Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34a
We’re not called to judge or condemn people; we’re called to forgive and bless them. Through his death on the cross, Jesus has ushered in a time of mercy and love, forgiveness and intercession-a time of repentance. When he was crucified, the hearts of people were revealed in all their rebellion and sin.
“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11). God the Father has appointed Jesus to be judge. But that’s in the future. Jesus is not judging humankind in that final sense yet; rather he is now their intercessor and seeks to bring them to himself. Look at Jesus on the cross. He’s not standing over you in judgment; he’s taken your judgment day on the cross. In a real sense, the judgment day is over for the believer. We know with confidence that we’ll get through it because of Jesus’s work. You and I are not judges, either. Are you enthusiastically giving up your right to judge? Are you praying for people with compassion, perceiving their ignorance?
I’ve been working my way through Piercing Heaven, a beautiful collection of Puritan prayers. Here are a series of prayers for the comforting work of the Holy Spirit from Robert Hawker.
Blessed promise! Holy Spirit, make it happen in and upon my soul, day by day.
Bring me under the continued baptisms of your sovereign influence, and cause me to feel all the sweet anointings of the Spirit sent down upon the hearts and minds of your redeemed. These are the fruits and effects of Jesus, the promise of God the Father.
Yes, blessed Spirit, cause me to know you in your person, work, and power.
I need you day by day as my Comforter.
I need you as the Spirit of truth, to guide me into all truth.
I need you as the one who reminds me of the Lord Jesus, to bring to my forgetful heart all the blessed things he has revealed to me.
I need you, as the witness of my Jesus, to testify of my wants, and of his fullness to supply.
I need you as my advocate and helper, in all my infirmities in prayer.
I need you as the deposit of the promised inheritance, that
I may not faint or lack faith to hold on and hold out in every dark season.
I need you, Lord. I cannot do a moment without you, nor act in faith, nor believe a promise, nor exercise a grace, without your constant hand on my poor soul.
Come then, Lord, I beg you, and let me be brought under your unceasing baptisms. Shed abroad the love of God my Father in my heart, and direct me into the patient waiting for Jesus Christ. Amen.
In 1994, Jack Miller wrote a letter to a missionary serving in Uganda who had been discouraged after facing many demonic attacks. Jack’s advice in this letter is wise, pastoral, and practical. The whole letter can be found here (pp. 154-162).
“In my own life, He [Christ] has sent me through much suffering in order to move me from self-confidence to Christ-confidence.” (154)
“don’t permit these things to move you from your foundation in Christ.” (155)
“…the Spirit has been leading you to confess need and weakness in a God-glorifying way. But in all do not lose sight of the goodness of God and the sovereign power of God.” (155)
“Humble yourself, and the devil will have no power over you (James 4:6-7).” (156)
“Timothy Warner says that the bottom-line issue is always one of control. In his view, each of us has many wonderful potentialities within us. Our problem is that we want these potentialities to be realized under our own control and on our own terms, but God wants them to come to fruition by our deepening submission to His rule, His control.” (157)
“Don’t assume automatically that we are relying exclusively on God and His grace. Read Psalm 62 and Hebrews 11, esp. v. 6, and let the Scriptures do a job of unmasking our self-dependence and reliance on our instruments of “magic”: education, finances, organization, etc.” (157)
“Recruit others to pray for you in any demonic encounter. Could you get a group of about 50 people who would pray for you constantly and have special intercession at times of crisis? I am thinking of people who would agree to pray for you 3 times a day.” (158)
“Make the whole ministry center on private and corporate prayer. Do not expect bigger victories in tough areas until corporate praying becomes the complete center of the ministry. It is in prayer together that we find grace to give up control to the Father, rely exclusively on the Spirit, and see the demons subdued. It is here we get our life, vigor, zest, and authority for the battle.” (158)
“Without constant adoration, thanksgiving, intercession, and confession together, we are going to teach people to rely on our traditions, plans, technologies, and methods rather than on grace. Such converts will simply be switching their idols from witchcraft stuff to the tools of modernism.” (158)
“…have prayer for the cleansing of the home from all demonic powers. I would also ask the Lord to rebuke all demon power over the family as a whole.” (159)
To deal with it [spiritual attack] in Bundibugyo, you should consider the following.
