Jars

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! – Isaiah 64:1-2

I am not happy with the path taken by America in the last hundred years, especially, perhaps the last thirty or so.  My opinion is that our political choices are a function of the state of our hearts, that the decline in our culture, our decadence, our degeneracy arise from a lack of personal righteousness, not only in the hearts of corrupt politicians and corporate CEOs but in the hearts of Americans as a whole. 

God is good, and He will give us what we want.  Unfortunately we have chosen to follow after wickedness and sow the seeds of destruction.  We will reap the same.  One might start to think that the fields are, indeed, these days, white unto harvest.  I tell you, though, even now, God will hear us if we cry out to Him.    

Isaiah cried out to the Lord, asking Him to … rend the heavens and come down.  I pray today that the Lord would come down.  I will not presume to tell Him how to do that, but my study of the Bible makes me think that it is unlikely (though not impossible) that He would rip a hole in the blue sky above me.    

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.  And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. (Matthew 27:50-51)

The veil in the temple separated God from man.  Man’s sinful nature, what we call “the flesh” kept him isolated and unable to approach God.  When Christ, having taken on the nature of man in the Incarnation, suffered in our place and died a sacrificial, atoning death, that separation was ended.  Isaiah’s prayer found its ultimate fulfillment, its antitype.  God did come down, rending not the blue sky but the First Adam’s nature and bursting forth in the Last Adam. 

Why is there not revival in the Church today?  Why does it seem that evil triumphs at every turn, that we are ruled by the depraved and the godless?  For one, perhaps, we have not because we ask not.  Instead of praying for God to come down, we ask that we might go up.  Sometimes we pray for our leaders – as we should.  We pray that godly men and women will be elected to public office where they often become as corrupt as those around them, if they were not already.  We hope to escape in the Rapture because we believe in that things are just going to get worse and worse.  Maybe they are.  But that is not our call.  We are here.  And, from the Parable of the Talents, the Lord tells us, “Occupy till I come.”  (Luke 19:13)  Take care of business. 

We need to pray that God will come down.  So, you ask, O, wise guy, if the Lord isn’t going to rip the sky open, how is He going to come down?  I’m glad you asked.  He is going to rend something all right.  Consider this verse: But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

The power and presence of God resides in His people, in you and, ostensibly, in me.  He is right here, yet something is hindering Him, holding Him back.  That something must be broken.

Remember Gideon and his Three Hundred:

And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. … So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. (Judges 7:16-19)

What did Jesus tell us?  We are the salt He uses to preserve the earth.  We are the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16).  He says you don’t light a candle or a lamp and keep it hidden under a basket or in a jar because you can’t see it.

This is what prayer will do.  It will break the jar.  The reason we do not have earth-shaking, nation-transforming revival is because the torch is still in the jar.  If we are concerned about the world, if we are earnest in desiring liberty and freedom for ourselves and our children and grandchildren, if our hearts have been touched and burdened by the unrighteousness we see around us, pray that God will break this jar of clay, these jars of clay and let there be light. 

    

Taking Care of Business

Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, Engage in business until I come.  -- Luke 19:13

The traditional KJV says, Occupy till I come.  Word Pictures in the New Testament indicates to us that a better sense might be “trade here while I’m coming”.  Maybe it’s just me, but “engaging in business” carries a connotation of high finance and equity markets.  I don’t think that’s what these servants were being called to do.  They were not sitting in an office.  The successful and commended servants were going on and plying the trade routes.  I would imagine they had to make trips out to other places, buying and bringing back goods desired in the local marketplace.  There was risk involved and potential loss.  They probably suffered some losses and setbacks and had to work harder to make up for it. 

They tell us, from this parable, that we ought to use our gifts as God intended, and I agree with that.  Notice that in this version of the story, there are ten minas or talents, each given out to ten different servants.  We do not have the inequitable distribution seen elsewhere.   Every human being is given something precious and treasured by God.  I am not very talented.  About the only thing I ever excelled at in my youth was bucking hay bales.  But I have this life, this soul -- the divine spark that Bob was talking about a couple of days ago. 

When I pass from this life and stand before the judgment seat of Christ, I do not think He will ask me much about my hay hauling or my singing, whether I coded for the kingdom or how much money I spent on Girl Scout cookies or gave to missions.  I think He will look at the life He gave me and see if I multiplied and enriched it.  He will want to know if I risked myself by loving other people, including those on whom I had a chance to lose it all.  He will want to know if I hid out in the basement, or if I went out through the war zones and the no-man’s lands.  Did I ever defy the devil to add to gain more for the Lord?  Or did I prefer to keep a low spiritual profile, to bury that spark and keep it out of sight to avoid being attacked?

It may be tough for me to answer.  I do tend to avoid the critics, the skeptics, and some of the heretics.  I am more comfortable being some distance from the edge of the precipice.  I don’t know that I want to see how close I can get or if there is some narrow, knife-edged way to bridge the gap and get over where there are treasures I might bring back.  Yet, isn't this, in a much greater way than I can imagine, what the Lord Himself did in the Incarnation? 

Obviously we don’t want to gamble with our souls, but I do think we are called to invest and “trade” some in this world.  I think missionaries and visionaries, spiritual and intellectual pioneers, artists and poets and prophets and creators of all kinds bring back treasures that enrich the lives of others and bring growth to their own souls.  I am not going to be one of the heroes of the faith or a notable saint of any kind, but I am going to do what I can with the spark that I have.   

I’m going love people who may reject me.  I’m going to study and read and pray.  I’m going to challenge the assumptions that the world system offers to me and expects me to accept.  While I am at it, I may challenge some of the traditional interpretations of the Bible that my religion holds.  Maybe I’ll look at the questions and objections of the skeptics to see if I can venture out to bring back answers for that market. 

Now, there will be those who are concerned, frightened, perhaps even offended by us as spiritual traders.  I understand.  There is the potential to go off the tracks, to get lost or waylaid out there in the bush.  I think, though, if we will listen carefully to our Guide, who will never leave nor forsake us, regardless of the dangers and tribulations of the trail, we’ll find our way safely back home.