PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE:　 “THAT INCREDIBLE CHRISTIAN”-TO BE OR NOT TO BE?

By:  Ron Woodrum

　　　　 In the 300’s A.D. The Roman World was struggling to retain its greatness.　 The citizens of Rome were disillusioned with the religions of the pagan empire.　 Life was hard.　 The future was uncertain.　 People were starting to search for a deeper meaning in life.　 The Christian message was starting to impact the Roman world.　 The Empire was striking back with persecution.　 The Emperor demanded submission to the religions of the empire, which included worship of the Emperor himself.　 People watched as Christians refused to submit even in the face of death.　 One of the outstanding leaders of the time was Cyprian-Bishop of Carthage.　 He eventually was executed for refusing to offer sacrifice to the gods, and say “Caesar is Lord!”.　 One of the most intriguing artifacts from that time was a letter that he wrote to a friend explaining his faith.　 He wrote, “It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world.　 But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and good people who have learned the great secret of life.　 They have found a joy and wisdom which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful lives.　 They are despised and persecuted, but they care not.　 They are masters of their souls.　 They have overcome the world.　 These people Donatus, are Christians…and I am one of them”.　 In the midst of his generation Cyprian had been changed by a group of people who stood out incredibly good in an incredibly bad world.　 That influenced him enough to join them.　 We too live in an incredibly bad world, which is getting worse each day.　 What is needed today is Incredible Christians who shine brightly as lights in the darkness.　 A.W. Tozer had an article I read years ago that I have never forgotten.　 It is called That Incredible Christian.　 It describes how God transforms our lives in such a way that we stand out as people who are “Incredible”-almost unbelievable.　 Let me share it with you and see how we compare today.

“But let us bring the whole matter down from the uplands of theory and simply observe the true Christian as he puts into practice the teachings of Christ and His apostles. Note the contradictions:　 The Christian believes that in Christ he has died, yet he is more alive than before and he fully expects to live forever.　 He walks on earth while seated in heaven and though born on earth he finds that after his conversion he is not at home here.　 Like the nighthawk, which in the air is the essence of grace and beauty, but on the ground is awkward and ugly, so the Christian appears at his best in the heavenly places but does not fit well into the ways of the very society in which he was born. The Christian soon learns that if he would be victorious, as a son of heaven among men on earth, he must not follow the common pattern of mankind, but rather the contrary.　 That he may be safe he puts himself in jeopardy; he loses his life to save it and is in danger of losing it if he attempts to preserve it.　 He goes down to get up.　 If he refuses to go down he is already down, but when he starts down he is on his way up. He is strongest when he is weakest and weakest when he is strong. Though poor he has the power to make others rich, but when he becomes rich his ability to enrich others vanishes.　 He has the most after he has given the most away and has the least when he posseses the most!　 He may be and often is highest when he feels the lowest and most sinless when he is most conscious of his sin. He is wisest when he knows that he knows not and knows least when he has acquired the greatest amount of knowledge.　 He sometimes does most by doing nothing and goes furthest when standing still.　 In heaviness he manages to rejoice and keeps his heart glad even in sorrow.　 The paradoxical character of the Christian is revealed constrantly. For instance, he believes that he is saved now, nevertheless he expects to be saved later and looks forward joyfully to future salvation.　 He fears God but is not afraid of Him. In God’s presence he feels overwhelmed and undone, yet there is nowhere he would rather be than in that presence!　 He knows that he has been cleansed from his sin, yet he is painfully conscioius that in his flesh dwells no good thing.　 He loves supremely One whom he has never seen, and though himself poor and lowly　 he talks familiarly with One who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.　 He feels that he is in his own right altogether less than nothing, yet believes without question that he is the apple of God’s eye and that for him the Eternal Son of God became flesh and died of the cross of shame just for him. The Christian is a citizen of heaven and to that sacred citizenship he acknowledges first allegiance; yet he may love his earthly country with the intensity of devotion that caused John Knox to pray, ‘God give me Scotland or I die!’.　 He cheerfully expects before long to enter into that bright world above, but he is in no hurry to leave this world and is quite willing to await the summons of His heavenly Father.　 The cross-carrying Christian, furthermore, is both a confirmed pessimist　and optimist the like of which is to found nowhere else on earth.　 When he looks at the cross he is a pessimist, for he knows that the same judgment that fell on the Lord of glory condemns in that one act all nature and all the world of men.　　 He rejects every human hope out of Christ because he knows that man’s noblest effort is only dust building on dust.　 Yet he is calmly, restfully optimistic.　 if the cross condems the world, the resurrection guarantees the ultimate triumph of good througout the universe.　 Through Christ all will be well at last and the Christian　 waits the consumation.　 Incredible Christian!”

　　　　 As Christians we should, by the power of God be walking paradoxes!　 Incredible sights to observe.　 We should be God’s burning bushes attracting the world to the glory of God being manifest in our lives.　 We should be amazingly “Incredible”.　 But I am afraid that our failure to manifest the power of the Lord in our lives make us more “incredulous” than “Incredible!”

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE:　 A GENERATION QUESTIONING GOD.

