The Pen of the Wayfarer

"Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder.
Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice
of Your universe. Delight me to see how Your
Christ plays in ten thousand places. . .to the
Father through the features of men's faces. Each
day enrapture me with your marvelous things
without number. I do not ask to see the reason for
it all; I ask only to share the wonder of it all."

-- Joshua Abraham Heschel

photo taken in Abergavenny, Wales

Joshua Abraham Heschel
wonder

"And why beholdest the splinter that is
in thy brother's eye, but considerest
not the beam that is in thine own eye?"
(Matthew 7:3).

I like the fact that when you read the
words of Jesus, you often find a penetrating
irony there. At the heart of Jesus'
teaching we see that Christ most
assuredly tell us not to judge others,
not because things don't need
judging, but because our eye condition,
mainly the fact that something quite
large is clouding our vision, causes
us to be unable to see clearly.

Jesus teaches us to put the shortcomings
of others in their proper perspective.
How is it that we notice the smallest
problem in another but do not see the
very large problem in ourself?

We see the speck in our neighbor's eye,
but fail to consider that there is a
massive beam in our own. He gently
reminds us that we fail to "consider"
what is wrong in our own heart. "Consider"
has that well pondered, well acknowledged
kind of feel to it. The kind of consider
that those who wanted to cast the first
stone at the woman caught in adultery were
forced to do when Jesus started
writing their sins down for them.

They had "forgotten" to consider and
Jesus was just "helping" them along
in that regard. Dear Lord, there is
so much we need to consider. 70 x 7
times a day kind of consider. Danger
of hellfire kind of consider. Standing
before the judgment seat of Christ
kind of consider. Making an absolute
fool out of myself kind of consider.

I don't mean rehearsing your sins
and falsely lamenting about how
bad you are. I don't mean dwelling
on things that God has forgiven you
for. Just a good healthy consider
to put things in their proper perspective.
It shouldn't take too long before
you slip into a well-considered silence.

We are all helplessly, hopelessly weak
without God. We are all, even at our
strongest points, genuinely broken. No
matter how much healing the Lord has done
in us, the door still squeaks. At best
we are wounded healers. Jesus is trying to bring
us together under one roof as children of
God; children who love each other no matter
what, children who know how to love
much because they have been forgiven
much.

The really embarrassing truth is
that our shortcomings are out
there for everyone to see. We are
the ones, the embarrassingly last ones,
who usually fail to see our greatest
flaws. But what if we were meant
to help each other instead of
judge each other?

A graceful community knows
how to help each of its members, from the
alleged small to the alleged great, clear both
speck and log from their eyes. We are meant to
do that as a community of the forgiven, knowing
that, for better or for worse, how you deal with
me, is probably how I'm going to deal with you,
with God watching the whole time.

There is balance and healing and a whole
eye in the community of God when she is
healthy. Not one of us can see everything,
we must look and see and discern together,
with each bringing what he has. If you
haven't been hit by this revelation in
its practical chaotic working, let me
inform you that God has made each of us
wildly different!

Paul says, "For who has made you to differ
from another? and what do you have that you
did not receive? now if it was received,
why do you glory, as if it had not been
received?" (1 Cor. 4:7). All that we are
is a gift given by God. We cannot then
use it to judge others, we must use it
to help others.

There is the old story of the Emperor who
Had No Clothes. Everyone could see his
nakedness, but pretended that he was royally
dressed because it would have been too chancy, too
politically incorrect, too dangerous, to say
otherwise.

The truth is, we are all naked emperors,
and our job, to each other, is to help
cover our individual and corporate nakedness,
not with dysfunctional lies of false pretense, nor
with the deceitfulness of sin's false cloak,
but with the righteous robes of healing, love,
and the fear of God.

How sad we will all feel when we see how
much healing was out there for all of us
that we failed to avail ourselves of or
failed to work together toward. We cannot
get there by ourselves.

It is very hard to "consider the beam"
outside a healthy community of faith.
Self-deceit is too greatly embedded in
us all. It is too easy to let ourselves
off the hook if we are doing the self-inspecting.

We must allow God into the consideration
process, but we must also consider that
the Body of Christ is meant to be a place
where you can LOVINGLY help me see my
reflection and urge me to make those necessary
changes that will make me look more
like Christ. If the body is sick,
then that process is not possible,
and much is lost. Sadly, much has
been lost, so much so that there is
often more dis-ease than healing in the
church.

I'm not saying that there are easy
answers or that any of us
will ever get there, but I still
hold it up as God's best way.
If this kind of healing and
accountability is not available to you
on a large scale, then ask God
to make it available to you on a
small scale. Start with one person
you trust.

