How Should You Read a Letter?

There is the pile of mail on the coffee table.  As it is sorted through, amazing, there is a real letter!  In the midst of some super deal from Kohl’s to help you waste your money, the credit card bill which shows how you wasted your money, and the National Geographic, there is a letter.  An actual letter that was written on paper, signed by the author, folded, put in an envelope, addressed, stamped, and delivered to your house is waiting to be read.

The envelope is examined.  It is a thick one.  There may be three whole pages in there! With great excitement and curiosity, the letter is opened.  The first page is read.  That is nice.  It is set aside.  Then, maybe, a few days later, the next page is read.  That is nice.  It is so nice, the next page will be saved for the next day.  But, the next day, the alarm clock is not heard and life is busy, so page three will have to wait.  After a long day at work, sleep is necessary, so page three is not even thought about in the evening.  The next morning, page three finally gets read.  Done with letter reading until the next one arrives.

Is that how we read letters?  Of course not!  Not that anyone literally writes tangible letters anymore.  When was the last time you got a letter or a hand written note? When was the last time you wrote one?  If by some miracle you received a letter, how would you read it?  Realizing the current obsession with texting has put the art of letter writing and reading in danger of extinction, it must be recognized that God’s truth was not given in 160 character misspelled messages.  Some of His truth was given to us in the form of letters written to churches and individuals.

So, the question is, how should those letters be read?  One page at a time?  One chapter at a time?  How would the receivers of the original letters have read them?  Can you imagine Timothy reading the first two chapters of his first letter from Paul, then setting aside the rest for after he took a nap?  There were no chapters or verses then anyway, but it seems like Timothy would have sat down and thoughtfully read the entire letter.  

So, how should we read those letters?  Should we read them like the three page letter that arrived on the coffee table?  Do you read them like the three page letter on the coffee table?

Think about it, God has sent you a letter.  For example, the book of Ephesians is a letter from God to you.  The letter to the Ephesian church is a letter to you that is sitting on your coffee table.  How should you read it?  May I make a suggestion?  Try sitting down and thoughtfully reading the whole letter.  Isn’t that how letters, real ones, are meant to be read?

Happy New Year? Gong Xi Fa Cai?

It is the start of the big New Year celebration in China.  Truly a great time to celebrate?  Hmmm….perhaps not if these facts are considered about the amazing land of China.

By using two simple filter functions on joshuaproject.net, “Country - China” and “Bible Translation - None,” some staggering statistics are found.

313 - the number of people groups with no Scripture translated

48,802,000 - the number of people with no Scripture in their native language

129 - the number of people groups with no church planting efforts taking place

Now, let’s try the same filter, except using “United States” for the country.  This could be interesting.

31 - the number of people groups with no Scripture translated

1,786,000 - the number of people with no Scripture in their native language

0 - the number of people groups with no church planting efforts taking place

I am firmly in agreement with Hudson Taylor when he said, “It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach  the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home.”

Are you?  Will you go?  Will you pray? 

These are startling facts, folks.  1.4 billion people in China.  Remote mountains, but you can get there on a bus! Desert wastelands, but the train will take you!  Gigantic cities, you can fly direct from Chicago in 12 hours!

Is God calling? Will you go? Will you pray?

What If David Had Truly Forgiven Absalom?

Realizing that history cannot be rewritten with “what ifs?”, it has been interesting to ponder what, perhaps, would have happened if David had completely forgiven Absalom.

If you are interested, here is a little background on these thoughts and questions.  My pastor was preaching on Sunday concerning the fact that God is working all things for good and mentioned David.  In the course of that message, a subtitle in my Scofield Bible at 2 Samuel 12:21 caught my eye.  It reads, “David’s half-hearted forgiveness of Absalom.”  Reading the verse below that, I found the record of David allowing Absalom’s return to Jerusalem, but David being unwilling to allow his son to see his face.  Wow.  Why?  I was listening to my pastor’s message, but I did take time to read the note at the bottom of the page.  The verse and the note is what set me on this line of thinking.  The note says, “Not so had God taught David to forgive.  Legalists have thought Absalom’s willfulness to have been due to over-indulgence on the part of David.  There is no such intimation in Scripture.  Rather it would seem that had David at this time taken Absalom into his intimacy, the rebellion might have been averted.”  Interesting.

Also, I listened to a message about Ahithophel by Pastor Jim Schettler.  To make a long story short, he connected the references to Ahithophel in the Scripture to show why this man would join Absalom’s rebellion and turn against King David. Why did he?  It turns out that Ahithophel was the grandfather of Bathsheba.  Pastor Schettler's conclusion was that Ahithophel had been bitter with David for many years concerning David’s sin with Bathsheba.  Pastor Schettler linked bitterness, lack of forgiveness, and the fact that true forgiveness restores relationship, which reminded me of the above quoted Scofield note.

