Thursday, November 30, 2017

The Chasm That Humans Can't Bridge


Here is a wonderful depiction, written by Ray Pritchard, of how sin keeps a non-believer from connecting with God:

     "We were made to know God and we want to know Him, but our sin has separated us from God. As a result, we are left with a deep 'Father hunger' that won't go away.

     So what do we do? We look for love in all the wrong places. We can illustrate this using a pen and a piece of paper. Draw a cliff on the right side of the paper and label it 'God.' On the left side draw another cliff and label it 'Us.' Label the gap in between with the word 'Sin.' That's the problem we all face. We're on one side, God is on the other, and our sin stands between God and us. Something deep inside tells us we belong on the other side with the God who made us. So we set out to build bridges across the great chasm.

     Now draw lines that start on the 'Us' side, ending each line somewhere in-between the two cliffs. Each line represents a human 'bridge' we build in our attempts to find our way back to God. One bridge is labeled 'Money,' another 'Education,' another 'Good works,' another 'Sex,' another 'Power,' another 'Science,' another 'Success,' another 'Approval,' another 'Relationships,' and another 'Religion.' You can make as many bridges as you like, but they never seem to reach the other side. Each one ends somewhere in the middle, illustrating the truth that you can never find God by starting where you are. No matter which road you take, you fall into the great chasm and end up being broken on the jagged rocks of reality.

     That's what I mean by searching in all the wrong places. Nothing in this world can satisfy our longing because nothing in this world can lead us back to God. The answer we need must come from outside this world...

     Here is our problem in a nutshell. We were made by God to know God. There is a 'God-shaped vacuum' inside each person that causes us to seek after the One who made us. Solomon reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God 'has put eternity in their hearts.' Because we search in all the wrong places, we can never find Him. Our eternal longing for God is not fulfilled." Ray Pritchard, An Anchor for the Soul


Those of us who have made this journey and come out on the other side, now seated with Christ at God's right hand, know this to be true. 

Yet, many people accede no Godly foundation to this earth or any living being in it and therefore, are not inclined to give any thought to what to them are trivial and banal matters. 

Many more are still sure that they can live according to a personally-defined god. 

To them, Jesus is a mockery, or, as one relative of mine put it, a "fairy tale." The chasm, for them, remains.

Jesus says, in Matthew 11:6, "blessed is he who does not take offense at Me."

Peter, in 2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."

Then, after denouncing the cities in which most of his miracles were done because the people did not repent, Jesus says, in Matthew 11:27-30,

"All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." 

Jesus bridges the chasm. 








Saturday, November 25, 2017

We Can't "Make Up For"


The online dictionary defines the attempt to “make up for” as this:

“serve or act to compensate for something lost, missed, or deficient.”

We, out of our own personal sense of goodness, or attempts to be good, or willing ourselves to be good, cannot atone for past, present and future sins.

We can apologize to others, and even forgive ourselves, but since sin is ultimately committed against God (Psalm 51:4), we must repent of sin to Him for redemption from the sin.

Jesus repeats many times that we must first repent and then be saved. The repentance is to Him, who is Lord God, and salvation is through Him also.

The people who heard Jesus speaking in Luke 18 were amazed to hear that even the rich needed to repent. The rich in that culture were perceived as having received special blessing from God. So if even the rich must repent, the question was asked of Jesus,

“Then who can be saved?” (Luke 18:26).

Jesus answered, simply and beautifully,

“The things that are impossible with people are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).

That is the great triumphant freedom we have in Christ: to have our sins washed away by the blood of Christ.

Why would Jesus repeatedly command people to repent if it were unnecessary?

Yes, he died on the cross for everyone, meaning He opens the door to this freedom in Himself to everyone who—what? Repents.  

How many of us have attempted to assuage all guilt of past mistakes, improprieties, failures, selfish attitudes and ill-will by serving in some capacity?

We think that by teaching Sunday school, delivering Meals-on-Wheels, singing in the choir, serving at the local food pantry or volunteering at the local nature center that we can make up for the regrets and failures of the past.

