The Gethsemane Battle

 

[1]

1 John 4:9

Good News Translation

⁹ And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

 

After many years, last night I again read the chapter in The Desire of Ages entitled “Gethsemane”. In eloquent and deeply emotional prose, Ellen White describes how Christ wrestled with God. He knew that He had come to earth for exactly one purpose—to save the world and its inhabitants from sin. I have seen many definitions of sin: some glorify it, some condemn it, some try to lay out boundaries for it. But in the end, sin is only one thing—rebellion against God. Sin declares puny man’s attempt to deny his Creator and become independent from the only Source of Life.

In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ’s divine nature headed steadfastly forward to the only possible act of redemption for rebellious man. Christ’s human nature, however, sensed the presence of every sin in the world. It felt the eternal separation from God, the terror and despair of inevitable annihilation, the horror of the wrath of God. It buckled and crumbled under this huge weight. His human nature pled with God to find another way of salvation. “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me!” a cry wrenched from His very heart. Then in total submission to the divine within Him, He gave way to divinity: “Never the less, not My will but Thine be done!” Three times he sought reprieve but then acquiesced to His great love for sinners.

To His human view, (that was all that He could see at this point in the struggle), all mankind had turned their backs on Him. Even His chosen disciples had fallen asleep when He asked them to pray for Him. His chosen race, His favored people were bent on His destruction. Why? He had taught them, healed them, encouraged them, blessed their children, even fed them and raised their dead. He had expressed His love to them in every action. Was this why they turned away?

Of course not! When sin comes in touch with purity, divinity, perfection, it has but one response—rebellion. This rebellion was the only thing Christ sensed. Fortunately for us, His vast, unending love drove Him on to yield to the divine will and rescue His creatures in spite of their absolute rejection of Him.

When it became completely obvious that Christ was going through literal hell for us, the mightiest angel in Heaven materialized at His side, driving away all the demons that were clustered around Him and crushing out His very life. The angel strengthened Him for this, the greatest battle of the universe.

Thank You, Jesus, for fighting the battle for me, the battle that I had no hope of winning without You. I love You.

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[1] https://www.deseret.com/2019/6/12/20675446/taylor-halverson-why-did-jesus-suffer-in-an-olive-garden-called-gethsemane#olive-trees-in-the-gethsemane-garden-at-the-foot-of-the-mount-of-olives-in-jerusalem

 

God's Hidden Code of Life

[i]

Ecclesiastes 11:5 

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

⁵ Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

 

We know that when a human fetus forms, it starts out as one cell. This cell divides into two identical cells. In turn each of these cells divide into identical cells. As this division occurs over and over again, eventually the cells differentiate and form the various parts of our bodies. Some of the cells become the hard bones that give us structure and make our blood. Some form our organs that make us viable and human.

We know that the key to this variation in cell structure is a giant molecule that is in the very nucleus of every cell. This DNA molecule is identical in every cell. It is composed of only four building blocks, called nucleotides. There are over three billion nucleotides in each DNA molecule.

Humans have performed enough experiments to know the position of a set of nucleotides in the DNA molecule determines the entire structure of the human. It tells each cell what its function is. Cellular division continues throughout the life of the person. Built into this division is an instruction that determines when a cell dies.

What is amazing is how the cell interprets the appropriate tiny substring of the DNA to determine which one of the seemingly infinite possible forms it must assume. This results in a recognizably different human being from all others. But they are all equally human beings.

When the cell loses the instruction that determines when it dies, it then goes on living and dividing, forming too many of the same cell. We call this aberration cancer, and it normally kills the person who gets it. So death, cell death, is essential for human life. How thankful we can be that God intended us for life, not death.

Thank You, Lord, for letting us begin to understand the building code You have used to make us. We see in this structure the extreme complexity yet basic simplicity of Your creation.

 

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[i] https://www.zmescience.com/medicine/genetic/human-genome-write-project/

From Lusaka to Harare--Almost

[i]

Galatians 1:8, 9

King James Version

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than ye have received, let him be accursed.

Hitchhiking from Lusaka, Zambia, to Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, I caught a ride in a little, old gray Hillman. The driver, a kindly man old enough to be my father, stopped and offered me a ride as far as Salisbury, now Harare, Zimbabwe. I accepted gratefully, tucked my suitcase in the boot (trunk), and climbed into the front seat next to him. We exchanged the usual pleasantries and spoke of our various occupations. I was selling Christian books in the Copper belt region of Zambia to earn my way through Helderberg College. I forget his actual occupation, but he was a leader in the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Zambia.

After an hour or two we started down the escarpment into the Zambezi River valley. Suddenly a great, tropical thunderstorm burst upon us. Lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and the rain came down so heavily that we couldn’t see beyond the bonnet (hood) emblem of the car. He found a spot on the shoulder and pulled over to let the rain ease off.

While we sat there he started talking very earnestly about the doctrines he held so dear. One of the topics he spoke about at length was the eight New Testament verses that Protestant pastors use to support their keeping Sunday, the Catholic holy day. I had been exposed to those verses previously and countered with proofs he couldn’t contest that none of them supported a change of the holy day to Sunday. Another was the Arian heresy that Christ was merely a good man and not divine. Again I countered with Scriptural evidence that indeed Christ is God.

