In John’s Gospel chapter 4 the Lord Jesus is talking to a woman of ill reputation at a well. They were talking about water on one hand and eternal life, figured by Jesus as “living water” which, in that day, meant running water.
His point to the woman was that the water of eternal life that he would give for the asking would be, to one who drank, the source of unending life.
This analogy is over against the analogy of the water from the well which was hard to maintain, and ran out too soon -- very much like this mortal life, the days of which “are soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psalm 90).
There are many things that could be said about this passage. I could write on it for weeks. But this is probably the last installation on this passage. And I want to point out something a bit obscure.
There is a theme in John’s Gospel that runs just under the surface about how the Jewish officials and those who followed them responded to Jesus Christ on one hand, and how those who were not of this privileged class, namely, Commoners among the Galileans, commoners in Jerusalem and surrounding area, Gentiles like the Roman Nobleman who comes up a little later on, and Samaritans responded on the other. In brief, the sections where Christ is in Jerusalem, the Jews, as John (himself a Jew) called them, saw more miracles and signs than most of the members of the other classes.
These signs certified him as the Son of God and the promised Messiah.
The religious officials had more access than anyone in the history of the world to the Holy Scriptures which pointed to him with clear identifying signs. The people of the other groups had much less access, both because they were commoners, and because they were members of groups who were more or less marginalized by the religious officials.
Yet, when the LORD God, the ultimate Author of these writings was made flesh and presented himself, the religious officials refused to recognize him. They only saw him as a threat to their wealth, power, and privilege.
John recounts several incidents in which Jesus went up to Jerusalem, the capital of official religion, and was discounted, rejected, and even in peril of his life, even though he opened the eyes of the blind, raised the dead, and other things. These things just don’t happen. We all know this. So when they did happen before thousands of eyewitnesses, they were “signs” that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, the Saviour, the Judge of all mankind, as he said he was. The religious officials were never able to deny that these things happened. They just refused to draw the obvious conclusion.
The reason John gives for this in chapter twelve is that God had blinded their eyes and closed their ears and hardened their hearts as an act of judgement.
In contrast, however, is this woman. What great sign did Jesus do to convince her that he was the Messiah, the Saviour who should come into the world?
Apparently there was, in the corrupted religion of the Samaritans, a fable that when Messiah showed up, he would be like -- I don’t know -- like Madam Ruby -- that he would be able to tell people things about themselves that he normally should not know. And when Jesus told her to go get her husband -- well you go read the account -- she dropped her pot and ran into the city and rounded up all her men friends to come meet him. She ran around the streets saying, “This is him. He told me everything I ever did.” He didn’t, of course. He just told her one thing. But it was enough.
Nothing was enough for the officials.
So, dear reader, what is enough for you? There is, in the Bible, more than enough evidence for you to know that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and for you to believe on him for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. The Bible and the Biblical Christian Faith will stand up to honest investigation.
But you: will you insist that you already know it all like the religionists in John’s Gospel? Then your sins remain, because you insist that you see. (John 9:41). Or will you admit you do not. Like the woman who heard about the living water, will you turn in your heart and say, “Well, give it to me. I need it.”
In either case, you will have to answer to none other than Jesus Christ himself. He said that the Father had committed the judgement of all mankind to him, because he was also a man.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Woman at the well-3
John chapter 4.
Jesus has come to sit on a well, an ancient well that was at least sixteen centuries old, that belonged to Jacob. It is about noon. A woman comes out to draw a pot of water for the house. The fact that she came at this time indicates that she was a social outcast. Women usually went in a group early in the morining and late in the evening to get water. But if she came with the other women they would have abused her. Why? Because she was -- well -- she was like you and I, with one little difference. Most people knew her dirty little secrets. Most people don’t know yours and mine.
She came out and found Jesus sitting, and he asked her to run her jug down into the well and get him a drink. He, in turn, offered her “living water” (everlasting life) that, by drinking, one would never thirst again. You can read the whole conversation for yourself. I just want to point out a few things.
1. In the same way that Jesus did not have anyway to get water out of the well, the woman had no way to get the water that Jesus offered. Actually Jesus could have gotten water from the well by some other means, but the woman was completely dependent on Jesus to even know about the water of everlasting life, as well as to have it.
2. It was something everyone needed, but he only offered it to her and her friends. It was his water and he could choose to give it to whom he would. Some, in fact, many, were passed over. It is conceivable that only some of the people she invited from the city ever came out to receive the gift. In another place, Jesus said that many are called, but few are chosen.
3. He gave it to her because he wanted to, and after she had been made known of the living water, eternal life, she was able to recognize her need for it and she asked Jesus for it. If he had not made the first move, she could not have made any move at all, nor would she have known that she needed to or could or must. That was a ridiculously long sentence. My point is that she asked for it.
4. It was given to her freely, sovreignly, and by God’s foreknowledge and determinate counsel (remember, it said “he must needs go through Samaria.”
What stands out to me is that this woman was truly converted because Jesus converted her. I have become more and more appalled at the way we in evangelical circles tell people that by walking down an aisle and filling out a card and praying a prayer, they can “get born again” or “get saved”. Such words do not appear in Scripture. The Scripture’s way of saying these things is “be born again” “be saved” “be converted”. They are all passive. They are all done by God to the person, just like the drink of living water was given to the woman. She could not “get” it.
It is no wonder in my mind that so many people in churches show no evidence of having been reborn, made new, changed. They haven’t been. They have done something religious and joined the club and that is all. But often people have been robbed by this type presentation. We fail to tell folks that they are estranged from God and that He is working through their conscience and circumstances to bring them to the place of conversion. We fail to exhort people to seek the Lord diligently, and ask to be converted, so that we can believe the Gospel of Christ and be saved by Jesus. We are remiss to say that we must repent and bring forth evidence of repentance.
“Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” Isaiah 55:6-7
Jesus has come to sit on a well, an ancient well that was at least sixteen centuries old, that belonged to Jacob. It is about noon. A woman comes out to draw a pot of water for the house. The fact that she came at this time indicates that she was a social outcast. Women usually went in a group early in the morining and late in the evening to get water. But if she came with the other women they would have abused her. Why? Because she was -- well -- she was like you and I, with one little difference. Most people knew her dirty little secrets. Most people don’t know yours and mine.
She came out and found Jesus sitting, and he asked her to run her jug down into the well and get him a drink. He, in turn, offered her “living water” (everlasting life) that, by drinking, one would never thirst again. You can read the whole conversation for yourself. I just want to point out a few things.
1. In the same way that Jesus did not have anyway to get water out of the well, the woman had no way to get the water that Jesus offered. Actually Jesus could have gotten water from the well by some other means, but the woman was completely dependent on Jesus to even know about the water of everlasting life, as well as to have it.
2. It was something everyone needed, but he only offered it to her and her friends. It was his water and he could choose to give it to whom he would. Some, in fact, many, were passed over. It is conceivable that only some of the people she invited from the city ever came out to receive the gift. In another place, Jesus said that many are called, but few are chosen.
3. He gave it to her because he wanted to, and after she had been made known of the living water, eternal life, she was able to recognize her need for it and she asked Jesus for it. If he had not made the first move, she could not have made any move at all, nor would she have known that she needed to or could or must. That was a ridiculously long sentence. My point is that she asked for it.
4. It was given to her freely, sovreignly, and by God’s foreknowledge and determinate counsel (remember, it said “he must needs go through Samaria.”
What stands out to me is that this woman was truly converted because Jesus converted her. I have become more and more appalled at the way we in evangelical circles tell people that by walking down an aisle and filling out a card and praying a prayer, they can “get born again” or “get saved”. Such words do not appear in Scripture. The Scripture’s way of saying these things is “be born again” “be saved” “be converted”. They are all passive. They are all done by God to the person, just like the drink of living water was given to the woman. She could not “get” it.
It is no wonder in my mind that so many people in churches show no evidence of having been reborn, made new, changed. They haven’t been. They have done something religious and joined the club and that is all. But often people have been robbed by this type presentation. We fail to tell folks that they are estranged from God and that He is working through their conscience and circumstances to bring them to the place of conversion. We fail to exhort people to seek the Lord diligently, and ask to be converted, so that we can believe the Gospel of Christ and be saved by Jesus. We are remiss to say that we must repent and bring forth evidence of repentance.
“Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” Isaiah 55:6-7
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Woman at the well-2
In John 4, the Lord “must needs go through Samaria” on his way back to Galilee in the North. But, in fact, he really didn’t need to go this way. Customarily, Jews went around Samaria to go north because they considered the Samarians inferior.
They were, in a sense. They were descendants of Jews who had been left in the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians in 722 b.c. The Assyrians had move in pagans from other lands they had conquered, and these Jews had intermarried with them. They had also taught them the way of the God of Israel after a fashion, but the new arrivals also kept worshipping their pagan gods. This was the source of a patchwork kind of religion in Samaria.
But it was necessary for him to go through Samaria so that he could encounter this woman, and thus bring the Gospel to these people. But this was just not done.
Lesson one: Doing the will of God sometimes takes me where I otherwise have no business.
Here is an interesting thing. It says he was wearied by the journey and sat thus on the well. The way he sat, he just looked exhausted. The word “wearied” interested me. It is from a word that means “cut down” like grain is cut down with a sickle. He was “cut down” by the difficulty of the journey. When the woman saw him, he looked like had been cut down.
Lesson two: The Scripture indicates that Christ, during his earthly sojourn, identified with our day to day suffering. How many times have I felt cut down by -- well just stuff. Right now I am saying a good-bye to a hope I have cherished for a while. But it will not happen; another in a line of beloved people to whom I have had to say good-bye in some sense: people who died, or moved away, or something else. And here is another one. And I feel like the stalk-left-standing of freshly sickled grain, standing in the hot sun, drying out, oozing sadness.
Well, so what happened to him. A nice lady of questionable reputation came and gave him some water. And this led to one of the most notable presentations of the Gospel Message in John’s book. That is for another day.
But here, when Christ came into the world as a man, he encountered the daily difficulties and unpleasantries that march against us every-day earth dwellers. And in the process of his doing of his Father’s will, these things wore him down, cut him down.
So much for a mythical, surreal, storybook type of Christianity where everyone gets saved and lives happily everafter, lives “the abundant life” and goes from day to day “having the victory!” Sometimes this is the way Christianity is presented. And there are times of unspeakable joy, and times of great enjoyment in fellowship with God. But the idea that it is always this way is hokey.
What is not hokey is that the world is fallen, not as God made it. And that, thanks to people like me, it is a mess. But that God is working to redeem it and to restore all things in such a way that His Son, Jesus Christ, will be glorified by all redeemed mankind and that in this, God will be glorified.
They were, in a sense. They were descendants of Jews who had been left in the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians in 722 b.c. The Assyrians had move in pagans from other lands they had conquered, and these Jews had intermarried with them. They had also taught them the way of the God of Israel after a fashion, but the new arrivals also kept worshipping their pagan gods. This was the source of a patchwork kind of religion in Samaria.
But it was necessary for him to go through Samaria so that he could encounter this woman, and thus bring the Gospel to these people. But this was just not done.
