Category: Pastor’s Corner

Paula had the opportunity a few years ago to take her favorite husband on a trip, just the two of us. We have had an occasional night or two away, but this was the first real vacation we had set out on alone, since the honeymoon 43 years ago.

Part of the tour was planned to introduce her to places in the Upper Peninsula that I considered noteworthy, before we would explore together other areas neither of us had been to before. One region we visited was the Keweenaw Peninsula. We wandered its length, taking in beautiful scenery, lake view vistas, and a few historical spots from the boom days of mining. We enjoyed a picnic at Copper Harbor’s public launch, where we were the only visitors, save for a pair of Loons (Red Throated?) paddling in the cove and calling out between dives with their distinctive lonely wail. It was perfect. 

I was impressed with a repeated sight at several of the mining ruins in the peninsula. This was the immense “poor rock” piles; the detritus left nearby the mine openings, hauled out by the ton in the process of extraction. If you were going for copper, you had to expel a lot of useless material to get to the profitable ore.

I think of that sight, and how it illustrates to me the process of refinement in a believer’s life. The purifying is not a quick and easy experience.

Much debris has to be pulled out of the way in our lives, in order to present that which ultimately will be useful for refinement. For the follower of Christ, spiritually crippling things need to be cast off, as the teaching of the Lord in Mark 9:43-48 declares. Some worthless things just need to be removed, plainly and quickly, even radically. Yet other things, like the ore that holds potential riches, need processing, refining, cleansing and purifying through the application of fire.

Our Lord speaks to this as I continue reading in Mark: “For everyone will be salted with fire.”    Mark 9:49 (NASB)

My view on this teaching from Jesus considers what God shares about “fire” in His Word. Fire can be awful; fearsome. Consider both the unquenchable fire for unbelievers (:43-48) and the burning up of unprofitable works for the believer who lapsed in obedience to His Master (1 Cor. 3:11-15). Yet fire can also be a positive, purifying thing, as the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers (Luke 3:16). See also Prov. 17:3; Psalm 66:10; Job 23:10; Rev. 3:18.

In mining, the ore removed for smelting has no choice in the matter. It receives what man determines to do. But in our lives, the choice of rejection or cooperation with the Spirit of God seems to be the pivot. That is, our continual cleansing (by being salted with purifying fire) must first find our yieldedness to accept the fire. Let me illustrate:

Like many of us, I have an ongoing issue with skin pre-cancers and cancers. Monitoring is frequent. Some treatments I can do at home. With rechecks, the areas that did not respond to rounds of chemo cream (relatively painless) then require a more radical treatment—surgery—to be employed. Depending on the type of cancer, it may well call for biopsy and probable surgery without delay; there is no option for a “home kit” for these.

The common factor in every instance is my willingness to take the “fire” of treatment in order to kill that which could kill me. If I choose to ignore, or postpone, or treat with my own system (no, Windex did not work…) then I have consequences that come from that stance.

In our lives, if we reject the work of the Spirit’s refining, we wallow in sin to our own detriment. The challenge is to receive His fire as good, though it will involve pain. He will reshape our priorities, deepen our love for our gracious Lord, and move us closer to Him. It will be new life for our conscience, new freedom to walk in for witness and proclamation, and a lightness that only comes through the clarity of serving one Master. We will be satisfied in Him as the things of this world “grow strangely dim.”

As we come nearer, we will want nothing but Him, His Word, and His Spirit’s work. We will learn how good it is to embrace His fire, salted on us.

May we run to, and embrace, that purifying flame.

Romans 5:19 “For through the ones man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”

Hebrews 5:8 “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”

Matthew 26:39 “He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

I Peter 1:14 “As obedient children do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.”

There is a scene in a movie that makes one chuckle because it presents a predicament that many of us have faced.  Christmas lights have been carefully placed and checked for functionality, all is prepared and is ready for the big reveal.  But when the moment comes and the connection is made, nothing happens.  The comedic frustration builds in the character until the moment another member of the cast realizes that the power switch has not been turned on.  There is a disconnection, and the electricity will not flow, and no lights will illuminate no matter how hard one wills it to be.

As Christians we desire to experience the power of God in our lives but often we find a disconnection between what we read in God’s Word and the experiences in our daily lives.  Just like the character in the movie we expect the lights to come on, but they don’t.  Wes Chadek shared one Sunday that one reason why we are here is our sanctification (i.e. our spiritual growth) and that it involves more than simply knowing certain facts, though that is important.  What must happen is our obedience that comes from faith. We must put into action what we know and do what our Lord tells us.  Yet often we look to our own strength, we consider ourselves to be self-sufficient, we go our own way and just like in the movie there is a disconnection and no power flows. 

