to complete what Christ has done for us. What Christ has done completely satisfied God. “We worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” (3:3). Having believed, we have been sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our inheritance (Eph. 1:13,14). A rancher friend of mine talks about being branded by the Holy Spirit and that ‘brand’ forever identifying whose we are. Rejoice in the Lord!

Second, rejoicing in the Lord protects from demeaning Christ and despair. “Beware of the dogs, the evil workers, the false circumcision” (3:2). Don’t miss it: believing we have to add external religious acts to the finished work of Christ so as to be declared righteous before God suggests Christ didn’t get the job done. Theologically, it demeans Christ and dishonors God (John 5:23, 24; Gal. 5:2-6). Psychologically it leads to doubt and discouragement. Did you do the religious act seriously enough? Perfectly enough? Thoroughly enough? You shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect – that’s the standard (Matt 5:48). How’s that going for you? Rejoice in the perfections of Christ! Someone once said, never try to teach a pig to sing. You won’t be pleased with the results and it only irritates the pig. That’s what happens when we try to add religious acts to what God has declared finished; no one is satisfied. Rejoice in the Lord!

Third, to rejoice in the Lord is to have an upward call on our lives. Rejoicing in the Lord is great evidence we are motivated wholly by the risen, ascended Christ, and we’re not just a religious hack (3:4-16). Paul counted all his religious trappings as rubbish. All his religious earned income credit was tossed out in exchange for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus His Lord. Rejoicing in the Lord is to be spiritually alive. Like Paul, we trust in a Person; we seek to know a Person; we desire for that Person to define everything about us. We rejoice in the Lord – pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Rejoicing,

Pastor Tedd

Words of Worth

Several years ago one of my sisters and brothers-in-law took my father’s Bible and copied all of his hand-written notes within. They compiled it into a little booklet entitled ‘Words of Worth.’ Below are a few excerpts.

“Man is not his own maker. Therefore, he must not be his own master.” – Leonard Ravenhill

There is always chaff where you have wheat, but there shouldn’t be more chaff than wheat! – Anonymous

Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard than when you sang the songs of Satan. – John Wesley

We are not storehouses, but channels.

We are not cisterns, but springs, passing our benefits onward,

Fitting our blessings with wings; letting the water flow onward

To spread o’er the desert forlorn; sharing our bread with our brothers,

Our comfort with those who mourn.

-          Anon

Man sees a body struggling with pain, God sees a spirit growing strong again.

Man sees but weakness – God sees new power; a saint is learning patience with every trying hour.

Man sees but sickness, counts the healing slow. God is rejoicing to see a loved one grow.

Man sees days wasted – God counts them gain. For faith as sweet as childhood is growing out of pain.

Man feels a sorrow rising in his breast. God in his wisdom leadeth into rest.

Man sees the present – God sees the goal. And by seeming bondage is setting free the soul.

-          V. Raymond Edman

Someone once asked George Whitefiled, “Is that man over there a Christian?” Whitefield replied, “I don’t know, I haven’t talked to his wife.”

The question is not the sincerity with what we believe, but the truth of what we believe.

-          Anon

Working on ourselves all the time produces a warped saint. Our best improvement comes roundabout – indirectly – as we help one another along. – Vance Havner