Lesson one: Doing the will of God sometimes takes me where I otherwise have no business.
Here is an interesting thing. It says he was wearied by the journey and sat thus on the well. The way he sat, he just looked exhausted. The word “wearied” interested me. It is from a word that means “cut down” like grain is cut down with a sickle. He was “cut down” by the difficulty of the journey. When the woman saw him, he looked like had been cut down.
Lesson two: The Scripture indicates that Christ, during his earthly sojourn, identified with our day to day suffering. How many times have I felt cut down by -- well just stuff. Right now I am saying a good-bye to a hope I have cherished for a while. But it will not happen; another in a line of beloved people to whom I have had to say good-bye in some sense: people who died, or moved away, or something else. And here is another one. And I feel like the stalk-left-standing of freshly sickled grain, standing in the hot sun, drying out, oozing sadness.
Well, so what happened to him. A nice lady of questionable reputation came and gave him some water. And this led to one of the most notable presentations of the Gospel Message in John’s book. That is for another day.
But here, when Christ came into the world as a man, he encountered the daily difficulties and unpleasantries that march against us every-day earth dwellers. And in the process of his doing of his Father’s will, these things wore him down, cut him down.
So much for a mythical, surreal, storybook type of Christianity where everyone gets saved and lives happily everafter, lives “the abundant life” and goes from day to day “having the victory!” Sometimes this is the way Christianity is presented. And there are times of unspeakable joy, and times of great enjoyment in fellowship with God. But the idea that it is always this way is hokey.
What is not hokey is that the world is fallen, not as God made it. And that, thanks to people like me, it is a mess. But that God is working to redeem it and to restore all things in such a way that His Son, Jesus Christ, will be glorified by all redeemed mankind and that in this, God will be glorified.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
The woman at the well - 1
This morning, I was reading again the account of the woman at the well in John’s gospel account chapter 4. It runs from the beginning of the chapter through verse 23. I will take a couple of days to write out my thoughts on this. It is too long for one shot.
The first thing of note in this passage is the set of circumstances that brought it about:
Jesus knew that the pharasees had heard that he was even more popular than John Baptist, his forerunner. They were already out to get John. When the members of the ministerial alliance came out to one of his baptisms, he called them exactly what they were, snakes, vipers. Now, this one whom John said was the Messiah was gaining popularity. He would be an even greater threat to their power and wealth. They had acquired their power and wealth by misuse of God’s stewardship entrusted to them. They knew it. They intended to keep it.
On the other hand, the Lord Jesus was not out for fame or power. He had agreed to leave that behind when he was sent here. Isaiah says of him, “He will not strive, nor cry, nor lift up his voice in the streets.” So, in order to avoid certain conflict, he left the region and went back north.
But there is more here. He says a couple of times in John’s gospel that he only did what he was directed of his Father to do. Other places in scripture say that he was lead of the Spirit of God. For instance, early on, when he goes into the wilderness for forty days after his baptism, Matthew, Mark, and Luke say that it was the Holy Spirit who directed this. I think it is Mark who even says that he was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit.
This is important to me because it gives me a window into how God lead his Son during his earthly mission. It might give me some clues about God’s leading also.
So I observe that he was pushed to do something because of adverse circumstances caused by his enemies. He was lead by circumstance. He must have believed that his Father, who causes all things to work out according to his will, controls circumstances. Systematic theology even explains pretty well that God has foreordained all that comes to pass, although he does it in such as way as to leave the limited free will of man unabridged. A clear example of this is Pharaoh in Exodus charging into the parted Red Sea to his death. He did this of his own free will, uncoerced, because God had manipulated nature to make Pharaoh think that acting in a certain was was to his advantage.
Anyway, the Lord was lead by circumstances.
But, based on the other things I mentioned above, he also responded to these circumstances by the leading of the Spirit and/or because his Father told him what to do.
So circumstance and the Spirit and his Father’s direction were how he was lead here.
I have had a very few times when I knew by the Spirit what I should do. But most of the time, I am pushed by circumstance to do what seems the right thing based on what I know at the time. But I trust that, if I walk with God, these circumstances will be fences to keep me on the path.
The first thing of note in this passage is the set of circumstances that brought it about:
Jesus knew that the pharasees had heard that he was even more popular than John Baptist, his forerunner. They were already out to get John. When the members of the ministerial alliance came out to one of his baptisms, he called them exactly what they were, snakes, vipers. Now, this one whom John said was the Messiah was gaining popularity. He would be an even greater threat to their power and wealth. They had acquired their power and wealth by misuse of God’s stewardship entrusted to them. They knew it. They intended to keep it.
On the other hand, the Lord Jesus was not out for fame or power. He had agreed to leave that behind when he was sent here. Isaiah says of him, “He will not strive, nor cry, nor lift up his voice in the streets.” So, in order to avoid certain conflict, he left the region and went back north.
But there is more here. He says a couple of times in John’s gospel that he only did what he was directed of his Father to do. Other places in scripture say that he was lead of the Spirit of God. For instance, early on, when he goes into the wilderness for forty days after his baptism, Matthew, Mark, and Luke say that it was the Holy Spirit who directed this. I think it is Mark who even says that he was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit.
This is important to me because it gives me a window into how God lead his Son during his earthly mission. It might give me some clues about God’s leading also.
So I observe that he was pushed to do something because of adverse circumstances caused by his enemies. He was lead by circumstance. He must have believed that his Father, who causes all things to work out according to his will, controls circumstances. Systematic theology even explains pretty well that God has foreordained all that comes to pass, although he does it in such as way as to leave the limited free will of man unabridged. A clear example of this is Pharaoh in Exodus charging into the parted Red Sea to his death. He did this of his own free will, uncoerced, because God had manipulated nature to make Pharaoh think that acting in a certain was was to his advantage.
