Keeping the Faith

I kept the faith, even when I said,

“I’m greatly discouraged.”—Psalms 116:10

 

These are perilous times. We’re troubled by the political chaos all around us, the ever-encroaching pandemic and the pandemonium that reigns in our cities. Anxiety and depression are normal reactions to the unsettling nature of our days.

 

To be discouraged and to voice our despair—even in wild tones of panic—does not mean that our faith has failed. (“We should never be discouraged” is a hymn-line that Carolyn excised from her hymn book and replaced with her own rendition:"We can always be encouraged.") Discouragement and dismay are not failures of faith, but an invitation to turn to our LORD and cling steadfastly to him.

 

The psalmist said that his mind was filled with discouragement and dread, yet he "kept the faith” (116:10). Faith is not cold, unfeeling stoicism, but clinging to God in our fear (116:2,4,13,17). "I will continue to call on Him," he vowed.

 

Paul quotes the Septuagint's version of the psalmist's words (2 Corinthians 4:13), agreeing that faith and fretfulness are often found together. Paul despaired of life itself, yet he clung to his belief in God's help in time of need. As pain cries out for God's healing, so fear cries out for God's help. 

 

This, and not the stiff upper lip, is what the psalmist called “keeping the faith.”

 

David Roper

11.6.20

Postcript

 I took a spectacular fall last week—I cratered, as snowboarders say—in consequence of which I began a three-day stay in the hospital for observation. It’s impossible to sleep in hospitals, as you know, and I had a lot of time at night to think about things. It occurred to me that I’m mortal after all. God has been gracious and given me several bonus years beyond our alloted three score and ten (I'm 87), but, as Yogi Berra said, “Most folks my age are dead these days.” That being true, one item on my agenda one night was to write an epitaph for my grave. I came up with what follows…

POSTSCRIPT

 

“Though John performed no mighty works,

 all that he said about this man (Jesus) was true.”

 

—John 10:41

 

John the Baptist had been dead for two years and the memory of his ministry was fading away. That’s the way it is, you know, when you’re eclipsed by a more illustrious successor. 

 

But as the crowds gathered around Jesus near the spot where John was teaching, they remembered the Baptist’s words and remarked: “All that John said about this man was true.”

 

Most of us, like John, are not miracle workers. We live fairly unremarkable lives. But we can tell folks about Jesus—what we’ve seen and heard of him. If we do, we will have served one of life’s purposes and after we’re dead and gone our words may come to someone’s mind and become the means by which that person moves closer to the Savior. Like seed buried in the ground, words can lie dormant for years and then spring up to eternal life. 

 

And so, as I thought about John’s legacy that night I thought of my own. What an epitaph for one’s life! “He did no mighty works, but everything he said about Jesus was true.” It’s the sentiment I want on my stone.

 

David Roper

11.1.20

How Then Shall We Pray?

“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for us all” (1 Timothy 2:1-6).

 

Election Day is upon us. How shall we pray? 

 

Should we pray that this party or that party will rise to power? Perhaps, but an inspired apostle exhorts us first to pray that the party that rises to power will provide an environment in which we are free to walk and talk the gospel. Why? Because that’s the only truly good news that folks in your family, shop, school, office, or neighborhood will ever see or hear. 

 

And so we pray for peace, not for the sake of peace alone, but to the end that the word of God may spread quickly and be held in honor, for God wants all men and women to be saved and come to “the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

 

And what is “the truth”?  This platform? That platform? The truth is far deeper: “There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for us all” (2:5:6). 

 

David Roper

10.30.20

The Woozle Effect

To pay Jesus Christ his proper rent; 

To spread his word is my intent

 

—Chaucer

The Church follows the world like Piglet following Pooh around the larch tree tracking Woozles—but we’re always a few steps behind.

We take up the world’s causes belatedly, some months or years after it brings them to our attention, and we make them our chief talking points. Next year, or the year after, there will be another set of wrongs to be righted and we will uncritically embrace them as well, often overlooking the underlying, unbiblical premises that inform them. Why do we, who claim to follow Jesus, allow the world to set our agenda?

