Forgiveness

There is no way we can fathom the depths of God's love for us, and the forgiveness He gave.  We are called to forgive, just as He forgave us.

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32

I received the following devotion in my email this morning from Ravi Zacharias Ministries, and thought it was excellent.  I won't copy the entire thing, but will put a small part of it.  If you'd like to read it yourself, click on the "read more" link.

Wasteful Love
In 1969 Simon Wiesenthal penned his thought-provoking book, The Sunflower, which captured the agony he personally experienced in one of history's darkest moments.  Relating one encounter with the Holocaust, Wiesenthal described how he had been taken from a Nazi death-camp to a makeshift army hospital.  He was ushered by a nurse to the side of a Nazi soldier who had asked to have a few private moments with a Jew.  Wiesenthal warily entered the room... read more

The Cost of Distraction

When I come across something written exceptionally well, I like to share it.  The following was written by Margaret Manning, a member of the writing and speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.  The only changes I made were in the quoted Scripture.  It is now in the King James Version.
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"Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things."

Though writing hundreds of years ago, Blaise Pascal captured the spirit of our present age prophetically and profoundly.  With the reality of suffering and the specter of death facing us all, most seek lives of distraction. Whether or not we recognize that the fear of death is an underlying, albeit unconscious, motivation, we nevertheless recognize that our lives are filled with distractions.  Whether it is in the juggling of priorities, the relentless busyness of our age, or perpetual media noise, our lives are so full that we rarely give ourselves space or time to reflect.  Particularly in Western societies, we fill our lives with mindless consumption that numbs us to the eventuality of our mortal condition and our finitude.  The advertising industry is not unaware of our propensity to consumptive distraction.  Marketers spent over 295 billion dollars in total media advertising in 2007.  Perhaps we mistakenly assume that our vitality is inextricably bound up in our ability to consume.

It is easy to understand how our fear of death and suffering would compel human beings to live lives of distraction.  Yet, the cost of that distraction is a pervasive and deadening apathy—apathy not simply as the inability to care about anything deeply, but the diminishment for engagement that comes from caring about the wrong things.  Kathleen Norris laments:  "It is indeed apathy's world when we have so many choices that we grow indifferent to them even as we hunger for still more novelty.  We discard real relationships in favor of virtual ones and scarcely notice that being overly concerned with the thread count of cotton sheets and the exotic ingredients of gourmet meals can render us less able to care about those who scrounge for food and have no bed but the streets."

Sadly, our inability to recognize our own mortality and to live our lives in light of the fact that we will die leads to the diminishment of our ability to genuinely care for others—because our care, by its very nature, will demand our willingness to suffer, and to lose our lives for someone else.  The more we love, the more we open ourselves up to vulnerability and the possibility of pain.  And yet, if we choose against loving engagement, we are left with a diminished and distracted life.

The ancient Hebrew poets, while meditating on the brevity of life, prayed, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. " (Psalm 90:12).  It was the inevitability of death that motivated this prayer for wisdom for living.  This was a wisdom that didn't try to hide from the realities of life—be they joys or sorrows—but rather sought to keep finitude ever before it.  Indeed the poem ends with a cry for God to "establish thou the work of our hands"  Numbering life's days led to meaningful engagement in work—and this was the mark of wisdom.

Being mindful of our own deaths sadly leads some to distraction; yet it can lead others to wise engagement.  Jesus, himself, faced his own death with intention and purpose as he walked the way of the cross, not only up the hill to Golgotha, but also as he offered his life in loving service to those around him.  "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. ... No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself."  The way of wisdom demonstrated by the life of Jesus calls us to engage our mortality as a catalyst for purposeful living.  While following Jesus insists on our laying down our lives in his service, it can be done in the hope that abundant life is truly possible even in the darkest of places.  For the one who laid his life down is the one who was raised.  He is the one who declared, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 

Stepping Heavenward

It's Whitney's senior year of high school, and our last formal year of homeschooling.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we will be reading Stepping Heavenward as a devotion together each morning.

Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss, is the journal-like account of a young woman's journey to godliness.  It is a treasure of both Godly and womanly wisdom.  Although Stepping Heavenward is fictional, it wasn’t written for the purpose of entertainment. Rather, like Pilgrim’s Progress and In His Steps, it was written to provide spiritual guidance for women. Through the book, there is encouragement to “step heavenward” ourselves, in order to make our life a blessing to others and to live with greater love, humility, and godly contentment.  Though almost 120 years old, it is still relevant for every woman, young and old.  Elizabeth Prentiss is the author of other books, as well as the hymn, "More Love to Thee, O Christ".

As Whitney and I begin this book together, I want to invite any ladies or mothers & daughters local to our area to please join us on this journey.  In early January, after the holidays and when Suzette is home for Christmas break, I will host a get together for dinner and a discussion of what we have learned from this wonderful book.

I purchased the book along with a study guide from Solid Ground Christian Books.  We are enjoying the guide and the many Scripture references we are led to read and discuss, but the guide is not a necessity.

Please let me know if you'd like to join us, and don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have!

A New Awakening

While Whitney and I have been waiting for our new copy of Stepping Heavenward to arrive in the mail, we have been reading Beautiful Girlhood, by Mabel Hale.  Both of the girls have read this book on their own, but I thought it would be nice to pull it out and review some of my favorite chapters together with Whitney.  I recently posted a chapter titled, "The Strength of Obedience".  Below is another chapter I found exceptionally good titled, "A New Awakening".  It is about being born again, and would be so helpful to a young girl (or anyone!) to understand the process of conversion, and what may take place in a young girl's heart as she goes through it.

After we read this chapter, Whitney and I talked about how neither one of us can quote the exact day or time we were saved, like many people do.  Because this has troubled me personally at times, I decided to share with Whitney the following excerpt from my 1901 copy of Stepping Heavenward.  The main character, Katie, is talking to her pastor, Dr. Cabot:

"There is one thing more that troubles me," I said. "Most persons know the exact moment when they begin real Christian lives. But I do not know of any such time in my history. This causes me many uneasy moments."

"You are wrong in thinking that most persons have this advantage over you.  I believe that the children of Christian parents, who have been judiciously trained, rarely can point to any day or hour when they began to live this new life. The question is not, do you remember when you entered this world, and how!  It is simply this:  Are you now alive and an inhabitant thereof?"

I believe the truth we read together in this excerpt was a blessing to Whitney, as it has been to me.

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Note: I hesitate to post a book chapter again, but it's not too long, and in case there is someone who would like to read it, here it is.  Copyright is public domain.

“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.  Ecclesiastes 12:1

Every girl who has had ordinary religious training knows that there rules a God over all who is all-powerful and is called our heavenly Father. She also knows the story of Christ’s life and death, why He came to earth to suffer and to die. She has heard and read of Heaven and the angels, and our future home. She has also been taught that we owe our service to God, that we ought to do right and not evil all the days of our lives. She has been made to feel that when she does wrong it grieves God and brings His displeasure upon her. With many of a deeply impressionable nature has come a desire to profess Christ, and to serve Him fully, while they are yet but little girls.

As the child passes into her teens there comes a deeper awakening, and sometimes this new awakening seems to bring the girl into the presence of God Himself. Somewhere along in these years the child who felt responsible only to her parents for her actions now begins to realize that she must answer to God Himself. Before, this child thought of wrong only as something forbidden by her parents, but now she begins to answer to a higher court. It is in this sense a solemn time.

When the girl reaches the age where she feels accountable to God for her own actions, she begins to feel the need of higher help in order to do right. She looks with a new questioning upon the conduct of others, even of her parents, and sees in their lives a lack of true conduct or motive. She finds herself unable to do what she knows she should do, and realizes that her help must come from a higher power.