Anyway, the Lord was lead by circumstances.
But, based on the other things I mentioned above, he also responded to these circumstances by the leading of the Spirit and/or because his Father told him what to do.
So circumstance and the Spirit and his Father’s direction were how he was lead here.
I have had a very few times when I knew by the Spirit what I should do. But most of the time, I am pushed by circumstance to do what seems the right thing based on what I know at the time. But I trust that, if I walk with God, these circumstances will be fences to keep me on the path.
Sande
I had a rough night. For the second night in a row I had two patients, both of whom were extremely difficult to take care of.
Both are in a coma from brain injury.
Both have multiple wounds and sores which must be dressed.
Both are diabetic and require frequent blood sugar checks.
Both have gastric tubes for tube feeding.
Both are on respiratory assist.
Both have very serious bed sores which must be cared for.
Both have infections which are communicable by contact and so they are on isolation, meaning every time I went into the room, I had to gown up.
Both have lots of meds spread out so that every hour I needed to be in both rooms doing several things.
Both are incontinent of stool - you can figure out what that means for patient care.
Both had to be bathed and have their linens changed.
Both needed frequent mouth care.
Because we were short, I also had to take a third patient. Fortunately, she was stable with few issues to be addressed.
On top of all this, my fellow RN got a poor woman from a nursing home who came to the ER with intractable vomiting. He needed help with her.
However, none of this is what was difficult. I’m not usually this busy, but it happens sometimes. It is part of the job.
The reason the night was so hard was that early in the shift, as I sat looking at all the stuff I had to do and trying to organize it in my mind and on paper, an uninvited thought assailed me. I looked at the date on the computer screen, and suddenly realized that this time last year, I was going back and forth to New Orleans because my grand-daughter, Sande, was dying from ovarian cancer. She was only seventeen. She was my baby. When she was born, she had an incurable digestive tract disorder and almost died. But God intervened after the doctors had given her up, and in one afternoon she was healed.
I went to my son’s house as I did every day after work. I went to tutor my two older grand-daughters, and to hold Sande. I didn’t think she was getting enough attention. So, six days a week I spent two hours in the afternoon holding her with her ear to my mouth saying, “Paw Paw loves Sande.” Two hours a day. I wanted her to know. She was so sick.
So one Saturday I arrived to find Sande listless, almost unresponsive, and her fingers and toes were purple. I knew she was dying. I took her to my best friend, my adopted mother, who I called “my Little Black Mama”. She was an elderly black woman with whom I had become friends, best friends, intimate friends. And she knew God intimately. She helped me raise my girls. So I took Sande there and I said, “Mama, our baby is dying. I’m going to leave her here. I want you to take her to your church tomorrow morning and put her up on the altar and ask all those godly, praying women to lay their hands on her and pray for her healing.”
Up to this point, Sande had not been able to keep any nourishment down. We had to keep a bottle in her mouth 24 hours a day to keep her alive at all.
So Rete (the lady I am talking about) did as I asked, and brought her home. She called me later and said she was cooking beans on the stove, and when she got home, she poured off some of the pot liquor and fed it to Sande in a bottle. She kept it down. She took some milk and kept it down. From that time on, Sande could out-eat me. She was about four months old when this happened. When she was about two I stayed overnight, and she woke me early saying, “Paw Paw, I’m hungry.” She was pulling on me to get up and make her breakfast. So I got up and made her some oatmeal. And some more, and some more. I made her five packages of instant oatmeal. Then she looked up at me like a dying calf and said, “Paw Paw, I’m still hungry.” I said, “Honey, you’ve eaten everything in the house.” So then I had to take her to Huddle House and buy her breakfast.
I mean, when God healed her, He really fixed her good. She was like a vacuum cleaner with teeth. And she never got fat. Oi!
But in July of 2006, Sande started complaining about abdominal pain. But she complained about everything, so no one thought anything about it. By August, she looked like she had a full grown watermellon in her abdomen. The doctors thought it was a cyst. They scheduled surgery. They wanted an oncologist present just in case. About September 12, to our horror, this cyst turned out to be an ovarian tumor the size of a frozen turkey. She stayed in the hospital for a few days and went home. She was in intractable pain. Two weeks later was the return visit appointment with the oncologist to decide on a course of action. I drove to New Orleans to be present at the appointment. Sande had told the doctors that she wanted me in on everything because, “Paw Paw will make sure everything is done right.” When I got to the house, she was in horrible pain. I broke down and cried. I tried to refrain. By the time we saw the doctor, she was just miserable. He admitted her right away. They started her on a pain drip. The pain just got worse day by day. I was back home, but was in touch by phone.
For a week she was so drugged, most of the time she could not converse. But she would tell me that when she got better, she wanted to come visit me for a long time so we could sit on the back porch and talk about a lot of things. I knew that would never happen.
Then I got a call that she had been taken into emergency surgery. They had transfused about a dozen units of blood and her hemoglobin would not come up. When they opened her abdomen again, they found tumors growing like toadstools all throughout her abdominal cavity. And they were bleeding. Why wasn’t God healing her again this time. What was the point of the first healing when she was a baby? I don’t know. I left for New Orleans straight away.
I got there a couple of hours post-surgery. She was stable enough that they were about to take her off the vent. I made them wait until her father got there -- just in case. But she came off alright. But her pain level was so high that they had to knock her out to keep it under control. When she was still awake, she told me she did not want to die. What could I say?
