In this
issue:
i) Draw me near
- J. Carattini
ii) The Book of
Review (Deuteronomy) - Part 8 - C.E. Wigg
Draw me
near
Jill
Carattini
There is a place in my
Bible that is prone to be frequently revisited. In fact it is quite often the
place I find in front of me when I open the book. And every time it happens,
like a scent that uproots a potent memory, I recall the story behind the pages.
Some time ago, between classes in college, I was reading in a park when
the skies shifted without warning and the pounding rain left a permanent
bookmark on a chapter in John. The pages have long since dried, leaving the
paper wavy and wrinkled, and easy to turn to. But something about the lasting
impressions of the rain has also impressed that day into my mind. (No doubt, a
fitting metaphor of life.) The hardest rains always leave indelible imprints.
In The Problem with Pain, C.S. Lewis refers to pain as God's
megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Convincingly, he explains what we know to be
true of suffering, pain, and evil, what we know of the meaning offered in
Christ's suffering and the strength we are given to bear it when the peripheral
questions of life are answered by a good God. Years later, in the pages of A
Grief Observed, Lewis describes watching his wife lose her battle with
cancer and wrestling with God through the pain. He is then writing as a man who
bitterly, tortuously, and intimately knows what he knows to be true of God and
evil, suffering and Christ though his soul is breaking. Writes Lewis, "Your bid
for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or
nonentity, will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will
never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high." He
continues, "Nothing will shake a man—or at any rate a man like me—out of his
merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked
silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only
under torture does he discover it himself."
I believe the first time I
really and fearfully looked my faith in the eyes was while I was pounding my
fists against the chest of God, half demanding, half pleading, to know why my
father was dying. Those indelible days gave new meaning to Paul's admonition,
"Work out your salvation in fear and trembling." In our prayers we cry, and in
our hymns we sing, "Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord, To the cross
where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, To Thy precious, bleeding side"
but when the stakes are at their highest, do we really mean it? Have we counted
that cost?
Just before Paul admonishes the Philippian Church to work out
their salvation in fear and trembling, he describes the cost of Christ: "Who,
being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be
grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being
made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!" (2:6-8). In his
life, his body, his very attitude, Christ carried the cost of our sin, our dire
need in life and sorrow, and our inability to draw near to God.
There
was a point in my dad's pain when he said to me, "I had no idea how Christ
suffered." There is something about our pain that can lead us to the foot of the
Cross, to the utmost expression of love wrought with stripes and sorrow. As the
hymn continues, "There are depths of love that I cannot know, Till I cross the
narrow sea; There are heights of joy that I may not reach, Till I rest in peace
with Thee."
It is fitting that the pages marked by rain in my Bible tell
the story of the death and resurrection of Lazarus. As Mary and Martha and Jesus
wept, the rain seemed appropriate. But I remember clearly being struck with
another thought: Surely, it was Lazarus who got the lesser end of the deal. To a
crowd of people mourning death and loss, Jesus proclaimed radically, "I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies"
(John 11:25). While Jesus spoke to the mourning crowd about true life, Lazarus
was truly living. I wondered that day how Lazarus felt about coming back. He had
seen the heights and depths of joy we long for on earth; he had been drawn near
to the almighty God. For Lazarus, humanity's greatest prayer had been answered.
And then it began to rain, ever etching that thought into my Bible and my
consciousness.
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[* Copyright(c) 2005 Ravi Zacharias International
Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission.]
The Book of Review
(Deuteronomy) - Part
8
Moses' famous last words and
unique funeral
Charles E. Wigg
Footwear: Neither did their feet swell, they were
suitably shod from the very moment that they left Egypt. Though they walked
through the waste howling wilderness for forty years, yet they walked in
separation from it, and as a result they walked safely and securely. It is
interesting to note that when the wayward. Prodigal, son returned, he was not
only clothed in the best robe, not only was the signet ring of authority placed
on his hand, but shoes were to be placed on his feet. He was thereafter to walk
in “newness of life”, to enjoy complete liberty in the Father’s house. They were
saved from the many hazards that abounded during their wilderness
journey.
They were thus reminded of
the very faithfulness of God, during the past forty years, and they were
challenged to live a life of obedience, and of holiness, of absolute devotedness
to their great God. His faithfulness they had proved, He was to be trusted
absolutely, and no trust that was placed in Him would ever be disappointed.
The description
of the land that they were about to enter: It’s resources are
first described by Moses. It was a very, very good land. A land of brooks of
water, of fountains and depths that sprang out of the valleys and the hills. It
was thus told them that their life was not to be easy, there would be many ups
and downs, but abundance was promised. Let us not fall for the
misrepresentations of those who will proclaim that the Christian life is meant
to be easy and free of trouble, it is the most wonderful life that any person
can live, but it is not easy. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is often
discovered as the result of deep heart experience. It is in the deep valleys
that we discover the fullness of the Holy Spirit, it is there that the waters
gush forth.. We may be sure that there will be many hills of difficulty that
will come in our way. One is reminded of the language of Psalm 42, (particularly
verse 6) We may expect that there will be many difficulties and disappointments
some large and forbidding, and also there will be little difficulties, but fruit
is assured.
But crops and a variety
of them are promised. If we sow to the Spirit, we will surely reap from the
Spirit Life Eternal.(Galatians 6:7 & 8)
Wheat: Wheat is first mentioned, and would
immediately remind us of the person of Christ as described in John’s Gospel
chapter twelve, where the Lord Jesus speaks of Himself as the “Corn of Wheat’,
He who fell into the ground and died, and as a result has brought forth fruit
immeasurable.
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[Reproduced with
permission of the
author]