SECURE ENOUGH TO DARE

The first came before him, saying, "Lord, your pound has made ten pounds more."  And he said to him, "Well done, good servant!  Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities."  Luke 19:16, 17, R.S.V.


Imagine an investment counselor coming to you with a surefire deal to get a two-to-one return on an investment.  You would no doubt be keenly interested and would begin reaching for your checkbook.  If he were to offer a five-to-one return, however, you would probably feel rather apprehensive about the risks involved and ask for time to think over the proposition.

But if the investment counselor were to offer you a ten-to-one return, you would probably think, That's far too risky!  I wonder if this fellow is in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  People lose their shirts on this kind of daring speculation.  I'm going to play it safe.

Yet in Jesus' parable, this is the man who received the most lavish affirmation!  He was bold enough, with broad enough vision, to venture into a project of major proportions.  It held the promise of being a stunning success...or a monumental failure.  And the money belonged to someone else!

Perhaps that is the key.  He had been asked to invest that money on behalf of another person: his Master.  Certainly he asked himself, "What if I invest it in a daring project, and something goes wrong?  Will He be outraged at me, and condemn me for making an honest try?  Or will He at least be glad that I was willing to reach for something of consequence?"  In the end, it was his confidence in his Master that led him to manage the money boldly.  He was not only commended; he was given the responsibility of managing ten cities.

But Jesus' parable isn't primarily about money.  It's about people who feel that the surest way to retain God's favor is to live tiny, conventional, risk-free lives.  It's a message about a Master who wraps His people in such intense security that they will be willing to make big plans for Him.  If something goes wrong, He will say, "I'm delighted that at least you were willing to try.  Here!  I have more resources for you; try again!"

The Master called the servant "good and faithful" because he understood the heart of the Master--which made him secure enough to dare!

BAND-AIDS AND NEW-HEART SURGERY

The love I speak of is...the love he showed to us in sending his Son as the remedy for the defilement of our sins.  1 John 4:10, N.E.B.


Hippocrates said, "Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases."  In other words, you do not apply a Band-aid to someone who has just had open-heart surgery.

As Christians, we talk a lot about getting rid of sin in our lives.  We rejoice that the blood of Jesus covers our sins.  But what are we really saying?  More important, what do we believe regarding the atoning sacrifice of Christ?  To conceive of the death of Christ as a way to appease an angry God is to diminish the whole process of redemption.  It makes Jesus a divine Band-Aid over the "new-heart surgery" God is performing for each of us.

The way in which we view sin determines how we approach the Surgeon.  If sin is bad behavior, we come expecting Him to replace it with better behavior.  Unfortunately, as in the case of literal open-heart surgery where harmful habits caused degeneration, corrective surgery isn't enough.  Even as physical health is ensured only with a lifestyle change, "new-heart surgery" is successful only to the degree our opinion of God has changed.

Our God saw as appropriate in dealing with the  disease of sin the extreme remedy of sending "his only Son into the world to bring us life."  Notice: "And his love was disclosed to us in this" (1 John 4:9, N.E.B.).  May I propose an important clarification?  It was the love revealed in the sending of the Son, not the physical death of Christ on the cross, that was the primary remedy.  "The love I speak of is...the love he showed to us in sending his Son as the remedy for the defilement of our sins" (verse 10).

Let me explain further.  In Hebrews 3:12, Paul counsels, "Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God" (R.S.V.).  Unbelief in God is what makes the heart evil--not unbelief that He is, but unbelief in who He is.  It would do no good at all to remove the results of that unbelief from our lives (sin) if we retain the hurtful opinion of God that is causing the problem in the first place!  Therefore, God showed us Himself in His Son.  He showed us all that we need to change our minds about Him.

That is the "new-heart surgery"!

KITCHEN THEOLOGY

For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it.  I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do.  Rom. 7:18, 19, T.E.V.

On the surface it seemed a tranquil, domestic scene.  The aroma of savory cooking drifted from the kitchen, while the Guest of honor was being politely entertained in the living room.  Yet there was a poorly hidden tension crackling through the house: the spoon being slammed too hard on the table; the taut voice as the older sister invoked religious authority to get her younger sister to take life more seriously.

Jesus saw it as far more than a domestic squabble or sibling rivalry.  He saw in Martha and Mary two markedly different approaches to spiritual life and to Him.  And He left no doubt as to which He saw as lastingly useful.

Martha was a prototype of the Romans 7 style of religious experience.  Though Jesus had been "received into her house," her experience was still one of distraction, anxiety, and trouble.  Martha was tyrannized by the "oughts" of religious life.  Though her mind consented that she ought to do many things to please Jesus, the doing of them was strained by fears of inadequacy.  The joylessness of her manner revealed that her actions were not her free-flowing native breath.

