April 2008

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage long with great patience and careful instruction.” 2^nd Timothy 4:2

During the Civil War, at the Battle of Fredericksburg, in what was one of the most one sided victories for the Confederacy, the Union Army marched across open ground to face an entrenched Confederate Army. The Union’s losses were massive and what they had endured was etched in their memories, so much so, that during Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union soldiers chanted “Fredericksburg” as the Confederate soldiers retreated back to the woods.

Throughout history, often in war, we see instances of remembrance as points of inspiration for an army during battle. The battle cry for the Texans during their War of Independence became “Remember the Alamo.” “Remember Pearl Harbor” is another familiar expression that was used throughout WWII. Pearl Harbor is something I will personally always remember, not because of my age but because when I was seven years old, I lived on Pearl Harbor’s Naval Base, literally yards from the harbor. I saw the Arizona Memorial repeatedly and the wreckage beneath the water. For those who have been to the Memorial, the oil on the water remains etched in your memory.

In the same way, the attack on 9-11 will remain particularly vivid in the minds of those who lived in New York as the landscape is forever absent of the twin towers. The same is obviously true for those who were on the campus of Virginia Tech along with the families of students who will always remember April 16^th, 2007 and the massacre that took place that day.

Though it would seem remembering events like these should be simple, it is in our nature that we collectively forget things, or that we lose their meaning. Recently, a 17 year old asked a friend of mine what 9-11 was. The idea of someone not knowing seems amazing to me as most of us can remember where we were, what we were doing, etc. when 9-11 happened. But as I thought about this 17 year old, it struck me that she was only 10 when the event occurred. It was not so vivid in her mind. She may not even have been told. So in this, we see a special connection, and for parents, frankly an obligation, to teach and remind our children of what has happened not only in their own lives but in the “distant” past as well.

Remembering is an experience, but when we begin to look at things that have happened during our lifetime or in our history rather than events that we have personally experienced, our memory fades and the event loses its meaning and exclamation in our mind. If it is our nature to forget, then we must endeavor to remember the experience. Remembering must be linked to the emotion of that experience. But why is it that we often forget the positive emotions and instead remember those that are not pleasant?

A common joke in our culture is that men forget their own wedding anniversary. An extraordinary day, filled with wonderful emotions gets lost in the minutiae of life. We sometimes need reminders, prompters, triggers to make sure we don’t forget. Thank goodness for Microsoft calendar reminders. But how is it that we forget? I would tell you that it is our habit to forget the positive, and more routine to remember the negative. We do this all the time. “Let me tell you what happened to me,” rarely surrounds something positive that happened. It is more likely to point to how we have been treated “unfairly” or what someone had “done to us.”

This is particularly true in our workplace. When I was in graduate school, my independent study was on evaluation systems. What I found and witnessed in my own workplace is that most often when people evaluate others, they merely remember and note the most recent negative behaviors. We are not inclined to view the avalanche of positives that have occurred. Why…because the negatives remain with us longer. We often don’t record or keep triggers for all the positive things that have occurred.

As parents, this is acutely important, for so often we dwell on the moment of what our child did wrong versus remembering all that they have done right. I am not saying that there should not be accountability when our children behave in a way that is inappropriate, but do we acknowledge and remember to tell them all the time, the majority of the time, even some of the time all the things they have done right? Isn’t that the crux of the problem; we remember the negatives, and ignore so often the positives.

So take a moment now to remember:

· all that you have to be grateful for

· how you can praise your children for the positive that they have done

Our memory for the positive must remain stronger than that of the negative. We need to:

· develop the habit of remembering all that we have to be grateful for

· take the time to record the positive…write them down even, then share them

· communicate to those you love more of the positive than the negative

Remember, that you as parents and adults are teachers. Teach those you love to remember all that we can be thankful for and develop the habit in others that the numbers of positive markers they record in their memory need to far outweigh the number of negative ones.

