Stampede!

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened (literally: stampeded) by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.” (Philippians 1:27,28)

 

STAMPEDE! An outcry guaranteed to frighten the hardiest buckaroo.

 

A stampede begins when one animal is spooked by a real or imagined threat and bolts. Panic spreads through the herd and all the animals take flight. The only way to stop the mad rush is to turn it in on itself so the animals run in circles. 

 

Paul was thinking of that analogy when he wrote to the Christians at Philippi. “Don’t let anyone stampede you into mindless anxiety. Rather react to all threats by standing firm, striving side by side for the gospel with tranquility and poise. That’s a clear sign that you’re on the winning team.” 

 

It’s easy to stampede us. A tweet, a Facebook post, an article in a magazine, a newspaper report stating that someone is challenging the Church and we react in fear. Then, we pass on the post, tweet, article or report to our friends and the stampede begins. 

 

It’s much better to greet every piece of “bad” news with the question, “Where is God in this?” and then, if we pass on the information to others, to accompany it with a quiet word of assurance that all is well. That can bring peace where a mad rush might prevail. 

 

Furthermore, our quiet response to each challenge is a “clear sign” to those who oppose the gospel that hell and its grand strategies will fail. We’re fighting a battle that that’s already won (Matthew 16:18).

 

David Roper

2.18.21 

Practicing the Presence

When You said, “Seek My face,”My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek” (Psalms 27:8)

Books on spiritual formation urge us to practice the continuous presence of Christ, but I could never make it work for me. 

 

I tried to “set the LORD always before my face” (Psalm 16:8), to consciously think of his real presence throughout the day, but other thoughts kept intruding and I quickly forgot that he was near. I would go for hours and never once think of the Lord “before” me and I could think of no way to “set” him there.

 

And, more’s the pity, I’m no better off today.

 

But there are moments of sadness, or crisis, or serendipitous beauty and joy when I hear him say, “Seek my face.” And then I remember that he is here. Perhaps that’s all he expects of us in the blooming, buzzing confusion of our day. 

 

Two things at once, thou know'st I cannot think.

When busy with the work thou givest me,

I cannot consciously think then of thee.

Then why, when next thou lookest o'er the brink

Of my horizon, should my spirit shrink,

Reproached and fearful, nor to greet thee run?

Can I be two when I am only one?

 

—George MacDonald, Diary of and Old Soul

 

David Roper

2.14.21

The voice

 “Gloria in excelsis in the beginning, and in terra pax in the end” (Franz Delitzsch, Luke 2:14)

The voice of the Lord strikes

with flashes of lightning.

The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;

the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord twists the oaks

and strips the forests bare.

And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”  

The Lord gives power to his people;

the Lord blesses his people with peace —Psalms 29:7-9

 

Years ago, my father and I were fishing a set of beaver ponds when it began to rain. We took cover under a nearby grove of quaking aspen, but the rain continued to fall, so we decided to call it a day and we ran for the truck. 

I had just opened the door when lightning struck the aspen grove that had sheltered us with a thunderous fireball that stripped leaves and bark off the trees, leaving a few smoldering limbs…  

 

And then there was peace.

 

Power! Voltage! Percussion! Shock and awe! “The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare.”

 

David saw thunder and lightning  as “the voice of  the Lord.” As did Job: ”Listen, O listen, to the blast of his voice and the sound that issues from his mouth. His lightning is hurled across the heaven, it strikes to the extremities of earth. After it comes a roaring sound, God thunders with majestic voice. He does not check his thunderbolts until his voice resounds no more” (Job 37:2-4). 

 

God’s voice speaks to us today in his word with thunderous, irresistible power —to bless us with “strength” for the day (29:9). Strength to endure, to be patient, to stand and wait, to get up and go, to do little or nothing at all. 

 

And then there is peace. Peace in the face of this tiresome pandemic and the political chaos of our day. Peace for the asking: “Lord, give us your peace for today” (John 14:27).

 

David Roper

2.12.21

Vessels of Clay

Vessels of Clay

 

“So Gideon and the men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch… Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers…and they cried, “The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!” And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole (Midianite) army ran, cried out and fled” (Judges 7:19-22).

 

Three hundred men ambushed an army, “as numerous as locusts; and camels without number, as the sand by the sea,” (Judges 7:12) 

Three hundred men armed with nothing but swords, trumpets and clay pitchers containing a flame.

 

At Gideon’s command each man blew his trumpet, broke the pitcher and shouted at the top of his lungs. And “the whole army ran, cried out and fled.” (Along with a gazillion stampeding camels.)

 

MacDonald writes of this occasion:

 

I will not shift my ground like [Midian’s] king,

But from this spot whereon I stand, I pray—

From this same barren rock to thee I say,

"Lord, in my commonness, in this very thing

That haunts my soul with folly—through the clay

Of this my pitcher, see the lamp's dim flake;

And hear the blow that would the pitcher break”

 

—George MacDonald

 

This very thing—this “commonness" that haunts our souls with  frailty, weakness and folly, the ordinary clay of our humanity—contains the Lord of Light and Loveliness. Our brokenness allows His beauty to be seen.

