From the desk of .. August 2001
Subha and Hepsi … But God … GLITCHES & GRACE
Asaph establishes the ‘blessedness of trusting in God’ beautifully
in his first psalm (Ps. 73) concluding that those who abandon God and attempt to
live an autonomous life will end up with eternal death.
He likes the fact that he can live a life of fullness under the control
of a sovereign God. In what I
describe as the secret of Christian life, Asaph declares (Verse 26):
My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. This
is same as Paul’s Gal. 2:20. King
David would be quick to say, Ps. 20:7. My
flesh fails, my heart fails, I am wicked and hopeless… But God
is the turning point. He
strengthens my heart to walk in obedience to Him.
He is my living hope; He is my inheritance and He is my portion forever.
Way to go, Mr. Asaph! A
similar statement from King David that affirms the confidence in God in the same
vein deserves our attention: But
God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for He shall
receive me (49:15). In the
preceding verses, David describes that the faithless person cannot buy his way
out of death and in this verse he expresses confidence in God that He would
raise him to eternal life. How are
the faithful redeemed? By the only
Redeeemer, God Himself. Notice the
verb receive. It is God who
receives me and what an assurance this is.
Fanny Crosby would describe herself: Heir of salvation. Purchase of God.
Born of the Spirit. Washed in His blood. Indeed, its blessed assurance, Jesus is
mine. Indeed this is my story and this is my song.
Blessed are those who trust in Christ!
Paul has some thoughtful insights about wisdom and strength/power.
These are some key virtues people in general long for.
The world defines and measures them by birth, social status, financial
success, peer recognition and such. However,
the message of the cross that contains the wisdom and power of God seems so
strange, pointless and irrelevant to the human mind that it is seen as a crutch
for the weak people and foolishness for all the experts (wise men), the
interpreters (scribes) and the philosophers (debators).
Jews stumbled at the cross because contrary to the miraculous signs they
were used to and still anticipating, it appears to be weakness. The Greeks laughed at the cross because it did not make sense
in their wisdom. So who then
appreciate(s) the message of the cross? God
planned that men will not discern the great plan of salvation by human wisdom
and take glory for it. He designed
that helpless sinners be saved through the preaching of the cross, a message so
simple that the worldly wise mock at it. Paul
puts it eloquently (I Cor. 1:27): But God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
God’s disdain for human wisdom is demonstrated first by disallowing it
as a means to knowing Him and is furthered by the fact that He chose to save the
lowly. What the world considers
foolish (not wise), weak (not mighty) and common (not noble) is God’s choice
that He may receive all the credit, all the glory for the work of salvation.
Paul shares the secret: Christ
is the wisdom of God and Christ is the power of God.
Friends, let us not build our lives around our intellect and our
influence but around Christ and the message of the cross.
Remember, God’s foolishness is wiser than man and God’s weakness is
stronger than men.
I have got to talk about God’s treasure in earthen vessels before I
quit (II Cor. 4:7). The message of
the cross, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ, the glorious gospel of God’s grace is the divine treasure we are
talking about. God revealed it to
the foolish, weak and common folks, fine. What
more does He want? He wants us,
mere mortals, to contain it, shine out and let it become a powerful influence in
the world! Wait a minute, why not
angles that can better handle that treasure and proclaim it with power and
glory? I am baked clay, breakable,
expendable, replaceable, cheap, lowly, common utensil.
How can I dare hold that treasure? God’s
reason for this sharp contrast is simple once again: That the excellency of
the power may be of God and not of us.
When people are saved, it is His work of grace and not my talents. My
weakness as a messenger of that great gospel is not detrimental to the
work of God; instead it is essential to it.
What a relieving thought about holding that treasure.
Paul goes on to describe how his weakness strengthened him rather than
crippling him. We are earthen
vessels so that we will depend on God’s power and not on our own.
Robert Grant (1779-1838) directs our hearts to worship the King, all
glorious above and gratefully sing His power and His love in his classic hymn of
adoration:
O
tell of His might, O sing of His grace, Whose robe is the light, Whose canopy space;
His
chariots of wrath deep thunder clouds form, And dark is His path on the wings of
the storm.
Thou bountiful care what tongue can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines in the light,
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, And sweetly
distills in the dew and the rain.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, In
Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end! Our
Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend.
Your frail and
feeble friends, in Christ who is Our Faithful Friend, Kumpatys.
G&G is free for the asking. Our address: N 7144 Lakeshore Ave., Elkhorn, WI 53121. Our phone: (262) 742-5113.
Email: kumpaty@msoe.edu and kumpatyh@uww.edu.