Recognising the Creator.

Creation tantalizes! The creator is unseen yet defined in some-way by what is created. Powerful, majestic, wise and glorious are words which come to mind through such ‘handiwork’. But what nature shows still doesn’t reveal who or what created it. Was it a personal being or something undefinable, perhaps chance?

Neither, microscope or telescope can tell us the character and personality behind the seen and unseen. Does the design come from a he or she or something nebulous such as chance? If a being of some type how could he, she, it be described? Capricious or benevolent? Evil or righteous? Indifferent or merciful? Could we ever know unless the designer was unmasked!

The Judeo-Christian Scriptures proclaim the news “the architect of the universe has made Himself known!” Genesis 1 began the unveiling. The 'How' is stated as coming from the power of the spoken word. In turn this requires omniscience under-pinned by unlimited power. it says little about His character though this comes to the fore later on. Now this births a problem for those who want to discredit the Scriptural timeline from seven literal days into billions of years. Such a belief system changes the Biblical revelation of the essential being of God. The ‘very good’ cannot apply to the evolutionary process because of its trial and error, cruelty and death mixed with deformity and pain. What it says about its maker can never ever be summed up as being ‘good.’ A better term would be ‘malicious.’

The Bible is insistent and consistent in what it reveals about the designer of the universe. His goodness is expressed in numerous ways and most evidently in the keeping of His word. The psalmists repeatedly write about this and their experiences of the goodness of grace. The most expressive testimony comes from Jeremiah following the overthrow of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. The Lord had warned the nation of this impending catastrophe due to their degrading of Yahweh’s worship. Now it had come. Was this the end of God’s promises and purposes? What is written in Lamentations 3:22-25 is the height of trust in the goodness of God to His word. ‘The Lord is good to those who wait for Him…’ Jesus endorsed this view of His Father’s being when speaking to the young ruler in Mark 10:19. ‘No one is good but God alone.’

However, this raises complex problems. What's gone wrong? Goodness seems to be contaminated by varying degrees of evil, heartbreak and tears.  Is it conceivable that He who declared His handiwork as 'good' would be mischievous and malicious by playing the evolutionary game. There is no clever way of manipulating the Biblical account of Creation with the evolutionary process without defaming, dethroning and diluting God of His goodness. In turn, such thinking calls into question the very nature of Christ Jesus who is the person designated as the Creator.

Some Bible passages are here offered for your edification. Job 38-42 Psalms 8, 19, 139,

Next week Getting to know  God beyond the superficial

©Ray Hawkins 

 

The Energy of a Joyful Heart.

There is enough going on to crush your spirit. There’s no escaping its ‘arrows’. The effect it can, and usually does have, is to make a person a ‘punctured tyre.’ Sure you can keep going, but the movement is hard work and ultimately damaging. The writer of Provers summed it up this way:  A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.’ Proverbs 15:13. He also wrote in 17:22, ‘A broken spirit dries the bones.’

We live in a ‘wacky’ world. Do yo agree? Do you find it nigh on impossible to have the inner energy required to create a merry heart that doesn’t evaporate? Sure, we have a pleasant moments which touch us and then vanish. Is there something which will grip us, take root within and revive a broken spirit? If there is, and it has a proven track record, are you interested?

The writer of Proverbs likened it to a merry heart. Trouble is we can be merry one moment and mournful the next.  A far better word which also has its own energy power- plant is ‘Joy.’ The term must be linked to someone, something beyond a nice, fuzzy feeling, otherwise it too will crash and burn. The best example from Scripture has to be Jeremiah. This prophet was energised by joy amidst spirit depressing, ‘bone’ crushing experiences.

This prophet had it tough. Branded a traitor, his sermons wasted on the callous and indifferent and being shoved down a stinking well as a prison should crush the spirit. To top it all off, he witnessed the destruction of his beloved city Jerusalem, then was forced to go to Egypt never to return. What legacy did he leave us to verify the case for being energised by joy in a joyless situation?

The book of tears, Lamentations which is the 25^th book in the Bible, reveals the inner energy of joy. This energy is linked with hope grounded in an unconditional promise. Here are Jeremiah’s power-packed words. “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion; therefore I will hope in Him. The Lord is good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him" 3:21-25.

