Under Construction

I came across this quote in The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas:

“This faith is not like a deed to a house in which one may live with full rights of possession. It is more like a kit of tools with which a man may build him a house. The tools will be worth just what he does with them. When he lays them down, they will have no value until he takes them up again.”

There are a lot of people associated with the Church who have never picked up those tools. They may have come to faith at a revival or camp, but have not taken any real steps after that. Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock… And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand” (Matthew 7:24, 26). There are those who’ve sat down on the Rock but have never gotten around to building anything. In Douglas’s words, they think they’ve been handed the deed to a completed house and can now settle in and do nothing.

The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian church:

“I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it… Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done” (1 Cor. 3:10-13).

Though Paul was writing to the church as a group, the same is true of individuals, and the church is not built up if the individual members are not growing. I picture a house with a wall here and a window there, but nothing holding it together.

I was talking this week with a publisher of Christian education materials, and we were wondering what church programs are going to look like after the pandemic, because even before COVID many churches only had older adults in Sunday school and small groups. It’s a struggle to get young adults and kids involved in the church. Many of them attend so sporadically that they are never getting the big picture of the Bible and redemption. The tools are there, but they have not chosen to pick them up and use them.

The Church always has and always will struggle to compete for the time and attention of people, even those who say they are Christians. The world, the flesh, and the devil will provide abundant distractions from spiritual growth. Church leaders all want to do everything possible to engage people with their faith, and we must start with prayer for the hearts and minds of our friends, family members, and church members. Apart from the Spirit’s work, we can accomplish nothing through human ingenuity.

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Breaking the Rules

Soon after the Israelites came out of Egypt, they were given the Ten Commandments. God told them through Moses:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11).

Forty years later, they were entering the Promised Land and God gave Joshua instructions on how Jericho was to be conquered.

“You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days… On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat” (Joshua 6:3-5).

Wait, didn’t God say no work on the seventh day? And yet He then gave them instructions for seven consecutive days of marching around the city. In the thousands of sermons I’ve heard in my lifetime, I’ve never heard anyone address this apparent exception to the command to keep the seventh day holy by not working.

The text doesn’t specifically say this, but I think a case can be made that the seventh day of marching around the city was probably the Sabbath day. One big clue is the fact that God was the One who brought down the wall of Jericho. Marching around the city and blowing trumpets didn’t accomplish that. (Some might argue for the resonance frequency of synchronized marching, but when have thousands of untrained men ever marched in unison?) The lesson for the Israelites was “The Lord has given you the city” (v. 16). It was not their work but God’s work on that day.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day had no room for subtleties of interpretation when it came to the Sabbath. They added rules upon rules to avoid the risk of accidentally breaking the commandment. Jesus chastised them: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). God showed His authority at Jericho, and Jesus retained that authority during His life on earth.

The Pharisees and many other Jews (and even some Christian groups) missed the whole point of the Mosaic Law. It was never about man’s perfect obedience, but about God’s work on our behalf. “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ… because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16). Faith is not about trying harder to obey the law, but trusting in the One who has all authority over heaven and earth.

“Come and see what God has done: He is awesome in His deeds toward the children of man” (Psalm 66:5).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

How Long?

Most days I go online and skim through the headlines on my preferred international and local news sites. I may read a few articles, but often the headlines are enough to discourage me from reading further. Murders, wrongful deaths, pandemic deaths, accusations, abuses of power, political maneuvering, etc. The list is endless and nauseating. I repeatedly wonder with the psalmist, “How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile Your name forever? Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand?” (Psalm 74:10-11).

Jesus encountered similarly disturbing scenes in His day.

“When [Jesus] saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

“‘O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?’ …And Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly” (Matthew 17:17-18).

“‘And when He drew near [Jerusalem] and saw the city, He wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes’” (Luke 19:41-42).

“When Jesus saw [Mary] weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled… Jesus wept” (John 11:33, 36).

“And a leper came to Him, imploring Him, and kneeling said to Him, ‘If You will, You can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched Him and said to Him, ‘I will; be clean’” (Mark 1:40-41).

