Christmas

25 December 2016

Dear Phyllis,

Well it's Christmas. At least that is what religion calls it. The Bible gives us no indication when that event actually took place but it is not wrong to pause for a moment to reflect on the miracle of the incarnation. Surely that was the greatest event that had taken place on this planet since the moment God breathed life into that clay statue that lay on the ground. It is safe to say angels have exhausted themselves ever since then trying to comprehend what happened that night, and the full force of the incarnation is so much beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend, it is like a child trying to hold the ocean in his hands.

I can't believe it! It is impossible! How in the world could the Son of God be barn in a barn??? The Bible gives us the simple explanation but it doesn't make sense. There was no room in the inn. Nothing could be more descriptive of mans response to God's attempt to reconcile fallen humanity with Himself. We should be more grateful to progressives. They have at last taken off their white gowns and masks and no longer give mocking homage to Jesus. They just snarl with unvarnished hateful opposition. Business still borrows His name, but they have taken Christ off the shelf and replaced Him with Santa Clause to produce the greatest economic boom of the year. Annually there is more money exchanged on Christmas than any other time of the year. The American economy is measured by its success at Christmas. The rest of the world is envious and is trying to create its own gift-giving culture. Every store clerk in Thailand has a Santa Clause hat on.

But at the actual event of the incarnation there were only three sets of actors. There were the mother, father, and Child in the barn. There were the angels singing praise to God in the heavens announcing His birth. And there were the shepherds sleeping in a field watching their sheep. That's it. There is nothing that I find more bewildering than the fact that Jesus had to borrow a manger from a cow to sleep in the first night. And He never got much above that. To a zealous young man who wanted to follow Him Jesus warned, “Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of man hath not the where to lay His head” (Lk. 9:58). Do you want to follow Jesus? That is the price. To the Prosperity preachers flying around in their $25, 000, 000 private jets and living in their palatial mansions, I can only ask, “Should a servant live on a higher standard than the Master?”. For His Triumphal Entry Jesus had to borrow a donkey's colt to ride on. He died on another man's Cross and He was buried in a borrowed tomb. What in the world are we talking about??!!

Perhaps the next amazing thing happened a week after His birth when they went to the temple for dedication. An ancient man, to whom it was revealed by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ; took an eight day old Baby in his arms and said, “Lord let thy servant depart now in peace. For my eyes have now seen Thy salvation.” (Lk. 2:29, 30). Who was that Baby he was holding in his arms? Was that the God of all creation? Was that the One of whom it was said, “All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (Jn. 1:3)? Forget it. There is no way we can take that in.

There is nothing that I find more mind blowing, bewildering, than the fact that the Son of God should be known as the Lamb of God. It has been said – probably correctly – that in creation God has incorporated spiritual truth in the various objects He made, to teach us truth in a graphic way. In the ocean God has illustrated the vastness of His Being. In the rock God has demonstrated the solidarity of His immutable character. In the serpent God has shown us the evil and deceptive nature of the devil. In the lion God has showcased fierceness. And in the lamb God has given us the perfect picture of helplessness. The lamb is unique in all animals in having the total absence of any self-protection mechanism. The conference speaker in Karuizawa one summer had been a shepherd in his early years. He said the hardest thing he had ever done was kill a lamb. When you put a knife to a lambs throat he will quietly stand there and do nothing in self-defense. If you want to do something difficult sometime, try to kill a cat. Once I had the lamentable responsibility of killing our cat. You talk about a tough act. That cuddly little kitten that became our house cat was the fiercest animal you ever saw. It was a dangerous task to try to stuff that cat in a box, and then it took three arms (a friend helped me do it) to keep that fierce cat in the box while I inserted a rubber hose from a propane tank to gas it. It was a fight to the death until the last croak came out. A worm will squirm when you put it on a fish hook. But here is nothing like that in a lamb. A lamb is the most helpless animal on this planet. And that is who Jesus is.

