April 4, 2013

• "as if ... God was dead" | letter 160 on assurance & fighting for joy

  This past Sunday, Christians around the world celebrated the empty tomb and the resurrection from the dead of our Lord Jesus Christ. We worshiped by singing lyrics such as:

   

  Up from the grave He arose;
  with a mighty triumph o'er His foes;
  He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
  and He lives forever, with his saints to reign.
  He arose!
  He arose!
  Hallelujah!
  Christ arose!

  (Robert Lowry)

  In spite of singing those words with our lips Sunday morning, how many Christians live their lives day in and day out for all intents and purposes as if the resurrection never happened –– as if Jesus Christ never arose from the dead, as if He is not a Victor, as if our Lord is not ascended into heaven and living forever and reigning today at the right hand of Majesty and making intercession for all the saints?

  How many of us are living AS IF GOD WERE DEAD?

  Jeremiah 12:2 You plant them, and they take root; they grow and produce fruit; you are near in their mouth and far from their heart.
  

  How many of us become fearful, fretful, and frozen when faced with changing, perplexing, challenging, and trying circumstances all because we live as if God were dead? (Can we really call that living? ...) When storms come our way, how quickly do we forget that God's covenant mercies and love for His elect in Jesus Christ are everlasting, that His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, that His government has no end, and that our God is working all things for our good, and our Father delights to give us the Kingdom and to shower out upon us and to load us up daily with His unsearchable, inexhaustible, incorruptible, undefiled riches, and that our inheritance in Christ is a good and pleasant and blessed inheritance ~ He is our great reward and is altogether lovely! ... that there is none that compares to our Beloved! How often do we pray to our Father in heaven for earthly bread for our bodies (or how often do we pray for other earthly blessings) –– and yet how seldom do we ask, seek, and knock for the gift of the Holy Spirit to renew, restore and revive our souls when we are dry and weary? (See Luke 11:1-13 and Isaiah 44:1-5; see also here.) 

  William Roberts... "had lost sight of providence... had slipped in his mind ... as if God was dead."

  William Roberts was a friend of the Welsh Calvinistic minister John Elias (1774-1842). When faced with a time of trial and great loss, Mr. Roberts was discovered to be a Christian who was living as if Christ were dead...

      Mrs Elias dealt in drapery and millinery, it was her name 'Elizabeth Elias' – which appeared above the door of the shop. The goods for sale came from the wholesale merchants in Liverpool and were shipped from the to the little harbour of Porth Amlwch Elias' s kinsman, William Roberts of Amlwch, and his wife were engaged in the same trade. In April 1818 the new ship, Marchioness, carrying goods from Liverpool to Anglesey was driven by a storm and was wrecked on Dulas beach. Pirates and thieves ran to the wreck, and completed the work of the storm, by taking away everything moveable from the ship and numbers of small business people of the island – including Mr and Mrs Roberts, and Mrs Elias suffered great losses.

      William Roberts, who was newly married, was distracted, and in his desperation went to Llanfechell to consult with his kinsman; but Elias was not at home. The nature of Roberts’ visit is made clear in the following playful yet penetrating letter which Elias wrote to his kinsman after returning home.

  Llanfechell I8 April 1818

  My dear brother, I am sorry that I have to make a complaint against a kinsman of mine, who lives a short distance from me to the east, who one day visited my family, who were beset by a little trial. I would have thought that my pious kinsman would have given them good counsel, cautioning them against grumbling, and exhorting them to submit to the wise vicissitudes of providence; comforting them, and showing them that all things work for good, etc. But my kinsman, too, was in a misfortune of the same nature; he had lost sight of providence in what had happened to him, and had slipped in his mind as if God had forgotten him, or that God was dead; and that no one could sustain him any more, and prosper him in his circumstances and give him a bite of bread. He had forgotten Job’s example; he had forgotten the 6th of Matthew and the 12th of Luke, or else he had cast doubt on the veracity of these chapters. Thus, instead of giving my family a good example, and good counsel suitable for the occasion, he behaved as one who had no belief in God, knowing not how to trust him under his chastisement, looking up to him through clouds hid him from sight. He spoke like the Gentiles who know not God, and threw my family into a deeper despondency. If you know my kinsman, and if you are conversant with the state of his mind these days, please endeavour to convince him; try to turn his face towards God’s rule over all things; that he at all times orders matters for the best purpose; that in tribulations and crosses one must exercise trust and submission; and must avoid thinking, in the midst of the darkest night, that God cannot change it into shining daylight, causing the light to chase away the blackest darkness. Say, also, to my kinsman (if you find opportunity to meet him), to beware of killing the new kind and tender wife that he has been presented, through his dissatisfaction; and remember to quote these words to him: ‘Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest not thou thyself?' Please also inform him that I have not written this as a Stoic, but with my eye fixed on God’s providence, believing that he makes all things good, and that it is possible to be joyful in him though bereft of the things of this world.

