Truth

East-West Separation

October 2, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:8-14)

If you take a few moments to Google the idea of the universe expanding, this is what you will find:

The American astronomer Edwin Hubble made the observations in 1925 and was the first to prove that the universe is expanding. He proved that there is a direct relationship between the speeds of distant galaxies and their distances from Earth. This is now known as Hubble’s Law.

The galaxies outside of our own are moving away from us, and the ones that are farthest away are moving the fastest. This means that no matter what galaxy you happen to be in, all the other galaxies are moving away from you. However, the galaxies are not moving through space, they are moving in space, because space is also moving. In other words, the universe has no center; everything is moving away from everything else.

There is no separation in a person’s life like the separation from the companionship of a loved one. Different causes produce the anguish from such a separation: military service, emotional estrangement, divorce, incarceration, and death. These and others can cause a sadness and almost unbearable, crushing depression.

If we were only animals, separation would most likely not produce severe sadness. Some animal species are deeply affected by separation. The study of the African Elephant, as an example, indicates that the memories of these huge beasts are deeply affected by the death of one of their herd. But we are quite different from any of the animals God created.

We humans were created for a unique fellowship and communion with our Creator. The fact of sin—disobedience to God’s law by our first parents, produced a progeny of lawbreakers who through history have illustrated alienation from God. We have been alienated from that common-union for which we were created—the union of God’s Spirit in our spirit. That’s what originally made Eden perfect.

It is the Christian religion that teaches reconciliation of man with his Creator by means of a mediator. The Scripture says,

“God wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (I Timothy 2:4-5).

You know, I think that David the King knew this long before Edwin Hubble made his discovery. After his sins of adultery and murder, the Psalmist was granted to learn the spiritual principle that God’s forgiveness of our sins is easily depicted as being removed from us by His grace further and further from those acts whereby we sinned against God and our fellow friends. The records of our sins and failures might be kept in the memory of friends—especially those against whom we sinned heniously. They may be kept in the records held by civil authorities. With todays computer technology they can pull up every speeding ticket, every act of tax evasion, and display it right in front of us or others. Look how the investigating agencies are digging into the political machinations of our political parties. Emails….telephone conversations, you name it. You are on record.

But that’s not so with your moral transgressions against the God of the Universe, if you have repented and asked forgiveness from Him. Look what King David says:

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
The Lord does not always scold us; He doesn’t keep His anger forever.
He doesn’t always deal with us in accordance with our sins.
He doesn’t always give us the penalty we really deserve.
If we truly fear Him and repent of our sins He will show us mercy.
God treats us like a loving human father would treat us.
God knows everything about us—He knows every secret we keep.
God knows every weakness, every character flaw, and every evil motive.
And in spite of all that we have done to deserve His displeasure…
God is willing to forgive us and separate our sins from us “As far as the east is from the west.”

Think of it! Meditate on the fact. If the universe as we know it is expanding, then the distance between our past sins and failures are drifting further and further away from us. We may be tempted to hold onto our past failures; but God has removed and is continually removing our confessed and forsaken sins away from us. He does this in order that we might serve Him every day with a clear conscience and a desire to allow Him in His power and grace to live through us toward others for His glory and the benefit they might receive by our positive witness to His grace in forgiveness. Now that is the mercy of God! Learn it. Grasp it. Cling to it, and rejoice that you are His forgiven child.

Listening To Jesus

September 26, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“If anyone hears My sayings, and does not keep them, I do not judge him;
for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects
Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke
is what will judge him at the last day.” (John 12:47-48)

“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions
and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He
appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” (Hebrews 1: 1-2)

Have you ever imagined what it would have been like to be sitting on the hillside where Jesus was teaching His “Sermon on the Mount?” Or what would it have been like to be the third person walking with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, hearing Him explain His mission to this world after He rose from the dead? I have. There is no greater source of information relating to Jesus Christ than the very words of Jesus Himself. If you want to know what Christianity is, go to it’s source: Jesus Christ, as recorded in the pages of Scripture.

As I look back over my life, I wish I could have known my mother’s father. Grandpa Clemens Thomas Diete was a graduate of both Berlin and Hanover Universities in Germany. He was a veterinarian surgeon, world traveler and, having joined Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders,” was a veteran of the Spanish-American War. He immigrated to America some time in the 1890s. Although he died two years before I was born, somehow I was bequeathed his medical bag and journal. It’s written in German. I don’t read German. And I never heard my grandfather speak. I hold his journal in my hands; but I cannot understand it.

The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that God spoke to man in times past through His selected prophets; but in the Gospel age in which we live, God has spoken to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. But how am I to hear Him? Is His voice still audible? Can I count on Him to speak comfort, wisdom, guidance, and encouragement to me today? In over sixty-five years of following the Savior, I have found the answer to those questions a positive “Yes.” All I have to do was read with my eyes and hear with my spirit.

In their little volume “Jesus Said,” Ron Philpchalk and Phil Wiebe said, “No other individual has so affected the course of history. Yet He wrote no books, cut no records, produced no videos or music. The closest tangible link we have with Him is a few hundred words recounted by His close companions.”[1] Just what did Jesus say to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that I can still hear and see with very own eyes? How does Jesus speak to me?

First of all we need to feast our eyes on every word He uttered recorded in sacred Scripture. It’s right there, if we would just take the time to read it. In His high priestly prayer, recorded in John chapter 17, Jesus prayed to the Father saying,

“I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have kept Thy Word. Now they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee; for the words which Thou gavest Me I have given to them.
(John 17: 6-8a)

Jesus said all that He needed to say. We have everything we need from His very voice to guide us in this world. The big question is, are we listening to Him?