One time I was worshiping the Lord when the full force of the significance that Jesus is known, almost exclusively in heaven, as the Lamb struck me. Suddenly I became infuriated with the Father. I roared, “How insulting!! Jesus is not the Lamb! It was all right for Jesus to be the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world; but after He pulled the fangs of the devil at Calvary He is not the Lamb any more. He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” Then the Lord showed me something truly amazing. In God's Inverted Kingdom, the Lamb is the highest symbol of power and authority there is.

There is no way we can take that in. Small wonder unbelievers scoff. How ridiculous! The foolishness of the preaching of the Cross is as incomprehensible as it gets. That God who created all things, should have a Son - then send His Son to be with us here - and His Son should be the lowest of men??? Come on now. That is off the chart.

What can we do? There is nothing we can do but take our hats off, bow in deep deep deep contrition, and worship that incomprehensible Being who loves us so much He allowed Jesus to suffer all of that to save us.

But there is one more mystery that might be even greater – that is that He should reveal this to us so that we understand it. If the mystery of the incarnation, and the work of Christ makes any sense to us, that puts us in a different category than the rank and file of humanity. It has been correctly said, “The world by wisdom knew not God” (1Cor.1:21). No one in the inn that night, where the party was going on, had the faintest clue of what was happening in the barn. Angels could have gone to Herod or the high priest that night to announce His birth in a barn, and they would have laughed at such a report. Humanity has not changed its mind about God's plan of salvation since then. Religions have sprung up. Wonderful children's stories have been created. Everyone loves Santa. But to grasp the full significance of God's amazing wisdom is reserved to a few people who are dumb enough to believe it. I'll stand in the front of that line. Let me be the first one forward to thank God that He reached down to the absolute bottom of the barrel to take the most unqualified turkey He could find to share with him the mystery of the incarnation.

Oh, thank You, thank You, thank You, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, JESUS!!!

                                                                  bill

Jesus Birth

18 December 2016

Dear Phyllis,

Last week I was telling Sangha some of the little known facts about Christmas. The Bible is singular in telling us very little about the birth of Christ. It is only mentioned in two of the four gospels and there is no indication when it was. The only thing that can be said with confidence is that Jesus was not born in December. The fact that shepherds were sleeping outside makes that date highly unlikely. Of the two gospels where we do read about the birth of Jesus there are only two things that agree. Both emphasize the fact that Jesus was born of a virgin and that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The first point establishes the uniqueness of the Blood of Christ, and the second His linage as the Son of David.

The virgin birth of Christ is basic to our faith. Medical science has shown the in conception of a child the blood comes exclusively from the male gene. The fact that Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit make Jesus the only human ever born without a drop of Adams blood in him. And in the womb there is utterly no mixing of the mothers blood with the infant. The Blood of Jesus is the only blood untainted with the sinful nature of Adam.

It is surprising that the Son of that carpenter should be so well known as the Son of David. This is important because Jesus was (is) the fulfillment of God's covenant with David that his dynasty would be forever.

Beyond these two points the two accounts of the birth of Christ are different even to the fact that the two genealogies of Christ are different (Mt. 1:1-17 & Lk. 3:23-38). Matthew obviously is Christ genealogy on Joseph's side giving Him title to the Davidic throne, and Mary's side as the descendant of Adam. Luke is the one that gives us an account of the night that Jesus was born, and Matthew's account is an incident that happened a year or two later when they were in a house. The fact that Herod had all the male children up to two years old killed suggest that Jesus might have been as old as two, but more likely one.

If we can digress to as far as David, David is a very significant man in the Bible. It has been suggested that he is the most significant person in the OT. The 40 year reign of David spans an unparalleled time in history as going from the days of Saul when there were only two swords and no files in Israel (1Sam. 13:19-22) to the days of Solomon when Israel was the highest culture in the world (1Kn. 10:6,7). Between these two extremes was the time of David. And if we contrast David with Saul this is even more bewildering.