“As He drew near to the fate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow… And when the Lord say her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then He came up and touched the bier… And the dead man sat up… and Jesus gave him to his mother” (Luke 7:11-15).

“In the temple He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables… ‘Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade’” (John 2:14-16). [This was an act He apparently repeated at the end of His ministry—see Matt. 21:12-13.]

Jesus healed many people and restored a few to life and He had the power to do much more, but His immediate purpose was not to fix every perceived wrong then and there. Instead, He provided the means by which eternal perfection would be made possible. He wasn’t the revolutionary reformer that the Jews expected of their Messiah. He knew that the only cure for the sin and brokenness of the world was for Him to carry it to the grave.

Because of His death on the cross and His resurrection, we now live in the time of “already but not yet.” The door to perfection has been opened, but we cannot enter in until we are resurrected to eternal life. In the meantime, we continue to groan and weep over this fallen world where there are so many things we can’t fix. “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:22-23).

We can take comfort in the fact that Jesus knows how we feel because He’s been through it Himself, and we cling to the hope that the day is coming when all things will be made new and perfect.

“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

The Gift of a Pastor

After the Israelites left Egypt and were wandering in the wilderness, God gave instructions for the construction and use of the Tabernacle. Aaron’s family were put in charge of the sanctuary and its activities. God told Aaron, “And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting” (Numbers 18:5).

Although pastors aren’t exactly analogous to the priests and Levites of the Old Testament, they are still God’s gift to His Church.

“And I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:15).

“And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12).

“Every good gift and perfect and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).

The question is, do we recognize that pastors are a gift from a gracious God, and do we treat them as such? They aren’t perfect, but neither are we. Like any good gift, we ought to take care of them to the best of our ability. I know of pastors who’ve been worn down by petty bickering in their churches. Others struggle to make ends meet because church members don’t give regularly, much less tithe. Many pastors feel like they are alone in ministry and have no one they can talk to.

But many churches love their pastors well. They pray for them, encourage them, support them through their regular attendance and financial giving, and make sure they have the people and tools they need to lead the church well.

The author of Hebrews wrote, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Heb. 13:17). We all have days of groaning, but I don’t think any of us want to be the cause of groaning for the people we love. If we contribute to the joy of our pastors, they multiply our joy as well.

As I was writing this I did a quick internet search and stumbled across an article that said “Your pastor is not your friend.” I understand that there are limits to what a pastor can share with an individual church member, but my gut reaction was “How sad!” I would not want to attend a church where I knew the pastor would never be a friend, and I can’t imagine anyone wanting to be a pastor if he had to keep himself distant from everyone. Jesus told His disciples, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). God-incarnate called men His friends!

The modern world has an anemic view of friendship anyway. The Apostle Paul told Timothy, “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity” (1 Tim. 5:1). We in the church should be closer than friends, because we are siblings in the family of God.

The pastor is not the CEO of a corporation, nor a hired servant, but a brother in Christ. “And this commandment we have from [God]: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:21). All the “one another” commands of Scripture apply just as much to our spiritual siblings who are pastors as to anyone else. We are to love them, honor them, pray for them, encourage them, live in harmony with them, be kind to them, forgive them, serve them, show hospitality to them, and spur them on to love and good deeds.

Let’s not wait for Pastor Appreciation month to do so!

“For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you” (Philemon 1:7).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

All You Need Is Love

Borrowing an idea from a sermon by Sam Allberry, the world readily agrees that “all you need is love.” What they don’t agree on is what exactly love is. Society might even agree that “love is patient and kind… it is not arrogant or rude” (1 Cor. 10:4-5). But those words mean different things. For the unbeliever, love means:

• I can do whatever I want and you can’t judge me.
• I can pursue whatever and whoever I think will give me pleasure and fulfillment.
• You must benignly accept whatever I believe.
• You must allow me to become whoever and whatever I want to be.

Some non-Christians might be familiar with John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” And if they heard 3:17 they might applaud the first half of it: “ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world—” but the passage does not stop there:

“but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” (John 3:17-20).

God didn’t send Jesus into the world simply to say “I love you, so you can do whatever you want and we’ll all celebrate for eternity.” God sent His Son because we all have been walking in the darkness of sin and unbelief. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God never said “Anything goes.” He set up standards of behavior, and every one of us have failed to meet those standards. Jesus even expanded those standards to include our thought life (Matt. 5:22, 28).

