MAY 2014
In this issue
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Four Ways You Can Reflect the Truth charles r. swindoll
6 Screaming into Deaf Ears robyn roste
Why is Song of Solomon in the Bible?
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11 Dwelling in the Grace of God scott tolhurst
14 Q & A steve johnson
8 Living on the Warpath steve johnson
Copyright Š 2014 Insight for Living Canada. All rights reserved. No portion of this monthly publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the publisher. Insights is published by IFLC, the Bible-teaching ministry of Charles R. Swindoll. IFLC is an autonomous ministry and certified member of the Canadian Council of Christian Charities. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture passages are taken from the NASB. Unless otherwise noted, photography and illustration by IFLC staff. Printed in Canada.
by charles r. swindoll
T
hink about your typical morning. After you roll out of bed, it probably isn’t long before you’re staring into a mirror. If you’re like me, most days your hair looks like an explosion from a mattress factory, your face resembles one of the Seven Dwarfs, and your breath is…well, let’s just be glad mirrors don’t reflect odours. Let’s say you observe all this…but you do nothing. You ignore all the mess and just leave the house to start your day. Unthinkable! For most of us, such a scenario would be a crisis. In reality, we all come before the mirrors to do business! We gaze hard in that painfully honest reflection with the purpose of doing something about what we see. We look for what needs correcting, and we don’t leave the house until we change what needs changing. Otherwise, why look at a mirror? The same is true of God’s Word. It is a divine mirror that reflects not our outside but our inside. Yet, how often do we read in the Bible, in effect, “You need to pay attention to this area”? Do we then close the book and leave unchanged? The Apostle James used this exact analogy to drive home his point: “Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves” (James 1:22 NLT). So, how can we make the needed changes? How can we reflect the truth? I have discovered a major part of the answer in the ancient writings of Ezra, the scribe. In the book that bears his name, we read: “Ezra had determined to study and obey the Law of the Lord and to teach those decrees and regulations to the people of Israel” (Ezra 7:10). Four Ways You Can Reflect the Truth continued from p. 3
I find in this verse four ways we can reflect the truth. 1. Make a personal commitment. According to this verse, “Ezra had determined” or, literally, “set his heart” on it. I have never seen anyone make a difference for Christ who didn’t begin by making up his or her mind. I urge you to start there. It is your decision to meet with the Lord and get serious about your walk with Christ. Nobody in your family or church can do it for you. The truth will never stick if you do not set your heart on walking with God. That’s where it begins. 2. Become a loyal student of the Bible. Ezra made the commitment “to study… the Law of the Lord.” As a scribe, Ezra knew the law. Yet he remained a keen student of the Bible. You must discipline yourself in your own time and in your own way to study God’s Word for direction—just like you do in front of your mirror. You come for business. That’s the second secret. 3. Put the truth into action. Return to verse 10: “Ezra had determined to study and obey the Law of the Lord” (emphasis added). If you want to reflect the truth, you have to practice it…you must put the truth into action. Obedience is not inclination but demonstration. When Ezra set his heart to do what he had learned, surely he came to terms with issues of character, like honesty, kindness, and purity. It’s never enough simply to know the truth. You must put the truth into action in order for it to stick. But there’s one more step.
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4. Share the truth with someone else. Ezra “determined…to teach those decrees and regulations to the people of Israel” (Ezra 7:10). You know who learns the most in a classroom? The teacher. Guess who learns the most from a Sunday morning message? The pastor. You will learn more of the Scriptures than you’ve ever imagined if you’ll commit to sharing the truth you’ve discovered with someone else. Stop and think. Chances are good you know more of the Bible than most people will ever learn in their lives! What a tremendous privilege you have had. You have learned enough truth to change the atmosphere of your home by your attitude… to impact your social circles with love… to be a witness for Christ in your workplace by your integrity. You have all the truth you need right now if you’ll just build on it. What a difference it will make! I urge you to see your true reflection in your Bible. Then, make a personal commitment to become a loyal student of it. Next, put the truth into
action. Refuse to keep it theoretical! Once you take that challenge and decide to be a different kind of person, you begin to share what God is teaching you. It’s amazing how much benefit you’ll find in the truth you’ve begun to live. Best of all, you will genuinely reflect it.
