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Glen Park Gospel Church >> Archive >> Editorial >> 2011
Each month the Glen Park Gospel Church produce a one page newsletter called the Green Leaf. It's available from the chapel each Sunday. Some months include a topical article or report. We thought you might appreciate reading those previously published.
In the Beauty of the Lilies
“I am the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley”
Songs 2:1
The Rose of Sharon in eastern lands is generally recognised to be a crocus which grows along the seaboard of the Levant, including the coastal plain of Sharon. ‘Rose’ is a translation of a word meaning a bulb. They are relatively environment tolerant, aromatic, highly coloured, bitter to taste and yield the expensive culinary spice, saffron.
The Lily of the valley, like those from northern latitudes, grew in the shade of trees in valleys near streams of water and it was a prolific ground cover. There was then much more natural vegetation in Israel than now. It grew amidst thorns. Its small drooping and demur flower has a delicate fragrance, bell shaped and white, with multiple blooms to the stem. It is extremely toxic, containing some 38 different cardenolides and saponins. It can kill if used carelessly or ignorantly, but applied skilfully it is a powerful healing agent.
The Song of Songs, also known as Canticles, is an Eastern song of love between a sovereign and his dark skinned betrothed.* We apply it as an allegory depicting the love life of the believer individually and his Lord, and also between Christ and His bride collectively. It is illustration or analogy of that which the New Testament teaches.
Who said these words? The text leaves the question open. Many recent bibles, especially those of the Zondevan group, put these words in the mouth of the bride, however we are following tradition and put them in the mouth of her man. (i.e. Songs 1:17-2:2 are all his words.) Jesus said of the lily, ‘Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.’ even though he claimed to be so.
Consider the lily as a picture of Jesus in His first appearance upon earth as the suffering Saviour dying for our sin, and the rose as a picture of Jesus as He comes again as the King of kings in His glory to rule and reign upon the earth.
The lily is white and within it, seven seeds the colour of gold, It is so reproductive that one root produces dozens of corms. It is small and hangs its multiple flower head. Those who appropriate it intelligently and in faith can find healing, but to the ignorant and abusive it may mean death.
The rose of Sharon however is bold and beautiful, full of colour from white and gold to lavender blue and purple. It is redolent in perfume, flowering late in winter to welcome the coming season. It is found in the fields clothing the wider pastures, contesting with spoiling animals, resists salty wind and snow, resilient against sun but prefers part shade. It grows without human cultivation and contains the most precious of all spices but it is wholly free to those who seek and value it.
Something to do on Tuesday evenings. Rule a sheet of paper into three columns. In column 1 list the qualities of the lily and then of the rose. In column 2 match each quality with an attribute of the Lord Jesus. In column 3 place one or more references from the New Testament which state these attributes. Ensure the accuracy of your work then share it with a friend.
The Parable of the Dead Gum Tree
During the long years of drought, many trees in our native Australian forests were unequal to the uneven struggle. Little by little the conditions of dryness and the competition for what moisture there was, was too much. The trees first dropped their leaves, then died at their tips. The dryness, year after year, worked its way steadily back to the trunk and all that remained was bare stem and branch.
But look around. The drought has ended. The climate cycle has turned. The rains have come with their overabundance to the point of devastation just as they have done for many, many centuries. The thirsty ground has soaked up like a sponge the moisture it once yielded and a miracle has happened. Many of those seemingly dead trees have sprouted again. Deep down in the root, life remained simply waiting the call to re-emerge.
Job noted the same principle in his day and applied it to his own situation:
“There is hope for a tree,
When it is cut down, that it will sprout again
And its shoots will not fail.
Though its roots grow old in the ground,
And its stump dies in the dry soil,
At the scent of water it will flourish
And put forth sprigs like a plant.”
