The God who knits.

I’d been watching my wife do some clothing repairs for our grandchildren. Reminded me of those years, now long gone, when she was seamstress and tailor for me and our children. It may sound strange, but I don’t think it’s out of order when I tell you how her knitting and sewing reminded me of God. He is both the mender of lives and the one who knits. The Lord has the amazing ability to create garments of beauty out of the ashes of a person’s life. Isaiah wrote of how Yahweh would weave a garment of praise out of the ashes of a burnt out life (Isaiah 61:3). Jesus quoted the prophet in the Nazareth synagogue at the commencement of His ministry (Luke 4:17).

This was beautifully highlighted in the testimony of a man I once heard as well as many other testimony also. In his own words he was previously a hopeless case. Family, friends and community workers had written him off as beyond help, the burnt out wreck of an abused childhood and destructive choices. I have to confess I was in tears as he spoke. He gave the glory to the Lord and was thankful that Jesus had men and women at Christian Drop-In centres. They cared for him and shared the good news of Christ's love. It took time for him to realise how the Almighty could knit a new life out of the ashes of his old one. One day he came to desperation point and cried out unreservedly for Jesus to save him, and change him. It happened!  When he said that with the tears of gratitude in his eyes and words, I felt like standing up and cheering!  The change in him was proven over time.  It took a period of time for the knitting process of God takes place. He weaves the grey and black ashes of a person's life with the gold and rainbow colours of grace, mercy and praise.

           

It’s an unending delight to come across men and women who wear Christ Jesus' unique designer garments. He is certainly not into mass production of clones whose stories are all the same.  The Holy Spirit makes the clothes exclusively out of their own ashes and combines them with the glory of Christ Jesus. The only requirement for this is for a person to hand his or her life over to Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Friends and acquaintances understand God's knitting prowess when they see the wearer showing and declaring God's garment of praise. 

I find there is a tendency in my heart, and I hear the same from others, to compare the Lord's knitting. My ashes were not anywhere near as dramatic or complex as the man’s I heard talk, or others I've known. I’m glad about that by the way. We all have our own stories, dreams and nightmares mixed in with the ashes of sin, failures, and indifference to God. Our stories are each unique. However, the Holy Spirit has the power and skill through the Cross of Christ to make us beautiful before the Lord God. He give us the garment of praise, individually fitted, to wear on the ‘catwalks’ of life . It is there we each bear testimony to our Lord's saving grace. Of course there is more, much more woven into the garment He knitted and placed in and over our heart. Righteousness, Truth, Worship, Steadfastness and others are all threads of Christ's saving power.

The beauty of what the Lord knits is that it never fades or wears out. In fact, the more it is worn and shown in everyday living the more it glows. That garment of praise is designed to go with any other outfit you or I are called to wear. It means when I’m wearing my servant clothes, prayer shawl, hospital dress, sporting gear or being in the ‘witness box’ I will bring Him praise either vocally or by my bearing.

Ray Hawkins. Oct. 31st 2016.

           

Healing: False guilt, Faith, and the Cross.

Guilt is able to be pardoned and atoned for. False guilt is another matter. It is that emotion of being told you have failed in some area over which you had no control. It is seen in some children of divorced parents. They have a sense of guilt that they caused the problem.  This is so untrue, yet when believed has tragic consequences, for they are haunted by such ‘ghosts’ most of their lives. Because there is nothing tangible to seek forgiveness about or make atonement over it cannot be remedied, Well, almost nothing. Knowing and taking to heart the truth that they are not to blame can evaporate the ‘ghosts’ over time.  

This also applies to sickness and healing. A false viewpoint by a person as to why he or she hasn’t been healed can strangle a Christian’s spirituality. They try and mask it in many ways with church attendance, prayer and good works. Still, their doctrine haunts and the Devil sprays his doubts about as to their spirituality.

Peter, in his first letter says, ‘Christ himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from our sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed’ (1 Peter 2:24). This verse is used by certain groups to insist followers of Christ should not be sick or infirm. The reason for such conditions is placed strictly down to the individual’s lack of faith. What does such a doctrine produce? False guilt! What effects does it have? A loss of Joy, thinking of oneself as being second rate and trying all types of spiritual exercises to manufacture ‘faith.’

How then can this be remedied? Being a doctrinal matter it can only really be corrected by a proper understanding of the doctrine of healing. This has been the motivation and background to the previous studies. As the verse in Peter is used to promote all-inclusive healing (body, soul and spirit) we must examine it. What does he mean by healing? Can it be understood by the word ‘righteousness’ in verse 24 and in verse 25 ‘astray’ and ‘returned.’ ‘For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.’ The Bible insists that there is no one who is righteous, except Jesus the sinless one. It is by His achievements on the cross that Jesus dealt with our unrighteousness. Our going astray, wandering purposely or aimlessly in our own egos, made God irrelevant. That was until the Holy Spirit grabbed our attention and pointed us to the cross. Here began our return to the Sovereign Lord.