So, back to the question at hand.  What if David had truly and completely forgiven Absalom?  Granted, this is a messed up situation.  The only light spots in, let us say, 2 Samuel 11-19 are God’s forgiveness of David and the faithfulness of David’s friends.  Other than that, it is a fairly bleak scene.  Would you agree?  

But, there are some good chances to ask the “what if?” question.  

What if, when David’s heart was longing to go to Absalom during his three years of self exile, David had gone to his son?  What if there had been real communication and confession concerning both of their faults in the Amnon and Tamar ordeal?  What if, as a result of that, there was Godlike forgiveness, grace, and mercy and fellowship between father and son restored, just as God had granted to David?  What if?

But that did not happen.  So Absalom stayed away for three years.  That is a long time.

Then, through some trickery of Joab, David allowed Absalom to return, but not to see his face.  What if, instead, David had lovingly taken in his son and modeled confession and restoration, as he had experienced with God?  Could the following chapters have been a little less gloomy?  What if?

But that did not happen.  So Absalom stayed in Jerusalem for two years without seeing his father.  That is a long time.  And the story goes downhill from there.  Absalom is killed, never having been restored to his father, and David weeps.  Tragic.

Did it have to be that way?  What if?  What if true forgiveness had taken place while Absalom was in Geshur?  What if?

But, there is another “what if?” to ask.  What if Ahithophel had forgiven David long ago?  Apparently, his son Eliam had forgiven David, because he was one of David’s mighty men.  Bathsheba’s father served David, apparently without holding David’s sin against his daughter and his son-in-law Uriah against him.  Ahithophel had been David’s counselor, but, perhaps, had been holding David’s sin against him for years.  When Absalom rose in rebellion, Ahithophel took his chance to turn against and punish David.  But what if he had been like Eliam?  Then he would not have helped Absalom and, well, it is impossible to know how the story might have turned out.

But that did not happen.  Ahithophel commits suicide. Tragic.

Did it have to be that way?  What if?  What if Ahithophel had recognized David’s repentance and had a forgiving spirit toward him?  What if?

What if we do not forgive as God forgives us?  What if?

Considerations on Cross-Country Skiing

1.  Do something your friend wants to do, even if, and perhaps especially if, you do not "want" to.  It just might be great fun!

2.  Fresh, cold, winter air is wonderful.
3.  Some forms of exercise can actually be pleasant
4.  Skiing can be done in a skirt.  We have the pictures to prove it.  And Swinson has videos.
5.  When you do not know what to do, ask for help.
6.  Ski in the track!  Cross-country skiing is a lot easier if you keep yourself in the appointed path.
7.  Keep your eyes focused on the track ahead.  Looking around, at your skis, at your poles, etc., will increase the 

chances of falling.

8.  Falling is OK.  Jusk JT and Swinson!When you fall, take some time to do a few things.  Lay there, not moving at all.  Consider how you ended up on the ground.  Enjoy the view from the ground.  It is a different perspective than we normally have.  Trees look different.  The sky looks different.  Your friends laughing at you look different.

9.  Getting up takes some work.

10.  Laugh and have a tremendous time.  People will notice.  We were told we were "spreading joy" on the trails.  It can be a gloomy world, people recognize genuine happiness.

There's a Wideness in God's Mercy

There's a wideness in God's mercy

Like the wideness of the sea;

There's a kindness in His justice,

Which is more than liberty.

There is welcome for the sinner,

And more graces for the good;

There is mercy with the Savior; 

There is healing in His blood.

But we make His love too narrow

By false limits of our own;

And we magnify His strictness

With a zeal He will not own.

For the love of God is broader

Than the measure of man's mind;

And the heart of the Eternal

Is most wonderfully kind.

If our love were but more faithful,

We should take Him at his Word;

And our life would be thanksgiving

For the goodness of the Lord.

This song came to mind on New Year’s Eve.  I have heard and read variations on the lyrics, but the message is the same.  I think BJ has a recording of this song that ends, “If our love were but more simple, we would take Him at His Word, and our lives would be more loving, in the likeness of the Lord.”  But maybe I am making those words up!  But that it is what it sounds like to me.  Either way, great truth.  Wish there were a better tune for this song in our church hymnal, but, sadly, there is not.  An offer was made to pay someone to write a new tune.  We shall see what becomes of that.

God is merciful and so should we be.  Are we?