We run for local office, join the EMT’s, volunteer at the library, hospital or retirement home and knit baby blankets for preemies.

Perhaps we hone a skill like painting or woodwork and attempt to refine our image that way.

The question is, does that do it

Is our guilt assuaged?

Are our past mistakes blotted out? 

Do we actually feel and, more importantly, know we are redeemed?

The answer for me was “No.” 

I, myself, could never redeem myself, and until I met Christ, I never understood this.

But when I did finally meet Christ, I met sin 
(take a look in Scripture at how often people felt personal conviction in the presence of and in their meeting with Christ).

And when I met sin, I met repentance. 

And when I met repentance, I met Christ’s forgiveness.

And when I met Christ’s forgiveness, I met Christ’s redemption. 

And when I met Christ’s redemption, I met Christ’s salvation.

And when I met Christ's salvation, I went from meeting Christ to knowing Him. 

It is rather grandiose of humans to think they can become good of themselves and save themselves of their own volition. That’s rather pompous, and at the same time ignorantly stubborn.

Some folks truly believe that if they roll up their sleeves enough times, dig in and do “good works,” or advocate "kindness," they will magically manufacture 100% pure inner goodness. 

Others simply indulge in personal ambition, striving in their own personal definition of goodness as a way to avoid faith in anything other than themselves.

It is in these delusions in which they choose to live removed from "the way, the truth and the life” that is Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

Copyright Barb Harwood


“Be gracious to me, O God, according to your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
And blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will be converted to You.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips,
That my mouth may declare Your praise.
For you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” Psalm 51:1-17



“From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17.



“Seeing their faith, He said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.’” Luke 5:20



“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:11



“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:4-7 
(you can consult commentaries further to understand that “who need no repentance” is to be understood to mean “ninety-nine righteous persons who think that they do not need to repent).



“...I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:10b



“...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works...” Romans 3:23-28a




Wednesday, November 22, 2017

How Can I Be Thankful When I'm Not?


Many of us will be visiting extended family on Thursday for the supposed purpose of sharing food and camaraderie in a spirit of thankfulness.

Sadly, many of us feel only guilt that thankfulness for time spent with certain individuals never materializes.

And this is usually because every family has a fly in the ointment. Okay, maybe not every family.

But every family that I have ever encountered has the irascible relative: the critic, the mean-spirited gossip, the angry drunkard.

And if not that, then every family has the proverbial jokester, the political egger-on-er, the braggart, the loud-talking room-dominator, the coterie of drinkers, and so on.

Sometimes it’s easy to shrug our shoulders and slink away to a quiet corner. 

Sometimes we become disgruntled that nobody—including our self, is willing to confront the ne’er-do-well. 

Other times it’s necessary to actually don our coats and take our leave from the premises.

Many of us dig in our heels and weather these gatherings—battered by our apprehension in the days leading up to the festivities, and by our frustrations in the days following.

A friend--a sister-in-Christ--and I recently talked about this very thing. She said she had recently read that, instead of focusing on wishing others would change, or how others need to change, or on God needing to change them, it is better to focus on how God can change us.

God can use any situation or person to tone and condition our patience, long-suffering, compassion and discernment.

Discernment is an attribute I particularly like, finding it quite helpful in combating inner feelings because it incorporates logic and the benefit of objective thinking.

I absolutely love the online dictionary’s definition of discernment:

“(In Christian contexts) perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual direction and understanding.”

That is the opposite of how I have often conducted myself. In the past it was about my discomfort and my wants (which I often mistook for needs).

The new way, the Christ-way, is to see everyone from His perspective and His alone.

When we do that, we will no longer be discomfited when people who mock Christ act as they do.

We will not despair when the alcohol flows or be surprised at a dumb joke.

We will be unperturbed at someone’s admission of how they cheated the boss or Uncle Sam.

We will remain in perfect peace, steadfast in our trust in Christ, always conscious of the truth that our identity is in Christ, not the world or group of people in which we find ourselves.   