 

“We have this treasure in earthen vessels…” (2 Corinthians 4:7a).

 

David Roper

2.11.21

War and Peace

 “I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war” (Psalm 120:7). 

“I don’t agree with those who plunge headlong into the middle of a [fight], accepting a turbulent life… The wise person will endure that, but he won’t choose it—choosing to make peace, rather than war” (Seneca, Moral Letters). 

 

Some folks love a good fight, but peacemaking, Seneca’s bottom line, is, or should be, the hallmark of God’s children: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they (and they alone) shall be called the sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

 

That’s an attitude that’s sadly lacking in political discourse these days, even among the sons of God: Acrimony is often the rule. Certainly, there are good reasons to be morally outraged at the actions of evil men and women, but our part is to let God deal with evildoers and look for ways to make peace.

 

Peacemaking begins with small stuff—reminding ourselves of our Lord’s command to love and pray for those who oppose us; resisting the temptation “to take up a reproach (an insulting remark) against a neighbor” (Psalm 15:3); responding to fear and fear-mongering with quiet assurance; listening, listening, listening; asking questions; refusing to talk over one another; returning soft answers to wrath. These are the savory reactions of grace, sprinklings of salt, if you will (Colossians 4:6), the missing element in most political conversation these days.

 

This is not a call to moralize, but to listen prayerfully to others in order to understand the discomfort and frustration they feel. And then to pray or speak a word “in season”—when it’s appropriate to do so (Isaiah 50:4). Sometimes, it’s best to be silent.  

 

Peacemaking, like almost everything else in the world, begins in our hearts and rests fully on our Lord’s becalming word: “Be still (at peace) and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

 

David Roper

2.7.21

 

 

Total Control

 

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill

[God] treasures up His bright designs,

And works His sovereign will. —William Cowper

 

The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD;

It is like an irrigation canal:

He turns it wherever He will (Proverbs 21:1).

 

We often see farmers trudging through their fields with ditching tools on their shoulders. The farmer’s work is to turn the flow of water into the field “wherever he will.” The farmer’s will is sovereign. That's the point of the proverb above. 

 

An ancient Midrash (Jewish commentary) on this verse states the premise: "God gives to the world good or bad kings, according as He seeks to bless it or to visit it with punishment; all decisions that go forth from the king's mouth… come from the Holy One."

 

The proverb is a reminder that no matter what earth’s rulers determine to do, God always has the upper hand. When our Lord bends a king’s (or a president’s) will to do his will, he cannot be resisted. 

 

The Bible is replete with examples: Tiglath-pileser, the Assyrian monarch (Isaiah 10:6, 7), the Persian emperors, Cyrus (Isaiah 41:2–4) and Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:21), and Rareness the Great, the Pharaoh of Egypt (Romans 9:17) to name a few. All were autocrats of the first order and were powerful enough to direct all aspects of government and society. Yet, in pursuing their own agendas, they were directed by God as He chose. All the biblical writers make the same point: human authority has its source in God’s will. 

 

Does this mean that our rulers will necessarily make wise decisions? No, God may “cause” our rulers to make foolish decisions that he may “visit [our nation] with punishment” (Cf., 2 Chronicles 18:1-22) and, more's the pity, his children may be collateral damage. Nevertheless, we can know at all times that our rulers are not running amuck; God is in control.

 

Perhaps the best example of this principle is the well-known and oft-quoted exchange between Jesus and Pilate when Jesus was on trial: Pilate blustered, "Do you not know that I have power to release you and power to crucify you?” Jesus calmly replied, “You have no power over me unless it has been given you from above” (John 19:10–11).

 

Did the biblical writers see the logical contradiction in this equation? Of course they did; they were not fools. Nevertheless they stated the truth as it is without amelioration. Reality is full of mystery and paradox; we can know and find comfort in things that we cannot understand. 

 

David Roper

2.6.21

Gates

"I've opened a door before you that no one can close. You don't have much strength, I know that... " (Revelation 3:8).

 

A dear friend of mine sent that text to me at a time when I most needed it. That's the way our Father works, you know—acting and speaking incognito through our friends. 

 

The verse reminded me of my days as a youngster when I was working alongside my father and we would drive from field to field. It was my job to jump out of the truck to open and close all the gates. 

 

Most of them were barbed wire gates, secured by wire loops and often strung so tight it was difficult for me as a youngster to get them open. My father usually let me struggle for a while and then he would get out of the truck to give me a hand. (I learned later to reach around the end of the gate, put my shoulder against it, pull from the standing gatepost and leverage what little strength I had.)

 

I’m so glad our Father is with me these days to open the gates that obstruct my way. Many of them are strung tight and I don’t have much strength. Some of them won't open at all. 

 

Sometimes God lets me struggle for a while for that's part of the growing-up process. Other times he gives me a hand. I know he does what he thinks is best for me. 

 

There's one gate, however, that won’t give me trouble. It’s the last gate at the end of the day. It will be standing open when I get there and I can step straight through. For Jesus opened that gate long ago and passed right through it. And left it wide open for you and me.

 

David Roper

2.4.21