Love Never Ends

“Love never ends..." (1Corinthians 13:8).

 

Life plays a dirty trick on us as we age: The verbal skills we relied on, the knowledge we spent a lifetime acquiring, the facts and figures we once could retrieve on demand—all these skills and acquisitions begin to fade away. "I don’t remember" becomes our response to most questions, the answers to which we knew just a short time ago. 

 

We become dull, inarticulate, fumbling for words to express the tangle of thoughts in our minds. We reach for a fact or a memory, but it flits away and perches just beyond our reach. We're tongue-tied in the present of bright young minds. We feel that our treasured role with family and friends has come to an end.

 

But love never ends. We may not be able to dazzle our friends with our breadth of knowledge and witty repartee, but we can show a sincere interest in the things they’re interested in. We can ask a question and we can listen. And then we can ask another question and listen some more. We can show others that we care. 

 

“Love never ends,” or so it is written—the one thing we’ll be doing forever. Why not get started right now?  

 

David Roper

3.4.21

Wasteful Grace

 

Gloriously wasteful, O my Lord, art thou!

Sunset faints after sunset into the night,

Splendorously dying from thy window-sill—

 

—George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul

 

“From [Jesus’] fullness we have all received, grace in exchange for grace” (John 1:16)

 

“David, quick, come look,” Carolyn calls from the kitchen. I trundle in to see why she’s so excited. 

 

Our kitchen window faces west and Carolyn is gazing through it at a spectacular Idaho sunset. Orange, red, gray, purple and colors I have no name for, splashed across the horizon in kaleidoscopic display. God with his paint pots and brushes, at it again. 

 

“Hurry,” Carolyn says, “get the camera,” but by the time I find my iPhone (which is never where I put it) the sunset has faded away, “splendorously dying” from God’s window-sill, a one time show of extravagant beauty, never to be repeated, but matched by the next peerless, made-to order-display.

 

God’s grace is like his sunsets: uniquely drawn up for each particular day. I wonder, then, what once-in-a-lifetime display of goodness God has in mind for you and me this day? 

 

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. 

 

David H. Roper

3.3.21

The Fools God Chooses

 

Exaltation comes neither from the east

Nor from the west nor from the south.

But God is the Judge:

He puts down one,

And exalts another. —Psalm 75:6,7

 

"God gives us the leaders we deserve." It’s an old and apt saying. We vote our conscience, but God determines the outcome. Aye, “'Tis mystery all!”

 

We go for the game-changers, the movers and shakers, men and women who get things done. God, however, establishes the human framework of a nation: "I myself set up her pillars" (75:3). He raises up rulers—able leaders, fools and naves—to get His work done.

 

Here's Paul's take: "For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth" (Romans 9:17). 

 

Pharaoh? A pompous, egocentric, duplicitous fool. Yet God in His wisdom exalted this man to bring salvation to His people and ultimately to the entire world. 

 

So let's not panic when elections don’t go our way, nor should we rail against those that God has chosen. He will render justice at the proper time (75:2). In the meantime, he's working in and through those He has chosen to accomplish His will.  

 

That's true of the state we're in right now. 

 

David Roper

The Supplantings of Grace

Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle 

are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime?

 

—Lord Byron

 

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,

Instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;

And it shall be to the LORD for a memorial,

For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off (Isaiah 55:13).

 

It’s not enough to eradicate thorns and briers. There is more: Towering cypress trees and multihued myrtles can spring up where nettles once encumbered the ground.

 

It’s not enough that God removes our transgressions. He does more: He replaces each vice with a virtue, so that the site of old evil becomes a place of rare beauty and grace. 

 

Where cynicism once abounded, hope and optimism emerge; where sarcasm flourished, kind, gentle words appear; where malice produced anxiety and turmoil, forbearance now brings tranquility and peace; where lust grew rampant and unrestrained, pure love springs up. This—the transformed life—is the living and lasting sign of God’s work, the memorial he seeks (55:13d). 

 

And how does this transformation take place? We must “seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near” (55:6). 

 

There are moments when God can be found: when our hearts grow tired of transgression and we ache for holiness. This is God calling us, reminding us that he is near. We must then act “in season before desire shall fail,” A.E. Housman said.

We must look toward God and his Word for his help: Ask him to make us like Jesus, for, “as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth, making it bear and sprout,” so God’s Word will not return to him empty, but will accomplish what he desires and achieve the purpose for which he has spoken it” (55:10.11).

 

“My ways are not your ways,” God says, “nor are my thoughts your thoughts” (55: 8). How are God’s ways not like our ways? Unlike our ways, God’s ways work!

 

David Roper

2.24.21

THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

 “All kings is mostly rapscallions” (Huckleberry Finn).

In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called:
“THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:6). 

 God allowed Judah, the nation he set apart for himself, to fall into decline and then into ruin, the direct result of the perfidy of her leaders. 

 Yet God promised better days:

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper, 
And execute justice and righteousness in the earth" (23:5).

 Folks who know about such things suggest that this promise will be fulfilled literally in the millennial reign of Christ; others see this promise fulfilled spiritually in the Church. But it really doesn’t matter which option we adopt because, in either case, the point of the passage remains the same: There’s only one man who can "reign and prosper, and execute justice and righteousness on the earth”: Israel’s Messiah, our Lord Jesus. In Him and Him alone we trust. 

 To be honest, most of us aren’t engaged in matters of state; we’re just trying to make it through the day. The same premise applies: There’s only one man who can “reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth”: Israel’s Messiah, our Lord Jesus. In Him and Him alone we trust.

 David Roper
2.22.21

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