Having an ongoing knowledge of Scripture is crucial in order to practice discernment, and to be able to abide in Christ with a clear conscience before God, come what may.

This is how we stop “weathering the storm” of social get-togethers and instead go forth in Christ’s quiet, humble strength and affirmation.

copyright Barb Harwood



“The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You support my lot.” Psalm 16:5


“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26:3



“I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” John 17:15-19


Monday, November 20, 2017

Thinking We're a "Good" Person Doesn't Save Us


William Barclay, writing in The All-Sufficient Christ, points out that many religious people see salvation as:

"something that a man by merit can win, and not something that in grace God gives. It makes a man think of salvation as something that results from what he is, and not something that results solely from what God is."

Barclay goes on to say, 

"The very essence of Christianity is that in humble and adoring gratitude we can only accept that which God in Christ so generously offers us...
True, such a love drives us to seek to be worthy of it, but that which we do is not the cause but the consequence of our salvation. Every man is saved for works, but no man was ever saved by works." William Barclay


"But God , being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Ephesians 2:4-10 


Saturday, November 18, 2017

Collectivism's Obsession With Extroversion


C.S. Lewis has a great quote on how solitude, even in his day, was being squashed and discouraged:


"There is a crowd of busybodies, self-appointed masters of ceremonies, whose life is devoted to destroying solitude wherever solitude exists. They call it "taking the young people out of themselves," or "waking them up," or "overcoming their apathy." If an Augustine, a Vaughan, a Treherne, or a Wordsworth should be born in the modern world, the leaders of a youth organization would soon cure him." C.S. Lewis, p. 159, The Weight of Glory


My experiences within the Corporate Church, and how it "disciples" the youth, have born this out as well. Silence and one-on-one time with God are not prioritized, or at least, are not as highly esteemed as time spent in unison. 

Even among Evangelicals, who constantly assert the need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the lived-out attitude and expressed expectation is the total opposite: "Sign Up!" "Join a Group!" "Serve!" "Come to Bible Study!" "Be Here Every Time Church is in Session!" "Raise Your hands in Worship!" "Be Missional" "Be in Community!" "Get Out of Your Comfort Zone!" and on and on. 

C.S. Lewis goes on to say:


"We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and privacy, and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship." C.S. Lewis, page 160, The Weight of Glory


Sometimes I feel as though, when we give our life to Christ, others now feel entitled to own us and take it upon themselves to dictate the call of God on our life. 

And that call from within a Corporate Church is inevitably an extroverted one. And we often succumb, out of spiritual immaturity, to that false premise that to be a Christian means giving up our quiet, our time alone and our solitude. And the busyness that becomes the predominant face of "faithfulness" often becomes the very stumbling block to a personal relationship with Christ.

copyright Barb Harwood



"Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.' But the Lord answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.'" Luke 10:38-42


"But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray." Luke 5:16


"Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in  Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need." 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12






Saturday, November 11, 2017

Itching Ears



“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4

A.W. Tozer describes the preaching at the first church he attended after his conversion to Christ. The man that was preaching did not speak within the authority of Christ. In other words, he spoke from a human, sentimental and philosophical agnosticism:

“I remember he preached one Sunday about a harp, using the subject, ‘A Harp of a Thousand Strings.’ He didn’t say much, but he said it beautifully, and it ended up like this, ‘So I am sure that the soul of a man is the harp of a thousand strings.’
I went home—and didn’t hear any harp. I didn’t hear any authority” (A.W. Tozer).

What was missing, Tozer explains, is the authority of Christ in the pulpit.

Matthew 7:27-28 says:

“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

Much of what passes as Christianity lacks the authority of Christ and His anointing via the Spirit of God.

Obviously, this lack of Biblical preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ did not become a stumbling block for A.W. Tozer. I sincerely praise God for that, and for guarding all believers who experienced the same style of milk toast leadership and teaching in the churches we either grew up in or ignorantly attended in our early days of being a Christian, not knowing any better.

