What an Old Woman Teaches Me about Faith

A woman I know – a daughter of the King of the universe – is teaching me a valuable lesson in faith. She’s nearly 90, living in relative comfort both financially and physically, and surrounded by family who love her.

But.

Sometimes ‘Buts’ are good things. For example, when God says it here:

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins . . . and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us . . . made us alive together with Christ."  (Ephesians 2:1-4)

Or here: "For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:7-8) 

But when we say ‘But’, well – it’s often not a good thing.

This woman, a child of the King, lives in a state of continuous fear, not about tomorrow – which has enough trouble of its own – but she wrings her hands about what might happen next year. And in three years. And in five years.

I’ve talked with her on numerous occasions about faith and hope and confidence in the God of tomorrow. Yet her fear of the unknowable future continues unabated to consume her.

That is why this elderly child of God is teaching me a lot about faith – and the lack of faith – in our Father who, it must be reiterated, is the omnipotent and omniscient King and supreme ruler of the universe – and of everything in it.

It is this same King who also says to me, “Richard, why do you worry about what you will eat, or what you will drink, or what you will wear? Your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. But (there is that word again) – seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.”

Oh, Lord, help us all to seek you above all else, and to trust you not just for tomorrow, but for next year, for three years, for five years – for  all the years left to us.
Amen

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About Me

Rich Maffeo

When Jesus healed the man, He said to him, “Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.” (Luke 8:39). That is the purpose of this particular blog . . . to encourage others to tell others about what God has done for them.

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Yom Kippur -- The Day of Atonement

At sunset this month on September 22, many Jews will observe the most holy day in Jewish faith. 

Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – dates back to the days of Moses when God instituted the observance so that, through repentance and blood sacrifice, the sins of the people could be forgiven. You’ll find reference to Yom Kippur in Leviticus, chapters 16, 17, and 23. 
 

As part of the ritual, God instructed the High Priest to sprinkle the blood of a sacrificial animal on the Mercy Seat which covered the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was a wood box overlaid with gold, atop which were two gold-cast angels called cherubim. Inside the Ark were the tablets of the Law God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai. It was that Law which Israel broke not long after God gave it to Moses.

When the High Priest sprinkled the sacrificial blood on the Mercy Seat to atone for the sins of the people, God chose to not see the broken Law, but rather the sacrificial blood. It was that blood that reconciled God again with His people.

Yom Kippur, then, provides us a picture – a figure – of what Israel’s Messiah would do, not in figure but in reality, 1500 years later. As the Holy Spirit told Israel through the prophet Isaiah:

But He (Messiah) was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. (Isaiah I53:5-6)

Again, the Holy Spirit tells us in the New Testament book of Hebrews: But when [Messiah] appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle . . . not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained [for us] eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11-12)

And yet again, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist said of Jesus before baptizing Him in the Jordan, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

The Jewish nation no longer has a sacrificial system of atonement – principally because they longer have a Temple or a priesthood to make sacrifice. But everyone today – Jew and non-Jew alike – has welcomed and free access to the atonement God has provided to wipe away our sins.

That access has a name. We call Him, Jesus the Messiah. Many know Him as Jesus the Christ. It is Him alone whom God designated as our atonement. He alone is our High Priest whose own blood sprinkled on our hearts covers our sins. He is our sacrificial atonement that reconciles us with God.

Have you ever asked Jesus to cover your ‘ark’ with His blood? Have you ever asked Him to make atonement for your life stained with the guilt of breaking God’s laws? You don’t need to wait for September 22 to receive full and complete reconciliation with God.

St. Peter urged those gathered in Jerusalem for another Jewish holy day – Pentecost, and if he were standing before you now, he’d say the same thing:

"Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”  (Acts 2:38-39)

Unfulfilled

"All to Jesus I surrender;
all to him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust him,
in his presence daily live."

"I surrender all, I surrender all,
all to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all."

During prayer this morning the lyrics of J. W. Van Deventer’s hymn floated into my mind. As I sang them silently to myself, I stopped a moment to consider what it means to surrender all – ‘all’ as in everything in my life.

It didn’t take long to realize it’s much easier to surrender my finances, my time, even my health, than to surrender my most cherished and treasured unfulfilled hopes and dreams.

That doesn’t free me from the challenge to surrender even those things. 

It is just so much more difficult to do so.

Perhaps Today

I posted this a couple of times on this blog. I thought today would be a good time to re-post it.
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[God] will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all [our] faces . . . . And it will be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation" (Isaiah 25:8-9).

So I’m reading through the 25th chapter of Isaiah, and came across verses 8 & 9. Then my thoughts drifted to Jesus’ words in the 14th chapter of St. John’s gospel:

In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be (John 14:2-3).

And I contemplated the Second Advent.

And I remembered . . .


