Carved In Stone

I saw a gravestone recently that had the name of a man with the date of his birth and death. His wife’s name and birthday was also on the tomb, and though there was yet a date for her passing, death is sure to come. The stone cutting tool is waiting to mark the day. The starkest reality in life is death. Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” The Apostle Paul puts it another way in Romans 6:23, where he says, “The wages of sin is death.” If death is going to happen to all men, why are we so afraid of it? I’m very careful crossing streets. I don’t go too close to the edge of a cliff. I always wear my seat belt and I never climb ladders.I can talk a good game and say death doesn’t worry me, but the truth is that we all wonder at times. We see a loved one pass suddenly or slowly, and it hits us in the gut. We wonder why, as we stand next to an open grave among loved ones weeping. In the gospel of John chapter 11, a good friend of Jesus died and was placed in a tomb. The man’s sisters, Martha and Mary, called for Him when their brother Lazarus was sick because they knew Jesus could heal him, but He didn’t come. In fact Jesus delayed his coming on purpose. He seemed to have wanted Lazarus to die, not so He could do a miracle and amaze everyone, but so He could demonstrate that He had power over death. It was not that Martha, Mary and the disciples were not aware of Jesus’ power. They had seen it first hand. This case though was personal. It was their brother. How often we are very brave in death when the dead person was not so close to us. When someone who means a lot passes away it’s another story which includes pain and grief. We are hurt deeply, as Jesus was when He wept. Here is the point: we trust in Jesus, therefore though our names may be written on a stone marking our physical end, we know, because of our faith in Christ, that this is just the beginning. Our names are written in a more permanent place than stone; the book of life (Revelation 3:5). Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) Jesus is more than religion, and we are more than religious followers. Jesus is everything. We may fear physical death for others, and ourselves but the assurance we have is that the One who promised us eternal life rose from the grave, never to return to it. He was victorious over death.1 Corinthians 15:55 asks, "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The victory is in the empty tomb of Jesus. Yes our names may be one day written in stone, but be assured they are first in the book of life, if our trust is in its Author. That’s why Psalm 116:15 can say, precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints, for we go home to join the great reunion of saints and will live with Him and be used by Him in His eternal plan. Let our names be carved in stone to signify that our name will not die with our body, but it is right now written in the book of life.

Put A Sock In It

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Romans 3:19

There are a lot of mouths in the world. Paul the apostle speaks of every mouth being stopped that would try to justify itself by its owner’s ability to defend against the accusation of being unjust.

All people want to be accepted in their culture, to be respected and some to be looked up to as an example of goodness and moral virtue. One’s outlook on their personal life is always based upon the accepted norms of their society, and their relative goodness when compared with others possessing the same values. This was how people of the 1st century saw things, and not much has changed in the 21st century. We are taught throughout our lives that goodness gets us acceptance, and that acceptance produces peace.

Romans chapter 3 when properly understood quickly dispels this notion of peace and acceptance. Verse 20 says, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” In other words our adherence to a set of principles, no matter how high the standards are set won’t make us accepted by God. The principles themselves prove in fact that we are unrighteous. The Jewish law could only do one thing. That thing was to show people that no matter how hard they tried to measure up, they were always at least and inch short, more often a mile. Trying to adhere to the law would be like a paper airplane trying to match the speed of an F-16 fighter jet, it’s not going to happen.

That’s why He provides another way for us to keep up. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24) God justifies us apart from the law, apart from all of our efforts at self-righteousness. Justification is a free gift to those who believe. Make no mistake about it, God can’t not allow us to be accepted into His kingdom without us being just as holy and perfect as His Son, “whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” (Romans 3:25) The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross made it possible for those who would believe in Him to be released from the penalty of sin and be looked on by God as being as perfect and sinless as Jesus.

Romans 11:32 says it this way, “For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”

Thank God that we were condemned in our flesh, and declared to be disobedient, so that we would be in a position to receive God’s mercy. This mercy was made possible only through the substitutionary death of Jesus on our behalf.