      Yet, in spite of all this, I would gladly welcome my kinsman here as often as he likes!

      Give my kind regards to Mrs Roberts. I hope she finds support to live far more devoutly than the person mentioned above.

      I am, your afflicted friend and brother and fellow-labourer.

  John Elias

  ~ from "John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays" by Edward Morgan (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1973, revised edition published in one volume), 77-78, emphasis mine.

  When faced with trials, do you act as if ... God was dead?

  When faced with trials, do you act as if God was dead? ... Do you react as William Roberts did – does your trust in the sovereign rule of God begin to waver? Or, are you fully assured of and resting in God's good and perfect providence for all His elect (including yourself) – no matter the circumstances? With the apostle Paul, are you persuaded that God is working all things for your good (including each and every trial), that God is for you, and that nothing at all can ever separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord? (See Romans 8:31-39.) Or, like Roberts, are you guilty of forgetting the Scriptural teachings and examples? Are you distrusting of God in times of your Father's loving chastisement?

  Is your happiness so tied up in and dependent on fleeting, earthly blessings that your professed joy in Christ is shown to be defective and deficient in times of loss? Or, are you able, like the early Christians, to joyfully accept the plundering of your property, since you know that you yourselves have a better possession and an abiding one? ~ see Heb. 10:34b.

  In his commentary on Psalm 84, J.A. Alexander wrote that God is "the Living God, really existing, and the giver of life to others." Do you know God to be the living God? Do you believe that the God who breathed life into you and raised you from the dead is able to supply daily bread to your soul to strengthen, sustain and refresh you at all times, including those times when Providence appears to be frowning upon you? Deut. 33:25b ... as your days, so shall your strength be.

  Do you currently find yourself slipped in your mind as if God has forgotten you because you've fixed your eyes upon the current trial rather than upon the Good Shepherd? Have you been unable to submit to God and let the peace of God rule in your heart because you've lost sight of the LORD of hosts who is seated on the throne of glory and is sovereignly reigning forever and ever? Is your soul wasting away because you've neglected to ask for and to feed upon the Living Bread from heaven as you ought, so you might be nourished to trust God and be joyful in Him at all times – "though bereft of the things of this world"?

  
  O God of Bethel, by Whose hand
  Thy people still are fed,
  Who through this weary pilgrimage
  Hast all our fathers led.
  (Philip Doddridge)

  Thou bruised and broken Bread,
  My life-long wants supply;
  As living souls are fed,
  O feed me, or I die.
  (John Samuel Bewley Monsell, Jr.)

  Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
  Pilgrim through this barren land.
  I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
  Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
  Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,
  Feed me till I want no more;
  Feed me till I want no more.
  (William Williams, tr. by Peter Williams)
  

  Do you doubt the veracity of Jesus' own words in Matthew 6 and Luke 12, and stagger at His promise to provide all-sufficient and overflowing spiritual sustenance to you through Himself?

  John 6:35  Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst....  47  Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48  I am the bread of life. 49  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

  John 7:37  On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39  Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

  John 4:13  Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14  but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

  When was the last time you fervently sought to experience and enjoy the birthright that is already yours as a child of God and pleaded His promises to Him to give you this water?

  Rather than standing firm in faith, do you find yourself reacting like Roberts –– as if you have "no belief in God, knowing not how to trust him under his chastisement"?

