Gem #1

La Jardin De Eden

I was overwhelmingly overwhelmed with the tremendously tremendous beauty of Armenia, Colombia. I kept blurting out, "It's a remnant of the garden of Eden!" And sure enough such was it's name in the region--La Jardin de Eden.

Gem #1
Country living provides the richest opportunities for the restoration of the image of God in man. 

          There's a sweetness in the simplicity of country living that embraces the purest spirituality. I discovered the white noise of the distractions and complexities of life in the States vanish as a shadow in the sun. Of course, life and culture are very different in Colombia. I could see country living at its finest, at it's simplest.

Harvesting beans

          I saw that simplicity is the seed of the sweetest spirituality. In the quiet hush of the mountains the whispering leaves blowing in the wind are the tenderest inducement for prayer. The stillness inspires us to "be still," (Ps. 46:10), and in the stillness the "still small voice," (1 Kings 19:12), is not so small and not so still. The words of Jesus--the voice of Jesus to the soul--become more audible. The tone and tenor of His voice become clearer and His breathe is as the breeze on our cheeks. The sweet songs of the beautiful fluttering birds echo the psalms of praise. The reality of Jesus' promised presence, "Lo, I am with you alway," (Mat. 28:20), is known and felt and His presence is with us throughout the day. There is no greater sense of security than this.

          God is love. His chief attribute is love. It is a self-renouncing love and it is the very essence of the bliss of heaven. Christ came to demonstrate this love and to acquaint us with the character of our Father, the Creator of all. In His image He made us. Though selfishness has taken the place of love in the hearts of man and His image has been lost, He is a Creator still. There is nothing too hard for God. Through His own presence He will restore His image of love in the hearts of man.

Colombia Mission Trip

I had the wonderful privilege to make a trip to Armenia, Colombia for the month of December (2012). I worked at a medical missionary training school in the mountains of Armenia called Fundacion Las Delicias. I was visiting to see if it was a good internship site. It was wonderfully successful in that respect. After working with the people personally I was able to obtain a clearer conception of their needs than all the books I could have read about them in the States. I have been studying for the last four years preparing for missionary work and I was wonderfully thankful and happy to see that I may be of genuine practical use and help there as a Bible teacher. It's wonderful to be useful. It's a wonderful thing to discover a place where your skills have the potential for the greatest exercise and development. In ministry, development is proportionate to the extent one is involved in personal work--working with individuals for the Master. I learned many wonderful, wonderful lessons there. I came to understand the purpose of grace to perfect God's character of love within us much much better. Something wondrous happened as I prayerfully, cheerfully worked alongside my family there. Thoughts I had never pondered before entered my mind and heart. I knew that such gems of wisdom were not of my own fashioning but were the special gifts of Him who is "the light of men," (John 1:4). "Every gleam of thought, every flash of the intellect, is from the Light of the world." (Education, 14). I wrote them down and I will share them here. "

God's Love is Not Void of Hate

Recently I've come to know, painfully, how very precious and needful is Christian community. We desperately need each other. Perhaps some more than others, nevertheless, our strength increases in uniting with others. On this thought as well, I have come to know that our strength is in separation from the world, for our unity with Christ involves both our detachment from the world and our attachment to Him. It involves the repudiation of the things of the world and a cleaving, embracing to the things of Christ. The love of God is not void of hate. "Christ hated sin," (Faith and Works 115), and those who receive him will also hate sin and iniquity. In this case "hate" is not a word strong enough to convey the correct thought. There will be enmity for sin. God placed enmity between the serpent (temptation and sin) and the woman (the Church) after the Fall and He wants to restore this enmity in the heart of every man, a hate for sin and wickedness. Mistaken love permits selfishness and sin in another but God will not and cannot permit sin and selfishness to be retained in the heart of His child. He will write in the heart of man His law of love which will lead man to exalt righteousness and goodness and in so doing he will cut against and oppose wickedness and unrighteousness.

Love and Grace

"Only by love is love awakened," (DA 22). "God is love," (1 John 4:8, 16), and "love is of God," (1 John 4:7). Therefore we do well to understand that great text to read, "Love so loved the world that He gave His Love," (John 3:16). The love of of God is tantamount to the experience of His grace. His grace is both Pardon and Power to usward. "Love is strong as death," (Song of Solomon 8:6), and "the sting of death is sin," (1 Cor. 15:56), therefore, within the love of God is the grace of God and "the power of God unto salvation," (Rom. 1:16).

Now humanity's part is simply to Respond to the Love of God demonstrated in the life and sacrifice of Christ. Each one will be pricked in his heart at one time or perhaps many, many times by the love of God. How he responds determines his destiny. Love may be awakened, that is, Christ, who is love, will be received into the heart, or love may be spurned, that is, rejected as was Christ in the flesh by His own people. If Christ is received He will pardon man from past sins (violations of the law of love, 1 John 3:4) and empower him to live without sinning--to keep him from falling, and to live the law of love which is built upon supreme love to God and impartial love to man. This two-fold element of God's grace (Pardon and Power) is expressed in the words, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need," (Heb. 4:16). Mercy is pardon for sins that are past, grace is power for temptations to come (future). Grace is the only "way to escape," (1 Cor. 10:13) both sin and temptation.

