November 5, 2009

• keeping the passover (celebrating my second birth)

  I've had many ideas about what I wanted to write to commemorate my second birth, but I wasn't quite sure what I'd write until I opened up to Numbers 9 this morning...

  1 And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and all its rules you shall keep it.

  

  
  I'm celebrating today...but I want to celebrate every day. I'm keeping the Passover, so to speak. No, I'm not resacrificing Christ. Not at all. God forbid! Christ  our Passover suffered and died once for all when He offered up Himself for our sins. His sacrifice never needs to be repeated. Jesus Christ has purged all our sins and is seated at the right hand of majesty in heaven. But what I am doing is this: I'm exalting Him and exulting in Him and the great salvation God has provided for me and for all His children in Him. Salvation that is all by His grace! We have done nothing: He has done it all. Why should we not celebrate Him? It would be absurd for us not to celebrate...

  If we don't remember the great salvation He has given us, where does that leave us? If we forget we are birthed into the Kingdom through the incorruptible seed of Christ, we won't see Him and His Gospel as precious. If you've been reading my blog for anytime, I am contending for the Gospel of Jesus Christ for there is no other good news for bad men, no other news for dead men apart from it. As Paul wrote in Romans 1, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation. The Gospel! There is no other power! There is no salvation apart from the Gospel. The Church has lost hold of this glorious Gospel, we've drifted, we've been tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine and God is calling us back once again to our roots. We have nothing worthwhile to offer the world but Christ. The Church is entrusted with Christ's Gospel: that's what makes us the Church. There would be no Church apart from the Gospel. We are saved by the power of the Gospel and kept by the power of the Gospel. Like Peter and John who saw the lame beggar lying in front of the temple, let's remember the true and precious treasure we have to offer anyone is this: Jesus Christ of Nazareth! Let's not give them earthly treasure, worthless treasure, rather than precious treasure: Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the Lamb slain for sinners. God has exalted Him to give repentance and remission of sins. There is no other name by which men can be saved; there is no other mediator between God and man.

  Remember. Take heed. Do not forget. Consider. Fix your eyes. Set your mind. Forget not. However you slice it, it's the same. We see those commandments throughout the Scripture. Why? Because God knew we would forget. We must strive to remember Him, to remember His great salvation to us, to remember who we are as His children. We must use the means of grace He's given us. One way is to remember those Ebenezers in our lives, those times we could see His hand upon us (including those times before we knew Him.)

  "Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I’m come..."

  If we don't raise those Ebenezers, we begin to forget He is the one who has done it all for us...

  So I'm raising that day I first came to know Him as one of my Ebenezers (I've had many). The day I came to love Him because He first loved me. (And now He is exploding that love 27 years later!) I hope if you are His you look back throughout your own life and see how His good hand has continued to be upon you, including how He first drew you to Himself.

  Last December I wrote about the day I "ate" my first passover, the day He saved me. Last December we were in the midst of the bailout mania, so I wrote my testimony in the context of how God used a bad economy in 1981 to orchestrate circumstances to draw me to Him. I'm going to paste in what I wrote then to commemorate the day I first ate of Him 27 years ago...

  I know many of you weren't even alive in 1981. I was. And I was getting ready to graduate from college with a degree in Educational Research. The economy was really bad at that time. Inflation, high unemployment, high interest rates, and so forth. Well, the job offers weren't exactly flying into my campus mail box (no e-mail back then). So in lieu of a job, Plan B was graduate school. I'd lived all my life in Pennsylvania and had wanted to stay in the east coast area. Plus all my friends were from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. So I ended up applying to four graduate schools, three on them on the east coast, and a fourth in the midwest.

  The first rejection letter came. I was pretty distressed about this. You may ask why since I still had three schools on my list. Well, the thing is that school just happened to be the school my advisor had told me was a shoo-in, my safety school, so to speak. I was so distressed I ended up burning the rejection letter.

  Long story short, wouldn't you know it, but the only school I was accepted at was the school in the midwest, which was the University of Wisconsin-Madison. No one else wanted me, but they wanted me. That was good. It's always good to be wanted, right? Particularly when you have no other viable option. Particularly when you have no job offer or any other acceptance letter in hand. But it certainly wasn't my first choice for sure.

  Up until that time in my life, the furthest west in the U.S. I'd been was Pittsburgh (other than a trip to Hawaii, which included a dinner stop in San Francisco en route).

  The day I received the acceptance letter, my college friends asked me, "So, where's Wisconsin?"

  I was asking myself the very same question!

  

  So that night we got out an atlas and looked it up. No kidding. (In 1981 the internet did not exist as we now know it, i.e.-there was no Google, no Wikipedia, and so on, all of which we take for granted today.)

