The World Crushes. The Lord Lifts.

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;” (2 Cor 4:8) “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died [with Christ], and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 1:1-3)


Dear Reader,

“The World Crushes. The Lord Lifts.” This title says volumes to us, does it not? You understand what I mean. There seems no escape for the godly from all that is against God in the world. We see it and hear it without pause. We are simply overwhelmed by it. (Praise God if you see and hear the difference!) And we tell ourselves “We’ve no sufficient remedy to stem its advance! Ungodliness and evil through men spreads without strain! This condition crushes us!”

Yet, for us who profess to know Christ, who have died with Him and now live with Him, there is remedy for our minds and hearts. Our remedy, yours as an individual and ours collectively, is Christ Himself. We must never forget this. We must never lose sight of Him during our days else the world will certainly achieve its goal and crush us. The reality is that many of us have already lost sight of Christ, and we are now crushed in mind, heart, and perhaps even body. You know who you are, if you are crushed. You feel the world’s weight too much. But the “worldly crush” need not be the end. You can be, and should be, “Lifted.”

Jesus himself, on His cross, was suspended (lifted) between the earth and Heaven. He came from Heaven to earth, was rejected by those He came to, and was cast up away from the earth as a plague, an evil doer, and undesirable. Many tried to “crush” Him with stones, threats and death. Those of the world wanted nothing of Him, yet He was the world’s Saviour. He would bear the world’s weight. Evil hearts cast Him from “their” earth. Always remember that Jesus, more than we ever will, understands the evil and weighty pressures of the world. We can, and should, take great comfort that Jesus knows our daily plight and that He is for us. The world does not know this, but God is in charge and all is His. He is King. This fact alone can lift us.

Jesus returned to His Father (and our Father). His Father lifted Him to a place the world would never imagine and in a way the world could never do. And we, as Christians, are now “in Him” in the presence of His Father; though we do not fully apprehend this reality. Yet, as those professing Christ, we should realize the truth regarding our Divine position throughout our days (have experience of the earthly-Heavenly difference and be linked more to the Heavenly), knowing that one day our experiential “suspension” between earth and Heaven will change. We will be fully free from all that is earthly and worldly (all it’s crushing weight), and we will be fully lifted by the Father into the fullness of God’s presence. But, for now, as Christians, we feel torn between two worlds. Sometimes we are simply crushed.

Friend, do not let the world win over you! The Lord Lifts! He is your true(er) identity and He is your true(er) reality. Jesus is the Head of His body. Where the Head is the body will also be. The world is passing away. Let it pass! You and God, and everything you have through Christ in God, are forever fixed and will never pass away. You can and will be Lifted!

Below, I have provided three hymns from the Rev. Ottiwell Heginbotham (1744-1768) to assist you in godly reflections and meditations on being Crushed or Lifted. Distinctions that we experience as Christians, with heart-felt sensitivities and Christ centered confessions, abound in these hymns. Very little is known of this man. I do not even know the titles to these works. What I find truly amazing about them, though, is not just that they so wonderfully capture and express Christian truths and heart confessions, but that their author died at age 24! How young! Yet, what depth and maturity of heart with God! How many years, friend, have you and I professed Christ? See if your heart sings in agreement with the words below that originate from such a young author. If not, perhaps too much of the world’s weight has crushed you for too long. Recognize your relation to your Lord and let the Lord Lift you today. Let Him be your life, and let Him Lift you every day. God’s best to you.

Carl


HYMN 1

“Yes, I will bless thee, O my God!
Through all my earthly days;
And to eternity prolong
Thy vast, thy boundless praise.

In every smiling, happy hour,
Be this my sweet employ:
Thy praise refines my earthly bliss,
And doubles all my joy.

When gloomy care, and keen distress
Afflict my throbbing breast,
Thy praise shall mingle with my tears,
And lull each pain to rest.

Nor shall my tongue alone proclaim
The honors of my God:
My life, with all its active powers,
Shall spread thy praise abroad.

Nor death itself shall stop my song,
Though it will close my eyes;
My thoughts shall then to nobler heights,
And sweeter raptures rise.

There shall my lips in endless praise
Their grateful tribute pay;
The theme demands an angel’s tongue,
And an eternal day.”


HYMN 2

“Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,
Which before the cross I spend;
Life, and health, and peace possessing,
From the sinner’s dying Friend.