And while self-serving, philosophically intellectual, Hallmark card and Reader’s Digest style preachers—and the congregations who gobble up their fictions and musings—seem harmless enough, they are actually the wolves in sheep’s clothing described in Matthew 7:15:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”

And then,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matthew 7:21-23

Jesus explains what it means to know Him:

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well” (John 14:6-7a).

Many preachers stand at the helm of a physical building and group of people called a corporate church. They may even quote Scripture as part of the liturgy and ecclesiastical tradition.

Banners decorated with doves of peace adorn the walls, and the preacher, wearing the vestment, dramatically intonates as he or she reads and speaks.

The choir sings ancient hymns and the sun streams through stained glass depictions of St. Paul, or Jesus sitting among the lambs with the children.

It’s all so spiritual and pious.

And yet many of them don’t know God because they don’t know Jesus Christ.

Without the inward submission to the Gospel—heart, mind, intellect, body, soul and spirit, wherein “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3 in part), it is a foundation built on sinking sand (Matthew 7:24-29).

“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

“In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth” (James 1:18a).

It is by the Word of Truth—not the anecdotes and prosaic witticisms of a winsome humanist “pastor,” or a women’s liberation advocate, or a universalist troubadour—that one comes to be in the presence of, and ultimately know, God through Jesus Christ the Lord.

I have met and come to know many people who will uncomfortably say they believe in God (but don’t want to talk about it) and yet will never mention the name of Jesus Christ or admit to belief in Him.

John 3:6 explains this:

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Just because a building looks like a church, feels like a church and sounds like a church, doesn’t mean it is a church: not the church of the Triune God of Father, Son and Spirit, anyway.

The platitudes and sound of stringed instruments, the interpretive dancing, the “children’s church”—all of it, if it originates from man, to man, is nothing. It is “a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

It will look and sound like love: undefined, generic love that we are led to believe is the best kind.

But what does 1 Corinthians 13 say? This passage is all about love, as is most of Scripture. It says, in a way, the same thing that Matthew 7, quoted above, says. It says that this kind of generic love does not have the authority of Christ: Christ is not the source of it nor is He in this love at all.

What does Jesus say about love?

"A new command I give you:...As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (John 13:34a, b, emphasis mine).


“If you love Me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

Note that in the very next line after this, in Jesus’ own words, He tells us how we are to keep His commandments (which essentially is the keeping of the Gospel, the New Covenant. We do not get rid of the Old Testament Ten Commandments; we approach them now from the position of being in an even greater covenant, the New Covenant of Christ).

The very next line that Jesus says is this:

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17).

Why then do some people fall under the spell of authors and leaders and pastors and priests who do not know God (but often act and speak as if they do, but without the authority of Jesus Christ), while others, even though exposed to these false teachers, do not succumb to their influence?

I believe the answer can be found, going back again to Matthew 7, in the words of Jesus when he says,

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” John 7:7-11.

Those who have itching ears persist in those ears because they don’t ask and seek after God through Jesus Christ. And they don’t ask and seek after God through Jesus Christ because they don’t want to.

I believe every person has moments where they begin to want to, but the parable of the seed kicks in and their inclination to Christ gets snatched by the evil one, or dies because it has no place to take root, or falls away when the going gets tough, or is choked out by worries of the world or by wealth and prosperity (Matthew 13:18-230..

It is in the one who perseveres in the thirst for Christ that the seed grows and flourishes. As this seed grows and flourishes, the Word is understood and bears fruit, and the seeking person does not become hoodwinked by deceivers (read Matthew 13:18-23 in its entirety).

If evil, worries, intellect, giving in to temptations, greed, idolatry of wealth and status can all kill the seed in a person, then desiring to hear the Word, understand it and bear fruit in it can, in turn, grow it.

As Jesus said, “Seek and you will find.”

And to a true seeker of God in Christ Jesus, only His Truth, in His Authority, will satisfy.

copyright Barb Harwood




“O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge—which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith.” 1 Timothy 6:20-21