Jesus didn’t come to remove all the measures of morality and holiness. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:19). He also didn’t come to say, “Can’t we all just get along?” Rather, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34).

Because of God’s love, Jesus proclaimed, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness” (John 12:46). The answer to our depravity is not tolerance and acceptance, but repentance. True love is found in turning to the One who bore our sins on the cross so that we might be reconciled with God.

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses… God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).

He didn’t say, “There’s no such thing as sin or evil, so you’re all good.” Sin is so significant to God that the only way it could be dealt with was to offer His own perfect Son on the cross in our place. For us to accept the world’s view that “love means anything goes” is to cheapen Jesus’ sacrifice and the glory of the God who is love.

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10:12).

As we celebrate Easter, may we not make the mistake of embracing love as a kind of mushy sentimentality or an innocuous tolerance. Let us remember the true cost that Love paid to make us part of God’s eternal family, and may that spur us to share the good news of true love with the world.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are… By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:1, 16).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Eyes and Hands

I wrote the following poems around 1996 and just came across them again. They seemed appropriate for Holy Week.

Your Eyes

In my mind’s eye
I see you there,
Hanging on that rugged cross.
You don’t die like other men.
“Forgive them for they
Know now what they do.”
You lift your head,
Your eyes meeting the eyes
Of each one gathered there.
Each one turns away
Unable to bear your gaze,
And then your eyes meet mine.
Instantly I know you know.
You know my sin
Because you bear it there.
I am ashamed and
Start to turn away,
But then I remember,
“Forgive them for they
Know not what they do.”
I look back to your eyes.
You meant those words for me.
Even as you bear my sin
You ask the Father
For my forgiveness.
I meet your gaze
And I know
I am forgiven,
And I bow my head
In thanks.

 

With Open Hands

With open hands I come to You
I give You all my fears.
With open hands, release to You
The cares of all the years.

I tried to give them up before,
But held them in tight fists.
I come again to You once more
To give You all of this.

With open hands I come to You,
Hoping only to receive
The Holy Spirit, promised to
All those who will believe.

With open hands and open heart
And open life I give
To You alone, to cleanse each part
That in Your life I live.

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

No Slipping

“The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when He delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand… The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip” (Psalm 37: 23-24, 31).

Oh, how often we think that our salvation and sanctification depend on our ability to hold onto God! We strive to keep the law of God and to be perfect because we fear that we’ll fall away if we aren’t extra careful. We forget that God is the one holding onto us. David and the other psalmists wrote:

Psalm 18:36- “You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip.”

Psalm 66:8-9- “Bless our God… who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip.”

Psalm 17:5- “My steps have held fast to Your paths; my feet have not slipped.”

In Christ we are set securely upon the Rock. Those who belong to Him cannot be snatched from His hand (John 10:28-29). However, we need to remember that some who think they are Christians actually do not belong to Him (Matthew 7:21-23). They may agree that there is a God and that Jesus is the Savior, but they are not following Him as Lord.

If you think about it, the fear of falling away from faith is probably a good sign that you are securely in His grasp. You don’t fear losing something if it doesn’t mean anything to you. The good news for true believers is that God’s grace far exceeds our ability to sin. In the words of Dane Ortlund, “The verdict really is in: nothing can touch you. He has made you his own and will never cast you out” (Gentle and Lowly, 186).

We may sometimes feel like the psalmist, “But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Psalm 73:1-3). When we step back and look at God we can see that we are not the ones who are slipping, but rather the wicked are: “Truly You set them in slippery places; You make them fall to ruin” (v. 18). They are sliding toward eternal condemnation and they neither know nor care.

Though we do need to be careful that we are not deceiving ourselves, there is great peace to be found in knowing that our salvation doesn’t depend on our perfect obedience, because “we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ… because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).

Therefore, let us take heart and rest in the salvation that was completed on the cross and the sanctification that we will see fulfilled at His return.

“When I thought, ‘My foot slips,’ Your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up” (Psalm 94:18).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.