The Works of God

Behold, I will bring them from the north country
and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.

Jeremiah 31:8

Their God will help them; and let none plead that he is blind who has God for his guide, or lame who has God for his strength.

Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible: Jeremiah 31, published around 1706.

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Those of us with children living with disabilities acquire a whole new vocabulary:  IEP (individualized education program), IDEA (individuals with disabilities education act), Section 504 (the section of the rehabilitation act of 1973 that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities).

Positively, these programs and protections exist to help people with disabilities receive services that benefit them.  Negatively, they exist because people with disabilities have been denied services and opportunities that would have benefited them.

And even with these programs and protections, most parents find they must advocate for their children.

We can hear echoes of that personal advocacy in the accounting of Jesus and Bartimaeus:

46 And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” 50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.  Mark 10:46-52

Charles Spurgeon points out when it is good to ignore others and continue to go straight to the source of help!

He had no thought of any ceremonies to be performed by priests; he had no idea of any medicine which might be given him by physicians.  His cry was, “Son of David, Son of David.” The only notice he took of others was to disregard them, and still to cry, “Son of David, Son of David.” “What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?” was the Lord’s question, and it answered to the desire of his soul, for he knew that if anything were done it must be done by the Son of David.

It is essential that our faith must rest alone on Jesus. Mix anything with Christ, and you are undone. If your faith shall stand with one foot upon the rock of his merits, and the other foot upon the sand of your own duties, it will fall, and great will be the fall thereof. Build wholly on the rock, for if so much as a corner of the edifice shall rest on anything beside, it will ensure the ruin of the whole:

“None but Jesus, none but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good.”

All true faith is alike in this respect.

Charles Spurgeon, Saving Faith, Delivered on March 15, 1874.

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I am a natural grumbler – takes no effort at all.  But even I’m surprised at how small my circumstances need to be for me to grumble at God.

This time, it was a head cold.  How ridiculous is that!  We have big issues in our house, and God has helped us on a daily basis for years with those issues.  And I found myself complaining to God about a head cold.  Clearly, I was thinking in my own head, I am far too important in the affairs of the universe to have to deal with a head cold!  Really, Lord, what are you thinking!

God mercifully brought a good word through Randy Alcorn’s blog yesterday on an entirely different subject (in this case, hell).  But these words jumped off the page to rebuke my hard heart and to call me back to a right understanding (emphasis in bold is mine):

There will be no end to dismantling doctrines if we consider it our calling to try to make God look good in our eyes and our culture’s. If his definition of good is different than ours, we dare not expect him to be the one who changes. The Almighty doesn’t need us to give him a facelift and airbrush his image. Our task is not to help people see God favorably but to see him accurately. God has the power, through the true gospel, to touch hearts and draw people to his love and grace while they fully affirm his holiness and justice. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and.

We are tempted to shrink God so he fits inside the borders of our minds. But those are small borders, and he is a big God. There’s great comfort in knowing a God who loves me but doesn’t need my counsel.

And that reminded me of something I had just read a few days ago:

You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?

Isaiah 29:16

God is kind to remind me who is who – he is creator and I am created.  He is good and I am entirely sinful separate from him.  He is strong and I am weak.  He sustains when I am demonstrating all kinds of failure.

So, I repented of my little faith and grumbling heart.  And I asked him to take away my cold, because I know he cares for me.

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I’ve only read one sermon that Spurgeon did on John 9, the accounting of the man born blind who would be healed, and it is on this text:

35 Jesus heard that they had cast him (the formerly blind man) out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

May we never forget that the greatest thing Jesus did for the man comes near the end of John 9, not at the beginning – Jesus fully revealed himself!  And the man WORSHIPPED because he could now ‘see’ Jesus for who he really is!

Spurgeon provides some great advice from that text:

When you are seeking Christ, ask Christ to reveal himself to you, for there is nobody who can reveal Christ as Christ can reveal himself by is blessed Spirit.

And, next, when you are confessing your faith, confess it to Christ himself. Say, as this man did, “Lord, I believe.” Say to your minister, or to your mother, or to your friends, “I believe;” but take, care, above all the rest, that you say, “Lord, I believe.”

And, lastly, when you are worshipping, worship Christ himself: “He worshipped HIM,” and no one else. Take care that your reverence and adoration are not given, in any degree, to the church, or to any person in it, or to any priest, or minister, or anything created or made; but worship God, and God in Christ Jesus; and the Lord bless you, beloved, for his name’s sake! Amen.

Charles H. Spurgeon, A Pressed Man Yielding to Christ, delivered October 12, 1882.

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