God Defines Love

God defines love. His love is "everlasting love," (Jer. 31:3), which is, therefore, unconditional love. Jesus is the "friend that sticketh closer than a brother," (Pr. 18:24), "altogether lovely," (SS 5:16), our true friend that "loveth at all times," (Pr. 17:17), even "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us," (Rom. 5:8), demonstrating that, "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," (John 15:13). "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son," (John 3:16), and "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself," (2 Cor. 5:19).

God's Loving Purpose in Trials

“The thorn and the thistle—the difficulties and trials that make his (man’s) life one of toil and care—were appointed for his good as a part of the training needful in God’s plan for his uplifting from the ruin and degradation that sin has wrought. The world, though fallen, is not all sorrow and misery. In nature itself are messages of hope and comfort. There are flowers upon the thistles, and the thorns are covered with roses,” (Steps to Christ 9).

Contextually, the thorn and thistle represent “the difficulties and trials that make his (man’s) life one of toil and care,” (9). But there’s a certain, loving purpose behind the trials of life—the thistles we encounter—they’re intended to accomplish something in us, a change-a needful one. Elsewhere it has been said, “The trials of life are God's workmen, to remove the impurities and roughness from our character. Their hewing, squaring, and chiseling, their burnishing and polishing, is a painful process; it is hard to be pressed down to the grinding wheel. But the stone is brought forth prepared to fill its place in the heavenly temple,” (Mount of Blessing 20). The tender, loving purpose of God is thus clarified and so we perceive by faith, and by faith alone, the blessings in trials, the blessing of trials—the flowers upon the thistles. We understand that though there are thorns they are covered with roses! Look for the roses among the thorns –the blessings behind or in the trials. No trial is without a blessing. They are there, always. Look for the loving purpose of the “Rose of Sharon” in your present trying circumstances. In the second chapter of the Song of Solomon we learn of our Father—the divine Botanist, and His purpose to transform fallen man, a prickly thorn, into a stunning lily—a fair flower resembling Him, “the Lily of the valleys.”

“I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters,” (Song of Solomon 2:1, 2).

The Law of Love

It is transgression of God’s law—the law of love—that has brought woe and death, (SC 9).
“The law of God is as sacred as God Himself. It is a revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, the expression of divine love and wisdom,” (Patriarch’s and Prophets 52). As God Himself is love, and the law of God is a transcript of His character, so His law is love and the only acceptable obedience to His law is love itself. Love is foreign to us, it is “of God,” (1 John 4:7). It is a gift, a fruit, a manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, “but the fruit of the Spirit is love,” (Galatians 5:22). Herein lies humanities problem after the Fall. Our nature changed. We could no longer render obedience to God’s law of love, His will of beneficence. We lost the image of God in our innermost being. We are no longer “subject to the law,” (Romans 8:7). Love, the divine constraint and spring of every action, was lost, and “selfishness took the place of love,” (SC 17). The whole Plan of Redemption, in simplicity, is the restoration of love in the heart of man that once again he may be in perfect accord with heaven and its spirit and render obedience to God’s law of love. In the Bible this vital, life-transforming transaction is spoken of as a “new heart.” “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh,” (Ezekiel 36:26). But His word doesn’t stop there. The following text brings to light the essence, the fundamentals of Christianity—And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them, (v. 27)—God’s will of love and man’s recognition of it and his total heart surrender to it that the Father may accomplish in Him the necessary change. Restoration, Reconciliation, and eternal Reunion compose the glorious purpose and wonder of the gospel. As God condescended to dirty His hands in the formation of man from the dust of the earth so He, Emmanuel, “God with us,” (Matthew 1:23), condescended and “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” (Philippians 2:6, 7). But the wonder of the gospel is that not only is pardon freely proffered through the sacrifice of Christ but power is extended to every believer. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth,”(Romans 1 :16). This power is Christ Himself—Love. It is freely given and when eagerly received effects the desperately needed transformation in the heart of man. “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even unto them that believe on His name,” (John 1:12). He will not rest until we are a “chip of the old block.” The gradual and ever-increasing reception of the love of God, of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, is sanctification itself. The great antagonist of love is selfishness and pride which man is all too familiar with. “Pride feels no need, and so it closes the heart against Christ and the infinite blessings He came to give,” (SC 30). “To all, there is but one answer, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29),” (SC 19). Christ alone can accomplish the change in us whereby we are to be brought back into harmony with the Father. “Without Me,” He said, “ye can do nothing,” (John 15:5).

My song is love unknown, My Savior’s love to me, Love to the loveless shown, That they might lovely be. O who am I that for my sake My Lord should take frail flesh and die? (Samuel Crossman, Hymn 188—My Song is Love Unknown)

Love divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heaven, to earth come down; Fix in us Thy humble dwelling, All Thy faithful mercies crown! Jesus, Thou art all compassion, Pure unbounded love Thou art; Visit us with Thy salvation, Enter every trembling heart. (Charles Wesley, Hymn 191—Love Divine)