Tag Archives: grace

Strength for the Journey

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I like to look for parables of God’s kingdom in the world around me; elements of eternal truths being lived out in temporal ways. If you watch carefully, you can see this happening all the time. This plays a big part of how I write a message for a funeral service; taking those visible signs of God’s grace in the lives of the saints and using them to demonstrate God’s providential care. God’s truth, His word, is the very fabric of creation, and by His Word all of creation is held together. It should come as no surprise, then, that His word is woven into the lives of His people.

I’m writing this in Colorado, as we are making our way to the funeral service for my wife’s grandmother, Lois Crow. I have a lot of great memories of Grandma Crow, but there is one in which I see vividly a parable of God’s gracious provision for His people.

When Christi and I were first married, I worked for Sterling College in the admissions office, recruiting students from Western Kansas and Colorado. In the fall I would travel up and down the eastern range of the mountains, visiting high schools, making house calls, and doing all I could to promote my alma mater.

There was one tour in Colorado where I found myself near Grandma Crow’s house for an evening before a series of College Fairs along the I-25 corridor. Graciously, Grandma Crow welcomed me into her home for the evening, visited late into the night, then promised a warm breakfast for the next day.

Normally when I was on the road for College Fairs, my breakfasts consisted of coffee and whatever I could grab on the way out of the hotel lobby. Not this morning. I was woken to the aroma of bacon wafting into my room, and when I came to the table for breakfast, my first thought was, “Who else will be joining us today?”

Grandma had made bacon, eggs, pancakes, toast, and coffee. As I’d clean my plate, she’d pour more food on. I don’t think she ever sat to eat with me, but just kept serving and serving. I ate so much I felt like I’d never have to eat again. And I didn’t eat for the rest of the day. I drove up and down the front range meeting with students, and never once did I even want to stop for a bite to eat. I was still full when I went to bed that night, and the next morning when I left my hotel, I had to convince myself to take something for breakfast on the road.

As I thought back on this story, I was reminded of the time when Elijah was fed by the angel of God. 1 Kings 19 tells of Elijah’s flight into the wilderness. He had just defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, but fearing for his life, he ran from the armies of Queen Jezebel. Thinking his life was over, the forces against him being too strong, he went into the wilderness to die.

In the midst of Elijah’s brokenness, an angel of the Lord came to him, and fed him three times, telling Elijah, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” Elijah ate and was strengthened, and continued his journey to Horeb (40 days and nights of wandering), where he spoke with God on the mountain.

Isn’t that how God continues to provide for us? When we are at our weakest, God graciously comes to us, strengthening us with His presence, and encouraging us for our journey. Psalm 23 says He prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies, and our cup overflows. Through the prophet Isaiah, God invites all who are thirsty to come to Him (Isa 55:1). Jesus even said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). When we place our faith in Christ, resting in and receiving Him as our Lord and Savior, our hearts are filled and never wanting. He cares for and provide for our every need, so that we need not look elsewhere for satisfaction. When we “feed” on Christ by faith, we will never be hungry again.

I like to think that Grandma’s breakfast that morning so many years ago was a parable, visible evidence of God’s invisible grace. As she fed and provided for my needs that day, Christ had also come to feed and provide for my every need. The journey before me that day was tough, but I was sufficiently fed and strengthened to face the task. The spiritual journey before me today is impossible in my own strength, but Christ has, by His grace, more than sufficiently fed and strengthened me for the task.

May you be strengthened in Christ for your journey today; and may your eyes be opened that you may see God’s truth being lived out before you!

Grace and Peace

Pastor Ethan

Burning the Word

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“As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot. Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words were afraid, nor did they tear their garments.”
Jeremiah 36:23-24

In Jeremiah 36 there is an amazing account of Jehoiakim, the wicked king of Judah, actually burning the Word of the Lord. Without getting into too much of the back story, Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, did evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 23:36), he “filled Jerusalem with innocent blood (2 Kings 24:5), and he even rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, leading to his capture and imprisonment.  Throughout the writings of Jeremiah, we also see that Jehoiakim had a strong dislike for the prophet of God.

Jeremiah had been threatened with death, banned from the house of the Lord, he had been ordered not to prophecy, all under Jehoiakim’s authority.  It is surprising then, that in chapter 36, the Lord tells Jeremiah to write down all the words that the Lord had spoken against Israel and Judah, so that the house of Judah would hear, “so that everyone may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and sin” (Jer. 36:3).  After all the rebellion, after all the idolatry, after all the wickedness, God is still merciful and sends His word that they may turn from their sins and be healed.

We are told then that Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe, writes down all of the Lord’s words that Jeremiah had spoken, and takes the scroll to the house of the Lord.  When the scroll is read before the people, I believe the kings officials are grieved for their sins.  They are overcome with fear (Jer. 36:15), and they make plans to read the word to the king, after ensuring that Baruch and Jeremiah are safely hidden away.

However, as the scroll was read to Jehoiakim, “the king would cut (the columns) off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire… Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words were afraid, nor did they tear their garments” (Jer 36:23-24). In an ultimate act of defiance and rebellion, Jehoiakim destroyed the very word that was meant to give him life. Though the word of the Lord convicted him of his sin, it was only so that he and all the nation could turn from sin and be forgiven.

As the chapter concludes, Jeremiah has Baruch write another scroll with all of the words of the Lord. This time, however, there is no promise of forgiveness given to Jehoiakim, only one of judgment and doom.

I highly doubt that anyone reading this would ever be so defiant as to cut passages out of the Bible and burn them. But there are more subtle acts of defiance that are still as damning.

  • We bury our Bibles – not in the ground – but under layers of dust, under piles of other books.  Which is worse, to hear the word and throw it into the fire, or to simply stop listening to the word at all?  An old adage that I heard long ago says, “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”  We know that when we read it, the Bible will convict us of our sin, and call us to the righteousness of Christ, and so we don’t even pick it up to read it.
  • We edit the word – In order to justify ourselves, we often find ways to change the meaning of words or to relegate whole arguments to “cultural context.”  We’ve come to point where whole denominations can read “therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh…” (Gen 2:24), and, with a straight face, say that marriage can be between two people of any gender. Is this not a greater sin? Jehoiakim didn’t try to twist the words of God, he just threw them in the fire.  Selectively reading or editing God’s word is the practice of the Devil, who first asked, “Did God really say…?”

The word of God comes to us to show us our sin, not that we would be overcome with guilt, but that we would be saved through our redeemer Jesus Christ.  Do not neglect His word, but daily read it, hear it, and let Him put to death in you the sin that separates you from God.  Do not try to justify yourself in the light of Scripture by twisting or overlooking God’s word, but allow His word to cut to the very core of your being (Heb 4:12), revealing your sin, but also cleansing you by His grace in Jesus Christ.  Come to the living Word, Jesus Christ, and know the forgiveness He freely gives to all who receive Him by faith.

SDG