Let us not lose sight of the fact
that mutual healing, the wisdom born
out of diverse people choosing to give
what they have, choosing to love, and
be loved, to change and be changed, is
what God wants for us. Feeling that
is an impossible task does not let
me off the hook, for here I stand,
broken, weak, bleeding, and in need
of one of the passersby on the road
to be as a good Samaritan to me. Feeling
that it is too risky does not negate
my charge to stop and aid others that are
likewise bleeding and broken.

The Word and call of God stand no matter
what. What we do with them determines
our individual and corporate destiny.
Consider the beam. Consider love.
Consider change. Consider the glory of God.
Oh, if only we could see what we could
be together.

forgiveness
covenant relationship
community
the Body of Christ
Matthew 7:3
reconciliation
judgment
grace

by Pastor Derek Gitsham

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,
be sober and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought to you at the revelation
of Jesus Christ" (I Peter 1:13).

Peter is thinking possibly of the last words of
Moses to Israel as they were exiting Egypt. In
Exodus 12:11 it speaks of eating the sacrifice,
whose blood was placed on the lintel and doorposts
of the houses they lived in, so that the angel of
the Lord, when seeing the blood, might pass over
them.

While eating the sacrifice, they had to have their
loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their
staff in their hand, and they shall eat it in haste
for it is the Lord’s Passover.

They were to eat the sacrifice in departure mode,
having the loins girded. Peter says we are to be
thinking in the same way. This is not our home here;
we will one day be gone to our heavenly home. We
have to live in departure mode in our thinking, not
allowing our minds to dwell on things of the earth,
and be caught up with the world and its distractions.

They were to eat it in haste. They had to be quick.
Leaving the world and sin needs to be done quickly.
The word labor, in “labor to enter into His rest”
means be quick. If you delay over things in the world,
procrastinating, before long it will have you. Paul,
to the Corinthians, says, “Flee fornication, escape it.”

Our mindset must be in departure mode. Unfortunately,
Israel left Egypt (the world) but Egypt did not leave
them. We must progressively be leaving Egypt whilst here,
leaving sin, having nothing to do with it if we are to
obtain the prize, and reserve our crown.

Speaking of the faith witnesses in Hebrews 11:15 says
“Truly if they had been mindful of that country from
whence they came out, they might have had opportunity
to have returned." Let us gird up the loins of our mind,
and live in departure mode.

Throughout the book of Daniel we continue
to see the stark contrast between Daniel,
who fears God and walks with Him, compared
with the prideful and foolish Babylonian kings.

In Chapter 5 of Daniel, Belshazzar,who is in
Nebuchadnezzar's bloodline, perhaps the grandson,
is introduced. What we see immediately is
that wanting to make yourself look good,
plus an excess of wine, will push you to
do things that you should not do.

Belshazzar was giving a great feast and the
wine flowed freely. In order to further
impress his guests he decides, against
all good judgment, to bring out the gold and
silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had
taken from the temple of Jerusalem and
allow people drink wine from them.

Proverbs 16:18&19 says, "Pride goes before
destruction, and a haughty spirit before
a fall. Better it is to be of a humble
spirit with the lowly, than to divide the
spoil with the proud."

The last thing we hear from Nebuchadnezzar,
even the last verse of Daniel chapter 4,
is this: "...those that walk in pride He
[God] is able to abase" (Dan 4:37).

Nebuchadnezzar was brought down by his pride.
Here, the same thing is happening. Belshazzar
is playing with fire! It is said that they
"drank wine and praised the gods of gold,
and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood,
and of stone" (Daniel 4:4). How foolish!
It is interesting that they did not mention
the God of Israel, although they surely
were told where the vessels came from.

They praised things that could not speak
back, they extolled things they could control
and things that served them! Praising the
God of Israel, on the other hand, would have
brought them face to face with the Living God.
It would have brought them face to face with
their pride, foolishness, and idolatry.

Why does Israel, indeed, why does anyone, turn to
idolatry? Because it serves them. It turns the
relationship of us serving God to a god
serving us! Praising the gods of silver and
gold made these objects appear to be something
greater than they are. Here were gods they could
use, yet this shows their ignorance of the Living
God and their lack of respect for Him. God makes
us, we don't make God! God commands us, we
don't command God! God uses us as His vessels,
we don't use Him!

Have you ever wondered, if the Living God
of Israel is your God, why you would choose
to turn away from Him?

In pondering this we will come face to face
with that in us that does not want to be
mastered and led by God.

But in the same hour that this misplaced
revelry happened, the fingers of a man's hand
appeared and wrote of God's impending
judgment upon them. Here was the wake-up call!

The King brought all his wise men to him
but they could not interpret what was written
on the wall. The queen reminds Belshazzar
of Daniel, who had an "excellent spirit,"
one who interpreted dreams with wisdom and
one who "dissolved doubts" (Daniel 5:12).

