PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Jacob’s Ladder at Charing Cross?”

     Author Philip Yancey tells of an experience playing chess with a master player.  He explains his rapid realization that no matter what move he made, no matter what strategy he chose, the master seemed to turn his play around to serve his own purposes.  If the truth be realized, all of us would identify with Francis Thompson, who felt the same way.  He made a lot of moves in his life that were disastrous.  He spent his life running away from God and seeking to find pleasure and fulfillment in all the wrong things.  But even during his days of drug abuse, living on the streets near England’s Charing Cross, and sleeping nights down by the river Thames, he was not alone.  He wrote a famous poem describing how he was pursued and lovingly sought by the Hound of Heaven-God, through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ!  Readers of English poetry know all about this famous poem.  You may even recall Richard Burton’s famous reading of this 189-line poem.  Francis Thompson was a child of opportunity.  His father wanted him to go to medical school and become a doctor, or to study at Oxford University.  But instead Francis was lured into the world of opiates, in the late 1800’s in England.  It was this addiction that interrupted his education and left him homeless and hopeless for several years of his life.  But even during his days of addiction he was being pursued by Christ, whom he would later, after becoming a Christian, call the Hound of Heaven.  Here are a few lines from his Immortal poem:

I fled Him down the nights and down the days

I fled Him down the arches of the years.

I fled Him down the labyrinthine way of my own mind:

And in the midst of tears.

I hid from Him, and under running laughter

Up vistaed hopes I sped

Down titantic glooms of chasmed fears

From those strong feet that followed, I fled

For though I knew His love that followed

Yet I was sore adread

That having Him I would have naught else beside.

(BUT HE ENDS IT, AFTER SEVERAL MORE VERSES THAT I HAVE OMITTED)

Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,

I am He whom thou seekest!

     After his conversion, and change of life, Thompson wrote another poem expressing the same kind of pursuit that he found Jesus Christ to have for him all the days of his running.  This poem is called In No Strange Land. 

Oh world invisible, we view thee,

Oh world intangible, we touch thee,

Oh world unknowable, we know thee,

In apprehensible, we clutch thee!

Does the fish soar to find the ocean?

The eagle plunge to find the air-

That we ask the stars in motion

If they have rumor of thee there?

Not where wheeling systems darken,

And our benumbed conceiving soars! –

The drift of pinions, would we harken,

Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.

The angels keep their ancient places-

Turn but a stone and start a wing!

Tis ye, tis your estranged faces,

That miss the many splendored thing.

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)

Cry-and upon thy so sore loss

Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder

Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.

Yea, in the night, my Soul; My daughter,

Cry-clinging to Heaven by the hems;

And lo, Christ is walking on the water,

Not of Genesareth, but Thames!

Thompson found that the Hound of Heaven, lowered Jacob’s Ladder right into the drug infested homeless situation he had chosen for himself there in the area surrounding England’s Charing Cross.  And late night’s spent sleeping homeless and defeated, overwhelmed with guilt, shame, and failure. He was awakened only to find Christ walking toward him on the water, not of the Sea of Galilee-but Thames!  Today’s message is words from the Hound of Heaven.  He is asking us the Soul Winning Question.  Do you not pursue at any cost the lost one that is of great value to you?  Of course, we do!  Let a child we love be lost.  We gather the entire neighborhood; all the police force; the media to spare no cost in recovering the lost child.  Even when a dog or a cat that we love is lost we print posters, offer rewards, go from house to house, neighborhood to neighborhoods searching diligently.  And we should!  Today’s message from Jesus calls us to the ultimate search of those that are lost!  Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “If there be any one point in which the Christian Church ought to keep its fervor at a white heat, it is concerning soul-winning.  If there be anything about which we cannot tolerate Luke warmness, it is the matter of sending the gospel to a dying world!”

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: BELONGING IS VERY NECESSARY

     There are many voices today decrying the Church of Jesus Christ.  They tell us that she is outdated.  Irrelevant.  Impotent.  Unneccesary.  The focus basically is-you can be a Christian.  You can love the Lord.  You can live for Him in the world today-but you don’t need, nor will you likely get any help from the Church-i.e., the organized historical Church as we have known it. You can even go on line and find a Church to meet your needs at virtualchurch.com. This is not a new trend.  I came across an article written by Robert W. Patterson, associate to the Executive Director of the National Association of Evangelicals, written for Christianity Today back in March of 1991.  He wrote:

     “When President Eisenhower became a Christian, he made a public profession of his faith in Christ, he was baptized, and was extended the right hand of fellowship at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C., the second Sunday after his inauguration in 1953.  Had the former President expressed interest in becoming a Christian a generation later under more consciously evangelical auspices, he might have never been challenged to identify with the Body of Christ through baptism and church membership.  A personal relationship with Jesus Christ, he would have been told, is all that really matters”. (Robert Patterson, “In Search of the Visible Church” Christianity Today, March 11, 1991, Vol. 34, No. 3, p.36). 

