13 A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road,

a fierce lion roaming the streets!”

14 As a door turns on its hinges,

so a sluggard turns on his bed.

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The spider bites and no flesh is there.  The Lord has already caused you to move.  Gather wood without fear, for it is the Lord who gives strength.

The snake dashes forward to injure its prey.  But the Lord has already given you stride.  Before he strikes, you foot is already in motion.  It is the Lord who gives His servant strength.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment.  The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love.”  (1 John 4:18)

The runner runs as command has been issued.  In his hand he carries a torch.  Vibrant fire atop the brilliant base; a blazing, living fire.  Within the flame are every color, dancing in Holy rhythm according to the holy command of He who has sent.

“Do not be entranced by what you carry.  Do not stop your stride to admire what was sent.  Run without ceasing.  Run without pause.  You are sent among the darkness to deliver what the Holy Lord has commanded be displayed before dark souls in a dark place.  He who stops to admire what is sent is like he who ceases planting to admire his planting.  How shall his work continue while pause attends his feet?”

We are given a Holy charge from He who is Holy.  May those who run, by His Grace, run with agile stride.  May His command be encouragement to our desire to serve.  What we carry did not come from us.  We did not invent the Gospel.  We did not help Him shed His Holy blood.  He is King, and rightly so.  Eternity and its work among creation belongs to Him.  May understanding attend our hearts.

“Keep your heads low!”  The commander commands from His place of Advantage.  Above the battle He commands.  What enemy enters His Holy Throne Room?

He has redeemed a people for Himself from among the throng.  He has set them in place to receive the onslaught.  He will draw out the enemy’s intent.  He will know the hearts of all.

“Keep your heads low!” Came the command from eternity.  Do not let pride become the rule by which you measure your salvation.  What you have received has been given.  No man owns anything good.  But raise your head in pride and it will risk the neck that holds it up.

“Keep your heads low!”  The harvest is afoot!  The sickle is swung at the will of He who is sent to harvest.  Let pride lift your head and you may well fall victim to the unyielding will of God.  In prayer we bow.  In service to the Holy One, our eyes are cast down before His Glory.  It is He who works among the throng.  A man is lifted according to the swing of death.  He rises at the will of God to perform The Enticing Beauty of God among men.

“Keep your heads low!”

The odds of it happening are a million to one.  But there is a possibility that someone should ask me, “What’s it like to be a Christian?”  I ponder what to reply.  I could site the difficulties within society, but to what avail?   The differences are well known.  And it’s very likely the questioner would know many aspects related to society.

I could site the hope we have in the Lord’s promises.   But these too are fairly well known.  The punishment and rewards are spoken of daily.  Both are even used in the world’s joking.  What answer could that be?

But one aspect of Christianity that is not clearly related, even within the “body” of Christ, is that of our “schooling” from the Lord.  He is the Master.  We are His pupils.  What happens in the classroom of everyday experience is not often related with much clarity.  So to this I will attempt an answer.

Christianity is all about God.  Our learning is coming to grips with two very different problems.  The first problem is language.  It’s not the actual words that give us difficulty.  It is that God’s Kingdom is so utterly unlike anything we’ve ever known.  To top that off, He expects His people to grasp His meaning as fast as possible.  If He is to teach, we must learn the foreign language of perfection and Holiness.

The other problem is that of rebellion.  From our birth to our death, we are locked in a body that literally hates the Lord.  I know that you won’t understand that unless you’ve encountered the Holy Lord of Life in an intensely personal way.  But I’m trying hard to relate what is true.

He will teach one aspect of His nature and expectations.  We receive the truth He imparts with our version of humility.  Once understanding comes the flesh rises up to defend its turf.  Now we are set to a battle.  Do we cave to the incessant pleadings of the filthy nature we have lived in?  Or do we war against those urges and apply what we have come to understand.

There is Grace among all this learning.  But there is also a place where we reach our end of willingness.  There are two means the Lord will apply to get us through our unwillingness.  Depending on our desire to obey, the Lord may use soft coaching or a seriously hard encounter to rectify our plight.  Every Christian who is earnest in his commitment to God will testify to their own experiences with both means.  And it must be said that, that even in His “wrath” the compassion of the Lord is intense.

The Christian is reminded, often and clearly that God is Love.  He is taught to trust regardless “what is”.  And this brings up the last aspect I can think of that may be useful.

When we have learned what the Lord has taught, expectation is placed on us to retain that learning and apply it continually.  It’s not like school or college, or even a work environment.  From those you can go home and live as you please.  You can even choose to change your direction or job.  But Christianity is a Holy experience that will culminate in eternity.  What He teaches here remains upon us even after death.   We are learning to “become”.  We are not learning the rules of His society.

When we side step our learning, we quickly learn of His stern nature.  Our eyes widen and our hearts skip a beat.  He comes to correct.  For we have willingly forgotten what He knows full well we understand.  These are vastly unpleasant times.  But every earnest Christian will encounter them.

Is it all worth it?  A categorical YES is in order.  We are the wicked ones.  He is the PURE One.  What a privilege it is that He should be patient yet stern with us!  What an honor to learn His Holy language.  Even a “beating” from the Lord is to be preferred to what we were.  And the further we go from what we were, the more we come to respect, love and desire His presence.

I have not talked about the experience of coming before His Holy Throne.  But that would be a matter between earnest Christians.  For even to mention the Holy things of God among non-believers would not provoke understanding within them.  And we should not think to bring what is Holy into disrepair.  It’s not that I don’t desire to share.  It is that He is so beautiful we desire to shield His beauty from ridicule.  If you enter into His Holy Service, He may show you what I’m talking about here.  It is always at His wise discretion to share such things.

Fear the Lord.  It is not wise to take him lightly.  And it is not wise to think of ourselves more highly then we ought.  Kiss the Son last He be angry.  His compassion is great.  But it is supported by Holiness.

“To whom much is given much will be expected.”
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1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this.

3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)

4 At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them went out. 5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them stepped forward, 6 he said, “Listen to my words:

“When there is a prophet among you,
    I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions,
    I speak to them in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses;
    he is faithful in all my house.
8 With him I speak face to face,
    clearly and not in riddles;
    he sees the form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid
    to speak against my servant Moses?”
9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.

10 When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous[a]—it became as white as snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease, 11 and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.”

13 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “Please, God, heal her!”

14 The Lord replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.” 15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.  (Numbers  12)

By His Grace

Way too many people play far too close to the fence.  There is open pasture to inherit and the Holy mountain to climb.

There are those who like the idea of being thought of as a Christian.  But they refuse to make any commitment at all.  These love to wear the label while they live freely in the world.  They stay by the fence but they will not cross it.

There are those who have made a commitment to a body of professed believers.  But they refuse to go any farther toward the sovereign God.  They have crossed the fence but they will not part company with it.  Their folly will be evident by their lack of fruit.

The Lord teaches his people to head out into the pasture.  There is plenty of nourishing food and light.  It is a place of health.  Here a man may wrestle with what is true and what is false.

If one travels far enough, he will perceive the rocky crags.  Here a man is stripped of himself.  For no burden of self can climb the mountain of God.  “. . .if even an animal touches it it must be stoned to death or shot with arrows.”  Of this place there is little written.  For those who ascend rarely descend.  Not to mention that the language spoken on the mountain is not a familiar language to man.

By His Grace