Job 14:7 (NASB)
Are you like that tree. Have the years taken their toll. Have you allowed your spiritual life to dry out so that your soul is parched, and the competition from this world’s attractions caused your love for your Lord to die out, and your usefulness to Him to languish. Then take note of nature around you. Be encouraged by the meditation of Job, for deep within your root there still is life. The seasons turn. Drought is not for ever. Steep your mind in God’s word. Let the love of God wash over you. Immerse yourself in the fellowship of like minds. That life can flourish again. The Lord can restore to you His joy. There can be leaves on your braches again. These few words are the sound of abundance of rain.
But there is another application, what is true of a person is also true of a body of people, be it nations, or societies, or churches. All are capable of revival and renewal.
Earthquake Flood Drought Fire Whirlwind
The year 2011 is but two months old and has served up more tragedy than all the last decade. Man has a unique capacity to learn from disaster innovative ways to adapt to nature and maintain his lifestyle. Whilst this is so admirable; it is also perverse, because it is humanistic and leaves God out of the equation.
The tendency today is to worship mother nature rather than Father God. We do not usually put it like that. Man has convinced himself that nature, not God has created him; and that same nature is an awesome, fearful thing, and all we have is each other. But man is not some freak of nature. Man is not intended to be alone. Man is a spiritual being created by and in the likeness of God, and if we listen carefully we can hear God speak even today after the earthquake and the whirlwind and the fire have passed in a still, small voice. Listen intently and you can hear Him speaking. Hear Him now:
"The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither; The blossoms of Lebanon wither. Mountains quake because of Him, And the hills dissolve; Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence, The world and all the inhabitants in it.
"Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, And the rocks are broken up by Him. The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him."
Nahum 1:3-7 (NASB)
Reread these words and ask God to speak to you. Nahum says that God is tender, patient and merciful. He is a refuge who welcomes all who flee to Him. All events such as these are a part of things that have occurred from the beginning. They will continue with increasing ferocity until the end when the very elements of the earth will melt with a fervent heat. But in them all, He is our hiding place and in Him there is no cause for alarm.
Nahum wrote to another people in another day. But their attitude toward God was strangely similar to that of so many in our society today. His message to them was, ‘Let these events drive you to Me!’
"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool."
Isaiah 1:18 (NASB)
The King’s Garden
Nehemiah 3:15
Hidden in a statistical chapter detailing the contributions of the returned clans to the rebuilding of Jerusalem is a flash back to ‘the king’s garden,’ to the glory days of the kingdom before it’s fall due to the sinful rebellion and willfulness of the people.
There is another flash back, another garden, and another fall. It is the Paradise of the King of kings where God communed with man as friend to friend. But sin intervened and as a punishment man was driven away from the place of fellowship with God and thorns and thistles took over. It all happened once more with the people of His choice at Jerusalem.
Yet again, there was a King’s garden at Jerusalem where the Saviour knelt and His sweat became drops of red sorrow upon His brow, the bloody dew of grief as He took upon Himself the place of sinful man; the failure, the defeat, the punishment and sickness of sin. This garden was like the first in that He, and we in Him, was driven out to face separation from the fellowship of God upon the cross. But it was the antithesis of Paradise in that through it a way was opened for mankind to come back into communion with God.
There is still one more King’s garden. It is my own heart. If Christ’s Gethsemane was the antithesis of Eden, a King’s garden in my heart is the anthesis of glory, that is the blossoming, the springtime of eternal accord with the King Himself. Which it is in fact depends upon me, for although God in Christ has done absolutely all the work, one thing remains and that is that I must open the door to His call, and invite Him in. He does not enter His garden unbid. But upon my response depends the realisation of God’s plan of redemption in my case, and the coming harvest of His investment in His garden for eternity.
Sunshine After Rain
It had rained all night, heavily at times. But in the morning warm sun streamed in the widnows. Droplets like diamonds hung from the twigs. Leaves shone and glittered. Steam curled up slowly from damp earth and grass. Birds were busy, some gathering breakfast, while others took time to praise their God. Blessing was the order and warmth of the day. It was good to be alive.
