Heavenly Springs

Holding Fast The Doctrines of Grace

Grace in the Common and Trivial Duties of Life

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“Portrait of Madame Pissarro Sewing near a Window”, Camille Pissarro. Public Domain.

“How hard it is,” you say, “that so much of one’s time is taken up with things that must be done — and yet none of them seem worth doing!”

Ah, that is not a new difficulty, dear! The hermits of the East stumbled over it, and the monks of the West; and many a one who has not left, like them, the every-day life of the world — has groaned under it, as if there were guilt in the weight as well as care.

One thing, however, we are sure of — that all which God sends to any human soul must have its meaning. There is nothing, however trivial, which He cannot make a means of grace. It is for us to take it as such — or to scorn it. There is blessing wrapped for us in every lowly duty, and if we despise its homely dress, then the loss and the responsibility are our own.

“But mine are such common duties,” you say, “helping in the house, or sewing for the children. It’s all such material work.” I think I have been learning, lately, that we may not call anything common which God has cleansed; and has not His consecrating touch fallen on all home-toil and care, material though it may appear, since Jesus lived in the workshop at Nazareth? He counts nothing unclean, nothing unworthy of Him, but sin. His love in the heart will purify everything it touches. It has transmuting power enough to change the dross of the common street, into the fine gold of the sanctuary. And so the “base things of the world, and things which are despised” become, when laid on the altar which sanctifies the gift, things which God has chosen.”

Hetty Bowman, Thoughts on the Christian Life; or, Leaves from Letters, 1872

What kind of path are you leaving?

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Checking in. I’m not dead. Just lots going on in the workplace and on the homestead. Some of you know we are moving from Brooklyn to Long Island next week. It’s a big move for us. As for the details, I wouldn’t even know where to start.  All I will say (for now) is that God has truly lavished us with unimaginable kindness and generosity. So, I’m getting ready.  In recent weeks I’ve been working on my Lawng Island accent.  Brooklyn to Lawng Island feels pretty natural and I think the transition will be an easy one.

Today I’m up to my eyeballs in bubble wrap, packaging tape, and boxes while listening to, among other things, MacArthur’s sermon series on Hebrews. I just heard him share a story that made me stop and run to the computer to look-up.  A quick internet search confirms there are a few variations but the heart of the message is the same. The path we walk matters because other people are following.  MacArthur tells it within the context of feeling weary and fainthearted in the struggle against sin. Hebrews 12:13 says, “make straight paths for your feet“. One reason to persevere and stay on that “straight path” is that our lives are bound with other people. It’s easy to think sin is only a personal matter between ourselves and God. At some level that’s true, but it’s certainly not the whole of it.

This is the story of a drunkard who left home for the pub one day in the snow.  Little did he know someone was following.

“One day in Switzerland a gentleman who was traveling was climbing up one of those steep mountains, and as he went he had to cut steps in the frozen ice and snow; step by step he went up, cutting them rather carelessly, when all of a sudden he heard a little voice below him.  “Father,” it said, ‘mind you cut an easy path, because I am following you.’ “(1)

Get it? We do not live in a vacuum. Every decision we make, public or private, has implications that go beyond the immediate.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. (Hebrews 12:12-17)

So, that’s what I wanted to share.  Back to the boxes!  Admittedly, I’ve been in a season where, despite my desire to write, my best energies must be spent elsewhere.  That’s okay. I’ve learned to be content with the seasons of life and trust His providence.  Still, I hope to blog a little more in the future!  Tawk soon!

(1) The Church of England Temperance Chronicle, January 1882. London:  Wells Gardner & Co. Publishers. page 53 (Digitized Google Version).

Our Future Glory and Present Temptations

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“That the future glory shall be heightened by the temptations of this present time, which have been bravely met and successfully resisted. It is not merely that the coming blessedness shall be an ample compensation for all that tempted souls can now endure, that the flood of joy shall swallow up all thought of present pains, and the light affliction, which is for a moment, shall be followed by a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. But this glory shall, in various ways, be directly enhanced by those temptations, in so far as they have not been criminally yielded to, but in the name of the Master stoutly repelled. And thus what Satan intended for your hurt shall be converted into a source of everlasting profit. The experience of rest shall be heightened by the contrast of the antecedent toil and strife; and the felicity granted to the ransomed soul shall be likewise enhanced in its absolute amount. If the reward, though wholly the gift of grace, is in proportion to the service done or the fidelity shown, duty resolutely performed in the face of temptations of the evil one will surely receive a marked and signal acknowledgment. The training given to the spiritual faculties in the exercises of the Christian warfare, the development and expansion thence resulting to the powers of the soul, bear directly on our capacity for bliss and holiness. They who have attained the highest measure of fitness thus for the enjoyments of heaven shall have the largest experience of its blessedness. And, further, those who have been driven by the assaults of the adversary into the closest union with their covenant God, and the most entire dependence upon Him, shall for this reason again partake most freely of those joys which flow from endless communion with the infinite source of all blessedness.”

Green, William H (2011-11-27). The Argument of the Book of Job Unfolded (pp. 60-61). Counted Faithful. Kindle Edition.

 

Here We Have No Abiding City

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The true Christian finds everything around him antagonistic to his thoughts and feelings.
He loves Christ supremely — the world hates Him supremely.
He delights to do God’s will — the world revels in its disobedience.
His heart is set on heavenly and Divine things — “the heart of men is fully set to do evil.”

He is daily pained at the manifestations of sin and unbelief. He mourns at the spiritual destitution of his fellow men, and at the rampant evils which rear themselves unbridled, and devour the vitals of society with rapacity! Sin meets his eye wherever he turns!

In the Church — he sees hypocrisy, formality, self-righteousness, censoriousness, lukewarmness, and backsliding.
In the family — he finds peevishness, ill temper, discord, variance, strifes, evil surmisings, and positive hatred.
In the state — he perceives crimes of every sort and hue, and the decalogue broken in each one of its commandments.
In business — he is made to witness fraud, greed, deceptions, lying!

We are ever made to feel that we are in an enemy’s country; that here, as the Patriarchs confessed, “we have no abiding city — but we seek one to come;” that “we who are in tabernacles of flesh do groan, being burdened” —
burdened with the remaining corruption of our own hearts;
burdened with our daily short-comings and omissions of duty;
burdened with our positive transgressions;
burdened with our frequent infirmities; and
burdened with seeing and hearing the ungodliness which surrounds us, and which is ever crying to Heaven for vengeance!

We long for a release from the place where our soul, like that of righteous Lot, is daily “vexed with the filthy lives of the wicked!” So that, look where we will, we are constrained to say with the Psalmist, “Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech — that I live among the tents of Kedar!” Psalm 120:5

William Bacon Stevens, “The Parables” 1857