Category: Margin Notes

Through the Word in 2020 #174 – Dec. 17 / Beverly Shea and those who “die in the Lord”

December 17th, 2020

For the audio Podcast of this and every episode, find us on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify or HERE

I got the call a little after noon this last Monday. It was the Monroe County Medical Examiner. My cousin Beverly had been found in her apartment – dead. Apparently from a heart attack.

Beverly never married, and never had children. After her parents passed some years ago, she lived alone in a small, 1 bedroom apartment. She was what we would refer to now as “mentally challenged.” “Simple” in my day. She really was more like a little girl though over 70. She had worked for many years on the assembly line at Kodak, and retired. Though almost illiterate, she nevertheless owned a car, paid her own bills meticulously and had a fierce loyalty to her family and small cadre of friends.

She was a big gal, and gave crushing hugs.

One cousin told me he will miss that the most about her.

And she loved Jesus.

She would often text me to say she was watching Billy Graham on TV, or the Gaithers. She LOVED Gospel music. When the quartet was together she was absolutely our most devoted and avid fan. And as I have been going through her effects, I have found page after page of Scripture references she had been reading. Though in all reality, she probably understood quite little of what she read. But she gave herself to it nonetheless.

She was horribly afraid of thunderstorms. Frightened she would lose power. And after selling her car sometime back, seldom left the apartment for over a year. And never recovered from the grief of losing her last cat and companion – Baby – 9 months ago.

And I could not help but think of her as I entered into today’s readings in Micah 6:1-Nahum 1:1, John 18:12-18, and especially Revelation 14:6-20 where we read: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

I’m Reid Ferguson, and you are listening to Through the Word in 2020.

It comforted me once again this morning to see this first: Blessed are those in the Lord, even in death.

Something the lost haven’t even the slightest glimmer of. But Bev knows in all of its fullness right now. All die, but all are not blessed in their dying. Only those who are “in the Lord” know such a thing.

Such blessedness is connected entirely with being “in the Lord.” Not with dying peacefully, painlessly, swiftly, comfortably or unaware – but by virtue of being “In the Lord.” By having trusted in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary alone for the forgiveness of their sins, and reconciliation to God.

What a hope Believers have. That dying “in the Lord” makes a mockery of the death that our sin brought into the World. And because it is being “in the Lord” that makes this true, I am reminded of the words of old John Flavel when he wrote: “the most eagle-eyed philosophers were but children in knowledge, compared with the most illiterate Christians.” And I could not help of think of Bev in that regard. Blessed is she indeed.

Even in her death.

Secondly, note how the text says Blessed ARE those, not WERE.

This is in the present tense.

Those who are “In the Lord” are blessed even now – for their lives are still in Him and they have entered into their eternal reward. They are blessed right now. They have passed through the dark waters and the valley of death’s shadow, and have emerged into the sunlight of the face of Jesus Christ on the other side. More blessed is the meanest and most humble saint who has died, than the most blessed and prosperous in every way in this present life. For each gift and privilege here, is but the very darkest of shadows compared to the glory of being in the presence of our Redeemer.

And thirdly, as Andrew Fuller wrote: “It has been a common observation on this passage, and for aught I know a just one, that their works are not said to go before them as a ground of justification, but to follow them as witnesses in their favour.”

The Believer’s good works do not go before us, so as to qualify us for blessedness. They follow us. To confirm that we are already blessed in Christ by faith.

My dear, simple, child-like cousin Beverly, stands now before the throne of her Savior, with every impediment she inherited in this fallen world removed – and perfected in her Christ forever more.

How glorious to be able to say today: Blessed is Bev, for she died in the Lord. Blessed indeed. She is at rest from her life of labor just to fit in and be “normal.” And her works, her simple trust in Jesus follow her.

How grateful I am today.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #173 – Dec. 16 / The Prayers and Priorities of Jesus

December 16th, 2020

For the audio Podcast of this and every episode, find us on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify or HERE

What would be most on your mind if you knew you were going to die soon? Regrets? Unfinished business? The anticipation of being with Christ and the saints who have gone on before? Family?