Charles R. Swindoll serves as the senior pastor-teacher of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas.
“If you want to reflect the truth, you have to practice it…you must put the truth into action.”
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by robyn roste
know no one TV surfs anymore thanks to on-demand programming but every now and then I like to flip through the channels and see what’s on. One such night I caught a documentary about a girl who was addicted to cola. At first I laughed at the absurdity of the topic but over the length of the show
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it became clear this was not simply a program about a girl who liked her caffeine. Caffeine had a stronghold on her life. After realizing this the show lost its entertainment value and began to teach me an important lesson about the unconscious power things can hold over us. When someone or something has power over us it means they’ve become
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a higher priority than anything else, including our relationship with God. Another term for this is the person or thing has become an idol. We know about idols from the second commandment, “you must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea,” (Exodus 20:4 NLT). God doesn’t hold back in telling us He needs to be the primary care in our lives. He wants to be the only thing we crave and cannot live without. On the show, the psychologist and nutritionist tried everything to get through to this 20-year-old. First they showed her how much sugar she ingests in a year— two massive piles, bags stacked as tall as she was. But the girl laughed it off. No big deal. Then they tested her blood and sat her down to go over the results, hoping the reality check would wake her up. Phrases like “pre-diabetic,” “poor health,” “rotting teeth,” were stated and explained. She nodded along with the words but her eyes were empty. The message wasn’t getting through. What else could they do? The show ended without reform and the girl continued to drink cola, ignoring the impending negative consequences she was sure to experience if she continued living this way. I find myself replaying how the truth of this girl’s future went in one ear and out the other. She was told what was ahead and she didn’t care. Her situation seemed so hopeless. It also makes me think of Paul’s words to the Corinthian church. “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). I wonder if I feel as strongly for my friends who reject the
Gospel, the ones who think salvation is no big deal. As a Christian I’m convinced there is life after death, and that we need to accept Jesus to be saved from certain doom. But I also know I can tell others all the shocking facts and figures I want, but if a person is addicted to sin, the message won’t get through. So what else can I do? It seems so hopeless. Paul’s letter was written to a church caught up in self-praise and conceit. They knew the Gospel but it wasn’t sinking in.
“When someone or something has power over us it means they’ve become a higher priority than anything else, including our relationship with God.”
Instead of bullying the Corinthians into seeing things his way, Paul used simple words. “And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). Paul trusted wholly in God’s power to change the Corinthians’ hearts. For me the documentary was a sobering reminder that sometimes our best intentions and even the plain truth can’t convince people to change. All we can hope in is the transformative power of God. It must be Him we rely on to change the hearts and minds of those we’re burdened for.
Robyn Roste is the Living Bridge Media manager at Insight for Living Canada.
by steve johnson
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YOU’RE A CHRISTIAN YOU’RE IN FOR A FIGHT.
Sure, it’s a wonderful blessing to remember that upon receiving Christ as Saviour our feet are set upon a heaven-bound path. Our ultimate destination is heaven’s rest. Just knowing this is true can put a spring in our step on our daily walk. But this heaven-bound path we’re on is also a warpath. We are engaged in a fight every single day of our lives. It’s a fight about truth, trusting God, and believing His Word. It’s a fight against lies and deception. And if we are not vigilant we will find ourselves led into deception, unbelief, and apostasy.
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HERE’S HOW THE BATTLE GOES. Sin begins by whispering through the desires of the flesh, the worldly rationalizations of the mind, and the lies of the enemy. It tells us our personal happiness is the goal and the only hope of it is to do things like cheat—for example fudging the numbers, twisting the truth, or not paying for something. Sin tells us integrity won’t make us happy so compromising our standards just this once won’t matter—no one will know anyway. It tells us we don’t want to be disliked or rejected so keep silent about injustice and go along with the crowd. It tells us God isn’t fair the way He seems so good to some and not others. These lies bombard us constantly. It’s easy to become worn down and be
deceived. When we’re deceived the lies lodge in our hearts and become thoughts and intentions. The reason we sin is because at some level we believe lies instead of the revealed truth of God. When we accept lies as truth our hearts harden. By not believing the promises of God we come to a place of unbelief and eventually fall away. How do we win the war and keep from being deceived? The answer is by allowing the Word of God to penetrate into the deepest part of our hearts. It is in this context of reaching heaven, not being deceived, and not hardening our hearts Scripture says, For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any twoedged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4: 12-13) Our only hope in this daily fight is that there is something sharp and powerful enough to penetrate through all the deception and shed light on our thoughts and intentions. The good news of God's
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promises and the warnings of His judgment are sharp enough and living enough and active enough to penetrate to the bottom of our hearts, assess what’s there, and show us that the lies of sin are indeed lies.