Was the prophet delirious in his brokenness? No! Where then did he rest his heart? On what was his hope built? The promise of Yahweh that the Messiah would come through Israel. No apostasy of the nation, no captivity by Babylon or others, no device of the Devil would prevent what we call the Christmas event. Jeremiah recorded “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” Jeremiah 15:16. He also believed the promise that in the future of the nation. “It shall be to me (God) a name of joy, a praise and honour before all the nations of the earth …” Jeremiah 33:9.

Notice the energy supply line. God’s promises, recorded in the Bible, provide hope which can be ‘eaten’ by faith and create joy. In turn this dissolves the darkness of despair and ‘pumps up the tyre’ of the heart. There is something beyond description when a person today feeds upon God’s Word. In the words of Scripture, ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength.’ A faith relationship grounded on the rock of His promise producing hope that energises the spirit.

Next week: What was the joy of Jesus that He promised to share? John 15:11

©Ray Hawkins October 8^th 2017.

Hallelujah from the Psalms.

Psalm 22 is the prophetic insight into the crucifixion. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” gives way to “praise” in verse 22. “Hallelujah” shattered the gloom of grief and the darkness of despair. “Hallelujah” flowed from the lips of Jesus as He praised His Father for the victory over torture and death. “Hallelujah” is the believers’ anthem of praise for the resurrection of Christ Jesus. 

There Jesus is depicted sharing the reality of His victory with His people. Hallelujah comes from ‘halal’ Jewish word for praise and ‘Jah’ means God. This word resonates throughout Scripture, and particularly in the Psalms. In this collection of 150, the psalm 22 about the crucifixion and resurrection leads the ‘Halal’ chorus. How fitting it is that they would point to the words which would flow from the lips of Jesus.

In the next verse we are invited to agree with what Jesus celebrated. ‘You who fear the Lord, praise Him; all you of the seed of Jacob, glorify Him, and fear Him, all you of the seed of Israel.’ Then, in verse 26 it says that those who seek the Lord shall praise Him and live forever. 

Christians have countless reasons for echoing the many ‘Hallelujahs’ found in the psalms. Psalm 56:4a ‘In God, I will praise His word in God I have put my trust…’. Do we honestly express a “Hallelujah” for the 66 books of the Scriptures? Within this library of God and from Him to us, we can understand Creation and Humanity and the chaos caused by Sin and Satan. More than that, we read of the Lord of Heaven coming to redeem repentant sinners, overthrow sin and death at the cross, offer a new start in life and journey with us to His glory. Psalm 119 is the psalm of praise for God’s Word and its influence within a life.

Those who have heard Handel’s majestic ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ from ‘The Messiah’ know the thrill it gives to the heart and mind. Handel tapped into the very essence of the Psalmist’s heart and expressed it with grace and power. It gives expression to how those with faith in and experience with Christ Jesus feel about the Lord and Saviour.  To quote the Psalmist again ‘I will praise the name of God with song, and magnify Him with thanksgiving’ (Ps 69:30). Those who know the transforming grace given by Jesus, His forgiveness, His peace and His promises, cannot help but sing His praises. We may be tone deaf, flat or melodic and exuberant but what the Lord hears is our heart. In turn I believe it makes us sound awesome in the ears of God the Father when we sing praises to God the Son.

The Psalms begins with the word ‘Blessed’ and closes with the word praise. In between are the experiences of God’s people across time. They are confronted with opposition, frustration, enemies, failure, catastrophes and demonic assaults. These are intended by the Devil to shatter God’s promise of being the ‘blessed’ person. What unfolds in the believer’s experience is the faithfulness of God in and through all those moments of pain and confusion. 

“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” Sure, we will wrestle with many issues throughout life but we tie ourselves to His unchanging grace and eternal Word. That is why we have hope. That is why we can sing “Hallelujah” even as tears flow, for God will not forsake us. The Psalmist even asked Him to collect his tears in a bottle and record them in Heaven’s book (Ps 56:8). I think it was so that later God would vindicate the Psalmist.  This caused the writer, David, to exclaim “In God will I praise (Hallelujah) His word” (verse 10).