One thing is for sure – the things which are most important to you are what would find their way to the surface. What your real priorities are would crowd out everything else. And so it is with Jesus as we hear His prayer in John 17 just before His murder.

You’re listening to Through the Word in 2020.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

We have before us today Psalm 145, Micah 3-5, Revelation 14:1-5 and John 17-18:11. John 17 recording what might be better termed “The Lord’s Prayer” than what He taught us in Matthew 6. For this is His actual prayer. A prayer, that in these closing moments, capture how astoundingly we as Believers were on His mind in this cosmically critical hour.

I am caught by the 5 key things Jesus prayed for we Believers:

v. 11 – “Keep them in your name.” i.e. Father, preserve them in faith, as though you had sworn to it on the honor of your own name.

Father, swear to keep them until the time that they are joined with one another and with us, in the same way I am coming to be joined with you.

Keep them intact until the resurrection.

This is not be a prayer for present unity (as glorious and necessary as that is) but for the wonder of the completeness of things fulfilled in the resurrection.

He goes on to explain this keeping in terms of not having lost any yet (excepting Judas according to plan) – and so keeping all true believers to the end. And this He says, should mean to us that we have His joy fulfilled in us. It is so certain, that it ought to rejoice our hearts in the worst of times.

Now if Jesus prayed that for your Believer. It WILL be so.

v. 15 – “protect them from the evil one.”

Notice carefully here that He expressly says He does not ask that we be taken out of the world. He does not plead for a change of environment or circumstances – the things which most often occupy our prayers. But only that the plans of the Evil One against us would be thwarted.

And so it will be.

Satan is to be resisted (James 4:7) but in the full confidence that because Christ has prayed for us, he will never have final victory over us. We are protected.

v. 17 – “sanctify them in the truth” The Word. Sanctification and the Word are inseparable. One cannot grow in sanctification if one fails to search, learn and treasure God’s Word. That which truly separates us from the world – is the truth we cling to. Believing His Word and ordering our lives according to what we know to be true in Him. We live like people who believe everything He has said to us is true. We, the world and the universe are as He describes it. And His Word is what separates us from the judgment to befall all mankind.

v. 21 – That all who believe in Him now, and who will believe through the Gospel we preach, may be truly one.

And what makes all Believers one? That we share the same Spirit of Christ. This is our unity. The unity of “the faith” – the Gospel truth delivered once and for all, and the indwelling Spirit that quickened those truths to our souls, and unites us to Christ. A union as extraordinary and unbreakable as that between the members of the Godhead themselves.

v. 24 – to “be with me…in order that they may see my glory.”

What must this vision of Christ in His resurrected glory be, if Jesus places it as the ultimate desire of His soul for our blessing? We have never yet begun to dig into this sufficiently. The “beatific vision” as it was called in older times is truly that which must be both thoroughly and eternally transforming, transfixing, blessing, engaging, delighting, satisfying, exciting and overawing with ultimate joy.

That we might SEE Him!

These things occupied His heart and mind at this critical moment.

These things He prayed for us.

And these things will be done.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #172 – Dec. 14 / Christian Troublemakers

December 14th, 2020

In Jesus’ sermon on the Mount, He used 2 powerful terms describing Believers in His economy: Salt, and Light. Two word pictures pregnant with implications.

In order to be salt and light – we must uncompromisingly live as those who know our blessedness does not come from this world – but rests in being citizens of Christ’s Kingdom.

Salt loses its “saltiness” only one way – mixture. Salt crystals never lose their essential property. But when salt becomes mixed with other substances, the salt no longer does its work. The question is, what are we mixing with our devotion to Christ? When we value what the world values. When we fear what the world fears. When we reason the way the world reasons.