Both those verses by Peter are traced back to Isaiah chapter 53. If you have read the previous studies you will realise this is God’s specific answer to Isaiah chapter 1. There, the whole body, that is the Nation of Israel, is sick, diseased, terminal! God’s remedy? The suffering Servant which pointed to Jesus. The health there mentioned is to national redemption, forgiveness, wholeness,  refreshed covenant relationship and mission. It had no specific reference to individual ailments or infirmities.

Peter’s quoting of Isaiah 53 is particularly relevant when you realise the people to whom he was writing. They were Jewish believers in five countries of the nation’s Dispersion. It would appear Peter was explaining to these persecuted believers that they were in fact the first fruits of Isaiah’s prophecy to the Nation. Therefore rejoice despite being maligned, oppressed and rejected!

How then do we consider the indisputable fact of God’s acts of healing? Grace! He is the Sovereign Lord and His ways and purposes are higher, nobler and wiser than what we can conceive. There isn’t any reason why a sick person shouldn’t pray or be prayed for. The attitude that must underpin all prayer is the Gethsemane attitude,  'not my will but yours be done.’ This isn’t a cop-out. It is an act of faith in our Heavenly Father’s goodness, flavoured by a desire that regardless of personal healing or continued illness, infirmity or disability He will be honoured.

Only then will false guilt, brought on by a misunderstood or misapplied passage be ‘evaporated’ by the Truth of God’s word. Oh the joy of a conscience at peace and worship without doubt.

©Ray Hawkins Sept 2015.

Sickness: diagnosed and its cure

Yahweh, the health giver is also Yahweh-Tsidkenu, the God of righteousness.  The story of Israel highlights the fact, you cannot have one without the other. The nation wanted abundance from the land, victory of invaders and good health. What they walked away from was righteousness. This meant they walked into judgement. God keeps His word. Four hundred and ninety years after entering the land of Promise, Israel was in bondage to Babylon. The reason is 2 Chronicles 36:15-21. This had been foretold in Deuteronomy 28.

Ill health usually takes time to possess a person. It can be aided by the individual’s poor habits and unhealthy lifestyle which ultimately causes serious damage, even death. A similar principle is noticed in the long slide into the moral, spiritual, mental and national illness and decay of Judah. Isaiah the prophet stressed the cumulative effect of this under the diagnosis of Yahweh. Jeremiah also emphasised this truth. We will get his health assessment another day. The prophets, when speaking about healing refer to God’s work on and in the Nation, not the individual. What they say takes us back to the Leviticus and Deuteronomy readings.

Christians delight in Isaiah 53, and rightly so. Some, with a particular mind-set and teaching concerning (Christian) healing lay claim to the same chapter. Is this justified? It often appears that promoters of healing miss Isaiah’s point and Moses’ warning. Look at Isaiah chapter one. Notice the straight talking of the prophet in describing the Nation’s health. Is it any wonder it was heading for captivity! ‘The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds; that have not been drained, or bound up, or softened with oil.’ Isaiah 1:5-6 (emphasis added).

It cannot be done here due to lack of space, but as you read the prophets make a note of the Nation’s condition. Leaders and the general community imagined God couldn’t see their practices, or if He did, He was indifferent to them. How easy it is to confuse the long-suffering patience of the Lord with indifference. The curse found in Deuteronomy 28 was operating slowly but surely. Sadly, the Nation’s spiritual sensitivity was dead.

One last act of grace was extended to Judah through Isaiah. Yahweh invited the leaders and people to a discussion in Isaiah 1:18. He offered cleansing from their sin (and thereby deliverance from the full force of the curse). The condition, their willingness and obedience. But in chapter six you read they were so hard-hearted they were deaf to God’s appeal. The result, no healing. How could their Covenant keeping God deal with them and fulfil His promises and purposes? Only by the eliminating of their disobedience, iniquities and the curse. What could make this possible? It would require more than the animal sacrifices.

A great note is struck in Isaiah 52. It is a promise to Jerusalem and deals with redemption and the return of the Lord to Zion. That hasn’t happened yet. How could it take place if the curse is still in force? It couldn’t! This is the backdrop to God’s revelation concerning the Suffering servant of Isaiah 53. He is appointed to be the sin-bearer, curse remover and the healer of the Nation’s sickness. We are prone to taking this chapter to ourselves without realising its primary application. It is dealing with Israel’s ‘infirmities, diseases, transgressions, iniquities.’ Verse 8 sums it up ‘He was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.’ (Emphasis added) We believe this took place at the cross of Jesus Christ. The sadness is the Nation as a whole didn’t then haven’t yet realised it. The words of Jesus declare a day when the Nation will have eyes to see and a heart to believe. I cannot read Isaiah chapters 54-57, 62 and ignore such a future reality. ‘I have seen their ways, but I will heal them’ (57:18-19 emphasis added). Such healing requires the imparting of righteousness. That comes from the relationship with Jesus Christ as the suffering, crucified, risen, and now victorious Servant of Isaiah 53.

The wonder of wonders for me as a Gentile is recorded in Ephesians 2:11-22. That which Jesus achieved on the cross for Israel is open for me, for you. We do not become Israeli but members of the body of Christ. Romans 11 explains that and offers insight into the future for Israel.

©Ray Hawkins 24^th August 2015.