REPROACH

Not Entirely Nasty C. Doug Blair, 2012

Treachery’s Kiss

The kiss upon the cheek.The countenance glazed With feigned friendship.The onlookers in the knowWith slander, besmirchingAnd judgment.The menacing swordsHaving Father's approval,Furthering His plan.

Still I must forgive.Count it all lossFor the excellencyOf His better.

1

I have right, wordsAnd power to silenceAll scoffing.But I shall not,And He shall have His way.

And I shall riseIn some bright mornOf recompense.And postures,And all unfeeling,Found shining in wondrousFamily likeness;Beside an empty tomb.The hate forgot.

(Painting by James Tissot)

Church Militant

You have sensed it before. The stiffening of a group of people as you came forward to enter into their conversation. The glassy looks on the faces as you offered some comment of good will or humour. The unspoken sense that you really had no part in them or in what was happening. The common topics of community, sports, weather, neighbourhood happenings appearing somehow off-limits to you. The expectation that you would move on elsewhere.

This is rejection, plain and simple. A putting off of your statement. What statement? Perhaps you have said nothing. But in the past your actions, omissions and expressions of face have spoken volumes to these people. You are a Christian, and a zealous one. The word has gotten around, making others uncomfortable. Old evangelists such as Finney used to talk of how one's presence ought to evoke a sense of "present duty felt".

2

It wasn't spelled out this way at Church. Supposedly you held the pearl of great price, and by your "loveliness" could charm people into the Kingdom of Heaven. But you now discover the cool response and the rolling eye. Don't be surprised; you are part of the Church Militant and you are still living in an age of the humiliation of Christ.

Be encouraged. The word of scripture is full of assurances for you and the spirit of glory rests upon you in your humiliation. The Church Triumphant is still something for the future, when the whole planet will be covered with the knowledge of the Lord and the joy of His administration.

Listen to Peter the Apostle:

1 Peter 4:

12Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

13But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

14If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

In Luke chapter 14 Jesus spoke of the wisdom of fully counting the cost of entering into His service. He drew the parallel of an army commander preparing for battle and a builder preparing for a construction project. This is what the Church elicits - a battle and a building. Jesus did not say that we had to have the resources within us. He simply admonished that we be sincere and prepared to offer up all that we had. It resembles the story of the little lad offering his lunch of fives loaves and two fishes, and the miraculous picnic resulting for the audience of five thousand and more!

Perhaps this posting is stern, but it is honest. We are to be salt and light. We are to 'take with us words' of redeeming effect.

I have experienced a portion of rejection at time of this writing, and am trying my best to re-group, and to think it not strange.

3

Assignment: Conviction

I have had a couple of acquaintances who went out of their way to find fault with me. I had made mistakes which affected them, but I was never to be cut the slack which others enjoyed at their hand.

I took home the facts of the recent onslaught to discuss with my wife. They had been blown way out of proportion. Hilary tried to be of comfort. She also tried to remind me of my Christian duty. You know, "the turn the other cheek" issue, the "God is allowing chastening" issue.

But I didn't take the advice. Rather I went to my little pity-party corner and began to devise snappy answers to toss back at my detractors. Even now, I am up at 2:30 AM fussing about it all.

But then I remembered a certain man back at Chatham who lived on my street. He made my skin crawl for a time because he appeared to me to be one of those squeaky-clean evangelicals. All the signs in his family and business were good. He would try to drum up some friendly neighbourhood talk with me, but I proved difficult. Inwardly I was embarrassed about my contempt.

In later years Dale became a dear brother in the faith and an encouragement to me. He had drawn upon powers of patience and intercession which this morning I find lacking in myself. I must let this thing go. I must recognize and renounce the pride, temper and self-pity. I must stop wasting God-given time trying to imagine an effective way to "get back at them". I must deal with where I went wrong.

Have you ever felt like this? And have you come to the place of recognizing that your biggest problem is simply your own attitude and lust for self-vindication.

The underlying spiritual fact may be conviction of sin in these individuals. I haven't been going around playing the "preacher man" with them, but I guess that even the little things that I say or do, or refrain from doing, are having an effect. I am just "being" who I am in Christ.

4

Remember that there is a stench to the believer. Yes, Paul confirmed it in 2 Corinthians 2:

14Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

15For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:

16To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

Well, thanks for listening to this little rant. Perhaps it will prove helpful to others of similar experience. My duty is clear from Romans 12: 18-21.

Look it up.

Hast Thou Scars?

“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world.”

John 17:15

It would be a great deal safer, in one sense, for believers to be taken at once to heaven as soon as they begin to follow Christ. They would then have no temptations, no enemies to fight, no conflicts and struggles to pass through. But who would then do Christ’s work in the world? There would be none to tell sinners about the Saviour, none to show to men the beauty of Christ in a holy life, none to witness for God and to fight His battles.

There is another reason why Christians are left here. They are not the most majestic trees that grow in the sheltered valleys, where no storms break, but those rather which are found upon the hill-tops and on the mountains, where they must encounter the fierce gales. It is so with men: the noblest are grown amid difficulties and hardships, not in pampered ease. Even Jesus Himself

5

was trained in the school of conflict and struggle. It may be the easiest thing to have no battles in life, to grow in some sheltered plain where the storms never blow, to meet no hardships, to have no burdens to carry; but what sort of life comes in the end from such a career? If we would reach the heights of blessedness we must be content to pass through the fields of struggle.