God is light and life. All things left to themselves are decay and darkness. As His, Christians bring His light and life giving presence into this world. We are this way because He is this way. He alone stands contrary to sin’s entropy. He alone brings light. Apart from Him – all is darkness and deconstructing chaos. But when we fail to live as salt and light, it isn’t just that we fail – we actually bring trouble to the world around us.

We’ll catch a glimpse of that today on Through the Word in 2020.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

Revelation 12:7-13:10, John 16:5-24 and Obadiah 19-Jonah 3:5 form our reading list today. And it is Jonah’s refusal at first to be salt and light that captures my attention.

Jonah used to be someone I really disdained.

Whiny. Cowardly. Running from God. Shirking responsibility. Uncaring for the souls of others. Placing his own comforts, desires and opinions above the needs of those God called him to.

Booking passage on a boat to get as far away from obeying God as he could – in his rebellion, he brought the life-threatening storm that would have consumed the others in the boat with him. But at that point, he didn’t care if he was salt or light to a bunch of pagans. He just wanted to serve himself. No one else.

As the account progresses, among others, I note these things:

We are all responsible for the Word revealed. To make its “light” known. Before anything else, how do we respond to what we KNOW God has said?

It is costly to run from God’s commands. The text implies he booked the entire ship to get away as quickly as possible.

God’s presence is neither situational nor geographical. He cannot be fled from.

How God arranges providences to deal with us

.In rebellion, we become grossly insensitive to truth. Even to the point of missing what the unsaved see. Look at how the crewmen were more merciful and compassionate to the one bringing them these hardships, than Jonah was to the Ninevites.

And note how graciously the Lord uses even our failures in bringing others to Himself.

And the key point? We must consider the effect our disobedience has even on the unbelieving souls around us. We put them in the path of great harm in God’s having to deal with us strongly. Who knows how much of the World’s troubles flow from the Church’s failures?

Read the Old Testament and count how many wars, famines and other disasters were the direct result of God’s dealing with His people’s rebellion.

So as I said, I used to disdain Jonah.

Until.

Until I really studied the book.

Until I came to realize that the only reason we know so much about Jonah, his weaknesses, sins and follies, is because he is the only one who could have related all the details.

He wrote the book, telling on himself.

In the end, he was more interested in bringing to light the unfathomable riches of God’s mercy and grace than how he looked to anyone.

And I want to be like that too.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #171 – Dec. 11 / “Constantly Abiding”

December 11th, 2020

For the audio Podcast of this and every episode, find us on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify or HERE

Constantly Abiding – it’s the title of a hymn I’ve heard and sung since childhood. Though I hear it very little any more. Probably not sophisticated enough for some, too – sing-songy. Not deep enough for others. And too old fashioned I’m sure. But the chief sentiment is drawn directly from the teaching of Jesus. And it’s a truth all too neglected in our day. Constantly abiding will be our theme today, from John 15:1-16:4. And of course we have Amos 9:11-Obadiah 1:18 and Revelation 12:1-6 on our reading list as well. And while circumstances prevented our being together yesterday, I pray there will be something here for your soul today.

I’m Reid Ferguson and you are listening to Through the Word in 2020.

“Abiding.” Not a word we use much in conversation is it? In English as well as in Greek, it carries with it the idea of settling down, remaining in some one place. Not wandering. Being committed to and sticking to one place so as to make it home. And being content to be there, and go no further or any place else. And Jesus appeals to abiding as relates to Him 3 separate times in the Gospel of John. 2 of Which are in today’s passage, and even the 3rd referred back to – though it is stated more fully earlier.

And it is a lack of such abiding that I cannot help but think undergirds so much discontent, fear and instability in the lives of many Christians today.

In 8:31 Jesus says to those who professed belief in Him, “If you abide in my Word, you are truly my disciples.

”Now this cannot be overlooked. In order for one to truly be a disciple of Christ, we must abide in His Word. We must hear it, know it, treasure it, let it inform every part of our thinking. We cannot move from His word to some other source of authority to shape and inform our hearts and minds regarding reality.