"The reason we sin is because at some level we believe lies instead of the revealed truth of God." WHAT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY?
FIRST, we need to remember we’re accountable to God, we are to be immersed in His living Word, and we must diligently take every thought captive to bring it under its scrutiny. God’s Word has a vitality and energy, which can penetrate to the bottom of all our defences and deceptions and expose our belief or unbelief. It assesses our thoughts and intentions. Study the Bible and pray, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24 NIV).
SECOND, we are to mix what we read in the Word with faith. Believe it. I find it helpful to ask myself these questions. Am I trusting the promises of God or aren't I? Am I subtly beginning to put my faith in compromise, or half-truths, or expediency? Am I becoming callous to the truth and slipping into unbelief in the promises of God? Do I question the Word or do I let it question me? THIRD, we must obey God. Obedience is the proof of faith. “…faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). FINALLY, it’s important to keep in mind whose we are and to keep fighting. If we fall we need to get up. Failure is not fatal unless we don’t get up. If we become discouraged we must remember God is with us. His strength will support us. When we fix our eyes on the prize of heaven’s rest and be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power He will help us stay on the warpath.
Steve Johnson is the executive director at Insight for Living Canada.
ON THE AIR IN JUNE
Practical Christianity OLD TESTAMENT PRINCIPLES FOR OUR NEW LIFE IN CHRIST Some Christians view the Old Testament as a storybook—full of fascinating tales, yet ancient and irrelevant to modern reality. But nothing is further from the truth. Practical Christianity will help you blow the dust off these time-worn chronicles and discover enduring truths that relate directly to your life today.
UPCOMING MESSAGES INCLUDE:
Marks of a Practical Christian How to Trust When You’re Troubled How to Say “No” When Lust Says “Yes” Cultivating Our Marriage with Christ
by Scott Tolhurst
am a pastor and have held the shepherd's crook for over 38 years now. Through four Canadian provinces and six flocks, I can assure you that the sheep are all pretty much the same. There are commonalities among us despite the variations of flock and face. Over the decades, the people have not changed but the ministry has. There has been an undeniable pressure to adjust the model of church. We have morphed from a pastoral model to a design and language more apt for the world of business. Caring for an institution has overshadowed caring for souls. That shift has created methodologies marked by efficiency, growth rates, relevance, marketing, and measurable metrics. I would be foolish to argue that those values are useless in the Church. But I would be equally foolish to set them as criteria for what God's flock is meant to be. There are more than enough voices debating the pros and cons of current ministry patterns in the North American evangelical church. I have read and researched my portion of books, seminars, and examples and have found both resolution and peace with the following image. For a sizeable chunk of my ministry, I could be compared to a farmer overseeing an orchard. I was allotted a certain size field and was motivated to see that field blossom and expand. So, I mapped my plans for cultivation and growth. I thought carefully about the seed and planted with the latest techniques. I studied the cultural climate and fretted over
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Dwelling in the Grace of God continued from p. 11
society’s storms or drought. I tended to the machinery of the farm and employed best practice management to ensure smooth procedures. I recruited workers for the orchard and trained them for the harvest.
