November 15, 2009

• Letter 26 on assurance and fighting for joy (laughing/rejoicing at the days to come)

  Continuing on with my series of letters on assurance and fighting for joy,,,

  Dear friend in Christ,

  I never really quite understood these words in Proverbs 31:

  she can laugh at the days to come (NIV)

  But now I think I do, well, at least a little bit...I was remembering the NIV version for some reason, but then I opened my NKJV and found this:

  She shall rejoice in time to come.

  Ha! Yes! Rejoice! I love it! Rejoice!

  I was listening to a little Crowder the other day (a Crowder CD a day keeps the doctor away, right? ):

  Chorus:
  Here is our King
  Here is our Love
  Here is our God Who's come to bring us back to Him
  He is the One,
  He is Jesus

  Our King has come! Amen. Immanuel came to earth once. To live the life we couldn't live and die the death we couldn't die. All for His Father's glory and for our salvation! Amen. Then our Savior ascended into heaven where He is seated as King at the right hand of His Father. Amen. And we await His second coming. Amen. No, but wait a minute – He has come again already, has He not? Has He not come into our hearts? Amen. Has our King left us? No. Has He not come to dwell in us as He promised? Yes. Has Jesus left us as orphans? No. Can I hear an Amen out there from you – right now? Go, on, now, friend. We are His! He is our King yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever.

  Rejoice the Lord is King...

  Is King.
  Not might be King, but Is King.
  He is King.
  The Lord is King.
  We can rejoice in Him always for He is always King!

  

  As we are resting in Jesus our King, as we are trusting in our Father's everlasting love for us, as we are looking to the Spirit who sealed us, why can't we laugh at the time to come? Why shouldn't we rejoice like the virtuous woman? No, I don't mean a "Who cares?" kind of laugh, but rather a "Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand; But I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand" kind of laugh. We know who hold tomorrow. We know who holds our hands. The King! Not just any king, but the King of kings! We can abound in hope as the God of hope fills us with all joy and peace in believing. We can have a settled and firm trust that our King does know tomorrow, that He is going to hold our hands...even when we want to let go of His hand, even then His nail pierced hands are going to keep holding our hands. We will become weary, our hands will begin to loosen their grip on Him, but His hands will never fail to hold ours! His hands were nailed to the cross, they remained steadfast there. He finished all the work His Father gave Him to do. Our Lord boldly proclaimed, "It is finished!" as He hung as an atoning sacrifice in our place. We were reconciled to God by His blood, how much more will we be saved by His life, the power of an endless life, a life that ever lives to intercede for us at the Father's right hand. A life that has entered into the veil. A life that is our anchor, our hope, our surety. Our sins have been washed away and we have been made white as snow, justified freely by God's grace. We are no longer sinners far away from God and without hope, but saints in His presence with a full assurance of hope. "It is finished" also means it's guaranteed His work in us will be finished. All the promises we have from God are yes and Amen in Jesus Christ. God will complete the work He's begun. Look at Paul's words in Philippians 1:

  And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ

  Paul is sure. There's no doubt there. We can be sure. Satan loves the doubting, joyless Christian. He loves to keep us fearful. He loves to keep us so we can't laugh at the time to come. The devil works to snuff out our joy.

  Paul boldly proclaims God will complete the work He's begun in us.

  But yet consider this: God has already completed it. Look at those wonderful verses in Romans 8, which some call the golden chain of salvation:

  29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

  Golden chain of salvation. Amen. Are God's words to us not infinitely better than gold? Not all the gold in the world can buy us the confidence we have that our glorification is not only certain but in God's eyes we are already glorified. Notice the tense there. In God's eyes, it's done. God works outside time as we know it. He is the author and finisher of our faith! The alpha and omega. The beginning and the end. It is all to the praise of God's glorious grace that He brings us safely through. The grace that called us has already foreknown and predestined us, the grace that has justified us, will finish the deal and will glorify us. We don't see ourselves as being glorified yet (and sometimes it seems so far away, does it not!), but we can trust God's grace to bring to completion the work He's begun in us. We know His will for us is sanctification; Jesus is not only our justifier but also our sanctifier.

  I got off there but I so love writing about these things. Is He not wonderful? Is His power not awesome? Impossible with us but possible with God!

  Neither you nor I know what the future will bring, what tomorrow will bring, or even later on today. Either of us could be hit by a car or drop over of a heart attack, but we've known the One who knew us before we knew Him (that's a mouthful, isn't it?)...As Paul wrote in II Timothy 1, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. We know whom we have believed. We know Jesus. We know He is King. Why shouldn't we be convinced like Paul? Or confident like Peter, who writes this in the first chapter of his first epistle:

  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

  Can't we trust that God's power which birthed us into the Kingdom will guard us until the very end? Have we not been born again of the incorruptible word of God. From my Oxford American Dictionaries desktop widget: Incorruptible = not subject to death or decay; everlasting. We have not been redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious blood of Christ! We can laugh at the days to come! We can rejoice at the time to come!