Truly blessed is this station,
Low before his cross to lie;
While I see divine compassion
Beaming in his gracious eye.

Here it is I find my heaven,
While upon the cross I gaze;
Love I much? I’ve much forgiven;
I’m a miracle of grace.

Love and grief my heart dividing,
With my tears his feet I’ll bathe;
Constant still, in faith abiding,
Life deriving from his death.

Here in tender, grateful sorrow
With my Saviour will I stay;
Here new hope and strength will borrow;
Here will love my fears away.”


HYMN 3

“Sweet peace of conscience, heavenly guest,
Come, fix thy mansion in my breast;
Dispel my doubts, my fears control,
And heal the anguish of my soul.

Come, smiling hope, and joy sincere,
Come, make your constant dwelling here;
Still let your presence cheer my heart,
Nor sin compel you to depart.

O God of hope and peace divine,
Make thou these secret pleasures mine;
Forgive my sins, my fears remove,
And fill my heart with joy and love.”

The Whole of My Day is Heavenward

Friend, is The Whole of Your Day Heavenward?

Is it?

Just what type of question is this? It is a question intended to produce reflection.

Let us reflect.

Even if you profess to be a Christian, most likely, as with me, your days would be described as anything but Heavenward in thoughts, in desires, in words, or in actions. Pressing and urgent matters and concerns seem to demand our all, do they not? Distractions abound. We live on the surface level of the Worldly, and we usually only engage what is temporary and passing. This all seems normal to us. These are our days.

Yet, beyond our notice, we are truly moving Heavenward. We will one day stand fully in God’s presence and we will know ourselves as He knows us. (Are you comfortable with that?) Our memory will present each of us with inescapable reminders of our days and of times when we were Heavenward, when we were Worldly, and when we were Heavenward though in the World; when we consciously discerned the difference and chose the Heavenward. In the end, in an ultimate sense, one can say that even without our conscious participation or direct notice “The Whole of Our Days is Heavenward.”

I can probably assume that we more often than not pass the moments of our days so caught up with every temporal care that we close most days without any sincere acknowledgement of our relation with God and even more without any sincere communion or fellowship with Him. Most of you reading this may even have a history of closing your days without a review of those days, without expressing gratitude to God, without confessing sin to God, without experiencing forgiveness from God, or even without having spent minimal time pursuing God through His Word. Is this you?

If this description is remotely true of us, what does it reveal about how we value God and about whether or not we truly know Him? Whether we even relate to God as our Father? Is God truly my God and your God, or do our lives reveal that something else is? What could ever be god to us if it is not God? If, in the end, after our earthly lives, we believe we will spend eternity with God—if this our hope—why is He not more part of our lives now? Is eternal life with God some existence to begin after I leave this earthly journey, or am I immersed in eternal life now? If we are not experiencing what we believe should be a level of fellowship with God during our days “now,” why not? Do you ask yourself such questions, or do I alone consider such matters?

“The Whole of My Day is Heavenward.”

“The Whole of Your Day is Heavenward.”

These are descriptive statements. But why “Whole”? What is meant by this word? Do we imply the “entirety of” or the “tone of”? Perhaps we can find some room for self-comfort, some ground of safety for our conscience, if we decrease the strength of the phrase “The Whole of My Day is Heavenward” to “The Tone of My Day is Heavenward.” For we tell ourselves such complaints, don’t we? “It is simply impossible that every breathing second I’d be Heavenward in all my faculties and all my function! What weight of expectation as this is demanded of me!” All right. Let us then, for preservation sake, define “The Whole of” as “The Tone of.” Very good. Here we are. Now we feel safer before ourselves (and God). Let us continue.

Reader, if you would confess that most of your days are not Heavenward, can you honestly say that some are? Do you see parts that are? Further, and perhaps more important, do you recognize any trace of desire within you that more of your day would be so?

Are you aware of God’s personal work in your life, His drawing? Is God’s drawing you to Himself noticeable? That is, is He revealing or disclosing more spiritual understanding to you? Do you see? Do you hear? Does something remain, something direct, does something grow? Can you answer “yes”?

Is your desire for more consistency through your day for times of pursuing God and the things of God, for more communion and fellowship with God, for times of ongoing reflection and prayer, and if so, do you understand what would need to occur so that those times of Divine communion would then be experienced? Regarding your desires, do they remain, do they direct, do they grow? Can you answer “yes”?