“I worried about my responsibility for the harvest and had to discern the harmony between initiative and waiting on God.” It seemed to be working except I found myself bound to the consequences of my efforts. When the field flourished, I felt great! When other seasons were empty of any discernible growth, I wondered what I was doing wrong. Frankly, the farmer pattern tired me from the inside out. I know it also fatigued many working in the field with me, but I thought that was the cost of cultivation. My language thus far has been in the past tense—because God did something to change me. In ways that could only be understood with hindsight God said to me, "Scott, stop being the farmer and just be a tree!" Rather than being responsible for the sprouting of many trees, God called me to focus on the growth of my own soul. He forced my attention inward, to consider the sapless, barren, wooden state of my heart. God invited me to sink my roots deeply into Christ. He reminded me I didn't have to do anything but "abide in Me as I abide in you." I didn't have to bear the
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burden of worry over the weather or come up with new agricultural techniques. I wasn't responsible for the orchard—there was a divine Gardener tending His field. This way of ministry was new to me. The adjustment was not immediate and I wrestled with personal ambition and false guilt. I worried about my responsibility for the harvest and had to discern the harmony between initiative and waiting on God. Yet, my soul sighed with relief. I heard the sigh of relief from others as well. It felt like peace to surrender to the hands of the Vinedresser. If I were willing to remain in Him and welcome His pruning touch, He would produce within me fruit—much fruit—fruit that would remain. The fruit would expand beyond my own branches. God would produce more blossoms in the orchard by me being a tree than could ever happen if I remained the farmer. I offer this not as compulsory upon all or as the ultimate definition of ministry.
I whisper them to those who are worn by the experience of ministry with more activity than nurture. Frankly, there are a lot of us out there. I have lost count of the number of confessions entrusted to me that admit the hope of Christ’s easy yoke and light burden is yet to be found. They long to find rest for their souls. Not an eternal pampered cloud, but a rest received in the midst of kingdom service and life’s demands. Is that too much to expect? Jesus didn’t think so. So, here is my counsel. We must care for our souls. Let God be the Lord of His kingdom. Dwell deeply in the grace of God. Remember, He is the Saviour in the present tense. Pray that what we know of Jesus becomes our experience with Jesus. I wish someone had told me these things 38 years ago.
Scott Tolhurst is the lead pastor at Richmond Bethel Church in Richmond, BC.
by steve johnson
Why is Song of Solomon in the Bible? People ask this question because there is no reference to God or the Law in Song of Solomon and it seems explicit in celebrating sexual love. Through the centuries it has been one of the most controversial books in the Bible. Identifying the characteristics of any biblical book is essential for the interpretation. These characteristics determine what type of literature it is. For example, we know many fairy tales begin with “once upon a time” and end with “and they lived happily ever after.” Song of Solomon is a unique type of poetic Hebrew literature. It exhibits the literary characteristics of something known as a pastoral love song, which is different from allegory, drama, historical narrative, and parable. Pastoral love songs are a specific type of literature characterized by a longing for an ideal or more innocent world felt to be lost. Perhaps Solomon wrote this book because he was longing for something lost to him—the golden era of his father
the shepherd-king. Song of Solomon is an attempt to escape from the present complex realities of Solomon’s world. It is also a love song, which presents truth couched in terms of the human experience of love. The idealized human love of the Song simply provides a vehicle and instance through which to present the pastoral theme of longing. Language and poets have always struggled to communicate the subtleties of love and so this book is full of imagery meant to help the reader enter into the experience. Song of Solomon is the best and greatest of all the songs Solomon wrote. As a lyric it must be approached and read differently from the way we read a narrative or dramatic poem. It focuses on sensuous experience and concludes by commenting on its meaning, thereby making it part of biblical wisdom literature. In biblical terms it is a longing to get back to the garden—to the paradise lost. It expresses this by use of contrasts: country versus king’s court in the city, shep-
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herd versus king, shepherd maiden versus ladies of the harem, simple versus complex, innocence versus evil. Theologically, pastoral literature is about the desire to escape the Fall and regain the paradise that was lost. Another way to put it is we each have an Edenic paradise or millennial state buried in our hearts where there is harmony with nature and men, which we long to recover.