Obedience by definition is submission to another’s authority and Jesus is our great example of one who lived a life of obedience.  It was to the Father’s authority that Jesus submitted when He emptied Himself and took on the form of a bond servant, being made in the likeness of men (Phil. 2:6).  Jesus stated many times that He came not to do His own will but that of the Father.  We even read that just before the cross, Jesus asked that the suffering He was about to endure could be taken away—yet His one desire was not to do His own will but that of God the Father.  As a result of His obedience, we now have been made righteous and can come before a Holy God without fear of judgement!  When Jesus obeyed His Father, the power flowed! 

So it is with us, my responsibility as a child of God is to walk in obedience.  I am not the captain of my ship, He is. 

This is not a legalistic kind of obedience in order to garner favor with our Lord, but rather obedience that flows from a deep relationship with one who loved us so much He would die for us.  It is based on trust and confidence in Him.  Trust that He has only the best in mind for us, and confidence that what He started He will bring to completion.  Paul said in Romans 8:31 & 32 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over fur us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”  This is the truth that motivates our submission to God and to obey Him in all things.  It is the only rational choice for the believer (Rom. 12:1).  So if you desire to have the power of God in your life, walk as an obedient child.  Even if you don’t understand or can’t see the end result, simply trust and obey for there is no other way….

¹⁸  For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.” ²⁰ Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. ²² For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, ²⁴ but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18-24 (NASB, emphases added)

An unbelieving world sees little in the cross, apart from a form of jewelry, fraud, or weakness. Unregenerate hearts possess no life in the Spirit to grant light and understanding, so they reason darkly. Paul speaks to these natural inclinations of the unsaved in this passage; present then and present today.

In our age, segments of Christianity-so-called have deliberately removed the cross either physically from their presence, or verbally from their messaging. The rationale given is that the cross is too offensive and divisive. It hinders the invitational model within that denomination or fellowship network. Upbeat is better. The cross is a downer.

Paul states the cross is “…foolishness to those who are perishing...” (:18). I believe more are perishing in the Christendom world of entertainment, comfort and accommodation than those “religious” could ever fathom.

Those that truly receive “the Word of the Cross” will not respond by mere comfort or emotion, but by confrontation of undeniable Truth. The “Word of the Cross” is the content of the message concerning it: Christ’s substitutionary death for us, by crucifixion. While “other” meanings of the cross are imagined, true meaning is that which God gives to it.

Through the “…foolishness of the message preached…” (:21) that Truth is heard, and believed, and appropriated by faith.  It should be plain that one cannot be saved without the entrance of this truth of God’s message concerning the Cross, in His Word. (Ps. 119:130; Ro. 10:8, 17; Eph. 1:13).

Let’s hear Paul describe this “message of the cross,” so we don’t miss the Truth:

1 Corinthians 15:1-5 ¹ Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, ² by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. ³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

The Cross is God’s central message, in Jesus Christ. Yup. It’s not the “golden rule,” or the 10 commandments, or simply “love.” It is The Cross. There, God’s Grace was extended to us, through judgment and punishment for our sin poured out on His Son. Where holiness and love met and God’s justice was satisfied. His holiness remained undiminished; all was accomplished through the sacrifice of Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God.  2 Corinthians 5:21 states; He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

That’s a big “so that” in that verse—“…we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” I see it as a great explanation of 1 Cor. 1:18 (above) “…us who are being saved…”

The Cross provides us with God’s power (through the Holy Spirit given) to continue to “work out” (Phil. 2:12-13) our salvation while sojourning in this present world. The received Savior unleashes the power of God—the indwelling Holy Spirit in us—to give us wisdom and discernment (1 Cor. 1:24 above). The new birth continually transforms us, by the power of the Word of God through His Spirit. This sanctifying work yields new perspectives, priorities, outlooks, values, motivations and actions! He saved us then, now, and for all eternity. That is why we call Him Savior!

The Corinthians demonstrate both God’s transformative power (see 1 Cor. 6:9-11!) and the ongoing need for yieldedness to His Spirit (6:19)! This is no different for our lives today. What do others see when they encounter this body of believers? Is it man’s strength? Clever strategies? Worldly cleverness? Cultural appeal? Christ, or dead men and women walking?

May our testimony be as Paul’s in Galatians 6:14: But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Now that we’ve looked at the “Word of the Cross” (1 Cor. 1:18), what does the Cross mean to you? Is it “Foolishness?” Or, is it the power of God that saved, and is saving me, even now?

Blessings to you in this season of focus upon the Passion of our Savior, Jesus.