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Scriptural Basis:
“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” Isaiah 46:4

Anderson’s Applications:
This week the news carried the picture of a 115 year old “young” American lady who is now the oldest person in the world, the other 115 year old from Asia, older by a few months, having just died. We are told today that for any number of reasons we are living longer on average than those since early Biblical days. Thanks to modern medicine, and the eradication of many ailments and diseases, there is certainly the potential for longer life. The Bible itself is not short on promises concerning living to a ripe old age in this world, though its formula for attaining old age is not found on the pages of most “health” magazines. There the focus is on what you can do for the “machinery,” the physical body, with little mention of the spirit that empowers it and directs your steps.

God’s Word speaks about long life for those who fear the Lord, who honor their parents, who walk in His ways, who guard their tongues from evil and deceitful speech, who hunger for righteousness, who practice obedience to His commands, “fixing” His words in their heart and in their home, while teaching them to their children, and their children’s children. It is not the prescription of the “health” magazines. But it is the prescription of the One who made us and controls every life for good or ill.

Yet it can still be shown that God in His wisdom has seen fit to cut short the lives of those who in our estimation and His (see for example Stephen in the New Testament) lived such a life. This is the mystery of Providence, and one of the many questions we shall have for Him in eternity, when we see our Lord face to face, and not through a “glass darkly” as the Scriptures put it. It is for us who desire to see and influence the lives of our children and theirs, and the lives of others, by the example of our own life of godliness, which rest on the promise that “gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.”

My own father, whom I love dearly, is now approaching his 91st birthday. He is certainly, in his own words, yearning for home (heaven) where his sweetheart of 62 years of marriage awaits, but better still His beloved Savior. Yet he is content to rest in His Providence who determines the length of his days and knows each one of our life’s end (Psalm 139:16).

Would you like to know what your date is? How would it change the way you approach life today? We live now, and we shall live tomorrow by faith alone, trusting in the Word which is ours for the hearing any and every day. We do not “see” the day of our death, already ordained for us. But we can see and know the One who has ordained it. Many “things” and people can get in the way of prioritizing Him, but it is your spirit that “fixes” your choices. Job’s counselors were not renowned for the accuracy of their counsel, but Eliphaz was not off the mark when he rightly prophesied of Job, “You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season.” (Job 5:26) This is another way of saying, “Finish well!”

Encouragement:
Heavenly Father, teach me to number my days aright, that I may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

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Scriptural Basis:
Then He said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Matthew 22:21

Anderson’s Applications:
“A date that will live in infamy,” is how President Roosevelt described December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day; but many Americans seem to believe it is as well an apt description for April 15th in any given year. We are often told around this time how many days (months) we must work after January 1st before we begin paying ourselves, instead of the government. The wit of Ben Franklin expressed many years ago that “nothing can be certain but death and taxes;” yet he also told us, “Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and parliaments. If we can get rid of the former, we may more easily bear the latter.” Believe it or not there is a spiritual element to paying taxes, and Jesus did not avoid the subject; though admittedly when He said what we read above in the Gospel of Matthew He was answering a question put to Him craftily for the purpose of tripping Him into such an answer that would finally silence Him and end His public mission.

The evil intent of Jesus’ enemies, the Pharisees, was to collaborate with their own enemies, the tax-supporting Herodians, to do their dirty work in putting a question to Jesus that would infuriate either the tax-paying national populace of the Jews or the governing Roman authorities. They thought His answer would surely make one of these two so angry that Jesus’ mouth would be stopped and His mission from His Father in Heaven aborted. Instead His wisdom so amazed them, they fled the field of battle, themselves silenced!

We also can be amazed by the wisdom of Jesus in quieting their tongues, and still miss the import of His words to our own sanctification. He desires that we not only hear what He says, in every instance, but express our love for Him through obedience. Tax collectors and taxes both were hated in His day, and we, being honest, grate under the “burden” of paying taxes in our day. But what Jesus teaches us here is that the Christian faith is no enemy to civil government. Indeed, the government of Jesus’ day was far more odious than the one we live under in America today. The Jews under Roman rule had no voice concerning the rate of their taxes, or changing their government at the ballot box. Yet God raised up the authorities in their day just as He has the authorities in our day for the purposes of order and justice in the society. Jesus was aware of that and honored the government even though they became His unjust executioners.