The Lord spoke to His servant King David:
"He who rules over men righteously, Who rules in the fear of God, is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, When the tender grass springs out of the earth, through sunshine after rain.” 1
How blessed is a nation whose government and leaders desire only righteousness, who speak truth rather than lies and act with justice rather than in secret deals and political favours. Governments like this are few and far between in this day. Such a man was David.
"Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow? 1
God heard David and honoured him in his life and in the evaluation God gave him:
"I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will." 2
But what is true of government is also true of every individual:
those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 3
What was true of David, can be true of us. Unfortunately so many people make a mess of their lives, of marriage, of self or family management simply because they want to control the reins of their heart. David’s formula, and Paul’s are very similar; commitment to Christ and the pursuit of righteous living: self control, truth in thought, word and deed, honesty, industriousness, charity, gentleness, clean speech, a tender hearted and forgiving spirit.
Such an heart will God respect, for this is so very close to the heart of God. This is righteousness.
1. 2 Samuel 23:3b & 5
2. Acts13:22
3. Romans 5:17
(NASB)
All Through the Night
“Moses stretched out his hand
over the sea,
and the Lord drove the sea back
by a strong east wind all night
and turned the sea into dry land.”
Exodus 14:21 (NASB)
Our times of greatest difficulty are usually the small hours of the morning when all the house is quiet and we lie wide awake anxiously wrestling a problem. Somehow things get out of all proportion in the dark. Darkness and doubt want to go together.
The Israelites stood on the shore and looked at their problem. There was no way over that water. Their enemy were marching after them. There was no way back. The gloom that gathered about them was like the gloom that thickened within them. Fear darkened their heart.
But God was there, His presence signified in the cloud. His power was demonstrated most when problems were their greatest. It is very often the case. "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night, Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You," David observed.
Not only that, but the sea lay open all night. There was time for every one to cross, the youngest and the eldest also, even against a very strong head wind, and when morning came they looked back in wonder at the answer of God.
Jacob's fears grew as the evening light failed. His meeting with Esau tomorrow was inevitable. But he spent the night wrestling with God, not his problem and by morning he was a new man replete in spiritual power. Jesus Himself knew the power of an evening of prayer. We are told that 'he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.'
So next time you lay awake with a problem, spend the time with God until He lifts the burden from you and gently urges that you take your rest in sleep.
If Sons, Then Heirs
In ancient Rome a citizen could adopt a child privately and keep the matter from public knowledge for quite a long time. But the time would come when there was an open ceremony. The child was brought before the authorities, its former garments taken off, and it was re- dressed in new garments appropriate to its new station in life.
Imagine the impatience of the son of a slave serving a childless Senator who was adopted to take the place of the heir he never had. Nothing marked him out from any other slave. He was indistinguishable from his fellows, but he knew that the day was coming when his foster father would declare his adoption and dress him in clothes that befitted the heir of his new position and estate.
With this image before you read again these verses selected from Romans Eight:
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God . . .
The anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God . . .
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body . . . with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
These Men Were Potters
Hidden in the very ancient genealogical archives of Israel,
among the dry lists of names, significant only to next of kin
or research historians we occasionally come across some most significant
insights, like prospectors when scratching at the reef of dry
river beds occasionally pick up little gems.
These were the potters and the inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah;
they lived there with the king for his work.1
Those place names translate, one to ‘plants’ and the other to ‘hedges or walls,’ making enclosures for sheep. It was an ordinary rural setting, an out of the way place in those days, but the king had an interest there. Potters were not the highest order of workers, they laboured with nothing but clay, but the king needed potters.
This little parable is the story of the missionary enterprise of the Kingdom of God. We may be engaged in the most menial duties of the Lord’s work. We might find our materials to be such common stuff, and our tools basic and ordinary. But remember that God himself was a potter, a worker with clay. It is recorded that God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This is also your task. Like the potters, it is not a matter of what you have in your hand, but the possibility of what you can do with what you have. Pottery is a creative art.
