Perfection

 

[2]

 

1 Peter 1:3 Good News Translation

A Living Hope

³ Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope,

 

This morning I read[3] “How beautiful you are, my love, how perfect you are!”

My mind roamed randomly through everyone I knew. I could think of no one that this compliment could be applied to. Firstly, my loving wife came to mind. She is precious in so many ways. She has faithfully looked after me as I lay at death’s door. In many ways she has been and still is the perfect love partner for me. Of course, when you get to know anyone, you begin to notice their foibles.

I thought of the people whom I have looked up to over the years: my colleagues and former associates. Then there were the teachers and pastors, some of whom spent considerable time and effort to meet my physical, financial, and spiritual needs. I admired many of them and am thankful for their care and interest in my well-being. But perfect? Not by a long shot.

One candidate might have been Pastor P. H. Coetzee. He preached the most powerful sermons I had ever heard as a young kid growing up. He ran a week of prayer at my primary school and held up the image of perfection in a beautiful way. When I was 8, I attended a junior camp at Hartenbos in South Africa, and he led out in a way that captured my admiration. Had you asked me about a perfect person when I was ten or twelve, I might have thought of him.

When I was studying at Sedaven High School, he was the chairman of the school’s board. At one point his son, Leon, was only peripherally involved in a gross breach of school principles that caused the faculty to expel about a dozen students. Many of those expelled were rebellious and evil in every sense imaginable. In many ways, Leon was an ideal student, so P. H. Coetzee called the school board together and reinstated his son. (Mark Twain[4] once quipped, “In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.”)

He couldn’t just reinstate his son, however, without being accused of nepotism. So, he had all of those students reinstated in school. This resulted in a total breakdown of discipline in the school. It almost caused the school to close. Suddenly those perfection images of Pastor Coetzee, were ripped from my eyes.

None of us are perfect[5]; “everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence.” As Peter writes “Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy He gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope.” This hope is that Christ has died for us so that we might live in His perfection. God’s plan is stated thus:[6] “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our sins from us.” He then looks at us and says, “How beautiful you are, my love, how perfect you are!”

Lord, thank You that in Your eyes we appear with Christ’s perfection. Thank You for saving us completely!

 

 

 

---

[2] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/46/63/7b/46637b6155595658043c561f192ba7dc.png

[3] Song of Solomon 4:7 GNT

[4] Mark Twain Following the Equator: A Trip around the World

[5] Romans 3:23 GNT

[6] Psalm 103:12 GNT

 

A Merry Heart Doeth Good Like A Medicine

[1]

Proverbs 17:22 The Message Bible

²² A cheerful disposition is good for your health;
    gloom and doom leave you bone-tired.

 

It was 6:30 in the morning. Chantal walked down the hallway chanting “Devotions—De-vo-tions.

Last summer Sylvia and I spent 17 days in The Lifestyle Center at Uchee Pines Institute in Alabama. My purpose for being there was to explore an alternate method to bring my cancer under control. Every morning Chantal would walk up and down the hallway at 6:30 a.m. chanting “Devotions—Devotions” with strong emphasis on the last syllable while ringing a handbell. She taught us to sing a cappella the King James inspired version of this song:

 

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine

      Like a medicine is a merry heart

But a broken spirit drieth the bones

      A merry heart doeth good,

Doeth good like a medicine.[2]

 

 

A piano sat in the worship room, but there seemed to be no one to play it. So, Sylvia went up to the keyboard and was soon playing that chorus purely by ear. It added fullness to the song.

Every morning Chantal brought us a message of faith and hope in our pursuit of health. Then we would sing this chorus, to Sylvia’s accompaniment, and go out for the day’s activities and our treatments.

I was somewhat surprised and greatly gratified that when we left Uchee Pines, my PSA had been cut in half, and I had lost close to 30 pounds. PSA is an indication of how much prostate cancer I have in my body. Since that time, I have maintained both improvements to the date of this writing.

Much of life at U.P. is one of discipline: “vitals” at 5:50 a.m., “devotions” at 6:30, three meals that are strictly vegan with practically no sugar and very little fat, lectures on avoiding the excesses of modern American life, nauseating herbal teas, and decidedly uncomfortable hydrotherapy treatments. The “Merry Heart” catchy tune, the gentle walks amongst the pines and other trees after meals, and prayers for each other allowed the healing to become a reality. Our group formed a camaraderie that has continued since that time.

We are grateful to You, Lord, for using the simple things to improve our lives.

 

 

---

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPXhFQvEuso

[2]For the tune, see  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLfFQl6zKD0

God Is Not Finished With Me Yet

Jeremiah 10:23

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

²³ I know, Lord,
that a man’s way of life is not his own;
no one who walks determines his own steps.

The other day some kids were taunting Katie through our back fence. I watched it from a point where the kids couldn’t see me. When one of them threw something at Katie and scared her, I remonstrated with them. They dashed away out of sight yelling back at me. I knew at the time that my approach was poorly chosen. What I should have said was something like the following.

“Hey guys, dogs are pretty stupid when they bark at somebody from behind a fence. I often feel that way, too. Katie doesn’t recognize you. She may even think you’re up to no good. If you owned that house, you might even want a dog to bark at somebody in your backyard whom you don’t know, especially if they were there with malice in the minds.”

This may even have earned their empathy. If not, we may still have parted as friends not antagonists. Hindsight is always 20/20. Jeremiah adds this prayer to his lament that we don’t walk the way we want to:

“Discipline me, Lord, but with justice—not in Your anger, or You will reduce me to nothing.”

Truly the Lord does discipline us but with far more grace than we ever deserve.

Thank You, Lord, for covering our erring steps with Your marvelous undeserved, forgiving grace.