When armies return from victorious war, the loudest cheers are not for those who have fought the fewest battles, nor for the flags which are cleanest, but for the regiments which are cut down to a few men, and for the colours that are shot to pieces. So it will be in heaven when the redeemed are welcomed home: those who have fought the most battles, and bear the most “marks of the Lord Jesus,” will receive the highest honours. It is better, then, even for Christians themselves to stay in this world, and to grow to strength through duty and conflict.

(Today's entry in "Come Ye Apart" by J. R. Miller)

6

Bravo, You’re Weak!

(Taken from Charles Spurgeon in The Treasury of David)

There is no better plea with Divine love than weakness and pain; nothing can so prevail with the great heart of God as for your heart to faint and swoon. The man who rises in prayer to tears and agony, and feels all the while as if he could not pray, and yet must pray—he is the man who will see the desire of his soul. Do not mothers always care most for the tiniest child, or for that one which is most sick? Do we not spend the greatest care upon that one of our children which has the least use of its limbs; and is it not true that our weakness holds God's strength, and leads Him to bow His omnipotence to our rescue?

There is another strength in weakness which it is well for us to have. I believe that, when we preach in conscious weakness, it adds a wonderful force to the words we utter. When Mr. Knill went out to distribute tracts among the soldiers, he tells us that there was one wicked man who said to his comrades, "I will cure him of coming to us with his tracts;" so, when a ring was made around the minister and the blasphemer, he cursed Mr. Knill with awful oaths. Hearing those profane words, Mr. Knill burst into tears, and said how he longed for the man's salvation. Years after, he met that soldier again, when the man said to him, "I never took notice of your tracts, or of anything that you said; but when I saw you cry like a child, I could not stand it, but gave my heart to God." When we tell our people how we are hampered, but how much we long for their souls' salvation; when we ask them to excuse our broken language, for it is the utterance of our hearts, they believe in our sincerity, for they see how our hearts are breaking and they are moved by what we say. The man who grinds out theology at so much a yard has no power over men; the people need men who can feel,—men of heart, weak and feeble men, who can sympathize with the timid and sorrowful. It is a blessed thing if a minister can weep his way into men's souls, or even stammer a path into their hearts. So, brethren, do not be afraid of being weak, but rejoice to be able to say, with the apostle, "When I am weak, then am I strong."

7

The Meek Win

Psalm 37: 11 – But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace. (NIV)

Who are these meek? Moses was called the meekest of all men (Numbers 12) yet he was wise and accomplished in all the wisdom of Egypt. You saw the movie! Charlton Heston was amazing at science, mathematics, architecture, construction, horsemanship, warfare, plant science, leadership of men, diplomacy, etc.

8

Jesus described himself as meek and lowly (Matthew 11). He was clearly an accomplished craftsman, an outdoors-man, a man instantly attractive to rugged fishermen and other tradesmen, a captivating storyteller, a tamer of storms, an attention-getter able to arrest and fascinate large crowds.

I have heard meekness described as controlled strength, channeled to God-ordained purposes. Imagine a busy farm-yard and a mighty Clydesdale work-horse gently moving his way through numbers of chickens and ducks and harming none with his huge feathered hooves. Talk about controlled strength!

The Beatitudes affirm that the meek will inherit the earth (Matthew 5). The Spirit offers the fruit of meekness (Galatians 5). Isn’t it astonishing that simply because our Lord encourages meek ones to turn the other cheek, they are perceived by the world as weak and somehow un-manly? This seems very far from the truth.

Toiling in Rowing

(Taken from Come Ye Apart by J. R. Miller)

“He saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them.”

Mark 6:48

Jesus always sees our toils and distresses in this world. We do not see Him, and sometimes we think He has forgotten us; but that is never true. He is never indifferent for a moment. On the heights of Sedan, while the battle was in progress, stood a group of men watching the struggling armies in the plain below. In this group was the American general Sheridan, who watched the mighty strife with the keen eye of a soldier. King William was also there; but his interest was different from Sheridan’s. His son was in the thick of the fight, and he watched the battle with the eye of a father as well as of a king.

9

Christ looks down upon our struggles in this world. He sees us toiling; all our battles and strifes He beholds. He sees us in the waves and in the storm. He sees us, not with the eye of the calm spectator merely, but with the eye of tenderest love. This is a great thought; if we can only get it into our hearts, it will give us wondrous courage in the hour of toil, sorrow, or struggle. Jesus knows when the battle is hard, when the night is dark, when the temptation is more than we can bear.

Here the winds were contrary, though Christ sent His disciples out to sea. We learn that even when we are doing the things God has bidden us do, we may encounter opposition and sore difficulty. We may even be beaten back, and find the resistance too great for our strength. Many of the Lord’s disciples have to make their voyage over very stormy seas on their way to glory. For some people duty is hard; indeed, a true, noble, positive, aggressive life must always be in the face of opposition and contrary winds. “The law of head-winds in life is doubtless in the secret love of God. When the voyage is over, perhaps we shall be let see the charts, and know why it had to-be.”

10