Then, they were in some ways a race apart. The people with whom they lived were agriculturalists and shepherds, and they were potters. Tilling soil and keeping flocks is an important work fulfilling a necessary function. The potters needed the farmers and their produce to live, but the potters had other interests, other skills and other objectives. They were there for the king and his work. Christians everywhere are a race apart, not because they have no need of the community, but because they have been set apart for the work and interests of the King.
God has His people every where. You will find them in every
out of the way place, in every nook and corner of the globe. Some
of these places are very ordinary in themselves, but the King
of kings has an interest there. Therefore His people are there
working for Him. They are His representatives, and wherever His
people are, the King is there in their midst. Some English translations
say they ‘worked for the King’ and others that they
‘dwelt with the king.’ Both translations have something
to teach.
‘Go to all the nations and, see, I am with you always.’
Their task is His business, working with Him, changing common clay into living beings, and placing them in a garden called Eden. Their task is His business, He working with them and in them, doing what only He can do, because only that which is of the Spirit is of the Spirit.
So whatever you have been called to do, nothing is meaningless. Wherever God has placed you He has a purpose. It is His business.
1. 1 Chronicles 4:23 (NASB)
God Given Guidelines
“And you shall set bounds for the people all around.”
Exodus 19:12
Liberty sounds to be a good idea, but liberty unfettered is anarchy. That is why recently there were riots in the U.K. Liberty can only be enjoyed within bounds.
Many years ago we kept goats for their milk, because it was allergy neutral. Keeping goats taught us many great lessons. We kept them overnight in their shed each tethered to their own stall. That way they felt secure and quietened down until morning. If we put them into their stalls untethered they felt insecure and were restless and noisy all the night. When our children were very small my wife snugly wrapped them up in their bunny rugs and laid them down to sleep. “New babies are used to being wrapped up. That way they feel secure.” she explained. Her system worked well.
In recent years there has been a general retreat from the knowledge of God and practical holiness in Western culture. We cannot live to please ourselves and at the same time retain God and His moral standards in our midst. But neither can we dispose of God and the bounds of Biblical morality without losing that blessing of Christian righteousness that has been our national hallmark for generations. Lose Biblical morality and we lose our security.
Humanists today are pushing to replace the teaching of Scripture in schools for lessons on ethics. It simply will not work. The reason it will not work is that humanist ethics are not a substitute for Christian morality. Humanist ethics derive from the reasoning of many men. Christian morality was given by revelation by the one God. Humanist ethics depend upon a multi-varied values system; “If it feels good do it.” Christian morality is energised by the indwelling Spirit of God. Humanist ethics centre on the individual. Christian morality lifts a people to be a community who care for others. The fruit of this culture is that the greater number of the great social institutions of our country are Christian based.
Humanistic ethics have no answer to the transgressors of its values. It dares the rebellious to break moral boundaries for personal gratification. The Christian gospel teaches that we all have sinned and that our sin is answerable both to man and God, but that God in Christ and His death upon the cross has at His own expense provided the answer, not only to such personal moral culpability, but also the need for a transformed life.
You shall set bounds for the people all around. These bounds are not a limitation. They are in grace. They are God’s security for individuals and community alike. Transgress and humanistic anarchy will come rampaging through the breach. It is time for a Spirit given revival to stir again the hearts of our people and of our nation.
Encourage One Another
“Joshua who stands before you, he shall enter there, encourage him.”
Deuteronomy 1:38
God employs his people to encourage one another. He did not say to an angel,
‘Gabriel, My servant Joshua is about to lead my people into Canaan - go, encourage him’
God never works needless miracles. If his purposes can be accomplished by ordinary means, He will not use miracles. Gabriel would not have been half so well fitted for that task as Moses. A brother’s sympathy is more precious than an angels assistance.
An angel’s swift wing is better suited to doing the Master’s bidding than understanding the people’s moods. An angel has never experienced the hardness of the way, or the fiery serpents, nor has he ever led a stiff-necked people through the desert as Moses had done. Moses was ideally suited to this task of encouragement.
We should be glad that God usually works for man by man. It forms a bond of brotherhood, and being mutually dependent on one another we are fused more completely into one family.