     Of course, I wholeheartedly agree that without a saving relationship with Jesus Christ that all is lost.  Joining a Church is not the same as accepting Christ as Savior.  But we must never mistakenly reason that one’s relationship with Christ minimizes the importance of the Church.  Yet that is the spirit of our age.  Someone has said that this is the age of the “McChristian”.  We choose what level of product he wants from the Church, like one does at McDonalds, or a buffet.  Pollster George Barna says, “The average adult thinks belonging to a particular Church is fine for other people, but is an unnecessary bondage and baggage for himself” (George Barna, The Frog in the Kettle Regal Books. 1991 p.133).  So, a decade into the new millennium’s 21st century we have a phenomenon unthinkable in any other generation-“Churchless Christians”.  Why has this trend developed?  Some feel that it has happened because of too much emphasis on the “invisible Church”.  While it is true that Christ is building a Church, and the totality of that Church is overall invisible to our eye, i.e., we cannot see the entire Church in its entirety at any one time, and any one place, (the first meeting will be in the air at the rapture), Christ’s invisible Church manifests itself in visible congregations, at visible locations, all over the world, as the New Testament teaches us.  Both teachings are true, but too much emphasis on one over the other leads to error.  Another likely reason this trend has happened in America is our historic American individualism.  Nancy Pearcey has written a 478-page book on how we have developed a Church in America that our culture has molded to make it quite different from the New Testament Church.  It is called Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity. (Crossway books. 2004).  She has an entire chapter titled, “When Christianity met America Guess Who Won!”  She quotes Thomas Paine saying, “We have a chance to start history all over again”.  She proposes that we did that with Christianity too!  When Christians from other countries come to America, they don’t even recognize our “version of the Church”.  R. Kent Hughes, in his book Disciplines of a Godly Man, says “another reason for the de-churching of many Christians is the historical individualism of evangelical Christianity and the grass-roots American impulse against authority.  The natural inclination is to think that one needs only an individual relationship with Jesus Christ and needs no other authority.  Such thinking produces Lone Ranger Christians who demonstrate their authority by riding not to Church, but out to the badlands, reference Bible in hand, to do battle single-handedly with the outlaw world”.  (p.152). If we “say” we don’t need the Church that settles the matter-we are the final authority on everything.  Because “we say so!” That’s the American way!

     We need to make a commitment to join and to belong to a local visible Church for many reasons.  It is a place we come to worship with other believers in a committed relationship, not to be forsaken (Heb. 10:25).  It is a place to be fed preaching and teaching (something the Bible commends a Pastor who does it well of being worthy of double-honor-(I Timothy 5:17 “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the Word and doctrine”).  It is a place to be held accountable.  Hebrews 13:17 “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you”.  How do you do that if you do not belong where a Pastor can watch over your growth and service?  It is a place for giving and service.  You are committed to share in needs of the Church, and to work alongside your co-laborers.  It is a place to pool your resources and support a mission cause bigger than what you are locally.  Southern Baptist Mission endeavors are second-to-none worldwide in reaching the world for Jesus Christ.  It gives you a Church family that you can rejoice with or weep with. (Romans 15:12).  John Bunyan, (of Pilgrim’s Progress fame), expressed this need well on one occasion.  While imprisoned he had been quite depressed, falling into despondency which lasted for several days.  God intervened and let him experience His presence in a special way.  Bunyan wrote, “But that was a good night to me; I have had but few better; I longed for the company of some of God’s people, that I might have imparted unto them what God had showed me.  Christ was a precious Christ to my soul that night; I could scarce lie in my bed for joy, and peace, and triumph though Christ”.  You and I take for granted the very thing that had been taken from him-the community spirit of the Church. 

     The Church, though seen as defeated and irrelevant in today’s world, will outlast the world!  Jesus said, “I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).  Harry Blamires emphasizes this truth when he wrote, “The world is like a great express train hurtling towards disaster-total destruction.  And in this truly desperate situation certain passengers are running up and down the corridors announcing to each other that the Church is in great danger!  The irony of it would be laughable if it were not so searing.  Why most of the Church’s members have already gotten out at stations en route.  And we ourselves shall be getting out soon anyway. (The rapture). And if the crash comes and the world is burnt to ashes, then the only thing that will survive the disaster will of course be the Church” (Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind, c. 1963 p. 153).  In this world we need the Church!  The visible local Church! 

     Timothy Dwight, President of Yale University, when it was a bastion for God’s truth in Puritan fashion, wrote one of the most beautiful poems about the Church.  He wrote:

I love Thy Church O God

     Her walls before thee stand

Dear as the apple of Thine eye

     And graven on Thy hand

For her my tears shall fall

     For her my prayers ascend

To her my cares and toils be given

     Til toils and cares shall end! 

Jesus Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her and to her.  We can do no less!

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE:  “The LORD of the Sum of All The Parts!”

