I would really value your prayers this week as on Good Friday, 10,000 full color Gospel tracts of “The Thief on the Cross” (in the Malayalam language) goes out in local newspapers in the state of Kerala in south west India. May many be brought to a saving knowledge of Christ.
In the context of business dealings and financial transactions, Jesus said, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” (Luke 16:8) I think this principle of shrewd insight extends to many areas of life as the world stumbles upon truth. Man is made in the image of God and although much has been marred by the Fall, he is still able to think and come up with sound reasoning on many matters.
The people of the world may not be able to comprehend the amazing facets of the gospel, or see the wisdom and power of God in the cross of Christ (1 Cor 1:18-25), but they can make statements which are entirely accurate and true on a whole host of issues. For example, the unbelieving car mechanic may know a whole lot more about cars than you or I do. That is why, when my car is not working properly, I take it to him rather than a pastor. In fact, I dont even ask the mechanic if he is Baptist, Presbyterean or charismatic; nor do I ask for his views on end time events in the book of Revelation. His personal beliefs are immaterial to me. I simply ask him if he can find out what is wrong with the car and if he can fix it. Now after he finishes the job, along with my payment, I may well enclose a thank you note and a Christian tract sharing the gospel. I do care about his soul. However my point is that his personal beliefs play no role at all in determing whether or not I hire him to fix my car.
There is a phrase, “If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, its yours forever. If it does not, then it was never yours anyway.” I think that’s true. When it comes to parents with a wayward adult child, the sincere offer of friendship, or even matters of the heart and romance, I believe as the song says below, “you can’t control an independent heart.” While expressing your continued love and affection for the person, its very important to free them from any sense or feeling of imprisonment. Let them feel as if they can fly like a bird in the sky – and maybe one day, in the providence of God, they will fly back to you.
The singer Sting is no Christian, but I think he hit the nail on the head, so to speak, in this song (below). Concerning it, he once wrote, “This song was… an antidote to the brooding issues of control and surveilance that haunted ‘Every Breath You Take.’ Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to a partner is ‘I don’t own you–you’re free.’ If you were to try to possess them in the obvious way, you could never appreciate them in the way that really counts. There are too many prisons in the world already.”
Here’s “If you love somebody… set them free”:
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was one of the most influential preachers of the century. A few weeks before he died, someone asked him how, after decades of fruitful ministry and extraordinary activity, he was coping now he was suffering such serious weakness it took much of his energy to move from his bed to his armchair and back. He replied in the words of Luke 10:20: ‘Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’ In other words, do not tie your joy, your sense of wellbeing, to power in ministry. Your ministry can be taken from you. Tie your joy to the fact that you are known and loved by God; tie it to your salvation; tie it to the sublime truth that your name is written in heaven. That can never be taken from you. Lloyd-Jones added: ‘I am perfectly content.’ – From A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D.A. Carson
“You will never make yourself feel that you are a sinner, because there is a mechanism in you as a result of sin that will always be defending you against every accusation. We are all on very good terms with ourselves, and we can always put up a good case for ourselves. Even if we try to make ourselves feel that we are sinners, we will never do it. There is only one way to know that we are sinners, and that is to have some dim, glimmering conception of God.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Seeking the Face of God: Nine Reflections on the Psalms (Crossway, 2005), 34
John Owen on the earnestness required of those who intend to kill sin and walk happily with God:
“Get up, watch, pray, fast, meditate, offer violence to your lusts and corruptions; fear not, startle not at their crying or importunities to be spared; press unto the throne of grace by prayers, supplications, importunities, restless requests. This is the way to take the kingdom of heaven. These things are not peace, they are not assurance; but they are part of the means God hath appointed for the attainment of them.” – Works, 6.567-68; quoted in Sinclair Ferguson, John Owen on the Christian Life (Banner of Truth, 1987), 111
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