How would you like to be a person who
dissolved doubts? Doubts arise from being
double minded, they arise from wanting
something both ways, they arise from
lack of knowledge of God. Daniel was a
man who continually purposed in his heart
to follow God. He didn't choose to worship
God part of the time, and Nebuchadnezzar
or Belshazzar the rest of the time. He was
always sure because he was entirely God's!

Belshazzar promises Daniel wealth and power.
Daniel tells the king, "Let thy gifts
be to thyself, and give they rewards to
another, yet I will read the writing" (vs 17).
It is a dangerous trap to take money or
position for the gifting of God. God will
provide for you and make a way for your gift,
but God gives us His gifts freely so freely
we should share. Daniel could have easily
compromised but he stands as a exemplary
example of someone who would not compromise.

Daniel tells Belshazzar it was because
Nebuchadnezzar's heart was lifted up and
his mind hardened in pride that he was
deposed from his kingly throne. If Belshazzar
knew about the silver and gold objects taken
from the temple surely he knew the whole
story. But how selective is our memory
and how quickly we forget the parts we
do not wish to remember!

So judgment comes to Belshazzar just as
it came to Nebuchadnezzar. God is not
mocked, what we sow we reap. May we sow
humility and the fear of the Lord, lest
we reap a whirlwind of destruction.

Daniel and Belshazzar
Bible study Book of Daniel
pride
idolatry

For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be
served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.
.. C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), "Equality"

photo taken in Cheltenham, England

by Pastor Derek Gitsham

"Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not
disobedient to the heavenly vision" (Acts 26:19)

We are living in days when from the pulpit to
the pew everybody is crying out, “we must have
a vision, we must have a vision.” They go on to
quote from Proverbs, “that without a vision,
the people perish.”

Pet themes in preaching become very popular
amongst the people that oftentimes vital truths
that accompany them are left out. Although the
word "purity" is not mentioned in the scriptures
associated with vision, yet the Word of God clearly
brings it forth for us to see. For instance “Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mat 5:1).
No mention of vision here, but clearly Jesus says
without a pure heart we will not get the right vision.

David records in Psalm 18:26, “With the pure Thou wilt
show Him Thyself pure, and with the froward
(unsavoury—not a word currently used in the English
dictionary) thou will show thyself froward.”

If God is to be seen to us as pure, and if He shows
Himself pure, then it is because we are pure. So
disposition controls what we see. In other words,
“character determines vision” (Oswald Chambers).

Many are chasing after visions, while God is
chasing them to get cleaned up. You will never
see with misty glasses, fogged up lenses. Get them
cleaned up and you will see as clear as the day.
So many are lacking vision because they are lacking
purity. The pure in heart see God. He is our vision.

Muddy waters do not yield up any possibility of us
seeing into the waters. Mixture and contamination
dwell in all of us, unless by diligent pursuance of
our relationship with God and giving ourselves to Him,
we see God remove the uncleanness and the waters
become pure.

Paul says, “To the pure, all things are pure.” So
then to get the right vision we have to get a pure heart,
lest we go chasing after what we think is God’s vision
for us, when in fact it is not; just a fable of our
imagination. God keep us true to the heavenly vision,
where all is pure and sin free.

holiness
seeing God

Lately I have been thinking about God alot.
This is nothing new, but I've REALLY been
thinking. Pondering about why I believe
in God, and Who Is the God I believe in.
No, asking of Him, "Who are You?"; delving
into the Scriptures so that I might
believe correctly in Him.

Even saying "the God I believe in" reveals
a primal self-focused flaw. For He is far above
any conception I have of Him, far beyond
any current revelation I know of Him,
far beyond what my mind can take in of Him
and yet, amazingly, closer than a brother.

I am back to an ineffable name, a Name
too holy to speak, yet made flesh in
Jesus Christ. This quote by Walter Kaiser
crossed my desk, "great worship occurs
when there is a great view of God."

So I sit in my house, lay on my bed, walk along
the streets, read the scriptures, pray
in the tongues of men and angels, as a kind of
supra-cognitive awe begins to descend upon me.
I come once again to the foot of the Cross to look
at God.

If great worship occurs when there is a
great view of God then that judges our
current level of worship and our current
view of God. Worship starts with
a great view of God. It starts when I see
Him as He is and am struck dumb. It starts
when I see Him and there is so much of
Him that I cannot find myself. It starts with
His purposes in Christ for Israel and finishes with
His purposes in Israel at long last found and brought
home to Christ.

It starts when the wise men bow down before
the great God of the universe who has chosen
to become a baby in the Child Jesus. It starts
when we, in the dark night of our souls, press pass
our questions and confusion and go and
sit, as Job, before a God we know on paper,
but not in reality. It starts when we take
one look at all that is around us and
realize that it could not possibly occur
by chance. Despite the seemingly cruel acts
of life that befuddle and oppose, slinging
their dark arrows of alleged outrageous fortune--
a thunderous grace emerges, a grace so vehement,
and robust, that to see it, even for moment,
would melt our souls.