"The ideals of this pastoral Song can only be realized fully in God’s kingdom in and through Christ." There is the sense of the backward glance at what was lost in Eden and in light of the ideals presented in the Song, man is confronted with himself and his situation in life. But there is at the same time, given the context of Scripture, a look and longing forward to a new Eden, which is the kingdom of God. The ideals of this pastoral Song can only be realized fully in God’s kingdom in and through Christ. For those who believe in Him and enter the kingdom the pastoral ideal becomes a positional reality. In
Christ we become new creations and are returned positionally to Eden in terms of fellowship with God. Furthermore for the believer, there is a greater and actual realization of this ideal at the second coming of Christ. At that point the positional becomes reality and the believer will actually be in a better country—a heavenly city or millennial paradise. We can also apply the message of the Song in another way. In it we are presented with idealized country love in contrast to shallow court flirtations. We come to realize that real love can and will only become a reality in the kingdom of God whose ethic is one of love. The New Testament expands on this in numerous places with greater applications to life besides love between a man and woman (Ephesians 5, Romans 12, Matthew 5-7) and is aptly summed up with the exhortation to love God and others supremely (Matthew 22:37-38). I hope this helps. -Steve
Steve Johnson is the executive director at Insight for Living Canada.
THIS MONTH’S FEATURED RESOURCE Insight’s Bible Application Guide: Job-Song of Solomon —A Life Lesson from Every Chapter Insight for Living’s new book shows us how the pain and passion of the Old Testament writers is not only relevant today but helps us understand God in a deeper way! see enclosed form for ordering information 15
online RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT
o t t e r c e s Discover the e f i l d e a balanc As women we constantly juggle the needs of everyone around us. God’s Word offers wisdom for us all as we seek to become true women of faith. We’ve curated the best of our print, digital, and audio resources just for women at insightforliving.ca/women. Spend time discovering the healthy balance between earthly responsibilities and heavenly promises. Visit insightforliving.ca/women today!
Dear Graduate: Letters of Wisdom from Charles R. Swindoll hardcover gift book, 148 pages
Chuck shares warm, personal letters to graduates on the subjects of integrity, victory, courage, and more. This beautifully illustrated book is the perfect gift for every graduate.
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Family Squeeze: Tales of Hope and Hilarity for a Sandwiched Generation
The Impact of a Faithful Father
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In these two encouraging messages, Chuck stirs up gratitude both for our fathers and for the men who have been godly examples to us.
It is possible to navigate the Middle Ages with grace and style! Whatever our season of life, Phil’s guide to “middle-aging” provides fresh insights for bringing joy to life.
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LifeMaps 7-book set by Insight for Living
Our LifeMaps books help navigate the twists and turns life throws our way and guide us toward spiritual growth through the application of God’s Word.
A Healthy Body: Characteristics of a Contagious Church booklet by Insight for Living, 80 pages
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A Prophet We Can Trust
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Can we trust modern-day seers? Should we listen when they predict the coming of Christ? Chuck gives a checklist of what to look for in a trustworthy prophet.
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Chuck examines the lives of biblical heroes like Joseph, David, and Daniel, and presents us with an opportunity to examine our own lives in light of Micah 6:8 to see if we are living A Life Well Lived.
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Taking on Life With a Great Attitude single CD message
Drawing on inspiration from the life of Caleb, Chuck shows us that whatever the challenge, when we choose to follow the Lord fully, we can expect victory—and our attitude should show it.
THIS MONTH’S featured resource Insight’s Bible Application Guide: Job-Song of Solomon—A Life Lesson from Every Chapter paperback from Insight for Living, 200 pages
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Insight for Living’s new book shows us how the pain and passion of the Old Testament writers is not only relevant today but helps us understand God in a deeper way!
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Insight’s Bible Application Guide: Genesis-Deuteronomy —A Life Lesson from Every Chapter paperback by Insight for Living, 156 pages
This first volume from Insight for Living uncovers a timeless truth from each chapter of the first five books of the Bible and reveals how to live it out.
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Insight’s Bible Application Guide: Joshua-Esther —A Life Lesson from Every Chapter
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paperback by Insight for Living, 206 pages
Old Testament history needn’t remain odd and irrelevant. This second volume in the series from Insight for Living helps us discover how to understand and apply the Old Testament to our lives.
on the air THIS MONTH Strengthening Your Grip: Essentials in an Aimless World 16 CD messages
Would you like to live an authentic, uncomplicated life? These messages based on the Sermon on the Mount will help you find your way to freedom, peace, and resting in Jesus Christ.
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