Mary, on the other hand, had discovered the Romans 8 experience.  She was enthralled by the union of her spirit with that of her Saviour, crying out "Abba!  Father!"  She had discovered that the essence of spiritual life was centered on relationship rather than performance.  She was freed from the spirit of slavery and fear, free to know life and peace--because she was enthralled with the Life-giver.

Jesus approved Mary's choice, because He knew that her choice was the opposite of that made by Adam and Eve in the garden.  He knew that just as separation from God brings every curse in its train, so personal attachment to God brings every blessing.  Far from becoming a passive mystic, Mary, we know, went on to become a vigorous worker in the young church.  And that is because the motivations blooming in Mary's heart could not be taken away!

Nothing can more effectively meet our deepest inner needs than to sit at Jesus' feet, absorbed in His healing revelations of His Father and in His personal affection for us.

THE PURPOSEFUL GIFT

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.  Gal. 5:22, 23, R.S.V.

When it's time to give someone a present, we usually have to decide between getting something that person would use or something he or she would really like.  How exciting it is to find a gift that fits both categories.  This is especially true when it comes to giving to our children.

We read in Luke 11:13, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (R.S.V.).  One of the best gifts that God could give us is His Spirit.  And it is both useful and wonderfully pleasing.

First, let us examine the usefulness of this extraordinary gift.  Speaking of it, Jesus said, "I will send him to you.  When he comes, he will convince the world of the meaning of sin, of true goodness and of judgment...for he will draw on my truth and reveal it to you" (John 16:7-14, Phillips).  How wonderfully practical!  And we are even told how it works.  The Spirit will draw on the truth in Jesus and reveal it to us.  What is the truth in Jesus"  "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (chap. 14:9, R.S.V.).

What revealed qualities of the Father are inherent in the gift of the Spirit?  Paul enumerated them: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."  In these very qualities we find the second aspect of God's incredible gift: delightfulness.

Not only is the fruit of the Spirit a positive statement of God's posture toward us, it is a remarkable declaration of His intention to share Himself with us!  When that revelation begins to penetrate our hearts, what tremendous delight begins to flood our being!  Our God is so good, so unendingly kind and gentle, so awesomely patient and loving, so deliberately restrained when we act foolishly, that we cannot doubt His love.  We bask in His joy over us.  We trust in His faithfulness.  And share in His peace.

That astounding gift that the Father has so sensitively chosen for us is meant to become a very part of our own being.  We may partake of its richness.  We may, in fact, continually share its abundance with others--which makes it all the more delightful!

Thank You, Father!

FEELING COMFORTED IN HIS PRESENCE

This is why we are bold enough to approach God in complete confidence, through our faith in him.  Eph. 3:12, Jerusalem.


Try to imagine how you would feel if you were a misbehaving student who had just been sent by your teacher to see the principal.  Guilty as charged, you stand staring up at his belt buckle, sweaty hands clasped behind you.  His voice seems to tumble down from the lofty spaces above.  You would probably wish to be just about somewhere else.

Or imagine yourself to be a groom on your wedding day.  You have just watched your soon-to-be father-in-law escort the most magnificent young woman in the world down the aisle and place her hand on your arm.  Now, staring into her radiant eyes, you stand in the presence of the minister and the wedding party.  Can you think of anywhere else in the world you would rather be?

Whenever we approach a person, we feel some definite emotions about being in that person's presence.  Some meetings we would like to avoid; others we would like to repeat.  It depends entirely upon the interplay of feelings between the two parties.  And most of these feelings center around whether we will feel enhanced or diminished in the presence of the other.

Judging from today's verse, how would Paul likely feel in the presence of God?  Would he feel tense, restrained, and intimidated before his Lord?  Would he come reluctantly to his Father, wishing that he could be almost anywhere else?  Paraphrasing his comment to the Ephesians, perhaps we could hear Paul saying, "I feel freedom in my God's presence...because I know Him.  I trust His ongoing love and acceptance.  I feel no need for impressive pretense, for mental game-playing, for anxious endeavors to endear myself to Him, for I am certain of His attitude toward me.  It was portrayed in Jesus."

Some would object to such a view, asserting that sinners have no right to feel comfortable in the presence of a holy God.  They fear that such comfort will result in laxness in our endeavors to overcome sin, or that it lessens our perception of God's great abhorrence of sin.  But there is a difference between feeling comforted as a sinner by God's presence and feeling comfortable while sinning in spite of God's presence.  For He "who comforts us in all our afflictions" (2 Cor. 1:4, N.A.S.B.) heals us by that warm closeness so that we no longer need to sin.