(By:  Ron Woodrum)

Disappointment with God:　 Three Questions No One Asks Aloud,　 is the name of a book written by the amazingly able and influential Christian writer Phillip Yancey.　 What are those questions?　 Number one is, Is God Unfair?　 Number two is, Is God Silent? Number three is,　Is God Hidden?　 The book was the product of Yancey’s discourse with a student named Richard, a graduate student at Wheaton College.　 Richard had approached Yancey and asked him to read a term paper he had written on the Book of Job.　 That term paper was only his presenting problem.　 It was actually a launching board for him to uncork, from his life, how he was disappointed in romance-he had loved, and it didn’t work out.　 How in his vocational life he had experienced only shattering　 dissapointment.　 His religious life he had found to be filled with “heaven’s silence“.　 His physical life was filled with illness and suffering.　 He　looked to Yancey to find some support for his premise that he had GROUNDS TO BE DISAPPOINTED WITH GOD!　 Richard’s experience is not an isolated experience.　 All of us, if we are honest, have experienced things in our lives that have caused us to ask those questions, even if not out loud, concerning the nature of God.　Jonah too experienced such disappointment.　 He to belonged to the club that found the actions of God bewildering.　 He would have been glad to run for president of that club!　 After warning Ninevah of the coming judgment of God, and sitting down with his hourglass, waiting for the fireworks, only to be told they had been cancelled!, Jonah was angry with God.　 He felt God had acted unfairly.　 In fact, He had acted unjustly.　 Indeed, He had acted beyond what Jonah thought God could ever do.

Today, that same kind of bewilderment with God is very prevalent.　 After all, we live in an atmosphere of what I call “Insurance Company Theology”-i.e. An Act of God is Defined as a Calamity no one else but God is responsible for!　 Such a view is often seen on two fronts-both poles apart in their world views.　 Modern day athiests, like Christiopher Hitchins, sees the evil in the world as evidence that, if there is a God, He is certainly not Great! (That by the way, is the Title of his recent bestselling book).　 His thesis is, if God is great, (morally good), then He must not be “all-powerful”, for if He was, He would do something to eliminate evil from His world.　 Conversely, if He is “all-powerful”, and does not eliminate evil, then by anyone’s standards, He cannot be considered “good”.　 (This is faulty logic, failing to take into account that God will do something about evil once-and-for-all, but on His, not our timetable, and any delay in so doing is indication of what a Good, Compassionate, Loving, Long-suffering, Gracious God He really is, grace that allows Hitchens, Dawkins, and other athiests the freedom to write, and live in luxury from books that denigrate his Goodness).　 But athiests are not the only ones struggling with this issue.　 On the other end of the spectrum, even Christian authors and apologists, like C.S. Lewis, knew what it was to grapple with these divine complexities.　 After his wife Joy died an untimely death, due to cancer, Lewis, though he had long written Christian truth, and defended the faith, found himself in the twilight zone of doubting the goodness of God.　 In those dark days of grief he wrote,

“Meanwhile, where is God?　 When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, if you turn to praise Him, you will be welcomed with open arms!　 But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find?　 A DOOR SLAMMED IN YOUR FACE, AND THE SOUND OF BOLTING, AND DOUBLE-BOLTING ON THE INSIDE!　 AFTER THAT SILENCE!　 YOU MAY JUST AS WELL TURN AWAY.”

Two Books of the Old Testament discuss these very perplexing issues about God.　 One is quite monumental-The Book of Job.　 The other is quite miniscule-The Book of Jonah.　 Both, in the end, declare the great, glorious, and gracious nature of God.　 Both Job and Jonah, I believe, came to that conclusion, after all was said and done!　 Job shows that although sometimes we as humans are caught in the cross-fire of a cosmic conflict, and sometimes suffer extensively, that we serve a sovereign God who will eventually bring us the victory, crushing the enemy, and bringing to us such results, that we will in the end, wonder why we ever questioned God.　 The other, the Book of Jonah, presents a Holy God, who has set boundaries for both His creation, and His children.　 When they cross those boundaries, He has promised that there will be consequences, and that He is no respecter of persons.　 The poet has described this truth so aptly,

　　　　 “There is a time, we know not when, a point, we know not where,

that leads to glory or despair

There is a line, by us unseen, that crosses every path,

The hidden boundary between God’s patience and His wrath

There is a path, though by men unseen

That once it has been crossed

God Himself, in all His love,

Has sworn that all is Lost!”

-Joseph Addison Alexander (1809-1860)

That being true, the Book of Jonah clearly declares, with Ezekial, that “God has no　 delight in the death of the wicked”

(See Ezekial 18:23).　 Jonah discovered what the New Testament would later clearly affirm.　 “God is longsuffering, and not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” ( II Peter 3:9).　 “For this is good in the sight of God…who will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Tim. 2:4).　 The Book of Jonah is not about a Prophet; a Whale; A　great city-Ninevah.　 It is about a Great God who, though Holy, is more than that, He is　Good, Glorious, Gracious in Compassion, Longsuffering, Kindness.　 His Name is greatly to be praised!