I had the sorrowful job of telling her father that he should sign a do not resucitate order and, unless there was marked improvement, should refuse chemotherapy, because it would only prolong the agony.
Hours turned into days. She sunk further and further. I did some nursing care on her that the staff nurses just did not have time to do. I waited with the family. I went back and forth to my room at the inn attached to the hospital. On the last day, I started checking her urine output every hour. I could tell we were winding down. At about two p.m. she started to turn blue and cold, even though she was still breathing. At five p.m. her urine output was only five mililitres. I told them to go get her father, that she was about to go. At five forty-five she expired. She had lived just less than a month after the first surgery and only a few days after the second.
And where was God? Well, He was right where He was when His Son died at the hands of His enemies -- brutally, mercilessly, vengefully. And I think that, since I taught my girls to know the Lord from the time they were born, that He will raise her up on the last day as He raised up His Son.
But that does not help my feelings. It does not make me feel any less disemboweled, any less cut down.
And I have hoped all year that when this time came around, I would not be stalked by these unbidden memories.
But as I sat trying to organize my patient care (remember that way back when I started this?) these things, like a banshee riding a black horse, came screeching, galloping through my mind.
God hath not promised
skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
all our life through;
God hath not promised
sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
peace without pain.
But God hath promised
strength for the day,
rest for the labor,
light for the way,
grace for the trials,
help from above,
unfailing sympathy
undying love.
Helen Steiner Rice
Both are in a coma from brain injury.
Both have multiple wounds and sores which must be dressed.
Both are diabetic and require frequent blood sugar checks.
Both have gastric tubes for tube feeding.
Both are on respiratory assist.
Both have very serious bed sores which must be cared for.
Both have infections which are communicable by contact and so they are on isolation, meaning every time I went into the room, I had to gown up.
Both have lots of meds spread out so that every hour I needed to be in both rooms doing several things.
Both are incontinent of stool - you can figure out what that means for patient care.
Both had to be bathed and have their linens changed.
Both needed frequent mouth care.
Because we were short, I also had to take a third patient. Fortunately, she was stable with few issues to be addressed.
On top of all this, my fellow RN got a poor woman from a nursing home who came to the ER with intractable vomiting. He needed help with her.
However, none of this is what was difficult. I’m not usually this busy, but it happens sometimes. It is part of the job.
The reason the night was so hard was that early in the shift, as I sat looking at all the stuff I had to do and trying to organize it in my mind and on paper, an uninvited thought assailed me. I looked at the date on the computer screen, and suddenly realized that this time last year, I was going back and forth to New Orleans because my grand-daughter, Sande, was dying from ovarian cancer. She was only seventeen. She was my baby. When she was born, she had an incurable digestive tract disorder and almost died. But God intervened after the doctors had given her up, and in one afternoon she was healed.
I went to my son’s house as I did every day after work. I went to tutor my two older grand-daughters, and to hold Sande. I didn’t think she was getting enough attention. So, six days a week I spent two hours in the afternoon holding her with her ear to my mouth saying, “Paw Paw loves Sande.” Two hours a day. I wanted her to know. She was so sick.
So one Saturday I arrived to find Sande listless, almost unresponsive, and her fingers and toes were purple. I knew she was dying. I took her to my best friend, my adopted mother, who I called “my Little Black Mama”. She was an elderly black woman with whom I had become friends, best friends, intimate friends. And she knew God intimately. She helped me raise my girls. So I took Sande there and I said, “Mama, our baby is dying. I’m going to leave her here. I want you to take her to your church tomorrow morning and put her up on the altar and ask all those godly, praying women to lay their hands on her and pray for her healing.”
Up to this point, Sande had not been able to keep any nourishment down. We had to keep a bottle in her mouth 24 hours a day to keep her alive at all.
So Rete (the lady I am talking about) did as I asked, and brought her home. She called me later and said she was cooking beans on the stove, and when she got home, she poured off some of the pot liquor and fed it to Sande in a bottle. She kept it down. She took some milk and kept it down. From that time on, Sande could out-eat me. She was about four months old when this happened. When she was about two I stayed overnight, and she woke me early saying, “Paw Paw, I’m hungry.” She was pulling on me to get up and make her breakfast. So I got up and made her some oatmeal. And some more, and some more. I made her five packages of instant oatmeal. Then she looked up at me like a dying calf and said, “Paw Paw, I’m still hungry.” I said, “Honey, you’ve eaten everything in the house.” So then I had to take her to Huddle House and buy her breakfast.
I mean, when God healed her, He really fixed her good. She was like a vacuum cleaner with teeth. And she never got fat. Oi!
But in July of 2006, Sande started complaining about abdominal pain. But she complained about everything, so no one thought anything about it. By August, she looked like she had a full grown watermellon in her abdomen. The doctors thought it was a cyst. They scheduled surgery. They wanted an oncologist present just in case. About September 12, to our horror, this cyst turned out to be an ovarian tumor the size of a frozen turkey. She stayed in the hospital for a few days and went home. She was in intractable pain. Two weeks later was the return visit appointment with the oncologist to decide on a course of action. I drove to New Orleans to be present at the appointment. Sande had told the doctors that she wanted me in on everything because, “Paw Paw will make sure everything is done right.” When I got to the house, she was in horrible pain. I broke down and cried. I tried to refrain. By the time we saw the doctor, she was just miserable. He admitted her right away. They started her on a pain drip. The pain just got worse day by day. I was back home, but was in touch by phone.
For a week she was so drugged, most of the time she could not converse. But she would tell me that when she got better, she wanted to come visit me for a long time so we could sit on the back porch and talk about a lot of things. I knew that would never happen.