If anyone questions the severity of God and wonders if God is serious about His law they have only to look at the several incidents where the most minor offenses were settled by capital punishment. The greatest mystery in human history is the fact that the most catastrophic disaster that ever happened on this planet was the result of the prototype man touching and eating the forbidden fruit. By that innocent act all humanity fell into the grip of satan. In the time of Moses a man was executed for picking up a couple of sticks on the Sabbath (Num. 15:32-36). Achan with his sons and daughters were stoned for hiding a Babylonian garment and a couple of wedges of silver (Jos. 7:24). Ananias and Sapphira fell dead for lying to the Holy Spirit (Act 5:1-11); and Saul was rejected as king of Israel for not waiting an extra half hour for Samuel (1Sam. 13:8-14). When we look at the severity of the punishment of these seemingly minor incidents we are utterly bewildered by the fact that David, uniquely in Scripture, is known as a man after God's own heart (Act 13:22) while his sin is one of the most heinous in the Bible.

David was backsliden as he should have been with his men fighting (2Sam. 11:1). This made him venerable to temptation. His adultery alone was worthy of the death sentence (Lev. 20:10). But what he did in murdering one of his best men to cover his own sin is one of the most inexcusable crimes in the Bible. If there was ever a man in the Bible that should have been executed it was David. And he alone holds the title as a man after God's own heart. How in the world is this possible? The answer to this may be found in his response to God when confronted for his sin.

Saul is mans man. He was a man who was self-excusing and obsessed with the opinion of men. When confronted for his sin in sparing Agag, Saul said, “I have obeyed the Lord, but the people...” (1Sam. 15:20,21) Then when Samuel pinned him he pleaded, “I have sinned but honor me with these people” (1 Sam. 15:30). The reason he turned on David, and spent ten years trying to kill him, was because the women sang “Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands” (1Sam. 18:7). When the Lord told Samuel to go anoint a new king of Israel, Samuel protested, “If Saul finds out about it he will kill me” (1Sam. 16:2). No doubt that was true.

Thirty years later another prophet was confronted with another task that was infinitely more dangerous. David was guilty of one of the darkest sins in the Bible. The Lord told Nathan to go confront David with his sin. Up to this point David had gotten away with it and had been living in darkness for at least two years. Nathan very wisely went to King David and told him a story about two men and some sheep. He said there was one poor fellow who had only one little lamb and another wealthy bird that had a whole flock. A stranger came to visit the wealth man and, rather than slaughtering one of his own sheep, he stole and killed the lamb of the poor man. Nathan asked David. “What do you think about that?” David was enraged. He said, “That man shall surely die and he will pay four fold.” Then Nathan dropped the bomb and said, “You are the man” (2Sam. 12:1-7). Oh my goodness, what a gutsy statement! Had that been Saul, Nathan would be history right now. But it was David who hit the floor with conviction of sin and said “That is true. I have sinned” (2 Sam. 12:13) Most mercifully Nathan said to David, “You won't die. The Lord has put away your sin. But because you have given the enemy great occasion to blaspheme the child will die” (2Sam. 12:13, 14).

The Bible is silent on this subject. This is totally Bill Cook's opinion but I believe there is a big time gap in verse 15 (2Sam. 12). Until he was confronted by Nathan, David had lived in darkness for at least two to possibly three or four years. I believe it was after this exposure by Nathan that Bathsheba was pregnant for the third time. And David called his third son's name Nathan. Bathsheba had four sons by David. The first boy's name was Shimea. The second son was Shobad. The third son was Nathan. And the forth was Solomon (1Ch. 3:5). Whatever the sequence was in a time line, Shimea was obviously at least three or probably four years old when he got sick. David knew the death sentence was on him. He knew the lad was going to die because of his own sin. For seven days David fasted and prayed all night for the little fellow (2Sam. 12:16-18). When he knew the little boy was gone David said, “I can't bring him back to me but someday I will go to him” (2Sam. 12:23). After Shimea died David went to comfort this wife Bathsheba and she became pregnant for the fourth time. The result of that was Solomon (2Sam. 12:24).