This change of attitude toward God does not come instantly, but as the trees bud and leaf in the spring, every day bringing a gradual change until they stand in full leaf, so the girl week by week develops and gains knowledge and experience until she stands a woman grown before her God. At first there were only glimpses of character and purpose to which she wished to attain, now she understands fully what her duty is before God. And as she saw her duty clearer and clearer before God she realized more and more her shortcomings. Then came the natural cry of her heart for God, the longing of her soul for help from above.

The young heart thus first really awakes to its needs, finds the simple story of the cross and power of Christ to save easily comprehended and embraced. The mind has not been filled with the doubts and questionings that often hinder those who are older, and the truths of religion are quickly grasped. This is the time when the greater portion of those who later are faithful, earnest Christians begin their service and feel the first touch of divine forgiveness.

This awakening of the conscience toward God is a wonderful thing. It brings a vague uneasiness that causes the young heart to stop to ponder and consider, and turns the thoughts naturally to holy things. If our girl will open her heart at this time, it is to ask of someone whom she trusts, many questions about God and religion, and when she sits under the preaching of God’s Word she feels a strong impulse to give her life to Him. This will appear to her to be her duty. She will feel a shame and remorse for the wrong she had done, and sorrow that she has not been a better girl. Compared with the new life she beholds in Christ and His love, she sees herself a sinner, lost, and without home of Heaven. And when opportunity is given, she comes to God with her dear young life.  With many girls this first impulse to divine service is dulled, and she slips back into her old ways; but it is her privilege to go right on in the service of God, learning more and more of Him every day.

This awakening of the heart to its sins and the need of the forgiveness of God is called conviction. That causing conviction which whispers to the soul, pointing out its needs, is the voice of the Spirit of God, and she who hardens her heart and will not listen is shutting her door to Christ. He will come again and again, knocking louder and louder as her need is more clearly understood. But if she continues to reject the wooing of the Spirit, He will go away, leaving her heart harder than before.

When conviction is yielded to it brings the girl to repentance. Anyone is sorry for wrongdoing when caught or about to be punished, but the sorrow that brings repentance comes because God has been grieved. And true repentance will make a person quit his evil ways and make right his wrongs so far as he is able. When a girl has wronged someone, or been deceitful or dishonest in anything, repentance will bring this all to her mind and make her willing to ask forgiveness. And repentance will also make her willing to forgive others as she wants to be forgiven. When she has done all that she can do in forsaking her sins, and calls earnestly on God, she shall be forgiven, the Bible tells us. She will know in her own heart that she is forgiven. The Spirit, who so faithfully warned her of her sins and God’s disapproval, now whispers to her heart that she is forgiven and is an adopted child into the family of God. The burden of sin and guilt will go away, and in its place will come a feeling of peace and quietness.  From this time on our girl should seek to do those things that are pleasing to God. She will find it easier to do right, and will find a joy in the service of God she never knew before.

This experience we have just been describing is in the Bible called “conversion,” and being “born again.”  To be converted means to be changed from one thing to another. The converted man is changed from a sinner to a Christian, from being guilty to being innocent, from the wrong path to the right one. To be born again means to become a partaker of a new life. The one who is born again begins a new life in Christ. This experience is for every seeking heart.

Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.”  Every person who fails to come to Christ repenting and seeking forgiveness, will at last fail to have a home in Heaven. There is no way into the favor of God and the path that leads from earth to Heaven, but the way of the cross.

The Christian life is the only perfect life, and that can be attained only by coming to Christ, forsaking the things of this world, which are contrary to His will, and following Him all the way. Beautiful girlhood must make room for Christ and the precious Word of God. There is beauty untold in God’s service.

The Strength of Obedience

The following is a chapter from the book, Beautiful Girlhood, written by Mabel Hale in 1922.  Whitney and I read "The Strength of Obedience" this morning for our devotion, and I thought it was exceptionally good, so I'd like to share it here for those who might like to read it. Copyright is public domain.