1. Take two days to fast and pray to rid yourself by grace of these things. Usually, after about four hours of praying, I detect aspects and elements of self-exaltation, negative attitudes in myself that were concealed from me. Sin and self-deception go together.
2. Have group prayer (team and church leaders) for the same purpose of self-humbling and cleansing moving into reliance on God alone, repenting of all secularism too.
3. Then move into a period of praise, following the pattern of Jehoshaphat.
4. Next, look for ways outwardly to humble yourselves together, confessing sins, affirming one another, etc.
5. Come to one-mindedness as in Acts 1:13-14; 2:1, 42; 4:23-31, and then together claim Bundibugyo for Christ, rebuking the demon powers, or better, asking the Lord to rebuke them.
6. Finally, pray for wisdom to work along the line of James 1, especially the prayer for wisdom, but also get to the end of the chapter where it speaks of tongue control and care for the widows and orphans. Especially ask God to show you as Christians how to fight on a practical level the dark powers in this town.
“I am deeply concerned that all of us as a mission should move from self-dependence and rather casual approach to prayer to a full mobilization for battle.” (p. 162)
Cornelius Venema writes about how Christians should anticiplate the future with hope:
This is the pattern of the believer’s expectation for the future: it is characterized by a hope nurtured by the Word. It is marked out by a lively expectation of the accomplishment of God’s purpose in Christ. The future does not loom darkly on the horizon as something to be feared. It is something eagerly expected and anticipated, something which the believer is convinced is bright with the promise of the completion and perfection of God’s saving work. It is true that many of the biblical exhortations relating to the future call God’s people to watchfulness and sobriety, warning them against being found unprepared at Christ’s coming (1 Pet. 4:7, 1 Thess. 5:6, Matt. 24:42-45). They often warn the church to remain faithful and steadfast in holding to the apostolic teachings and Word of God (2 Thess. 2:15, Heb. 10:23). In addition, the biblical descriptions of Christ’s coming starkly describe its frightening and terrible consequences for the wicked (2 Thess. 2:8, 2 Pet. 3:12, Rev. 18:10).
But the chief note sounded in God’s revelation regarding the future is one of hope. God’s people eagerly await Christ’s return because it promises the completion of God’s work of redemption for them and for the whole creation. The Christian’s approach to the future is always one of hope nurtured by the Word. The future is bright because it is full of promise, the promise of God’s Word.
Jack Miller writing on John 21:15, “Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.'”
How do people change and become fit to live with? Habits are really hard to change. At least I’ve noticed that my wife’s are. And she has probably noticed the same thing about me! Only God’s love for us and our love for God brings deep down change. So Jesus’s questions are emphasizing what he really wants from Peter – his love. He is asking him: Do you truly love me? And is your love for me changing you at the deepest level? Does it cause you to pray? Does it help you say no to your desires? Is it teaching you patience? Peter had been boastful in promising Jesus he would lay down his life for him. He had also been fearful when he denied knowing Jesus. Jesus wants Peter to see that these struggles, at their heart, are about whom he loves. When you give your heart to Jesus, to him who laid down his life for you, you will change. The love of Christ will control your mind, your will, your choices, and your words. It’s going to get right down to the way you live, the way you are when you get up in the morning, even before you have coffee. Jesus is asking you today, “Do you love me?” How will you answer?
I’ve been getting to know the teachings of Jack Miller thanks to the recent biography by Michael Graham titled, Cheer Up! The Life and Ministry of Jack Miller. As I’ve read some of Jack’s writings, I’ve been particularly helped by The Heart of a Servant Leader, a compilation of his letters to pastors, missionaries, friends, and family. It is one of the wisest books on humble leadership that calls leaders to learn to rely on Christ for strength that I’ve ever read.
Here’s a letter that Jack wrote to a woman questioning whether she is really a Christian.
April, 1983
Dear Elise,
Thank you for your recent letter concerning your desire to know whether you have had a God-centered repentance. So set aside any fears that I might be unwilling to take time to help you. Perhaps I can help you if you will recognize that all I can do is be a small finger pointing to a large Christ. But if you trust yourself to Him be confident He is not only willing to help you but has the power to help you.