     Jay Rathman was hunting deer in the Tehema Wildlife Area near Red Bluff in northern California.  He climbed to a ledge on the slope of a rocky gorge.  As he raised his head to look over the ledge above, he sensed movement to the right of his face.  A coiled rattlesnake struck with lightning speed, just missing Rathman’s right ear!  The four-foot snake’s fangs got snagged in the neck of Rathman’s wool turtleneck sweater, and the force of the strike caused it to land on his left shoulder.  It then coiled around the neck.  He grabbed it behind the head with his left hand and could feel the warm venom running down the skin of his neck, the rattles making a furious racket.  He fell backward and slid headfirst down the steep slope through brush and lava rocks, his rifle and binoculars bouncing beside him.  “As luck would have it”, he would later report, “I ended up wedged between some rocks with my feet caught uphill from my head.  I could barely move!”  He got his right hand on his rifle and used it to dislodge the fangs from his sweater, but the snake had enough leverage to strike again!  “He made about eight attempts to hit me with his nose hitting me just below my eye four times.  I kept my head turned so he could not get a good angle with his fangs.  But oh, it was so very close.  This snake and I were eyeball to eyeball and I found out that snakes do not blink!  He had fangs that looked like darning needles!  I had to choke him to death.  It was the only way out.  I was afraid that with all the blood rushing to my head that I would become light headed and pass out.  After I strangled the snake, I tried to toss the dead snake aside, but my hands could not let go!  I had to pry my fingers from its neck!”  Rathman, who was 45, and worked for the Department of Defense in San Jose, said the entire encounter lasted 20-30 minutes!  Warden David Smith of the Wildlife Area says of meeting Rathman: “He walked toward me holding this string of rattles and said with a grin on his face, ‘I’d like to register a complaint about your wildlife here!’ ” 

     When I first read that account I thought of how that Old Serpent the Devil attacks us!  He is always watching for his moment to strike.  Our struggle against him is a matter of life and death for our Christian lives.  He is not called the Great Dragon; That Old Serpent; A Roaring Lion; a Murderer; the Destroyer; The Tempter; a Liar; a Deceiver; Our enemy for no reason.  The Bible tells us always to be on the alert…To live our lives watchful lest we be struck suddenly by his vicious attack.  He makes the Christian life such a struggle.  We sometimes lose some battles with him.  We, when we rely on the Power and Presence of our Lord, win the battles.  Overall, we know that we have already won the war.  We are not fighting for battle, we are fighting from Battle.  We serve a LORD that always causes us to Triumph over the Evil one.  That being said, sometimes our progress in the Christian life is three steps forward, two steps back.  Sometime ours chart of progress in Christ does not show a steady climb to victory, but looks more like a roller coaster at Six Flags.  Up and Down…Up and Down…Up and Down.  Hopefully with more ups than downs!  But not always…unfortunately.  How are we to evaluate our Christian lives?

     I read a quote the other day that really spoke to my heart.  It is a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Emerson wrote, “The years teach much that the days never know”.  Aristotle, the great philosopher, and teacher of Alexander the Great spoke a similar word.  He said, “The whole is greater than the sum of all the parts!”  Both of them are saying that do not measure your progress by a few secluded individual daily encounters.  Sometimes you can’t see the big picture.  Your current struggles can be overwhelming and discouraging.  Recent failures can weigh heavy and cause past victories to pale from your memory, and cause fear that you will lose more struggles, and the devil can use that fear to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.  You read in Scriptures about those the enemy sifted like wheat.  But the LORD encouraged them to rebound, get back into the battle, let Him fight the Battle for them, and they could begin following up with a victory, then another to make that one look small, and turn the entire conflict around!  “The whole is greater than the sum of all the parts!”  “Years of victory will overshadow the days of defeat!”    During the dark days of WWII, the clear and challenging voice of Winston Churchill told the allies that it was “not the end!”  He told them “it was not the beginning of the end!”  He instead told them that it was more likely “The end of the beginning!”  Their “beginning” was coming to an end.  They would now move on to victory that would soon cause all past struggles and defeats to pale in light of the great coming victory.  That is the perspective that we need to keep our eyes fastened to.  Another applicable quote here might be “Those who ignore history have no past, and no future!”  But if we look clearly at history...”Those who make history are those who submit to the One who Orchestrates it!”  That is what the Apostle John was telling his dear Children.  He told them that Jesus Is LORD.  He is LORD of LIGHT; HE IS LORD OF LIFE; HE IS LORD OF LIBERTY; HE IS LORD OF LOVE.  He went on to tell them that as the LORD…i.e. “The Great I AM”…that I will be ALL you NEED ME to BE and make you all you will ever need to become.  With His LORDSHIP they will experience all the sum of all the parts they need and my Fully Experiencing Him as LORD they would find “the whole is greater than the sum of all the parts!” They would also experience years of fullness and victory that their individual days may never know!  HE IS THE LORD OF THE WHOLE THAT THEY NEED! THE LORD OF THE SUM OF ALL THE PARTS.  THE LORD OF LIGHT; LIFE; LIBERTY; AND PERFECTING LOVE.  What else could we need?