In a conversation yesterday with several pastors, a recurring element was their concern that even many professing Christians today are more versed in the U.S. Constitution and the nature of what they perceive as their “rights” – than they are abiding in Christ’s Word in how to think and respond to life in all of its complexities. They’ve gone beyond the Word. As though it isn’t sufficient. As though we need something else to anchor our souls in troubled times. We give lip service to the Word. But abide there? Not so much. For it doesn’t seem to scratch where we itch.

Abiding in His Word – being people of His Word will shift our priorities. It will create new objectives, desires and goals. It will be the means whereby the Spirit of God makes us more like Christ Himself. But for many, that is not enough for them. They want to move on to bigger and better things. Abiding in His Word is too restrictive.

Then in 15:4 Jesus simply says: “Abide in me, and I in you.” Don’t go beyond Jesus. Stop there. Make Him your homeland. Make serving Him and His interests your chief pursuit. Look to no other prophet, revelation or authority. Seek Him. His Kingdom. His righteousness. He is not just the starting point in God’s cosmic plan, He is the end of it as well – the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. You never outgrow Jesus. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. If you think you have exhausted Him and need more – then you have not truly met Him. And you are not abiding in Him.

And lastly, in 15:9 He says: “Abide in my love.” Never let any one or any thing shake your confidence in the steadfast love of Christ. The love that endures forever. Abide in it. Live there. Settle down there. Be content there. Put your roots down there. Trust and rest in His abiding, all transforming love.

Abide in His Word. Abide in Him. Abide in His love.

And war against anything and everything that would make you less than fully content to simply, sweetly, confidently, abide in Him.

God willing, we’ll be back Monday.
Through the Word in 2020 #170 – Dec. 9 / “I go to prepare a place.”

December 9th, 2020

For the audio Podcast of this and every episode, find us on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify or HERE

I was still a young Christian when someone told me that the chapter and verse divisions we have in our Bibles were not inspired like the text itself. They are a human means devised to help us locate things easily. Most of the time they are just what we need and do not make a huge difference in how we read the text. Until we get to a portion like John 13:36-14:14. Noting it here, will lead us into something truly spectacular.

This is Through the Word in 2020. Where today’s readings also include Revelation 10-11:14 and Amos 2:4-5:27.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

The rooster will not crow before you deny me 3 times, Jesus told Peter. And if you put a chapter break here, you miss the rest of what Jesus was saying in context. Yes, you’ll deny me Peter, but let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

Wow!

In the same breath with which Jesus foretells Peter’s fall, He also comforts His petulant child. And if that was all we had to consider today, it should be enough. Our Savior knows full well every rebellious thought and sin we will ever commit against Him Beloved.

And loves us no less.

More, that is just where He meets us by His grace. Indeed, He was perfectly aware of every sin you and I would ever commit BEFORE He came and died for those sins, shed His blood to cleanse us of them, and rose again for our justification.

He is never taken off guard by our failings.

Never shocked.

Never moved to think He made a mistake in saving us.

Never thrown.

Never discouraged.

For the One who began this work in us has committed Himself to see it all the way through to completion. He counted the cost ahead of time. He knew what He was in for. He will not fail. And so He can say to even you today, weary, failing Christian, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

And then, as though that is not enough to be too good to be true – He goes on to promise the eventual goal of His saving, rescuing power: That He has left to go and prepare a place for us. For we, His fumbling, sinning, grievous, foolish sons and daughters who believe. So that when His work in us is complete, we may be with Him and He with us in such unbroken intimacy and sweetness that our minds are unable to comprehend it now.

Another thought.

Some wag, years ago quipped that if God created the world in only 6 days, then what must this place be like He’s been working on for 2,000 years? No wonder the Scripture says that no eye has seen, and no ear has heard, in fact, no one has even imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.

Prepared not for those who showed themselves to be stellar disciples and worthy of it: but for those who love Him.