What do you need to know? First, repentance and faith are not like a sidewalk that you must travel on to get to the house of salvation. They are the door or, perhaps better, God’s ways for being near Him. When you turn to Christ, you don’t have a repentance apart from Christ you just have Christ. Therefore don’t seek repentance or faith as such but seek Christ. When you have Christ you have repentance and faith. Beware of seeking an experience of repentance; just seek an experience of Christ.
The Devil can be pretty tricky: He doesn’t mind you thinking much about repentance and faith if you do not chink about Jesus Christ. He wants you to worry a great deal about whether you have really repented. Examining yourself is fine–if you relate it to the cross and Christ’s love for you. But the point of my little book is that any surrow for sin apart from Christ is not going to help you. So don’t even seek sorrow for sin or to see whether your repentance is genuine. Seek Christ, and relate to Christ as a loving Savior and Lord who wants to invite you to know Him.
You raise the question whether or not you are saved, and rightly suggest that maybe what counts for you right now is not that question so much as getting to know Christ. You are definitely on target. Get to know Christ and you will be sure of your relationship to Him.
But how do you get to know Christ? Keep two things in view: first, you cannot know Him unless you are sure He loves you and died personally for Elise’s sins, your sins. To give you faith that redeems you, Jesus gives you a promise. He promises to save you. The gospel is not only a fact, but a promise that Christ who died for sins and rose again lives to welcome you. That is the whole point of John 3:16 and the many promises in the Gospel of John. You trust God and His Son because God loves you and gave His Son for you (fact) and then commits Himself by way of promise to receive you (John 1:12). It’s sometimes cheapened by evangelical Christians but it’s breathtaking in its simplicity and awesome wonder. God loves you very much.
Secondly, Christ calls us to abandon trust in our own strength and righteousness. We do not have the strength to improve ourselves morally or the righteousness with which to justify ourselves. “At the right time when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.” Faulty, blind, degraded, we can do nothing but depend on Christ alone to give us assurance of salvation. So repentance and faith entail coming down from our thrones of self-dependence and pride and simply giving ourselves in surrender to Christ. Still, the devil may say to you: “You do not yet have sufficient conviction of sin to come to Christ.” Tell the devil to get away from you. Do you have a sense of shame over your sins? I think you do. That is a conviction of sin, not a feeling depressed or whatever. If you are ashamed of living a life independently of God, then the Holy Spirit has already convicted you of sin. Simply claim Christ as your Lord and Savior. Base your simple prayer of acceptance on His promise. Claim John 3:16-17.
Back to the question whether you are already saved. Don’t spend much time on this one, but spend your time getting to Christ. Speak to Him simply in prayer and ask Him to show Himself to you. He loves to reveal Himself to people. Then make sure you are cultivating a forgiving spirit toward others. Bitterness, condemnation of others, will rob a genuine believer of his or her fellowship with Jesus, and raise questions about assurance. Jesus does expect you to see what a forgiveness you have received and then to forgive others and keep on forgiving others. Put on forgiveness as your whole new life.
I would especially commend to you the study of Romans 10 to see how faith works. I would like to hear from you again.
C.S. Lewis died on November 22, 1963. In a letter to Anne Barrett dated August 30, 1964, J.R.R. Tolkien defended his late friend against literary criticism that he received upon his death. Tolkien pointed out that Lewis’ critics didn’t know the man and were unable to properly assess his character. He went on to give this example at a time when Lewis lost an election to be professor of poetry:
Well of course I could say more, but I must draw the line. Still I wish it could be forbidden that after a great man is dead, little men should scribble over him, who have not and must know they have not sufficient knowledge of his life of and character to give them any key to the truth. Lewis was not “cut to the quick” by his defeat in the election to the professorship of poetry: he knew quite well the cause. I remember that we had assembled soon after in our accustomed tavern and found C.S.L. sitting there, looking (and since he was no actor at all probably feeling) much at ease. “Fill up!” he said, “and stop looking so glum. The only distressing thing about this affair is that my friends seem to be upset.”
