Month: February 2025

Captured By Him

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It has been my observation while reading Romans that we were captured by the reconciling death of Jesus while we were still sinners (Romans 5:6–10). We were captured by God’s sovereign election before the earth was framed (Ephesians 1:4). We were captured by the indwelling, sealing work of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). We were captured through his predestination to be adopted (Ephesians 1:5). We were captured by regeneration and focused calling (1 Corinthians 1:24).

Romans 5:1-6 says   Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. … at just the right time, … Christ died for the ungodly (NIV)

When I read this section of Romans, I smiled because of the hope derived by the Glory of God. The faith I carry, a small seed of hope in God’s Glory is given to me, creates peace within me, sustains me through the troubles and suffering, and enhances the pleasures associated with walking in the shade of Jesus. Please do not mis-understand, I am not claiming to have a close walk, I am simply aware of the grace and the peace granted to me from the works of Jesus. We run together to obtain the prize, already gifted to us, just waiting on the shelf for our benefit when we graduate to Heaven. We were not redeemed to sit in the stands and watch the racers, we were redeemed to participate. When we were powerless to redeem ourselves, Jesus stepped in and addressed the problem. So, we are not redeemed to sit in the stands nor sit on the side of a pool with our feet and ankles cooling in the water. We were redeemed to engage. We were bought with a price. We are here to bring Jesus to the forefront.

Romans 5:7-11 says — Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (NIV).

Jesus is the author of my faith. As the author of my life, he created the book before I existed. But I was unaware of the book. I did not even know that the author of the book (Jesus) had me in mind before my faith was present in my heart. I was not inclined towards the things of God. Then, I found myself standing in front of the one true living God. I do not believe for a second, I could have visualized how things would work out. I think, if I knew how my life was going to progress before I got started, I might have turned away out of fear. But I did not know. Then, in His time, I was equipped for my tasks by Jesus – he became the author of my story. I had nothing to do with the plan, but I did have plenty to do with the deviations from the plan. Thank God he has a long arm and a very persistent affection, he chased me and nudged me back on the path over and over.

For I was “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). I found peace and security in the immense truth of God. Selah. The less I struggle, the better life gets.

I choose Jesus.

Making Good Choices

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CS Lewis created a small work titled “Meditation in a Toolshed.” He took a look at the ability of people to assess meaning from the outside of things. I felt his message was useful for our discussion on the merits of Meditation.  Other than the final paragraph, this essay is a long quote from CS Lewis.

Lewis said — I was standing today in a dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood, that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.

Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead, I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd million miles away, the sun. Looking inside the beam and looking at the beam are quite different experiences. But this is only a remarkably simple example of the difference between looking [inside something] and looking at [something].

A young man meets a girl. The whole world looks different when he sees her. Her voice reminds him of something he has been trying to remember all his life, and ten minutes of casual chat with her is more precious than all the favors that all other women in the world could grant. He is, as they say, “in love”. Now comes a scientist and describes this young man’s experience from the outside. For him it is all an affair of the young man’s genes and a recognized biological stimulus. That is the difference between looking [inside] the sexual impulse and looking at it [from a distance].

[This distinction] raises a question. You get one experience of a thing when you look [inside] it and another when you look at it [from the outside]. Which is the ‘true’ … experience? Which tells you most about the thing? … It has been assumed [by progressives] … that if you want the true account of religion you must go, not to religious people, but to anthropologists; that if you want the true account of sexual love you must go, not to lovers, but to psychologists; that if you want to understand some ‘ideology’ (such as medieval chivalry … ), you must listen not to those who lived inside it, but to sociologists.

There [is a] fatal objection to discounting [the participants view]. … You discount the person’s ability … to think accurately. A physiologist, for example, can study pain and find out that it ‘is’ (whatever ‘is’ means) such-and-such neural events. But the word pain would have no meaning … unless he had ‘been inside’ by actually suffering. If he had never [suffered], he simply would not know what he was looking at.

The very subject for his inquiries from outside exists for him only because he has, at least once, been inside. This case is not likely to occur, because every man has felt pain. But it is perfectly easy to go on all your life-giving explanations of religion, love, morality, honor, and the like, without having been inside any of them.

The answer is that we must never allow the [degradation] to begin. … The inside vision … must be truer than the outside vision which sees only movements of the grey matter; for if the outside vision were the correct one, all thought (including this thought — itself) would be valueless. As you might guess, this is self-contradictory thinking. Thinking in a circle.