  Late that summer I packed up my Chevette and hooked up a small U-Haul trailer (which didn't help the car's transmission in the long term!) and drove to Wisconsin along with a high school friend, who'd come along to keep me company. We battled valiantly through the Chicago traffic (whew!) and arrived unscathed in Madison.

  I ended up with a desk in an office on the fourth floor of  the Psychology building. Little did I know God was going to work through one of my office mates to change my life.

  I'd been raised in the church, with religion, but I knew nothing of a personal relationship with God through Christ. And I had all but discarded any remnants of religion years before, only making token visits to church on Christmas and Easter, if that.

  On the other hand, there was a fellow in my office, Paul––well, here's the thing about Paul: he had a Bible on his desk and he spoke about his faith, something people in our family rarely did. He was one of those, um, born-again Christians.

  Despite this huge difference, we did have one thing in common: we both liked playing video games together at the Union (again, this is after Pong but before Super Mario Brothers, Playstation, PSP and so forth). Some of our favorites were Tempest, Centipede and Joust.

  As time went on, I found myself attracted to Paul, but didn't quite know why, especially since we were quite different in many ways, particularly regarding our religious beliefs. His life was centered on Christ and and mine wasn't.

  The school year was over. Summer came and then the end of that summer rolled around, at which time we received our TA assignments for the fall semester. It so "happened" Paul and I were assigned to TA the same class together. I was pretty happy about this since I did like Paul and had found myself liking him even more.

  Since we were TA-ing the same class, Paul and I did end up spending a lot of time together, particularly since I had absolutely no idea what I was doing because I'd never taken a class like it! So he was a huge help (that's an understatement) in showing me the ropes. We also spent many an hour grading lab reports well into the wee hours of the night at the 24-hour Perkins.

  In the meantime, Paul's life and words were a witness to the person and power of Jesus Christ. One thing I found extremely attractive was that Paul had a peace about him I did not have, which came from his relationship with the Lord.

  I had tried men, partying and academics–and it had all come up empty.

  And a big reason I had begun to see it was empty was because I was now far away from family and friends, many of whom were almost 1000 miles away.

  And a big reason why I was now halfway across the country was because the economy was bad my senior year of college.

  When you're away from familiar people and places, when you're moved out of your comfort zone, when you're in the wilderness, so to speak, all your props are pulled out from under you. Everything begins to get stripped away. And it's during those times you often begin to question things. You begin asking yourself some serious questions, questions you seemed to manage to avoid prior to that time, but questions you need to be asking, such as: What is life all about? Why am I here? What really matters in life? Those times are prime opportunities for God to work to get your attention when you've been oblivious to Him or apathetic about Him.

  And that's exactly what He was doing in my life at that time.

  It'd come to the point where I was seeking peace and could not find it. I was seeking satisfaction and had not found it in any worldly pursuits or earthly things.

  So here I was in Wisconsin. And now I not only liked Paul, but I found myself wanting to marry him, which made absolutely no sense at all to me since we were so very different in so many ways, particularly the religion thing. Oh yes, and I didn't really even know him that well.

  One night that fall as I was riding in a car on a long trip with a group of friends, I had a lot of time to think. It was a clear night and the moon was full. I looked out the car window up at the moon and prayed to God, though I knew Him not at that time, "I like him. I want to marry Paul. If You are real, make this clear to me. I don't understand this. Are You real? If You're really there..." I can't remember exactly all I said then.

  All I know is that Jesus does not turn away any soul which comes to Him.

  Soon after that came "the talk." (All you singles out there, please pay attention!) By "the talk," I mean the talk every Christian absolutely must have if he or she is attracted to a unbeliever, for this was the very position in which Paul now found himself. Not only was I attracted to him, but he to me. He came to my apartment and told me he was a Christian and I wasn't, so that was a major problem. That that just wouldn't work. That he couldn't date or marry an unbeliever. He continued on...

  The "funny" thing about all this was prior to "the talk," I'd gone out and bought a Bible. I told Paul my plan was to read it and see if it were true...and to find out was up with this Christianity thing. I figured that might take a year or so. I didn't really know. All I knew is that from what I had seen there seemed something to it. I knew there was something that Paul had that I wanted. Something he had that I needed. He had a peace I didn't have. He had a sense of direction I didn't have.

  Well, it didn't take a year. Within a week, God spoke to my heart to show me He was what I was missing. He was all I needed. He was the satisfaction I was looking for, which was why all my other pursuits but had come up empty.

  Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find...
  (Charles Wesley)

  Paul had given me some Christian magazines to read and some albums to listen to. One of the albums (no CD's then) was Amy Grant's "Age to Age," which included the song "Got To Let It Go."