If you are trying to please God through your goodness, or attempting to make up for past wrongs by some sort of penitence or self-sacrifice you will never be satisfied with your efforts. Close your mouth. Put a sock in it! There will always be more to pay for. As the song says, “ It wouldn’t be enough to buy one splinter of the tree Jesus died on, and I couldn’t pay the price for one single drop of blood that was shed for my salvation.”

Let’s stop pleasing and start trusting in the grace and mercy of God. Then we can do the true work that God in Ephesians 2:10, has ordained for us to do.

Not Impressed

And he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the screen of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Exodus 40:33



This short verse describes the last step in the completion of the Tabernacle in the wilderness by Moses and the children of Israel. The Tabernacle would be the place where the people would offer sacrifices to God for their sins and for thanksgiving for blessings. It was to be the heart of worship for all Israel.



The interesting thing about this place of worship was that it was so small. In American terms, the length of the place was only about the width of a football field, and the width only half as long. Considering that this was to be the home for the Almighty, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, it seems rather unremarkable. This point is especially magnified when you consider the place where Israel had grown into such a great nation, Egypt.



In Egypt there were huge pyramids and monuments and many gods embodied in stone structures. The places of worship were magnificent and awesome to behold, so I don’t think it is a great stretch to imagine that some of the Israelites may have been disappointed by the place that they were commanded to build. It seemed like a temple on the cheap.



“Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” (Exodus 40:34-35)



Imagine the shock and surprise that came upon the people as the saw this small structure transformed by the presence of God. This was something that in Egypt they never saw. They saw impressive temples yes, but even those great structures could not compare with the Glory of God.



What is the lesson here you may ask? It is this, God can and does use the most unlikely people and things to show Himself to the world. You may think you are not much to behold, that you have no special talent or gift to offer. This is where we err as believers.



“Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-22)



The Church of Christ and each individual believer is the temple of God (1Cor. 3:16; 6:19). We are the ones with all of our shortcomings and failures who God decided to put His home in. We may not be much to look at. People may even call us fools. Indeed we are, fools for Christ.



Don’t worry that you may not be the most likely character to show God’s glory to the world. You are a testimony to His grace and mercy to one who dared to believe in a Man whose greatest accomplishment was dying on a cross.

Escape The Sword

Then Abner called to Joab and said, "Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that it will be bitter in the latter end? How long will it be then until you tell the people to return from pursuing their brethren?" 2 Samuel 2:26

Abner was the general of the army of Israel, and Joab was the general of Judah’s army. There was a great division in the land since the death of King Saul. Most of Israel followed Saul’s son Ishbosheth, who Abner had made to be King. Judah, David’s home tribe, followed him and the kingdom was divided. The scenes that follow Abner’s cry out to Joab get worse and worse, as we vividly imagine the suffering caused by these very angry people. We witness murder, betrayal, revenge, jealousy and other forms of hatred on the historical pages of 2 Samuel. The tragedy comes into focus even more when we realize that the people fighting are all cousins called by God to represent Him to the world. They failed miserably simply because they could not resist fighting each other long enough to put away anger and forget old rivalries.

Many people have asked how God could allow this to go on. After all these were God’s people. How far they had fallen in just a few generations from the mighty warriors of Joshua who kept the Lord’s command as they claimed the promised land, to two groups of people who had put their personal hatreds ahead of the greater good; the love of God.

They had indeed forgotten the mandate of God written in Deuteronomy 6:4-7 which says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” How careful we must be never to fall into the trap of hatred and envy. Of course in our niceness we can be really good at covering up these feelings we may harbor, but deep down we often hold on to things that bothered us about people in the past. It’s even possible that we had been wronged by someone and that person never apologized. We then hold that against them, never being released from the wound, and suffering for years with the pain of it. That’s how Joab and Abner lived. They knew no other life and in the end it was the very thing that killed them.

Let’s learn to live a better life than these two men and their followers by hearing and obeying the instructions they ignored. “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32) This lesson will most assuredly lead to a life of love and peace that overcomes and defeats all the ugliness and hatred that is thrown at us. We won’t be devoured, because we put down the sword that we held against the neck of the one we were angry with and developed a relationship with them based on the love of Christ. Instead of pursuing our brethren we love them and obtain a lasting peace that the sword can’t give us.