Afterwords -- fear not
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Luke 12:32-34)
June 24, 2023
Dear friends,
Here are a few random thoughts from this week...
THE FATHER'S GOOD PLEASURE. How generous, how gracious, how encouraging it is, that the Father should be pleased -- that is, not begrudging, not reluctant, not miserly -- but he freely and joyfully gives us his kingdom. The riches of his kingdom are eternal and will not fail or be lost. Knowing this does at least two things for us (according to the verses above). First, we do not have to be afraid of anything ("fear not"). Secondly, we can now be free to pass good things along to others ("give to the needy"). Knowing that the Father is pleased to give us all the eternal riches of his kingdom we can overcome both fear and greed in this life. Edward Welch, in his excellent book, Depression: Looking Up from the Stubborn Darkness (New Growth Press, 2011), notes how fear and depression arises when we do not fully trust this promise:
"If your trust is invested in anything other than Jesus, fear will eventually reign. And when fear’s reign continues, it invites depression to rule with it... The kingdom is everything God promises his children: love, joy, peace, his presence, forgiveness, adoption into his family, the hope of being free from sin, and being with our Father, the King... All other loves must be subordinate to your love for Christ. This may sound like God is demanding our love, and that is true to a point. But the reason we are to love him more than all others is that, among the many suitors for our affections, he alone is worthy of such love." (Edward Welch)
ROMANS 6. We've enjoyed our reading through Romans in the mornings, accompanied by Francis Schaeffer's The Finished Work of Christ (Crossway, 1998) as commentary. As we read chapter six, we saw that the Apostle Paul was adamant that everyone (as in, everyone) is a slave to someone or something, and only slavery to Christ leads to life. As Bob Dylan sang, "You’re gonna have to serve somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody." (Special Rider, 1979) Schaeffer writes,
"When you yield yourself to God you are His slave, but this is beautiful and good because God is not a tyrant. We were created for the purpose of loving the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind (Matt. 22:37). He is not a tyrant; He is a loving God. To yield ourselves as a slave in this sense, as the creature yielding ourselves to the God who is there--this is beautiful. This kind of slavery produces life." More excerpts here and here.
AND IN REVELATION 13... A number of us are going through the book of Revelation together. (These messages by S. Lewis Johnson have been most helpful.) I was recently arrested by this verse: "And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain" (Rev 13:15) In chapters 12 and 13, as most students of the word recognize, Satan is attempting to mimic the triune nature of God. There's the red dragon, then the first beast (aka "the Antichrist"), and then a second beast who glorifies the first beast. (Scholars call this the "unholy trinity".) But I noticed that the command to give the mark, and to slay those who do not receive the mark, comes from the image -- apparently a living, talking image -- created by the second beast. The first impression that comes to mind is some kind of trickery or sorcery regarding an image or idol like you might see in a movie about primitive worship. But it occurred to me that one way this might come about -- and I do believe this event is yet future -- is through some innovation in the fields of cloning, robotics, or artificial intelligence, or a combination thereof. We humans seem very determined (or hell-bent?) on trying to create something living and sentient in our own image. This is all speculative, I admit, but it does seem that we are not satisfied with being creatures made in the image of God, but now we must show our godlike powers by making a sentient creature in our own image. If that seems scary, you might want to go back to the top of this newsletter and read the part about "fear not"!
FINAL QUOTE. "Opponents of Christianity will believe anything except Christianity." (G. K. Chesterton)
That's it for this week!
Sandy
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.