Communion Meditation- Quiet Souls

Are you quiet? Are you meek? That is, are you subdued to God, the Father, His will, His ways, His Savior, His Providence? And having humbled yourself to Him, has this produced a quietness of soul in you? This quietness of soul is what we call the peace that passes understanding. Why does it pass understanding? Because on the outside, there remains no reason for peace. There is trouble in the world, trouble in your own life, trouble in the lives of the ones you love. Like Peter on the water, we look at the waves and are tossed about with all manner of doubt. But Jesus bids us come, look at Him, walk, even in the waves of the storm, without fear.

         We can only do this, with peace, with a quietness of spirit, if we have our eyes on Jesus.  This meal is all about that. We focus on Jesus, what He did on the cross, how He rose from the dead, the fact He sent His Spirit to dwell with us forever and that He calls us to this table to dine with Him in perfect peace. Jesus said, These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 

Meek and Quiet

Our sermon today is on living with a meek and quiet spirit. That sounds easy, especially if the husbands are asking their wives to do this while they themselves thrash around like a bull moose, neither meek nor quiet. But the great Moses, the man who stood up to Pharoah, is described as the meekest man on the Earth.

         At the core, I believe a meek and quiet spirit is learning to submit to God in all things and relinquish control to God’s will and providence of those things that you really cannot control anyway. This amounts to a host of things, your husband’s behavior, your children’s affection, your wife’s respect or lack thereof, the hard providences of God in our lives, the government leaders that you live under, your boss and his demands, your teachers and their peculiar ways.

         God gives us many opportunities to display a meek and quiet spirit. When we do so, it reveals to ourselves and others that we truly believe that God is ultimately in control of all things. Phil. 4:6 Be careful (full of care, worry, anxiety) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

         So, to the extent that you are unwilling for God to be in control, you need to, as the old saying goes, let go and let God. This letting go is confession and repentance, the letting God, is to be meek and quiet, concerned for nothing, resting in the Lord.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my 25th Anniversary. I guess you might think that is a long time. Perhaps, but the years have rolled by, troubles and all, filled with God's grace and great joy.

My dear bride is still the love of my life. We have now been married for 25 wonderful years but we got started as sweethearts long before that. I put a green sucker in her desk in Mrs. Hellewell's class in fifth grade. Seems she went for the sweet bribe. That was about 35 years ago and she has held my heart ever since.

We look forward to another 25 years!

I love you, my sweet Kate. Happy Anniversary!

Communion- Humble Compliance

Our sermon today talked about submission but it was not an admonition to submit with our arms crossed in a huff and our faced creased with steely resolve. That really is not submission at all. The place where we learn godly submission is right here at this Table.

First of all, Jesus submitted to the will of the Father. He did so with blood-sweat and tears. But He also did it for the joy that was set before Him.  Herein is that joy realized. He did it to bring us to the Table of Fellowship.

At this place, you must take your guard down. Uncross your arms, remove the creased brow, lay down your burdens, come in humble compliance to Jesus, and for this joy, this realized joy of fellowship, come and eat with Jesus. You see, the fruit of honorable submission is what we are doing now, peaceful fellowship.

Exhortation- Tap Out

Today, we look at a couple of passages of Scripture that speak of the relationship of wives to their own husbands. Keep in mind that this is also the relationship of the Church to Christ. And, as such, is the relationship of all under authority to all those in authority. This means that these passages speak to everyone of us and not simply to our women or to our wives.

         This mean that we all have to learn to respond properly to authority. It also means that we are going to see that we have all failed in our responses to authority and in doing so have caused harm both to ourselves and to the authorities that we have resisted.

         The purpose of saying this is not to beat you up. This is not done simply to make you feel bad. But to some extent the beating is necessary.  An honorable fight always gives room for the weaker opponent to submit. He can call uncle, tap out, admit he is beat, that is, he can submit. Or, he can resist, unimpressed by the beating and thus declare that he is willing to take more.

         When the opponent is the Word and Spirit of God, there is no chance of victory, so the only thing that remains to be seen is how strong is your resistance and thus, how much of a beating is necessary in order to get you to tap out? I would exhort you to always tap out early as soon as you realize that you are fighting the Word of God.