THE GOD OF POSITIVE PROMISE

Every promise of God finds its affirmative in him, and through him can be said the final amen, to the glory of God.  2 Cor. 1:20, Phillips.


"I'll be there to meet you."  His promise was so reassuring!  She would be flying some two thousand miles across the country to a large metropolis where she then needed to make a closely timed connection with a bus line in order to arrive at her destination.  Having not traveled much, her unfamiliarity with airport terminals caused her no little anxiety.  Her friend's quick response filled her heart with warmth.  At the airport two days later, however, the last vestiges of comfort had long vanished when her friend arrived, an hour and a half late.  "I'm sorry!'' he said too quickly.  "I got tied up.  Can you catch another bus?"

Making promises comes easily.  However, our performance may not always be as good as our intentions.  And few things are quite as frustrating and potentially hurtful as broken promises.  Besides generating the irritation of being inconvenienced, when someone you have counted on fails you, your relationship with that person can sustain significant damage.  Doubts of self-worth can creep in; trust may be replaced with wariness.  A hesitancy to take people at their word may develop.

Unfortunately, these attitudes and feelings easily carry over into our relationship with God.  Though we don't mean to, we may have hidden feelings of wariness regarding His promises concerning us.  Then, since we know we shouldn't feel that way, we also struggle with guilt.  What is God's posture toward us in these things?

In our text today we read of "The God of Positive Promise."  He understands our need for affirmation, especially since often we do not immediately see the results of His promises.  Indeed, that is why He sent Jesus to live among us: to give visual confirmation to His pledged covenant with us.  "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.  That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God" (2 Cor. 1:12, R.S.V.).  God has shown us through the life of His Son that He has forgiven us.  He has accepted us.  He has made an end to sin--that separation between Himself and us, His troubles children.

God's positive attitude toward us, lived out in the life of Christ, is meant to enable us to express confidently, "Amen!  We believe it!  Let it happen!"

DON'T MAKE THEM MAD, DAD!

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  Eph. 6:4, R.S.V.

Try thinking back to your own childhood.  Can you ever remember a time when you got up in the morning, looked yourself in the mirror, and said, "I think that today I shall be rebellious"?  Can you recall a time when you made a simple, perverse choice to be angry with your parents?

It is a principle that most children would rather be peaceful and happy than be angry and grim.  Paul's premise in today's text--though painful for parents to admit--is that when a child is angry, it is quite possibly the parent's fault if the parent has dealt with the child in a way that reveals lack of respect for his rightful sense of freedom and individuality.

Quite often we parents want so badly for our children to obey that we goad them, badger them, even belittle them, in the name of discipline.  Then when they respond as Paul predicts they will, we often add our children's anger to their list of crimes.  We fail to recognize that rebellion is the inherent result of such an approach.

But that raises a serious question about why there are so many rebels against our heavenly Father.  He has never acted toward us in a way that would goad us into anger.  Even as He has dealt with our most serious sins.  He has done so in a way that reveals respect for our self-esteem and protects our individuality.  He has not sought to shame us into submission or overpower us with towering threats of retribution.  Why, then, are so many people hostile against our gracious Father?

Jesus put His finger right on the problem when He said, "An enemy has done this" (Matt. 13:28, R.S.V.).  Rebels are not hostile against God per se, but against the view of God that Satan has portrayed.  And they have fallen for it, thinking that it is the real item!  I can scarcely count the number of times I have spoken to persons who appear to be scampering out the back door of the church; yet as we talk about their reasons, they unfold a picture of God painted in dark, oppressive lines by the enemy himself.  And they feel they have just cause to be angry with God.

Amazingly, God does not chastise His people for feeling that way about Him.  Rather, He illuminates them!

TURNING ON THE LIGHT

I always do what is acceptable to him.  John 8:29, N.E.B.

Many believers trace their misgivings about God to the Old Testament accounts of His dealings with people.  They wonder if the God of the Old Testament and Jesus Christ are even compatible.  Yet Christ Himself said, "I do nothing on my own authority, but in all that I say, I have been taught by my Father.  He who sent me is present with me, and has not left me alone; for I always do what is acceptable to him" (John 8:28, 29, N.E.B.).

Christ's life and teachings are compatible with the God portrayed in the Old Testament.  In fact, Jesus explained that He was the "I am" of the Old Testament (verse 58)!  Though it may not immediately appear so, Jesus--as the Christ or as the I Am--"is the same yesterday, today, and for ever" (Heb. 13:8, N.E.B.).  And His mission has always been to reveal the Father to mankind.

"But," you exclaim, "the God of the Old Testament was so severe!  Jesus was nothing like Him!"  This may be a case of seeing shadows in the night, like the child who was sure there was a burglar in her room.  When her mother turned on the light, she saw that it was only her bathrobe hanging on her closet door.  Similarly, we can chase away the shadows of the Old Testament by "turning on" the light of the New Testament.