  Lord, here's my heart, I've been keepin' it from you
  And I've got to let it go
  Holdin' on just brings me worry
  Got to let it go
  Come and take it from me, hurry
  Got to let it go
  Got to let it go
  Got to give up all of my control

  I liked the album and had listened to the song several times. But then one night after midnight I found myself listening to the song and crying. That was what I needed to do: I needed to let my heart go to God. God was the One I had been looking for in all my pursuits, but I didn't know it. All my pursuits were leaving me empty and without any peace. That's what St. Augustine was talking about when he said our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him.

  Because of the move away from family and friends, I became aware of that restlessness. God brought me to rest in Him because of the bad economic times, because I wasn't able to get a job, because I had to opt for Plan B and apply to graduate schools, because I was only accepted at one school, because things didn't go according to my plan. God had a different plan. He was orchestrating and working through all those circumstances so I might see my need of Him and seek after Him and find my rest in Him just as Paul describes in Acts 17:

  And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for In him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your own poets have said, For we are indeed his offspring.

  God determines where we live so we should seek Him. That's exactly what He was doing in 1981 in my life as He arranged and ordained circumstances so I might end up in Madison, in that particular office with Paul, where I should seek after Him, feel my way toward Him and find Him.

  In 1981, yes, I moved from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin (or should I say He moved me), but the following year there was an eternal move: God transferred my soul from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Light, the Kingdom of His Son. I was dead but He made me alive together with Christ.

  (And in case you're wondering about what happened with Paul and me...we did end up marrying not long after I was saved, and we will soon be celebrating our 26th anniversary.) [today's edit: that will be, Lord willing, our 27th anniversary this December!]

  * * *

  In closing, a few thoughts about our remembering.

  We don't remember to boast in ourselves.

  We remember so we might boast in Him and make much of Him. Our salvation is all from Him, through Him and to HIm, so all the glory must go to Him alone.

  We don't remember so we might remain happy and content with our past experiences.

  We remember and seek to receive the full inheritance He has for us, not waiting until heaven, for the day we first believed we received everlasting life and along with that life come all the honors, privileges and blessings (and, yes, I must add the responsibilities) we have children of the King and children of our Abba in heaven. We ought to continue to hunger and thirst for more, for more of Him. We cannot become lukewarm! We remember so we might press on to know Him. Is He not infinite? Is there not always more for us to know? We can't live the Christian life on yesterday's manna. O, may He give us an increasing hunger and thirst to know Him. He has promised to fill us if we hunger and thirst.

  We don't remember only to be happy in and of ourselves (though yes, we should and we will rejoice and be glad when we remember all He has done for us).

  We remember so we might make His blessings known far as the curse is found. How far is the curse found? Throughout the whole earth. There are plenty of people who've not heard. They need this good news, this life-giving news. There are millions who've not heard, millions who need to hear. We are called to take it to the end of the earth. We are blessed to be a blessing. We are saved to be His ambassadors. He has revealed Himself to us so we might manifest Him to the world. Like David, who cried out to God to restore HIs salvation, all penitents should be preachers.

  I'm celebrating the Passover, I'm celebrating my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, today as I look back on that happy day...

  O Happy Day

  (Philip Doddridge)

  O happy day, that fix’d my choice
  On Thee, my Saviour, and my God!
  Well may this growing heart rejoice,
  And tell its raptures all abroad

  O happy bond, that seals my vows
  To him, who merits all my love!
  Let cheerful anthems fill this house,
  While to that sacred shrine I move

  ‘Tis done; the great transaction’s done:
  I am my Lord’s, and he is mine:
  He drew me, and I followed on,
  Charm’d to confess the voice divine.

  Now rest my long divided heart,
  Fix’d on this blissful centre rest;
  With ashes who would grudge to part,
  When called on angels bread to feast

  High heaven that heard the solemn vow,
  That vow renew’d shall daily hear;
  Till in life’s latest hour I bow,
  And bless in death a bond so dear.

  * * *

  Have you ever eaten of the Passover Lamb?
  If so, when did you first eat of Him?
  Do you keep the passover regularly:
  do you take time to rejoice in Him and His great salvation for you or do you take it, take Him, for granted?

  If you've never eaten of Him, is He giving you a hunger to do so?
  Will you not come and eat of Him today?
  He will not cast out any who come to Him.
  Know that He has promised to fill those who come to Him hungry.
  He alone is the living bread. All who eat of Him will never hunger.
  Whoever believes on Him has everlasting life!
  Will you come to Him today and stop settling for bread that will never satisfy?

  • 12:43 PM
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