A place He is preparing

That I might dwell with Him

Crafted by Divinity

All light – no corner dim

And all this time in Heaven

God’s genius, love and craft

Impossibly imagined

His hand brings all to pass

What one deserves such wonders?

NOT ONE – ’tis all of grace

That we the sons of Adam

May look upon His face

To revel in His beauty

‘Tis Heaven’s glad employ

Unending treasure plundered

In unending waves of joy

No pain, no sorrow enter

No tears – but those in praise

No mourning, death or darkness

No grief in all this place

Abundance, glory, beauty

All wonder, awe and love

Sweetness, grace and blessing

In Christ’s own home above

The fullness of the Spirit

The Father’s smiling face

The Son in risen glory

The felt Triune embrace

No sin, no sin, no sin there

No sin without, within

Redemption’s plan full wrought out

In Christ, all summed in Him

And there with Him forever

In sweet, familial bliss

We’ll bless the Lamb who bought us

Whose love has fashioned this

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #169 – Dec. 8 / The “New” Commandment

December 8th, 2020

For the audio Podcast of this and every episode, find us on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify or HERE

There have been countless volumes written on our reading in John 13 today. Rightly so. I suppose it impossible to truly plumb the depths of what is contained in that brief narrative. And when you lay it along side Psalm 142 and David’s plea for help, Joel’s promise of God’s restorative work, Amos’ warnings about unrepentant sin and Revelation’s picture of God’s judgment – John 13:34 & 35 stand out in even more stunning relief.

We want to gaze into the nature of that love Jesus has for Believers, and what that is supposed to look like in us toward one another for just a moment today on Through the Word in 2020.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

Interestingly, Jesus uses the occasion of sending Judas out to act on his final betrayal, as the stage for announcing that “now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.”

And what does that mean?

When reading texts like this it is necessary to think of the word “revealed” when we read – “glorified.” For it is the exposing of God in His fullness that is His greatest glory. And what is it that is so glorious in God that is hidden from us in creation, and is revealed so exclusively and absolutely in Christ? Grace, and mercy. God has chosen as the perfect means to reveal Himself in His grace and mercy, by the redemption of lost men, the forgiveness of their sins. The saving of those who not only do not deserve it, but do not even want it.

From the very beginning He was aiming at this.

God’s final goal in all things – is the divinely ultimate manifestation of His mercy and grace through eternal, familial society with a redeemed humanity.

His motive in it all, is love.

The Father is most glorified in or by the Son in the Cross. Because nowhere else is the righteousness of God in condemning and judging sin more revealed, nor is the mercy, love, genius and grace of God more revealed than in offering His Son as the substitutionary sacrifice sinful men need.

Offered to all, to be received by faith.

This is how Christ loved us: He made known to us, revealed to us, the mercy and grace that consumes the heart of the Triune God. And this then tells us what it means to love one another as He has loved us.

We can love others in no greater way than to make known to them the redeeming love of God in the Gospel of the Cross, and living out lives of commensurate mercy and grace. Such love is not the fallen human analog of love that is more about warm fuzzy feelings toward one another. It is about truly caring for the deepest needs of the human soul by making known to them in word and action the Christ who reveals the Father’s great love in mercy toward their guilt and grace in reconciliation and the gift of eternal life.

It is not that nothing else is loving – but that nothing else is THIS loving. This, is ultimate love. As Christ has loved us. And anything less, falls short of loving one another as HE has loved us.

Make God known in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Make Him known in the preaching of the Gospel. Make Him known by showing mercy and grace. Make Him known by living as a mercied and graced person yourself.

Love one another, as He has loved you.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 – #168 – Dec. 7 / He loved them, to the end.

December 7th, 2020

For the audio Podcast of this and every episode, find us on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify or HERE

Some passages of Scripture are just so full of glorious revelations of Christ and His love, it boggles the mind. And such is John 13:1-20 which along with Joel 1:2-2:27 and Revelation 8:1-5 form our reading bloc today.