Also, it helps to let clearer passages of Scripture illuminate those that are more ambiguous.  For instance, God says, "Loyalty is my desire, not sacrifice, not whole-offerings but the knowledge of God" (Hosea 6:6, N.E.B.).  We need not struggle over the idea that God is more interested in balancing the account of sins than He is in coming to know Him.  The ministry of Christ to people such as Mary Magdalene demonstrates this truth.

Again we are told, "Yet the Lord is waiting to show you his favour, yet he yearns to have pity on you; for the Lord is a God of justice" (Isa. 30:18, N.E.B.).  This certainly puts a different slant on the concept of a just God being sternly ready to punish the wicked!  Jesus echoed this expanded understanding of justice when He stated, "It was not to judge the world that God sent his Son into the world, but that through him the world might be saved" (John 3:17, N.E.B.).

Let's "turn on" the light and rejoice!

SATAN'S CRY FOR JUSTICE

"In the Law Moses has laid down that such women are to be stoned.  What do you say about it?"  They put the question as a test, hoping to frame a charge against him.  John 8:5, 6, N.E.B.


Politicians seeking election have a special knack of playing up one particular issue in society: criminals who are not brought to justice.  These vote-seekers tell vivid stories of common thieves and muggers who are let off the hook by liberal courts and maneuvering lawyers, not getting the punishment they justly deserve.  A  vote for them, we are told, is a vote for certain punishment of all deserving offenders.


It is, of course, an appeal to that part in each of us that says the only thing one can do with a sinner is to punish him, and that to do less than punish is to support lawlessness.  It is very similar to the pitch the Pharisees used against Jesus that day they brought a caught-in-the-act sinner before Jesus to see if indeed He would support their "law and order" agenda.

It's a good thing Jesus wasn't running for election, because He was intent on doing more than upholding justice.  His goal was to transform that bruised, confused, frightened woman into one who could again walk among her friends without embarrassment.

Strange, isn't it, how the enemy of Christ--whom we usually think of as steeped in lawlessnesses and injustice--can appear to turn and cry out for justice!  Interestingly, this showdown in John 8 is a foretaste of the very conflict that will explode in the final judgment.  For as God stands up on behalf of His people (Zech. 3:1, 2), the "accuser of our brethren" (Rev. 12:10) will accuse God of being unjust in not doing to sinners what "justice" requires--destroying them.

But God does not break the law when He acts in a redemptive, loving way, for the ultimate imperative of the law is that of love.  The law defends love; it does not make it captive.  And so when Jesus poured out a message of healing forgiveness to this guilty woman, He was acting entirely in harmony with the law of love.  Yet that aspect of law is the one Satan and his followers are incapable of understanding.

Man's plan for criminal justice frightens people into external compliance.  It should never be confused with God's plan for healing sinners. Jesus did not ignore that woman's sin.  First He healed her.  Then He died for her.

LIKE A ROARING LION

For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst; I will not come with threats like a roaring lion.  Hosea 11:9, 10, N.E.B.

Many of our concepts about God are reflections of how we have been treated by others.  Some people are like the little girl who grew up feeling that God is not friendly--because she had been warned repeatedly during church service to "straighten up and sit still!  You're in God's house!"

Perhaps the one most common denominator in our misconceptions regarding God is the element of our feeling threatened by Him.  Certainly there seems reason to be!  After all, He can inflict pain upon us or bless us; surely the best policy is to keep on His good side.  And so we sing "Trust and Obey"--all the while trusting that we'd better obey!

Does God need to cash in on our trepidation?  Is it possible that we have translated as threats His warnings regarding the sure outcome of our rebellion?  To caution someone about the results of putting his hand into the fire is not the same as saying, "If you do, I'll burn you!"  Listen as God describes His true feelings toward His wayward people:

"When Israel was a boy, I loved him; I called my son out of Egypt; but the more I called, the further they went from me....It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I who had taken them in my arms; but they did not know that I...led them with bonds of love--that I had lifted them like a little child to my cheek, that I had bent down to feed them....How can I give you up, Ephraim, how surrender you, Israel?" (Hosea 11:1-8, N.E.B.).

Ephraim was about to go into captivity as a result of their wickedness.  "Foreigners fed on his strength, but he was unaware" (chap. 7:9, N.E.B.).  But God's love was unchanging.  "I will not turn around and destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst; I will not come with threats like a roaring lion."  His was not the threatening roar of an angry lion ready to attack and devour his adversary.  His roar was meant to call His erring children back to Him.  "No," He says, "When I roar, I who am God, my sons shall come with speed out of the west" (verse 10).

And that makes all the difference in the world!