Then I got a call that she had been taken into emergency surgery. They had transfused about a dozen units of blood and her hemoglobin would not come up. When they opened her abdomen again, they found tumors growing like toadstools all throughout her abdominal cavity. And they were bleeding. Why wasn’t God healing her again this time. What was the point of the first healing when she was a baby? I don’t know. I left for New Orleans straight away.
I got there a couple of hours post-surgery. She was stable enough that they were about to take her off the vent. I made them wait until her father got there -- just in case. But she came off alright. But her pain level was so high that they had to knock her out to keep it under control. When she was still awake, she told me she did not want to die. What could I say?
I had the sorrowful job of telling her father that he should sign a do not resucitate order and, unless there was marked improvement, should refuse chemotherapy, because it would only prolong the agony.
Hours turned into days. She sunk further and further. I did some nursing care on her that the staff nurses just did not have time to do. I waited with the family. I went back and forth to my room at the inn attached to the hospital. On the last day, I started checking her urine output every hour. I could tell we were winding down. At about two p.m. she started to turn blue and cold, even though she was still breathing. At five p.m. her urine output was only five mililitres. I told them to go get her father, that she was about to go. At five forty-five she expired. She had lived just less than a month after the first surgery and only a few days after the second.
And where was God? Well, He was right where He was when His Son died at the hands of His enemies -- brutally, mercilessly, vengefully. And I think that, since I taught my girls to know the Lord from the time they were born, that He will raise her up on the last day as He raised up His Son.
But that does not help my feelings. It does not make me feel any less disemboweled, any less cut down.
And I have hoped all year that when this time came around, I would not be stalked by these unbidden memories.
But as I sat trying to organize my patient care (remember that way back when I started this?) these things, like a banshee riding a black horse, came screeching, galloping through my mind.
God hath not promised
skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
all our life through;
God hath not promised
sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
peace without pain.
But God hath promised
strength for the day,
rest for the labor,
light for the way,
grace for the trials,
help from above,
unfailing sympathy
undying love.
Helen Steiner Rice
Friday, September 21, 2007
The Offensive God
I spend much of my time thinking about irrational kinds of faith. The reason being that Biblical Christian faith is completely rational. It is evidential. This is not to say that everyone believes the evidence. But facts are just facts whether anyone accepts them or not.
It is like not believing that the Declaration of Independence was ratified on July 4, 1776. Fine. Don’t believe it. Make up a conjectural story of how it came about. Rant and rave and stomp your foot and insist that your conjecture is “history”, that is is “scientific”. That people who take the document literally are “Neanderthals.” You might persuade a lot of people. You might get your view taught in the school system to the exclusion of the historical, documented, position. By only allowing one view to be taught, and by castigating, excluding, or firing those who present the evidence against your position, eventually your little story may come to be accepted as true “because so many people believe it.”
But your little story is just that. You might as well include “The Three Little Pigs” in a textbook outlining the history of home architecture. Your little story is not true. The documentation and the principles of evidence are all against you. The “faith” in the historical events stated in the document (The Declaration) is a rational, evidential faith. The “faith” in your little story is contra-rational and contra-evidential. It is the kind of faith that Mark Twain meant when he said that faith is believing in something that you know damn good and well is not so. He actually aimed this little remark at Christianity. It actually applies to all of Christianity's rivals including Evolutionism (which is a faith).
The particular belief that I though about this morning while I was doing some patient related task, was the Atheist belief, or the Atheist Faith. I was listening to someone say that human suffering is one of the strongest arguments atheists use to show there is no God. But that only amounts to saying there is no god like the one they imagine there would be if they were God.
An aside: This complaint assumes there is something wrong in the world. But if the Atheist believes that there is no Creator, and that the world is just the product of random chance events over time, then it he can’t say something is wrong. He would just have to say something is. But there would be no distinction about things being right or wrong in any sense. Some atheists have tried to argue for morals starting from their position. But these arguments are only circular reasonings that come out to pragmatism. So there is no difference, absolutely, in whether I help a crippled person or kill him. What ever is expedient to the person who has the most power is “right” at that moment for that person.
So, back to my thought, if one rejects the Atheist proposition and concludes the obvious, that there is an all powerful, all wise Creator, then what does the existence of human suffering say about Him?
If we are, as the Bible says, rebels against God, unclean, unthankful, sinful, evil in the very core of our nature, then the answer should be repugnant to us.
And it is!
The Biblical answer is that these things are an expression of God’s wrath. They are perfectly just. God is not giving anyone any grief that is not the just portion of every one of Adam’s children. In this light, what does all the good and beauty in the world say about this God? It says that He is merciful, and that for the most part, He is holding His wrath in patience. The suffering that appals us is both a warning of wrath to come, and an opportunity to do righteousness on God’s behalf.
The fact that this answer wins no popularity contest is an indication that it is true. “There is none righteous, no, not one, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone away, they are together become unprofitable, the poison of asps is under their lips. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Yep, that’s me. It’s us. All of us. How unflattering. And if we don’t admit it, we are also liars.
However, the scripture goes on to say that although the wages of sin is death -- the loss of eternal life, the free gift of God is eternal life in the world to come through the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. (All of the above paraphrased from Romans chapter 3.)
It is like not believing that the Declaration of Independence was ratified on July 4, 1776. Fine. Don’t believe it. Make up a conjectural story of how it came about. Rant and rave and stomp your foot and insist that your conjecture is “history”, that is is “scientific”. That people who take the document literally are “Neanderthals.” You might persuade a lot of people. You might get your view taught in the school system to the exclusion of the historical, documented, position. By only allowing one view to be taught, and by castigating, excluding, or firing those who present the evidence against your position, eventually your little story may come to be accepted as true “because so many people believe it.”