Look at how each phrase is so pregnant with truth.

1. He loved HIS OWN The Body of Christ is – His family. His own. We are not loved as strangers but as belonging to Him.

2. He loved them who were “IN THE WORLD”He doesn’t love a “heavenly people” already glorified, nice and neat and clean, but He loves a WEAK and FLAWED people.The Church is the most “dysfunctional” family on earth. But oh how He loves us!

3. He loved them to THE ENDIn His worst moments, He did not leave off His love for them in order to concentrate on Himself. He was NOT self-absorbed

4. He loved them HUMBLYWashing their feet. Nothing – even the prospect of the Cross, and all of its horrors, could deter Him from His servant’s humility.And He did this – V-3 “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God”!He came to give Himself, His all – in a context of divine self-forgetfulness – humility.

5. He loved them PERSONALLY He didn’t just order their feet to be washed, He washed them. He doesn’t command us to save ourselves, or even the angels to save us – He saves us Himself.

6. He loved them at the point of their UNCLEANNESS He washes their feet. vs. 5 – In tying the towel around Himself to wipe the disciple’s feet – their filth, our filth was placed upon Him. He wore it.

7. He loved the TRANFORMINGLY He cleansed them, not leaving them in their sin.

8. He loved them in the face of their RESISTANCE to be loved Peter didn’t want to be humbled in this way. Neither do we. Some of us want God – but not at the expense of having to consider ourselves as REALLY needing saving – as being sinners. We don’t mind needing help – we just don’t want it to be ALL of grace – where we are completely unworthy. But He loves us anyway, and is the only means to our being CLEAN before God. That’s too much for our egos.

9. He loved them knowing one of them would commit the ultimate BETRAYAL of that love The worst of all sins is betrayal, to betray trust, confidence, intimacy, exclusivity. It is what made the fall a personal offense against God, and not just sin generically. He appointed us His image-bearers, and to keep His Garden and display His goodness and grace to all.

10. He loved them in the face of their inability to UNDERSTAND His purpose and mission He loved them through the pain of being misunderstood, and helpless to straighten it out. Being misunderstood is one of the worst things in all of human experience.

11. He loved them knowing of their impending ABANDONMENT of Him Nothing is as empty as to not even be worth another’s negative concern. It is to feel worthless – superfluous – faceless – meaningless – anonymous.

12. He loved them with ETERNITY in view Yes, I know you will fail me now, but I am looking forward to when we will be around the throne, and such things won’t matter anymore. I am loving you PAST the present. 1. He loves HIS OWN2. Who are IN THE WORLD 3. He loves them to THE END 4. He loves them HUMBLY 5. He loves them PERSONALLY 6. He loves them at the point of their UNCLEANNESS 7. He loves them TRANSFORMINGLY 8. He loves them in the face of their RESISTANCE to be loved 9. He loves them in the face of their inability to UNDERSTAND 10. He loves them knowing there will be unspeakable failures11. He loves them knowing of their impending ABANDONMENT of Him12. He loves them with ETERNITY in view.

This, Christian, is how He loves you too.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #167 – Dec. 4 / Prevailing Prayer

December 4th, 2020

For the audio Podcast of this and every episode, find us on Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify or HERE

Earlier this week I mentioned the inner struggle Christians have with facing helplessness. It isn’t a uniquely Christian problem – the world thrives after power. All of the political and social rhetoric which is blazing around us presently is all about who is in or will have – power.

This is the deafening echo of the Fall in the human soul.

Truthfully? – even for many Christians, our souls are more comforted by “our” people sitting in the seats of the Oval Office, Congress and the Supreme Court than in the God who rules over them all. We seem to take little or no comfort there. It is merely theoretical and doctrinal, but not practical.

Something is dreadfully wrong with that picture.