“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” I Samuel 15:22
 

The foundation of all perfect deportment is found in obedience. All the universe is under obedience. The stars move in their respective places, the sun and moon in their orbits, and the earth upon its yearly course around the sun, all acting according to one common law that guides them all. The seasons come and go, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, day and night, all according to laws that are never broken. And if by chance one of these laws should be broken, all the great universe would become chaos. All that God has made he has placed under law, and all moves on in harmony and splendor. Mankind also was placed under law, but not in the absolute sense that governs the universe. He was made like God in that he could know good and evil and choose for himself. If he should choose that which is right he should bring to himself blessings and peace, but if he chose the evil he should bring down upon his own head the results of that choice. From this law of reward no man may in the end find an escape. Of all that God made, man alone dared to be disobedient. He who could have brought most glory to God has from the beginning dishonored Him.

There are two kinds of obedience. In the first a weaker person is overcome by a stronger and compelled to obey by superior force. His will is not in the obedience, but rather against it. He will cease to be obedient when opportunity permits. This is the obedience that criminals give to laws, slaves to their masters, and which many children give to their parents and teachers. It is the soil in which rebellion grows, and it is always dangerous. Its end is always unrestraint, turmoil, and anarchy.

True obedience begins in the heart. The person obeying gives sanction to the law, acknowledging that it is right, and obeys because he believes it to be his duty to do so. He needs no law, officer, nor master to compel him, for he is master of his own soul and demands of himself that which is right. Such a man is great indeed who is able to make himself obedient to God and right. When the lesson of self-government is learned, one of life’s greatest victories is won.

The girl who comes to perfect womanhood must learn to be obedient. Her whole life must be governed, not by whim or pleasure, but by right and duty. Her first lessons of obedience are learned at home. She becomes aware that all things are not for her personal convenience and pleasure, but that she must do her part in service, restraint, and sacrifice, that home may be orderly and happy. Her parents give her many and various commands. Some of them seem hard and unnecessary. They interfere with her desires and plans, and the temptation to disregard them as far as possible is great. She feels hampered and bound and unable to carry out her designs. But she who is building good character takes heed to the commands given her, whether good or bad, and receives the admonitions and reproofs which come her way, governing herself by them, because it is right that she do so.

This lesson of obedience in spite of the rebellion in the heart is not learned all at once. But every girl does not have the same hard battle with it. Here is one point where she who is blest with a humble and submissive nature has the advantage. She can do quite naturally what her willful and rebellious sister will have to struggle hard to accomplish. Many girls are like my little friend Betty. Betty was willful by nature, and obedience came hard. She had been exceptionally willful in a certain matter, and her father had reproved her sharply, cutting off privileges that Betty valued very much. She felt angry and rebellious against her father for the penalty that he had exacted, and unburdened her heart to her mother in angry little bursts. Her mother answered, “We will not discuss Father now. You are angry and cannot think clearly. But you will confess that it is not impossible for you to obey to the letter all that he has required. What your rebellious nature needs, my daughter, is to be compelled to obey, and you are the one to do it. The commandment has been given you, and if you want to be victor obey it exactly, for your own soul’s good. It is the easiest way out of your difficulty, and the best thing for your development.”  Betty had the good sense to see this, and though her heart did yet rebel, she said, “I shall do that.” And she found the hardest part of her punishment was over when she had brought down her stubborn spirit.

Obedience is never outgrown. It is not merely a requirement of childhood, but is just as necessary in later years. After a girl leaves the care of her parents and teachers she remains yet the servant of duty. In fact, the more she is thrown upon her own responsibility the more loudly duty speaks to her, becoming either a tyrant exacting obedience from an unwilling heart, or a good friend and guide leading on to right, just as the girl takes it.

There were long stretches in Betty’s childhood and youth in which the girl did practically as she desired to do. She followed the dictates of her own free will. It is true that to do this she had to keep within the bounds of law and order; but she found that no bondage. Now, however, since duty beckons her she is pressed on every side. There is scarcely any time she can call her own. She must do her duty or lose her own self-respect. She has duty to herself, to her family, to her friends, to the church, to her community, and to her God. If she has not learned obedience and rebels at service she will find her life hard indeed; but if she wills to do her duty and obeys from choice the commands of her stern mistress, then she will be happy in just doing her duty.