Let us then take the text as God’s message to us. Let us work to encourage one another. Seek to help the young or weak in faith. Wherever we find a spark of grace in another’s heart, let us kneel down and seek to blow it into a flame. Let struggling believers find the hardness of the road gradually, but share with them the strength that is in God. Help them to learn the wonder and delight of God’s promises and the charm of daily communion with Christ. Speak that word in season to those that are weary and counsel them that are fearful to go on in their way with gladness, for the joy of the Lord will be their strength. What God has done for us He can do for them, but in a way that is suited to their temperament. Let us share with them the secrets that we have learned and urge them to lean hard upon the One who has carried us for all these years. Ensure that the blessed hope is firmly established in their heart.
Adapted from Morning and Evening Daily Readings by C H Spurgeon for 18th September.
Laugh With God, Not at God
“Is anything too difficult for the Lord?”
These words fell from the lips of the Divine visitor. Sarah had laughed at His promise. It was impossible for someone like her. She had had much time to mull over the idea and dismissed it. The Lord had recently promised them a child, given him the name Isaac, given a time for his birth and promised to bless him with a Divine covenant in his own lifetime. What kind of mockery or certainty was that? Then came God’s reaffirmation. But to Sarah it was laughable that someone her age should give birth. And laugh she did. Not so Abraham. Abraham believed God, scripture records.
Now we laugh at Sarah because we know the story. Yet what about all those ‘difficult’ things in our own lives, the things that cause us to toss and turn in the night. How often have we cried to God; poured out our hearts to Him and then fretted the more because this thing seems too big, even for God.
But learn the lesson. God told them plainly what He intended to do. When God speaks to us and tells us what He is going to do, He does what He says as we trust Him for it. “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it,” He says through Isaiah. God cannot break His word. The principle is the same wherever we turn. “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you,” Jesus told His disciples. As we build our relationship with Him He speaks with us and we treasure up and trust His word. We learn at first carefully and then more confidently to trust the word that He gives to our hearts.
Genesis chapter eighteen teaches us many important lessons about the living God: not least that God loves to enter into conversation with His people, even to the point of negotiation, that God hates the sins that men love and will judge determined sinners harshly, that God is patient with the limitations and even the failures of those who fear Him, that he hears their prayers and understands the longing of their hearts, that His answers are sometimes long in coming but when they do come they work all things together for good, that what He wants from His people above anything else is that they trust Him. Do you know God like this? All it is, is talking with God and taking Him at His word.
Sarah’s laughter of unbelief was turned into laughter of joy. Tears of disappointment are turned into tears of joy. The Lord did for Sarah as He had promised and she later testified, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
Reference: Genesis 18:14, 17:21, Romans 4:3, Isaiah 55:11, John 15:7, Genesis 21:1 & 6 (NASB)
Come! Wonder!
“Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bare a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
Isaiah 7:14
A miracle has happened! No wonder the Magi worshipped No wonder the shepherds adored. No wonder that after 2000 years the world celebrates still. Such an event is enough to make us stop and wonder.
The first promise of God was that life should come through the woman, not the man! In this birth that promise is fulfilled. This again is enough to stop us and make us wonder. God keeps His promises to the letter. Every record we have of this birth declares this amazing fact. It says that Joseph was the husband of Mary and that he was not the father of Jesus; that he knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son.
The name the prophet specified was Immanuel. The name was a declaration of the nature of the child. The word means ‘God with us.’ This is more amazing than the mere physical miracle. It says that God Himself in Jesus Christ stepped into our world, the world of men. More amazing still it says that God in Jesus Christ stepped into our nature and became sin for us in order that we might be put right with Him. Most amazing of all it says that Jesus Christ stepped into our personal experience, that we individually may be one with Him, even to the point that we are considered to be children of God, sons of grace and heirs to His kingdom. Christ in us, the expectation of glory!
Come then, let us join the shepherds. Come let us kneel with the Magi. Come worship the King.
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