We wanted the power in the Garden to determine for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. And we have never let go of that rebellious impulse. We hate being under the authority or power of anyone or anything above – self. And, it is why so much pop Christianity goes the same way. Personal empowerment as a theme or sub-theme is threaded through everything.

Then we run into what at first might look like an obscure reference in our reading of Hosea 9-Joel 1:1, and some powerful light get sheds on a very important reality for Believers.

The nature of prevailing prayer, and what that looks like.

So much teaching on prayer today is about how we can have power in prayer. But that might not look like what we think.

A bit more on that today as we look at the Hosea passage, Psalm 141, John 12:37-50 and Revelation 7 on Through the Word in 2020.

I’m your host, Reid Ferguson.

If you blink, you’ll miss it. Hosea’s reference in 12:4 to an event in the life of Jacob back in Genesis 32.

There, when Jacob was preparing to face his brother Esau for the first time in decades, he was visited by an angel. The text says he wrestled all night with the heavenly messenger, who even left Jacob lame. A good picture of how when we truly encounter God, we can never walk the same way again.

But before leaving, the angel says to him: “you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” But what does that mean? How had Jacob striven with God and won? No doubt it is a picture of prevailing prayer; but in what way? Books have been written on it to try and tell us how we too can have power with God – how to get Him to do our bidding in prayer. But Hosea 12:4 tells us what that really looks like.

How did Jacob strive with the angel and prevail? “He wept, and sought his favor.” He won, by recognizing his weakness, and crying out for mercy.

What prevails to secure the blessing of God is humility before Him. All scheming, all self-reliance and independence brings judgment. Humility and brokenness melt the heart of God toward His people. And that is what prevailing prayer really looks like. Utter humility before God – crying out in our helplessness. Weeping over our sins, and pleading not for power – but for mercy.

Hosea 14 will go on to confirm that truth. For when the Prophet instructs Israel in how to repent so as to relieve God’s judgments and re-secure His blessings – his counsel is to pray for forgiveness, ask God to accept what little good they may have, swear to return to right living, renounce all political alliances to gain the help they desire, reject any thoughts of their own works being of use or relying upon them, and crying out for mercy.

That dear one, is prevailing prayer.

Humble renunciation of trust in anything but God alone – and a plea for undeserved mercy on our sins.

And in Christ – He answers in full.

God willing, we’ll be back Monday.
Through the Word in 2020 #166 – Dec. 3 / Avoiding Misconceptions

December 3rd, 2020

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I’m a Calvinist. By that, I don’t mean I subscribe to everything the Reformer taught or thought. Rather – in the main, I subscribe to many of the same underlying Biblical emphases which were evident in his writings. And in the writings of all those who take a strong view of God’s sovereignty in all things. Both long before Calvin and long after. Calvinism – at least for many, is simply shorthand for that reality. But when shorthand displaces the full picture, distortions are inevitable. And this is true no matter what doctrinal system one subscribes to. We’ll look at 3 common errors in this regard on Through the Word in 2020 – in Revelation 6, John 12:20-36 and Hosea 3-8.

I’m Reid Ferguson.

Any way you look at it, Revelation is a challenging book. Especially from Ch. 6 on. The opening of the seals of the scroll mentioned in Ch. 5 has led to nearly endless speculation. So before we go off looking to make all kinds of associations which may not even be in the text, we need to make sure we don’t lose the big picture. Putting all speculations on timing, what is contained in each seal, etc – don’t miss this: God is going to judge all sin and wickedness of humankind. He has a systematic plan for doing do so. It will come to pass. No one will escape. And no amount of inquiry into the details of these various pictures alters that. The bottom line is, each of us needs to be reconciled to God through faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ on Calvary – or we will be subject to the judgments so graphically displayed.

Don’t be so curious about deciphering the details, that your heart and soul are not in the right place before God. The Devil probably knows these details better than any human being.

So what?