There is rare pleasure in obedience. The answer of a good conscience brings into the heart a peace and satisfaction that nothing can destroy. The girl who can fold her hands at night with the knowledge that throughout the day she has been obedient to God and right, finds in life a gladness and quietness that nothing else can bring.

If you would be happy through life and make a success of the years which will be given to you, learn now in your girlhood to obey, to bring yourself under control, where reason rules, not mere whim or fancy. And the responsibility of this discipline dare not be left to parents and teachers. The girl who really learns obedience must take herself in hand and be a conqueror. Others can compel your servile obedience, but only you can bring to your heart true, God-fearing obedience. Only true obedience uplifts and enlightens and makes life noble. Be your own mistress, bringing yourself into obedience.

Why Can't I Just Be a Good Person?

The following was written by Michael Ramsden, European director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in the United Kingdom.  My girls will read this as part of their ongoing home education, because it continues to build in them an understanding of how people in today's postmodern world think and believe.

"People are basically good," writes one poet. "It is only their behavior that lets them down."

It is remarkable today that despite religion, creed, or practice, many believe they are good enough to get into heaven.  Perhaps there is so much bad news about others that they conclude by comparison they are superior, and thus, deserving of a place in eternity.  But then it is even more remarkable that when Christians claim they know they are going to heaven, they are regarded as being conceited, boastful, and arrogant.  People immediately ask: How can they think that they are better than everyone else? 

The fact that the same person can think of himself as superior to others, while at the same time criticizing Christians for arrogance, underlines one of the effects of living in a postmodern world.  Though the contradiction is frustrating, we all need to be able to respond coherently to the questions at hand:  Why can't I just be a good person?  Isn't it unfair of God to say that you can't get into heaven unless you believe in Him, even though you have been a good person?  Who does God think He is?

Jesus was once asked a similar question by a group of inquirers: "What must we do to do the works God requires?" (John 6:28).  Interestingly, the question was posed in plural form; it seems they were looking for a list of good things to do.  But Jesus replied in the singular, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent" (6:29).

Of course, in the minds of those who feel they have lived a good life, Christ's answer will not go unchallenged.  What makes belief so special?  Surely what we do is far more important than what we believe.  How can a good person, who is not a Christian, be denied access on the basis of belief?  The difficulty here lies in the assumption that is being made in each of these questions—namely, that there is such a thing as a good person.  Jesus again offers further clarification in the form of question and answer.  He was once asked, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 18:18).  The theory of the questioner was clear: Jesus is a good person; good people go to heaven, so what must I do to be in the same group?  But Jesus's reply was surprising.  "Why do you call me good?" he asked (18:19).  He then answered his own question: "No one is good—except God alone."

The simple truth is that the issue is not about good people not getting into heaven.  Alas, the problem is much worse!  Jesus seems to define goodness in terms of being like God, and on that basis there are no good people anywhere.  Thus, the real question is not about who is good enough to get in to heaven.  The real question is how God makes it possible for anyone to get in at all.  The answer is that we need to be forgiven, and that forgiveness is won for us through the Cross.

In fact, this is precisely why the Gospel is called Good News, and why Christians do well to declare it.  The good news is that getting into heaven is first and foremost about forgiveness.  And thus, the Christian testimony is, in fact, far from arrogant!  If a Christian is sure that he is going to heaven it is not because he is good, but because he has received forgiveness by believing in Christ.

In other words, if we will trust in and rely on Jesus—his promises, his person, his life, death, and resurrection—we can be sure that we are saved.  Christians are not good people because they live morally superior lives to everyone else.  They have been made "good" in God's eyes because Christ has made forgiveness possible—because Christ has extended his own righteousness to those who will believe.

Good people will certainly go to heaven.  However, the path to goodness lies not in religious observances or respectable acts, but in the forgiveness of a good God, given to us through the Cross of Christ.