We drove down and across the mighty Zambesi and on up the escarpment on the other side. As we travelled he went through the major doctrines of the Witnesses, and I very ably countered each one. I confess that at the time I was not a believing Christian and was doing it purely for the joy of intellectual debate. My knowledge of Scripture clearly matched his and was probably better. My speech exhibited neither Christian love nor concern for his soul. On the other hand, he was really pleading with me for my soul.

Eventually I had angered him beyond what any God fearing person should ever do. Hours from Salisbury there was a Sinoia Hotel made for travelers who would stop for the night or at least for some liquid refreshment along their journey. The Hotel was well off the road, but he stopped along the shoulder, got out, and took my suitcase and placed it firmly on the ground. “You’re getting out here!” he commanded. I did.

The exuberance of besting a knowledgeable opponent lasted a long time. But the shame and remorse of misrepresenting my gracious Savior has lasted longer. The poor man did not understand the grace of Christ, and it should have been my responsibility to convey this to him. Unfortunately at the time I had no better understanding of grace than he did.

Thank You, Lord, for Your limitless grace and love for all of us, JW’s included. May I not be accursed because I teach “another gospel”!

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[i] https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2369/5715069061_6b1f693e34_b.jpg

When we lose good things

Job 1:21

Good News Translation (GNT)

²¹ He said, “I was born with nothing, and I will die with nothing. The Lord gave, and now he has taken away. May his name be praised!”

Cleo, our half Alsatian half black Labrador, and I take a walk out into the desert hills every night before we go to bed. We’ve done this for over fourteen years now. She runs, chases the occasional coyote, and uses the desert as her personal toilet. She looks forward to this with eager anticipation every evening.

Some years ago Karen moved into a house on the corner we go by every evening. She often sat out on her tiny patio in the evening. Every evening that she was out there she had a few treats that she gave to Cleo. She kissed and welcomed her, and Cleo loved it. I told Karen, “It’s all cupboard love,” but she loved it−as did Cleo. On the nights that Karen wasn’t there, Cleo still studied the patio carefully, hoping that Karen would suddenly appear. If I didn’t happen to have her leash on her, Cleo would race over and inspect the patio carefully, undoubtedly hoping that Karen would appear or that she might have abandoned a treat there.

This autumn Karen bought a house in a different part of the city. Her move to this permanent address doesn’t faze Cleo’s eager searching for Karen and the former treats she used to receive. I’ve explained to the new residents of that home the reason for Cleo’s sudden appearance on their patio. So they tolerate her quick inspection very graciously.

Every time I watch Cleo’s vain excitement, I’m reminded that everything that I regard as precious will eventually be taken away, including life itself.

Thank You gracious Lord for all You do for me. When these are taken away, may I respond with the gratitude of Job, “May Your Name be praised!”

Persecute Children?

Psalm 51:15

The Voice (VOICE)

¹⁵ O Lord, pry open my lips
    that this mouth will sing joyfully of Your greatness.

[i]

Jocelyn (not her real name) was a student in a local public middle school. Their class had been studying Islam in their religion class. The class syllabus had them study all of the major world religions, except Christianity, in reasonable depth. They took at least three weeks for each religion. Students were required to try and think like a Muslim or a person in whatever religion they were studying at the time. They were to find all of the good things about the religion and not allowed to say anything negative about it.

In my schooling, the 8^th grade was the time our class went through the doctrines our church taught very, very thoroughly and completely. To this day the concepts I have of our doctrines is what I remember from that course when I was 12 years old. Naturally over the years my mature, analytical mind has reevaluated how I think about them today, but the foundation was laid that year−the year I was baptized. So personally, I regard that time frame in a child’s life as being most formative.

Jocelyn is by nature a very shy and retiring student, not wanting to make waves. She was unable to reconcile what she was learning in school and the fanatical Islamic terror tactics that she saw each night on TV. Finally the Lord opened her mouth, and she told her class that she is a Christian saved by grace and that “there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.” The teacher was horrified and sent her to the principal. The principal suspended her from school. He later told Jocelyn’s father that it is illegal to mention the name of Christ in a California public school. Jocelyn was not to come back to school until she signed a contract that she would not talk about Christ or Christianity on campus ever again. Of course her parents, who are new Christians attending one of the popular mega-churches, could not tolerate that denial of the American Bill of Rights to their daughter and have moved her to a Christian school.

Martin Luther, who suffered extreme opposition and persecution throughout his life, commented about this verse. “By asking the LORD to open his lips, David showed how difficult it is to offer thanks to God. This is something God demands of us. Talking about the Lord and thanking him publicly require an extreme amount of courage and strength because the devil is constantly trying to stop people from doing this. If we could see all of Satan’s traps, we would know why David prayed for the Spirit’s strength and asked the Lord himself to open David’s lips. He wanted to tell the devil, the world, kings, princes, and everyone about the Lord.”[ii]

Lord, open my lips and then use them to speak Your praises.

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[i] http://koha.andrews.edu/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=725217&query_desc=au%3A%22Gow%2C%20Haven%20Bradford.%22

[ii][ii] Martin Luther By Faith Alone: 365 Devotional Readings Update in Today’s Language,  ed. James C. Galvin (pub. 1998 by World Bible Pub. Iowa Falls, IA) from the page for November 15.