Tolkien gives us a wonderful glimpse of the humility of Lewis. Arguably one of the most influential Christian writers of the 20th century, no one would have blamed Lewis for taken the loss hard. His lesser-known volume of collected poetry is quite good. In fact, in November 2013, Lewis was honored with a memorial stone in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, joining other great poets like Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, and Wordsworth.
All this leads us to the great humility of the man who aspired to be considered a great poet, but had humility to take the loss of a professorship in poetry in stride. He could have railed against the election process or those who voted against him, but instead, chose to gather with his friends at their favorite tavern and encourage them to join him in moving on from the disappointment.
Here’s one of my favorite Lewis poems.
On Being Human
Angelic minds, they say, by simple intelligence Behold the Forms of nature. They discern Unerringly the Archtypes, all the verities Which mortals lack or indirectly learn. Transparent in primordial truth, unvarying, Pure Earthness and right Stonehood from their clear, High eminence are seen; unveiled, the seminal Huge Principles appear.
The Tree-ness of the tree they know—the meaning of Arboreal life, how from earth's salty lap The solar beam uplifts it; all the holiness Enacted by leaves' fall and rising sap; But never an angel knows the knife-edged severance Of sun from shadow where the trees begin, The blessed cool at every pore caressing us —An angel has no skin.
They see the Form of Air; but mortals breathing it Drink the whole summer down into the breast. The lavish pinks, the field new-mown, the ravishing Sea-smells, the wood-fire smoke that whispers Rest. The tremor on the rippled pool of memory That from each smell in widening circles goes, The pleasure and the pang—can angels measure it? An angel has no nose.
The nourishing of life, and how it flourishes On death, and why, they utterly know; but not The hill-born, earthy spring, the dark cold bilberries. The ripe peach from the southern wall still hot Full-bellied tankards foamy-topped, the delicate Half-lyric lamb, a new loaf's billowy curves, Nor porridge, nor the tingling taste of oranges— An angel has no nerves.
Far richer they! I know the senses' witchery Guards us like air, from heavens too big to see; Imminent death to man that barb'd sublimity And dazzling edge of beauty unsheathed would be. Yet here, within this tiny, charmed interior, This parlour of the brain, their Maker shares With living men some secrets in a privacy Forever ours, not theirs.
I’ve been working my way through Spurgeon’s lesser-known devotional, The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith (1893), recently revised and updated by Tim Chester and published by Crossway as The Promises of God (2019).
Today’s entry demonstrates Sprugeon’s mastery of the Scriptures and unmatched ability to comfort people from God’s Word (often in 300 words or less).
“You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” (James 5:8)
The last word in the Song of Solomon is, “Make haste, my beloved” (8:14). And among the last words of the book of Revelation we read, “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’”; to which the heavenly Bridegroom answers, “Surely I come soon” (22:17, 20). Love longs for the glorious appearing of the Lord and enjoys this sweet promise: “The coming of the Lord is at hand.” This reassures our minds about the future. We look out with hope through this window.
This sacred “window of agate” lets in a flood of light upon the present (Isa. 54:12 KJV) and gets us in shape for immediate work or suffering. Are we tried? Then the nearness of our joy whispers patience. Are we growing weary because we do not see the harvest of our seed sowing? Again this glorious truth cries to us, “Be patient.” Do our multiplied temptations cause us to waver? Then the assurance that before long the Lord will be here preaches to us from this text, “Establish your hearts.” Be firm, be stable, be constant, be “steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58). Soon will you hear the silver trumpet which announces the coming of your King. Do not be in the least bit afraid. Hold the fort, for he is coming. Indeed, he may appear this very day.
“The love of God is like himself – equal, constant, not capable of augmentation or diminution; our love is like ourselves – unequal, increasing, waning, growing, declining. His, like the sun, always the same in its light, though a cloud may sometimes interpose; ours, as the moon, has its enlargements and straightenings.”
“Keep the heart full of a sense of the love of God in Christ. This is the greatest preservative against the power of temptation in the world…Store the heart with a sense of the love of God in Christ, and his love in the shedding of it; get a relish of the privileges we have thereby, our adoption, justification, [acceptance] with God; fill the heart with thoughts of the beauty of his death; and thou wilt, in an ordinary course of walking with God, have great peace and security as to the disturbance of temptations.”
Cultivating Epiphanies 