But your little story is just that. You might as well include “The Three Little Pigs” in a textbook outlining the history of home architecture. Your little story is not true. The documentation and the principles of evidence are all against you. The “faith” in the historical events stated in the document (The Declaration) is a rational, evidential faith. The “faith” in your little story is contra-rational and contra-evidential. It is the kind of faith that Mark Twain meant when he said that faith is believing in something that you know damn good and well is not so. He actually aimed this little remark at Christianity. It actually applies to all of Christianity's rivals including Evolutionism (which is a faith).
The particular belief that I though about this morning while I was doing some patient related task, was the Atheist belief, or the Atheist Faith. I was listening to someone say that human suffering is one of the strongest arguments atheists use to show there is no God. But that only amounts to saying there is no god like the one they imagine there would be if they were God.
An aside: This complaint assumes there is something wrong in the world. But if the Atheist believes that there is no Creator, and that the world is just the product of random chance events over time, then it he can’t say something is wrong. He would just have to say something is. But there would be no distinction about things being right or wrong in any sense. Some atheists have tried to argue for morals starting from their position. But these arguments are only circular reasonings that come out to pragmatism. So there is no difference, absolutely, in whether I help a crippled person or kill him. What ever is expedient to the person who has the most power is “right” at that moment for that person.
So, back to my thought, if one rejects the Atheist proposition and concludes the obvious, that there is an all powerful, all wise Creator, then what does the existence of human suffering say about Him?
If we are, as the Bible says, rebels against God, unclean, unthankful, sinful, evil in the very core of our nature, then the answer should be repugnant to us.
And it is!
The Biblical answer is that these things are an expression of God’s wrath. They are perfectly just. God is not giving anyone any grief that is not the just portion of every one of Adam’s children. In this light, what does all the good and beauty in the world say about this God? It says that He is merciful, and that for the most part, He is holding His wrath in patience. The suffering that appals us is both a warning of wrath to come, and an opportunity to do righteousness on God’s behalf.
The fact that this answer wins no popularity contest is an indication that it is true. “There is none righteous, no, not one, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone away, they are together become unprofitable, the poison of asps is under their lips. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Yep, that’s me. It’s us. All of us. How unflattering. And if we don’t admit it, we are also liars.
However, the scripture goes on to say that although the wages of sin is death -- the loss of eternal life, the free gift of God is eternal life in the world to come through the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. (All of the above paraphrased from Romans chapter 3.)
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Wrought in God
I’m reading the Greek text of John’s Gospel. I do this kind of thing both to keep up my language skills and because it forces me to think about what I am reading. I find, when reading the English Bible, that my mind wanders. Reading in another language forces me to pay closer attention.
I was snagged as I was reading John Baptist’s statements in chapter three. I need to put together a chronological collection of John’s statements and study the theology contained in them. His ministry was short, only about a year and a half. His purpose was to prepare the way for the coming Christ of God. In the prologue to John’s Gospel, in verse seven (chapter one) it is stated that John was the means by which “all should believe” on Jesus Christ. John’s short ministry prepared the men who were to become Christ’s Apostles. They were all disciples of John first.
But what snagged my attention in chapter three was this statement: “He that doeth truth cometh to the light (Jesus Christ) that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.” And here is what grabs me: that one comes to Jesus Christ because his works are already “wrought in God.” What does “wrought in God” mean? As one, Bill Shakespeare, said, “There is the rub.”
The phrase appears with “God” in the Dative case. The translators of the English Bible have left it in exact English verbal equivalence, giving the reader the opportunity to think it out. But the Dative case has several uses in Koine Greek:
1. It can be a dative of means: “wrought by means of God.” I use God to help me accomplish good works.
2. It can be a dative of instrument: “wrought by God.” God uses me as the instrument through which he ac complishes good works.
3. I could be a dative of reference: “wrought in reference to God” or “wrought toward God.”
4. It could be a dative of manner: “wrought with God in mind.”
For the first two, I looked to Jerome. In his Latin translation, he translates it “in Deo.” This is either the Latin dative or ablative. If it is Latin dative it equals #2 or #3. If ablative #1. However, both cases are spelled the same. So Jerome did not help me. It is a judgement call.
I got into an argument with one of my Greek professors once about a similar problem in another phrase of John, “The love of God.” It is impossible to determine for sure if this is a subjective or objective genitive. Does it mean “God’s love” or does it mean “love for God”? My argument was that if the Scriptures are the words of God, then when God is ambivolent, He is so for a reason. It means both.
That’s kind of my position here. If one were hearing the author say this phrase, there might have been something in the voice inflection that would give a clue. But written texts are a little short on specific voice inflections. So here is what I think the force of the passage means:
In coming to Jesus Christ in faith, as the Light of God in the world, I do so in order that my deeds may be shown, that they are wrought by God through me, wrought by me with God’s help, toward God, with God in mind. But this all evidences that God has worked in me first by His Spirit, in order that I may be enabled to come to Jesus Christ. “No man can come to me,” Jesus said, “except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him.”
(John 6:44)
I love God, then, only because He first loved me. (I John 4:19)
I was snagged as I was reading John Baptist’s statements in chapter three. I need to put together a chronological collection of John’s statements and study the theology contained in them. His ministry was short, only about a year and a half. His purpose was to prepare the way for the coming Christ of God. In the prologue to John’s Gospel, in verse seven (chapter one) it is stated that John was the means by which “all should believe” on Jesus Christ. John’s short ministry prepared the men who were to become Christ’s Apostles. They were all disciples of John first.