I presented this notion of inside looking vs outside looking with the belief it could influence our decision to dig deep into scripture through meditation (intensive study) vs casual reading of scripture (as if we are reading the news). Meeting God face to face is far better than sipping lemonade on the sidelines. Reading is the right place to start. But eventually, we can benefit from meditation on scripture.

I choose Jesus.

Hollywood and Two Friends

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In the early years of Hollywood’s cowboy life, he roamed the range and he worked on many, many ranches. He took a task from one ranch for a few weeks, then went to help someplace else for a month, and sometimes for an entire summer, but he was not very stable.

Gradually, Hollywood took a liking to ranches called Dude Ranches or Guest Ranches. People would come from the East Coast and spend all summer learning how to wrangle a cow. People came to the ranch to understand what it was like to be in the wild. Hollywood enjoyed teaching people the cowboy way, they would visit with him asking questions, and he would lead them around all through the day, showing them all about looking after cattle. Hollywood would tell stories and help them understand things. In some cases, he got to know them pretty well and they would become friends. But he was quick to say friendship did not always happen. Once, Hollywood made friends with two men: Buck and Jim. Buck started writing poetry and singing songs, and this was what Hollywood’s new friend sang —

Two friends spent the summer, on a ranch where I was a guide,

Mattered not what I was doing, they were working by my side.

We would ride the trails together, Dakota plains were the place,

Almighty God brought his mercy, hearts were changed by his grace.

These two guys, Buck, and Jim spent a lot of time on their horse with Hollywood. They would ride all over the foothills on the Wind River Ranch. After a while, they started asking him, why do you do the things you do? You are not like everybody else. Down here you have kindness and gentleness, but yet you have strength and the way you act and the way you speak and the way you handle yourself. How is it you are this way? Who taught you these things?

And Hollywood would just say –well, you know, I learned these things from my mother and from my dad.

A few days later Buck asked — why do you think the way you think? I mean, most people would not react the way you do to trouble. You do not seem to be flapped by much of anything.

Finally, Hollywood said. Well, the answer is simple. Are you sure you want to know?

Buck says – sure…

Hollywood replied — So tell me, do you know anything about Jesus?

Jim smiled, he kind of laughed, and he said — ohh yeah, I read about him once.

Buck mused — Who’s that?

Hollywood looked at him with amazement and said — you do not know who Jesus is at all? You have not ever been to church?

Buck said — Yes, I have. But I do not remember much. I was just a kid.

Hollywood replied — This is how we are going to do this. I am going to get my Bible tonight and I will bring it with me tomorrow, and I will show you a few things to help you understand who this Jesus is. You have questions. I will try and help you find some answers.

So, the next day, Hollywood showed up with his Bible. He just started reading stuff. He read aloud. He told them to listen to the message and to stop him when they had questions. So, he would read a piece of scripture and they would talk about it. And then he had read something else and they would talk about it. And sometimes they would make fun of the scripture and sometimes they listened. Very carefully.

But over the weeks their views started to change and they started to really understand what God was about. They started to understand what the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus was about. They started to understand what it was to Walk with God and how to make Jesus Lord of their life.

Then they both wanted to know what to do.

Buck said — We do not really, really want to become an old guy who carries a Bible around, talks a lot, and makes people want to run away. But we like this message – it resonates with us. We like what you are saying, both of us. We talk about it when you are not around and we think about the things that you say and we ask each other questions. Then we ask you questions, and you have answers.

But you are not pushy, Hollywood. You are not a raving, loud person with a frivolous message to share. You are gentle and kind, you know your job, you really know your message, you look after the cattle, you teach us well, and you make sure we are safe. And you do not let us get into too much trouble without providing a little bit of scolding to bring us back where we belong. You are so gentle, kind, and firm all at the same time. We want to understand more, tell us more about the principles that drive your life.

So, all through the rest of the summer, Hollywood explained the wisdom of God and finally, one by one, each of these men gave their life to Jesus. So, they came out west, not knowing much of anything about the wisdom of God, and they went back to the East Coast as Christians.

Hollywood followed up with Buck and Jim. He wrote letters and they wrote him back and told him about the things that were going on in their lives, how they were gradually growing, and bringing glory to God in the way that they were living. They were instructing their children and their friends about things that they learned about in the wild west on the Wind River range. So, one of them wrote this prose for Hollywood. Jim wrote —

From the top of the Rainbow Mesa, good news shared under the sage,

Break the hold on long shadows, over a hundred miles of range.

I loved every moment, we learned on eagle wings to ride,

Soon the winds of autumn came, and we had to say goodbye.

When Hollywood got a letter in the mail from Jim near thanksgiving, the letter had these 4 lines. He just sat down, smiled, and tears came to his eyes.