Secondly, to go beyond the words of Jesus is simply to listen to Him speak through His apostles. Again, Jesus prayed to His Father,

“As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world….I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word.”(John 17:18,20)

Jesus continued to speak through His apostles. And His words flow right off the pages of Scripture, right there in front of us. If we neglect to read and study the Epistles, we do so at our own peril. Such riches await our looking, our listening, our devoted study.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy in the Church of Jesus Christ today is the apathy of professed believers who have never shared the words of Jesus with another individual. The vast majority of professing followers of Christ have never developed an effective witness for Jesus. Rather than courageously witnessing for Him, they would rather hide their witness, except when they gather with other believers. Alas, the world sleeps in the darkness, while the church sleeps in the light.

My mother had always wondered whether her father, a Roman Catholic, had ever come to personal faith in Jesus Christ. When I was home from college one summer, staying with my parents, my mother gave me permission to search through my grandfather’s large, leather travel trunk. It had carried his personal things to China, the Philippines, and other foreign places. In it I found an amazing piece of paper, a Gospel tract, printed by the Gospel Track Society in Oakland, California. It bore a clear message of salvation and provided a line at the end for someone to sign their name signifying that they has accepted Christ as their Savior. On that line, in a familiar hand, was the name Thomas Clemens Diete.

Today people are searching for truth in many places: nature, science, psychology, world religions, focus groups and personal gurus. My life is being continually transformed as I listen to Jesus as He speaks through His recorded words. How I wish others could come to know Him. I think the time could never be more opportune to know what He said and to share it with people who are in darkness and need His life giving words.

To Ponder:

1. Do you know what Jesus said?

2. Do you perceive the value of the words of Jesus and His apostles?

3. Do you have a desire to know and follow His precepts?

4. Are you teaching your children what Jesus said?

5. Are you desirous of sharing Jesus’ words with others?

To Pray:

Lord, speak to me, that I may speak
in living echoes of Thy tone;
as Thou hast sought, so let me seek
thy erring children lost and lone
O teach me, Lord, that I may teach
the precious things Thou dost impart;
and wing my words, that they may reach
the hidden depths of many a heart.
O fill me with Thy fullness, Lord,
until my very heart o’er-flow
in kindling thought and glowing word,
Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show.
O use me, Lord, use even me,
just as Thou wilt, and when, and where;
until Thy blessed face I see,
Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.[2]

[1] Philipchalk & Wiebe, Jesus Said (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1995), preface.

[2] “Lord Speak to Me,” by Frances R. Havergal

The Missing Element

February 21, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)

The Old Testament is old. It was not written to us in the 21^st Century. It is not relevant to our culture and time. The person who says that is ignorant of what the Old Testament Scriptures reveal about the depravity of man and the holiness and eternal purposes of the God of the Universe.

To say that the laws, principles, moral and spiritual standards God gave the Jewish people have no relevance to our time and culture is to exhibit gross ignorance of both Judaism and Christianity. It is an absurdity. God said to Jeremiah,

“Behold, I put my words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant…You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:9b-12)

Jeremiah, like other select individuals, was called by God to deliver His message to His people – both those of faith and those of unbelief. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they were rendered infallible in speaking and writing. Evangelicalism in America today appears to have lost its prophetic voice. The New Testament declares to the Church,

“Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy…one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation…One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church…therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy.” (I Corinthians 14:1, 3-4, 39)

Today, as never before, the Church needs those who have been called by God to prophesy to the Church. I’m not talking about professed biblical scholars who foolishly set dates for the rapture of the Invisible Church. The gift of prophecy, as Paul stated, is for the “edification, exhortation and consolation” of the Church – the body of Christ. It is not a ministry to unbelievers. Its focus should be to call the people of God back to God and away from its absorption of our pop culture in worship and practice.

The Old Testament Prophets didn’t simply speak God’s opinion on the nation of Israel. They spoke God’s revealed word of discernment and judgment. They boldly proclaimed,

“My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water…My people are foolish, they know Me not. They are stupid children. And they have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know.” (Jeremiah 2:13, 4:22)

How long do you think an emergent church leader would last if he preached like that? The Old Testament Prophets spoke God’s judgment upon His people, the Jews. And in doing so they condemned the heathen around them with whom they had compromised and made alliances. They even prophesied that God would use those pagan nations to punish His chosen people.

Ancient Israel and Judah had forsaken the authoritative rule of the God of their fathers. They had amalgamated themselves with the worship of pagan deities and had sunk to the immoral practices of their heathen neighbors. Today’s emergent church, in many ways, has been invaded by the American pop culture. Emergent churches sought “new measures” for attracting the unsaved and opened their arms to our culture’s ways of marketing. In making alliances with the practices and psychology of our pop culture, the Evangelical Church has become as popular as any social organization. In doing so the traditions, creeds, theology of our Protestant forbearers have been abandoned for a message suited to satisfy the “tickling ears” of the masses. Traditional forms of worship were cast aside for new, emergent forms of liturgy. What’s missing in our Starbuck generation of relationship-building evangelical churches? What’s conspicuously absent is intestinal fortitude for pastors to preach the whole counsel of God. The gift of prophecy both in the Old Testament and the New Testament Church was and is to boldly proclaim the valid implications and applications of authoritative Scripture, whether church attendees like it or not. Until we see that on a broad scale our nation will continue to devolve in ways never resembling the greater generations of our past.

The Old Testament scriptures contain vital history, theological wisdom, divine promises, and unchanging judgments of God upon the sin of His people and those who know Him not. To ignore its truthful teachings is to incur the judgments the Prophets proclaimed. They are as relevant and applicable today as when they were first spoken. Not written to us, they are for our generation and generations to come. And what’s more,

“When He ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men…He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:8-12)

Where do you hear the voice of God’s prophets for this era of doom and death?