Or, is this entire line of questioning and the idea of self-reflection foreign to you? What, then, if you lost some or all of what to this point God has granted you? Would you be aware of such loss? What if God’s drawing and your desires for God began to diminish, withdraw and not remain? No longer direct? Die? Would it even matter? It happens to some.

Friend, the above line of questioning and the items for self-reflection and self-awareness in regard to your and my individual relations with God are of the upmost importance. Consider Jesus’ own words to us from Matthew 13:12:

“Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

The thirteenth chapter of Matthew is both remarkable and essential for Christian life. What Jesus says here and how the Spirit of God has divinely ordained the chapter’s structure are fascinating and beyond the scope of this writing. But two points are immediately relevant: what verse 13:12 describes, and what those who have been given can learn from those who seemed to have but didn’t.

First, what verse 13:12 describes. Dear reader, it describes you. It describes me. If we have ever read or heard God’s Word it describes us. This is not a verse calling us to action. It is a verse telling us something about ourselves. It is disclosure. It is revelation. It makes something known that without God’s action would otherwise never be apprehended much less naturally figured out. The nature of this verse, initially spoke from our Savior’s lips, is descriptive. Meaning, you and I are somewhere in this verse. We are either (1) of the group “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance” or (2) of the group “Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

Now, I have two questions for you, questions I have both asked and answered for myself. Question one: Which group do you want to be in, group (1) or group (2)? Question two: Which group are you in, group (1) or group (2)? Your answers to both questions matter. Jesus is here, as the Living Word of God, recorded (now to us in the Written Word of God) telling us as hearers and readers of God’s Word something essential. Jesus is saying, “I am disclosing something to you about your relation to God’s Word [the “seed” in the Matthew 13, Parable of the Soils], thus I am disclosing something to you about your relation to God.”

“Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

Again, Jesus here describes you. Where are you? What does the “Tone” the “Whole” of your life say? How does your life place you? What do you see?

Second, what can those who have been given, who will be given more, whose lives will see the fruit from what they’ve been given (the seed), what can these learn from the others who truly do not have, those that lose what they seemed to have? Answer: discernment and self-awareness. Jesus describes for us enemies of God’s Word, and we are given the divine understanding of these enemies to both discern them, be self-aware of their presence, influence and affects on our lives with and before God.

Jesus states in Matthew 13:20, 22 and 23 that “the seed” is “the Word.” In verse 13:19 Jesus calls it “the Message about the Kingdom.” This Message and these Words are the seed which are sown by God (the Son of Man? Matthew 13:37) in your life and mine. From this seed, according to the seed’s nature, growth should follow, and fruit should be the natural outcome, the natural end. And while it is of interest to discuss the presence of fruit from the Word in our lives, this is not the current task at hand. What we want to learn is something that those who do not have or those who seem to have actually don’t have. These are truly "Have-Nots." By examining them, we want understanding of what causes God’s Word to die in our lives so that we can prevent that end.

Visit with me Jesus’ description of this group from Matthew 13:18-22:

"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.”

Reader, the three descriptions above apply to individuals who at some time or times, perhaps regularly, engage God’s Word or are engaged by God’s Word. But in no way does God’s Word (the seed) take root in the person’s heart (the person’s life), grow, and bear fruit. But it may, and likely does, according to 13:12, seem that certain individuals appear to themselves and others as godly. Jesus says they truly are not. They have a false and unfruitful relationship to God and His Word, but for us their undoing is educational. If you have placed yourself in Group 1 of Matthew 13:12, and you truly are a member of that group, here is the instruction that will increase your discernment and increase your self-awareness.

God’s Word, His Message about His Kingdom, and me, through observing those who seemed to have had but truly did not:

“When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.”

Here, God’s Word is sown quickly and dies quickly. How does it die? It is discarded and removed. The attention and effort you and I give to God’s Word is critical. How we value God’s Word is central. The evil one, the Devil, has a vested interest in damaging and destroying my relation to God’s Word, both my view of it and my desire for it. He wants that relationship to die. He wants the Word of God in my heart to die. He wants no root to take, no growth to occur, and no fruit to show. He devours the Word.

