31 December 2017
Dear Phyllis,
Today is the last day of 2017. Tomorrow we start again. I don't know if this is an appropriate message for such an occasion or not but the Lord spoke to me through our cat last week.
There
are various levels of relationships we have with animals. Some animals
are dangerous – they will attack you. Other animals are spooky – they
are afraid and will run from you. Some are curious and will come to you.
And some like to be with you. A couple of months ago a little black
kitten from the house down the street wandered in our yard and came in
the house. She seemed to like Pammy and adopted us. Pammy put out some
food and slowly the little kitten became our cat.
I
like animals. I love dogs and horses. I like nearly all animals and like
to pet them. It took a little doing before Blackie got used to me and
was willing to come to me. The main event in my life every day is
sitting in my chase lounge chair on our balcony having devotions with
Jesus. Blackie has figured out that the balcony is an interesting place
to be. I like to have Blackie sit with me but she wasn't too sure how
safe that was. After a little coxing she jumped up to sit with me and at
length fell asleep on my lap. That was the ultimate. Blackie was
perfectly relaxed with me and I loved to hold her.
In a
somewhat perverse way the Lord showed me this is the relationship He
desires with us. For an animal to come and fall asleep on your lap is
the ultimate expression of being relaxed and trust you. Beyond that it
also means they like you and desire to be with you.
One
time I was staying with some friends on a ranch in Colorado. They had
an unbroke horse that was pretty skidish to be around people. As I stood
outside the fence the horse finally got curious and came to see me.
Holding out my hand, the horse finally got curious enough to lick my
hand. Very carefully I got to where I could pet the horse's nose, then
pat him on his neck. After spending quite a bit of time with the horse
he decided I was safe and I could stand next to him and pet him all
over. The ultimate was when I would go to the corral he would come to me
and follow me around inside the corral. This is what God wants with us.
It
has been accurately said, fallen nature has a fear of God. Allah
certainly is not a loving heavenly Father. God was not known as Father
in the Old Testament. It wasn't until Jesus appeared that He told us,
“When you pray say, “Our Father...”. That was an entirely new
relationship. And Jesus told us, “Fear not little flock, it is our
Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” (Lk. 12:32). Mentally we
give theological consent to that truth but in practice we aren't too
sure how it works. It is safe to say that God has a lot of things He
wants to give us but He is having difficulty getting us to come close
enough to where He can do all that He wants to for us. I thought that
cat sleeping on my lap is the relationship that God is trying to bring
us to. And that cat perfectly secure lying on my lap was a good
illustration of faith.
I
was preaching in a Lahu church this morning . It was awful. That place
is so bad to call it dead religion would be an exaggeration. If they had
a corpse in a casket, at least that would be an improvement. That place
is supposed to be part of the Body of Christ but it is more like one
leg bone and three ribs. The Holy Spirit is so far from there that it s
doubtful that you could reach Him by email. As for burning hearts and
being on fire for God, with our body temperature being 98.7 F I would
estimate their spiritual temperature as being around 34 or 35 F. But my
heart wasn't much better hovering around 53 F. Apart from the pastor
there were only three old ladies and one man, two of which looked like
they were sound asleep. How you are supposed to speak to a congregation
like that is beyond me.
I started out by saying last Tuesday was the 13th
anniversary of the historic Sumatra tsunami that killed 250, 000, 000
people. That tsunami completely devastated Phi Phi Island and Phuket,
Thailand. When the people on Phi Phi got up that morning they had no
idea that three hours later 800 people would be washed away never to be
found and another 5,000 would be lying dead on the island. In answer to
the question what the world would be like when Jesus comes again, the
Lord said it would be like the days of Noah (Mt. 24:37,38). The main
interest then was eating, drinking, and marriage. It would be business
as usual, planning for the future. In Noah's day they had no idea that
the clock was ticking and soon everybody on this planet would be dead;
although they had 100 years notice with Noah's preaching. My preaching
this morning had the effect of a light breeze blowing on a rock. Then I
went on, “With the impending end of the age bearing down on us, how can
we prepare, and what should be our spiritual condition?”.
When
a scribe asked Jesus what was the most important commandment, the Lord
answered, “That is easy – love God and love your fellow humans” (Mk.
12:29-31). I said to the folks this morning, “I doubt that that is news
to you. I'm sure you have heard that before”. And then I took a dive
trying to strike reality, and asked, “Do we really love God?”. There is a
simple test for love – how badly do we want to spend with a person?
When I was young I had girl friend. Man, I counted the hours when I
would see her again. And then when we had a date the thing I dreaded the
most was saying good night and going home. “How about that? Do you know
what I am talking about?” For the first time there was a faint glimmer
that I mentioned something they could identify with. “You say you love
God. How much time do you spend with Him every day? How much time do you
spend reading His Word? Do you just relish your time of devotion every
day?” It is doubtful that these Lahu had ever had devotions.
I
said, “You can't love someone that you don't know. If someone asks me,
'Do you love the people in Uzbekistan?' I would reply, 'I don't know. I
have never been to Uzbekistan and have never met anyone from there. How
can I love them?'.” The reason we don't love God is because we don't
know Him. If we knew Him better no doubt we would love Him more.
Knowing God is one of the three promises of the New Covenant – “all shall know Me”
(Heb.8:11). The only way this is possible to know God is by the Holy
Spirit. One of the unique characteristics of someone born-again is that
they say “I know God”. Without the Holy Spirit it is impossible to know
God. Anyone who is not born-again and says, “I know God” is either lying
or deceived. One of the blessings of salvation is that God gives to us
eternal life. But having eternal life doesn't just mean we will live for
several thousand years. Jesus said, “This is LIFE ETERNAL, that they might KNOW YOU” (Jn. 17:3). Eternal life isn't how long you will live; it is knowing God.
The
name-of-the-game is loving God. But the only way we can love God is by
knowing Him. How do we know God? First of all ye must be born-again.
Secondly the Holy Spirit must have free access to your heart. He must be
the sole possessor of your heart. It can't be Jesus plus xxxx. But most
of all we must love to spend time with Him. You can't know God by
having hurry up, canned, 5 minute devotions. Love takes time. True love
is loving to be together with your lover.
I
don't know if anyone out anything out of my message this morning. I
doubt it. But the Word certainly convicted me. May 2018 be a year when
we close in with God and love Jesus more.
Have a holy, fruitful, new year loving Jesus,
bill
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