David had at least seven wives (2Ch. 3:1-3; 1Sam. 18:27). Of these seven women he had at least ten sons. It is astounding that the one the Lord chose for the linage of Christ was Solomon from Bathsheba, that David got by adultery and murder. Had I been God I never would have chosen her to be the linage of Christ. There are five women listed in Mathew's account; three of the five were women of dubious moral character (Mt. 1:3-6). If there is anything that shows the grace of God it is in the genealogy of Christ as recorded by Matthew. And perhaps the answer to the mystery of why David was a man after God's own heart lies in his responses when confronted by God for sin. In Luke's account of the genealogy of Christ we see that the linage of Christ on Mary's side was Nathan (Lk. 3:31). Saul justified himself when confronted for sin but when David was charged for infinitely greater sin his response was immediate contrition and he named his next son after the man who pinned him. Whatever the case is, we see the linage of Christ as the Son of David recorded by Matthew came through SOLOMON, but in Luke's account, when he presents Jesus as a descendant of Adam, he tells us that Jesus came through NATHAN. Oh how wonderful is the Word of God and what amazing truths are hidden in obscure places.

The world stops for a day to celebrate Santa Clause. Most children in the Orient think that Christmas is Santa's birthday. Evil men in America are making a fierce attack trying to take Christ out of Christmas. Thank God Obama's “happy holiday” has been replaced by Trump's “Merry Christmas”. The Bible offers very little substance to tell us when Jesus was born. But it does tell us emphatically that Jesus was born of a virgin which makes His Blood unique, and He is indeed the promised King of Israel as being born in Bethlehem the city of David.

Whenever it was, thank God Jesus had a birthday, and thank God He is King of our lives.

Have a good Christmas, bill

PS: After I wrote this letter I have had second thoughts about my own thesis. The question is: was David a man after God's own heart because he named his son Nathan, or did he name his son Nathan because he was a man after God's own heart? Whatever the case – as much as anything in scripture - this shows the character of David, and I am intrigued that is the name listed in Luke.

Samuel Rutherford's Letters

11 December 2016

Dear Phyllis,

I came out of a background of deep darkness of liberal Christianity that believed anyone who was so retarded to believe the Bible was the Word of God had a serious problem. One of the first shocks I had after Jesus moved into my heart was to discover that the Bible is actually true. I first began my inquiry of the Scripture by reading the gospels of the life of Christ. Next I looked at the letters of Paul. From there I went into the OT reading Genesis, the historical books, and Psalms. But when I got to the Song of Solomon I thought, “What in the world is this?”. I felt like it was a treasure box with a lock on it. I had been saved about two years when I read a short booklet by Hudson Taylor on Union and Communion. Amazingly that was the only thing Hudson Taylor ever wrote and it is a short devotional on the Song of Solomon. When I read that my eyes were opened and I thought, “Naru hodo (I see) this is all about Jesus and His Bride”. A year after that I fell heir to lead a Bible study and felt led to study this amazing book. That study changed my life.

Six years ago I was in the study of a fine missionary in Japan and noticed he had on his shelf a copy of The Letters of Samuel Rutherford. I don't know if Karl ever realized it or not, but when he reached up and gave me that book he gave away the greatest treasure he had in his study. Today I read The Letters of Samuel Rutherford in conjunction with the Bible every morning for devotions. Of all the people I have ever met, heard, or read, Samuel Rutherford is absolutely unique as the only man I have ever encountered that literally lived the Book of the Song of Solomon. If you don't know the Song of Solomon the letters of Rutherford would be utterly meaningless.

I have seen that there are three levels of relationships with God. It was not without purpose that God made man in His own image. And it was not without desire that He came down in the cool of the day to fellowship with His created being and his wife. The significant thing was that He found them hiding; and ever since that incomprehensible fall, Man has never fully recovered the relationship that was intended in the Garden.

Some men certainly knew God from Able to Abraham. Enoch walked with God for 300 years, Noah found favor with God. But with Abraham God began something genetically new. He took a woman who was utter incapable of reproduction and a 99 year old man to produce a seed that would ultimately become HIS PEOPLE. But it would take 500 hundred years before the descendants of Abraham would multiply to nearly 2, 000, 000. It is significant that when God spoke to Moses in the Bush He said, “I have seen the affliction of MY PEOPLE...” (Ex. 3:7). And in the subsequent conflict with Pharaoh, God consistently used the expression of MY PEOPLE (Ex. 7:4, 16; 8:1, 8 22, 23; etc). After the exodus from Egypt the Lord brought His people to Sinai and made a covenant with them. The total essence of that Covenant was, “I will be your God and you will be My people. The expression of that relationship was what God said, “I will set My Tabernacle among you... I will walk with you, and I will be your God and you shall be My people” (Lev. 26:11,12).