2nd is the very commonly quoted “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” among those in certain branches of Charismatic Christianity. By it, they most often mean you need some sort of new or extra revelation which only they can purvey, so that you have have the most pleasant, powerful and prosperous life you could desire. The problem is, the passage isn’t referring to anything secret at all. The verse goes on to explain that the reason God’s people were under God’s judgment at that time was because they had rejected knowledge. Which knowledge the verse then denominates as “the law of your God.” Lack of what knowledge brings people under God’s judgment – lack of knowing Him in His Word. Living outside of faithfulness and steadfast love toward God (vs. 1) – evidenced by a lifestyle of swearing, lying, murder, stealing and committing adultery.

The problem isn’t a lack of secret knowledge, but of living in the light of the truth already revealed in His Word.

And then there is the place where our Calvinist shorthand fails us. For in failing to read the whole council of God, we can take a passage like Romans 3:11 “No one understands, no one seeks for God,” and absolutize it in a way that contradicts our reading in John 12 where some come explicitly seeking Christ. As Paul quotes Pss. 14 & 53 in that passage, he is not at the same time forgetting that the work of the Spirit in our age is specifically to draw men to Christ and to seek Him out. Left to ourselves, indeed, no one would seek after God. But by the enormity of His goodness and grace – He has poured out His Spirit to “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”

It is only in reading the whole Word as a whole, that we come to avoid forming such misconceptions on our own, and being led astray by those of others.

Keep reading His Word Beloved.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Through the Word in 2020 #165 – Dec. 2 / The Problem of Waiting

December 2nd, 2020

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Of all the disciplines of the Christian life, I find 2 the most challenging: 1. Waiting, and 2. Living with powerlessness. Both of them play a central role in the 3 passages before us today: Daniel 12-Hosea 2; Revelation 5 and John 12:12-19.

I’m Reid Ferguson, and we’ll look at waiting and powerlessness today on Through the Word in 2020.

As you come to the end of Daniel’s visions in Ch. 12, Daniel is greatly distressed and asks: “How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?”And he isn’t told. Instead, he is instructed to be about living his life before God. What is to come to pass will come to pass in due time.

Wait.

Hosea is distressed over the spiritual adultery of God’s people and God’s discipline of them. He is in misery over it, powerless to change it, and weary of what it costs, personally and nationally. And all he is told is: “In that day.”

Wait.

At Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem the Pharisees and Sadducees wanted no more of this rebel Jesus, and the crowds and disciples wanted an end to Roman oppression and religious hypocrisy. The Jewish leadership couldn’t bear their powerlessness any more and so moved to have Him crucified. And the disciples were jumping the gun on when He would reign.

They needed to wait.

Then in Revelation 5 we see the vision of the scroll – the full and long term plans and purposes of God in the earth. All of which is wrapped up in the only One worthy to unpack it all because it centers upon Him – the Lamb of God. But we are given neither instructions on how to bring about what is in God’s hands alone, nor a timetable to weigh it all and locate ourselves on.

We are forced to wait.

Powerlessly.

And this Beloved is where faith must take its rightful place in our hearts and minds. Else we will act foolishly and precipitously, trying to bring about God’s secret plans; or live in frustration and depression because we don’t know how long certain seasons in our lives will last. Faith then is to be exercised in trusting the power of God on my behalf, so that I do not need to have power, and in waiting God’s time to bring about His purposes.

Lamentations 3:25-26 seem to sum it up well – written to God’s people at their most powerless, and with a very uncertain future:

“The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

God always proves Himself good to those who wait for Him. Seeking Him. And it is a good thing to do that waiting with a calm and quiet spirit.

I cannot think of a more timely word to us even now in the present uncertainty of COVID, and all that has disrupted our lives due to it. But we trust in our God. In His wisdom, His power, and His timing and His perfect love toward us.

Micah 7:7 “But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”

Trust Him Christian. We don’t need any power – political or otherwise – if the One who loves us and gave Himself for us has all power – and is our Good Shepherd. Trust Him to act when, where and how is best for our eternal good.

God willing, we’ll be back tomorrow.