He has given us in our day a privilege not enjoyed by every Christian in every age; the honor to say something about how we are taxed and who taxes us, as well as who rules over us. To not exercise that honor is a sin; not just idleness, not just oversight, not just ignorance; it is a willful sin. Give to Caesar (civil government), Jesus said, what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s! Jesus tacitly admonished Caesar for putting an inscription on his coins falsely claiming his own divinity, in saying give to God what is God’s. We are to obey God rather than men when man’s rulings are disobedient to God’s expressed will. And we are to worship Him alone. But we are to obey the authorities over us (Romans 13) in all things that are not in direct disobedience to God and His Word. What we cannot do is exempt ourselves from voting. We are citizens of Heaven, but we are also citizens of our home country. It is our spiritual duty and precious privilege to exercise both responsibilities. We do not put purple ink on one of our fingers when we vote, but think when you vote of those who do, at the risk of their life, and value what you have with thanksgiving to God.

Encouragement:
“Heavenly Father, help me in Your strength to give honor where honor is due, and live as one who is in submission to my Lord and Savior.”

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Scriptural Basis:
“And you may be sure that your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:23b

Anderson’s Applications:
There are many people who do not believe this is true. Otherwise, why do they do what they do? So often sin is willingly entered into with the thought, “Who is going to know?” Or, “How can this really hurt me?” We hear about the Bill Clintons and the Eliot Spitzers of the world fairly frequently. We do not always know about those whose notoriety is not of such company; but their number is, nevertheless, legion. Most of us can count ourselves among them. Notoriety or not, our sin hurts someone, and if we ever think about who it hurts, especially when it is exposed, we do not always include the One who leads the list: the Lord Himself.

This verse has been hidden in my memory from a very young age. Unfortunately, its truth with its warning of consequence was not always foremost in my mind. The context is illustrative of similar situations in which we find ourselves today. Read Numbers 32 and consider the request to Moses of two of the twelve tribes of Israel: Reuben and Gad. The Israelites were still on the wilderness side of Jordan preparing to enter and subdue the “Promised Land” of Canaan as God had commanded. The Reubenites and the Gadites greatly desired the land this side of Canaan for their herds and flocks, their wives and children; a land which in essence was already conquered. It afforded them immediate gratification, and hopefully, they thought, no need to pursue the hard work of taking Canaan by force. Basically the lust of their eyes had taken their hearts desire away from the Lord’s “Promised Land.” “A bird in the hand was worth two in the bush.” Moses was not pleased with their request anymore than he was with the bad report of ten of the twelve spies who had reconnoitered the land of Canaan, including representatives from these two tribes. Only Caleb and Joshua brought a report that pleased the Lord, because it was in agreement with His revealed will.

Moses conceded to the request only when he secured the promise of the participation of Reuben’s and Gad’s fighting men in the herculean task set before the whole nation of Israel. But his warning to them includes the verse, “be sure your sin will find you out” if you do not do what you have promised before the Lord, and complete the work to its full satisfaction.

It is no different with the believer or even the unbeliever. Unbelievers enter into trusts with a person or people to whom they make a promise of fidelity and honor, such as the two notorious individuals above. The believer enters into an agreement to serve the Lord with his whole heart. If the promise is betrayed God says, believer or unbeliever, “you may be sure your sin will find you out.” It is a given in the world in which we live, a world created and ruled by its Creator. You may not believe it; the exposure or the consequence may not be immediate; it may linger for some time; but it is inevitable. And believe it or not, God proves it over and over again.

We may be genuinely shocked by the suggestions that enter into our minds, especially if we are not convinced of the depravity of the heart of man; but we will not act on them, if we are convinced of the truth of this verse and the pain and shame we bring on the Lord Himself. Joseph exclaimed in his heart when under the severest of temptations, “How can I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” The hurt and shame to others is severe enough, but even it is not nearly so powerful an antidote as to understand the fear of the Lord and see Him with the eyes of your heart.

Encouragement:
“Heavenly Father, before I act upon an urge to sin or the lust of my eyes, remind me that Your eyes are upon my every step, and I cannot flee from Your presence; nor, if I sin, the inevitable consequence of it.”

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