But that Tabernacle was a contradiction. This was the same contradiction that Moses experienced at the burning Bush when God called Moses out of the Bush but then said, “Draw not nigh”, (Ex. 3:5). The fact that God established His Tabernacle with Israel was an expression that God desired to live with His people, but then He told them to put up a Vail (Ex. 26:33; Lev. 16:2). The Tabernacle was an expression of God's desire to be with His people, but the Vail was a barrier to keep them away.

When God met with Israel at Sinai it was terrifying. The whole mountain was an intense fire. Israel said to Moses, “You talk to us but please don't let God talk to us” (Ex. 20:19). Joe Carroll once told me that he was sharing a conference with AW Tozer at Fort Wayne Bible School. They asked Joe to do the counseling. He told me the kids were lined up down the hall coming in for counseling scared to death. I asked Joe, “What was Tozer preaching about?”. “God.” “What in the world could he get out of that?” Joe quoted a couple of verses out of Exodus that said, “God came down on Sinai and the whole mountain was a blaze, and Moses went up into that burning fire and lived”. I thought, “Oh my goodness, I never thought of that. Small wonder those kids were scared silly”. They never knew that God was a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29).

When Jesus came to the scene, He introduced us to an entirely new concept. The first words that ever came out of Jesus' mouth was, “I must be about My Father's business” (Lk. 2:xx) And in His first recorded message He taught us, “When ye pray say. 'Our Father'” (Mt. 6:9). To call God Father was radically new. Today Islam has a solid understanding of a creator God. They have an intense conviction of sin. They have a death fear of judgment. But they certainly would never dream of calling Allah Father. The Jews in Jesus' day may have had a slightly higher view of God with a measure of mercy and grace. But they too would not address God as Father. This term came with Jesus. Almost exclusively Jesus called God Father. The reason He did so was because He was the Son of God. And today we have every reason to say “Father”; because we are born-again of the Spirit of God and are sons of God (Jn. 1:12; Rom. 8:15,16).

But there is a higher relationship – that as husband and wife. All Christians universally accept that the Church is the Bride of Christ (Jn. 3:29; Mk. 2:19,20; Mt. 22:2; 25:1-10; Rev. 19:7; 21:9). But a concept that Christians should have a husband/wife relationship with Jesus is offensive. That is why it is so embarrassing to read the Song of Solomon. I was preaching in Mino Mission one night with Betty Whewell interpreting for me. When I stood up and said, “Tonight I would like to share with you some wonderful truths from the Book of the Song of Solomon”; Betty turned to me and said, “We should never talk about this Book in public. It should only be read in the privacy of our bedrooms”. Because of our defiled, fallen, minds it is extremely difficult for us to have any concept of having a holy husband/wife relationship with Jesus. With our clouded minds we are in as much darkness as a frog in a well.

But that was not so with Samuel Rutherford. In his letters – in speaking of Jesus - Rutherford frequently refereed to the smell of His garments (S. of S. 4:11; Ps. 45:8), the smell of His breath (S.of S. 7:8), the tenderness of His kisses (S. of S. 1:2), the taste of His apples (S. of S. 2:3,5) Rutherford spoke much about the Lord taking him into His banqueting house (S. of S. 2:4). To our perverted minds much of Rutherford's letters would be down right pornographic. I believe much of our problem is that we are more centered on doctrine than we are on spiritual reality. We are strong on intellectual orthodoxy but weak on spiritual experience. With Jesus I suspect that it is the other way around.