Miss Tillie said — what is the matter, Is there something wrong?

Hollywood said — no, no, these are tears of joy. Look at this! My friend sent me this poem. She looked at it and tears came to her eyes.

Miss Tillie said — you know, it was an incredibly good summer for you and for those two men, a very good summer indeed.

Romans 1:16-17 –For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Please note: In 1956 a cowboy poet, Jim Jennings, published a short book about his experience working at ‘dude’ ranches in the west. My Great grandmother, Goldie Livingston, obtained a first edition copy of Jim’s self-published book in the fall of 1956. The poetry in this story is adapted from Jim’s book.

Water For The Desert

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It was my observation, in the mid 70’s I have a recollection of being taught the downside of meditation. Yoga instructors were barely permitted in church because of the strong eastern influence in their thinking and articulating, the Davidic discussions on meditation was not part of the common teaching and conversations of the mid 70’s Christian scene. For reasons that are unclear to me, none of us noticed the recurring concept of meditation in scripture. Goodness, how things have changed.

Somewhere along the way in the last few years I noted that word ‘meditation’ in the bible and wondered how did that term sneak into God’s vocabulary. Of course, the concept has been there always, just not talked about because of the extreme struggles of the late 60’s when musicians fully abandoned western thought and embraced the eastern thought processes.

To be clear — we all know that scripture provides a formidable discussion of meditation in the Psalms, it explains how we use meditation to embed the teachings of scripture in our heart and influence our actions. We should know that prayer becomes deeper and more personal when we move from prayer to meditation. This is not to say we abandon prayer. Not at all. Each format has its place. Prayer is the tool of choice to bring requests and supplications into his throne room. Prayer is the tool of choice to communicate with God, to learn of his will for our life. But within the context of walking with God, meditation goes much further by transforming our gait into something that brings us closer to him and his plan. We do not do the transforming, HE does, but transformation does gradually occur. Lest we think that meditation is just another trendy notion, please consider the thoughts of Thomas Brooks, a seventeenth-century church leader.

Thomas Brooks said — Remember that it is not hasty reading but serious meditation on holy and heavenly truths, that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the mere touching of the flower by the bee that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time on the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most but he that meditates most that will prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest, and strongest Christian. Selah.

In Psalms, we see David meditated on God’s law, His righteousness, His word, His deeds and works, His precepts, His ways, His testimonies, and God Himself. Review Psalms 19, 39, 48, 77, 104, 119, and 143. Read slowly and breathe in the message. God is speaking. Meditate on his word.

Paul says — Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—MEDITATE on these things (Philippians 4:6-8).

Paul tells Timothy to meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all (paraphrased from I Timothy 4:15) — note again that meditation is expected to produce something in us. Eastern meditation empties us so we can see ourselves as God. This is not what David is doing, Biblical meditation is about infusing our mind with the pure virtuous message of scripture. We become very aware of the one true living ‘God who is there’, Jehovah-Shammah.

I think — meditation is deep focused contemplation by a renewed mind on the amazing wisdom of God. David tells us in Psalms 1 to delight in the Lord’s Law. David “meditates (Hebrew – hâgâh) day and night” (Psalms 1:2). This term means to murmur, ponder, to mull over carefully. The word translated meditate in Psalm 119:15 (Hebrew – śı̂yach) talks of a preoccupied mind, often murmuring audible words. This term can be translated as pray (Psalms 55:17) or talk (Psalms 119:27). Psalms 143:5 includes both words, showing their relationship. David says — I remember the days of old; I meditate (hâgâh) on all Your works; I muse (śı̂yach) on the work of Your hands (Psalms 143:5). You want to know what he is thinking? Meditate on His Word.

Meditation is to our heart as water is to the desert. I live in the desert. Most of the year the desert is a dry and dusty place. Shade from a tall mesquite tree is a gift from God. Then comes the monsoon. Oh my.

The desert leaps to life overnight. The brilliance of the morning sun on the fresh green leaves is glorious to the eyes. The entire land looks different after the rain, it really is different. This is the impact of meditation focused on the Word for our soul. Our soul is refreshed.

Our dry and dusty life is filled with power. God moves in us. God is unleased by his tools and his Word. For meditation to be effective – the wall clock is not our friend. We cannot rush God, he will infuse himself and his word into us as he deems proper, at his pace. We are not in control, He is. But rest assured – he will infuse us with His life. Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord who Is there (see Ezekiel 48:35) will arrive.

Therefore, I focus on the Word, meditate on his precepts and….

I choose Jesus.