There’s coming a day,

perhaps even tomorrow,

when he wipes the tears,

kisses the wounds, and

binds the broken. (1)

There’s coming a day,

perhaps even tomorrow,

when the Lord descends

from heaven with a
shout;

A day when the trumpet of God

resounds,

and those who died in Christ

burst from their graves;

A day when we too,
who live in Christ,

will be caught up with them,

to meet the Lord in the air,

and be forever with Him. (2)

There’s coming a day,

perhaps even tomorrow,

when we no longer walk by faith,

but by sight; (3)

When we no longer grieve,

or moan,

or utter so much
as a whimper;

When the lion lies with the lamb,

and the child plays on a viper’s den

and is not be hurt. (4)

There’s coming a day,

perhaps even tomorrow,

when the last nail is hammered

into the last board

of the last room

of the house promised us by Christ;

And we hear Him call:

“It's time!” (5)

There’s coming a day,

perhaps even tomorrow –

or perhaps even . . .

today.

Oh, Lord Jesus
and so we plead,

come quickly.

1. Isaiah 25:8-9
2. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 1 Corinthians 15:50-52
3. 2 Corinthians 5:6-8
4. Isaiah 11:8-9; Isaiah 65:25
5. John 14:2-3

Whose Mold?

As I read again through 1 Peter, I stopped at the first verses of chapter 2 and reflected on the apostle’s counsel: Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

In 21^st century language, here’s what he said: “Hey, Christian, do you want to grow in your relationship with Jesus? Do you want to know Him better? Do you want to really reflect Him in your associations with others? Here’s how to do it: Like newborn babies, hunger for and then take in the spiritual milk of God’s word.

Then I remembered St. Paul’s instruction to those in the church at Rome. Here is how one translator rendered it: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within . . . .”  (Romans 12:2, JB Phillips)

At this point, the Holy Spirit connected the two texts.

A person has to be spiritually blind and deaf to not notice our culture's relentless efforts to squeeze Christians into conformity with its virulent anti-Christ philosophies. But such is not new. St. Paul dealt with the same spiritual wickedness in his century. 

But while the battle is not new, neither is the invincible bulwark new. How has God protected His own from being molded into the culture? And perhaps more important, how has He always re-molded His own into the image of Christ? Peter told us: Like newborns seeking nourishment, we must hunger for the spiritual milk of God’s word.

Peter could have just as easily said, “Continuously feed on God’s word, for that is the only way you can withstand the culture’s Satanic-led plan to make you after its own image.”

The devil is driving wave after wave of darkness across our families, our churches, and our nation. Will we let ourselves be carried along to destruction, or will we stand against that darkness with a firm foothold on God’s truths?

My 2+2=1+3 Bible reading plan might help. Read only 2 chapters of the Old Testament (OT) each day (on average this takes about 10-15 minutes), and only 2 chapters of the New Testament (NT) each day (on average another 10-15 minutes), and you will read the OT 1 time each year and the NT 3 times each year (2+2=1+3). In five years, you will read the OT five times and the NT 15 times. In ten years . . .  well, you can do the math.

Time is short and is shortening. Now is not the time to content ourselves with excuses to avoid starting a daily journey through God’s word.

Please, won’t you devote yourself to starting today?

Selling our Soul

"Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” -- Matthew 27:3-4

When I read this section the other day, I thought: "When you sell out your Lord, when you sell Him for a few pieces of silver, a few years of ‘pleasure,’ and the applause of others, the buyers will always in the end turn to devour you – and mock you while they do it.

The take home lesson? Sell your soul to the One who loves you enough to have paid for it with His blood. And then serve Him the rest of your days.

Here I Am Again

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:15-17)

I awoke this morning feeling a little guilty for the time I wasted last night watching a ‘blood, guts, and gore’ Netflix movie. It overflowed with gratuitous bloodshed.

Sometimes when I get to feeling sorry for myself, or simply lazy, I like to plop down in front of the TV and put myself on auto drive. I realized this morning I’ve been doing that a lot lately – especially my decisions to watch a violent or otherwise worthless movie.

So, I apologized to the Lord. It is not the first time He and I have had this little talk. Little wonder to me why I am very grateful for His longsuffering patience.

The need to apologize and promise to not do it again off my chest, I opened the scriptures for my daily morning read. I turned to the 24^th chapter of Matthew where I’d left off the day before. Verses 42-51 talk about being always on the alert, looking for the Master. Waiting for Him. Scanning the horizon for Him.

Chapter 24 moves seamlessly into 25. The first verses talk about the 10 virgins. The next part talks about the three servants who’d been loaned their master’s property.

Of the ten sleepy virgins, five were wise and kept their lamps ready. Five were foolish and let them die out. Of the three who received their master’s property, two used their time and talents wisely. One did not. Read chapter 25 to find out what happened in each example. 

It is not at all coincidental that the very moment I finished apologizing to the Lord for again wasting time, He had already orchestrated my daily journey through the scriptures to read those chapters of Matthew.

I don’t believe the Holy Spirit was threatening me with rejection. I am more secure in my relationship with Him than to fear that. But I DO consider those two chapters as a serious warning from Him.

Why do I still waste precious hours of my fleeting life, day after day after week after month, year by year, on things that can neither satisfy my heart nor feed my hungry spirit?

I’d like to think this is the last time He and I need to have this same conversation.