A great view of God is Jesus' view of God.
Without His aid, we cannot even get into
the cheap bleacher seats of the Kingdom
of heaven.

A great view of God civilizes us. For without
that view, we are mere barbarians, for no
matter how far technology and science can take us,
they cannot teach us how to act as divinely
created children of God, much less give
us the power to do so.

A great view of God lifts us up from
foolishness, illusion, and the folly of
worshipping a god of our own making.

A great view of God brings us to God's
holiness, front to back, side to side, up,
down, and sideways. It brings us to the heavy
glory of who God is, not merely
as felt Presence, but as a creative, fiery
Spirit who comes to bring a holy fire of
purifying transformation within us.

Isaiah sees God's holiness and is undone.
Peter sees Christ's command of the elements
and wants Christ to depart from him--his sense of
sinfulness making him so weak-kneed he has no
strength to flee himself. Can you imagine
if he, or you, or I, saw the whole picture?

Worship of idols dehumanizes the high calling
of man before God. Contrarily, a grand view of
God puts us first in the dust, as mere chaff
blowing in the wind. Yet, by transformational
grace, and a long obedience in a holy
direction, we are raised from the dust as
Sons and Daughters of the Holy and Living
God. God makes Himself into dust, and then
makes dust into a people worthy of Himself.

If worship is only about us, about our feelings,
our hopes and dreams, and even our highest
yearnings, it has failed to give us a grand
enough view of God. Grand worship decreases
us so that He is known and seen as All in All.

Grand worship is "bid me come" (Matthew 14:28).

Grand worship is "be it done to me according
to Your Word" (Luke 1:38).

Grand worship is "I have sinned against heaven
and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be
called thy son" (Luke 15:25).

Grand worship is the fear of the Lord (Luke 12:4,5).

Grand worship is the "things that are impossible
with men are possible with God (Luke 18:26).

Grand worship is "Lord, I am not worthy that
you should come under my roof"(Matthew 8:8,9).

Grand worship is pouring oneself out rather
than pouring one's words out(Matthew 26:7).

Grand worship is he that overcometh shall
inherit all things and I shall be his God
(Rev. 21:7).

Grand worship is "the kingdoms of this world
are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and
of his Christ; and he shall reign forever
and forever and the four and twenty elders,
which sat before God on their seats, fell
upon their faces and worshipped God"
(Rev. 11:16,17).

God, give us a grand view of Yourself. Pull
down everything that does not do You justice.
Show us our idols so that we might pull them
down to see You in Your Grand Glory.

God, give us a grand view of Yourself.

deception
true and false prophets
holiness
true worship
false prophets
idolatry
true religion
a compromised Gospel
Todd Bentley
Walter Kaiser

"The life of holiness is the life of
faith in which the believer, with a
deepening knowledge of his own sin and
helplessness apart from Christ,
increasingly casts himself upon the Lord,
and seeks the power of the Spirit and the
wisdom and comfort of the Bible to battle
against the world, the flesh, and the devil."
Edmund P. Clowney --"The Church"

photo taken in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Springs, Colorado
holiness

by Pastor Derek Gitsham

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow;
for the morrow shall take thought for things
of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil"
(Matthew 6:34).

Jesus words were spoken before the disciples
had received the Holy Ghost on the Day of
Pentecost. How much they understood certainly
must be in question. Surely they were followers
of the Lord, but they were yet to know the Lord
spiritually and by the Spirit.

Knowing Him after the flesh was not what God was
after. He came that men might know Him after the
Spirit. Even as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:16,
“Henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea,
though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet
now henceforth know we Him no more.” The words of
the Lord are spiritual, “the words I speak are
Spirit and life,” Jesus said.

The words “take no thought” literally mean no
anxious thought. Do not be over concerned about
anything concerning life here. “Be careful for
nothing,” Paul says. How wonderful of the Lord
to say these things. So often we get anxious about
what we have not, what we need, thoughts about
how we will pay this or that. If our faith is
really in the Lord it will be anxiety free, fear
free. Anxiety produces fear.

“Perfect love casts out all fear” says John.
There is nothing you and I can think of that
He has not already thought of for us. We are
His. Because we belong to the Lord, He takes
the responsibility for taking care of us. We
are His. Yet how long does it take for the
heart to really believe that “He careth for
us.” So often we have believed the lies of
the enemy that God will not come through.
He answers all prayers.

His Word will not return to Him void. Fight
the good fight of faith. He will come through
for you. The darkness will turn to light,
sorrow to joy and your wounds will be healed.
Only believe, and take no thought. No thought
whatsoever. He feedeth the fowls, are you not
much better than they?