A Pilgrim's Brief Regress

Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of [them], and embraced [them], and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

The older I get, the more that I recognize the meaning of the term pilgrim. Top side of the earth, living in the twenty-first century, the information age has thrown our society into a high-speed tail spin with information-overload at every turn and an exhausting schedule filling ones plate with a hundred equally-valid but sometimes hollow and vane choices. We need to reflect here.

Recently, I have had the occasion of attempting to research my father’s genealogical record. I have avoided committing the financial resources to the on-line services and have opted for my own searches. This has proved that it requires patience; but such has proven fruitful, and I must admit has resulted in a new-slate of web friends all distant cousins with the same aim, those of whom I never have had the pleasure of growing up with. If you choose to embark on such a task, don’t be surprised of the myths that are perpetuated in your family based on second and third hand knowledge of events. Life and in particular, people are never what they seem to be. This activity has given me pause to go back to those times in the late 1800’s and early twentieth century when my “grands” walked the earth. Wonder what it would have been like then; did they look to the now? Did they fathom the future?

When we measure our life, pedigree, education and human industry carry no real significance do they? No amount of sweat and blood towards human capacity carry no real thrust in the eternal, except only a few brief moments before they are rendered, wood, hay and stubble. Oh, we should work at our task at hand, “as unto the Lord”, but I am talking about our motivation in the immediate. I love this passage in Hebrews. I believe Bunyan magically captured this idea in his allegory. Consider where the writer’s context renders this passage, it was the faithful through the ages that could only see the “country from afar”. Oh that God would only keep our glimpse towards the afar! Oh that we would embrace the cross for His Service! Oh that we throw off the shackles of the now and taste a glimpse of Heaven and the Eternal! Oh, that we would work out our own salvation! Now that preaches!

Time in the Furnace

The old blacksmith shop must have been a fine place of heat and toil. The images of this place are one of brawn and hard work. The smith could not have worked his craft without the anvil. That heavy slab of metal was the pounding block and surface in which the smith would bend and shape the heated metal into the final image. Boom, boom and a horseshoe was rendered; clank-clank, and out came a plowshare. Now, one should know that nothing could be produced without the benefit of the fire. The smith would crank up his fire in his stove and put that metal in there, bringing it out fiery- red; then and only then could the smith produce his craft. Only when its in the shape he wants does he submerge it beneath the cool water for the metals hardening.
Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being in the stove. I don’t like it when I’m the subject against the anvil. Life hurts and produces heat; life hurts and produces burrs and slag. Then we go into the sanctuary of God’s Word; we draw close to the throne in prayer. We discover that it’s time for the oven; we fret for its time at the anvil. The hammer falls and we bend; its clanks and we succumb. We pray for relief but it does not immediately come. We ask for the cool water, but it is lacking, nowhere to be found. Paul prayed to be rescued from the thorn in the flesh; he sought relief from the messenger of Satan. But God’s answer was “My grace is sufficient”. Spurgeon said, As sure as God puts His children in the furnace he will be in the furnace with them”. The three children of Israel (Shadrach, et al) trusted God…but they went in the furnace. They understood God, but they went in the furnace…they shunned the vain religion of Babylon, but they went in the furnace. I am sure it was hot in that furnace, but there was a fourth man! I see four, and the fourth is like the Son of God! Don’t pray for the water friend; look for the fourth!

On The Precious Healing of Words

I love beautiful music; classical pieces which draw out and evoke the majesty that only is ordained from the imagination of heaven. Only our Creator is the Divine Architect of such. The weaver of the gifted minds, hearts and ears can produce such splendor. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Heyden produce such moods of imagery through their sweeping chords, movements and counter-movements that transport the hearer to a different place; a place of peace and comfort. These moments are breathtaking; they’re beyond words.
Ephesians 4:29 admonishes us: Let no corrupt communication proceed from your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Solomon declares “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold.” A beautiful heart for Christ is like this. It discerns the needs of the forlorn heart, it senses the chasm of loneliness, and it hears the vacantness in the concert halls of the needy. When we minister grace to the hearers at just the right time, the Spirit-inspired time, we are parties to a Divine appointment of calm and soul soothing music. When we weave this symphony, it can only transcend earth and carry the hearer into the presence of God. Christ always knew what to say did he not? The Apostle here encourages us to put away corrupt communication, to toss aside cutting words, to mortify fleshly backbiting, rather, put on and practice good speech, why? To edify each other, to produce the beautiful chords of grace that only the Spirit of God can weave. You sense the hurting heart, strike the chord of encouragement; you detect the weak, lift them up with the sweeping movements of Jesus. Surrounded by the spiritually oppressed….lend the word of the Gospel. “There is a balm in Gilead that heals the sin-sick soul” Let’s make beautiful music friend. I am Sherrell.