  A little more now since I know you so love His Gospel and want to proclaim it boldly. We know we both have struggled with that. You know there's more to that verse in II Timothy: But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Paul wasn't ashamed of Christ or His Gospel and we can't be either. Paul was specifically talking about the confidence he could have in proclaiming Christ. Paul exhorts Timothy (and us), do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God... When we share the Gospel of the power of God...(yes, it is the power of God, we had no power to save ourselves. We couldn't move a single muscle to walk to Him. Our hearts couldn't seek Him. Our eyes were blinded. Our ears were stopped. No power. Yet what did God do for us? While we were powerless and helpless, Christ died for us – while we were sinners, sinners dead in our sin and transgressions. Dead means dead. The dead have no life or power to raise themselves...I love God and His Gospel. He saved me. I did nothing to save myself...)... as I was saying...when we share the Gospel of the power of God, there will be suffering. Jesus told us as they persecuted him, we also will be persecuted so we shouldn't be surprised at these things. Look at the reactions to the word of God in the Gospels and the book of Acts. Yet we can we laugh, we can rejoice at the time to come in the face of that. Paul gives us these wonderful words earlier in the chapter to remind us to look back and remember God's calling, to rest in the love with which He loved us before time began:

  who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began...
  

  
  Does not the very call of the Gospel give us the confidence to share the Gospel? Not long ago I wrote about Luther's assurance and how assurance makes us bold for the Gospel. Being able to rejoice is a fruit of the Gospel we preach and will strengthen us to carry on with the work God has given us to do. Satan wants to continue to discourage us. Let's not be discouraged. Let's not be fearful as we look at the time to come, but laugh and rejoice and sing knowing we are our Beloved's and He is ours!

  You know I've been praying for boldness to replace fear. Well, God has begun to answer that prayer. How? By giving me an assurance of my salvation and filling me with joy I never thought possible. As I look back, that makes perfect sense. I had been praying for assurance and for joy but I never thought about the connection they both have with being bold in witnessing and proclaiming Christ. True boldness and confidence isn't something we can work up, but it comes as we rest in our King and come to rejoice in Him no matter what the circumstances. Proverbs 31 describes the virtuous woman as one who is not afraid of snow for her household...in the same way, as we are resting confidently in Christ our King, because He is our surety, because He is our anchor who holds in the veil, because He is our Rock, because He is our salvation, because He is our King, because He is our ... well, because He is everything! ...then we can also laugh at the time to come, we can also rejoice...we need not be afraid of snow...no matter what snow means for us.

  mocking for our faith
  persecution for our faith
  fruitlessness in ministry
  broken relationships
  death of a loved one
  family tension
  broken relationships
  career/school/church stress
  job loss
  peer pressure
  unexpected expenses
  illness
  prodigal children
  ailing parents
  etc., etc.

  You get the idea. We'll all face those "snowy times" as Christians, we are not immune from trial, loss, heartache or tribulation, but if we are in Christ, along with the Proverbs 31 woman we too can laugh and rejoice at the time to come. Like the virtuous woman, we should prepare and do all we can, but we will only be able to stand as we rest in the joy of what Christ is. Hudson Taylor continued to sing and whistle and play on his harmonium the hymn "Jesus, I am Resting, Resting" all the time. Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art; I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart. Taylor was able to rejoice in the Lord always because He knew the great love of God for him, he had experienced what Paul prayed for the Ephesians in chapter 3:

  14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

  Rejoicing in the Lord always is something God wants for all of us. Even when snow comes we can rejoice in Him. Each of us can rejoice in the Lord always as we look to His calling, as we look to the One who holds our hands, as we look to the One on whose hands are names are engraved, as we look to our King, as we learn to rejoice in what He is and find out the greatness of His loving heart. Nothing can separate us from His love. The Lord is King all the time, is He not? Is there a moment He is not King? The Shepherd's goodness and mercy will follow us even in those times of snow as well as the spring thaw, the hot summer days and the cool, crisp autumn nights. No matter our circumstances, our King goes with us. Let us laugh at the time to come, let as rejoice in Him always. May we keep our eyes and hearts and minds fixed on Him. Let us continue to go to Him and His sanctuary (Psalm 73) so we might be carried from strength to strength in the basket of His sovereign grace. O, how He loves us! His love for us never fails. His love doesn't stop in those snowy times, in those times of suffering. Our rejoicing needn't stop then either. Let's ask Him to give us eyes of faith to see His smiling face behind the frown of providence so we might laugh and rejoice in the days to come! O, how He loves us!

  Yours in His joy and for your joy, for the Gospel and for His glory,
  Karen

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  Related: needing to keep feeding the white-hot flame of God's gift (John Piper's talk on II Tim. 1:1-2 at the 2009 Gospel Coalition Conference)
  

  • 4:42 PM
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