Life is an experience. Spiritual life is an experience. Love is an experience. Quoting 1 Cor. 13 is not the same as knowing you are loved. Oh how weak we are in experience. How little do we feel that we are deeply loved. I believe in scripture the one who came the closest to truly knowing the Lord was John. In his amazing gospel he never uses his name once. He only refers to himself as that disciple. But from chapter 13 on he uses a unique expression; five times referring to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved (Jn. 13:21; 19:26; 20:2; 21:4; 21:20). What an amazing relationship!

In our perverted world today it is the unusual marriage that is the way God intended it to be. I believe the reason why the violation of 7^th commandment is such a serious issue, and there is so much written about it in the Bible, is because God has given us the institution of marriage to exemplify to us the relationship that God originally intended to have with man. And the devil has made that as one of his primary targets.

With the Fall intimacy with God was impossible. It was necessary that there should be a Vail between God and man. But at the Cross Jesus tore away that Vail. Today we have an imagined access to God. We call God Father. But few indeed have moved experiencially into the ultimate relationship God desires. Most of us are comfortable with calling God Father but we cringe at having a Song of Solomon relationship with Jesus. Praise God we know what the final act will be. That which was originally instituted in the Garden will be culminated in heaven. What John saw will be reality.

I John saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a Bride adorned for Her Husband. And I heard a voice out of heaven saying, “Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God”.

Lord Jesus, haste that day.  Bill

The Difference between Knowing and Being

5 December 2016

Dear Friends,

When I wrote yesterdays PB letter I had a suspicion that perhaps my heated wrath may not have been Spirit of Christ. That is why I closed with the remark,”Do you think this is the Spirit of Christ?

Knowing something and being something are not necessarily the same thing. I know I should be a better Christian but knowing that does not make it true. An alcoholic knows that he should stop drinking, but knowing that does not make him sober. I know it is my disposition to be very quick with harsh biting words, and in the back of my mind I am occasionally aware that that may not be the Spirit of Christ.

This morning I was reading again the Song of Solomon and noticed that the most prominent point of beauty the Jesus sees in His Bride is that she has doves eyes (S of S 1:15; 4:1). It is significant that the Bride says the same thing about Jesus, that He has doves eyes (S of S 5:12). You don't have to be a deep Bible scholar to know that doves eyes are speaking of the Holy Spirit. We all know that the Dove is the universal emblem of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 1:32). Nothing could be more descriptive. There is a distinct difference between the eyes of a dove and a hawk. There is a difference between the eyes of a lamb and a fox. A friend once had the devil come to speak with her in her kitchen. I asked her, “What did the devil look like”. Miriam replied, “He was handsome.” One of the most handsome beings she had ever seen. Then she added, “But his eyes”. Some time later I was over there for supper and Miriam brought a magazine over to show me. There was a picture of a tiger. Miriam said, “Look at those eyes. That is what the devil looks like.” Cats eyes. We have a very bad poisonous snake in Japan; a mamushi. A new missionary once asked me, “What does a mamushi look like?” I told him that they look very much like a garter snake in the states. But their eyes... “If you ever kill one look at the eyes. You'll know”. Some time later John told me, “I killed a mamushi the other day. You were right. As soon as I saw the eyes I knew it was a mamushi”.

I have read Song of Sol. hundreds of times and I am very familiar with the expression, doves eyes. They said of Robert Murray McCheyne, that his rebukes were the most terrible because he was so tender. But that is not bill cook. I am much better at swinging the headman's ax than the tender rebukes of McCheyne. But with a voluminous response to yesterdays letter and the Word from the Lord this morning it is pretty clear what would be the best approach Thursday night. It will take an unusual intervention of the holy Spirit to pull this on off. I can't do it, but maybe Jesus can.

When the Lord met with Elijah in the cave, the first thing He showed Elijah was the strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire. But God was not in any of that. Then the still small Voice. It was the still small Voice that caused Elijah to cover his face. (1 Kn. 19:9-13).

Oh, Lord, please let that still small Voice be heard in the hearts of the benighted folks Thursday night.Salvation is of God. They need to be saved. Lord let them be saved Thursday night. Please do it for Jesus sake; Amen.

                         bill