  Hebrews 12:5  And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

  “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
  nor be weary when reproved by him.
  6  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
  and chastises every son whom he receives.”

  7  It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9  Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10  For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11  For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

  * * *

  He [Robert Murray M'Cheyne] came to Edinburgh on the 11th, to attend the meeting of ministers and elders who had come together to sign the Solemn Engagement in defence of the liberties of Christ's Church. He hesitated not to put his hand to the Engagement. He then returned to Dundee; and scarcely had he returned, when he was laid aside by one of those attacks of illness with which he was so ofted tried. In this case, however, it soon passed away. "My health," he remarked, "has taken a gracious turn, which should make me look up." But again, on September 6th, an attack of fever laid him down for six days. On this occasion, just before the sickness came on, three persons had visited him, to tell him how they were brought to Christ under his ministry some years before. "Why," he noted in his journal, "Why has God brought these cases before me this week? Surely he is preparing me for some trial of faith." The result proved that his conjecture was just. And while his Master prepared him beforehand for these trials, he had ends to accomplish in his servant by means of them. There were other trials also, besides these, which were very heavy to him; but in all we could discern the husbandman pruning the branch, that it might bear more fruit. As he himself said one day in the church of Abernyte, when he was assisting Mr Manson, "If we only saw the whole, we should see that the father is doing little else in the world but training his vines."

  ~ from "Memoir & Remains of Robert Murray M'Cheyne" by Andrew A. Bonar, 137

  

  May the God of all grace make all grace abound to us,
  so we might not live as if God was dead,
  so we might not grumble, doubt, and languish in times of trial and loss,
  but rather be strengthened in faith and thrive through Him
  as we enter into a true and lively knowledge of God as
  the Living God, really existing, and the giver of life to us!

  ---

  Related:

  My other letters on assurance and fighting for joy here, including:

  • Letter 11 on assurance and fighting for joy (the Lord is at hand! - Philippians 4)
  • Letter 15 on assurance and fighting for joy (Joy is a gift of God, more than a feeling)
  • Letter 16 on assurance and fighting for joy (our prayers, His wise denials and joy)
  • Shall we not drink the cup the Father has given us? (Letter 53 on assurance & fighting for joy)
  • our Father's discipline, William Cowper on trials & sufferings (letter 61 on assurance & joy)
  • Are you a radiant Christian or a drunken old woman? (letter 82 on assurance & fighting for joy)
  • Rejoicing here on the Potter's Wheel (Psalm 66) | Letter 96 on assurance & joy
  • disappointment ~ appointment | letter 119 on assurance & fighting for joy
  • Three Years Later: Dancing & Skipping with Mrs. Durham | Letter 147 on fighting for joy

  Other related posts:

  • What is your attitude toward trials and sufferings? ~ Whitefield's Journals
  • Her Eyes Were Still Restrained ~ "When it looks like he is buried for good..."
  • Lent I.–Suffering and Glory
  • Our Twisted View of God
  • Kingdom-Obsessed People don't keep looking in the rear view mirror at past hurts, # 5
  • All things (even bad things) work together for good...
  • The story of Job: bad luck, God's sovereign will or ?
  • praying cancer is for the glory of God
  • some reflections about prayer
  • Bible Reading: II Corinthians 1-Blessings out of buffetings (Alan Redpath)
  • God's sovereign grace & care in Genesis (the story of Joseph)
  • To take whatever thy Father's pleasure | "May adversities uninterrupted be my lot" ~ Edward Griffin
  • "you would begin by blowing out all his lamps..." ~ Edward Payson
  • Are you keeping calm & carrying on? Do you react or respond? ~ Isaiah 7:1-9
  • Bible Reading-Isaiah: When We Think the LORD Has Forsaken and Forgotten Us
  • "Ah! But the Comforter!" (Pentecost's Peace and Rest ~ John 14:1, 23-27)
  • Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

  HT for the M'Cheyne text:  http://books.google.com/books?id=JIY6AAAAcAAJ&pg=PR3#v=onepage&q&f=false.

  Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Work found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caravaggio_-_La_Deposizione_di_Cristo.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}} / CC BY-SA 3.0.

  • 12:28 AM
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