The final five Psalms form a quintet of Hallelujahs. What a crescendo we enter into as we read them as a testimony of God’s faithfulness, the believer’s testimony and the declaration

of Faith. “Hallelujah” is proclaimed 20 times. I like to think that number represents 2x10. Two points to testimony and ten expresses God’s perfect order within His world. Are the closing 20 Hallelujahs the Psalmist’s overwhelming testimony and conviction to God’s perfect sovereign rule within a believer’s life? What do you think?

Hallelujah!
Copyright Ray Hawkins Sept 17 2017.

Life's Hills and Valley's

Cradle Mt. Tasmania.

The Nation of Israel was on the verge of entering the land promised to Abraham 470 years approximately before. In the book of Deuteronomy Moses gives some snapshots of it. Listening to it must have stirred the hearts of the people. The land was in sharp contrast to that from which they had come, the furnace of Egypt. Canaan was a good land, flowing with streams and with springs and underground water. The land had hills and valleys and fruit trees, pasture and minerals.

There were, however, certain obstacles and conditions to be faced before they could successfully possessed their promised possession. The land was occupied by godless and depraved Nations intent on keeping Israel out. Wandering throughout the land were also wild animals as we read about from David’s encounter with a lion and a bear. The Lord through Moses gave the people a strategy for victory. In one word is was ‘Obedience!’ By being faithful to the Lord’s commands, judgements and statutes the nation would prevail. Disobedience meant failure.

The historical experiences of the Nation can be transferred to the international and spiritual identity called the Church. We are called out of the ungodly world scene to live a lifestyle in sharp contrast to that of the World. When a person hears then heeds the call of Christ to take up their cross and follow Him it sounds idyllic. Sins forgiven, heaven beyond death’s horizon, a transformed life with purpose, hope and fellowship excite and bless. Then we face opposition, often from family and friends. Then from out of our soul the equivalent of the wild beast emerge to terrorise and make us doubt. There wouldn’t be a disciple of Christ who hasn’t felt the tread of sins past or the breath of guilt and shame producing a sense of unworthiness. How are these slain or chained? Through the grace of God, knowledge of His word, deliberately sharing them with the Saviour so that He can deal with such ‘creatures of the soul!’

The intent of the opposition is to turn our attention away from worship and fellowship with the Lord to the uncomplicated but ungodly life before salvation. Psalm 73 is a record of this temptation. It also offers the steps to refocus.

The mention of hills and valleys associated with the land is instructive. Once again they have their spiritual counterparts within the Christian life. For us the important hill is that of Calvary. There our redemption was secured. Included in what the Lord Jesus achieved for us was our own death. We have died to our old life and destiny. We have died to the impossibility of keeping the Mosaic Law. (Romans 6. Romans 7:1-6. And Galatians 2:19-20). Within our walk with the Lord He will bring us to experience the Mount of Transfiguration where we discover new dimensions to our Lord. These two lead us to a mountain where He has a challenge for us. Matthew 28:16-20 expresses the challenge by the word “GO!” We are not told the how. We are simply given the command. It is out of our circumstances, personality, training, abilities, and maturity that we are to seize opportunity to share our faith in Christ.

Mountains and hills mean that valley’s also exist. Reading the Old Testament reveals quite a number of them. Each has its spiritual and moral relation in our walk of faith. It is in the valleys the reality of our trust in the Lord becomes evident. The valley of Achor was where Israel failed (Joshua 7 is the account and its aftermath). However, when dealt with God is able to turn failure into testimony through repentance according to Hosea 2:15. As disciples of the Lord we will fall over and the ungodly will laugh at the ‘mud’ which covers us. There isn’t any value in denying it or ignoring it. When we apologise to the Lord and accept His discipline, He washes us though His poured out life and intercession. Then He lifts us up and gets us on the narrow way again. Our testimony is not of being perfect but of being forgiven. We boast not of our goodness but of Christ’s grace. Other valleys we will walk through. The Lord wants to turn them from tears to triumph, from conflict to conquest. The final valley we will face is of course recorded in Psalm 23. For a Christian it is a valley to pass through but not alone. The Good Shepherd walked it first and has promised to walk it again with His people, His ‘sheep.’

In closing, the wonder associated with the physical land and its spiritual foreshadowing is this promise. ‘The land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land…that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.’ Deuteronomy 11:11-12.