But what snagged my attention in chapter three was this statement: “He that doeth truth cometh to the light (Jesus Christ) that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.” And here is what grabs me: that one comes to Jesus Christ because his works are already “wrought in God.” What does “wrought in God” mean? As one, Bill Shakespeare, said, “There is the rub.”
The phrase appears with “God” in the Dative case. The translators of the English Bible have left it in exact English verbal equivalence, giving the reader the opportunity to think it out. But the Dative case has several uses in Koine Greek:
1. It can be a dative of means: “wrought by means of God.” I use God to help me accomplish good works.
2. It can be a dative of instrument: “wrought by God.” God uses me as the instrument through which he ac complishes good works.
3. I could be a dative of reference: “wrought in reference to God” or “wrought toward God.”
4. It could be a dative of manner: “wrought with God in mind.”
For the first two, I looked to Jerome. In his Latin translation, he translates it “in Deo.” This is either the Latin dative or ablative. If it is Latin dative it equals #2 or #3. If ablative #1. However, both cases are spelled the same. So Jerome did not help me. It is a judgement call.
I got into an argument with one of my Greek professors once about a similar problem in another phrase of John, “The love of God.” It is impossible to determine for sure if this is a subjective or objective genitive. Does it mean “God’s love” or does it mean “love for God”? My argument was that if the Scriptures are the words of God, then when God is ambivolent, He is so for a reason. It means both.
That’s kind of my position here. If one were hearing the author say this phrase, there might have been something in the voice inflection that would give a clue. But written texts are a little short on specific voice inflections. So here is what I think the force of the passage means:
In coming to Jesus Christ in faith, as the Light of God in the world, I do so in order that my deeds may be shown, that they are wrought by God through me, wrought by me with God’s help, toward God, with God in mind. But this all evidences that God has worked in me first by His Spirit, in order that I may be enabled to come to Jesus Christ. “No man can come to me,” Jesus said, “except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him.”
(John 6:44)
I love God, then, only because He first loved me. (I John 4:19)
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Meditation over a colostomy bag
I was watching something on TV this morning while I was changing a dressing on one of my patients.
This young man was saying that he believed that chemical evolution is the explanation for the universe and life. He said that he does not believe there is a God because he has never seen any evidence that there is.
I though to my self what I might say if I were talking to him. And here is what I would say. It came to me like an epiphany. I would say -- Don’t miss this:
"You’ve never seen anything else."
How simple. But this is true.
The Bible says that Christ is the light that illumines every man coming into the world (John Chapter 1). And Paul states that two things are true in this regard: One, that God had made creation so that it and all in it demonstrate clearly to the reason that there is an eternal and all powerful God. And two, that in addition to this, God goes to the effort to deal with every man’s thoughts in order to make this known. (Romans Chapter 1)
In other words, every man, that is, every member of Adam’s race, all of us, know both by reason and immediate illumination from God, that He exists, and that we and all we see are the works of His hands, and that we are accountable to Him for our life and deeds.
We know it whether we admit it or not. And if we resist this knowledge, or turn away from it, we do so with knowledge, so that we shall be inexcusable when we stand before God to give account of ourselves.
This is our dilemma. We are in rebellion, with knowledge, against the true God. No one is innocent. We are all guilty. We are all "miserable offenders" in the words of the Book of Common Prayer. We are rightly condemned before the righteous Almighty God.
It is against this hopeless plight that God extends to us complete righteousness as a free gift. He exchanged the sinless life of his Holy Son, counting Him a sinner, and arranging for His execution as such. And He offers to us, as a bookkeeping entry against our indebtedness, the Righteousness which His Son really had, even though He was counted a sinner. He offers this to all who will embrace His Beloved Son by believing on Him. And then, on that basis, just as He saw His Son a sinner, He sees one who believes on His Son, Jesus Christ, as fully righteous, even though he is not.
All this thought out over a colostomy bag dressing.
This young man was saying that he believed that chemical evolution is the explanation for the universe and life. He said that he does not believe there is a God because he has never seen any evidence that there is.
I though to my self what I might say if I were talking to him. And here is what I would say. It came to me like an epiphany. I would say -- Don’t miss this:
"You’ve never seen anything else."
How simple. But this is true.
The Bible says that Christ is the light that illumines every man coming into the world (John Chapter 1). And Paul states that two things are true in this regard: One, that God had made creation so that it and all in it demonstrate clearly to the reason that there is an eternal and all powerful God. And two, that in addition to this, God goes to the effort to deal with every man’s thoughts in order to make this known. (Romans Chapter 1)
In other words, every man, that is, every member of Adam’s race, all of us, know both by reason and immediate illumination from God, that He exists, and that we and all we see are the works of His hands, and that we are accountable to Him for our life and deeds.
We know it whether we admit it or not. And if we resist this knowledge, or turn away from it, we do so with knowledge, so that we shall be inexcusable when we stand before God to give account of ourselves.
This is our dilemma. We are in rebellion, with knowledge, against the true God. No one is innocent. We are all guilty. We are all "miserable offenders" in the words of the Book of Common Prayer. We are rightly condemned before the righteous Almighty God.
It is against this hopeless plight that God extends to us complete righteousness as a free gift. He exchanged the sinless life of his Holy Son, counting Him a sinner, and arranging for His execution as such. And He offers to us, as a bookkeeping entry against our indebtedness, the Righteousness which His Son really had, even though He was counted a sinner. He offers this to all who will embrace His Beloved Son by believing on Him. And then, on that basis, just as He saw His Son a sinner, He sees one who believes on His Son, Jesus Christ, as fully righteous, even though he is not.
All this thought out over a colostomy bag dressing.
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