In C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Proposes a Toast, the demon Screwtape advises his demonic nephew to make men “treat Christianity as a means,” but allow them to go no further. Indeed, the world will use us as a means to its ends, but it will never adopt our end: to bring men and women, boys and girls into contact with the One who loves them beyond measure and gave his life to save them.

 

The world will always try to distract us by drawing our attention to penultimate causes (Woozles), but “What Jesus said” is our ultimate guide.  

 

David Roper

10.22.20

Tomorrow!

To you who fear My name

The Sun of Righteousness will rise

With healing in His wings —Malachi 4:2

 

Carolyn has been working around the house this morning, singing a slightly off-key, joyful rendition of Annie's song:

 

The sun'll come out

Tomorrow

Bet your bottom dollar

That tomorrow

There'll be sun!

 

Just thinkin' about

Tomorrow

Clears away the cobwebs,

And the sorrow

'Til there's none!

 

When I'm stuck in a day

That's gray,

And lonely,

I just stick out my chin

And Grin,

And Say,

Oh!

 

The sun'll come out

Tomorrow

So ya gotta hang on

'Til tomorrow

Come what may

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

I love ya Tomorrow!

You're always

A day

A way

 

No matter what happens on Election Day you have nothing to fear for you can bet your bottom dollar that the Sun of Righteousness will come up "tomorrow" with healing in his wings. He's always a day away.

 

So hang on 'til tomorrow

Come what may.

 

David Roper

10.21.20

 

 

 

A Tiny Spot

Just for You, from Carolyn

One morning recently as I started talking with my Father, I asked Him what He wanted me to do today. I sensed His answer came in the following poem whose author is unknown. 

Father, where shall I work today'
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then He pointed me out a tiny spot,
And said, “Tend that for me.”

I answered quickly, “Oh, no, not that.
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done.
Not that little place for me!”

And the word He spoke, it was not stern,
He answered me tenderly,
“Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;
Art thou working for them or me'

Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee.” 

Even with the pandemic, even with aging, even with disabilities and health issues, even with increased responsibilities in the dailies, neither you nor I are sidetracked. Whether we are in a secular spot of necessity or a hidden spot, we are in the spot God wants us to “tend” today as unto Him. It certainly means treating those around us with His kindness, with His respect, with His care. With prayer. It means knowing that God sees and has both a plan and a reason for each of us right where we are. Even if ours is a tiny spot. The size and scope of our opportunities are planned by a wise and caring Father.

Perhaps you must work in a job that keeps you from “ministering,” as if the two things are divorced. Which they never are. Perhaps you have responsibilities at home that “limit” your ability to get out and about as you once did. Perhaps you have health issues that have immobilized you or slowed you way down. Perhaps you have retired and feel that your world has shrunk to what seems insignificance. 
 
The truth is that where I am today is the spot God has picked for me to serve Him today. Where you are today is the spot He has picked for you to serve Him today. We can pray for contentment and the ability to represent Him well wherever He places us today.  When others don’t see, God sees. Also angels and demons give Him praise when one of His own serves Him with contentment, joy and hope right where she/he is. Even if ours is a tiny spot. Size does not matter to God.

 “Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with   everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen”

Hebrews 13:20,21

Carolyn Roper

October 12, 2020 

Days of Rage

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, that wage war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11).

Fredrick Buechner compares rage to a sumptuous meal: ”To savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back; in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you” (Wishful Thinking).

 

I understand the rage of the marginalized and disadvantaged. “You have not,” is James’ poignant response to the wrath that drives violent, destructive protest (James 4:2). 

 

But of all the passions of the flesh, rage is the most self-destructive: Wrath-filled men and women become bitter, sullen victims of their own frustration and wrath. In the end they have nothing to live for but their rage. 

 

Dante, journeying through hell and moving toward the fourth circle’s farthest edge, finds a dark watercourse that discharges into a marsh called "the Styx." Here the wrathful are forever doomed, denied the mercy of forgetting. They stand, stark naked in the bog, striking one another with their heads, chests, hands and feet, tearing one another’s flesh with their teeth (Inferno, Canto VII).

 

Jesus, however, had another, better, more hopeful take: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest'” (Matthew 9:36,37). 

 

Angry, driven fools, or a field ripe for harvest? It’s a matter of perspective. 

 

David Roper

10.17.10