Remember the Devil’s temptation to Eve and Adam? “Did God truly say?” The Devil wants you to doubt and disbelieve God’s Word (to doubt and disbelieve God), be disinterested in God’s Word, to deny and dismiss God’s Word, to devalue doctrine. The Devil wants to be our god by default, by helping us believe we are like God (determining wrong and right), disassociating ourselves from God through a quick yet significant dismissal of His Word. The Devil is a liar, a deceiver and a destroyer. Friend, discern and be self-aware of your relation to God and His Word continually. Ask yourself about your relation to God and His Word. Do you note elements of this paragraph in your life? What can you learn about yourself from this first group of those who truly never had and lost what they seemed to have?

“The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.“

This description is difficult for us all. God’s Word is here contrasted with the reality of external Worldly pressures as expressed through the lives of others (certainly the ungodly). They produce fear and lead to quick decisions and actions. Two realities locked in battle: God’s Kingdom and the World. Let us not think too highly of ourselves, though. Perhaps we, like many others, would cave to the threats of death or torture because of the Word. I pray to God not, and we must ever live with the impression of our Savior in our minds and on our hearts to strengthen us if we ever face such threats. If you have read Foxes Book of Martyrs, you know the degree of evil the ungodly are capable of and many a saint has submitted to.

But let us understand the phrase “at once receives it with joy.” Here perhaps is the key. God’s message is in some degree appealing to the lost. But not every lost heart undergoes the necessary brokenness whereby the seed can be properly planted. This example reveals shallowness towards God. God’s Word was not truly nor completely understood in the example of this life. Something of God’s message was valued, but the value of temporal life was actually above that of God and what God revealed about Himself and life with Him. If your relation to God and His Word is shallow, then you will likely deny Him more easily when fearful of Worldly threats. His Word in you will die.

The World and those of the World are natural enemies to God and His Word. These are continual external pressures on the life of one who has a relation to God and His Word. This example reveals a misplaced worth. The seed in this life died. Friend, discern and be self-aware of your relation to God and His Word continually. Ask yourself about your relation to God and His Word and how external pressures of the World affect you. Do you note elements of this paragraph in your life? What can you learn about yourself from this second group of those who truly never had and lost what they seemed to have?

“The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.”

Fist it was the Devil. Then external Worldly pressures. Here we face ourselves and our fallen, natural, fleshly and ungodly natures. Here we face internal Worldly pressures. Does the term “thorns” describe your heart? Does the phrase “the worries of this life” express your inner world? Do you have a false view of true wealth? Friend, the Devil and the external World can both have their affect on you and influence you to deny God and abandon His Word. But we can do that to ourselves without their assistance. Your fallen-ness (that self-centered independence) does not want God. Desiring God is unnatural. Your fallen-ness would rather exist as god and judge, condemn, fear, and be focused so much on the here-and-now that you forget God and His foreverness. If you are thus focused on yourself, you’ll never see, hear, or know God. His Word, which is everlasting, will never be valued when you are so set on knowing only that which passes.

You, dear Reader, have the capability to cause any seed of God’s Word to not take root, to not grow, to not bear fruit, to essentially die. Congratulations. When you finally stand in God’s presence unable to escape your memory will you blame the Devil, the apple (the external World), or yourself? Ask yourself regarding your relation to God and His Word and how the internal pressures of your sinfulness affect you. Converse with God about it. Confess and repent. Do you note elements of this paragraph in your life? What can you learn about yourself from this third group of those who truly never had and lost what they seemed to have?

“The Whole (tone) of My Day is Heavenward.”

“The Whole (tone) of Your Day is Heavenward.”

“Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

Reader, if you have made it this far, I trust something has become apparent to you regarding your life with God and your relation to God’s Word. Jesus gave us Matthew 13:12 to reveal something to us about both. There are valuable lessons for us to learn from the lives of those who seemed to have but truly didn’t that they themselves are unable to know and understand. What can you learn from those who cannot learn? God gives you such understanding.

If I were to continue with this discourse, I would examine the remainder of Matthew 13 to see what we can understand about God’s Kingdom and our relation to those items, as well as each reference in Matthew regarding God’s Kingdom. For, remember, this seed, God’s Word, which is planted in our lives to grow (mature and open up—disclose), and bear fruit, is the message about the Kingdom. Perhaps as you read Matthew again, you’ll associate these truths to Jesus’ Matthew 13 statements.

God’s best to you. May you sense God’s drawing and respond. May you desire more of Him, pursue Him and be on guard to what will cause His Word in your life to either grow or die. May you not fear your memory on that day you stand before Him. He is all knowing and ever present. In actuality, you live before Him now. There is no hiding.

Carl